griggs's - Letterboxd Official Top 250 Narrative Feature Films List

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Brad Pitt and Edward Norton deliver knockout performances in this stunningly original, darkly comic film from David Fincher, the director of Seven. Norton stars as Jack, a chronic insomniac desperate to escape his excruciatingly boring life.

That's when he meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a charismatic soap salesman with a twisted philosophy. Tyler believes self-improvement is for the weak - it's self-destruction that really makes life worth living. Before long, Jack and Tyler are beating each other to a pulp in a bar parking lot, a cathartic slugfest that delivers the ultimate high. To introduce other men to the simple joys of physical violence, Jack and Tyler form a secret Fight Club that becomes wildly successful. But there's a shocking surprise waiting for Jack that will change everything...

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"2001: A Space Odyssey" is a countdown to tomorrow, a road map to human destiny, a quest for the infinite. It is a dazzling, Academy Award-winning visual achievement, a compelling drama of man vs. machine, a stunning meld of music and motion.

It may be the masterwork of director Stanley Kubrick (who co-wrote the screenplay with Arthur C. Clarke) and it will likely excite, inspire and enthrall for generations. To begin his voyage into the future, Kubrick visits our prehistoric ape-ancestry past, then leaps millennia (via one of the most mind-blowing jump cuts ever conceived) into colonized space, and ultimately whisks astronaut Bowman (Keir Dullea) into uncharted realms of space, perhaps even into immortality.

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As she braced for an IRS audit, middle-aged emigré Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) felt a failure as wife, daughter, mother, and businesswoman.

It was a heck of a time to discover that she could tap into the abilities of countless variant versions of herself across reality - and that she would need them to conquer a threat poised to collapse it all. Audacious fantasy-action farce from the makers of "Swiss Army Man" co-stars Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, James Hong, and Jamie Lee Curtis.

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In the aftermath of a 1990 earthquake that left at least thirty thousand dead, Abbas Kiarostami returned to Koker, where his camera surveys not only devastation but also the teeming life in its wake.

Blending fiction and reality into a playful, poignant road movie, 'And Life Goes On' follows a film director who, along with his son, makes the trek to the region in hopes of finding out if the young star of 'Where is the Friend's House?' is among the survivors, and discovers a resilient community pressing on in the face of tragedy. Finding beauty in the bleakest of circumstances, Kiarostami crafts a quietly majestic ode to the best of the human spirit.

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In one of the most powerhouse performances in American screen-acting, the great Kirk Douglas stars as Chuck Tatum, a newspaper reporter who stumbles upon a potentially career-making story in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

When Tatum begins to influence the story's outcome, a descent begins that finds more than one man caught between a rock and a hard place. An electric narrative that stands as one of Wilder's tautest and most (melo)dramatic plots (penned with Lesser Samuels and Walter Newman), 'Ace in the Hole' plays today as both a prescient examination of the modern media landscape, and the public appetite for the disastrous news-story that leads to toxic wish-fulfillment.

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The Little Tramp punches in and wigs out inside a factory where gizmos like an employee feeding machine may someday make the lunch hour last just 15 minutes.

Bounced into the ranks of the unemployed, he teams with a street waif (Paulette Goddard) to pursue bliss and a paycheck, finding misadventures as a roller-skating night watchman, a singing waiter whose hilarious song is gibberish, a jailbird and more. In the end, as tramp and waif walk arm in arm into an insecure future we know they've found neither bliss nor a paycheck but, more importantly, each other. The times and satire remain timeless in 'Modern Times'.

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Born in Brussels in 1950 to parents who had survived the Holocaust, Chantal Akerman directed more than 40 films (short, medium and feature-length) over almost 50 years, spanning fiction, documentary, musical comedy and literary adaptation.

Today, she is regarded as one of the most important and influential directors of her generation. Akerman's personal, non-conformist body of work has resonated with cinephiles globally and become increasingly relevant since her death in 2015, with filmmakers including Joanna Hogg (The Eternal Daughter), Celine Sciamma (Petite Maman), Alice Diop (Saint Omer) and Jacques Audiard (Emilia Perez), among others, citing her radical and experimental approach to cinema as a direct inspiration. Although best known for her landmark second narrative feature, Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), which topped the Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time Poll in 2022 (becoming the first female-directed film to take the number one spot since the poll's inception in 1952), Akerman never stopped rebelling, continuously experimenting throughout her career to challenge the formal and narrative boundaries of film.

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Something huge is on the horizon. Hogarth Hughes just rescued an enormous robot that fell from the stars to Earth.

Now young Hogarth has a very big friend and an even bigger problem: How do you keep a 50-foot-tall, steel-eating (junkyard cars are especially tasty) giant a secret? It's even harder when a nosey government agent arrives in town to hunt down the 'alien invader' and the combined land, sea and air might of the U.S. military is sent to demolish the giant. The result: an incredible adventure that's part metal, part magic, all heart.

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Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton are ideal as malevolent marrieds Martha and George in first-time film director Mike Nichols' searing film of Edward Albee's groundbreaking 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'.

Taylor won her second Academy Award (and New York Film Critics, National Board of Review and British Film Academy Best Actress Awards). Burton matches her as her emotionally spent spouse. And George Segal and Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner Sandy Dennis score as another couple straying into their destructive path. The movie won a total of five Academy Awards and remains a taboo-toppling landmark over 40 years later.

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A tall, handsome 'preacher' - his knuckles eerily tattooed with 'love' and 'hate' - roams the countryside, spreading the gospel...and leaving a trail of murdered women in his wake.

To Reverend Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), the work of the Lord has more to do with condemning souls than saving them, especially when his own interests are involved. Now his sights are set on $10,000 - and two little children are the only ones who know where it is. 'Chill...dren!' the preacher croons to the terrified boy and girl hiding in the cold, dark cellar...innocent young lambs who refuse to be led astray.

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Popular, outgoing Fujino (voice of Yumi Kawai) is celebrated by her classmates for her funny comics in the class newspaper. One day, her teacher asks her to share the space with Kyomoto (voice of Mizuki Yoshida), a truant recluse whose beautiful artwork sparks a competitive fervor in Fujino.

What starts as jealousy transforms when Fujino realizes their shared passion for drawing. Based on the acclaimed manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto, the creator of "Chainsaw Man", 'Look Back' captures the highs and lows of pursuing artistic excellence and the special bonds formed through creative collaboration. The heart-wrenching story is the stunning feature-length directorial debut from Kiyotaka Oshiyama that will leave you in tears and inspire you to chase your own artistic dreams.

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When Chicago musicians Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) accidentally witness a gangland shooting they quickly board a southbound train to Florida, disguised as Josephine and Daphne, the two newest and homeliest members of an all-girl jazz band. Their cover is perfet...

until a lovelorn singer (Marilyn Monroe) falls for "Josephine", an ancient play-boy (Joe Brown) falls for "Daphne", and a mob boss (George Raft) refuses to fall for their hoax!

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A series of murders have been committed by ordinary people who claim to have had no control over their actions, many of them having killed friends, co-workers or even their spouse.

There are only two links between each crime: an X carved into the neck of each victim, and a mysterious stranger who seems to have had brief contact with the perpetrator a short period of time before each killing. But to follow these leads and end a seemingly inexplicable wave of terror, police detective Kenichi Takabe (Koji Yakusho) will need to put his own sanity on the line and endure a descent into hell.

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Even more compelling today than when it was first released, Sidney Lumet's 'Network' is a wickedly funny, spot - on indictment of the TV news media.

Winner of four Academy Awards including Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Screenplay (Paddy Chayefsky), this searing satire stars Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch and Robert Duvall. When longtime news anchor Howard Beale (Finch) is fired, he suffers a violent, on - air breakdown. Ironically, his angry rantings boost his sagging ratings - much to the surprise and delight of the UBS brass. Subsequently rehired and reinvented as the "mad prophet of the airwaves", he soon becomes a pawn of ruthless programming executives who milk his madness for every share point it's worth. Of course, when the "prophet" ceases to be profitable, something has to be done about Beale, preferably on camera, before a live studio audience...

Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), naive insurance man. Falls for the seductive charms of his beautiful client Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) Together they plot to get rid of her dull husband and collect on the "double indemnity" life policy.