My Top Four(ty)
Due to my letterboxd crivling obsession, I am making my top forty movies of all time ranking very personal and yet very public
Once again, because I am who and what I am, I submitted myself upon the task of making a very deep thought through list of movies ranked for my own entertainment. This took me around 10+ hours to write and many, many more to watch or rewatch most of the movies on this list, so at least look at the pictures, thank you, dear children. This are not all movies that I can guarantee will be fit for every single person ever, but they are very dear to me, all of them.
40. The Lighthouse | Director Robert Eggers, 2019
This is not a movie I would watch to be entertained, nor to have a good time. But I do think it is a brilliant exercise in style. Because of all the symbolism involved in the making of this half folk tale, a rewatch is always worth through. It is a very immersing narrative, and I like how Eggers has a strong vision that makes me time travel on all his films. The ending scene is ever haunting, and it’s a sort of horror that is more effective narrative wise than out of exposure, and it really makes me feel disturbed in the very best way.
39. Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown | Director Pedro Almodóvar, 1988
On the premise of women being left behind by a singular man, young Antonio Banderas, this comedy exceeds itself into being a transformative film experience. The color scheme is the one most representative of the director, and it’s a comedy that grows like a snowball rolling down but getting bigger. You never quite expect what its about to happen, and seeing the twirled connection of these women to one another is in a way sort of fulfilling. Goes beyond expected to develop a tragic narrative into a hilarious, ridiculous thrill.
38. Aftersun | Director Charlotte Wells, 2022
Sort of unfair to have it in here, given the fact I have no intentions of ever rewatching it. Truly a heartbreaking movie that eats at your sleeve and haunts you in your sleep. One of the great terrors of growing older that no one ever warns you about, is when mom and dad turn into real life people. And this movie does a stunningly painful job, at reminissinding Sophie´s memories of her last vacation with her father. And what to her were a few days of mindless fun, unwanted struggle and sun bleached afternoons, were the rates of depression turning on her father’s skull.
37. Porco Rosso | Director Hayao Miyazaki, 1992
On the first of many more Studio Ghibli films on this list, this is the only with actual flying pigs. I have so much fondness over this film, I watched it over and over again when I was younger because its a very light hearted comedy with very peculiar characters. The score is so beautiful, in the way it captures the sky, the clouds and the notion of flying, the very structure of air force. And because men who go to war and comeback never do go back to their old selves, one could find this movie to be decorously political.
36. Mickey 17 | Director Bong Joon Ho, 2025
To die for a living isn’t far beyond reality in today’s economy, anyways. I love so many aspects of this movie, but I think that overall, I like the ideas that led up to its making. Quite retarded, and under the surface of a sci fi satire, it’s a political critical and philosophical themed revolt on capitalism. Thematically complex, also hilarious. Aside from the big questions, I love Mickey as a character of two faces, and I think Robert Pattinson did the closest yet to his actual self on film, somewhere between the lines of 17 and 18.
35. Lost In Translation | Director Sofia Coppola, 2003
I think this movie is very intimate, since whether you relate to either protagonists will determine your entire perception of it. It is a very sweet sort of cinematography, and it just like tears at my heartstrings. It really conceals a feeling of emptiness and delusion, that sense of being lost, but it also adds a very gentleness to it. This is my favorite Coppola film, from both the father and the daughter. It doesn’t have much of a plot despite the premise, but the dialogue feels like humming, and I think it’s very subtle yet real.
34. Set It Up | Director Claire Scanlon, 2018
This is my favorite modern day romcom. It’s very energetic and easy to watch not because its plain but because of how well aligned everything in it is. The humor, the characters, the meaning behind it. Quoting, you like someone because and you love them despite of. If you find the faults in someone, the ugly sides, the rough edges, the bad temper in a tuesday morning, and you still want to stay despite of it, then that’s worth keeping. Love isn’t worth anything if it’s just circumstantial, and you should watch this movie and cry sometimes.
33. Monsters University | Director Dan Scanlon, 2013
This is not even here for the giggles. This is about friendship, the pursuit of dreams and found family. It takes so much from the usual Pixar narrative by making Mike fail but not letting him give up, and it’s just a very unique piece of animation. The framing is so colorful and cheerful and it’s so rewatchable, the humour strikes but so do the heartfelt moments with Sullivan. Mike Wazowski is an ideal protagonist, and I think it’s one of the best risks they’ve taken in so long. Do a rewatch for the very least, notice how peculiar it gets.
32. Fresh | Director Mimi Cave, 2022
A thriller starring Sebastian Stan as the love interest. Kind of. Very off putting and just a little over the edge, I am a big fan of imposing this movie onto people under false pretense. I keep coming back to it in despite of the horror teases and landings because it is notoriously humoristic, and just an onbeat scheme of highs and lows. It has a very digging premise and has so much charm in the twisted reality it presents, and the lead girl has common sense which is refreshing. Thrilling on a first stance, and a fun rewatch with friends.
31. Phantom Thread | Director Paul Thomas Anderson, 2017
The stills from this movie are so beautiful that they had me sobbing throughout the first five minutes. This is not even a joke, it’s an experience I went through. Such a deep, breathtaking take on romantic love that it might make me sick. It is also about control, about defiance and the struggles these elements bring into a relationship. Enchanting to the point it is almost poisonous. It takes so much skill to make a movie filled with so much patience, longing and beauty. Paul Thomas Anderson truly is the owner of his craft.
30. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire | Director Francis Lawrence, 2013
This one is a very recent addition to the list, but I need an actual good prompt with Sam Claflin on it. Perhaps the all time best dystopian film, since all its competitors are poor copies. The build up for the final hour of this movie is so worth it, because once the ratio borders up and presents the arena I feel like screaming. A very substantial action development from the first one, and a very compelling addition to the saga. I am in love with so many frames from this movie that itch inside my eyelids.
29. Whisper Of The Heart | Director Hayao Miyazaki, 1995
I love the little city in this movie, the details to it and just how rarely occasional life is spent on it. Having doubts about the future, your craft and your skill through midterm season is such a close take to me, and the simple yet tiring aspects of cotidianity really speaks to me. Very much a comfort movie, what’s crazy about growing up is that the characters that I once looked up to, thinking they were so far beyond reach, are my age now. Big steps on finding the right career path that matches all of your insides and outlines.
28. Captain America: The Winter Soldier | Director Joe Russo, 2014
This movie encapsulates very well every aspect of what I hold dear of the marvel vision. I think that it is a very impressive follow up for The First Avenger, and I think it has a very clear showcase of the struggles Steve Rogers faces as a character, and as an archetype. It has a sort of brutality other franchises lack, but balances it with the morals we are beguiled to adapt to. Despite it being an action movie focused, it makes me cry quite the lot. Truly the peak of what Marvel can be, and just a very fair build up for the following steps.
27. Bones And All | Director Luca Guadagnino, 2022
This movie you shouldn’t watch while eating. Coming of age are my favorite type of stories, and a road trip across America is always pleasing. I know on the first watch this looks like a very gory, disturbing movie, and despite that it might be so, I think it is also a heartbreaking display of young love. While most of us aren’t cannibals, we all do things we are ashamed of. There are some urges, some tendencies that can’t be helped. Through god, salvation or a friend, we are all searching for the means to be good.
26. Ponyo | Director Hayao Miyazaki, 2008
Look up the concept art made for this animated lullaby, then we can be friends. This is the tale of the little mermaid if she was a small baby and not a selfish sixteen year old. This film takes a stance on the wreckage of the sea disruption, and the overfishing in Japan. It feels like a dream path, with how gorgeous many of the frames are, with the mother sea and the rising of the ocean. The story at play is heartwarming in the sense that both Ponyo and Sosuke are adorable and their childlike wonder for the world is just very sweet.
25. The Devil Wears Prada | Director David Frankel, 2006
The montages of this movie are so incredibly put together that they raced against Marie Antoinette for the Oscar. My favorite Meryl Streep feature, and about it. I love the rhythm that collides into this movie and the up beat narrative that just sort of wraps around you and indulges you in for New York City. Great piece, and very craftedly tailored adaptation from book to screen. It’s the sort of movie you can watch a hundred times over and find comfort in it and just let it sink in. A very stylish direction, too.
24. Tenet | Director Christopher Nolan, 2020
The spaces in this movie have so much capacity and depth that it makes up for any narrative contradiction it might have on a rewatch. The best way to make this movie an awful god experience is to try and understand it on a first watch, so don’t. Paradoxical, immersive, and again, confusing. I also think that the score is so thrilling and fits the movie theme so well. It has many really impressive action sequences, and has despite it all, such a see through personality. As for emotional depth, I cry at the ending so I don’t see the issue.
23. The Perks Of Being A Wallflower | Director Stephen Chbosky, 2012
The photography in this movie is like a christmas bell that you hum on your way home after spending all day with friends. Charlie means the world to me, and this is a movie I am very sentimental about because of how unbearably personal it is to me. The teenage dream for shy kids and lonely teenagers, in the making cult classic. Its resemblance of growing up and high school and trauma lingering on is so good it almost burns. I love how real and tangible the characters and their individualities are, and it’s just an awesome movie.
22. Wonka | Director Paul King, 2023
Ridiculously attached to this musical lullaby overdose. It’s like a Paddington ambiented movie with Timothée Chalamet as the lead. A very sweet tantalizing feature I go back to under any minor inconvenience. It has a star struck personality and a lovely little fairy tale similarity that I cling on to. I truly do love the songs. It has such a big heart despite it all, and I am so moved by the entire thing I always end up crying. Like pulled out of the sweetest´s person ever having daydreams about chocolate.
21. The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King | Director Peter Jackson, 2003
I know that this is a controversial take on the saga, and for this I must clarify all LOTR movies are flawless and conceal such a unique grace that we might never see again. Now, I think that this is a perfect, well earned and fulfilling ending to the story. But the thing is, I hate endings. I think that this set of movies have the most evolving worldbuild ever, and even in the adversity of war Peter Jackson added such resilience and beauty to the visual framing of it. My favorite scene of this movie is Aragorn’s coronation, by the way.
20. The Parent Trap | Directed by Nancy Meyers, 1998
Watched this so many times that when my parents divorced I assumed they would just get back together. At some point. A perfect jewel of a movie, an outcast of the genre and the loveliest sound design of the 90’s. Another movie that I could (and have) watch a million times over, again and again. Young Lindsay Lohan was such a star on the rise, and this movie is just great, despite of how awful both parents were on hindsight. Fond of every frame and every line in this movie, and of Chelsea the dog because so pretty.
19. Megamind | Director Tom McGrath, 2010
Literally predicted the rise and fall of the 2010’s decade within the superhero genre before its birth coming. A prophet, you could say. The peak of Dreamworks animation, and a very silly yet quite endearing movie about failure. Losers on film might be my favorite genre at this rate, and I am very much endeared to this blue one. Lots of fun, and of action in some ways, and tickles of a romance and an all absorbing ending closure where everyone dances. Eely feely, this movie slaps till this day.
18. The Silence Of The Lambs | Director Jonathan Demme, 1991
Honestly my favorite horror movie ever. Clarice Starling is one of my favorite leads ever, her pursuit for the truth and the sacrifice of the lamb resembling her innocence is just pitch perfect to me. I love how beautiful the gory aspects of this movie are, and like the twist it has on the premise. It is such a slaughter, yet it has so much depth. Also, the fact that Hannibal barely has a 16 minutes screen time in a two hours long movie and yet he is the most frightening portrayal of insanity in the mainstream is just so thrilling.
17. Thunderbolts* | Director Jake Schreier, 2025
I have been going non stop about this movie for a good while now. The making of this team was such a great follow up to the last five years of in within marvel, and I am so in love with it. I love the real life build up sets and the look it gives to the movie, and it has such a strong and vital personality. It carries a heavy emotional burden few other blockbusters dare to even try and reach, and it was all too close to home for me. On cue jokes land, and the dynamic is so fun and yet endearing, it’s everything I ever asked of an MCU movie.
16. Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind | Director Hayao Miyazaki, 1984
I cry so much to this movie I avoid watching it or talking about it. So underrated, when I feel like it has such a creative vision and a masterful skill on worldbuilding. I love cosmic horror and I am yet so fascinated by it and this movie plays on that element, the fear of the unknown, so well. Wildly imaginative, and its practically Miyazaki´s Dune so how could I not love it. A hard watch if you are sensitive, and a very thrilling one if you are curios and starving for imagery of giant, rageful worms in a post apocalyptic world.
15. Bridget Jones’s Diary | Director Sharon Maguire, 2001
My mom loves this movie, and that is everything you should know about it. First things first, romantic comedies king and savior, young Hugh Grant. Second of all, Daniel. Third but not least important, the retelling of Pride & Prejudice with Mr. Darcy himself in a modern day romcom is just pure true genius and insight. The ´Raining Men´ needle drop changed me forever and it is ever present on my lingering mind. Again, very much a comfort movie to just sit by and have fun and rate on as systematically perfect.
14. The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring | Director Peter Jackson, 2001
I went down so many spirals the first time I watched this movie. It fully on embraced me and it just does magic to take you to the very core of Middle Earth. I think the construction of the hobbits tale is so moving and it comforts me so much, it puts me at ease. A frendo mendo recommended them to me and in my head I correlate her to the edges of everything that is right and I think of both her and this saga as a sort of moral compass I sometimes ignore. Love the cinematography, and of course the dynamic of the fellowship.
13. Little Miss Sunshine | Director Valerie Faris, 2006
I could go on forever about this, but its just very special. It has such a sweet message underneath the facade of a family of fuck ups on a road trip and it makes me cry so much. The photography is good, familiar and nostalgic before it even aged. The ending scene is pure magic. I love the writing for it, the characters and their shared interconnected struggle and the song at the beginning makes me rethink my whole life over and then appreciate my own fuckups in life. So smart in so many ways, and what an outstanding cast.
12. Dune: Part Two | Director Denis Villeneuve, 2024
I don’t think I appreciated epics until I watched this for the first time. I think the most outstanding part of this movie is the cinematography and the reaches of an Imax camera equipment. The creative vision of Villeneuve has created a collective imaginary regarding the Dune universe and its such an accomplishment. It spirals into such an alluring narrative, and I think Timothée really outdid himself with the control he has over his stance. The other people in this did okay. I would however hate to live in this universe.
11. La La Land | Director Damien Chazelle, 2016
This is the kind of movie to make you truly appreciate the craft of it, and even if its a back to the basics, it’s very held dear. I used to be crazy enthusiastic about musicals, and even if I am not as much now, this one is on another scale. Emma Stone did the acting of a lifetime even if it was subtle, and Mia means the world to every film glazer I´ve met. Chazelle is such a promise, and this movie is bursting in a lovely melody and made of so much color and love for Old Hollywood, truly a love letter to dreams and cinema and arts.
10. Princess Mononoke | Director Hayao Miyazaki, 1997
Strangely enough, this movie didn’t terrified me as a kid. It has such a beautiful, terrible, landscape that is close enough to reality to make you wonder. I love how all the main characters get contaminated by hatred, wearing it as a disease, and I love you giant this utopia looks like. I am so fascinated by the animals being the Gods of the ancient world, and the colors in this movie make it look like a Monet. The brutality of Sam and her defiance of her humanity is so correlated to war in this film and I just am a big fan.
9. Enchanted | Director Kevin Lima, 2007
This is my top and all of you can fuck off because this is on all proportions, an anatomically perfect movie. There is not one single element in this that I don’t wholeheartedly love. The songs are so fairytale like and sweet until Giselle grows accustomed to the city and stops singing and I would actually die for Amy Adams, she’s the actual dream come true. I love the pace, and I think it’s the single princess movie ever. It includes all the tropes, and goes beyond them. Such a good take on modernism and on girlhood it’s perfect.
8. Lady Bird | Director Greta Gerwig, 2017
This film feels periodically targeted towards me, but there are also times in which it is just so distant. This girl, Christine. And her mother. Who deflowers her care for her almost as fiercely as she loves her. A very nurturing deflection of care, for the hometown you hate all your life until you are gone, and you miss it. A narrative memoir aiming towards a future yet to be earned, that displays an intimate, fond, visual spectacular of Sacramento and high school loves. Saoirse is so beautiful, and so fitting to the story.
7. Shrek 2 | Director Conrad Vernon, 2004
Conceptually, the most perfect movie to ever exist. Every single joke lands, and it has such a beautifully laid out description of beauty, vanity and appearances that sublands in the story of an orc irrevocably in love. I have the “I Need A Hero” scene engraved on my nostrils since what seems like forever. A perfect build up with an outstanding comedic timing and so many god lawful great references to the 2000´s pop culture and legacy. I could genuinely watch this movie on an endless loop, I quote it on a daily basis.
6. The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers | Director Peter Jackson, 2002
My favorite monologue maybe ever is at the ending scene of this movie, and I just want to say that because it makes me sob each time I hear it. I think The Helm’s Deep battle is the best accomplished war setting moment ever, and it really strikes something in me. I stand by, sequels are the best part of a trilogy, and sometimes I am just right. The follow up to the initial quest and the arise of new challenges is so thrilling and I don’t think anything truly compares to Tolkien’s faith in humanity. Also, this has the best Aragorn scene.
5. Spirited Away | Director Hayao Miyazaki, 2001
Chihiro is the closest character to home for me. Coming of age always hits hard but this one hits different. Chihiro’s travel is her stepping up into adulthood, when you are deprived of comfort and thrown into the real world and it sucks. This animation sort of altered me forever. I was terrified of this movie as a kid, and yet now the no face devouring people is the least thrilling aspect of it all. Love the score, as everything Joe Hisaishi does, how gorgeous and over stimulating and perverse the alternate world is, and of course I cry at the ending.
4. Little Women | Director Greta Gerwig, 2019
Means the literal world to me. Historically accurate closest to perfection modern day adaptation to a classic novel. I don’t have any blood relative sisters but I like to think I have experienced sisterhood, to some extent. And this movie portrays the insights and deflections of it in such a beautiful and disserning layering. I am so protective and so defensive of all the March sisters, and of Laurie. Have written a lot about this movie, but I could just keep going for more. A heartbreaking movie once they are apart and grown up, but so heart warming during childhood.
3. Knives Out | Director Rian Johnson, 2019
An spectacle of a movie. Watching this for a first time is a privilege one should not forsake, at all. A very embracive experience, that gets your head around an impossible, easy, complicated build up of a crime. I am in love with the house, the details of it, and the screen write for it its so well thought through that I sometimes cry about it at night. I love how much space the colors take up, and how the family is nice but you can tell they’re not. On a rewatch you realize how simple the scheme was, but you get to just thirst over Chris Evans.
2. Call Me By Your Name | Director Luca Guadagnino, 2017
I used to hate this movie. A lot. But last September I did a rewatch, and maybe it was the euphoria of turning seventeen, but I got lost in it. Not a romance, but definitely a story about love. Being loved, and wanting to be loved. Even to the extent of looking to earn it. I love this film because of how natural and see through it is. Nothing abrupt happens, we just get to see what Elio is during a few weeks. The visuals are spotless frames of Northern Italy, also known as the best region of the world. Makes me cry at night, sometimes.
1. Howl’s Moving Castle | Director Hayao Miyazaki, 2004
Anyone who has ever met me knows I am obsessed with this film, and that I have been so since the ripe age of seven years old. I think the charm of this movie relies on the characters and the complicity of their romance. I think this movie portrays how far ahead animation gets to be, with how beautiful the framing of it is. A depiction of beauty on all its forms, from bodies up till the stars. I love Sophie´s turmoil into embracing the beauty coming from within herself, and Howl´s struggle to grow enough to meet his age. A very beautiful, stunning, moving movie, with my forever favorite fictional world.
