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Jeffrey Melvin Hutchins

Jeff's 310 Favorite Films by Genre

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Here are my favorite films in each of 26 genres. Genres and films are in alphabetical order. Each genre lists at least 10 movies. Some movies I’ve omitted because I didn’t see them; others because I enjoyed them but didn’t think them equal to the best in the genre. Some great films are not listed because while I loved them, I could not remember enough about them to make a judgment. And, of course, there are countless films whose titles I don’t remember at all. Still, watch any movie on this list and you are sure to be entertained.

ACTION MOVIES (10)

Black Panther

Blade Runner (1982 version)

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Spider-Man 2

Superman (1978)

The Dark Knight

The French Connection

The Great Escape

The Hunger Games

Wonder Woman (2017 version)

 

ANIMATED FEATURES (10)

Aladdin

Chicken Run      

Fantasia

Inside Out

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

The Lion King

Toy Story

Up

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Yellow Submarine

 

BIOPIX (11)

12 Years a Slave

A Beautiful Mind

Capote

Gandhi

Lincoln (2012 version)

Man on the Moon

Milk

My Left Foot

The Benny Goodman Story

The Imitation Game

The Theory of Everything

 

CHILDREN’S MOVIES (LIVE-ACTION) (10)

A Christmas Story

Akeelah and the Bee

Annie

Babe

Big

Hugo

Splash

The Muppet Movie

The NeverEnding Story

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

 

COMEDIES (PRIMARILY NON-ROMANTIC) (14)

A Mighty Wind

Airplane

American Graffiti

Bedazzled (1967 version)

Blazing Saddles

Ghostbusters

Gold Rush

Groundhog Day

Hannah and Her Sisters

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Raising Arizona

Sleeper

The Princess Bride

Tootsie

 

COMING OF AGE STORIES (13)

Boyhood

Fried Green Tomatoes

Harold and Maude

Juno

Lady Bird

Pleasantville

Precious

Stand By Me

The Last Picture Show

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Spectacular Now

The Sterile Cuckoo

The Way, Way Back

 

COURTROOM DRAMAS (10)

12 Angry Men

A Few Good Men

Denial

Erin Brockovich

I Am Sam

Inherit the Wind

My Cousin Vinny

Philadelphia

The Verdict

Witness for the Prosecution

 

DOCUMENTARIES (10)

20 Feet from Stardom

5 Broken Cameras

Fahrenheit 9/11

Inside Job

March of the Penguins

RBG

Sicko

Spellbound (2002)

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Young @ Heart

 

DOOM AND GLOOM MOVIES (10)

Away from Her

Doubt

Fail-Safe

Mudbound

On the Beach

Snowpiercer

Still Alice

Testament

The Matrix

Waterworld

 

EPICS / SPECTACLES (10)

Dr. Zhivago

Forrest Gump

Gone with the Wind

Lawrence of Arabia

Letters from Iwo Jima

Lord of the Rings trilogy

The Last of the Mohicans (1992 version)

The Poseidon Adventure

Titanic

Walkabout

 

FABLES (LIVE ACTION) (10)

Edward Scissorhands

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

King of Hearts

Lars and the Real Girl

Legend (1985 version)

Local Hero

Moonrise Kingdom

Stranger Than Fiction

The Shape of Water

Waitress

 

FUN FEEL-GOOD MOVIES (12)

Back to the Future

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Elf

It’s a Wonderful Life

M*A*S*H

Miracle on 34thStreet (1947 version)

Slumdog Millionaire

Some Like It Hot

The Graduate

The Sting

The Pink Panther (1963 version)

Young Frankenstein

 

HISTORICAL FICTION (14)

A Man for All Seasons

All the President’s Men

Amadeus

Battleship Potemkin

Belle

Fruitvale Station

Hidden Figures

Hotel Rwanda

Life Is Beautiful

Out of Africa

Schindler’s List

Spotlight

The Lion in Winter

The Pianist

 

INSPIRATIONAL MOVIES (12)

Freedom Writers

Gigot

Lost Horizon

Mister Roberts

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

The Best Years of Our Lives

The Color Purple

The Grapes of Wrath

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner

The Shawshank Redemption

To Kill a Mockingbird

 

INTIMATE HUMAN-INTEREST STORIES (13)

A Thousand Clowns

Being There

Casablanca

Children of a Lesser God

Kramer vs. Kramer

Nebraska

On Golden Pond

Philomena

Privilege

Room

Taxi Driver

The Cider House Rules

The Visitor

 

LIVE-ACTION ANIMAL MOVIES (11)

Born Free

Free Willy

Harry and Tonto

Jungle Book (1942 version)

Lassie Come Home

Moby Dick (1956)

National Velvet

Sounder

War Horse

Whale Rider

Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken

 

MUSICALS (10)

All That Jazz

Cabaret

Carousel

La La Land

Les Miserables (2012 version)

My Fair Lady

Oliver!

Singin’ in the Rain

The King and I

The Wizard of Oz

 

NON-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILMS (26)

A Man Called Ove (Sweden 2015)

A Separation (Iran 2011)

Amélie (France 2001)

Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi (Israel 2003)

Caramel (Lebanon 2007)

Closely Watched Trains (Czechoslovakia 1966)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Taiwan 2000)

Das Boot

Gloomy Sunday (Germany 1999)

Il Sorpasso (Italy 1962)

Incendies (Canada 2010)

I’ve Loved You So Long (France 2008)

La Strada (Italy 1954)

Lemon Tree (Israel 2008)

Mustang (Turkey 2015)

Persona (Sweden 1966)

Sarah’s Key (France 2010)

Tanna (Vanuatu 2015)

The 400 Blows (France 1959)

The Band’s Visit (Israel 2007)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Sweden 2009)

The Insult (Lebanon 2017)

The Intouchables (France 2011)

The Lives of Others (Germany 2006)

The Secret in Their Eyes (Argentina 2009)

The Syrian Bride (France, Israel 2004)

 

ROMANTIC COMEDIES (11)

Annie Hall

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Four Weddings and a Funeral

It Happened One Night

L.A. Story

Moonstruck

Notting Hill

Silver Linings Playbook

The African Queen

The Big Sick

When Harry Met Sally

 

SCI-FI (11)

2001: A Space Odyssey

Arrival

Blade Runner (1982 version)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Contact

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Ex Machina

Minority Report

Moon

The Empire Strikes Back

 

SPORTS MOVIES (10)

A League of Their Own

Bend It Like Beckham

Breaking Away

Chariots of Fire

Field of Dreams

Million Dollar Baby

Remember the Titans

The Hustler

The Natural

The Pride of the Yankees

 

SPY MOVIES (10)

Bridge of Spies

From Russia With Love

Goldfinger

Inception

North by Northwest

Spy

The Ipcress File

The Third Man

Three Days of the Condor

Zero Dark Thirty

 

TEAR-JERKERS (12)

Awakenings

Beaches

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Dead Poets Society

My Girl

Sophie’s Choice

Stand By Me

Steel Magnolias

Terms of Endearment

The Fault in Our Stars

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

The Notebook

 

THRILLERS / MYSTERIES (17)

Blow-up

Chinatown

Deliverance

Gone Girl

Klute

Match Point

Memento

Munich

Rear Window

Seven Days in May

Sleuth

The Birds

The Maltese Falcon

The Prestige

The Sixth Sense

The Usual Suspects

Z

 

WAR / ANTI-WAR MOVIES (12)

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930 version)

Apocalypse Now

Born on the Fourth of July

Coming Home

Dr. Strangelove

Full Metal Jacket

Glory

Saving Private Ryan

The Bridge on the River Kwai

The Deer Hunter

The Guns of Navarone

The Victors

 

WESTERNS (11)

Cat Ballou

Dances with Wolves

Hell or High Water

High Noon

Little Big Man

Shane

Stagecoach

The Magnificent Seven

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

True Grit (2010 version)

Unforgiven

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