150 Essential Comedy Movies To Watch Now

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The latest: Grab some garlic bread, Scott Pilgrim is celebrating 15 years! (Actually, you know what? he just left.)

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What makes a comedy a classic? Something that floats on the changing tides of time and taste, remaining relevant – and hilarious? It probably takes more than a football to the groin or a juiced-up fart on the audio track. (Though we’re not not saying those can sometimes be the pinnacle of professional-grade jokes.) We don’t have the answer, but with our Essential list assembling 150 of the best comedies ever made, we’re getting closer to laugh-out-loud enlightenment than humanly thought possible. We’re melting minds, splitting sides, and slapping knees here.

To that end, we’ve included all forms of the comedy movie. From slapstick (Dumb & Dumber, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World) to silent (The General, Modern Times). Rom-coms (Moonstruck, Annie Hall) to screwball (It Happened One Night, Bringing Up Baby). Parody (Airplane!, Scary Movie) to postmodern (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Galaxy Quest). These 150 movies will take you to college (Animal House), past some fan favorites (Step Brothers, Super Troopers), and all around the globe (Kung Fu Hustle, Amelie).

There’s no minimum review count for this list. We opened it up to movies of yesteryear, which typically don’t get as many reviews as their modern comedy rivals. Many of these inducted films have high Tomatometer scores and are Certified Fresh, but the Tomatometer was not our only guide. Some comedies that stand the test of time did not necessarily pass the critical test on release, and we’re honoring those here. These are not the best-reviewed comedy films ever released, but they are the essential comedies, movies that broke the Laugh-O-Meter – we’ll totally trademark that soon, so dibs – shaped the genre, molded generations, and which audiences return to time and again, to lift the spirits.

That said, we did ultimately sort the movies by Tomatometer, with Certified Fresh films first. But follow your filthy laughing heart on which to tackle first!

Ready to whip out your funny bone and bash it violently on the nearest flat surface? Then you’re ready for our list of the best comedy movies ever: Rotten Tomatoes’ 150 Essential Comedies! —Alex Vo

Golden Globes Best Picture Winners by Tomatometer

Since 1943, the Golden Globes have been celebrating the biggest, brightest, and starriest movies of the year. Now, we’re taking every Golden Globe Best Motion Picture winner — including the categories for Drama, Comedy/Musical, and that brief period of unadulterated hedonism during the 1950s/1960s when Musical and Comedy were separated — and ranking them, with Certified Fresh films first. Lately, we’ve caught up with The Brutalist and Emilia Perez taking home the big two. See all Golden Globes Best Picture winners by Tomatometer!

(Photo by Warner Bros)

Warner Bros: 100 Years, 100 Essential Movies

Warner Bros. turns 100! To celebrate, we’ve partnered with the studio (along with our friends at Vudu) and dug through their iconic library, checked behind the matte paintings on the soundstages, and even rummaged through the water tower (Yakko certainly has a fascinating collection of film negatives) to select the 100 essential Warner Bros. movies!

The films date back to the early days of cinema and are listed here beginning with the most recent release. The earliest film included is the 1938 swashbuckler The Adventures of Robin Hood. The 1940s are Bogie and Best Pictures: Casablanca, The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

In the 1950s, we see Marlon Brando redefine acting in A Streetcar Name Desire, one of the best of the creature feature era (Them!), and the finest among Alfred Hitchcock’s works (Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder).

The 1960s were a decade of cultural revolution, and Warners was the first major studio to embrace it, starting with 1967’s iconic Bonnie & Clyde before 2001: A Space Odyssey redefined what was cinematically possible the next year.

In the New Hollywood era of the 1970s, where creative expression was absolute, Warners sought to work with the rising generation, including Martin Scorsese (Mean Streets), William Friedkin (The Exorcist), and Terrence Malick (Badlands). This gave Warner Bros. the longstanding reputation as the most director-friendly major studio; Kubrick worked with them for decades, aas have Scorsese (later directing GoodFellas and winning Best Picture for The Departed), Clint Eastwood (Dirty Harry, Unforgiven), and, until recently, Christopher Nolan.

Cult and pop culture fandom as we know it started during the 1980s, and the WB logo felt inescapable across Batman, Blade Runner, Gremlins, Beetlejuice, The NeverEnding Story, and The Goonies. Warner Bros. would re-up their commitment to this space in the 2000s with the dominating duo of The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. In between, we just got some stuff like The Shawshank Redemption, Seven, L.A. Confidential, The Matrix, and Space Jam. Would this list even count if there were no Looney Tunes on it?

2008’s The Dark Knight still remains the comic book movie to beat, and it’s just one example of the abundant Nolan/Warners partnership that once yielded Interstellar and Inception. 2015 saw two series revitalizations: Mad Max: Fury Road and Creed. 2017’s Wonder Woman is a jewel of DC Comics superhero movies, and that same year, Paddington 2 was momentarily the best-reviewed movie ever on Rotten Tomatoes.

Rent or purchase any of the 100 essential Warner Bros. movies on Vudu, and celebrate a century of the most beloved entertainment ever! —Alex Vo

(Photo by Touchstone/courtesy Everett Collection)

All Bill Murray Movies Ranked

From tales of crashing bachelor parties and kickball games, to intimate fan pranks that he knows the public will never believe, to his unavailabity outside of a 1-800 number, the antics of lord of chaos Bill Murray could overshadow his actual job as an actor. But this decade alone has seen Certified Fresh hits like Moonrise Kingdom, The Jungle Book, Grand Budapest Hotel, and St. Vincent.

The output compares handsomely even to his ’80s heyday, which saw the likes of Ghostbusters, Stripes, Caddyshack, and Scrooged put into theaters. The ’90s not only had his lead-starring masterpiece Groundhog Day, but also the zany What About Bob?, and his first reinvention as the patron saint of comedic melancholia, Rushmore. All that paved the way for his towering 2000s output, featuring The Royal Tenenbaums, Lost in Translation, his Best Actor-nominated Broken Flowers, and Garfield…which we’re mentioning because it led directly to his inspired cameo in Zombieland.

Now, take a look at Bill Murray movies ranked by Tomatometer. —Alex Vo

(Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)

Accomplished character actor Judy Greer‘s filmography is, fittingly enough, best summed up by the title of her 2014 autobiography: I Don’t Know What You Know Me From: Confessions of a Co-Star. You may recall her as the recipient of an amazing makeover in Jawbreaker, as the timid, lonely office girl from What Women Want, or in the recurring role as George Sr.’s awkward, unhinged assistant Kitty Sanchez in Arrested Development, all early in her career. That was before she moved on to stealing scenes in sitcoms like Modern Family and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and landing supporting roles in movies like The Descendants, 2013’s Carrie, and franchises as big as Planet of the Apes, Jurassic World, and the Ant-Man movies. Later this year, Greer will even appear alongside Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode’s daughter in Halloween.

This week, however, marks another milestone for Greer, as she makes her directorial debut with A Happening of Monumental Proportions. It’s an ensemble comedy of intersecting stories that take place over the course of an elementary school’s Career Day, with an impressive cast that includes Common, Allison Janney, Jennifer Garner, John Cho, Kumail Nanjiani, Bradley Whitford, Katie Holmes, and Rob Riggle, just to name a few. She spoke with RT and offered up her Five Favorite Films, then talked about why she could never direct herself, explained how helpful Jason Reitman and Mitch Hurwitz were to her, and even gave us a taste of what it was like on the set of Halloween.

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Ryan Fujitani for Rotten Tomatoes: So I understand it was your manager who really pushed for you to make the jump behind the camera and move into directing. What was it about this project that made you think, “You know what? This is the one I’m going to direct?”

Judy Greer: Well, I loved the script. I mean, I have to give up a year of my life to direct a movie, and not make any money doing it, and it has to be something… My manager has always said this, and he still does: If you’re not dying to tell this story, it’s not worth it. And he doesn’t even mean financially; he means heart and soul. It’s such an undertaking to direct independent movies, so, in that sense, it has to really be something I can’t not do.

That was how I felt when I read this script, finally. I had read several, and a lot of the ones that came to me wanted me to also play roles in them, and I really didn’t want to do that. I did not want to have to direct myself. I didn’t want to have to be directing other actors but then also being like, “Yeah, but I nailed that scene, so we can move on.” I just felt so weird about it. And I’ve worked with people who’ve done it, and they do it well, and it doesn’t bother me. I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t look at Common and say, “Can you do it again, but like, this time do it like this?” I feel like I would have had to tell myself my direction out loud so he could hear it.

Also, the second answer is that I got people way more famous and cool than me to be in my movie, so it was great, because I didn’t even have to. I was like, “Worst case scenario, I could play these five roles. But, I don’t know, if Allison Janney’s going to do it, then why would I ever?” So they made it easy for me. I’m legit impressed by people who can, but I couldn’t.

RT: You’ve also said that you’re drawn to stories that take place in “normal” office settings and things like that, because you’ve never quite had a job like that. What’s the trick to making something that’s ostensibly normal and familiar to most audiences into something that’s special and engaging, but also still relatable, if that makes sense?

Greer: No, I think I know what you mean. Yeah, I think what you’re saying is, how do you not make it boring? Well, I don’t know, maybe you’re not. But Office Space, maybe if I could list a top 10 list, would maybe be on it. I loved that movie, and I was so intrigued, because I’ve always been fascinated with a schedule. Like, I’ve never had a schedule. It’s always different and changing, and I’m in different places, and I’m doing different things. I think the grass is always greener, a little bit, with having a regular job and a regular life, where I thought, “Oh, you can actually plan a vacation and take it? That would be cool. My husband would love that.”

But I just thought it was cool to see the ins and outs of that world, and I hoped I made it interesting and fascinating. What I really wanted to do was, I have this fantasy about showing how these big buildings, they’re these big businesses and cubicles, and you have to walk so far to just get anything done. You have to walk so far to just go to the bathroom and to get a cup of coffee. And if you’re running to someone’s office, basically it’s like half your day is just walking around these buildings. It’s just my fantasy of what it’s like. Some of my friends have said, “No, no one has that much space.” But I’m like, “I don’t know. In my world, they do, and that’s the story I want to tell.” Direct your own movies! But yeah, I was always intrigued by it.

RT: If it’s any consolation, a lot of my day is actually very much like that, so you kind of nailed it for me, anyway.

Greer: Oh, I’m sorry? [laughs]

RT: You’ve been part of some really big franchises, and you’ve worked with a lot of amazing people, both in front of and behind the camera. Specifically with regard to directors, is there one in particular who especially inspired your own approach, or from whom you felt like you learned a significant deal?

Greer: Well, I learned a lot from Jason Reitman, because he is my friend and he was nice enough to go to lunch with me before I directed my movie, and sat down with me at Hugo’s for like two hours, where I had a notebook and a pen, and he told me things, and I wrote as much as I could down. He was really inspiring in that way. Plus, I love working with him. I love the way he directs, and I love his movies and the stories he chooses to tell. I have so much respect for him. I also got so much help from, obviously Paul Weitz, who’s an executive producer of my movie. He was someone who was a total mentor. But kind of outside the process, I should say, it was Jason Reitman, who didn’t have to ever do anything or sit down with me.

Paul was great. I mean, Paul helped me all along the way, because he was a part of the process from the very beginning, and we started by just going over the script together. Then we talked about casting. Then we talked about crew to hire. Then we talked about edit, and what I should do on set. I’ve sort of taken him for granted because he’s a producer on the movie, and haven’t really spoken as much about him as I should have. But definitely him. Definitely him.

And also, towards the end in the editing process, you know who I feel like I couldn’t have finished the movie without was Mitch Hurwitz. You know, he’s just always been there for me, throughout my career, when I’ve needed help or advice. With this, you know, we got to a point in the editing room where we were like, “I don’t know what else to do. And there are some things that need to be fixed.” And I sent him a link, and he watched it and gave me the greatest notes. It was really just something that was so above and beyond. I just wanted a new, fresh pair of eyes, someone who, I thought, was clearly a comedic genius. But the thing about Mitch that I don’t know if people all know is what a giant heart he has. You know, my movie ended up, I think, having a lot of heart to it. I had plenty of jokes — a lot of jokes had to end up being cut — but I wanted to make sure I was telling the right story, too. So Mitch was a real asset.

RT: Speaking of jokes, you’ve proven how reliably funny you are in the past, and now you’re directing this kind of quirky comedy. What do you think about possibly directing in other genres? Maybe drama, or horror?

Greer: Definitely, horror would be dope. That would be so fun, and I would never have said that until working with David Gordon Green on Halloween. I had so much fun on set. We had the best time. And again, that could just be him, because he just wants to have fun and laugh. He always says, “I just want to party,” and he doesn’t mean drink. He wants to just have fun all the time. Like, “Let’s party, let’s party! We have to party!” It’s so fun. He’s like, “Oh Judy, wouldn’t it be cool if you did this? What if you did that?” It was so fun. And after doing that, I thought, “Oh my God, this is a horror movie? I want to direct a horror movie. That would be cool.”

I would also say that working with Peyton Reed on Ant-Man was so cool, because… Again, Paul [Rudd] is just hilarious, and he’s never not funny. But to make that kind of genre movie, and make it as fun and funny as I think Ant-Man, both of them, turned out to be, seems really fun, too. As far as drama’s concerned, I just don’t know. I love acting in dramas, and I love watching dramas, but I get nervous because I feel like I have a tendency to — you’ll never believe this, maybe — but I can go to pretty dark places, and I would be nervous about tone. Tone is so important. I’m so constantly feeling heartbroken by humanity, and especially now. But I’m never going to say no. I read all kinds of scripts.

RT: You mentioned Halloween, and I feel like I can’t not ask about it…

Greer: Dude…

RT: Without spoiling anything, is there something like a passing of the torch going on?

Greer: I don’t know, man. I don’t know what I’m even allowed to say. Let me just say that if I could do these movies with Jamie Lee Curtis and Andi Matichak, if we could make these movies, this gang of, as Jamie Lee Curtis calls us, three tall women… It was so fun. I hope we get the opportunity to go back to Haddonfield, because it was… It was major. And I feel like Jamie Lee’s love and ownership — and I don’t mean it literally — of this franchise is such an inspiration. I love how seriously she and David took the telling of this story. And while it was so fun and wonderful to do, it was, I felt, such important work to get right. For the fans, you know? It’s all about the people who love it. And people love Halloween.

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A Happening of Monumental Proportions opens in limited release on Friday, September 21.

(Photo by Michael Tran/Getty Images)

Heather Graham began her career back in the 1980s, and while modern mainstream audiences likely know her best from movies like The Hangover and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, she’s managed an eclectic film and TV résumé full of acclaimed films and popular favorites. It’s a list that includes everything from P.T. Anderson’s Boogie Nights to David Lynch’s original Twin Peaks series, from Swingers to Bowfinger to Drugstore Cowboy and recurring roles on Scrubs and Californication. She also recently completed filming her directorial debut, a comedy called Half Magic.

This week, Graham stars opposite Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje in Wetlands, a noirish thriller about a disgraced cop trying to stay out of trouble as he reconnects with his estranged daughter and ex-wife in the outskirts of Atlantic City. When RT spoke with her about her Five Favorite Films, she had some difficulty narrowing down her choices: ” showing love to The Apartment, Midnight Cowboy, The Godfather, and Sophie’s Choice before settling on her top five. Read on for the full list.

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Ryan Fujitani for Rotten Tomatoes: You had some difficult narrowing down your list, but that’s not uncommon.

Heather Graham: This is just off the top of my head. If I had more time to think about it, I might have a more refined thought about it. What else do other people say?

RT: It varies, and we get a lot of interesting choices. Some pick a lot of classics, while others talk about those movies they just have to watch if they come across them on TV or something. Others defer to stuff they grew up with. It really varies.

Graham: I think movies that I watched when I was a kid… Sometimes it has a more powerful effect than newer movies you go to see to as an adult, when you’re slightly jaded and you’re like, “Oh yeah, I’ve seen that plot before. Oh, now they’re going to do this. Oh, they always do that in these movies.” You know what I mean?

I feel like when you watch things when you’re really young and you haven’t read a million scripts or seen a million movies, when you’re just seeing it for the first time, it’s like your mind is blown. When I watch a superhero movie, I’m like, “The plot is always the same.” There’s no variation in the superhero movie structure. It’s always going to be the same story, you know? It’s like, something terrible happens, and they win, and that’s the story.

RT: So, unfortunately, I haven’t been able to see Wetlands. Can you tell me a little bit about your role in the film and how you came to be a part of it?

Graham: Well, I read the script, and I really liked it. It’s about this cop, played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and basically my character is from a rich family, and I marry this black cop. But I’m sort of this rebellious girl from this wealthy family. And we live together and have a kid, but then he becomes a heroin addict. We break up, and I take the daughter and go live in Wildwood, New Jersey on the beach and become a surfer and suddenly have a girlfriend. I have a younger girlfriend and live in this little surf shop and party with the surfer people there.

He comes back to try to have a relationship with his daughter, and it’s kind of about how he wants to protect her from some of the seedier elements that… In Wildwood there’s kind of a drug-dealing plot through the girl that I have this relationship with, who is dealing drugs and stuff. It’s kind of a gritty, dark sort of thriller-drama.

RT: You’ve been able to do both films that are broad comedies and some that are serious dramas. Which one you enjoy more?

Graham: I mean, I really like both. It’s really great to get to do both, because there’s something… I mean, I love watching comedy because I really admire people that are funny. I guess I like things that are a mixture, you know? People that do things that are both dramatic and funny at the same time — I kind of feel like that’s the ultimate, when you can do that both at the same time.

But I tried to look at it from the perspective that it was sort of a love story, in a weird way. And then I just started going from there, trying to push further and further with, well, what makes someone insecure or obsessive or jealous or crazy or needy? That was my “in” to the situation. Because otherwise, half the time I would’ve been judging my every move, and you can’t do that.

RT: I feel like it was either Bowfinger or Austin Powers when I first noticed you, so for a long time I primarily had you categorized as a comedic actress in my mind.

Graham: Well, Boogie Nights was serious, I think.

RT: I completely forgot about Boogie Nights. That’s right.

Graham: And then I was also in Drugstore Cowboy as a kid, which is more dark.

RT: I think that was one of those times when I just didn’t realize that was you, or I was unfamiliar with you at the time.

Graham: I know, and then people were like, “I didn’t realize you were in Swingers.” And I’m just like, “Yeah, I was in Swingers.” But yeah, it’s fun to be silly. And then, I just directed a movie for the first time, which is fun — directing your own thing and writing it. That was a fun experience.

RT: I recently spoke to William H. Macy, who just opened his second film as director, about transitioning from acting to directing, and he described it as an immensely difficult thing. How was it for you?

Graham: I mean, I feel like the business aspects of it are really hard, but the actual creative aspects of it were so fun that I loved it. I felt like getting the money and getting it all to happen — you know, selling it and doing all those things — that’s stressful, but I feel like actually making it was really, really fun.

It’s not really the planning part of it, because I loved the planning part of it. It’s more raising the money and dealing with how people get money for movies. You know, you get money for movies through getting specific actors, or else getting someone to take a chance on you, and they run everyone’s numbers through a thing. It’s not as creative as you would think. When you really learn about it, there’s like a computer, and you put all the movies the actor’s been in and how much money they’ve made, and if they haven’t made enough money, then it’s like, “No, you can’t hire that actor.”

It’s like a calculator. Someone with a calculator is sayin, “Well, I’ve averaged the money that the movies that this person has been in, and you’re not allowed to cast this person because they are not financeable.” And you’re like, “Oh, is that how movies get made? That’s really depressing,” because you’re watching movies thinking, “Oh, they just hire the best person for the job.”

RT: Aside from that, were there any creative challenges for you as a director?

Graham: I mean, getting the money is totally more of a challenge than doing it, because doing it was fun. I’m sure there’s so much you can learn and you know — I’m new to doing it — but I felt like the business aspects of it were a lot more challenging than the creative aspects, which were just fun.

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Wetlands opens in limited release this Friday, September 15.

It’s fitting that Patricia Heaton’s new movie is called Moms’ Night Out — not just because it opens on Mother’s Day weekend, but also because, between The Middle and Everybody Loves Raymond, Heaton has become one of the most iconic moms on TV today.

Having just produced and acted in a movie of her own, we thought we’d ask Heaton what her favorite films are. Getting the list down to just five was a task she described as “harder than having a c-section,” so seven will have to do.

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Next, Heaton talks about her new movie Moms’ Night Out, and why pain is so funny.

RT: So, let’s talk about Moms’ Night Out, which opens Mother’s Day weekend.

With Moms’ Night Out, there’s a script that when we first got it, my husband David Hunt and I weren’t sure about producing it and acting in it. When we came on as producers, we got to get our hands in there and massage our characters and fill them out a little bit more. As an actor, you want to have something that your character is struggling with — something they have to overcome. So, we were able to add that in. Really, comedies are usually about pain. If you look at Tootsie, that was about an actor who can’t get a job; he’s in great pain. And then he falls in love with someone and he can’t reveal who he is, so he’s in constant struggle — and that’s what make it so funny.

For Moms’ Night Out, all our characters are struggling. Sarah Drew, who plays Ally, is a mother of three young children, toddlers, and she’s overwhelmed and trying to be perfect. Probably, if I were to say what this movie is about, it’s really a love letter to mothers. As Salvador Dali said, you shouldn’t fear perfection because you’ll never achieve it. I think we need to throw out this idea of perfection — the perfect home, the perfect wardrobe, the perfect children who are speaking French and playing the violin and they’re math geniuses or whatever — and we have to let go of perfection and substitute it for appreciation. Live in the moment and appreciate the gift that children are, as tough as that job is. It’s the toughest job in the world being a mom.

Moms’ Night Out is a great way to celebrate Mother’s Day because it really is a celebration of mothers — different mothers too. I play a pastor’s wife and I have a teenage daughter and my character’s whole issue is also this idea of always having to have a perfect facade. When I did some research about pastors’ wives, the number-one word they used to describe themselves is “lonely.”

RT: That’s so sad.

Patricia Heaton: I know, but doesn’t it make total sense? Everyone can come to them with their problems — and they do — but they can’t really go to members of the congregation and say, “My husband’s driving me crazy” because he’s the pastor. They have to keep their failings to themselves because they’re trying to keep up an appearance, and they have to make sure, because their husbands are the leaders, that they protect them… It sounds like a serious drama, but I’ve always found that the best way to tackle subjects like that is through comedy. Classic comedy is like you’re massaging a person’s soul so that they’re relaxed and having a good time, and then they’re more open to going with the characters and going on their journey with them.

RT: As far as Moms’ Night Out goes, I know that when moms get to go out, it’s a very big deal.

Patricia Heaton: My husband a few years ago said, “What do you want to do for your birthday?” assuming I’d say something like, ‘Let’s go out to dinner,’ and I said, “I want to go away for the weekend with my girlfriends” and he was so offended. But especially when you’re all moms of younger kids, it’s really hard to get away. For the last seven years, five of my friends and I have gone away. It started out going locally — we’d drive up to Santa Barbara or out to the desert — and then one year, I was doing a play in New York, so everybody flew to New York. And then for my 50th birthday, we all went to Hawaii to Maui, so I have not just Moms’ Night Out, I have Girls’ Weekend Away. Maybe that’ll be the sequel.

RT: One of the things about the movie is that it starts out great for the moms, but it’s just awful for the dads.

Patricia Heaton: I think that’s one of the reasons we have a hard time. We tend to complain about our husbands not pitching in, and yet we’re very reluctant to hand anything over to them because we don’t like the way they do things. You ask any woman and they’ll say, “It’s true. I wish he would help me, but only if he helps me in my exact way to my specifications and follow all my rules.”

RT: He’ll do it wrong.

Patricia Heaton: He’ll do it wrong. That’s right. And so Moms’ Night Out is really just a huge celebration [of mothers]. And it’s also something that you can feel comfortable bringing your own mother too.

RT: Yeah, that’s a big selling point.

Patricia Heaton: Yes, and it’s really funny.

RT: One of the things that made me laugh was seeing Trace Adkins. He’s, like, twice everyone else’s size. He looks like a giant.

Patricia Heaton: He’s amazing. He’s very intimidating because he’s a man of very few words — and the few words he does speak are in this huge, deep country voice. But he’s just the sweetest teddy bear ever.

RT: Who knew he was a comedic actor? That was a surprise for me.

Patricia Heaton: He’s wonderful! I just had a feeling. When we came on board, he was already attached and I thought, ‘That’s perfect. I know he’s going to be great in this. I just know.’ And he was.

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Moms’ Night Out opens this weekend in theaters.

Click here for more Five Favorite Films.

It’s a three-in-one Five Favorite Film fest today, as we sat down with the stars and writer-director of the indie comedy-drama happythankyoumoreplease, which opens in select theaters this week. The debut feature for How I Met Your Mother star-turned-filmmaker Josh Radnor, the movie follows the unpredictable lives and relationships of four New York twentysomethings, and stars Radnor, Kate Mara and Malin Akerman.

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First up, we spoke with Malin Akerman. Familiar to mainstream audiences as superhero Silk Spectre in Watchmen, the versatile actress has alternated between studio comedies and indie drama, appearing radically different in happythankyoumoreplease as Radnor’s best friend who has the condition alopecia.

“It’s what you live for in that it’s so much fun to transform yourself,” Akerman says of her role, which required her to shave her eyebrows and appear hairless. “It’s a lot of fun to be able to extract yourself from the physical and just become a character. A lot of times studios are a little bit more reluctant to bring you in for auditions for roles that are outside of the genre that they’re used to seeing you in, so I feel like the independent film world is a place where I can test that out. I like all genres of film and I want to be able to do everything.”

True to that ethic, Akerman will soon play the title role in Inferno: The Linda Lovelace Story, a biopic of the infamous adult star of Deep Throat. “I’m really excited about that,” she says. “It’s pretty heavy content. It’s really the relationship between her and her husband, and the way that he treated her. It’s more about Linda Lovelace as this battered woman rather than just — obviously it’s not a remake of Deep Throat.[laughs] I’m not getting into that genre.”

Read on for more Five Favorite Films, with co-star Kate Mara and director Josh Radnor. Up now, here’s Malin Akerman’s list.

 

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The elder of two talented siblings (sister Rooney is currently filming The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for David Fincher), Kate Mara has been a busy actress of late, appearing in one of the year’s biggest hits, Iron Man 2, and the acclaimed, Oscar-nominated 127 Hours. (Little sister also played a small-but-pivotal role in another of the Best Picture nominees, The Social Network.)

Mara is mixing things up again for this week’s modest indie, happythankyoumoreplease, in which she plays the role of Mississippi, a Southern girl looking to break into the singer-songwriter music scene in New York. She falls into a romantic liaison with central character Sam (played by writer-director Josh Radnor), and gets to perform the movie’s key musical denouement.

We chatted with Mara ahead of the movie’s release, and got her to name her Five Favorite Films. Read on for Josh Radnor’s all-time best list.

 

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Josh Radnor is known to fans of TV’s How I Met Your Mother, the successful sitcom in which he’s appeared for six years now as Ted Mosby. This week, he’s stepping up to the role of writer-director with his first feature film, happythankyoumoreplease, a personal indie comedy-drama that explores the highs and lows of modern twentysomethings negotiating life in New York.

“I wrote it largely during the first two seasons of How I Met Your Mother,” Radnor explains, “kind of on and off when I wasn’t working. Every free moment that I wasn’t at the show I was editing the movie.”

Radnor was conscious of the genre of “first time writer-director” films, drawing from his own observations and experience, as well as some of his influences.

“I mean, I think the movie can be classified in a certain genre,” he says, “but at the same time I feel like it turned some of those tropes on their heads. I had movies that were guiding inspirations — I loved Dazed and Confused, that kind of ensemble feel; I love Magnolia. I love movies that the camera just finds different stories. I described it as like, you’re at a party and the camera goes around and picks up different conversations with different people, but you’re still at the same party.

Here then, are Josh Radnor’s Five Favorite Films.

 

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Happythankyoumoreplease is released to select theaters this week.

Academy Award-winning director, Sydney Pollack, has died at the age of 73. He died of stomach cancer at his home in Los Angeles, California on Monday, 26 May.

Pollack started his career as an actor and acting teacher before moving behind the lens as both director and producer. He began his directorial career in television, working on such projects as the Alfred Hitchcock Hour, hospital drama, Ben Casey, and The Fugitive. His first foray into film was the 1965 drama, The Slender Thread, starring Anne Bancroft and Sidney Poitier.

He first appeared in one of his own films in 1979, in The Electric Horseman. A few years later he took the part of Dustin Hoffman‘s agent, George Fields, in Tootsie. He went on to appear in many of his own films and those directed by his contemporaries including Husbands and Wives, The Player, Death Becomes Her, Eyes Wide Shut and Michael Clayton.

The gang. Sidney Pollack, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese – WireImage.com

He won two Academy Awards in 1986 for Out of Africa for both Best Director and Best Picture. He was also nominated for Best Director in 1970 for They Shoot the Horses, Don’t They? and again in 1983 for Tootsie for which he also received a Best Picture Nomination. In 2008 he was nominated for Best Picture for Michael Clayton.

Sidney Pollack with Anjelica Huston, Geraldine Page, and William Hurt – WireImage.com

Beside his own collection of awards garnered throughout his career, he directed many actors to Academy Award nominations including: Jane Fonda; Barbra Streisand; Paul Newman; Jessica Lange; Dustin Hoffman; Teri Garr; Meryl Streep; and Holly Hunter.

To read more about the accomplished career of Sydney Pollack, and view his complete filmography, visit his Rotten Tomatoes profile.

Ten years ago the AFI gave us a list of the Top 100 American Films Ever Made — and when that was done they churned out 15 other lists every few years. And then last night they updated the Top 100 … I guess because they ran out of lists.

Frankly I think all of these lists are a little silly, but they do spark a lot of movie discussion and therefore I’m all for ’em. Seems a bit unnecessary to update a list that’s barely ten years old, but hey, you do what you have to do to get the viewers interested. I’ll post the new list below, but if you’d like to compare it to the original Top 100, you can check our source below.

And definitely feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and outrage regarding the big list. There’s a lot of movies out there, so please do toss your lists out, too. (The one below came from a list of 1,500 filmmakers, writers, actors, critics, and "others.")

At the very least, this list should give you a good idea of how to fill up your Netflix queue.

1. "Citizen Kane," 1941.
2. "The Godfather," 1972.
3. "Casablanca," 1942.
4. "Raging Bull," 1980.
5. "Singin’ in the Rain," 1952.
6. "Gone With the Wind," 1939.
7. "Lawrence of Arabia," 1962.
8. "Schindler’s List," 1993.
9. "Vertigo," 1958.
10. "The Wizard of Oz," 1939.

11. "City Lights," 1931.
12. "The Searchers," 1956.
13. "Star Wars," 1977.
14. "Psycho," 1960.
15. "2001: A Space Odyssey," 1968.
16. "Sunset Blvd.", 1950.
17. "The Graduate," 1967.
18. "The General," 1927.
19. "On the Waterfront," 1954.
20. "It’s a Wonderful Life," 1946.

21. "Chinatown," 1974.
22. "Some Like It Hot," 1959.
23. "The Grapes of Wrath," 1940.
24. "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," 1982.
25. "To Kill a Mockingbird," 1962.
26. "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," 1939.
27. "High Noon," 1952.
28. "All About Eve," 1950.
29. "Double Indemnity," 1944.
30. "Apocalypse Now," 1979.

31. "The Maltese Falcon," 1941.
32. "The Godfather Part II," 1974.
33. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest," 1975.
34. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," 1937.
35. "Annie Hall," 1977.
36. "The Bridge on the River Kwai," 1957.
37. "The Best Years of Our Lives," 1946.
38. "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," 1948.
39. "Dr. Strangelove," 1964.
40. "The Sound of Music," 1965.

41. "King Kong," 1933.
42. "Bonnie and Clyde," 1967.
43. "Midnight Cowboy," 1969.
44. "The Philadelphia Story," 1940.
45. "Shane," 1953.
46. "It Happened One Night," 1934.
47. "A Streetcar Named Desire," 1951.
48. "Rear Window," 1954.
49. "Intolerance," 1916.
50. "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," 2001.

51. "West Side Story," 1961.
52. "Taxi Driver," 1976.
53. "The Deer Hunter," 1978.
54. "M*A*S*H," 1970.
55. "North by Northwest," 1959.
56. "Jaws," 1975.
57. "Rocky," 1976.
58. "The Gold Rush," 1925.
59. "Nashville," 1975.
60. "Duck Soup," 1933.

61. "Sullivan’s Travels," 1941.
62. "American Graffiti," 1973.
63. "Cabaret," 1972.
64. "Network," 1976.
65. "The African Queen," 1951.
66. "Raiders of the Lost Ark," 1981.
67. "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", 1966.
68. "Unforgiven," 1992.
69. "Tootsie," 1982.
70. "A Clockwork Orange," 1971.

71. "Saving Private Ryan," 1998.
72. "The Shawshank Redemption," 1994.
73. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," 1969.
74. "The Silence of the Lambs," 1991.
75. "In the Heat of the Night," 1967.
76. "Forrest Gump," 1994.
77. "All the President’s Men," 1976.
78. "Modern Times," 1936.
79. "The Wild Bunch," 1969.
80. "The Apartment, 1960.

81. "Spartacus," 1960.
82. "Sunrise," 1927.
83. "Titanic," 1997.
84. "Easy Rider," 1969.
85. "A Night at the Opera," 1935.
86. "Platoon," 1986.
87. "12 Angry Men," 1957.
88. "Bringing Up Baby," 1938.
89. "The Sixth Sense," 1999.
90. "Swing Time," 1936.

91. "Sophie’s Choice," 1982.
92. "Goodfellas," 1990.
93. "The French Connection," 1971.
94. "Pulp Fiction," 1994.
95. "The Last Picture Show," 1971.
96. "Do the Right Thing," 1989.
97. "Blade Runner," 1982.
98. "Yankee Doodle Dandy," 1942.
99. "Toy Story," 1995.
100. "Ben-Hur," 1959.

Grr. I’m annoyed that neither of my all-time favorites (those would be "Alien" and "Young Frankenstein") made the list. Oh well.

Be honest: How many of ’em have you seen?

Source: SeattlePI.com

Click right here to check the much longer and more plot-centric trailer for Ron Howard‘s "The Da Vinci Code," which, as you may have heard by now, is a movie based on a fairly popular book. And it stars Tom Hanks.

"The murder of a curator at the Louvre reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protected since the days of Christ. Only the victim’s granddaughter and Robert Langdon, a famed symbologist, can untangle the clues he left behind. The duo become both suspects and detectives searching for not only the murderer but also the stunning secret of the ages he was charged to protect."

Based on the ridiculously popular novel by Dan Brown, "The Da Vinci Code," which also stars Audrey Tautou, Jean Reno, and Ian Mckellen, debuts on March 19th.

Anyone remember the teenaged "Tootsie" with the gender-twist called "Just One of the Guys"? The one where the hot teenage girl posed as a guy and got into all sorts of wacky high school situations? Well, apparently someone wanted to remake it with Amanda Bynes in the lead. It’s called "She’s the Man." Here’s the trailer.

"Viola Johnson (Amanda Bynes) had her own good reasons for disguising herself as her twin brother Sebastian (James Kirk) and enrolling in his place at his new boarding school, Illyria Prep. She was counting on Sebastian being AWOL from school as he tried to break into the music scene in London. What she didn’t count on was falling in love with her hot roommate, Duke (Channing Tatum), who in turn only has eyes for the beautiful Olivia (Laura Ramsey). Making matters worse, Olivia is starting to fall for Sebastian, who—for reasons Olivia couldn’t begin to guess—appears to be the sensitive type of guy she’d always dreamed of meeting. If things weren’t complicated enough, the real Sebastian has come back from London two days earlier than expected and arrives on campus having no clue that he’s been replaced…by his own twin sister."

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I know it’s for the kids, and that’s perfectly cool, but I really hope Vinnie Jones and David Cross got some solid coin for this gig.

(Also, William Shakespeare’s "Twelfth Night" is being cited as source material, because we all know how much Shakespeare loved a good soccer-ball-in-the-crotch gag.)