It is the songs we listen to, the books we read, and the movies we watch that, more often than not, that help to shape us into who we are. For this series of articles, I’ll be covering my Top 10 favorites in each of these categories! First up, here are my Top 10 favorite movies of all time, in no particular order:
Little Women (2019)
Written by Greta Gerwig, Story by Louisa May Alcott
Jo March: “Women, they have minds, and they have souls, as well as just hearts. And they’ve got ambition, and they’ve got talent, as well as just beauty. I’m so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for. I’m so sick of it.”
Lady Bird (2017)
Written by Greta Gerwig
Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson: Why can’t you say I look nice?
Marion McPherson: I thought you didn’t even care what I think.
Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson: I still want you to think I look good.
Marion McPherson: Okay, I’m sorry. I was telling you the truth, do you want me to lie?
Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson: No, I mean, I just, I wish that you liked me.
Marion McPherson: Of course I love you.
Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson: But do you like me?
La La Land (2016)
Written by Damien Chazelle
Mia: Maybe I’m one of those people that has always wanted to do it, but it’s like a pipe dream for me, you know? And then, you said it, you change your dreams, and then you grow up. Maybe I’m one of those people, and I’m not supposed to. And I can go back to school, and I can find
something else I’m supposed to do. ‘Cause I left to do that, and it’s been six years, and I don’t want to do it anymore.
Sebastian: Why?
Mia: Why what?
Sebastian: Why don’t you want to do it anymore?
Mia: ‘Cause I think it hurts a little bit too much.
Notting Hill (1999)
Written by Richard Curtis
Anna Scott: Rita Hayworth used to say, “They go to bed with Gilda; they wake up with me.”
William: Who’s Gilda?
Anna Scott: Her most famous part. Men went to bed with the dream; they didn’t like it when they would wake up with the reality. Do you feel that way?
William: You are lovelier this morning than you have ever been.
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Written by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon
Will: [continuing the therapy session] I don’t care if Helen of Troy walks in the room, that’s Game 6!
Sean: Oh, Helen of Troy…
Will: Oh my God; and who are these fuckin’ friends of yours, they let you get away with that?
Sean: Oh… they had to.
Will: W-w-w-what’d you say to them?
Sean: I just slid my ticket across the table, and I said, “Sorry, guys; I gotta see about a girl.”
Will: I gotta go see about a girl?
Sean: Yeah.
Will: That’s what you said? And they let you get away with that?
Sean: Oh, yeah. They saw in my eyes that I meant it.
Will: You’re kiddin’ me.
Sean: No, I’m not kiddin’ you, Will. That’s why I’m not talkin’ right now about some girl I saw at a bar twenty years ago and how I always regretted not going over and talking to her. I don’t regret the 18 years I was married to Nancy. I don’t regret the six years I had to give up counseling when she got sick. And I don’t regret the last years when she got really sick. And I sure as hell don’t regret missin’ the damn game. That’s regret.
[pause]
Will: Wow… Woulda been nice to catch that game, though.
Sean: [sheepishly] I didn’t know Pudge was gonna hit a homer.
When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
Written by Nora Ephron
Harry Burns: The first time we met, we hated each other.
Sally Albright: No, you didn’t hate me, I hated you. The second time we met, you didn’t even remember me.
Harry Burns: I did too, I remembered you. The third time we met, we became friends.
Sally Albright: We were friends for a long time.
Harry Burns: And then we weren’t.
Sally Albright: And then we fell in love.
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Written by Tom Schulman
John Keating: We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, “O me! O life!… of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless… of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?” Answer. That you are here – that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?
Star Wars (1977)
Written by George Lucas
Luke Skywalker: No, my father didn’t fight in the Clone Wars. He was a navigator on a spice freighter.
Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi: That’s what your uncle told you. He didn’t hold with your father’s ideals; he felt he should’ve stayed here and not gotten involved.
Luke Skywalker: You fought in the Clone Wars?
Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi: Yes. I was once a Jedi knight, the same as your father.
Luke Skywalker: I wish I’d known him.
Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi: He was the best star pilot in the galaxy, and a cunning warrior. I understand that you’ve become quite a good pilot yourself.
Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi: And he was a good friend.
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Written by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, and Frank Capra, Story by Philip Van Doren
Mary: Remember the night we broke the windows in this old house? This is what I wished for.
George Bailey: You’re wonderful… wonderful.