10. STRANGER THAN PARADISE

Undoubtedly one of the most influential indie films of all time, Stranger Than Paradise was shot on leftover film stock from another film and made with a budget under $100,000.  It tells the story of a young Hungarian woman who visits her cousin in New York City for an extended stay before moving in with her grandma in Cleveland.  Some enjoy Jarmusch’s humor, but for me the film works because of its uniqueness and abnormality.  Jarmusch’s film truly is stranger than paradise, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

9. CHOOSE ME

The characters, relationships, and intertwining storylines of Choose Me may be far-fetched, but none of that really matters when Luther Vandross’s sweet R&B is playing in the background.  Alan Rudolph’s best film tells the intertwined story of a lonely talk radio host, a lost bar owner, and a mysterious Las Vegas man who puts a spell on both of them over a few days in Los Angeles.  Films before and after Choose Me have done intertwined stories more believably, but that doesn’t take away from the pure entertainment that the film delivers.  Rudolph’s film still feels like a rough early draft of sex, lies and videotape, and I mean that as high praise – which is what Choose Me deserves.

8. PLACES IN THE HEART

Perhaps best known as the film that brought us the “You really like me!” speech from Sally Field at the 1985 Oscars, Places in the Heart deserves to be remembered for more than just Field’s touching acceptance speech.  It’s a film that understand the racial inequities of 1930’s Texas and how women were suppressed to household duties.  It’s also a film with an enormous heart, thanks to Sally Field’s heartbreaking performance as a woman who survives financial ruin with the help of others who also were minimalized during the Great Depression era.  Places in the Heart isn’t a perfect film, but it’s ending reminds us that 1930s Texas, also was not a perfect world.

7. A SUNDAY IN THE COUNTRY

So few films celebrate family in such a simple, wonderful way as Bertrand Tavernier’s A Sunday in the Country.  The film tells the story of an elderly painter whose two adult children pay him a visit over the weekend.  His son is a regular visitor who brings his family and a sense of routine along with his visit.  Visits from his daughter are far less common, and she brings an energy and liveliness to the house that uplifts the entire household.  A Sunday in the Country is one of the quietest films of 1984, but it – like a visit from an energetic loved one – brings a joy along with it that is rarely seen in the theaters.

6. BROADWAY DANNY ROSE

Broadway Danny Rose is a film that celebrates the magic of storytelling by one of the best storytellers in cinematic history.  Woody Allen’s films through the 1970s and 80s were never bad, but Broadway Danny Rose stands out as one of his most underappreciated films.  It tells the story of a theatrical agent who gets mixed up with the mob while trying to sneak one of his client’s girlfriends to a show.  Although it doesn’t reach the majestic peaks of Manhattan, Danny Rose feels like it’s in the same wonderful universe. 

5. THE TERMINATOR

Although most would argue that Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, which arrived two years earlier, is the superior action film, The Terminator also deserves a spot alongside Die Hard on the 1980’s action film Mount Rushmore.  Wildly underappreciated at the time of its release, The Terminator made a star out of Arnold Schwarzenegger and gave us a good deal of quotable lines.  But more than that, The Terminator is an action movie for the ages, directed masterfully by James Cameron.  It’s a film that managed to intertwine the thrills of a Hitchcock film with the testosterone of Stallone’s Rambo movies.  Cameron, Schwarzenegger, and Linda Hamilton would return for an even better sequel seven years later, fulfilling the promise that he’d be back, but The Terminator certainly doesn’t deserve to be overlooked by the brilliance of its sequel, either.

4. ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA

No film in the history of cinema has demonstrated the importance of editing better than Sergio Leone’s nearly four-hour mobster drama.  After premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, produces cut the film down to a measly 139 minutes for its American release to accommodate the perception that audiences would not support a film of its length.  The result was tragic, as the edited version was hated by critics and unseen by audiences.  The original version, however, remains one of the great gangster films of all time – and one that really depicts the regret felt by the choices made years earlier.  Leone made a series of Once Upon a Time movies, and many of them didn’t impress me as much as they did other movie lovers.  Fortunately, that’s not the case with Once Upon a Time in America, which proves that a four hour movie can be well worth one’s time.

3. PARIS, TEXAS

Paris, France may be the most romantic place in the world, but Paris, Texas, at least in the eyes of Wim Wenders is a place of hurt and missed opportunity.  It’s the place where Travis Henderson purchased a small piece of land because of the stories his parents told of the place.  Now, many years later, Travis is found wandering the desert land of Texas, trying to forget the pain he caused to his wife and young son.  Wenders film starts out slow, but its final act is as moving as anything made in the 1980s not named E.T.  Nastassja Kinski, who plays Travis’s ex-wife, gives one of the finest performances ever to be completely overlooked by the film award circuit.  Fortunately, with time, her performance – and the film itself – has earned the recognition that is deserved.

2. AMADEUS

There is a scene in Amadeus where the powerful Emperor Joseph II lets out a single yawn during one of Mozart’s operas.  The play would only last nine days and the reason Mozart was given was that nobody could hold their attention for four hours.  Maybe not, but Milos Forman’s brilliant story of jealousy proves that an audience can remain engaged for at least 160 minutes, as long as the act is as engaging, funny, and heartbreaking as the 1984 Best Picture winner.  Powered by incredible dual performances from Tom Hulce – who plays Mozart – and F. Murray Abraham, who plays Antonio Saleri, a composer enraged by the brilliance and effortlessness of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  This is a biography of a brilliant man told by another, as it remains one of Forman’s greatest works.

1. THIS IS SPINAL TAP

At one point in Rob Reiner’s hilarious “rockumentary” This Is Spinal Tap, the band agrees that there’s an incredibly thin line between stupid and clever, a line that the movie itself always manages to balance perfectly.  The film, which was one of the first mockumentaries, tells the story of the loud but not-too-talented British rock band whose popularity has dwindled in recent years.  The documentary filmmaker, played by Reiner himself, follows the band on their final U.S. tour as they belt out hits like “Sex Farm” and “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight.”  In just 82 minutes, Spinal Tap provides more laugh than nearly any film in history, and for that it deserves a score that goes to 11.