Top Ten Films

1945 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerA Tree Grows in BrooklynEncouraged by her idealistic if luckless father, a bright and imaginative young woman comes of age in a Brooklyn tenement during the early 1900s.AmazonStory of G.I. JoeDuring WW2, Pulitzer prize winner and war correspondent Ernie Pyle joins the army and writes articles about his comrades in his daily columns.AmazonThe ClockIn 1945, during a 48-hour leave, a soldier accidentally meets a girl at Pennsylvania Station and spends his leave with her, eventually falling in love with the lovely New Yorker.AmazonThe Fighting LadyThe film follows the WWII exploits of the Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-10) (unidentified in the film), in its first major operations following its commissioning in 1943. ...AmazonTh...

1946 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerA Walk in the SunDuring WWII, a platoon of American soldiers trudge through the Italian countryside in search of a bridge they have been ordered to blow up, encountering danger and destruction along the way.AmazonAnna and the King of SiamIn 1862, a young Englishwoman becomes royal tutor in Siam and befriends the King.AmazonBrief EncounterMeeting a stranger in a railway station, a woman is tempted to cheat on her husband.AmazonHenry VIn the midst of the Hundred Years' War, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France in 1415.AmazonIt Happened at the InnIn a french lost village an old woman is killed and her savings stolen. Several members of her family, all called:"Goupi-...", are suspected.AmazonMy Darling Clementin...

1947 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerBoomerang!The true story of a prosecutor's fight to prove the innocence of a man accused of a notorious murder.AmazonCrossfireA man is murdered, apparently by one of a group of demobilized soldiers he met in a bar. But which one? And why?AmazonGentleman's AgreementA reporter pretends to be Jewish in order to cover a story on anti-Semitism, and personally discovers the true depths of bigotry and hatred.AmazonGreat ExpectationsA humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor.AmazonIt's a Wonderful LifeAn angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.AmazonMonsieur VerdouxA suave but cynical man supports his famil...

1948 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerDay of WrathThe young wife of an aging priest falls in love with his son amidst the horror of a merciless witch hunt in 17th century Denmark.AmazonHamletPrince Hamlet struggles over whether or not he should kill his uncle, whom he suspects has murdered his father, the former King.AmazonJoan of ArcThe abbreviated life of the 15th Century French heroine.AmazonJohnny BelindaIn post-war Cape Breton, a doctor's efforts to tutor a deaf/mute woman are undermined when she is raped, and the resulting pregnancy causes scandal to swirl.AmazonLouisiana StoryThe idyllic life of a young Cajun boy and his pet raccoon is disrupted when the tranquility of the bayou is broken by an oil well drilling near his home.AmazonPaisanThe language barrier has tragic...

1949 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerA Letter to Three WivesA letter is addressed to three wives from their "best friend" Addie Ross, announcing that she is running away with one of their husbands...but she does not say which one.AmazonBicycle ThievesIn post-war Italy, a working-class man's bicycle is stolen. He and his son set out to find it.AmazonDevil in the FleshDuring World War I, the star-crossed affair of an underage French student with a woman engaged to a soldier.AmazonGermany Year ZeroA young German boy faces the problems of the tough life in the immediate post WWII Berlin.AmazonHome of the BraveDuring WW2, a reconnaissance platoon is sent to map out a Japanese-held island but racial tensions arise between the white soldiers and the only black member of the group.A...

2008 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerBurn After ReadingA disk containing mysterious information from a CIA agent ends up in the hands of two unscrupulous and daft gym employees who attempt to sell it.AmazonChangelingGrief-stricken mother Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) takes on the L.A.P.D. to her own detriment when it tries to pass off an obvious impostor as her missing child.AmazonDefianceJewish brothers in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe escape into the Belarussian forests, where they join Russian resistance fighters, and endeavor to build a village, in order to protect themselves and about one thousand Jewish non-combatants.AmazonFrost/NixonA dramatic retelling of the post-Watergate television interviews between British talk-show host David Frost and former president Ric...

1997 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerAs Good as It GetsA single mother and waitress, a misanthropic author, and a gay artist form an unlikely friendship after the artist is assaulted in a robbery.AmazonBoogie NightsThe story of a young man's adventures in the California pornography industry of the late 1970s and early 1980s.AmazonGood Will HuntingWill Hunting, a janitor at M.I.T., has a gift for mathematics, but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life.AmazonJackie BrownA middle-aged woman finds herself in the middle of a huge conflict that will either make her a profit or cost her life.AmazonL.A. ConfidentialAs corruption grows in 1950s Los Angeles, three policemen -- one strait-laced, one brutal, and one sleazy -- investigate a series of murders with th...

1998 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerA Simple PlanWhen three blue collar acquaintances come across millions of dollars in lost cash they make a plan to keep their find from the authorities but find complications and mistrust weaving its way into their plan.AmazonDancing at LughnasaFive unmarried sisters make the most of their simple existence in rural Ireland in the 1930s.AmazonElizabethThe early years of the reign of Elizabeth I of England and her difficult task of learning what is necessary to be a monarch.AmazonGods and MonstersThe last days of Frankenstein (1931) Director James Whale are explored.AmazonHappinessThe lives of several individuals intertwine as they go about their lives in their own unique ways, engaging in acts society as a whole might find disturbing in a ...

1999 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerAmerican BeautyA sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's best friend.AmazonBeing John MalkovichA puppeteer discovers a portal that leads literally into the head of movie star John Malkovich.AmazonBoys Don't CryA young man named Brandon Teena navigates love, life, and being transgender in rural Nebraska.AmazonCradle Will RockA true story of politics and art in the 1930s U.S., focusing on a leftist musical drama and attempts to stop its production.AmazonMagnoliaAn epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness, and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.AmazonThe InsiderA research chemist comes under personal and professional attack when he decides to appear ...

2000 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerBefore Night FallsThe life of Cuban poet and novelist, Reinaldo Arenas.AmazonBilly ElliotA talented young boy becomes torn between his unexpected love of dance and the disintegration of his family.AmazonCroupierAn aspiring writer is hired as a croupier at a casino, where he realizes that his life as a croupier would make a great novel.AmazonDancer in the DarkAn east European girl goes to America with her young son, expecting it to be like a Hollywood film.AmazonGladiatorA former Roman General sets out to exact vengeance against the corrupt emperor who murdered his family and sent him into slavery.AmazonQuillsIn a Napoleonic era insane asylum, an inmate, the irrepressible Marquis De Sade, fights a battle of wills against a tyrannically pru...