This list can technically go forever. There are so many films that can be analyzed and reanalyzed. Mainstream films usually just please common film goers in just the right way. You then get academic dorks like me that read into things too deeply (or so we are told). Well, despite the fact that we can apply this to any film, I do firmly believe that there are at least a handful of works that may have even more than you would initially think.

Maybe these examples will be basic knowledge to you, the reader (especially if you particularly love these works), but I believe there is a lot to unpack with these well known works. Here are ten famous movies that more profound than you think.

Be careful of spoilers for each of these films.

1. Amadeus

Who doesn’t love this semi-biopic about Mozart? How can it be deeper than we initially thought? We have Antonio Salieri witling down his direct competition and trying to supersede him in the echelon of great composers.

This is a fictitious take on real events, but it works for a very special reason. This is obviously a statement on hierarchy within art. What may not leap off the screen too heavily, is the film’s depiction of cinema within the same confinements.

Director Miloš Forman was solid at connecting meta themes to his works (particularly the then-current thoughts on mental health being combatted in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest). With Amadeus, there is the dependency an artist has to achieve greatness once more. Cuckoo’s Nest catapulted many careers, including Forman’s.

The dark shadow of the studio system overbearing the artist can heavily be felt here. Mozart’s trials and tribulations directly relate to Forman’s (particularily the ending, where exhaustion from demands is the deal breaker here) There’s a reason why this nonfactual take on Mozart’s life was important to Forman. Maybe it was that.

2. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Of course something additional can be found in Steven Spielberg’s family sci-fi opus. There has to be something, because the legacy of this film can be felt many years later. There is an obvious family theme there, since Elliott’s family is struggling after his father left. E.T. comes into the picture, and everything changes.

One thing sticks out in particular. E.T. is able to link to Elliott telepathically; whatever E.T. can feel transfers directly to Elliott (and vice versa). When E.T. gets sick, Elliott gets sick along with him. A particularly striking moment is when both beings are on their respective death beds, and Elliott is using the rest of his energy to try and save his alien friend.

Considering the family dynamic, perhaps this is Elliott figuring out the devotion his mother delivers to him and his siblings, especially during this time of turmoil. A caring parent is willing to give away everything of their own so their children can survive. Maybe this is Elliott’s way of understanding, and a clever way for Spielberg to translate this sacrifice to viewers.

3. Fargo

This quirky film has won the hearts of millions of people (enough to become a major pop culture staple). It was obvious that this film was smart with the Coen Brothers’ ability to drill certain cat-and-mouse mechanics into your brain.

We love seeing Marge close in on a chess game that was previously twelve moves ahead. What we also have here, is a clashing of morals that might stem further than you first imagined. We get that Jerry is a liar, and Marge is hell bent on honesty.

The film is called Fargo, despite not really taking place there for much of the film’s duration. This is because the escape of one’s comfort zone is an important element, here. Marge travels to somewhere she is unfamiliar with. So does Jerry. Every major player here makes their way to a distant place (or extent of morality, or the lack thereof).

It’s no secret that Jerry is a car salesman, who flees the scene using that very vehicle. Calling Marge’s pregnancy a symbol (the carrier of hope) is a stretch, because that was a real life occurrence that was worked into the script, but everything else checks out. Fargo is all about borders being crossed, and barriers being broken.

4. A Fish Called Wanda

This hilarious romantic caper is iconic for its wit and absurdities. The title is a bit of a weird one at first glance: what does Ken’s aquarium have to do with the majority of the story (outside of the hysterical climax)? Well, much of the goofball moments directly relate to the characters.

When Otto gets squashed in literal feces, that’s a clear metaphor for his entire life having been based on nothing but crap (broken promises, lies, dirty work, selfishness). Otto eating up Ken’s fish collection also represents the one fish that got away (Wanda, obviously): a fixation on all of the wrong people, when the cleverest criminal did away with everyone else.

Ken accidentally murdering all of the dogs is also a clear sign of his unwillingness to continuously destroy true loyalty (and push the right people away). There is a lot of silliness here, but almost all of it is profound (it’s no surprise the film was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards).

5. Happy-Go-Lucky

What’s the point of seeing Poppy going about her day-to-day life (and her head-butting with the new driving instructor in her life)? With that in mind, why does it even work so well? The blatant components here are Poppy’s contrasting ways with Scott (fun and free, versus stern and stuck).

I do think there is something a little more at play here, though. Much of the film is about Poppy, but it’s also about Poppy’s response to what is going on around her. Her bike gets stolen, so she decides it’s about time she starts to drive. She parties, yet she is there for her elementary school students the next day.

As much as the film is about Poppy being given a tough time with Scott and his impatience, it is also about the ebbs and flows of life. When does one go with the flow, and when do you intervene? Poppy stepping in during a bullying scenario happening in her class is an example of this. How much does Scott allow, instead of trying to control every single situation? Is it worth it? It’s ironic that he is a driving instructor, because he is stuck in neutral with his own life.

When you first get into film, a big mistake people make is interpreting the influence a director has on a film’s visual aesthetics incorrectly. That’s the wonderful day that you learn what cinematography is. A director might have a vision, but the director of photography is the person to make this happen.

An auteur filmmaker gets misunderstood if the cinematographer is not included in this equation. However, for some filmmakers, these crew members are absolutely a part of the bigger picture. Many filmmakers work with the same directors of photography on a consistent basis, because they get the exact results they desire.

As a result, these directors’ films (or at least a considerable number of them) have a signature feel to them that you can recognize. We are recognizing these pairings today, with some of the strongest match ups cinema has ever seen. Here are ten of the greatest director-cinematographer relationships ever.

10. Rainer Werner Fassbinder & Michael Ballhaus

Michael Ballhaus has worked with many of the great directors (Scorsese, Coppola, Brooks), but his exemplary material with Rainer Werner Fassbinder is nearly incomparable. Ballhaus knew how to work with the grain of film so well; a great example is how the lighting in The Marriage of Maria Braun allows matrerials to either pop or get lost in a celluloid mist.

His finest work, in World on a Wire, is the perfect “pop” that Fassbinder’s fashionable-future needed; colours are just the right strength, and camera angles make you feel engulfed by it all. Seeing that Fassbinder loved to world-build (real or fictional) and make you feel you are a part of his fever dream, Ballhaus’s photography really does make all the difference. Everything looks so stylish, yet personable.

9. Bernardo Bertolucci & Vittorio Storaro

Vittorio Storaro is an expert at making scenes feel like a murky blend of colours, particularly browns, beiges and greys. In return, the majority of his shots feel like sepia-tinted daguerreotypes that are In motion. When he goes against his own formula, we get major splashes of colour (see Apocalypse Now for an example).

With his work in various Bernardo Bertolucci films, we get exactly what the filmmaker desires to showcase: political commentary (the grey area) and art house exhibitionism (colours). Seeing The Last Emperor’s exquisitely colourful imagery up against the candle-lit-yellow Last Tango in Paris and the frigidly-tinted 1900 gives us an idea of what Storaro brought to Bertolucci’s epics.

8. Yasujirō Ozu & Yūharu Atstuta

If you explore the importance of Japanese cinema, you cannot ignore the influence that the poetic works of Yasujirō Ozu has had in the grander landscape of filmmaking. His interior shots (ceiling and all) created an idiosyncratic perspective that was unmatched; you felt like you were looking-on inside of a house or complex.

Much of this is thanks to the cinematographer Yūharu Astuta, who was able to place everything (subject, foreground, background, structures) within a tiny frame. When Astuta wishes to prove other capabilities, we get the vast landscape shots that create the biggest senses of relief in Ozu films; we have freedom outside of these confined houses.

7. The Coen Brothers & Roger Deakins

Before Roger Deakins finally won an Academy Award for Bladerunner 2049, he was known for his many nominations; a vast majority of them were for work he did on the Coen Brothers films.

Deakins is a well-rounded cinematographer, because of his sneaky style. Not every scene has to leap off the screen particularly (but they do when Deakins want them to). However, they always do what each scene calls for. We need a simple shot of the inside of a bank. Done. We now need an overhead, frozen look at an empty parking lot to mimic Jerry Lundegaard’s shame. Easy.

Whether it’s a stunning silhouette shot, a superb use of a fire as backlighting, or just an interior made to look exactly as it should, Deakins makes it work every single time. He lets the Coen brothers’ quirkiness do the work when needed, and he will meet their artistic expertise right after. He usually becomes one of the first cinematographers budding cinephiles learn about not just because of who he works with, but because of his quality.

6. Terrence Malick & Emmanuel Lubezki

The most recent pairing here is one that could not be forgotten about. Many moviegoers that are only learning about Terrence Malick now are probably familiar with his films looking exactly the way that Emmanual Lubezki makes them. Malick always had artistically gorgeous films, but this new-wave of works, while defining, is only recent. Either way, we have been blessed with some of the most painstakingly beautiful films of this decade thanks to these two artists.

Lubezki’s use of natural light matches Malick’s quest to find purity. Malick’s glacial pacing is also well complimented by the definition of Lubezki’s shots, to the point that you may not mind each scene taking a while; you have so much to look at, anyways. The Tree of Life is easily one of the best-shot films of all time, and it’s all thanks to the seamless creativity these two have.

David Lynch is adored by millions because of his idiosyncratic style. One of the very few filmmakers to successfully merge the underground with the mainstream, Lynch has affected many crowds because of his ability to deliver something different to the masses.

It’s no secret that his films are strange. That’s what makes this list easy. However, picking only a handful of scenes for this list was downright difficult. So many of his films are unorthodox from start to finish; how can we only go with one example from each?

I am going to avoid strictly television shows (so no Twin Peaks or The Return here, but a certain film is more than applicable). I am going to avoid The Straight Story; I don’t have to find a weird moment in Lynch’s most normal film for the sake of it. I’m also going to avoid Dune (who needs to discuss Dune?).

The only other rule is that I am going to only pick one scene per film; otherwise Eraserhead, Inland Empire and Wild at Heart may take up the entire list. Having said all of that, I’m sure there are many moments that affect us all differently, so this can’t exactly be set in stone. Here are ten of the weirdest scenes in David Lynch films.

10. The Elephant Man: Joseph Marrick’s Dreams

Seeing as The Elephant Man is one of David Lynch’s most normal films (besides The Straight Story, of course), there aren’t too many scenes that can honestly perform well on a list like this. Of course, in Lynchian fashion, he starts the film off with one of John Merrick’s dreams; his mother being scared by an elephant (an urban legend that “explained” why Merrick was born the way he was, which is of course a load of nonsense).

With huge elephants super imposed, and a slow-motion take of his mother screaming into oblivion, we get a tiny snippet of what Lynch loves to do best: analyze our subconscious. For a relatively straight forward biopic (albeit a tremendous one), The Elephant Man starts off with an unnerving sight that will put the entire film’s melancholy into perspective.

9. The Grandmother: Planting on the Bed

You can basically claim this entire early Lynch short film is weird, but I tried to pick just one moment. Maybe the early scene where the grandson dumps a whole of dirt on his bed can be a good starting point. He plants a seed and begins to water the soil (it just looks so gross seeping into the sheets like that).

A bizarre plant grows and continues to for about five minutes of the film. This vegetation then proceeds to birth a human-like grandmother to interact with the boy, seeing as he feels no love at home. The Grandmother is a moving short film, but that does not mean it isn’t incredibly eerie. Even the sincere moment, where a grandmother comforts a grandchild, is spine tingling; perhaps to showcase the importance of how badly this kid needed affection.

8. Blue Velvet: Climax

Jeffrey returns to Dorothy Vallens’ apartment, only to find her husband, gagged to death. The “yellow man” is standing in a daze, with his brain exposed after he was attacked. Frank Booth returns, knowing Jeffrey is in the room somewhere. He shoots the television off, gives the yellow man a coup de grâce, and proceeds to look around for Jeffrey, with a cloth of blue velvet around his gun. He takes a few more breaths of his mysterious gas, and charges towards the closet.

Jeffrey blasts Frank in the head, and we see it in slow motion like a nightmare. In fact, the entire scene plays out like an awful dream. It is full of awful images, brooding tension, jarring noises, and Frank’s evil. There aren’t many climaxes that put you in such a place of dread like this one.

7. Wild At Heart: The Good Fairy

As insane as Wild at Heart is, it shouldn’t have been this easy to pick out a weird scene (especially when we have the infamous shotgun scene). At the end of the entire film, we believe we have made it through one of Lynch’s most extreme films. There’s action, gore, trauma and the electricity of good old America.

Then, Sailor lays down on the ground waiting to die, and he gets a vision. The good witch saunters down in a massive bubble, and pink strobes glow throughout the entire setting. Sailor gets up, and apologizes to the gang that just kicked his ass, as if nothing had happened (except for what he was able to see).

This is obviously a moral awakening, but damn is it ever weird. I get that this is Lynch’s take on Elvis films and The Wizard of Oz, but who in the hell expected to see Glinda here?

6. Mulholland Drive: Winkie’s Diner

Despite being Lynch’s magnum opus, not a whole lot in Mulholland Drive can be considered weird (not by his standards, anyways). The entire film is surreal, but most of it feels deeply rooted and at least answerable when you think about it. The most obvious place to go is to Winkie’s diner, placed conveniently on Sunset Boulevard (where, according to cinema’s greatest films, dreams go to die).

A nightmare is detailed in full by two characters you never really meet up with again (aside from the dreamer telling his tale). You get engulfed in the entire recollection. That’s when it happens: You’re asked to face it. We slowly walk out of the front door and towards the back area of Winkie’s.

That’s when one of cinema’s scariest moments happens, and the man described is there (and presumably has been the entire time). Not that things were certain at first, but the rest of Mulholland Drive is unsettling after this abrupt stunt takes place.

The Academy Awards are just around the corner, and past winners are being discussed in full. We all know Meryl Streep and Daniel Day-Lewis have three wins each, and Katherine Hepburn has them both beat with four.

However, wouldn’t it be more interesting to look at which people have won multiple Academy Awards? Let me rephrase that: wouldn’t it be fascinating to see who has won multiple Academy Awards in multiple categories?

Let’s keep this interesting, too. No best director/producer/writer combinations, and no acting/supporting acting wins. Let’s see who has won for dissimilar categories, and even the winners of two drastically different aspects of filmmaking. Here are ten people who have won Academy Awards in different categories.

10. Cecil Beaton (art direction/costume design)

Sir Cecil Beaton has so many talents: painting, photography, interior designer, costume designer. The guy is an all-around expert on visual aesthetics. Naturally, he has won two Academy Awards for costume design (for the two similar films Gigi and My Fair Lady); both works display his expertise with period piece extravagancy. However, My Fair Lady also boasts a second win for Beaton in the art direction category (now recognized as “best production design”), perhaps for the elaborate and colourful sets that turned the film into a cinematic Broadway spectacle.

Beaton only ranks so low, because these two categories are still somewhat similar (more so than the other combinations that are higher on the list), and he is not the only person to have pulled off two wins in these two specific categories (Roger K. Furse, Catherine Martin, and Marcel Vertès have won in these groups too), but Beaton’s work might be the best of the bunch.

9. George Clooney (supporting actor/producer)

Technically, the Cloonster has won Best Picture when the Ben Affleck-helmed political thriller Argo earned the top prize at the 2013 Academy Awards. This is only somewhat bizarre, because Clooney is more well known for his acting and directing work specifically. Helping his buddy out to make a picture helped him win an Academy Award finally! Well, his second one anyways.

A number of years earlier, Clooney won for his standout performance in the social miasma Syriana, where he was given the Best Supporting Actor award for his harrowing performance. It’s interesting that Clooney won Best Picture for a film he had little involvement in (outside of production), whereas he has worked his fingers to the bone on various other works to no avail.

8. Walter Murch (editing/sound)

For extreme cinephiles, Murch’s mention here should come as no surprise; the guy has been knighted one of the top figures in both editing and sound designing in film. He has worked with Francis Ford Coppola on a number of occasions (specifically on his classics like The Godfather I and II, and The Conversation); his first win was for Apocalypse Now for his sound design (and he was extensively involved in the reworking of the Redux version of the film).

His second win has nothing to do with Coppola, oddly enough. Murch won two Academy Awards in one year for –believe it or not – The English Patient, where he has set an unprecedented record for being the only person to win an Academy Award for both sound mixing and film editing (not even in the same year. Ever. No one has ever pulled this off, even since). You can argue that not many people know the mainstream cinematic language quite like Murch does.

7. Barbara Streisand (actress/original song)

Well, of course Barbara Streisand has two Academy Award wins that have to do with performing and music. It may seem obvious, because Streisand has a legacy to her name decades after she first started. Try to forget who she is for a second, and you might see how absurd these two wins might be. She didn’t win for performing an original song; otherwise, Jennifer Hudson, Julie Andrews and other singing actors might have multiple wins under their belts, too. No. Streisand flat out co-wrote, co-produced and composed “Evergreen” for her reincarnation of A Star is Born.

She also didn’t win Best Actress for this film either; she won for Funny Girl years earlier. With some perspective shed on these wins, it truly is fascinating, even when attributed to one of the biggest cinematic-musical performers of all time.

6. Edward Selzer (animated short/documentary short subject)

By the end of this list, the combination of animated and documentary shorts might be old hat. Right now, at spot six, it might still be intriguing. And it should be. Edward Selzer wasn’t just any random shmuck either; he ran Warner Bros. Cartoons for fourteen years. Naturally, he won four Academy Awards for his animated shorts (including the very first Academy Award win for a Warner Bros. cartoon for Tweetie Pie).

There’s also his fifth win for the documentary short subject film So Much For So Little (this won the same year as Selzer’s animated short For Scent-imental Reasons). Despite his initial public feuding with Friz Freleng, Selzer clearly had a vision for Warner Bros.’ animation department; he also did not want to be credited in these works, and wished for the directors of these shorts to win over him.

So many unnecessary remakes get made. Did we really need that action-oriented Ben-Hur that came out a few years ago? Absolutely not. We’ve had remakes and reboots from here to the moon, and the main objective here was to make money, and not enhance a story. Then, a glimmer of hope comes. A Star Is Born is a retelling of a story we’ve all heard before, but done differently and with enough current relevancy to make it count.

Before Bradley Cooper’s interpretation of an old classic, we brushed against a certain film called Dredd: a reinterpretation of the character, and a remake (of sorts) of the appalling film Judge Dredd. Dredd was actually okay. Don’t you see? This is a bad film that became better because of the right people being on board. Don’t get me wrong, many films are doomed before they even start.

However, there are some great ideas that are turned into mush because of who is in front, or behind, the camera. If we are remaking films, why don’t studios want to be a part of a success story where a terrible (or even simply mediocre) film gets turned into a work of wonder? Here are ten opportunities where that can happen, so take notes. Here are ten bad films that have the potential to be remade into good films.

1. Caligula

What went wrong here? Well, the three E’s: exploitation, excessiveness, and explicitness. Caligula aimed to be audacious with its non-simulated sex scenes, gratuitous amounts of sex (and orgies), and bloodbaths (sometimes literal). It goes on far too long, and has all of its interests in the stupidest of areas. If the right person came here and cleaned it up (but not to the point of unnecessary sterility), Caligula could turn into a rise-and-fall period piece tale.

Currently, Caligula stands as the poster child for how too much can be a terrible thing, but it could be turned into a meaningful epic. Of course, it would have to be remade for the right reasons (and not to continue its flaws into the 21st century).

2. Catwoman

Yes, that superhero film. Let’s be honest: what was wrong with Catwoman? Its editing is terrible. It tries too hard. It tries to be unique, but it comes off as gaudy. In all honesty, Catwoman had many great ideas but every single one of them was a terrible execution (in a literal sense, too, considering the film dies as a result).

Seeing that the film was trying to beat other superhero films to the punch with breaking some ground, it could totally be redone in a way that is both current and ambitious (as it tried to be). A fashion-based catwoman outfit? Sure, as long as it doesn’t look hideous. You want different action scenes? Go ahead, if they aren’t making us want to puke. You want one liners? Make ones that land. There’s a good film in there somewhere, but it sure as hell isn’t the one we got.

3. The Conqueror

The major problems with The Conqueror are completely avoidable, let’s be honest. To make a Genghis Kahn period piece film in 2019, we might have to make some precautions. First off, let’s not cast a totally inappropriate dude as the Mongol emperor (let alone someone as wrong as John Wayne).

Secondly, let’s make the film not drag harder than a broken tailpipe scratching on the ground, and you might be good to go. We have many more than capable performers that can take part in this film, plus the story can be reworked to actually be interesting. That’s all. The Conqueror might not be the most unique idea, but it’s totally redeemable (in comparison to what it once was, anyways).

4. The Death and Life of John F. Donovan

This one hurts, because Xavier Dolan’s concept is brilliant. The Death and Life of John F. Donovan settles for melodrama way too much, to the point of dizziness from too many eyerolls. A young child discovering his queerness finds a correspondence with his all-time favourite actor, who also has to hide his sexuality during a less-tolerable mid 2000’s. This is a great premise.

Where the film fails, is through all of its on-the-nose song choices, needless pessimism (it works in Mommy, but not here), pornographic dialogue, and lack of cohesiveness. Even if Dolan himself wanted to rework this film (although, that was why it became so stale in the first place to be honest), this is completely salvageable.

5. Glen or Glenda

We all know Ed Wood is the king of awful films. Plan 9 From Outer Space is completely untouchable, so let’s not even attempt to fix that one. Glen or Glenda, however, is actually very ahead of its time. It touches upon sexuality in a way that no one was even going anywhere near back then.

A major flaw the film has is its weird cut-aways, but abstract cross cutting is more than praised nowadays. Wood had a desire, but he didn’t have the knack or the means. If someone was able to do some work (okay, a lot of work) here, we could have an arthouse, experimental take on a voice that no one was listening to, whether it was that of a poor filmmaker with aspirations, or a queer citizen during a time of intolerance.

Who loves feeling sick to their stomach? Well, sadly we all tend to voluntarily aim to experience nausea on an often enough basis. We go on roller coasters. We watch intense sporting events that go down to the wire. We read a scary book. Then, there is cinema, where we actively enjoy watching films that turn our stomachs and create goosebumps.

Well, if anticipation and heart racing sequences are your thing, then you must like films that are entirely full of them. You are? Good. There are some films that are hell bent on making you feel your blood boil. These ten films use anxiety for a variety of different reasons. Whatever they utilize our sanity for, they are still ten master works that play you like a fiddle. Here are ten of the most nerve-racking movies ever.

10. Whiplash

The film plays like a jazz snare, as it is chaotic yet controlled. Possibly the best film Damien Chazelle has made thus far, Whiplash is a test of patience and resilience from the very first scene. Being a struggling musician is hard enough. To go to school to study it is another beast entirely, especially because you have to compete to stay in the most elite class.

Leading that class is a hot tempered instructor that will demoralize you as much as possible just to make you a better musician. That isn’t a likely tradeoff for many people, but for these students, music is all they want. They accept their fates, and we fear what each subsequent lesson is going to be like for them.

9. The Hurt Locker

When the trailer for this Best Picture winning film first dropped, it looked like the entire story was given away. Great. A bomb technician pulls up ten bombs at once. We now know how it ends. Not so fast. When you finally watch Kathryn Bigelow’s opus, you see this moment happen around twenty minutes or so in. It only gets more intense. With each main event, we get closer to the last day of the rotation.

On that note, we also see lives being risked each time. When lives do start being claimed, you truly won’t know what will happen from there on. Each new assignment is a guessing game, and a test of patience. The Hurt Locker never fails to make you anxious, even if you know what will happen.

8. The Silence of the Lambs

As you are witnessing Clarice Starling take on her first major case as a rookie, you cannot guess how the mission will commence. She has to work through infamous serial killer (and cannibal) Hannibal, who loves to toy with his victims. The fact that she gets hit on by some superiors does not help either; how seriously is she being taken? By the nightmarish climax, we learn what hell on earth truly looks.

There is a reason why Jonathan Demme’s thriller The Silence of the Lambs continues to resonate as one of the most intense films to date. It’s because it knows how to play you, like Hannibal knows how to screw with his visitors.

7. The Night of the Hunter

Charles Laughton’s lone masterpiece truly was ahead of its time. Its unorthodoxy has turned into the kind of tension we expect from thrillers nowadays. The truth is, it is still hard to match The Night of the Hunter. Its use of focal points, shadows, and disturbing content (for its time, anyways) renders the film a key example of how an audience can be played.

A serial killer vanishes in the night like an apparition. Shadows creep along the walls like a German expressionist film. The sounds of the world surrounding these vulnerable kids only enhances their freight (rather than masks it). This film is just creepy from start to finish.

6. Requiem for a Dream

Darren Aronofsky sure has questionably better films, even ones that also dabble in shaking you to your core. However, it is hard to deny Requiem for a Dream when it comes to how sick it can truly make you. Even if you are not a fan of the film, examine the final act of the film. If you insist you weren’t at least partially set on edge, you might be lying. To see addicts lose everything they have is saddening.

When dealers experience their comeuppance, it can still be heavy to witness. When an elderly mother trying to lose weight succumbs to the depths of mental hell because of her unknown addiction, that’s when it truly gets depressing. Once all of the mains begin their personal downward spirals, you only patiently wait to hope it ends well. It doesn’t, for anyone.

We live in the age of “that shot”. Photojournalism can be made or broken by a key image that acts as the face of an article or portfolio. Social media is commanded by a specific take out of the hundreds we shot (it’s the single image that can make it to the end of our shoot, and go all the way online). Photography is nothing new, of course, and no amount of filters and devices can change its history.

The concept of the moving image (yes, movies) is a bit newer, but we’re still looking at more than one hundred years’ worth of innovation and magic. I think we all forget that we are actually witnessing countless photographs being slammed together to create the illusion of motion; I’m not insisting that we aren’t aware of frames, but we always get lost in films and are not conscious of every single one of these frames all the time.

Today, we’re going to revisit cinema as the living photograph medium that it once started out as. We’ve tackled the films with the best cinematography and strongest lighting on here before. We’re going one step further to look specifically at the films that contain the best lit scenes of all time. These are the definitive moments of these already impressively lit works.

These are the scenes that pushed the envelope enough to stick in your mind for eons. These moments either let the light soak in your soul, or the shadows drown you in misery. Here are the ten best lit scenes of all time (in chronological order).

As usual, keep in mind that all of these scenes will contain spoilers.

10. Nosferatu – Coming up the Stairs (1922)

German expressionism was a major movement when it came to the integrity that lighting could bring. Sets were no longer lit just to get the focal points in proper view: they were turned into symbolic statements. It’s debatable which movement or filmmaker started this particular use for lighting, but the German expressionist movement was a collection of works that embraced this notion to the point of changing the game.

In F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, the moment where Count Orlok ascends a staircase to claim his next victim. Orlok’s shadow is all that we see of him in this particular sequence, and it makes his attack all the more terrifying. His hands elongate when he reaches for doorknobs (or his prey). The dark bedroom allows his claw to come from literally the shadows in the final moments. This truly is the foundation of our nightmares.

9. Woman in the Dunes – The First Night (1964)

Niki has agreed to help an unnamed woman for one night before he leaves to go back home; he is currently staying over because he missed the last bus of the day. Maybe the use of darkness by cinematographer Hiroshi Segawa was meant to illicit deep premonitions of the manipulations Niki was going to experience (and discover he was entwined within).

Perhaps this was meant to be a more literal take; after all, both of these characters are deep within the earth, where light doesn’t creep in. All they have is a gaslight to show that they even exist in this sandy purgatory. It renders an introductory scene to the chemistry these two characters display all the more artistic. The real magic begins when the woman begins her nightly work of shoveling sand, which dissolves into Niko’s dream sequence. This lack of a connection to the world above is rendering us delirious!

8. Citizen Kane – Projector Room (1941)

One of my all-time favourite cinematic experiences was during my first watch of Citizen Kane as a young, naïve undergraduate film student. I wasn’t as familiar with older classics as I should have been. The newsreel moment in Citizen Kane, to me, was what the rest of the film was going to be like. Little did I know how pivotal that dynamic shift coming up was going to be.

As soon as the projection is done, we are catapulted into a darkly lit room, where Gregg Toland’s masterful lighting work has remained in my very core to this day. Rays seep in like heavenly beams. Every subject is a silhouette, like an anonymous populace wondering about the whole story of Charles Foster Kane. A blank screen emphasizes the dark shadows. It was the perfect introduction to a film that meant to break many rules; the rug was pulled from under us successfully.

7. The Night of the Hunter – Porch (1955)

Reverend Powell is one of the more disturbing villains in cinematic history, and that’s partially thanks to the mystique that Stanley Cortez pulled off with his insane cinematography. Rachel sits on her porch with a shotgun, waiting to strike at any second. In some shots, her silhouette (with just enough of a backlighting to make her still visible) is plastered on top of an obsidian view, with Powell creeping in from the depths of hell.

A candle is brought in, illuminating the scene; Powell vanishes like a ghost in the night. The flame is blown out, and all goes back to an unholy darkness. The sequence is woven together with additionally spectacular shots: an attic shot that looks like it came from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, shots of the house that exploit the vulnerability of its inhabitants, and close ups of an owl stalking its rabbit prey. The Night of the Hunter is so damn sinister.

6. Apocalypse Now – Finding the Colonel (1979)

The influential lighting in Apocalypse Now was actually meant to be a work-around decision to block out as much of Marlon Brando as possible. Brando was meant to lose weight to play Colonel Kurtz; in typical Brando fashion, he refused. Francis Ford Coppola and Vittorio Storaro worked with what they had, and accidentally made the most dismal non-documentary film about the Vietnam War in existence.

The initial union between Kurtz and Willard is exceptionally noteworthy, as the darkness now proves that Willard’s mission was not over: he has actually wound up in hell. When Kurtz recites his off-kilter monologues, we are experiencing a peak level of delirium. Seeing this moment so far into a lengthy film (no matter which version you watch) only informs us that we are nowhere near a civil conclusion; after everything we’ve already scene, it is actually nauseating to think about. All of this comes from the lighting found in this late-introductory scene. It might be one of the most successful plan-b moves in film.

Look, every single film ever created takes some sort of imagination to make. Even the worst flicks out there had some sort of creativity (maybe the tiniest amount, but it’s there). Otherwise, these projects would have never amounted to anything more than a simply blank brainstorming scrap piece of paper.

Let’s also face the fact that it is impossible to track down every imaginative film down to just ten slots, since there are many works that mystify and astound us from a whole variety of ages. Remember The Neverending Story? Labyrinth? The Princess Bride? Those were huge adventures for many of us as children. The generation afterwards grew up with Harry Potter, and the generation after that, perhaps, a whole brevy of Pixar works. These are just the movies we identify with when it comes to our magical childhoods.

What about all of the brain bending satires, or the vastly philosophical works we discovered as adults? What about the fantasies for mature audiences? Creative horror films? I tried to pick some various examples, because I think a list of ten is impossible to make definitive. Anyways, here are ten great films with a wild imagination.

1. A Trip to the Moon

Georges Méliès was a magician before he was a filmmaker (mostly because cinema was an extremely new medium by the time he actually dabbled in the artform). He became one of the biggest inspirations for directing, because he tried to use his knowledge as an illusionist to make cinema a work of visual trickery instead of just a story telling medium. He didn’t stray away from an imaginative narrative, though.

One of his key examples (mainly because the majority of his works are considered lost now) is the ever-famous A Trip to the Moon. A rocket gets blasted into the moon (no, seriously, into the eye of the moon, actually), and the astronauts (a series of club members driven by science and philosophy) come across the vicious citizens of the moon (Selenites). Cross-cuts and trap doors make beings disappear into thin air (or teleport).

This short has been spoofed, parodied, referenced, and championed countless times since, mostly because of its influence. It remains a certain work of wonder (and a fantastical time capsule) of its era.

2. Metropolis

Another film from the silent era that has had its stamp on cinematic history; we may experience the impact of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis more often nowadays. I’d argue that every single science fiction film after 1927 has had some sort of inspiration from this expressionist masterpiece.

The looming towers, the hell-like lower class, the futuristic combinations of nature and technology in the gardens of the upper class, the androids, the commentary on society, all of it has been reflected upon in science fiction works since.

Science Fiction became a means of commenting on how we acted as people now being projected in either the future, or in a different reality (when it comes to cinema, anyways). The greatest science fiction film is hard to peg down, but it is an absolute sin if Metropolis isn’t in that conversation; it essentially birthed all of the ideas for the genre in cinema.

3. Donkey Skin

This underrated work by Jacques Demy is an adaptation of a centuries old fairytale by Charles Perrault involves similar themes to a much more well-known story: Beauty and The Beast. However, the “ugliness” is self-imposed by a princess to get out of an arranged marriage with her own king father after his wife has passed away. The princess wears the titular donkey skin to vanish, and finds a new life within a different class and through different means.

Donkey Skin feels like a series of various external mediums turning cinematic. It is a living battledore book fixed on properly-fixed images. It is a living stage play, full of costumes that seem like props to us, but are immersive within their universe. It is a breathing sonnet that works in musical form and thrives off of every beat and lyric. It simply is magical.

4. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

This film gets featured a lot, but it picks apart the very basis of what a film can be (naturally this makes it a prime contender for many cinematic lists). In any case, if we’re discussing imaginative films, we cannot dismiss the entire filmography of Luis Buñuel.

In The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, we witness the upper class try to have dinner again and again. Each and every subsequent effort gets more and more ridiculous. We start off with a misunderstood schedule. We follow that up with the gang accidentally appearing on a stage in front of a crowd, a ghost tale, sexual excursions, and even a mass murder.

At one point, we start “waking up” and finding ourselves in the minds of these dinner patrons (enough levels of the subconscious to make Christopher Nolan question where we are). This film is purgatory for the elite, and it’s a playground for the rest of us.

5. Brazil

Where do we even begin with the all-time greatest reinterpretation of George Orwell’s 1984? I’m still not convinced that a vast majority of this piece wasn’t within the mind of Sam Lowry, and luckily the ending (the true ending, not the “Love Conquers All” bastardization of the film) is open enough to allow us to question how much of the film’s narrative was reliable. Of course, his dreams/nightmares are of his own imagination, but we can even question if particular people even exist.

That’s the amazing thing when it comes to Terry Gilliam’s opus: we truly are within the mind of someone that has gone mad in a dystopia. Even the “real” aspects are all hellish to endure (if you want to go the extra mile and assume that literally all of the film is through Lowry’s eyes, I wouldn’t blame you).

Whether you love the film or not, I think every cinephiles owes this film a watch, because you will notice that there is a time before you’ve seen Brazil, and a time after; it is quite significant on what you approach to watch after.

We know there are a few works that are taking the cake for “film of the year”. The Favourite is a late-year surprise to the mainstream, but an expected work of brilliance to the art house crowd. A Star is Born is a surprisingly strong third remake (let me reemphasize that that’s the fourth time the same film has been made). Green Book has won most casual movie goers over whilst polarizing critics. Roma, on the other hand, has been a near-unanimous pick by critics whilst maybe confusing regular popcorn flick buffs.

Perhaps the most unanimously decided-upon film of 2018 is a humble little work by Spike Lee (in what has luckily been a return to form). BlacKkKlansman is definitely an accessible film, but that doesn’t prevent it from being a remarkable work.

While journalists and crowds may be seeing different things this year (look at the huge divides between Widows, Venom, Bohemian Rhapsody, Hereditary and many others), one of the more agreed-upon works is BlacKkKlansman. Here are eight reasons why BlacKkKlansman is definitely the best mainstream work of the year (so, excluding art house, experimental, or indie works).

Keep in mind, there are definitely spoilers up ahead.

1. Its daring opening compares cinema past to present

Gone With the Wind is one of the most acclaimed works of all time. As vocal as Spike Lee is with politics, he is one of the biggest fans of the cinematic medium. Planting an iconic shot at the start of BlacKkKlansman is both a tribute to a beloved film (from a cinephile) and a viciously strong statement (from a person of colour in the United States).

In this shot (before we even get a split second of anything from the actual BlacKkKlansman film), we see Scarlett O’Hara helping wounded soldiers and corpses as the result of the Civil War. It’s a stunning shot that glides along (via crane) and eventually soars outwards to expose a flying confederate flag. What was once intended to be a glorious shot is now much more problematic in 2018.

If we actually watched Gone With the Wind in 2018, we would be able to discern that this was a work made in a different time. To see this image preface a film about ongoing racism is food for thought; we have come so very far (enough that this flag affects us differently now), but still have very far to go (this flag has experienced a rebirth in history).

All of this is followed by an Alec Baldwin cameo (let’s not forget his many stints playing Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live: some obvious casting, seeing how this film ends), as he fumbles his way to find the right words of hatred to spew and toxify the United States some more.

With a projector casting images on his face, Lee’s obviously letting us know that cinema has the power to inform. Of course, Spike Lee has never been soft spoken, but this opening is already some of his strongest uses of images and words we’ve possibly ever seen by him.

2. Its bold closure doesn’t hold back on the films message

If you thought it opened in a bold way, you had no idea what was heading your way. After cutting to the near-present (the infamous Unite The Right march in 2017), the many obvious tropes Lee tossed at us during the film (the idea that racism can thrive forever on tainted hearts and brainwashed minds) come full circle once witnessing the many things found in this documented footage.

First off, David Duke (the former grand dragon of the Klu Klux Klan, obviously) is heard continuing his desire for America to return to its roots (after seeing the film, this statement is extremely sour to witness by the real figure). Of course there is the vehicular carnage that left many injured and took the life of Heather Heyer.

Finally, Lee takes to the podium to display his hatred of Donald Trump (as if his many references to his presidency in the film weren’t apparent enough), by referencing his controversial comments that equated the Alt Right to the Left Wing. Regardless of what your politics are, you’re not going to find many mainstream, non-documentary based films that are this daring with its connection to real life.

3. The three leads are spectacular

A stern film is nothing without some solid acting to lead the way. John David Washington is obviously his father’s son (Denzel Washington), and is a master at balancing a range of emotions. As Ron Stallworth, Washington is initially naïve but confident. He slowly becomes enlightened, and his enthusiasm turns into courage. He has a good laugh, but can lunge with intensity on a whim.

As a fellow detective named Flip Zimmerman, Adam Driver is a stoic man that flinches very little (yet just enough to show a vulnerability to us, but not to the people on screen). There is a huge amount of dramatic irony that Driver can bring to a performance, which is so difficult to execute. We are fully aware of Zimmerman’s intentions, and Driver never has to fully wink at us to remind us. Yet, we believe that he can convince the majority of his peers that he is a racist, homophobic bigot solely through his work and not the reaction of the klan members.

Finally, Laura Harrier has reached a new tier of acting with her take on the president of the black student union (Patrice). Patrice is driven by a cause, but not blinded by hatred. She is very set in her ways, but is willing to listen (and not necessarily agree) either way. With these three leads, the complexities that such a political film can harness come to full fruition.

4. The score cleverly blends 70s sounds with modern day film compositions

Of course, there are the additions of popular songs from the time (including Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s Lucky Man, Ball of Confusion by The Temptations, and more). There’s also an exclusive cut by the late Prince titled “Mary Don’t You Weep” featured during the ending credits. However, it is the clever score by Terence Blanchard that merges the twanging guitars and pulsating beats of a ‘70s action film with the purely orchestral sounds of a regular film score.

Much of BlacKkKlansman is driven by being an elevated, modern day take on a Blaxploitation work of yesteryear, and the soundtrack is certainly no different. The work is reminiscent of what Quincy Jones brought to In the Heat of the Night: familiar and an homage, but a reinvention and fresh. You can’t tell me that guitar line wasn’t stuck in your head for days after watching this film.

Versatility should be within an actor’s repertoire. Of course, some performers specialize in a select group of roles they take on, not even because they have been type casted. Nonetheless, being able to take on many different forms means you can reach wider audiences, rather than cater to your specific fan bases. You might know x performer from this one film where they were a big meanie, but you’re astonished to find this same person being the savior of the day in another release.

Yes, today we’re looking at the performers that can be both the goodie and the baddie. In this list, the idea of a “hero” will range from the typical character that swoops on, or is at least the protagonist in the story that clearly resembles the voice of reason or the ray of light.

The concept of a villain can be the blatant obstacle within the film, or the textured character that may wish to do good but comes out bad in the end. I’m also trying to avoid actors that have dabbled in one or two roles on either side (Henry Fonda being a bad guy once in Once Upon a Time in the West, or Leonardo DiCaprio being considerably bad in The Wolf of Wall Street and monstrous in Django Unchained).

I will, however, include roles that walk the fine line between “good” and “bad”, because it only showcases these performers abilities even more. Here are ten actors that can play heroes and villains very well.

For some of these performers, television roles will also be considered.

1. Bryan Cranston

Walter White. That’s all that even needs to be said. We have a struggling family man that falls from grace while he rises in power and means. It’s one of the great cases of character development in the 21st century. How could the goofy dad Hal from Malcolm in the Middle become so damn frightening?

Even before we knew him as the antihero Walter, he even showed signs of evil as the powerful, unaccommodating businessman in Little Miss Sunshine, of whom could have helped Richard Hoover out but shoved him away instead (of course, Richard was one to overstep his boundaries, but Stan could have been a bit more understanding).

Even as Chief in Isle of Dogs, we’re greeted by an authoritative canine hell bent by vengeance, only to see that some nurturing could bring life back into his heart. Cranston knows how to be a stern leader, which can translate into the shout of hate or the boast of perseverance. Either way, Cranston commands each and every scene, no matter which side he is playing for.

2. Cate Blanchett

Most of us might be more familiar with Cate Blanchett as a hero, or even a sign of hope. For crying out loud, Galadriel is the voice that puts the entire The Lord of the Rings series into perspective. She also is the major reason why most of the main characters are able to get back onto their own two feet. She also loves to hop between good-and-bad in her many super complex roles.

Blue Jasmine means to do well, but she is so driven by luxury, she cannot help but be shallow. Carol is having conflictions in her personal life, but she leads Therese on heavily. Blanchett is deceptively great at being villainous, though. Her role as a teacher in Notes on a Scandal can mostly be described as “predatory”.

You also have her roles in Hannah and Thor: Ragnarok, where she reigns supreme as the final say. Blanchett knows how to dictate every scenario she is in, and perhaps her ability to shift into any role proves that she can control every film. No wonder why she was perfect as Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator, as well as being the anchor points for all of these works, whether she means to do good or bad.

3. Charlize Theron

Right off the bat, we can look at two of Charlize Theron’s best roles and see drastically different intentions in both. As Aileen Wuornos in Monster, Theron’s performance shows an intention to make everything right in a troubling scenario through disastrous and monstrous means. As Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road, she is a radical that will stop at nothing to bring freedom to the slaves of her world.

Some of her heroes are more blatant, including the abused Josey in North Country that fights for the right for women to be treated properly within their workplaces. There are also her kickass roles in Aeon Flux and Atomic Blonde, which had people vying for her to be the first female Bond.

She has also played more obvious villains: do I need to go past mentioning Snow White’s evil stepmother in the Huntsman films? I do? Well, there’s always Cipher in The Fate of the Furious. I think the pattern here is that Theron is comfortable playing specific archetypal characters in mainstream works, and more than happy to play nuanced roles whenever she feels like it. Either way, every scene is hers.

4. Glenn Close

Glenn Close has to be one of the finest actors to not have an Academy Award (that might change with this year’s The Wife, but we still have to see). Otherwise, where do you even start with her? Perhaps with the first role I ever saw of hers. I was a child when I knew her as Cruella De Vil in the live action 101 Dalmations films; little did I know that she would be much more terrifying as Alex Forrest in a tame, safe film you might know called Fatal Attraction.

Jokes aside, Close can be frightening whenever she wishes; watch the show Damages and tell me the entire series is not hers. Close can also be heartwarming when needed. Don’t believe me? Allow her titular role as Albert Nobbs to win you (and a subpar film).

You also have her recently acclaimed work in The Wife that features an impressionable take on not knowing if our current state of life is as it should be. These last two examples prove that Close knows how to connect to the inner cores of what makes us human, whereas her evil roles are untouchable. That might be the key; Close’s heroes are one of us, and her villains are from another realm.

5. Michael Keaton

Batman is a hero. We all know this. Luckily, Michael Keaton has recently been freed from being “that dude that was Batman”, even though he did many other noteworthy roles that should at least be taken into consideration. Of course, there’s Beetlejuice, but he also left an impression on us after films like Night Shift, Jackie Brown, and more. We were so used to seeing Keaton being in comedies, maybe that’s why his superhero turn was so notable.

Now, in a world post Birdman (where Keaton’s character is a hero in his eyes but perhaps a villain in the eyes of his family), we’re used to seeing a lot more out of Keaton, and it’s glorious. He also plays a multilayered hero in Spotlight, as he is conflicted between trying to do the right thing, and trying to not put the titular paper’s legacy on the line.

As McDonalds legend Ray Kroc, we see a much darker turn in The Founder, where we all root for him until greed has taken over his moral compass. He returned to comic book films, this time as the villainous Vulture in Spiderman: Homecoming. Keaton was previously very one-or-the-other, but this new career path of his is excitingly varied, and I cannot wait to see which many directions he goes.