Runners up (cont'd):
23. La La Land (2016)
93 Points |7 Votes | Highest Ranking: 2 (1 Time)
Directed by Damien Chazelle | Starring Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling
A jazz pianist falls for an aspiring actress in Los Angeles.
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“La La Land” isn’t a masterpiece (and on some level it wants to be). Yet it’s an elating ramble of a movie, ardent and full of feeling, passionate but also exquisitely controlled. It winds up swimming in melancholy, yet its most convincing pleasures are the moments when it lifts the audience into a state of old-movie exaltation, leading us to think, “What a glorious feeling. I’m happy again.” - Owen Gleiberman
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22. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
95 Points |13 Votes | Highest Ranking: 5 (1 Time)
Directed by Henry Selick | Starring Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara
Jack Skellington, king of Halloween Town, discovers Christmas Town, but his attempts to bring Christmas to his home cause confusion.
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"We're a long way from traditional Disney fare. Nightmare celebrates the joy of a good scare; it also deals with the repercussions of being misunderstood. There's not a trace of podlike conformity in Burton's vision, Elfman's score or Caroline Thompson's script. And director Henry Selick (he did the ingenious MTV logo animation) performs miracles in stop-motion; Nightmare took nearly three years to complete (over 100 crew members averaged only 60 seconds of film per week). The result has the earmarks of an enduring classic. Of all the new Halloween films, only this one has the power to truly haunt our dreams." - Peter Travers
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21. Dancer in the Dark (2000)
96 Points | 7 Votes | Highest Ranking: 2 (2 Times)
Directed by Lars von Trier | Starring Bjork, Catherine Denueve, Peter Stormare, David Morse
An east European girl goes to America with her young son, expecting it to be like a Hollywood film.
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""Dancer in the Dark" is a brave throwback to the fundamentals of the cinema--to heroines and villains, noble sacrifices and dastardly betrayals. The relatively crude visual look underlines the movie's abandonment of slick modernism." - Roger Ebert
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