If you believe Jerry Seinfeld’s gloomy assessment of the movie business — that, in his words, it’s over, to put it bluntly — then it probably follows that you haven’t ventured out to your local cinema much if at all in the recent past. Maybe you look at the kind of films Hollywood is churning out today, including hits like Anyone But You or the new Dune blockbuster, and you can’t help thinking: All of the best movies, the really great and unforgettable films, maybe they really are all in the past now.
It certainly does feel that way sometimes. Especially with everyone on a sequel or reboot kick these days, dredging up ideas from movies past instead of trying something bold or new. That said, I don’t completely agree with Jerry — there’s still plenty that gets me excited enough to venture out to a movie theater, which I can’t wait to do this month for Fall Guy as well as Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
Whenever I do get bored from time to time, I may fall back on one of the best movies from the past if I’m looking for something new to watch. Everyone, of course, has their own ideas for what constitutes the ‘best’ — purely on the basis of the number of reviews they’ve garnered, for example, as well as their 100% scores on Rotten Tomatoes, critics think these three movies we’ve included below are among the best of the best.
They’re certainly among the best-reviewed of all time, based on Rotten Tomatoes data.
- Leave No Trace (100% on RT, 251 reviews): In this 2018 indie drama from Bleecker Street, Ben Foster stars as the father of a 13-year-old daughter. Their characters are living in a vast urban park in Portland, Oregon, basically trying to stay under the radar and off the grid. Eventually, the authorities catch up to them and force Foster’s character (an Iraq war veteran) and his daughter to adhere to more traditional ways of life.
- Toy Story 2 (100% on RT, 171 reviews): Arguably the best installment in Pixar’s Toy Story franchise, this 1999 classic finds Woody stolen by a toy collector, who plans to sell him to a museum in Japan. Meanwhile, Buzz Lightyear and other toys from Andy’s room band together on a rescue mission to bring back Woody — who also learns that he was the star of a 1950s TV show called Woody’s Roundup.
- Man On Wire (100% on RT, 160 reviews): This third movie is a 2008 documentary about Philippe Petit, a French tightrope walker who in 1974 pulled off the daring feat of crossing between the Twin Towers of New York City’s World Trade Center. This film is categorized as one of the best movies for a reason; it presents the execution of what was ultimately an illegal stunt like a caper. Petit himself, who’s shown here meticulously planning and preparing to pull off the wire walk, even called it “the artistic crime of the century.”
