Movies with Great Writing
by VideoJordan | created - 07 Sep 2010 | updated - 29 Mar 2011 | PublicMy husband and I share a love for movies with great writing. We love well written dramas and well written comedies. We've been working our way through the Oscar winners for best original screenplay, but are looking for more movies (especially ones that aren't too heavy).
If you have more suggestions, please post in the comments below!
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1. The Usual Suspects (1995)
R | 106 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The sole survivor of a pier shoot-out tells the story of how a notorious criminal influenced the events that began with five criminals meeting in a seemingly random police lineup.
Director: Bryan Singer | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin
Votes: 1,141,705 | Gross: $23.34M
One of our favorites.
2. Pulp Fiction (1994)
R | 154 min | Crime, Drama
The lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis
Votes: 2,209,470 | Gross: $107.93M
One of our favorites.
3. Network (1976)
R | 121 min | Drama
A television network cynically exploits a deranged former anchor's ravings and revelations about the news media for its own profit, but finds that his message may be difficult to control.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall
Votes: 169,957
One of our favorites.
4. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
PG | 95 min | Comedy, War
An insane American general orders a bombing attack on the Soviet Union, triggering a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically tries to stop.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn
Votes: 516,480 | Gross: $0.28M
One of our favorites.
5. Being John Malkovich (1999)
R | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A puppeteer discovers a portal that leads literally into the head of movie star John Malkovich.
Director: Spike Jonze | Stars: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, John Malkovich
Votes: 352,603 | Gross: $22.86M
One of our favorites.
6. On Golden Pond (1981)
PG | 109 min | Drama
Norman is a curmudgeon with an estranged relationship with his daughter Chelsea. At Golden Pond, he and his wife nevertheless agree to care for Billy, the son of Chelsea's new boyfriend, and a most unexpected relationship blooms.
Director: Mark Rydell | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda, Doug McKeon
Votes: 34,707 | Gross: $119.29M
Recommended by LI_Mom: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur2787953/boards/profile/
7. Butterflies Are Free (1972)
PG | 109 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A blind man moves into his own apartment against the wishes of his overprotective mother and befriends the freethinking young woman next door.
Director: Milton Katselas | Stars: Goldie Hawn, Edward Albert, Eileen Heckart, Paul Michael Glaser
Votes: 5,940 | Gross: $0.25M
Recommended by LI_Mom: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur2787953/boards/profile/
8. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
R | 136 min | Crime, Sci-Fi
In the future, a sadistic gang leader is imprisoned and volunteers for a conduct-aversion experiment, but it doesn't go as planned.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke
Votes: 878,615 | Gross: $6.21M
Recommended by mjf314: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur10132199/boards/profile/
9. Ace in the Hole (1951)
Approved | 111 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A frustrated former big-city journalist now stuck working for an Albuquerque newspaper exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to rekindle his career, but the situation quickly escalates into an out-of-control circus.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur, Porter Hall
Votes: 38,983 | Gross: $3.97M
Recommended by mjf314: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur10132199/boards/profile/
10. Heat (1995)
R | 170 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A group of high-end professional thieves start to feel the heat from the LAPD when they unknowingly leave a verbal clue at their latest heist.
Director: Michael Mann | Stars: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight
Votes: 716,302 | Gross: $67.44M
Recommended by mjf314: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur10132199/boards/profile/
11. Kin-dza-dza! (1986)
PG-13 | 135 min | Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
Two Russians push the wrong button on a strange device and end up on the telepathic planet Pluke with its strange societal norms.
Director: Georgiy Daneliya | Stars: Stanislav Lyubshin, Evgeniy Leonov, Yuriy Yakovlev, Levan Gabriadze
Votes: 13,695
Recommended by mjf314: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur10132199/boards/profile/
12. Memento (2000)
R | 113 min | Mystery, Thriller
A man with short-term memory loss attempts to track down his wife's murderer.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Junior
Votes: 1,318,139 | Gross: $25.54M
Recommended by mjf314: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur10132199/boards/profile/
13. Mystic River (2003)
R | 138 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The tragic murder of a 19-year-old girl reunites three childhood friends still living in Boston--the victim's gangster father, a detective, and the disturbed man they both suspect of killing her.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Emmy Rossum
Votes: 484,387 | Gross: $90.14M
Recommended by mjf314: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur10132199/boards/profile/
14. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
R | 99 min | Crime, Thriller
When a simple jewelry heist goes horribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn
Votes: 1,084,167 | Gross: $2.83M
Recommended by mjf314: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur10132199/boards/profile/
15. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson
Votes: 235,634
Recommended by mjf314: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur10132199/boards/profile/
16. The Sting (1973)
PG | 129 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Two grifters team up to pull off the ultimate con.
Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning
Votes: 278,908 | Gross: $159.60M
Recommended by mjf314: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur10132199/boards/profile/
17. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)
PG | 117 min | Comedy, Drama
Two minor characters from the play 'Hamlet' stumble around unaware of their scripted lives and unable to deviate from them.
Director: Tom Stoppard | Stars: Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Richard Dreyfuss, Livio Badurina
Votes: 23,792 | Gross: $0.74M
Recommended by jpmccusa-1: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur7550542/boards/profile/
18. Fanny and Alexander (1982)
R | 188 min | Drama
Two young Swedish children in the 1900s experience the many comedies and tragedies of their lively and affectionate theatrical family, the Ekdahls.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Bertil Guve, Pernilla Allwin, Kristina Adolphson, Börje Ahlstedt
Votes: 67,336 | Gross: $4.97M
Recommended by jpmccusa-1: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur7550542/boards/profile
19. Gosford Park (2001)
R | 137 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Set in the 1930s, a group of pretentious rich and famous get together for a weekend of relaxation at a hunting resort. But when a murder occurs, each one of these interesting characters becomes a suspect.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Maggie Smith, Ryan Phillippe, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas
Votes: 93,758 | Gross: $41.31M
Suggested by The_Etiquette: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur13920103/boards/profile/
20. Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005)
R | 103 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
Laura Henderson (Dame Judi Dench) buys an old London theater and opens it up as the Windmill, a performance hall which goes down in history for, amongst other things, its all-nude revues.
Director: Stephen Frears | Stars: Judi Dench, Bob Hoskins, Christopher Guest, Will Young
Votes: 16,417 | Gross: $11.03M
Suggested by The_Etiquette: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur13920103/boards/profile/
21. Casablanca (1942)
PG | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War
A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Votes: 604,129 | Gross: $1.02M
Suggested by The_Etiquette: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur13920103/boards/profile/
22. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
M/PG | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
An eccentric Scottish schoolteacher's extravagantly romantic ideas about life--and love--overly impress her young pupils and bring her into conflict with her school's conservative headmistress.
Director: Ronald Neame | Stars: Maggie Smith, Gordon Jackson, Robert Stephens, Pamela Franklin
Votes: 9,831
Suggested by The_Etiquette: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur13920103/boards/profile/
23. The Queen (2006)
PG-13 | 103 min | Biography, Drama
After the death of Princess Diana, Queen Elizabeth II struggles with her reaction to a sequence of events nobody could have predicted.
Director: Stephen Frears | Stars: Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, James Cromwell, Alex Jennings
Votes: 115,803 | Gross: $56.44M
Suggested by The_Etiquette: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur13920103/boards/profile/
24. Chinatown (1974)
R | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A private detective hired to expose an adulterer in 1930s Los Angeles finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez
Votes: 348,487
Suggested by VerbalKint2424 (http://www.imdb.com/user/ur23584656/boards/profile/): Chinatown is the best sceenplay ever written in my own opinion, but it's no drama/comedy (except there is a leetl Chinaman joke in there!), is quite heavy, but it's also a bit similar to Usual Suspects.
25. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Not Rated | 118 min | Comedy, Crime, Thriller
A Brooklyn writer of books on the futility of marriage risks his reputation after he decides to tie the knot. Things get even more complicated when he learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are habitual murderers.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Jack Carson
Votes: 74,819
Suggested by an anonymous IMDb user
26. Trading Places (1983)
R | 116 min | Comedy
A snobbish investor and a wily street con artist find their positions reversed as part of a bet by two callous millionaires.
Director: John Landis | Stars: Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche
Votes: 165,164 | Gross: $90.40M
Suggested by an anonymous IMDb user
27. Clue (1985)
PG | 94 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Six guests are anonymously invited to a strange mansion for dinner, but after their host is killed, they must cooperate with the staff to identify the murderer as the bodies pile up.
Director: Jonathan Lynn | Stars: Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd
Votes: 108,723 | Gross: $14.64M
Suggested by an anonymous IMDb user
28. Tootsie (1982)
PG | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Michael Dorsey, an unsuccessful actor, disguises himself as a woman in order to get a role on a trashy hospital soap.
Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr, Dabney Coleman
Votes: 114,330 | Gross: $177.20M
From Sara via Facebook.
29. Young Frankenstein (1974)
PG | 106 min | Comedy
An American grandson of the infamous scientist, struggling to prove that his grandfather was not as insane as people believe, is invited to Transylvania, where he discovers the process that reanimates a dead body.
Director: Mel Brooks | Stars: Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle
Votes: 168,424 | Gross: $86.30M
From Sara via Facebook.
30. His Girl Friday (1940)
Passed | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A newspaper editor uses every trick in the book to keep his ace reporter ex-wife from remarrying.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart
Votes: 62,949 | Gross: $0.30M
From Sara via Facebook.
31. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Passed | 102 min | Comedy
While trying to secure a $1 million donation for his museum, a befuddled paleontologist is pursued by a flighty and often irritating heiress and her pet leopard, Baby.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles, Walter Catlett
Votes: 65,869
From Sara via Facebook.
32. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
PG | 110 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
In 1890s Wyoming, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid lead a band of outlaws. When a train robbery goes wrong, they find themselves on the run with a posse hard on their heels. After considering their options, they escape to South America.
Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, Strother Martin
Votes: 226,248 | Gross: $102.31M
From Sara via Facebook.
33. When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Harry and Sally have known each other for years, and are very good friends, but they fear sex would ruin the friendship.
Director: Rob Reiner | Stars: Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher, Bruno Kirby
Votes: 241,482 | Gross: $92.82M
From Sara via Facebook.
34. Away We Go (2009)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A couple expecting their first child travels the U.S. seeking the perfect "family home." They have misadventures and find fresh connections with relatives and old friends who help them discover "home" on their own terms for the first time.
Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Allison Janney, Carmen Ejogo
Votes: 55,015 | Gross: $9.45M
From Jessica via Facebook
35. You Can Count on Me (2000)
R | 111 min | Drama
A single mother's life is thrown into turmoil after her struggling, rarely seen younger brother returns to town.
Director: Kenneth Lonergan | Stars: Laura Linney, Matthew Broderick, Amy Ryan, Michael Countryman
Votes: 31,337 | Gross: $9.18M
From Ross via Facebook
36. Contact (1997)
PG | 150 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Dr. Ellie Arroway, after years of searching, finds conclusive radio proof of extraterrestrial intelligence, sending plans for a mysterious machine.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt
Votes: 292,243 | Gross: $100.92M
Col listed this as one of the best written movies ever on his 20th Anniversary List
37. Double Indemnity (1944)
Passed | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A Los Angeles insurance representative lets an alluring housewife seduce him into a scheme of insurance fraud and murder that arouses the suspicion of his colleague, an insurance investigator.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Byron Barr
Votes: 166,888 | Gross: $5.72M
Thanks for the suggestions IMDB folks. I can verify that this does indeed have excellent writing!
38. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
R | 142 min | Drama
Over the course of several years, two convicts form a friendship, seeking consolation and, eventually, redemption through basic compassion.
Director: Frank Darabont | Stars: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, William Sadler
Votes: 2,875,772 | Gross: $28.34M
At the suggestion of deni_scola. Thanks!
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