Sleepless in Seattle, Dallas Buyers Club, and 25 other top films named after cities

- Director: Nora Ephron
- IMDb user rating: 6.8
- Metascore: 72
- Runtime: 105 minutes

As “Sleepless in Seattle” opens, grieving Chicago widower Sam (Tom Hanks) moves with his young son, Jonah (Ross Malinger), to start a new life in Seattle. When Jonah calls a radio talk show to search for a new wife for his father, Baltimore journalist Annie (Meg Ryan) begins to fall for Sam from afar. The film has a lasting legacy as one of Nora Ephron’s most beloved rom-coms, and as a film that cemented Ryan’s iconic leading lady status within the genre.

- Director: Abderrahmane Sissako
- IMDb user rating: 7.1
- Metascore: 92
- Runtime: 96 minutes

Set in the titular Malian city, Abderrahmane Sissako’s movie follows the devastating impact of the Islamist extremist group Ansar Dine on Timbuktu, told chiefly through the perspective of a cattle herder and his family. The film was partially inspired by a notorious 2012 incident in which an unmarried Malian couple was stoned to death. In 2017, The New York Times named “Timbuktu” as the 12th best film of the 21st century so far, describing it as “a mosaic portrait of a people under siege.”

- Director: Ron Shelton
- IMDb user rating: 7.1
- Metascore: 73
- Runtime: 108 minutes

In “Bull Durham,” a baseball groupie (Susan Sarandon) for the minor league team the Durham Bulls, who has an affair with one of the players each season, unexpectedly falls for veteran catcher “Crash” Davis (Kevin Costner). Loosely based on writer-director Ron Shelton’s own minor league baseball experiences, the movie is routinely ranked as one of the best sports movies of all time.

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- Director: Rob Marshall
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Metascore: 81
- Runtime: 113 minutes

Adapted from the beloved 1975 musical of the same name, “Chicago” follows murderesses Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Roxie Hart (Renée Zellweger), who attempt to use celebrity culture to avoid prison time in 1920s Chicago. It won Best Picture, making it the first musical to take the Oscars’ top prize since “Oliver!” in 1968.

- Director: Joe Talbot
- IMDb user rating: 7.3
- Metascore: 83
- Runtime: 121 minutes

Jimmie Fails and Jonathan Majors star in “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” as two friends fighting to reclaim one’s childhood Victorian home in rapidly gentrifying San Francisco. The film has been praised for its visual flair and incisive social commentary, with The Los Angeles Times’ Justin Chang praising it as a “gorgeous, moving ode to a city in flux.”

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- Director: Kathryn Bigelow
- IMDb user rating: 7.3
- Metascore: 77
- Runtime: 143 minutes

Based on the infamous Algiers Motel incident, which occurred during Detroit’s 1967 riots, this period drama follows several Detroit police officers who begin breaking orders to violently interrogate hotel guests after gunshots are reported there. Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers described it as “far more than a liberal howl against the escalating toxicity of racism,” noting that Bigelow “smacks us down in the middle of a brutal historical event so we can see it—and feel it—for ourselves.”

- Director: Luchino Visconti
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 130 minutes

Adapted from Thomas Mann’s German novella “Death in Venice,” Luchino Visconti’s film centers on aging composer Gustav von Aschenburg (Dirk Bogarde), who takes a leave of rest in Venice amid health concerns and finds himself fixated on a young Polish boy (Björn Andrésen) staying in the same hotel. Roger Ebert noted that “the photography is almost the first I have seen that is worthy of the beauty of Venice.”

- Director: Ava DuVernay
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Metascore: 80
- Runtime: 128 minutes

Ava DuVernay’s celebrated civil rights drama chronicles Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s (British actor David Oyelowo) leadership of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches. The movie won an Oscar for Best Original Song: “Glory,” performed by John Legend.

- Director: John Landis
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Metascore: 55
- Runtime: 97 minutes

In this dark comedy, two young American backpackers are attacked by a werewolf in England, but none of the townspeople in a nearby village are willing to admit it exists. “An American Werewolf in London” was the recipient of the very first Academy Award for Best Makeup in 1982.

- Director: Steven Spielberg
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Metascore: 74
- Runtime: 164 minutes

“Munich” recounts the actions of Operation Wrath of God, the Israeli government’s rebellion against the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1970s. The New York Times named it the 16th best film of the 21st century, writing, “[‘Munich’] is a twisty and suspenseful thriller with unsettling and ambiguous ethical questions at its core.”

- Director: Charlie Kaufman
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Metascore: 67
- Runtime: 124 minutes

Philip Seymour Hoffman stars in Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut as a theater director whose grasp on reality versus fiction blurs as he constructs a recreation of New York City for his latest project. The first half of the title refers to “synecdoche,” or the concept that a part of something represents the whole of it, or vice versa, and the entire title is a play on the town of Schenectady, New York.

- Director: Terry Gilliam
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Metascore: 41
- Runtime: 118 minutes

In “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” an offbeat journalist (Johnny Depp) and his unhinged attorney Dr. Gonzo (Benicio del Toro) arrive in Sin City for work but soon embark on a chaotic, psychedelic adventure. While it received mixed reviews, the film has since become a cult classic.

- Director: Robert Altman
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Metascore: 96
- Runtime: 160 minutes

In this expansive, satirical musical dramedy, over 20 characters in Nashville prepare for a fateful political convention and accompanying concert. Largely considered Robert Altman’s magnum opus, The Boston Globe writer Patrick McGilligan argued it was “perhaps the most talked about American movie since Orson Welles’ ‘Citizen Kane.’”

- Director: James Mangold
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Metascore: 76
- Runtime: 122 minutes

This Western stars Christian Bale as Dan, a poor rancher who runs into trouble when he accepts a job apprehending dangerous outlaw Ben (Russell Crowe). It’s a remake of the 1957 movie of the same name, and takes place in 19th century Arizona.

- Directors: George P. Cosmatos, Kevin Jarre
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Metascore: 50
- Runtime: 130 minutes

Loosely based on real-life Arizonan events like the Earp Vendetta Ride and the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, “Tombstone” stars Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp, a retired lawman who’s drawn back into the fold when his old outlaw enemies reemerge. Other famous real-life figures like gunfighter Johnny Ringo and outlaw William Brocius also appear.

- Director: F. Gary Gray
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Metascore: 72
- Runtime: 147 minutes

“Straight Outta Compton” tracks the rise and fall of the rap group N.W.A. in the 1980s. It was the direct inspiration for former member Dr. Dre’s third album “Compton,” which debuted in conjunction with the film.

- Director: George Cukor
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Metascore: 96
- Runtime: 112 minutes

Considered a comeback vehicle for star Katharine Hepburn, “The Philadelphia Story” tells the tale of a Philadelphia high society woman (Hepburn) whose impending wedding is complicated by the appearance of her wily ex-husband (Cary Grant) and a tabloid journalist (Jimmy Stewart). The story originated as a Broadway play in 1939.

- Director: Clint Eastwood
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Metascore: 89
- Runtime: 141 minutes

“Letters from Iwo Jima” recounts the battle of Iwo Jima between American and Japanese soldiers in the midst of World War II, from the perspective of several Japanese soldiers. The film is a companion piece to “Flags of Our Fathers,” another Eastwood film that tells the story of the same battle from the perspective of U.S. soldiers.

- Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Metascore: 80
- Runtime: 117 minutes

Based on real-life events, “Dallas Buyers Club” tells the story of Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey), an electrician who helped AIDS patients get medication after being diagnosed with the disease himself. In a rare instance in Oscars history, both McConaughey and his costar Jared Leto (who received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor) won acting awards for their performances.

- Director: Gillo Pontecorvo
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Metascore: 96
- Runtime: 121 minutes

“The Battle of Algiers” recounts the Algerian people’s fight for independence against the French during the 1950s and early 1960s. The film was banned for five years in France because of its subject matter, and only allowed to screen there in 1971.

- Director: Wim Wenders
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Metascore: 78
- Runtime: 145 minutes

In “Paris, Texas,” vagabond Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) and his young son (Hunter Carson) traverse the American Southwest looking for Travis’s wife Jane (Nastassja Kinski). It’s received great critical acclaim over the years, and in 2015, The Guardian’s Guy Lodge even named it his all-time favorite Palme d’Or winner.

- Director: Frank Capra
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Metascore: 73
- Runtime: 129 minutes

Jimmy Stewart stars in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” as Jefferson Smith, a naive, newly elected U.S. senator who is forced to take on corruption within the American government. It’s somewhat inspired by the real-life experiences of Senator Burton Wheeler, who played a major role in holding the Warren Harding administration accountable.

- Director: Roberto Rossellini
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 103 minutes

Part of Roberto Rossellini’s “War Trilogy,” his seminal “Rome, Open City” was mostly shot on location in Rome just six months after it liberated from Nazi occupation. Now an “open city,” Rossellini captures Rome in a moment of transition, giving a documentary-like quality to the film by incorporating war-damaged backgrounds and an aura of haunting grief even as most of the action revolves around more traditional dramatic fare. 

- Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Metascore: 85
- Runtime: 98 minutes

Frances McDormand won one of her Academy Awards for playing Minnesota cop Marge in “Fargo.” The movie follows her as she investigates crimes spurred by a car salesman (William H. Macy) who pays two criminals (Peter Stormare and Steve Buscemi) to kidnap his wife (Kristin Rudrüd) in an attempt to get money from his imposing father-in-law (Harve Presnell). The beloved Coen brothers’ film later inspired a TV series in 2014.

- Director: Stanley Kramer
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Metascore: 60
- Runtime: 179 minutes

“Judgment at Nuremberg” recounts the Judges’ Trial of 1947, in which an American military court in Nuremberg tried Nazis for their crimes during the Holocaust and World War II. It was adapted from a 1959 episode of the TV series “Playhouse 90.”

- Director: Curtis Hanson
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Metascore: 90
- Runtime: 138 minutes

This 1990s drama takes place in 1950s Los Angeles, as three cops investigate a gruesome murder with disturbing personal implications. The movie was named after the real 1950s Hollywood scandal magazine “Confidential,” and features well-known actors like Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, and Guy Pearce.

- Director: Michael Curtiz
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Metascore: 100
- Runtime: 102 minutes

“Casablanca” takes place in the titular Moroccan town and follows nightclub owner Rick (Humphrey Bogart), a cynic who sticks his neck out for nobody. Rick is forced to take a side when his ex-love Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) and her Czech Resistance leader husband arrive seeking refuge from the Nazis. Everything from its characters to its dialogue to its ending have become iconic, and the film is widely considered one of the best Hollywood movies ever made.