Helen O'Hara

Comments

In the Mood for Love

There are few films as gorgeous, and hardly any that capture cinema's potential for aching romance as well.

The Apartment

Imagine being as good at anything as Jack Lemmon is for every second of this tragicomic masterpiece.

Casablanca

A perfect movie.

Petite maman

Delicate, understated, profound, perfect.

His Girl Friday

Still faster and funnier than modern life can provide.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

I adore this film and I don't care if this is its only vote. It's a classic odd couple movie with a quintessentially Kiwi sense of humour and easily Waititi's best. Skux 4 life.

Spirited Away

Bizarre and beautiful, this is the perfect example of a film that *had* to be animated because there's no other way to do it.

Lady Bird

A great mother-daughter story. We need more of those to counter cinema's endless father issues.

Parasite

Few films switch genres as nimbly as this one, and even fewer manage to say something while they're about it. The moment when the housekeeper opens that door is an all-time great cinema experience.

Singin' in the Rain

A perfect musical: bright, sparky and romantic, leavened by a certain clear-eyed cynicism underneath.

Further remarks

As you can perhaps tell, I've gone for favourite films I also think are great, not simply "greatest" films I can't connect with. I freely acknowledge the greatness of, say, The Godfather, but I have never particularly been moved by it.