Favorite Movies of All Time

All-time favorites – of anything, really, music, books, places you’ve been – are things that really made a lasting impression on you. And whenever you make a list of your all-time favorites of something, it ends up showing you something about yourself, I think.

So, movies.

The first movie that made my all-time list was Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. That movie came out in 1969, when I was four. I didn't see it till it came out on television years later, when I was about 10 or 11, at just that age when I didn’t know whether I wanted to be the Sundance Kid or sleep with him. (My present-day self says, Why not both? And also now, I appreciate the charms of Butch as much, if not more.)

Next was Paper Moon, with Ryan O'Neil and a young Tatum O'Neil.

In college, we were all fascinated by The Big Chill.

I stole a tradition from a friend (Hi, Jared!) and now we always watch Moonstruck on Valentine's Day.

Speaking of holidays, for Halloween: Young Frankenstein (I don't do horror movies), for Christmas, A Christmas Story.

The Big Lebowski: My brother-in-law, in a stroke of genius, introduced this movie to our father-in-law.

The Hotel Budapest.

Raising Arizona.

I liked going to (most) children’s movies with my own kids. Some are amazingly good, like Shrek and Mulan.

And just recently, my daughter gave my husband Florence Foster Jenkins for Father's Day. Days later, I continue to think about this movie, based on a true story and so carefully written, acted and constructed.

So, I like funny movies, clever movies, movies with a touch of the absurd, movies in which the characters let their eccentricities all hang out.

Yeah, sounds about right.

What movies make your all-time list?