Alfie – What’s it all about, then? That’s the question Jude Law tries to answer in this remake of the 1966 Michael Caine classic. Law’s Alfie traipses through meaningless sex in modern New York City, trying to piece together meaning through a string of one-night stands while struggling in a dead end job.

Director: Charles Shyer
Release date: 5 November 2004
Cast: Jude Law, Omar Epps, Sienna Miller, Marisa Tomei, Susan Sarandon

Apocalypse Now – People died making this movie. Charlie Sheen drank himself to tremors and Marlon Brando refused to recite his lines or loose weight for his role. It bankrupted Hollywood factions and nearly cost Francis Ford Coppola his sanity. The more fortunate echelons use this film as good a reason why they should never allow their children to enlist in any military service. Apocalypse Now is gunfire and tempest rendered urbane through keen directorial vision.

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Release date: 15 August 1979
Cast: Marlo Brando, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne

A Beautiful Mind – This distinguished roll of film features an actor who has become the envy of men across the globe. The pugilist, actor and drunkard Russell Crowe embodies debonair like few others can. Crowe plays John Forbes Nash, the mathematical savant who revolutionizes the landscape of mathematics and economics. Another quintessential showing of dress, sophistication and Ivy League sagacity, and the crosses that the brilliant bear.

Director: Ron Howard
Release date: 4 January 2002
Cast: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris

Big Fish – There’s a certain charm to raconteurs from the south. Big Fish captures just this charm, in all it’s bourbon pouring, catfish frying magnificence that screams propriety. Big Fish deals with a man on his deathbed who’s been known to embellish upon tales. His son discredits everything he says as moot. In the end, all of his oratory is validated as the characters from each one of his seemingly outlandish stories arrive to pay respect at the man’s funeral. A good flick, replete with a southern opulence lost on us northern folk.

Director: Tim Burton
Release date: 9 January 2004
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Helena Bonham Carter

Boogie Nights – Porn has been a haven for the refined and depraved since its inception into the mainstream. Boogie Nights captures the filthy indulgence of the enterprise while it was still incipient. An assured rendition the aberrant. Mark Walberg plays Dirk Diggler, neophyte porn star both well endowed and ready. Another reanimation of the glimmering ‘80s. When doing cocaine for weeks straight was commonplace, and easy sex was even easier than it is now.

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Release date: 10 October 1997
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, Heather Graham

Casablanca – The extrinsic trappings of graciousness are all here. Romance, an expatriate yank, and black and white cinema with a sonorous score – you get all this when watching Casablanca. Also, the movie stars Humphrey Bogart, the man who handcrafted the frameworks of film noir manliness.

Director: Michael Curtiz
Release date: 23 January 1943
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre

Citizen Kane – Rosebud, uttered through the dying breaths of a millionaire – what does it mean? This is the premise of Citizen Kane. Among classic film buffs, this movie is regarded as the greatest of all time. A surfeit of high-rollers were present upon its release into the once satin draped theaters of California. Only the most established cadre of the up-and-uppers will assimilate its actual meaning.

Director: Orson Welles
Release date: 1 May 1941
Cast: Orson Welles, William Alland, Dorothy Comingore, Ruth Warrick

City of God – Brazil never looked so unappealing: drug addicts, gang warfare and violence. City of God is a true-to-life story of one of Brazil’s most nefarious favelas as it erupts into an inflammatory hotbed of gang war. It’s the Brazilian Scarface, a story of struggle, triumph and tragedy in the slums as young men grow up and die in the brutal underbelly of Rio.

Director: Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund
Release date: 30 August 2002
Cast: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino da Hora, Phellipe Haagensen, Seu Jorge

Dazed and Confused – The high school film for the ’90s kid, this film shaped a generation. The film was so relevant and so accessible to an entire generation, and its individualistic message gives all adolescent gentlemen something to aspire to. There is something truly noble in refusing to be cowed, and deciding to stand on your own merits without letting someone else drag you down.

Director: Richard Linklater
Release date: 24 September 1993
Cast: Jason London, Wiley Wiggins, Rory Cochrane, Sasha Jenson, Michelle Burke, Adam Goldberg, Matthew McConaughey

The Deer Hunter – Friends enjoy the waning days before being shipped to Vietnam and recount the horror stories that riddled their collective tours of duty. A chilling rendition of Vietnam, watching The Deer Hunter is a good way to spend an evening sipping wine with the secretary, wowing her with your knowledge of the Indochinese Wars.

Director: Michael Cimino
Release date: 23 February 1979
Cast: Robert De Niro, John Cazale, Christopher Walken, John Savage, Meryl Streep

Dog Day Afternoon – This film could well have been one of the forerunners to reality TV. Based on real events, Dog Day Afternoon tells the story of a bank robbery that quickly spirals out of control. Al Pacino’s character, Sonny Wortzik, has to contend with his wife, his transvestite lover, the FBI, media scrutiny, and becoming an anti-establishment poster child in the space of a single day.

Director: Sidney Lumet
Release date: 21 September 1975
Cast: Al Pacino, John Cazale, James Broderick

Easy Rider – Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda travel across the southern United States on motorcycles, and learn what America is really like from the people in it. Released in 1969 during the massive changes of the era, this movie’s like watching cowboys on Harleys crash facefirst into modern America’s hate while in pursuit of freedom and the American Dream. Also, it has Jack Nicholson in his first major film – awesome.

Director: Dennis Hopper
Released: 26 June 1969
Cast: Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Antonio Mendoza, Phil Spector

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – This retelling of Hunter S. Thompson’s roman a clef was supposedly so realistic that at the preview screening, Thompson began hallucinating and swatting at bats. This cinematic chronicle of a drug induced assignment for Sports Illustrated quickly snowballs into a full blown five-day drug bender in Las Vegas circa 1971.

Director: Terry Gilliam
Release date: 22 May 1998
Cast: Johnny Depp, Benicio del Toro

Forrest Gump – Forrest Gump should be hailed as the classiest mentally challenged character of our epoch. This movie gives the less shrewd hope. Forrest becomes a billionaire by the rolling credits, all the while saving lives and donating charitably. Any gentleman could learn from the handicapped erudition of Forrest.

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Release date: 6 July 1994
Cast: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field

The Fountain – While it is definitely less relentlessly melancholy than Aaronofsky’s other works (Pi, Requiem For A Dream), The Fountain still is a thinking person’s movie. Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz play a husband and wife seemingly joined through time and the film itself moves effortlessly from period drama, to medical drama and on into sci-fi territory.

Director: Darren Aronofsky
Release date: 22 November 2006
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, Ellen Burstyn, Mark Margolis

The Green Mile – Guards on death row tend to a convicted rapist and child killer who has convalescent powers. Tom Hanks plays Paul Edgecomb, egalitarian prison guard who develops a relationship with the inmate, John Coffey, played by the hulking Michael Clarke Duncan. Star power gives The Green Mile its gentlemanly appeal.

Director: Frank Darabont
Release date: 10 December 1999
Cast: Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, Bonnie Hunt, James Cromwell, David Morse

A History of Violence – There are few things more couth than a ‘made-man’ turned ‘family-man’ for the sake of the American Dream. But when two rather undistinguished gentlemen intrude on business owner Tom Stalls (played by Viggo Mortensen), things get ugly. A precipitously gruesome two hours, A History of Violence is an excellent choice for those looking to pick up martial arts moves in order exact revenge on that ego fueled colleague in the office.

Director: David Cronenberg
Released: 30 September 2005
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, William Hurt

Hotel Rwanda – An altruistic hotelier takes in droves of besieged Tutsi tribes people in an attempt to save them from the Rwandan genocide. Based on the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, egalitarian motives forged in all-and-all goodwill manage to make Hotel Rwanda refined enough for the subscribers to this list. Flashes of UN intervention add a touted realistic flare, and Nick Nolte manages a wonderful turn as the marginalized UN Commander.

Director: Terry George
Release date: 22 December 2004
Cast: Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Nick Nolte, Joaquin Phoenix

The Illusionist – Gentleman, behold the vixen wrought by the hands of our creator: Jessica Biel. Yes, she is in this movie. This is obviously secondary to the review, which happens to be about a musician who performs acts of impossibility in late 19th century Vienna.

Director: Neil Burger
Release date: 1 September 2006
Cast: Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, Jessical Biel, Rufus Sewell

Jerry Maguire – Tom Cruise plays Jerry Maguire, an amoral sports agent who deals only with A-list clients who suddenly experiences an attack of conscience. With nothing left but one deadbeat client, he has to rebuild his entire life from scratch while trying to balance human emotion with the coldness needed to be an agent.

Director: Cameron Crowe
Release date: 13 December 1996
Cast: Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr, Renee Zellwegger, Jonathan Lipnicki

Juice – This film will be remembered as Tupac Shakur’s finest hour on celluloid, with his portrayal of Bishop entering The Knucklehead Hall of Fame alongside the likes of Ice Cube as Dough Boy and Larenz Tate’s O-Dog. This coming of age tale was directed by Ernest R. Dickerson, who would later go on to work on the G.O.A.T TV series, The Wire. The film’s soundtrack was a who’s who of rap’s great and good at the time, featuring such classics as Eric B & Rakim’s “Juice (Know The Ledge)”.

Director: Ernest R. Dickerson
Released: Omar Epps
Cast: Omar Epps, Tupac Shakur, Jermaine ‘Huggy’ Hopkins, Khalil Kain, Samuel L. Jackson

Kids – Larry Clark’s gritty (some say exploitative) look at the lives of teenagers in New York was based on a screenplay written by Harmony Korine. Drug use and sex are rife throughout the film resulting in controversy and some hasty deals being cut by the Weinstein Brothers who had to buy the film back from Disney, due to their policy of not releasing NC17 films. Kids is also notable for the fact that it launched the careers of actresses Rosario Dawson and Chloe Sevigny.

Director: Larry Clark
Release date: 28 Jukly 1995
Cast: Leo Fitzpatrick, Justin Pierce, Chloe Sevigny, Rosario Dawson

L.A Confidential – Detectives grind out unforgiving hours in the Hollywood’s golden age to crack a murder case. The accoutrement of the L.A. Confidential gives it solid rapport with the highbrow viewers. Fine suits and Scotch whisky abound, covetous detectives attempt to throw dirt over their shady tracks in this classic mystery flick.

Director: Curtis Hanson
Release date: 19 September 1997
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito

The Last King of Scotland – When the autocratic Idi Amin enlists a Scotsman to be his personal doctor, treachery ensues. Based on the true story of the neurotic Ugandan dictator’s bloody rise to power, The Last King of Scotland is a good showing of despotism, African vainglory, and the price of dissent.

Director: Kevin Macdonald
Release date: 12 January 2007
Cast: Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Gillian Anderson, Kerry
Washington, David Oyelowo

Life is Beautiful – A movie that draws its regality from its Italianism, Life is Beautiful focuses on the plights of surviving through the horrors of World War II. With a beginning indicative of North American slapstick, the film slowly fades into the despair of the concentration camp. Life is Beautiful is an offbeat offering from our Mediterranean brethren.

Director: Roberto Benigni
Release date: 23 October 1998 (US release)
Cast: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini

Lord of War – Nicholas Cage plays the ultimate capitalist in this movie, a completely amoral arms dealer who must determine how far he will chase his dream of prosperity. Cage does a surprisingly good job of deconstructing man’s obsession and how men must take responsibility for their actions.

Director: Andrew Niccol
Release date: 16 September 2005
Cast: Nicholas Cage, Bridget Moynahan, Jared Leto, Ethan Hawke, Eamonn Walker

Lost in Translation – A movie star at the crossroads of an ebbing career, a neglected newlywed left to her own devices in Japan, a backdrop for a very dull movie, right? Wrong. Lost in Translation is painfully quirky and Bill Murray has never been so awkward; but it works. Bill’s character is in Japan filming a whisky commercial for a brand exclusive to only those of the finest pedigree, he runs into Scarlett Johansson, and the sexual tension mounts.

Director: Sofia Coppola
Release date: 3 October 2003
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray, Akiko Takeshita

Magnolia – The lives of sundry characters indirectly intertwine in the San Fernando Valley. Misogyny, cocaine addiction, existential dilemma and disquietude litter this onscreen life mosaic. A film that boasts some of Hollywood’s aristocratic, yet physically repellant (John C. Reilly) talent.

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Release date: 25 December 1999
Cast: Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, John C. Reilly, Tom Cruise, Phillip Baker Hall, Phillip Seymour Hoffman

The Manchurian Candidate – Films that rely on the dramatics of war crimes are often of regal ilk. In the throes of the American Gulf War, Soldiers are indoctrinated at the behest of the powers that be. Denzel Washington plays Ben Marco, a haunted Army Major who investigates the occurrences of the day of his units’ ambush years ago in Kuwait.

Director: Jonathan Demme
Released: 30 July 2004
Cast: Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, Liev Schreiber and Meryl Streep

Metropolis – A film free of the bane that is open discourse, Metropolis relies upon its haunting visuals and an eerie rendition of early 20th century capitalism. Set in a German dystopia, Metropolis has gained cult clout in privately owned movie stores worldwide. It’s sleek visuals, and superfluous budget of 7-million Reichsmarks (German currency now 61 years defunct) draw the enterprisers to the indie theatres in droves.

Director: Fritz Lang
Release Date: 13 March 1927
Cast: Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Fritz Rasp

Mystic River – Sean Penn graces the audience with Irish charm dragged through the virulent mud of the mob in Clint Eastwood’s seminal work. The movie garnered three Oscars, and longstanding prestige with an audience of desirables. Many consider Mystic River to be Clint Eastwood’s directorial triumph.

Director: Clint Eastwood
Released: 15 October 2003
Cast: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon and Laurence Fishburne.

No Country for Old Men – Hunter Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin), comes across the scene of a drug deal gone horribly wrong. In the process he uncovers a suitcase containing $2 million in cash and a stash of heroin. He takes the money and keeps quiet about the discovery until an emotionless maniac hit man (Javier Bardim) is hired to retrieve the suitcase. What follows is a murderous rampage through Texas, that sees no man spared in the pursuit / protection of this special package.

Director: Ethan and Joel Coen
Release date: 21 November 2007
Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson, Kelly Macdonald

Ocean’s 11 – A convocation of distinguished thieves and subsistent criminals combine evils in order to pull off a heist. The aforementioned convocation is played by some of the more reputable faces of the Hollywood milieu. A dazzling foray into the realm of high-rolling and large-scale crime.

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Release date: 7 December 2001
Cast: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Julia Roberts, Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle

Once – Dulcet hymns make this flick audibly arousing. A busker and an immigrant to Dublin meet, write, rehearse and record whimsical music that is to serve as the soundtrack to this modern-day musical. Dublin has always retained its inherent gentlemanly charm, even through civic turmoil

Director: John Carney
Release date: 23 March 2007
Cast: Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest – Snide, cynical, smug and sophisticated Jack Nicholson plays a partially sane man masquerading as a lunatic as he attempts to leap through a loophole in the judicial system. Nicholson’s multi-million dollar sneer has been emulated by oil barons and leading executives the world over.

Director: Milos Forman
Release date: 19 November 1975
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Will Sampson, Christopher Lloyd

Owning Mahowny – Modeled after an actual defrauding of a major Canadian bank, Owning Mahowny takes one man with a gambling problem and gives him access to a cache of money that isn’t his – a brilliant idea. Phillip Hoffman won the Chlotrudis award for his contribution, which may not have the prestige of an Oscar but it’s an award nonetheless.

Director: Richard Kwietniowski
Release date: 23 January 2003
Cast: Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Minnie Driver, John Hurt

Pi – A mathematically preoccupied theorist concludes that all can be interpreted through numbers, and differing combinations of thereof. Perhaps, if this man were real, he could of helped curtail, or prevent the economic decimation that has left so many of us settling for Tim Horton’s over the oft preferred Starbucks coffee.

Director: Darren Aronofsky
Release date: 10 July 1998
Cast: Sean Gullett, Mark Margolis, Ben Shenkman, Pamela Hart

The Prestige – People often wrongly confuse The Illusionist and The Prestige. Both showcase the mysticism of magic in turn of the century Europe. Both feature a central stunning female. Both are replete with enough opulence and Victorian appurtenances to attract the superfluously rich. This one has David Bowie.

Director: Christopher Nolan
Release date: 17 October 2006
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie

Rain Man – Rain Man is like the first modern bromance. Tom Cruise kidnaps Dustin Hoffman, his secret autistic brother, to try and con his inheritance out of him but ends up learning what brotherhood is about. It sounds stupid on paper, but it’s one of the all-time best movies about family and growing into responsibility. If you want to know what being a ‘bro’ is all about, forget MTV and HBO – it’s all right here.

Director: Barry Levinson
Released: 16 December 1988
Cast: Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise

Reign Over Me – Adam Sandler – the founding father of insipid humor – plays a New Yorker suffering from severe post traumatic stress after the loss of his family during 9/11. Don Cheadle, his university cohort, attempts to reintegrate Sandler back into the clockwork of the ‘real world.’ The probity in which Cheadle employs in his dealing with Sandler is something we as gentleman can all aspire to.

Director: Mike Binder
Release date: 23 March 2007
Cast: Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett Smith, Liv Tyler, Donald Sutherland

Saving Private Ryan – Eight embattled soldiers are sent on a mission to save the last surviving son of the Ryan family. Awarded a quintuplet of Oscars, Saving Private Ryan is a deft illustration of the turmoil of war. With Tom Hanks as leading man, Saving Private Ryan is a poignant film, replete with cultured nuances.

Director: Steven Spielberg
Release date: 24 July 1998
Cast: Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi, Matt Damon, Ted Danson, Paul Giamatti, Jeremy Davies

The Shawshank Redemption – Tim Robins plays Andy Dufresne, an accountant sent to the notoriously malfeasant Shawshank Penitentiary on a bogus murder conviction. Morgan Freeman becomes his sage confident inside the walls of Shawshank. A film that illustrates even the most debonair, with cushy jobs and university education, can end up in unsavory quagmires, and how friendship and brotherhood can come in the most unlikely of places, under the most trying of circumstances.

Director: Frank Darabont
Release date: 23 September 1994
Cast: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, Clancy Brown

Taxi Driver – Bobby D or as the peasants refer to him, Robert De Niro, takes on the role of a crazed taxi driver Travis Bickle. The notorious, ‘You talking to me?’ line is a product of Travis Bickle’s delusional dialogue. All staunch De Niro fans, most of whom are discernibly refined, should have a space on the DVD rack reserved for this classic.

Director: Martin Scorsese
Released: 8 February 1976
Cast: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Albert Brooks, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Leonard Harris

There Will Be Blood – To the hopeful oil tycoon, one who may be surveying this list with keen interest: do not let the avarice intrinsic to the oil business destroy you! Fervent businessman Daniel Plainview digs for oil in 19th century America, as religious ideologues attempt to piggyback on his fortune.

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Release date: 11 January 2008
Cast: Daniel Day Lewis, Paul Dano

To Kill a Mockingbird – The film rendition of Harper Lee’s only, and globally recognized as brilliant, novel. A white lawyer attempts to defend a black man held on charges of raping a white woman in the freshly enfranchised southern United States. Altruism in the heart of the refined, should at least attempt to trump rapacity. And in this film, it does.

Director: Robert Mulligan
Release date: 25 December 1962
Cast: Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford, Robert Duvall, Estelle Evans, Brock Peters

Trainspotting – Heroin addicts in Scotland’s ghettos make paltry attempts at getting clean in this rendition of Irvine Welsh’s award winning novel. There’s little nobility to extract from the life of a junkie save for Renton’s desperate attempt to get clean and start over. Danny Boyle’s cinematography is smooth, and the plot is seamless.

Director: Danny Boyle
Release date: 23 February 1996
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Kelly MacDonald, Robert Carlyle, Ewen Bremmer, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd

12 Angry Men – A star-studded jury of 12 disgruntled men give this Hollywood epic enough pull even without the timeless plot. One juror endeavors to sway eleven others that a young murder suspect is innocent. Written, filmed, and released before chivalry’s dying gasp, 12 Angry Men is a staple in the collection of all consummate gentlemen.

Director: Sidney Lumet
Released: 29 July 1957
Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Ed Begley

Wall Street – A tale of excess and corporate skulduggery set in one of the world’s financial hubs, sees Charlie Sheen as a young stockbroker who rises under the tutelage of Michael Douglas’s Gordon Gekko. Douglas earned an Oscar for his performance, while co-star Daryl Hannah was awarded a Razzie for hers. Also notable for the fact that Charlie Sheen’s father, Martin, shows up playing Charlie’s character’s father.

Director: Oliver Stone
Release date: 11 December 1987
Cast: Charlie Sheen, Michael Douglas, Martin Sheen, Daryl Hannah

White Men Can’t Jump – The white boy and ‘goofy looking guy’ Billy Hoyle (Woody Harrelson) gets together with Sidney Dean (Wesley Snipes) to play basketball and hustle for money on the streets of LA. Together they exploit Billy’s skin color to play down his basketball playing ability. Unfortunately Billy’s outstanding debts are beginning to catch up with him and the ‘collectors’ start putting pressure on him. The film, however, is not about basketball in general; it has more to do with the rules of playing games, but in a satirical and funny way.

Director: Ron Shelton
Release date: 27 March 1992
Cast: Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson, Rosie Perez, Tryal Ferrell

The Wrestler – Randy the Ram was once famous. Idolatrized, enshrined and immortalized in video game and action figure, now he’s in ruins and suffering from the health problems endemic to the life of an aging professional wrestler. Mickey Rourke’s face is a foreboding to those gents who wish to seek the services of a plastic surgeon.

Director: Darren Aronofsky
Release date: 30 January 2009
Cast: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood

Y Tu Mama Tambien – This Spanish coming-of-age tale finds two teenage boys on the road with a smoking hot older woman (Luisa Cortes). The film has it’s fair share of tender moments and awkward sex scenes and is has more class than most of its Hollywood counterparts. Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal became an international star after making this film.

Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Release date: 8 June 2001
Cast: Maribel Verdu, Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna, Diana Bracho, Andres Almeida