What makes your favorite movies your favorite?

Is it the writing? The subject matter? The acting?

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A personal connection to the film is what make it my favorite.

the story and acting.

Taxi Driver is my favorite and everything contributes (pretty much):

- The acting is phenomenal, De Niro is so subtle and captures the awkwardness of a socially-inept individual perfectly.
- The score is unique and matches the ups and downs of Travis Bickle's psyche and the bad times of NYC.
- The cinematography is beautiful, it's vibrant but still manages to retain a very dark tone.
- The resemblance to books/novels, I'm not a huge fan of them but Scorsese has managed to make a film that says something about everything and with much detail, but also not losing the sight of the power in being ambiguous.
- The realness of the protagonist, I could imagine a Travis Bickle living next door (hope not).

I guess the biggest grapple is how relatable the main character is.

Yeah I love Taxi Driver for those same reasons as well. Have you read Schrader's script? It's on pdf format...

I noticed your avatar (probably Douglas' best role)... I think that's the closest film to Taxi Driver. Lots of similarities.

I have read Schrader's screenplay, it's just like a novel as well. Schrader's action lines are so detailed and cryptic, though the screenplay has quite a few differences to the movie.

American History X :
- One of the best performance of all-time in a movie from Edward Norton.
- Powerful , intense and really addictive.
- Anti-racism movie with very veridict scenes and intense moment.
- The Ending and the quotes is one of the best I've ever seen.
- I cry each time I see it.
- The rest of the cast are all pretty good .

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There are various reasons I like all my favorite films. I'll go through each one in my top ten and say something I especially love.

Alien - it's intensity, characters, and the monster
Halloween - it's minimalism and low-budget creativity
Fantastic Planet - it's incredible imagination, art style, and score
Aguirre, the Wrath of God - it's atmosphere and character of Aguirre
Persona - it's atmosphere, surrealism, actresses and their performances, writing, cinematography
Stalker - it's thoughtfulness, atmosphere, cinematography
Blade Runner - incredible visuals, story, themes, characters. It has a unique mood unlike any other movie.
The Seventh Seal - it's thoughtfulness and themes, how it tackles those themes, Max Von Sydow, beautiful black and white imagery.
The Turin Horse - my vote for the most beautiful black and white imagery. I love it's minimalism, it's mood.
Woman in the Dunes - it's story, fantasy realism, score, cinematography

Thinking about it, there are a few things I really love about my favorite films.

- Atmosphere/mood - If a movie has good atmosphere, it can often overcome it's other flaws, for me personally
- Minimalism - Brevity is the soul of wit. Enough said.
- Low budget creativity - I just love watching a film and thinking "I could make something like this," and that's exactly how I feel whenever I watch Halloween.
- Cinematography - I just love playing around with composition, however a director wants to.
- Xenomorphs - if every film had a xenomorph in it, the world would be a better place.

I really enjoy a film where you can sense an intelligence behind what is being shown, what is being said (and not said) and a thoughtfulness in the acting choices. Certain films just immediarely get into my psyche and stay there due to a wavelength I share with them. They just become a part of me and I can understand what would attract them to others, even if it's for different, personal reasons. I will confess that all the films in my top ten are what I consider massively entertaining, but I have more than ten faves - actually hundreds or thousands of them, so it would make sense that they attract me for different specific reasons.

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My favourite movie is Zulu by Jerome Salle.
What makes it so special...?
Certainly acting - great Forest Whitaker and Orlando Bloom.
But mainly new way of showing Apartheid.
Not as something that is over and it's just a historical fact.
As something that is still a problem.
That still has an influence on life of more than one generation.

Oldboy:

- Great acting from everyone, even the weird bum in front of the sushi restaurant

- Amazing cinematography. One good example is the scene where Dae-Su Oh tracks his young self at a high school he went to. Genius.

- Beautifully disturbing atmosphere

- I always cry hysterically like Tarantino did at the end part

- Near-perfect lighting, editing, and most of the technical parts

- Basically everything!

Their execution.

I have Old Boy, I just have been distracted by other films.. And I always try to watch the library ones first, since I have them to take them back every week. I've always been on a Cassavetes kick, and as of now, have seen all his movies.

I always mention writing and acting, but in the end, it's the feeling I get. I'm not much concerned with the special effects.