Duck Soup (1933)

My introduction to the Marx Brothers was a learning experience. First, I learned that Alan Alda pawned his character Hawkeye from MASH completely from Groucho. Second, I learned how annoying Harpo is. Thirdly, I don't think I have ever seen a film before that packs as many jokes-per-minute as this does. They fly so thick and fast that its actually astounding that they managed to squeeze a story into the mix: bare bones, every second of it, and there just to drape jokes over. But you couldn't ask for anything more from a comedy than literally non-stop laughs.

Carrie (1976)

The film is so perfectly done and causes you to empathise so deeply with the main character, that you put it aside and you hope - beyond reason - that things will turn out OK for her. During the entire first-date sequence and first half of the prom, I cannot recall being so happy for a character as she exudes, one can feel, her first extremely infectious brightening beams of happiness.

It should also be noted that although she has supernatural powers and is teased mercilessly, she was actually a lot less crazy than some of the other students in the film.

L.A. Confidential (1997)

One of the few films that I've seen which attempts to ape a particular style and manages to do so, in terms of its writing and direction, so well that it could be one of the genre's masterpieces.

As every aspect of the story unfolds, its multi-layered intrigue deepens, peeling back layer after layer of sordid intrigue without at any point becoming muddled or confused. It's focus remains solely on untangling the web that is thrown up around the characters and its that driving force that propels the film forward.

Compelling from the get-go and a masterful film noir.