So, Movie Crunch put together its list of the "50 Movies That All Guys Should See Before They Die," and Film.com asked me to come up with a rebuttal: movies we girls must see before we die. And this presents a problem for me, because a lot of the movies on Movie Crunch's list are among my favorite movies of recent years, and are certainly movies I think everyone should see before they die: Die Hard, Gladiator, Fight Club, Hot Fuzz, Goodfellas, The Usual Suspects... I could go on, but, well, see Movie Crunch's list.

I hate distinguishing between "girl" movies and "guy" movies, but since Film.com asked, here are 10 movies girls shouldn't miss. Like Movie Crunch, I'm limiting myself to recent years, or else this list would have been filled with every screwball comedy from the 1930s and '40s, when movies that were "smart and clever" and "sexy" were considered synonymous.

10. Before Sunrise/Before Sunset: Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke's wandering through two of the most romantic cities in the world are evidence of something I've always suspected: that men are bigger mushes when it comes to love and sex, and that woman are way more practical about these things.

9. Sliding Doors: In this charming fantasy, we see two alternative possibilities to Gwyneth Paltrow's single-gal life in London, which demonstrates that destiny isn't always destined and men are sometimes pigs, but that it all works itself out in the end, if only you trust yourself.

8. Beauty and the Beast: I'm still waiting for a beauty and the beast story in which the woman is hideous and the guy has to learn to see past her physicality, because that would be the real fairy tale. In the meantime, Disney's wonderful animated take on the more traditional story is the best of the bunch.

7. Aliens: And not just for Ripley, who continues to kick ass here. The little girl Newt is way tougher than the big bad Marines, and the alien queen is pretty incredible, too.

6. Bend It Like Beckham: Because anything a guy can do, a girl can do better... even if, as always, she has to work three times as hard to be allowed to do it.

5. The Silence of the Lambs: Make that five times as hard.

4. Working Girl: And even when her boss takes all the credit for that five-times-as-hard work. Bitch.

3. Truly, Madly, Deeply: Love hurts. A lot. But it's a good kind of hurt.

2. Out of Africa: Maybe the best movie ever about a woman living life on her own terms, even when the rest of the world isn't so pleased with that. Contains one of the great chick lines: "I want men to like me, but I also want to be left alone."

1. Titanic: Not only is James Cameron's disaster classic a great adventure, it's a smart reminder to women that we don't need a Jack Dawson to give us permission to live our own lives in our own ways.

(My memory for particular films was jogged with the help of "50 Greatest 'Chick' Flicks" and "100 Memorable and Great 'Chick' Flicks", both at The Greatest Films.)

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MaryAnn Johanson (email me)
reviews, reviews, reviews! at FlickFilosopher.com

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