The Top 25 Movies That Explain the American Soul, Ranked

For a country that’s been around for a quarter of a millennium, America is pretty dynamic. Politics, fashion, culture and other realms change states faster than a microwavable dinner. Which, incidentally, was all the rage in the 1980s and now is most popularly known as a Roblox game. That makes pinning down something like the American psyche a tricky game. Some films try to tell the tale via U.S. history, like Lincoln or Selma or Born on the Fourth of July. Others opt for immigration stories like Avalon or Minari or In America. Worthy efforts, all. But many of those films tackle explicitly American notions of government or principles or ideals. An equally (more?) accurate cinematic version of America may be one that doesn’t contemplate America at all. It knows not from the 25th Amendment or a Second Constitutional Convention; it doesn’t think much about the White House or Ellis Island. In fact, the country itself may not even be mentioned. These characters simply live in America, doing something that captures the American condition in all its hustle and heartbreak — its beautiful tragedies and inescapable ironies.  One way to think about it would be if you were using movies to explain America. If you were teaching a class of schoolchildren you’d show them explicitly U.S.-preoccupied films like Lincoln or Selma. But what if you were talking to someone who’d never heard of America and who cared little about the idea of government or geographic borders? How would you communicate the place’s essential traits, the psychic weirdness, the messy contradictions — what movies would you tell them about then? Such are the criteria we used in devising this ranking of films about the American condition. Not the country’s history or institutions but the ineffable qualities of living here — a lot less Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and a lot more Sorry to Bother You. With the nation’s 250th birthday upon us this July 4th, here are the top 25 movies about the American psyche.

• Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

  Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection

  (John Hughes, 1986)

  “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you just might miss it.” Has any character in the history of American cinema better captured this country’s ethos? Hungry for experience and eager to cut corners, Ferris is America, a self-conception (and self-own) in movie form. Always hustling, often putting one over on people, but so lovable he just might get away with it. Many films tried before and no doubt many will continue to try, but for capitalism’s full-court charisma press, nothing will compete with what Ferris, Cameron and Sloane did that magical Chicago day. Swing battah battah.