25 fairly recent must-see movies

The more I've been thinking about that UK movie list, the more I agree with their stated goals. There's not a lot of point coming up with a list of "best" movies (comparing apples to oranges; and perhaps more saliently, what makes my opinion about "best" any more valid than anyone else's). On the other hand here is my list of "I liked these and encourage you to see them."

I tried to avoid things I thought most people would have seen already - Schindler's List for example - it's a great movie, but there's not a lot of point in putting it on an "oooh! see this!" list, except for Generation (X+2) perhaps. And they'll come across it when they go to the video store and see the "Academy Award Winners" shelf.

Some other quick notes on methodology of this list - films must:

• have a release date after 1990;
• not be primarily a comedy;
• not prioritize special effects over plot or character;
• be in English.

My other biases should become clear through the list. I didn't spend a lot of time ordering these. The order is an attempt to balance two factors - how much I liked the movie and how likely I think it is that you've seen it already. (This latter condition pushed a lot of great movies off the list - e.g. Schindler's List as I already mentioned.) I suppose I should post about each of these movies individually to make it more clear why it made the cut. After that I'll get around to foreign language films, pre-1990 films, and then the post-1990 films that didn't make the cut.

In the best case there will be a couple on here that you needed encouragement to rent and watch. I thought all of these were great, although for different reasons. Comments welcome!

Fight Club [imdb] [wikipedia]
Fearless [imdb] [wikipedia]
The Insider [imdb] [wikipedia]
L.A. Confidential [imdb] [wikipedia]
Memento [imdb] [wikipedia]
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [imdb] [wikipedia]
You Can Count On Me [imdb] [wikipedia]
Out of Sight [imdb] [wikipedia]
Twelve Monkeys [imdb] [wikipedia]
Black Hawk Down [imdb] [wikipedia]
Heat [imdb] [wikipedia]
Heavenly Creatures [imdb] [wikipedia]
American History X [imdb] [wikipedia]
Short Cuts [imdb] [wikipedia]
The Ice Storm [imdb] [wikipedia]
The End of the Affair [imdb] [wikipedia]
Last Orders [imdb] [wikipedia]
Croupier [imdb] [wikipedia]
The Fisher King [imdb] [wikipedia]
Gosford Park [imdb] [wikipedia]
Lone Star [imdb] [wikipedia]
Devil in a Blue Dress [imdb] [wikipedia]
Kinsey [imdb] [wikipedia]
Adaptation. [imdb] [wikipedia]
Waking Life [imdb] [wikipedia]