Below, I have clustered some of my favorite movies into groups by theme. While my hope was for each theme to resonate organically in the associated films' content, I'm afraid I've ended up having to resort to the occasional facile genre tag to group some movies together. In my defense, it's almost as much fun to take a set of movies and figure out a unique label for them, as it is to explore their takes on some oh-so-serious universal theme.

Adventures in the Space-Time Continuum

• Twelve Monkeys (1995)
• Donnie Darko (2001)
• Back to the Future (1985)

Adventures in Narrative Time

• Pulp Fiction (1994)
• Memento (2000)
• Following (1998)

Butch and Sundance

• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
• Way of the Gun, The (2000)
• Thiruda Thiruda (Tamil)

Chance, Chaos and Coincidence

• Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
• Lola rennt (1998)
• Trois couleurs: Rouge (1994)
• Magnolia (1999)

Classic San Francisco

• Maltese Falcon, The (1941)
• Vertigo (1958)
• Bullitt (1968)
• Dirty Harry (1971)

Comedy Noir

• Beat the Devil (1953)
• Blood Simple (1984)
• Red Rock West (1992)

Distinctive (Anti-)War Movies

• Paths of Glory (1957)
• Thin Red Line, The (1998)
• Full Metal Jacket (1987)
• Three Kings (1999)

Dollar Westerns, The

• Per un pugno di dollari (1964) (A Fistful of Dollars)
• Per qualche dollaro in più (1965) (For a Few Dollars More)
• Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966) (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly)
• C'era una volta il West (1969) (Once upon a Time in the West)

Heist

• Asphalt Jungle, The (1950)
• Du rififi chez les hommes (1955)
• Killing, The (1956)
• Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Hip-Hop Movies, The

• Do the Right Thing (1989)
• Requiem for a Dream (2000)
• Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)

L.A. Noir - The Chandler Canon

• Big Sleep, The (1946)
• Murder, My Sweet (1944)
• Long Goodbye, The (1973)

L.A. Noir - Part II

• Chinatown (1974)
• L.A. Confidential (1997)
• To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)

Legitimate Science Fiction

• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• Blade Runner (1982)
• Strange Days (1995)
• Dark City (1998)

Marx(-ian) Madness

• Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
• His Girl Friday (1940)
• Day at the Races, A (1937)
• Night in Casablanca, A (1946)
• Big Store, The (1941)

Modern Noir

• Body Heat (1981)
• Bound (1996)
• Se7en (1995)

Most Beautiful Films Ever Made, The

• Barry Lyndon (1975)
• Road to Perdition (2002)
• Dark City (1998)
• Days of Heaven (1978)

Movies about Movies

• Get Shorty (1995)
• Player, The (1992)
• Nuit américaine, La (1973) (Day for Night; French)
• Adaptation. (2002)
• 8 1/2 (1963)

Musical, The (Um)

• Night at the Opera, A (1935)
• Amadeus (1984)
• This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

Negative Utopia

• Clockwork Orange, A (1971)
• Brazil (1985)
• Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
• Fahrenheit 451 (1966)

Once Upon a Time Near Mexico

• Lone Star (1996)
• Touch of Evil (1958)
• From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

Samurai Code, The

• Cercle rouge, Le (1970)(French)
• Yojimbo (1961)(Japanese)
• Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)(Also listed elsewhere)

Stephen King Special

• Shawshank Redemption, The (1994)
• Shining, The (1980)
• Carrie (1976)

Style, Style, Style

• Citizen Kane (1941)
• Panic Room (2002)
• Crow, The (1994)
• More: Garage Days (2002)

Through a Narrator Darkly

• Rashomon (1950)(Japanese)
• Usual Suspects, The (1995)
• Fight Club (1999)

Unclassifiables

• Sting, The (1973)
• Waking Life (2001)
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
• Godfather, The (1972)Trilogy.
• JFK (1991)