Critically acclaimed movies that are oscar winners or nominees in writing (screenplay written directly for the screen) category

Breaking Away(1979)

Combined Rating:
70
Combined Critics Rating: 68

A small-town boy obsessed with the Italian cycling team vies for the affections of a college girl.



Broadcast News(1987)

Combined Rating:
71
Combined Critics Rating: 68

Take two rival TV reporters: one handsome, one talented, both male. Add one producer, female. Mix well and watch the sparks fly.



Big(1988)

Combined Rating:
77
Combined Critics Rating: 68

After wishing to be made big, a teenage boy wakes the next morning to find himself mysteriously in the body of an adult.



Boyz n the Hood(1991)

Combined Rating:
76
Combined Critics Rating: 68

Follows the lives of three young males living in the Crenshaw ghetto of Los Angeles, dissecting questions of race, relationships, violence and future prospects.



Bull Durham(1988)

Combined Rating:
73
Combined Critics Rating: 67

A fan who has an affair with one minor-league baseball player each season meets an up-and-coming pitcher and the experienced catcher assigned to him.



Dead Poets Society(1989)

Combined Rating:
77
Combined Critics Rating: 67

English teacher John Keating inspires his students to look at poetry with a different perspective of authentic knowledge and feelings.



In the Line of Fire(1993)

Combined Rating:
75
Combined Critics Rating: 67

Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan couldn't save Kennedy, but he's determined not to let a clever assassin take out this president.



Shine(1996)

Combined Rating:
73
Combined Critics Rating: 67

Pianist David Helfgott, driven by his father and teachers, has a breakdown. Years later he returns to the piano, to popular if not critical acclaim.



Good Will Hunting(1997)

Combined Rating:
78
Combined Critics Rating: 67

Will Hunting, a janitor at M.I.T., has a gift for mathematics, but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life.



Bulworth(1998)

Combined Rating:
71
Combined Critics Rating: 67

A suicidally disillusioned liberal politician puts a contract out on himself and takes the opportunity to be bluntly honest with his voters by affecting the rhythms and speech of hip-hop music and culture.



Diner(1982)

Combined Rating:
67
Combined Critics Rating: 66

A group of college-age buddies struggle with their imminent passage into adulthood in 1959 Baltimore.



As Good as It Gets(1997)

Combined Rating:
76
Combined Critics Rating: 65

A single mother/waitress, a misanthropic author, and a gay artist form an unlikely friendship after the artist is assaulted in a robbery.



Crimes and Misdemeanors(1989)

Combined Rating:
72
Combined Critics Rating: 64

An ophthalmologist's mistress threatens to reveal their affair to his wife while a married documentary filmmaker is infatuated with another woman.



Sleepless in Seattle(1993)

Combined Rating:
74
Combined Critics Rating: 64

A recently widowed man's son calls a radio talk-show in an attempt to find his father a partner.



Reds(1981)

Combined Rating:
66
Combined Critics Rating: 63

A radical American journalist becomes involved with the Communist revolution in Russia and hopes to bring its spirit and idealism to the United States.



The Full Monty(1997)

Combined Rating:
73
Combined Critics Rating: 63

Six unemployed steel workers form a male striptease act. The women cheer them on to go for "the full monty" - total nudity.



WarGames(1983)

Combined Rating:
72
Combined Critics Rating: 62

A young man finds a back door into a military central computer in which reality is confused with game-playing, possibly starting World War III.



Metropolitan(1990)

Combined Rating:
58
Combined Critics Rating: 61

A group of young upper-class Manhattanites are blithely passing through the gala debutante season, when an unusual outsider joins them and stirs them up.



Nixon(1995)

Combined Rating:
67
Combined Critics Rating: 61

A biographical story of former U.S. President Richard Milhous Nixon, from his days as a young boy, to his eventual Presidency, which ended in shame.



The Purple Rose of Cairo(1985)

Combined Rating:
68
Combined Critics Rating: 60

In New Jersey in 1935, a movie character walks off the screen and into the real world.




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