65. Singin' In the Rain

This is the best musical ever.

Let's examine a sequence, the dance of the title track. It's called "Singin' in the Rain" and it features just that. It's absurd, like most things in musicals. But we believe it here -- we believe that a grown man, a movie star -- would dance around and sing in a pouring storm, because he's utterly in love.

Who hasn't left a girlfriend or boyfriend near the beginning of a relationship, your heart almost screaming with affection, your bones and skin wanting to leap out of your body to dance? The difference between us and Gene Kelly is that he does.

And you know what else he does? He eventually becomes so overwhelmed that he just starts stomping in a puddle, around and around until a cop stops him. So he walks off towards home, and as he does so, he gives his his umbrella to a stranger on the street.

Perfect cinema.