My Valentine's Day gift to you is the movie portion of my list. Oh, and a surprise late addition.

13. Back to the Future, Part 2: In all honesty, I probably like the first movie better, but part 2 has been the bigger influence. From a storytelling perspective, I’ve always loved how they travel both to the future and the past -- the exact same past you saw in the first movie, just from a different angle. Brilliant! Also, I can’t even tell you how many times, as a kid, I’d go outside and replay the scene at the beginning of the movie with Marty on the hoverboard when he’s stuck on the water.

14. Adaptation: Charlie Kaufman is probably my favorite screenwriter, and this movie is why. Sure, Eternal Sunshine is his more famous movie, and for good reason. But that movie is brilliant both on the page and on the screen -- the amazing work Michel Gondry did takes the script to a new level. But with Adaptation, the script (and the scriptwriter) is the backbone of the story. This is a writer’s movie.

15. The Usual Suspects: I’m a Kevin Spacey fan, and this movie is part of the reason why. It was the first “you really need to watch it again to realize how brilliant it is” movie I ever saw.

16. The Fall: Okay, I admit it: the only reason I looked into this movie is because it stars Lee Pace, of Pushing Daisies fame. But wow, what a beautiful movie this is. As a writer, I tend to fixate on a movie or TV show’s script. It doesn’t matter to me if the acting is exceptional, or if the costumes and set are amazing, or if it’s a beautifully rendered computer animated movie. If it doesn’t have a solid script, I can’t get into it. The Fall completely shattered that analytical experience for me. The visuals so overwhelmed me that I completely forgot about the merits of the script (which, upon reflection, is rather so-so. Not bad, by any means, but nothing amazing). But watching this film, that didn’t matter. Because it’s just so damn enthralling.

17. The Legend of Zelda: This is the late addition that got in just before publication. I was thinking about how this list is about media that’s influenced me, yet I’ve completely overlooked video games. As a kid, they were a huge part of my life. I still play them now, though really it’s only Rock Band. The first game I ever played was, like most 20-somethings, Super Mario Brothers. But the one that truly got me into video games was The Legend of Zelda. It’s still one of my all-time favorites. I remember talking to my cousin Jonathan on the phone because I was having trouble near the end of the game. He helped me through it, and then he told me that there was a secret second quest. A second quest??? A whole new game, essentially??? This was unheard of.