Rob Reiner: 8 Essential Movies

Rob Reiner may not have been an auteur on the level of contemporaries like Martin Scorsese or Steven Spielberg, but you’d be hard pressed to find a director whose filmography had a bigger, broader impact on popular culture than Reiner’s over a roughly 10-year stretch from the mid-Eighties to mid-Nineties. Reiner had a nimble hand, working across genres from mockumentary to rom-com to thrillers — an underrated skill few directors can claim — and letting stories shine through his actors, who he treated with palpable tenderness onscreen. If there is a hallmark that unifies and defines his work, it’s an unwavering humanity and belief that our better nature will always prevail. Here are eight classic films he contributed to the American canon.