What makes this 1995 crime drama, directed by Martin Scorsese and drawn from Nicholas Pileggi’s book of the same name, a near-perfect Vegas movie isn’t merely its subject matter (a thinly veiled account of the Vegas reign of organized crime associate Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal) or its setting (the now-defunct Riviera, standing in for the fictional Tangiers). It’s a matter of the whole movie being steeped in Vegas—our city’s history, mythology and everlasting allure. IMDb.com/title/tt0112641.

Runner-up: The Hangover