15 Totally Flawless Movie Monologues
1. You Threw It Away - 25th Hour (2002)
Spike Lee's brilliant slice-of-life drama 25th Hour stars Edward Norton as Monty Brogan, a deeply flawed man who has just one last day to take in life before starting a seven-year prison sentence for drug dealing.
The film follows Monty as worries about prison life, remembers his closest relationships and spends his final hours as a free man with his dog, his father (Brian Cox), his girlfriend Naturelle (Rosario Dawson), and his equally-troubled friends Jacob and Frank (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Barry Pepper).
In the film's first act, Monty goes to the bathroom and sees a note on the mirror reading: "F**k you." Seeing this triggers his resentment, as he lets loose a violent, racist, sexist, cruel, hypocritical rant about all the things he seems to hate about New York City, only to realise none of his hatred is authentic, and he's just angry at himself.
A film about one man's mistakes and regrets as well as a searing portrayal of post-9/11 New York, 25th Hour is a masterpiece of a character study, and Norton's perfectly delivered monologue might just be its crowning achievement.
CW: Very strong language.