The Other Top 10: "Check out the big brain on Brett!": Best Displays of Intelligence

10. Kid Brain: Matilda

Long before Bradley Cooper took drugs to stop being a disgusting writer and turn into a brilliant playboy in Limitless, Matilda did the trick without performance enhancers. Instead, Matilda proved in this scene that all you really need to become a child genius is neglect from your parents.

9. Chess Brain: Searching for Bobby Fischer

Joshua Waitzkin, the American chess star whose story is told in Searching for Bobby Fischer, didn't need to be neglected to become a chess genius. He couples his brilliance with an act of supererogation in this scene at the end of the movie. All he needed was a little pressure from his parents and two rival coaches (played by Ben Kingsley and Laurence Fishburne) whose expert teaching is boiled down in the end of the movie to "don't take out your queen!" (Kingsley) and "take out your queen!" (Fishburne).

Honorable-mention chess brain: The Luzhin Defence

John Turturro plays Luzhin in this Nabokov adaptation. In this scene (3:00 on) he wins his final chess tournament posthumously, with Emma Watson as Katkov playing the moves he wrote before his death.

8. Sorkin Brain: The Social Network

Matilda goes to college.

Honorable-mention Sorkin brain: A Few Good Men

Lieutenant Kaffee hits fungoes and serves his clients. Short clip of a great scene.

The American President

Don't mess with the ACLU. At 1:45, Martin Sheen thinks to himself "I could make a pretty good president." More a display of guts than intelligence but I didn't want to leave it out.

7. Persuasive Brain: Twelve Angry Men

When you've got as many scenes as My Dinner with Andre you better have some great moments. Twelve Angry Men delivers.

6. Speedy Brain: The Princess Bride

Speaking of My Dinner with Andre, Wallace Shawn stars in this scene which would probably be number one on this list if his reasoning didn't fail him in the end.

5. Detective Brain: Clue

I've played the board game "Clue" many times. It's never this fun.

4. Musical Brain: Amadeus

For those who haven't seen the movie and aren't up on their 18th century composers I'll try an analogy. Salieri: Mozart, Nadal: Federer. Or, if that's not fair perhaps Salieri: Mozart, Djokovic: Federer, or maybe Murray: Federer. What I mean to say is that composing during Mozart's time is somewhat like playing tennis while Federer is active. It's tough. Just watch the clip.

Honorable-mention musical brain: Vitus