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What are your ten favourite movies of all time?
What are your ten favourite movies? My daughter asked me this the other day - we were watching Cabin in the Woods, which is one of my favourites, and I said that it was a top ten movie for me, and she asked me about the others. Now I want to hear yours!
One of the things I've been doing the last couple of years has been collecting the physical blu-ray/4kbr copies of my favorite pieces of media. (TV/movies, vinyl for music if possible), so I just have to look at my collection!
Edit: Gonna throw some "I forgot to add these movies" in here:
Not only do we have three overlaps, you picked some that are runners up for my list. Good Will Hunting and Avengers Infinity War / End Game (mushed together like I did for LotR)!
Good Will Hunting was actually at the top for me up until a couple of years ago! I still watch it yearly and I cry every single time I watch it.
God damn it, I completely forgot about Edgar Wright when I was running through directors in my head. And I just watched Baby Driver the other day! Great pick/list.
haha honestly I'd just put the Cornetto trilogy all in one, along with Baby Driver. Last Night in Soho I also actually really enjoyed, and it would probably be in my top 20 list if I wanted to get to that point.
Does Baby Driver have the most cursed cast in film history? Spacey, Elgort, and Hamm all make this a difficult watch now.
Yeah... I legitimately LOVED the movie too, It's a heist movie (one of my favorite genres) with ASL and music being a central motif (something I'm passionate about) and the main character has the same name as my cat! But it's soooo hard to rewatch because I'm not very good at separating the art from the artist.
For whatever reason, I'm much happier to watch films that star problematic people, than films directed / written by problematic people. I'm watching a character when it's a good film, not a terrible person actor playing a character. Maybe? I'm also okay to read about fictitiousbserial killer characters, but I don't want to read even good things written by bad people.
Or maybe it's the face blindness.
For me it's that films and shows take dozens or sometimes hundreds of people to make them into a finished product. It's not Edgar Wright's fault or Courtney Hoffman (costume design) or the 26 person make-up department (per IMDB)'s fault that Spacey and Elgort and Hamm did fucked up shit. They probably had no idea about it when they were making the movie. Should their livlihoods take a hit because they associated with a person they didn't even know was a problem?
A novel is a totally different story. Yes, there are editors and publishers involved in getting the book to print, but it is primarily the work of one person. The editors and publishers also usually have a much closer relationship with the authors - though not always - and may have a better idea of what kind of person the author is.
At the end of the day it's a difficult ethical line, and a lot of it will come down to what you can stomach, and how much influence you're likely to have on the situation. I don't think renting Neverwhere from your local library will add up to Gaiman assaulting more women or not, even if everyone agrees on whether or not to do it, but refusing to put money into the Harry Potter franchise may actually have repercussions for Rowling, and if we're lucky, reduce the harm that she's able to do. I don't know that it's as totally black and white as "avoid all products that an abusive person has worked on under any circumstances".
I think it's hard to say. For me I feel like I'm a bit TOO aware of where that money is going directly, so it's harder to enjoy the art as a result. I dunno!
I know what you mean, I was talking to a guy about Neil Gaiman recently, and their defence was appreciation for the books doesn't go towards active current harm, and they especially compared it to Rowling whose book sales support a certain view. Meanwhile I'm listening trying to figure out the difference: book sales = support
What's wrong with Jon Hamm?
He was charged in the 90s in an incident regarding fraternity hazing. I have yet to find an unbiased account, but here is a source.
Oh my. Thanks for the info.
I hadn't heard about Jon Hamm. Slight regret at reading the details. In brief, he tortured fraternity pledges so badly he switched schools, the frat permanently closed, Hamm and seven other people arrested. Hamm "reached a plea deal".
In addition, his knee-jerk reaction to being asked about it was to bristle up and suggest they might be doing a "hit-piece". That's what sealed it for me; that's not the behavior of someone who believes they were wrong.
I have seen a lot of people say this, but I actually don't agree. It's actually pretty understandable to react the way he did during his interview, even if he is remorseful for his actions. Consider that he came to talk about a movie, and then the leadoff questions were about something terrible he did 25 years previously.
If I was going to be interviewed for an achievement, and I got there and the interviewer led off with "do you remember the time you did the worst thing you ever did 2 decades ago, let's talk about it and I'll publish it and millions of people will read about it, even though I gave you no notice that we would be chatting about this" I would probably not be particularly happy either.
I'm not saying that he didn't do bad things, and I'm also not saying that he regrets them. I just don't think being exasperated at this sort of journalism is any kind of "gotcha".
This is a very fair and objective take. It's easy for me to get riled up because I only just found out this happened, so I'm probably knee-jerking a bit myself. I also will never know what it's like to be John Hamm responding to that interview, and I wasn't able to find any video of it so perhaps the interviewer was already being a jerk and hoping for a more explosive reaction - maybe it really was intended to be a hit-piece.
However, when I go back and consider the things he (allegedly but probably) did, at the age of 20... I fully realize I should try to be less vengeful, but it's difficult.
It's hard to mount any kind of defense of Jon Hamm's reaction in the interview because the things that he allegedly (and probably) did were pretty awful. And I think with regards to the things he has allegedly (and probably) done, there's also something to consider about his age, the time elapsed since it happened, and the fact that he was doing it as part of a fraternity, given the social construction of how fraternities operate. Better people have probably been coerced into doing worse things. But again, mounting a defense for it is kind of an exercise in self destruction or maybe self delusion, because he's a super famous celebrity who has skipped by with almost no repercussions for vile actions.
Anyways, I probably clearly feel conflicted about it. I have enjoyed a lot of Jon Hamm's work over the years, but especially some of the geekier side of things; he's a noted DnD appreciator, he's on a lot of cool podcasts, he's friends with a lot of people that I look up to. But it's hard to get past "lit a guy on fire one time".
On the other hand if I were the kind of person who has done something like that, I would expect every single person I meet thereafter to start off any questions with that one
This is a tough one! There are so many amazing ones already listed. I chose mine based on what I could watch over and over again. If they're on TV somewhere, these are the movies I'd stop flipping channels to watch the rest of, regardless of commercials:
It's so quotable! Plus, beyond Schwarzenegger, the cast is top notch with Phil Hartman as the lecherous jerk of a neighbor, and Sinbad as the downtrodden, ruthless mailman. This is the film that Jake Lloyd should be known for; not that other one. :P
"Ta-ta, Turtle Man." XD
I respect the hell out of this list! There's a lot of variety and classics in their own rights.
It was really tough to decide which Shōwa era Godzilla film to choose as there's just so many good ones, but Megalon and Gigan are two of my absolute favorite baddies.
I will also forever love Ricardo Montalbán portraying two of my other favorite baddies, Khan Noonien Singh and Armando Guitierrez.
You have some great picks as well, with The Lion King and Spider-Man 2. Amazing theater experiences! Oh and with Inception, I had to keep reminding myself not to hold my breath during the wake-up sequence. Whew-whee!
Ahh, Film & TV. "Maggie, come to the one you love best."
TIL Ricardo Montalbán was in Freakzoid 😆
Can you explain your pick for Patriot Games?
I did a Jack Ryan marathon about 5 years ago. I had never seen the Harrison Ford Ryan movies, so I was excited. At the end, I was actually surprised that out of the first 4 movies, my favorite was Hunt for the Red October, and 2nd favorite was Sum of all Fears.
I was really surprised by how... underwhelmed I was with the Ford films. I'm curious what you enjoy about them (or at least one of them). I'll admit they didn't have my full attention when watching them, so maybe I'll give them another watch to see if there's something I was missing.
What I like about Patriot Games is that it is so utterly removed from the rest of the series.
Jack Ryan, having left the CIA, now teaches at the U.S. Naval Academy. On a return trip to London, the IRA tries to assassinate the British Minister of Northern Ireland. Following his instincts, Jack intervenes. Becoming wounded in the process, he manages to kill two of the perpetrators while the third, Sean Miller, is captured. Among the dead, however, is Miller's beloved younger brother.
Ryan, having served as witness at Sean Miller's trial, returns to the U.S. while the leader of Miller's terrorist cell, Kevin O'Donnell, intercepts and frees Miller on the way to prison. O'Donnell sends him to the U.S. on Ryan's tail, hoping to use the loss of his younger brother as inspiration for another attempt on the British Minister. Instead, the assassin is spiraling into an obsession of revenge; Sean Miller no longer cares about The Troubles and the English occupation. He no longer even cares about the IRA's patriotic cause. He only has eyes on Jack Ryan.
Meanwhile, the Ryan family works to readjust to normal life back in the State of Maryland. Jack's wife Cathy has just picked up their daughter Sally from school and the two are returning home. Crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, however, an unmarked van speeds up beside them.
Rather than plodding, I find the movie very tense. Some of the scenes are just brilliantly executed, such as when Jack is in the hospital, reading The Cat in the Hat to Sally. The CIA is closing in on O'Donnell's camp but Sean Miller could be anywhere. In trying to find him, Jack's hands are getting tied up by bureaucracy, so he has just confronted Sinn Féin rep Paddy O'Niel. Jack doesn't care about Sinn Féin running guns into Ireland. He no longer even cares about the CIA's patriotic cause. He only has eyes on Sean Miller.
Anticipating the collision between an immovable wall and an unstoppable force, O'Niel relents on his prior statements, visiting the hospital to pay his respects to Jack's family in the form of a gift and a parcel of crucial information. All the while, we see Jack beside Sally's hospital bed, an unnerving violin slowly bowing downward in tone behind Harrison Ford's low voice, reading aloud:
Phenomenal.
At it's core, the movie is not so much about patriotism as it is about the hatred that two men can have for each other over the fierce love of their own families, and what one does with that hatred. It's an emotional look at the underpinnings of patriotism that lead into the modern forms of conflict. What I like about it over other Jack Ryan movies is how personal it is.
A little tongue-in-cheek here, but I don't even really think of it as a Jack Ryan film so much as I do a Harrison Ford film. Like Witness or The Devil's Own, the entire movie just revolves around Ford's acting style. Plus, it's packed with an all-star cast; Sean Bean is formidably scary in this one!
With all of that said, my mom also really likes this movie, so there's a bit of nostalgia that puts it on my list. She feels that it well depicts a family who fights to protect each other. She liked that, after so many '80s flicks, Jack's wife Cathy wasn't some nobody, but a respected surgeon who can "clock a terrorist in the head, instead of shriveling up in the corner."
I don't think you have to like it, though. I can completely understand the ways that it could be unappealing to other viewers. Oh, and it definitely straddles that weird line of American Exceptionalism.
Edit: spelling.
Amazing! Thanks for the response!
I love seeing movies I considered for my favourites on others' lists - Children of Men, Tremors, Shawshank, Star Wars, The Truman Show were all on my shortlist of consideration. If I ever expand my list to 100, they'll be there.
Great list!
I think that scene that the whole of Children of Men culminated to —you know the one— just absolutely blew me away. A friend wanted to go see it in the theater, and I didn't know anything about it, so I went in completely blind, having no idea of what to even expect during that opening in the coffee shop. That film is just devastatingly beautiful.
Tremors, though, I find myself quoting that one all of the time! I adore Kevin Bacon (except when he's scary, like in The River Wild).
Dark City is such a good pick and criminally underrated! Plus, Rufus Sewell is just amazing. It's such a shame that The Man in the High Castle petered out after season 2 when Spotnitz left.
I think what I find particularly amazing about Alien is that, following Star Wars' revolution of Sci-fi in film, Alien was able to take many of the things that Lucasfilm did to set their project apart while introducing minimalism. Instead of a rolling intro to establish the greater conflict, there is only a brief informational card about the freighter. Instead of establishing backstory for each character, we just see them eat breakfast, joke, and argue. It's as real and visceral as the thing coming out of Kane's chest. Frustrating the viewer by withholding decent views of the craft or the creature itself is also a great way of pulling the audience into the emotion of the situation surrounding the company's conspiracy; so little makes it into the light. The enduring theme of "show, don't tell" is what likewise puts the preview so frequently at the top of people's trailer lists. Plus, it sounds like many of the people from Jodorowsky's failed Dune project who didn't go to Star Wars, went to Alien instead, most notably H.R. Giger. Good stuff!
Children of Men is one of the rare movie adaptations that I like better than the book. I thought the story was better and less messy, and it is, as you say, devastatingly beautiful.
I love me some Kevin Bacon, even when he's being bad. I'd mostly forgotten The River Wild, but I'm going to put that on my rewatch list. I also like David Strathairn who I think is in that, and of course Meryl Streep, the GOAT.
Oh yeah, I am totally lying; I still love Kevin Bacon in The River Wild. The guy's got range! And yup, Strathairn's in that one. Plus, you are absolutely right about Streep! I can't help but think of this Michael Scott quote:
Oh, I got that you still like him when he's bad. I was actually going to talk about some of the other movies where he is bad, but I got lost in thinking about River Wild and then looking for a copy, and then thinking about David Strathairn in the Expanse. SO instead of my original intent of playing with your joke, I just looked like I didn't get it, lol.
Also, the band I was in years ago had a song called "Better When She's Bad" that was also brought to mind and a fair distraction for me and I guess this is how someone discovers they have ADHD.
It's a great thing to get to wander down so many fun paths. :D
Really interesting movie! What's your take on the redux version (if you've seen it)? I was really fascinated by Apocalypse Now as a teenager and it made me read Heart of Darkness (and listen to The Doors), but I never saw the theatrical release I think. I'm kinda interested in watching it now.
I think it was only the redux version which had the scenes where Captain Willard meets the French colonists, right?
Also, have you seen the documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse? I think it was interesting because it had behind-the-scenes footage filmed by Eleanor Coppola.
The redux vs. theatrical question reminds me of Blade Runner. I only ever saw the final cut (or director's cut, not even sure), and many people seem to dislike the theatrical release.
I have seen the Redux, yes. It's tough, because I am one of those fans who did not like the French Plantation sequence. I get some of the arguments for it in pointing to some of the "whys" of the Vietnam conflict, as Willard's conversation with de Marais is a very politically meaningful scene, and his fling with Sarrault somewhat represents American collusion with the French in carelessly creating the then-present situation. However, my criticism is just the same as many others in that I felt that this detracted from the pace of the film's otherwise increasing ominousness. My outlook may not be the most fair, though, as I was already a little familiar with the Indochina War just after WWII so the expository aspect of this scene didn't really work for me either, given that I already had the context. So I an appreciate the ways that other viewers who do not have this context might benefit from the scenes.
Though, my idea for a perfect cut might be the Redux version, but without the second Playboy Bunnies scene (fraternizing in the Huey) and without the French Plantation sequence. I rather liked the theft of Kilgore's surfboard as character development among the patrol boat crew, as well as the extra bits we get in Kurtz' camp such as the time magazine scene which further amplified the sense of time and psychology of Kurtz' torture and general power. All four of these are otherwise absent in the Theatrical version. Oh, and yeah, Hearts of Darkness is a great documentary! I definitely have a copy somewhere around here.
So, the U.S. Theatrical version of Blade Runner was already lacking a few scenes from the International version as it was avoiding any restrictions on its rating or release in the States (but nothing that affected the story, just some violence). However, it wasn't until the release of the Director's Cut, ten years later, that the Unicorn Dream, the monologue removals, and the ambiguous ending came into play (but still no International scenes). When it would come on TV in the 90s~00s, it was often a tossup as to which version you were going to get. In talking to people who had seen the film, many of us had different takes because of seeing different versions.
It's interesting how elements from all of them went on to inform 2049. I think it's only in the Theatrical version that it's mentioned that Rachel has an uninhibited lifespan, as it's during the "Happy Ending" sequence monologue where Deckard mentions it. Whereas it's the Director's and Final Cuts that feature hints about Deckard being a replicant.
Regardless, the Final Cut is my preference as well. I think a perfect cut of the film would be the Final Cut, but the intro card is replaced with the Dictionary Intro from the Workprint Cut:
REPLICANT \rep'-li-cant\ n. See also ROBOT (antique):
ANDROID (obsolete): NEXUS (generic): Synthetic human
with paraphysical capabilities, having skin/flesh culture.
Also: Rep, skin job (slang): Off-world uses: Combat,
high risk industrial, deep-space probe. On-world use prohibited.
Specifications and quantities—information classified.
New American Dictionary
Copyright © 2016
It goes from the title card, to that above, to "Los Angeles, November 2019", and then that opening shot of the city with its flaming smokestacks. I always thought the Dictionary Intro worked best in grounding the imagination in that universe, rather than spelling it out. And yeah, Blade Runner is one of those very few films where I personally did not like the Theatrical version more.
I’ve been trying to come up with a list like this and I have a variant of it. It’s what I would submit to the Sight and Sound poll that determines the greatest movies of all time.
That's a great list, and pretty similar to what I might pick for "Greatest Films of all Time". I'd likely find a place for The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, as well as The Godfather. The Shawshank Redemption would probably be on my list too (it almost made it to my favourites).
But are these your favourites, or are they the ones that you think are the highest quality? Edit: or are they both? They could definitely be both!
It’s both. I would say I’ve made forced omissions rather than forced inclusions. Silver Linings Playbook is one of my favorite movies, but omitted it for the purpose of the Sight and Sound poll.
Oh Sound of Music! That's not one I expected, but totally respect haha. I just watched that not too long ago. Had those songs stuck in my head for awhile
the first tape of The Sound of Music is perfect as a standalone. I cannot forgive Rolf.
This was a tough assignment. It almost feels wrong to only have movies on this list made from 1995 and onward.
Arrival was in consideration for me - it would definitely be in a top 100, maybe in a top 25 (though there are lots of great movies), maybe in a top 15.
Mandy is such a hot pick. I really liked that movie.
I actually watched Interstellar with my daughters the other day, and the older one found it slow but good, and the younger one really liked it other than having some confusion in the middle about entering a black hole. It was a contender for my list as well - we have been going through movies that I've loved for a while, and now we're trying to kick it into overdrive and watch a bunch since my oldest is off to University in a couple of weeks.
Is Climax the trippy Caspar Noe movie?
Arrival is a perfect 10 for me. I didn't exactly rank those, but Arrival did go at the top for a reason.
Yep, Gaspar Noé. It's not something I suspect most people would enjoy.
What's on deck?
I've been blasting through Nolan films again. I think Tenet is highly underrated. It's my second favorite of his. I'm about to tackle Fincher. He has a few I've never seen.
Looper is on deck! Arrival is on the list as well, but I have to intersperse the sci-fi with other things so I don't lose the oldest kid. But luckily she's already seen Looper (she's a big Emily Blunt fan) and suggested it for our next movie night. There are a few more we're trying to get through before she leaves:
did you like Vortex? I’ve had it downloaded forever and i always neglect it. His movies are so beautiful but heavy.
After being emotionally demolished by The Father, I have avoided Vortex because of the subject matter. Watched my dad deal with dementia until he passed last year. I will eventually watch it.
ok — we are in the same mindset. if it weren’t from Noe, i’d have watched it ages ago —- but i just know it’ll crush me and stay with me for a long time.
Oh boy. I hadn't heard of this but I have some personal experience in that space. Beautiful and heavy I can deal with, as long as the tone isn't "the ugliness of life is exactly what life is like and you're stupid to think otherwise "
I had no interest in dancing, but this movie was mesmerizing. How can you not with this amazing opening.
The two dance sequences are awesome. I go to a lot of house and techno parties where I sometimes get to see dance culture in action. I love it. I wish I could dance like them.
I very much like the rest of the movie as well, but it's a challenging watch. Gaspar wants to make viewers uncomfortable. That's the reason I've only seen two of his movies. Enter the Void being the other one.
Give Irreversible a watch as well, though it is weird to recommend as it is both one of the best and worst movies I have experienced.
That's the one I have the biggest aversion to, for the obvious reason I don't need to be explicit about. I've read about the way the story is told. I'm definitely intrigued by that.
Same, I read what the premise is and how it's shot/edited and I'm going out of my way to avoid it. But, if one of the purposes of media is to change the way about how the viewer views life, I feel like the director already succeeded in my case from just my hearing the movie's premise.
Some directors definitely have other ambitions with their films that goes beyond making a good entertaining film. They seek to provoke the viewer to think about things in a new way. Though that sort of thing is not for everyone which is totally understandable.
What you said about merely knowing about the films existence reminded me that there exist a version of Irreversible that is told chronologically. And in a weird way that really provokes me to know that he made that, because I feel that completely ruins the point of the film. And maybe Gaspar Noe made the straight version just to provoke someone like me, even though we will never actually see it.
I wrote a bit about it here but there's no need to click through to that site. My list is not in order, and I stipulate that these are my favourites, and in no way should be submitted as "best" movies.
If I were to try to come up with what I think are the "best" movies of all time my list would be pretty different - I would potentially make an argument for Jurassic Park (the perfect blockbuster) and Alien, but I wouldn't put any of the others on. But I would watch each of these ten just about any time, and will happily prattle on at length about them with interested parties.
That really impressed me when I watched it, but that was quite a while ago. I wonder if it would still be good if I watched it now. Have you seen it more than once/recently?
I have seen it more than once, and most recently this year. It holds up fairly well. Here's the blurb I wrote about it:
There are some effects issues near the end where things look less good, but generally the movie is slick, the pacing is anxiety inducing, and it's still very good.
I'm just gonna point out that we have 3 overlaps so we're still basically the same person!
Jurassic Park and Princess Bride are two great picks that I completely overlooked. Nice list.
In one particular order (alphabetical)
Bo Burnham: Inside should be placed into curation at museums of anthropology as a masterpiece of how the COVID pandemic lockdown affected humanity, when artistically expressed by a dedicated genius.
I showed a friend "Welcome to the Internet" from this movie, and I was caught off guard by how much it bummed my friend out. I'm a big fan of his dark introspective weirdness, so I guess I forgot how twisted it can be for the uninitiated.
He's one of the only artists I pray for (since he asked) regularly because I worry for his mental health. One of the most talented people on the planet. The bridge ("You say the ocean's rising...") gives me chills every time I hear it still.
Arrival was one of the last ones I cut from my list, it's such a great movie.
Which Alice in Wonderland is it on your list?
Also fun fact: this is the first list where I was immediately struck by not having seen several of the movies, so I'm going to add these to my watchlist: Bo Burnham: Inside, Brick, Moonrise Kingdom.
1951! That's a good callout though, I should try watching other versions
Word of warning: Brick's sound mixing isn't the best and often has quick dialogue. I'd recommend either loud volume or CC to not miss potentially important lines
I think that the 1951 version is probably the best. It's hard to beat. Thanks for the warning re: CC, I'll make sure that the version I get has that available.
Brick is so good. I was an instant JGL fan after that one.
Cool that you included Bo Burnham. I recently watched it and it is really good.
A top ten is difficult. Let me think of films that will always have to be in my collection, whatever format that exists:
Apocalypse Now
The Godfather Series
2001: A Space Odyssey
Dr. Strangelove
Taxi Driver
Goodfellas
Alien and Aliens
Lawrence of Arabia
Original Star Wars Trilogy
Reservoir Dogs
Overall, a pretty basic bitch film-enthusiast list.
Nothing wrong with being a basic bitch, “everybody” likes those films because they’re really good! It also reminds me that I need to see Taxi Driver and Lawrence of Arabia, yet.
Great list, Alien is showing up quite a bit, which I find interesting.
I think that there's a reason that a lof of film enthusiasts have a lot of these films on their list - they're really good, so there's nothing wrong with that at all, in my opinion.
off the top of my head...
... it's tough, though. @lou is right with Zerkalo being on the list. I'd also want stuff like Raise the Red Lantern, The Handmaiden, and so many more.... but I'll roll with more domestic picks for this one.
Great list, thanks for sharing. 12 Angry Men was on my alt list, as was No Country for Old Men.
I have an embarrassing thing to admit, which is that I watched Fargo once in 1996, didn't like it, and haven't given it another chance. I'm not really sure why. I'm going to have to give it another watch with as open a mind as possible.
definitely give it a watch or two again. I love everything they do anyways, but Fargo just hits what they were going for.
Raise the Red Lantern(1991) by Zhang Yimou ??? Dude I LOVE that film! I recently rewatched it as an adult and got a lot more out of it than my first viewing as a teen. I remember intensely hating the Opera Singer wife but I understand her better now. And I didn't understand the main character's servant girl being used as a foil. Wonderful film, beautifully shot too. A commentator said that the film goes through a cycle of Summer-Fall-Winter then time skip and Summer again: there are no springs in that world.
I can also see the life of Zhang himself play out over his career: Red Lantern - Qiu Ju - To Live era films about the brutalities of living in Confucian China where optimism still exists, but at a brutal price. Then critically acclaimed blockbuster era like House of the Flying Dagger etc. Then we have his films now. Good for him, he's getting the foot massages and having his lantern lit.
it feels like this is one of those films that people into film watched and nobody else has heard of it.
i’m due for another watch. i also find my sympathies shift a bit as i age.
I really enjoyed Fargo. Have you seen the TV-series? I've seen the first two seasons and liked them (mostly the first, though).
Do you like The Big Lebowski? I think Fargo and The Big Lebowski are the only Coen brother movies I've seen and I enjoyed both of them.
I've also seen 12 Angry Men and remember liking it.
Have you read The Godfather by Mario Puzo? I remember having read it as a teenager and thought the movie was way better. I thought the novel was really tasteless in parts and unnecessarily long, but still kinda entertaining and easy to read.
I really like the series. I watched the first season twice. The Chris Rock season didn't get a lot of love, but it had Genny from Gomorrah in a comedic role... and I really liked the tone. This last season was good, too.
I've seen everything from the Coen Brothers multiple times. I think No Country for Old Men is the most faithful adaptation of a novel -- its right there with Fight Club for closeness.
For 12 Angry Men, see if you can track down the made for TV movie with Tony Danza, James Gandolfini and more. Its an interesting comparison.
The Godfather books... I love them and I've read the first a few times. I've read everything from Puzo. The film brings an air of class to a book about Sonny's big dick :) I liked the Sicilian, too. Not a great book, but I like the world it built.
Definitely work through the Coen's catalog. Zero stinkers with a wide variety of tone and characters.
In no particular order and without thinking a lot either:
The Maltese FalconPersonaYou know I saw Mirror recently and I just couldn’t get into it. It reminded me that I primarily like studio films with plots.
Tarkovski was deeply mystical and religious. I reckon that Mirror requires a specific kind of metaphysical bent to enjoy. Have you tried his Solaris, or Stalker? The key concept here is "neoplatonism".
Oh, I see you swapped The Maltese Falcon for Persona - what prompted that switch?
I had totally forgotten about Close Encounters - I probably haven't seen that movie in 30 years. I will have to track down a copy and give it a watch.
The Birds was deeply upsetting to me the first time I watched it, which was probably at too young an age, and I think it soured me irrevocably, because I recognize it fully as a movie that's well done that I would typically love, but it gives me a different kind of "yuck" than other horror movies.
Great list!
The Maltese Falcon is a wonderful film but it is more of an excellent and superb embodiment of the quintessential, stereotypical noir than a legitimate member of the top 10. Well, film noir was already represent by the top of the top Sunset Blvd. So I used the spot to contemplate a Swedish genius that I also love.
Close Encounter is an absolute science fiction masterpiece, and I don't think Spielberg ever came close to it since.
Whoops, this made me realize I needed a Bergman film on my own list. Autumn Sonata in my case, but Persona is amazing as well.
Okay, I made a huge list and pared mine down to try to eliminate dupes from other lists. There are so many good ones that others have already mentioned, but fortunately I like a lot of movies :)
Gattaca is another that was on my list of alternates, and would probably get into my top 100. I keep saying that; I wonder how close I am to filling out that list at this point. What a fantastic movie.
Which Dreamcatcher is on your list? I immediately thought of the Stephen King adaptation, but I see that there are several others.
Ghostbusters, 28 Days Later, Vanilla Sky, Highlander were all ones that I massively enjoyed, and I'll have to revisit them. The Thirteenth Floor is one that I think the last time I saw it was in theatres, so I'm going to add that to me to-watch list. Great list!
Yep, the Stephen King one is the one I'm referencing.
I think my real top ten is mixed in with all the other suggestions. My list was mainly a selection of my top 50 that hasn't been mentioned yet. :)
GATTACA is a great movie that I haven't thought about for a long time, but many of the scenes and much of the dialogue forms such a core part of my identity that I'll always be happy to hear others also enjoy it.
I'm really curious to know why Mystery Science Theatre 3000 stands out so far above the rest for you?
Mainly for the same reason you mentioned Gattaca. I find myself referencing something from MST3K so often that it really is a part of who I am. I think that might be the biggest criteria for a movie to make this list, now that I think about it. All of the movies I listed have that common trait in some way.
I should note, though, that I don't necessarily recommend starting with the MST3K movie. It really is a better watch once you've seen the show.
Thanks, Gattaca is beautiful.
In no particular order:
IT REALLY IS!!
A person of culture, I see!
Seriously though, that's also in my top ten
You have so many in your list that I would put in a Top 100. I almost went with one of the Indiana Jones movies. I considered The Thing (and I have tentatively added it to my watch list with my daughters). No Country For Old Men is one that I catch differently on multiple watches; there are little things that I only caught the third or fourth time, like how nobody who lives ever actually sees Chigurh - it's another great movie. And while I have a deep and abiding love of Star Wars, I realized it wasn't in my top favourites anymore. Twenty-years-ago me would be wildly surprised.
In No Country, the coin-flip guy survives a Chigurh sighting.
That's true, I should restate what I'm saying because what I said is not exactly what I mean. I think there's another lady that also survives.
I think the scenes with Chigurh are not scenes that are happening, but scenes that are put together and told by Tommy Lee Jones' character. So it's not that nobody who lives sees him, it's that we're not seeing his scenes "live".
Alphabetic order:
I used to rate movies on Movie Lens because I liked their recommendations at the time. I just chosen 10 of my 5.0-rated films. Problem is I stopped using it ages ago so these are historical faves. Honestly this is a fool's errand, lol. Made even worse by reading through other people's lists :(
Super interesting list - love the doubling down on Lynch. Alien seems like it is on a lot of lists here, which is pretty cool.
I agree that it's a bit of a fool's errand, but it's kind of fun to see what people come up with.
Right. the fun is seeing everyone's favourites, then kicking yourself for not listing so many of your other favourites. A few surprises in this thread ... for example are Scorcese and Kubrick under-represented?
A toss up between Mulholland Drive and Tarkovsky's Stalker (which is his only film I've seen but left a big, big impression). I feel that Genius is thrown about for a lot of good or even great (but not actual genius) directors. I do feel Lynch deserves it though.
By the way you've done a bang up job responding to a very busy thread, cheers.
Stalker didn't stick for me the way it did with other people, but I think that's likely because I watched it when I was about 17 and didn't really have a deep appreciation or understanding of films at that point. Onto my rewatch list it goes!
I love when people take part in threads like this, and I think that commenting back is a nice way to let people know that the time and effort that they put into responding went somewhere and was processed and thought about. One of the lovely things about Tildes is the connections that it enables.
This is interesting. I'll admit I don't watch a lot of movies to begin with (certainly way less than everyone who's been replying), but I recognize a lot of these and it's amazing how much these lists (if accurate) reveal about each of your unique personalities!
Speaking of unique, while it's difficult for a non habitual viewer to make a strict top ten, I usually enjoy movies much like I enjoy videogames - I want good storytelling and production, but I also want something unique and memorable. I'm a big fan of classic animation. Despite my recently professed dislike for Everything Everywhere... I'll usually be favorably disposed toward weird stuff rather than the traditionally acknowledged greats (all the while acknowledging their greatness regardless). Let me try to steal some stuff from everyone's responses.
Moonrise Kingdom: I see the other Wes Anderson fans here (spotted at least 4 at time of writing). It's hard to choose just one of his movies but in the end I have to go with the cutest coming of age movie ever made.
The Fifth Element: I love science fiction and I love this movie's blend of action, humor and whimsy. Unforgettable!
The Truman Show: Mind blowing to a younger me, the concept has a lot of staying power and has recurred over the years. Just this year I played American Arcadia and watched Severance, both of which brought this movie to mind.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail: I'm not quite one of the people who has memorized the whole script word for word but I usually recognize the quotes. I love Monty Python in general and watched everything they made. Life of Brian would also be a good candidate here.
The Lion King (original Disney cartoon movie): Sorry, Kimba. If I had to pick the traditional 2D-animated Disney cartoon that influenced me the most as a child, this one would be it. An incredible take on age-old themes and mind-blowing at the time. Unforgettable music too!
Spirited Away: Moving on to anime, I see various Ghibli movies in people's lists. After giving it some thought, my favorite has to be Spirited Away. Not the most interesting story-wise, but it's a beautiful movie that really nails the mood and pacing.
Honorable mention to everything people mentioned that I really liked but find too stressful to deem as favorites (looking at you Tarantino).
Let's pick four random movies I liked to complete my list that haven't yet been mentioned by others at time of writing:
Mirrormask: Sorry if the timing is bad due to the movie's association with Neil Gaiman. This is one of those obscure, critically dubious movies people either love or hate. It's far from the only movie I enjoyed on the strength of its weirdness.
Pan's Labyrinth: Like a hypocrite, two paragraphs after claiming I excluded some movies for being too stressful, I give you this Guillermo del Toro calming, relaxing fable ;) It's not the only drama along the same lines that I found great but this definitely has the most whimsy added to the mix. [Edit: @bhrgunatha also listed it while I was writing!]
Song of the Sea: European animation had to be represented and I don't think this is in any way a controversial choice. Stylish and a fun watch!
Kubo and the Two Strings: As a massive fan of stop motion animation studio LAIKA, I had to include one of their works here, and this is my pick. It's a ridiculously good and underrated movie.
I had to exclude a bunch of stuff due to the way I assembled this list, and animation ended up overrepresented, but it feels honest and accurate.
[Edit: I deliberately avoided some picks for which I felt reading the book was strictly better than watching the movie. I read a lot more books than I watch movies!]
I'm a big Wes Anderson fan but for this particular project just happen to not be top 10.
It's not the only cute Wes Anderson coming of age, obviously. Off the top of my head, Robin Robin would be my absolute favorite (even cuter!!), followed closely by Fantastic Mr Fox. One could argue Royal Tenenbaum is about a dude coming of age in his later years, and likewise Henry Sugar. If the list was for storytelling achievement using audio visual mediums, I would gladly include Budapest Hotel in my top ten. If we were naming best portfolio Wes Anderson wins my list for sure.
Wow, great list and a great writeup for each one!
I remember watching Mirrormask years ago and enjoying it, though I remember almost nothing about it other than a vague feeling that I have organized it in the same mental movie box as Labyrinth and Dark Crystal. My kids loved Song of the Sea a lot - what a gorgeously animated movie.
My favourite moment of reading your list was Pan's Labyrinth - I read the "find too stressful", then I skimmed the bullet points for the names of the films and had a "ha ha, ok, how is that not stressful" then when I went back and read the full points, got to "like a hypocrite". Delightful.
Great list, thanks for sharing and for the writeup!
In no particular order:
There aren't very many recent movies, because when I think of a favorite movie, endurance is a factor for me. There are plenty of movies that I loved when I left the theater, but how did I feel about them a week later? Will I still feel moved or scared or laugh at them in 10, 15, 20 years? I'm sure if you asked me this same question in 10 years, there would be a few more movies from the late 2010s, early 2020s on it. I don't think movies being made now are bad, and it's not even necessarily nostalgia drawing me to these movies from my childhood. If anything, it's habit, but positively reinforced habit. Any time I've thought about a favorite movie since I was like, 11, one of the thoughts has been The Princess Bride, and then when I watch it, I still have a great time, so it stays on the list. It's tough for a movie that I've only loved for a few years to break into that set.
Good inclusion. Have you watched the B&W variant by chance?
I have not! I didn't realize there was one. Is it different in any other ways?
Looks like no. I haven't watched it either but been meaning to. Seems to have a very favorable reputation among fans
I thought about just saying "The Cornetto Trilogy" instead of Shawn of the Dead for my list. I also struggled with my list regarding Kevin Smith - I really like his films, and I thought I would end up with one of his films on my list, and I wasn't sure which one. Dogma might have been it.
Great list!
Ooh, I didn't think about combining franchises into one entry. In that case, the Back to the Future trilogy probably belongs somewhere on my list, but I'm not sure what it would replace.
Dogma was my pick for Kevin Smith because I saw it for the first time when I was questioning my Christianity, and helped reframe some things for me. I'm also an absolute sucker for Alan Rickman. Oh frig, I forgot Galaxy Quest! I need to redo this whole list. :P
There's no rules! You're freeeeeeee!
For me it came down to Dogma or Mallrats, which seems a bit silly when I say it. Mallrats hit when I was just the right age to be completely into Mallrats, and it just worked for me for a lot of years. I still enjoy it a lot. I think Dogma is the better film, and I've probably gotten more from it.
A very fluid list depending on the day of the week:
5th Element
The Man from Earth
The Producers (both original and musical)
Super Troopers
Dogma
Rocky Horror Picture Show (but only in theaters)
Hedwig and Angry Inch
Tucker and Dale vs Evil
The Wall
Interstella 5555
Stuff that is trying to force its way in via "How could I forget this" edits instead of what I wrote. Told you this list was fluid.
Young Frankenstein
A Beautiful Mind
Pi
Kill Bill Vol 1
Memento
Batteries Not Included
The NIN Broken VHS tape
Bonus:
Current favorite kid movie is Thelma the Unicorn. The universe is wild, and it's a great criticism of the modern music scene.
Such a good movie.
The Man from Earth - that was an interesting movie! A friend recommended it and I'm glad I watched it. The discussion around "what if" prior to the film's conclusion, a community of people telling stories around a fire - it really captured a foundational part of humanity. I heard that there's a sequel, I'm not sure I want to watch it.
+1 for Young Frankenstein, Madeline Kahn was one of my favourites, Clue is on my list, I think.
Man from Earth: Holocene is the name of the sequel. I don't recommend it, I only bothered to watch it once. The first I've probably watched 4-5 times.
Great list. Rocky Horror in theaters with the right crowd is a 10/10 experience
Well that's not fair :) how about we make you
cross outone from your original top ten to accomodate new edit ones?I did that originally, but figured it's more fair to the original list while still keeping the edit demon at bay to do it this way.
I'll throw them in spoilers :)
Gotta go make all those trilogy listers pick their favorite from each trilogy.
Great list - another one with ones that were runners up for me. Dogma, Super Troopers, 5th Element would all be in my top 100.
Batteries Not Included is such a great movie. I'm going to rewatch that one and probably Short Circuit some time this year.
I haven't seen Interstella 5555, going to add that to my watch list as well.
I found it incredibly difficult to settle on just ten movies.
Oh, I haven't thought of Big Trouble in Little China for a long time! This is immediately on my watch list.
I had a tossup between Hot Fuzz and Shawn of the Dead, and almost just went with Cornetto Trilogy as a whole, but I already cheated with LotR by calling it one entry on the list. Another instance of Alien as a favourite (it might be the most favourited overall?) and you've reminded me to rewatch Sneakers. Heck, the rest aren't going on my "rewatch soon" list because I've rewatched them within the last year. Great list!
Thanks! I have found that I like Hot Fuzz just a bit more than Shaun of the Dead and a lot more than At World's End, but they are all fun. There were a bunch of movies that didn't make the cut, weirdly most of the comedies. I just finally got my wife to watch Hot Fuzz this last week after trying for a decade, so it was fresh in my mind.
In no real order. Definitely tough to make a top 10 list like this. I was mostly asking myself which I could (or do) watch over and over again. (edited for formatting)
Wondeful writeup and a great list! I agree about In Bruges being criminally underrated. I rewatched it recently just before my wife took a trip to Bruges, what a great film. Pontypool is one I didn't expect to see! I haven't watched it in a while, but I really enjoyed it.
Have you seen the director's 1408? I think it's the director's cut anyways - it has a wildly different ending.
I haven't seen the Last Samurai in a while, maybe since theatres. I really enjoyed it, to the point that I actually had a DnD character inspired by the main character at one point.
Thanks for sharing, great list, I've added some to my rewatch list!
1408 actually has a number of different endings, apparently. I think I heard that there was a home video release that would actually chose the ending at random, which adds to the insanity that is watching that movie.
IIRC Monty Python did that with one of their old vinyl pressings. They had a double-groove, and depending on which grove it landed in when you started the record, it would be a different album.
Edit: Found it
I wasn't going to comment since it's such a huge thread, but I noticed a lack of my favorite filmmakers (Terrence Malick, Wong Kar-wai, Charlie Kaufman). So here is my list, limited to one movie per director. If you asked me again in a month it will have changed a bit, since I will have changed a bit myself.
Checking my Criticker apparently my top are
Alien (1979)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)
Mei and the Kitten Bus (2002)
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Hard Boiled (1992)
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
Spirited Away (2001)
Criticker btw is basically this as a service and is amazing.
I have not seen Mei and the Kitten Bus nor will I likely be able to ;_; I even made a point of visiting the Ghibli museum but alas they were showing some other thing that I wish I hadn't shown my then small child.
I have, I think, a cam of it someone snuck in that is terrible but allows me some “oh yes I remember that” but that’s about it. I suspect after Miyazaki dies some exec will release them all on Bluray or something to get those yen.
I'll hold on a bit more until then. But yeah if they don't do it ten years after his passing, AND if the museum won't put it on permanent showing I'll hunt down a poor cam. I'd fly over to Japan to see it if it were possible to know for sure.
I haven't seen Nausicaa or Mei and the Kitten Bus, I'll add them to my list.
I hadn't seen Criticker before; I'm going to check it out! I have a bit of an internal issue with services like this, which is one of the things that lead me to this question. There are movies where I would likely give a 10 if I were to mark it like Schindler's List because watching it changed something about me, or made me experience something that was important. And there are movies that I think changed something about how movies were made or experienced and I would give a 10 like Gone With The Wind. But I wouldn't put either of those on my favourites list. So do I rethink how I mark, or do I rethink how I favourite?
That's part of why I tried to phrase this as "favourite" instead of "best".
Great list! And thanks for sharing about Criticker, I have signed up.
Yeah it’s nice because you get to decide what the ratings mean to you. I think it’s great to think of it of which movies do you want more recommendations from as it pairs you with people with similar interests.
I really need to see Hard Boiled. It is supposed to be the progenitor of a whole genre of film that I love, but it has somehow evaded me for years.
I wouldn’t say it’s the progenitor much as the genre’s ideal piece of media. It’s so good.
Oh, of course you're right. I chose my words very poorly.
Thanks, I was curious about Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and now I have a reason to watch.
Is a solid good time for certain.
Read the manga is you haven't, it's better than the movie.
It's honestly better than any of his movies.
I have and it’s amazing yes!
Top tens are always way too hard.
It was difficult, and I had several days to put my own list together (I did it before I even posed the question). Blazing Saddles is such an awesome choice - it's actually my dad's favourite film of all time. I also love seeing Hot Fuzz on so many lists.
Office Space was a runner up for me. I love Ron Livingstone and Diedrich Bader. And John C. McGinley. Oh and Stephen Root. Heck, and Gary Cole and Richard Riehle. It had a great cast all around.
Awesome list!
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Interstellar
Tenet (probably my most unpopular pick... but i adore it)
The Shawshank Redemption
Back to the Future
Lord of the Rings (the trilogy... all of it)
Inglorious Basterds
The Sixth Sense
End of Watch
Sicario
It's so good. Blows my mind that someone could effectively piece together a palindromic movie with that level of complexity. I mentioned elsewhere in this thread that it's highly underrated and my second favorite Nolan film.
I feel like I have to watch it again. I had to turn it off when I tried to watch it because it made zero sense to me. I don't know if I was just having an off day or what, but I just couldn't get it to compute. I love all the other Nolan films I've watched, so it should really be right up my alley.
I was fairly skeptical because of the reactions I read when it released. Only watched it a few months ago for the first time. I got it the first time around, but I gave it a second viewing in the last couple of weeks. So glad I did. I think subtitles are helpful for this one. There are days I just don't have the fortitude to give the attention a movie like this deserves. Life is exhausting. But Tenet rocks.
The first watch I would have given it like a 7/10 (probably my lowest christopher nolan film rating), but then on second watch i liked it way more, and ive only liked it more every watch since, to the point it's now my second-favorite nolan film
I still haven't watched Tenet, I'm adding it to my to-watch list. Great list, and I was wondering about where to put Back to the Future. I thought about Back to the Future a lot while writing my list.
Is End of Watch the one with Jake Gylenhaal and Michael Pena? That's on my to-watch list already, but I also haven't seen it.
Yes. There were a lot of Gylenhaal movies I thought about adding to the list, he really has an insanely good filmography. Something about End of Watch is so good though - even though it's corny, and very pro-cop, the chemistry between the characters is so good.
Wow, I didn't expect to have such a hard time picking ten movies.
I will try my best and probably get it wrong, but let's go:
EDIT: I picked them based on favorite. I don't think of them as best movies (some of them belong there though), but more like "I will watch any of these anytime".
That was the intended assignment! I thought about using a sports team analogy to drive it home - "The Maple Leafs are my favourite team, but in no way would they be considered the best team; pick movies in that" but then I was worried about ending up with the Maple Leafs of movie picks.
Great list! I considered both Die Hards and Home Alones for mine as well, because I'll watch any of those 4 movies at any time. Carlito's Way is a cool pick as well.
A recent Tildes comment from @rsl12 about how one say "my mother is the best mother" without any hint of implying other mothers being any bit less good, is how I am going to conceptualize this kind of best forever how.
That's a great way to think about it. I always think of it with the implied "... for me" at the end. The ones I like are good... for me.
Absolutely, theses movies are the best movies.... to me
I have seen Carlito's way only once, actually. I consider it one of the greatest movies (my knowledgeis limited though) and because of the nature od the story, I probably don't want to see it again. Too sad. Great movie!
Of course this is an impossible question as I would have to think in terms of either personal favorites, or groundbreaking movies that have been hugely influenced or historically good movies. And then do that for each genre ideally. Of course that is just caveats and excuses. A mostly personal list could be:
Gone with the windAutumn SonataI love the Before trilogy. If I was making a favorite film series/franchise list, it'd be on there.
I love the Colors trilogy! good picks
I hate to pick a favorite in the trilogy, but if forced to then Juliette Binoche wins. I considered having Kieslowski's Dekalog instead, but that is a 10 part tv series though it could be seen as one long anthology film.
I've always thought of Dek as a film. Others put film series / franchises in their lists, though, so I think its fair with either.
For what it's worth, my intention was to ask for personal favourites, not for groundbreaking or otherwise important movies. I should maybe not have phrased it as "top ten" because that implies "best". Cool list overall.
Funny Games is a cool pick. TGTBATU is one I would put on best movies of all time - I think it's maybe the best western ever made. I actually waffled back and forth on putting a Kevin Smith movie on my list, but I couldn't pick which one, and I don't know what I would have removed. Ben Hur is my father-in-law's favourite movie, and my son, who is 9 and generally not into movies, also really enjoys it.
Yes personal lists are definitely way more interesting to see, as it otherwise would just be top picks from IMDB top list or similar top lists. My picks are for movies that goes a bit beyond "great movie" but also has some special impact or meaning for me. And I wanted to try at least to have my favorite genres and directors represented.
In no particular order:
My Neighbor TotoroLa La LandUpd: I replaced 'My Neighbor Totoro' with La La Land. My Neighbor Totoro is very significant movie for me and world, but La La Land I like more.
This is another list which features 2 movies I haven't seen - Nirvana and Asteroid City. Asteroid City is already on my to-watch list, but I'm going to add Nirvana.
Edge of Tomorrow is one that I just watched with my girls; it's my oldest daughter's favourite movie and my younger daughter hadn't seen it, but ended up loving it. I really liked it as a role for Cruise - he usually plays the guy who is hyper capable from the get-go, so having him start as a bit of a heel and a schlub was great. I'm also a sucker for time loop movies - Groundhog Day almost made it on my own favourites list, as did Coherence, and I've watched Source Code, Boss Level, Palm Springs etc. more times than is reasonable - so it's another that has a special place over here.
Great list, thanks for sharing!
I will watch this movie just to hear the soundtrack. BA-DA-BUM BA-DA-DUMMMM :D
Also there wasn't a second movie, I don't know what you could even be talking about.
Exactly, not sure what they're on about, nor is there any sort of anime or whatever. There is, however, a Pacific Rim -like game called Into The Breach, and a spin off Baba title Mobile Suit Baba
Oh, nice. Here's my list. It's subject to change (only my top 3 is kind of set in stone) and I didn't think too hard about it.
Great list, I'd watch all of these at any time. I struggled with Star Wars - it has been such a big part of my whole dang life and I love it, but apparently I loved others more.
Snatch is such a fun pick - the number of times I have said "Do you know what Nemesis means?" is probably much higher than it should be. Same with "fer me ma".
Starship Troopers is an amazing film. I regularly drop "Would you like to know more" in conversations, casually, and even slightly out of context.
Oh wow, I haven't thought of Noroi in a long time; my memory is just saying "what a fucked up movie" and blocking things out, lol. I also haven't seen Maximum Overdrive in hot minute, I should watch Coach Bombay and Lisa Simpson fighting vehicles again.
Great list!
I also love Maximum Overdrive, I also think it's kind of terrible, and I also think it's because of the co-director being cocaine. Still love it though! Nothing wrong with a less-than-stellar movie being a favourite; I have Eurotrip on my list!
Her
Pacific Rim
Inside Llewyn Davis
Star Trek (2009)
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
The Martian
The Lighthouse
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice [Extended]
Moonrise Kingdom
La La Land
The Martian was another one that was in my runners-up list, and would be in a top 100 if I were to make one. Actually made a joke the other day about how it's strange that if you say "the movie where Matt Damon is stuck on a remote planet and Jessica Chastain is involved in the rescue" then you would still have to be more specific to get to the exact movie.
I haven't seen the extended Dawn of Justice, I might have to find a way to watch that. I want to like the DC movies more than I do; I feel like they got roughly treated because they [feel like they should be better than they are[(https://tildes.net/~movies/1hsb/midweek_movie_free_talk#comment-d9rv) but I think the longer cuts definitely help. I really loved Cavill as Superman.
Great list!
The Martian will always hold a special place in my heart because I wrote Andy Weir (the author of the novel) some fan mail after I had finished the novel and he actually responded. Such a cool moment for a teenage geek.
[Preface: I do not consider myself a "Snyder Bro" and am very aware his movies have problems. I'm very excited for Gunn's Superman!] IMO BvS gets shat on a lot because it doesn't fit what Redditors/the general audience wanted from a Batman vs. Superman movie. And that's totally fine! But I think there's a lot to appreciate if you take the film for what it is. As much as I love when Superman is a paragon of virtue, I really appreciate Snyder showing us Clark as a man struggling with the consequences of what he does.
To get a little deeper, it's sort of like how society constantly tells us "Don't doubt yourself! March to the beat of your own drum! Power through!" but in reality people who do that tend to be fucking assholes. Self-doubt is an important part of being a good person. Snyder's Superman is the only film version to really show that inner conflict.
That's really cool! I think I've never written any fan mail, was it the only time you ever sent fan mail? I would assume most authors wouldn't respond to most mail, so it must feel really great getting a reply.
I also read the novel as a teenager and thought it was suspenseful and fun to read, but I haven't seen the movie.
In no particular order:
Great list! Neverending Story was one I considered as well. Primer is such a great film - I'm a sucker for time loop movies, so time möbius strip (that's a loop with a twist!) have a special place and of course the relevant xkcd for the discussion is a hoot.
The Thing is another favourite that just missed my top ten; I opted for Alien instead. But such a great movie.
Here's mine in no particular order:
Princess Bride
Hot Fuzz
LotR Trilogy
Aladdin
Inglorious Basterds
The Big Lebowski
Spaceballs
A Knight's Tale
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
My Neighbor Totoro
You have a bunch that I wanted to put on my list - Aladdin, The Big Lebowski, A Knight's Tale - as well as some overlaps with mine (your top three). The only I haven't seen is Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, and it's on my to-watch list.
When I was putting my list together I considered several Disney movies - Little Mermaid, Lion King, Aladdin - and went back and forth on them a bunch, but I think Aladdin is probably my favourite Disney movie of all time; it's hard to beat Robin Williams as the Genie, but I also have a nostalgia for old piano recitals - when I was a kid taking piano lessons this movie came out and my teacher got me the piano book for it and I did several of the songs at recitals.
Great list!
Massive Talent was really really fun. You'll like it, I think, based on your other likes
I'm putting it near the top of my watch list! I love Pedro Pascal and Nic Cage, so not sure why it hasn't already made its way to the top of the list.
For me I was torn between Aladdin, Robin Hood, and Jungle Book with the Disney classics.
Those are all really hard to beat. More than one of them would probably be in my top 100.
Actually, I might reconsider and put Robin Hood ahead of Aladdin...
Obviously I'm only listing my favorites, as in things I would not feel guilty for rewatching instead of checking out something now, instead of the best movies that I've seen.
Why is Kung Fury a guilty pleasure? It's a strictly correct choice!
I wish they sorted out their legal kerfuffle and released the sequel already...
Your list is shaking me up a little and I'm wondering if I need to eliminate another one from mine to accomodate Fifth Element. Scott Pilgrim I thought about a lot while compiling mine but I already cheated by cramming the Cornetto Trilogy in.
A friend made me sit down and watch Kung Fury. I honestly don't remember a single thing about it but just reading the name plays David Hasselhoff's True Survivor automatically in my head.
No guilty pleasures, only favourites! One of the reasons I said favourites instead of "best" is that if someone questions you you can just say "I just like it".
Back to the Future trilogy was another that was just outside of my top favourites. Love the inclusion of Beerfest, which has one of my top favourite scenes of all time in it - Landfill looking like he's going to drink his way out of the beer, dying, and immediately being replaced by his twin brother who just wants to be called Landfill.
La La Land (First Place)
Cornetto Trilogy esp Hot Fuzz (Second Place)
Children of Men (Third)
LOTR trilogy (Fourth)
My Neighbour Totoro
Table for Six (trailer)
SpiderverseThe Princess Bride (tied for fifth)The PrestigeArrivalFiddler On The Roof (Tied for fifth)Everything Everywhere All At Once
Bo Burnham: Inside (nice pick @Bl4kers)
Not what I think are the greatest movies of all time, but rather, "I will watch any of these any time" like @Pavouk106 said. And I'm going to clump trilogies together as an attempt to cheat. Several were listed first but crossed off with a heavy heart when considering overall "watch-ability". Some of them are ranked and the rest are ties. Table For Six is a Hong Kong film starring my favourite actor /standup comedian, but the movie itself is so smart and so much fun, the dialogue so damn witty, the threads woven so tightly to complete the overall metaphor, and the subtitles translation team did a superb job in English, that it won its place on my list fair and square, not there as a DEI entry.
If I think of anything more, I'm going to force myself to cross off one before adding more.
I've never even heard of Table for Six, but I just watched the trailer and it looks pretty great. I'm going to add it to my to-watch list and see if I can find it. I also haven't seen Bo Burnham: Inside, but added it to my to-watch list earlier in this thread.
We have a fair bit of overlap, considering that you had two movies I haven't even seen! Great list!
I find saying "this is my 7th most favorite film ever!" kind of ridiculous, but I had to order them somehow. Apart from Jeanne Dielman, which changed the way I watch and think about film forever, you can think of the rest as interchangeable.
This is a very different list and that's awesome. Apart from 2001 I haven't heard of any and would love to try. I watched a Jeanne Dielman trailer and I sort of get what it's going for (?) but I'm a little gun shy after watching a 3 hour film about monks who've taken a vow of silence. Things DO happen? It's just not hey look at domestic life for three hours?!
It's strange to talk about it with someone who's not seen it yet, because I wouldn't want to spoil it but at the same time there isn't much to spoil either. The film is very much about routine (and capitalism) and how it ruins one's soul, take away their identity and sense of self. Because it's about a woman, Jeanne's, routine, you follow along her routine and experience the slight differences in her behavior and actions when that routine is affected by things outside of her control. These changes are very small and you'd miss them if you take your eye off the screen. And the ending is where all that bottled up tension erupts, as @cloud_loud said.
I'm obviously biased, so please find yourself the time and watch it, but if you're not taken by the concept at all by its first hour, you can just stop it. I was dreading to watch it for the same reasons you mentioned but I'm so glad I did.
Things do happen. The biggest thing that happens is at the end. It’s really more subtle things that happen that show the main character’s patience wearing out. It is largely what you think it is though. Very slow, not much happening on screen, it’s a movie that tests your patience and attention span.
It’s the type of movie I would never recommend to someone, especially someone that’s not interested in cinema history or cinema as an art form. It’s one of the issues I took with it topping the sight and sound poll. Citizen Kane and Vertigo, previous films that topped the poll, are easily accessible and are films anyone can watch and enjoy. Jeanne Dielman very much isn’t.
I agree with Schrader on the matter.
I selfishly didn't like Jeanne Dielman being at the top of the Sight & Sound list, because I was already getting scoffed at for it being my favorite film and now with the recognition that comes from being at the top of that list, I was an unabashed snob! All joking aside, I don't know how the ballots are weighted and it certainly is strange that a film, if I recall correctly, hadn't even cracked the list in previous years came up on top.
I'd agree that Jeanne Dielman doesn't deserve to be at the top of the list. It's a very niche film and most people who'd watch it simply because it was listed as the best film of all time will come out of it sorely disappointed. That being said, I do not think any person who follows that list or even know the existence of it aren't aware the kind of films they rank. It's not IMDb's Top 250. S&S's lists have always been made up of films shot by and for people who value the art of cinema itself. I'm not going to argue that Vertigo or Citizen Kane aren't immensely more watchable than Jeanne Dielman, but put either of those films in front of someone who's in their 20s today and they'd fall asleep halfway through it and those are usually the most "mainstream" films on that list. So I kind of agree with Schrader, but as usual, he takes it up to eleven and comes across as a bit of a jerk.
It was number 36 on the 2012 list (tied with Statango and Metropolis).
Depending on their attention span, I think they can find some enjoyment out of it. Vertigo especially since it plays out like a thriller. And if we look at the films through the lens of their time, Vertigo and Citizen Kane were normal films that normal people could watch in theaters. They both had mixed critical reception at the time and were both box office failures, but Jeanne Dielman has always been relegated to the art-house crowd.
I appreciate Schrader's candor. I think too many filmmakers, especially people still working in the industry like Schrader, try to walk around eggshells to appease everyone and he's not afraid to speak his mind.
This is off-topic now: I was re-reading the comments on the article I posted and someone brought up how it's weird that Lina Wertmüller doesn't get the attention that Ackerman gets now-a-days despite being a bigger deal at the time. Wertmüller was the first woman to be nominated in the Best Director category for Seven Beauties. It's a brilliant film by the way, but it's so weird that it's now been forgotten. And it didn't even come close to the list even though this most recent list made an attempt to include more female made films.
The list has bigger issues than Dielman topping it anyway, but it gets a lot of attention because it's a clear indication of what happened.
I stand corrected. That feels like a right spot for the film.
Right, that's why I called them "mainstream". My implicit point was, regardless of how many mainstream qualities they had of their era (which one can argue not much), they're still from a different era. Obviously, as I said, they're not comparable to Jeanne Dielman as a cinema-going experience.
I agree but that doesn't make Schrader any less of a jerk. I'm not just saying that because he criticized the placement of my favorite film, but if you follow his posts on Facebook (or through other means like I am), he's just a cranky dude who does say more right things than wrong but say so in a way that leaves a bad taste in one's mouth1. I do and did grant him that he's right about the affects of placing Jeanne Dielman at the top of the list, but to imply that it's undeserving because it got there due to rigging and the fact that its director was female is insulting to one of the greatest female directors and artists of all time. Not just to her but any female directors he mentions in his comments. You can easily make an argument against Jeanne Dielman without saying any of those things and that's the part I'd agree with him and with you on. (Not saying you've made a similar argument I'm criticizing Schrader for, to be clear.)
Just to give an example: while I adored Portrait of a Lady on Fire, I do not think it deserved to be placed that high on that list. Whereas, Julia Loktev, Maren Ade, or Lina Wertmüller for that matter are nowhere near to be found on the list. I don't think the discussion should be about how high a female director's film was placed at the top because of #MeToo, but why we don't have more female directors in that list, not because we're in a politically favorable era for a movement but because they're worthy of being there on their merit.
1: I'm only half joking but it's kind of like his film Blue Collar. I absolutely adore that film but its biggest flaw, maybe the only flaw, is that Schrader couldn't keep his proverbial mouth shot at the very end of it.
Slight tangent, but I think many of these types of complaints about those types of list stems from it being a ranking and there is way too much focus on what is number 1. Of course it is how the list is compiled, so the result is just a mathematical summary of all votes cast, but I really think the focus should be what is on the list and not the rankings. They became quite meaningless. Like In The Mood For Love is at 5 and 2001 is at 6. Any discussion on why In Mood For Love is better than 2001 is totally pointless as they are completely different types of film. I know rankings with a "winner" creates more buzz, but it also adds a ton of negativity.
This is a really interesting list, but I am wondering if these are your favourites or if you think they are the best films. For example, I recognize that Jeanne Dielman is a great film, but I do not have any interest in experiencing it again, nor would I particularly recommend it to someone unless they were looking for an interesting cinematic experience. I felt similarly about A Special Day, which I admittedly haven't seen since the mid 90s.
Cool and very different list, thanks for sharing!
I wouldn't want to watch Jeanne Dielman or any other film on that list repeatedly either, but that's not how I'd interpret my favorites as. I interpret my favorite as in films that had the most impact on me and stayed with me the longest. I have not seen Jeanne Dielman more than four times I think and there certainly is a diminishing returns, sort of like the opposite of watching a film whose sole existence is its plot twist at the end. You know what it is, you know what it's trying to achieve, and you know where it leads.
I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone, not just for what it is but due to its runtime too. That being said, I did watch it with my mom once and as someone who's nowhere nearly as into films as I am she absolutely adored it. (I think she saw herself in Jeanne a bit, which is why I wanted to watch it with her in the first place.)
1 - Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stopped Worrying and Love the Bomb - it is a fantastic satire film about the attitudes that was prevalent during the 1960s.
2 - Princess Mononoke - arguably my favorite Studio Ghibli film.
3 - Grave of the Fireflies - my favorite watch only once film.
4 - Porco Rosso - one of my first Studio Ghibli films that I remember watching and an excellent point of why fascism sucks. Remember "better a pig than a fascist."
5 - Everything Everywhere All At Once - just a joy to watch and it was really funny.
6 - Akira - really weird adult anime movie set in a cyberpunk Neo Tokyo after a World War.
7 - This Is Spinal Tap - a really excellent mockumentary about a fictional Hair Metal band that is struggling to make a comeback, even if you are not familiar to the metal scene, it should be a good watch.
8 - The Fifth Element - a great sci-fi film that was the height of Bruce Willis' career.
9 - Das Boot - Great German film that is set in a WW2 submarine.
10 - Ghost in the Shell - one of the greatest cyberpunk anime movies, just a joy to watch. I had the Laughing Man logo for my desktop background for the longest time.
I am a bit embarrassed to say that I haven't seen Akira. I'll have to add it to my to-watch list.
Grave of the Fireflies is such a hard movie to watch; I put it in the same category as Schindler's List, as a "you should watch this; you might not enjoy it, but it's important to do so anyways" sort of movie.
The 5th Element was one that was a runner up for my list, it was one I deeply enjoyed.
Great list, thanks for sharing!
I mentioned in another comment that Your Name makes me cry in a good way. Grave of the Fireflies makes me cry in the sad way. I've watched it exactly twice, and by the second time I had kids. It was soooo much more gut wrenching that time around.
Interesting enough Schindler's List is in my top 15 (11th spot) movies of all time. And I agree with that everyone should watch both of them, because of their subject matter and the perils of both things.
And it is fine that you haven't seen Akira, mostly it is really weird, even by other animes that came out during the 80s.
This is hard lol. My favorites are what I consider comfort movies that I could watch literally any time, so most of them are pretty upbeat or funny. In no particular order:
*The Princess Bride (I love that it's so well represented in this thread)
*Stardust
*Clue
*Wall-E
*Hot Fuzz
*Blazing Saddles
*The Producers (2005)
*The Addams Family (1991)
*The Hunt for Red October
*The Nightmare Before Christmas
Honorable mention goes to The Lego Movie because I absolutely adore the pseudo stop motion look and level of detail they achieved by making everything out of "real" (digital) lego bricks
Edit: WAIT! I forgot about The Blues Brothers. Not sure what it replaces but it has to go on the list
Wall-E!! Them and Up were the golden years of Pixar
And the Lego movienwas an achievement -- everything is awesome!
The Nightmare Before Christmas was a runner-up for me, I really love it. Wall-E is one that I sometimes forget is a Disney Pixar movie - I tend to just think of it as a Sci Fi movie. It's really a great movie. Love the inclusion of Stardust, I haven't seen that in a long time. What a delightful list!
Also, the crash scene in Blues Brothers is perhaps the greatest scene in film history.
As others have said, putting a top 10 list together is damn hard. I'm going to interpret 'favourite' here to mean those movies that I can watch over and over again, the kinda ones that if I walk into a room and it's playing then I'll sit down and start watching through to the end.
Alphabetically arranged, here is my comfort food menu:
12 Angry Men (1957)
Aliens (1986)
Almost Famous (2000)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Jaws (1975)
Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
Some bonus honourable mentions:
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
Dazed and Confused (1993)
The Prestige (2006)
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
That's pretty close to my own interpretation of favourite! I like that there are several other interpretations as well, though, it's good to see people changing it up.
Great list! You have some that I don't recall seeing from other lists but were ones I considered, like Forrest Gump, Jaws, Silence of the Lambs, Almost Famous. I rewatched Silence of the Lambs a few weeks ago, and it's still a fantastic movie that holds up exceptionally.
Lambs... is just so perfectly paced and the performances are mesmerizing, makes it one of those that I can get drawn into very quickly. I actually recall one time after having watched it that I started browsing through my collection to find a fitting feature to make up a double bill and took so long choosing that it started playing again from the start - and damned if I didn't just give up the search and let it roll again ha.
Another great list - I've just put The Departed on my rewatch list which is rapidly becoming untenable, at least in part thanks to this topic. For Harry Potter do you mean the first one, or the whole series as a single entry (either are fine). I really like doubling down on Oceans movies.
I love how much The 5th Element came up on people's lists.
If you're rewatching The Departed, have you seen the HK original, Infernal Affairs (2002)? Personally I love Scorsese's, but the original is even better.
I have seen the original, and more recently. It's exceptional!
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Pan's Labyrinth
The Witch
Boyhood
Mad Max: Fury Road
Interstellar
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Everything, Everywhere All at Once
Pulp Fiction
I have to go to sleep, but I wanted to throw mine in here before that. Like others, I can't bring myself to rank these ten.
I wrote above about struggling with Disney movies, and how Aladdin gently edged out in front of Lion King for me... and then I didn't put either on the list. Lion King is such a great movie though, and has probably my favourite Disney number of all time, Be Prepared.
Great list, there are several that are almost on mine as well, but I'd happily watch any of these at any time.
Thanks! Aladdin is also a really good Disney classic. For whatever reason I've always loved everything about Lion King. It's what comes to mind when I think of classic Disney films
Oh man, to whittle down to just 10 is rough, even when I “cheat” and pick all lord of the rings movies as one bullet points. I watch a lot of movies and I end up liking most of them!
Very cool list! It's going to prompt me to admit that I haven't seen the recent Dune movies. I'm not sure why but there was something about the trailers that hit me wrong, and I haven't been in a rush to see them. They're going on my watchlist now though!
I pulled up all my 5-star Letterboxd reviews and picked the ones that I'm most likely to rewatch multiple times, in no particular order:
Your Name is a fantastic film. For folks who've never watched Ghibli and want to try a Japanese animated film, I'll always recommend this one or Summer Wars rather than any Ghibli. For me, these showcase the best of Japanese culture far more than say, Spirited Away.
Seconded. Ghibli films have a lot of heart, but Your Name is the one that makes me cry (in a good way!)
Hey, fun list - I totally understand having a tough time deciding between Event Horizon and Hellraiser. I would have gone with Event Horizon as well - one of my top horror movies! Tremors was also almost on my list. I almost put This Is Spinal Tap on my list at #11.
I haven't seen Burning - I'm going to add it to my to-watch list!
Top 1 :
The rest :
I probably forgot some better ones... I guess Linklater & Chris Marker are my favs.
Before Sunrise is a great movie, but now that I'm thinking about it I'm not sure why I haven't watched Before Sunset and Before Midnight. I think I was struck by the first one being "enough", and not wanting their story to change. Have you watched the others? How did you like them?
There's another Tomm Moore movie in this discussion - Song of the Sea is on @Protected's list. They're both such great movies.
There's also another (the other?) Panos Cosmatos movie in this discussion - Mandy is on @AuthenticAccount's list. I also like Cosmatos' contribution to Cabinet of Curiosities - The Viewing.
I haven't seen Vampire Hunter D or The Man Who Sleeps, I will add them to my to-watch. Great list!
I can definitely relate to feeling that Before Sunrise didn't need a followup. It stands perfectly on its own. Though somehow Before Sunset manges to elevate both films without removing the magic from the first one. I did however feel that Before Midnight is a step down. Compared to most other romantic films it is still amazing, just slightly below the magic of the first two.
Thanks, I think I'll check them out - 2 more for my to-watch list!
The two other Before's are pretty good, they are less surprising and don't have the same level of charm but it's not just a redo of Before Sunrise, there's some evolution between the movies that makes them interesting.
I love Song of the Sea too, the ending is one of the most beautiful thing. The Man Who Sleeps is very strange and might not be so enjoyable for a non-native French speaker, but if you have some anxiety/depression you might relate. Vampire Hunter D might be a bit bias because I like the goth esthetics, but I think it's a more subtle movie it seems at first.
Kaguya is a gorgeous film isn't it?
I keep seeing Before Sunrise on this list but I haven't seen any of them. It's near the top of my list to watch
Kaguya is just perfect, there's other movies that are basically perfect (12 Angry Men, ...) but I have a soft-spot for it.
Before Sunrise is must watch, it's just very good while being original and entertaining.
In no particular order:
Edit: I feel I don't have a definitive favorites list, so please keep in mind, so I suppose this is more of a "most memorable" list.
This is a cool list, but I have to say I actually snorted out loud when I got to Leprechaun. Not because I think there's an issue with including it in a list - I said favourites and not bests, so every list is valid - just the juxtaposition of it with the other movies on the list. If I read the first 8 movies, I would not have guessed Leprechaun for the 9th.
Great list, thanks for sharing!
The list needed one good horror movie. It was either that or Cube. I guess it would have matched the vibes better.
There's a lot of little niches in filmmaking that bring me a lot of joy, so to come up with this list I tried to think of what they are and figure out which movies best represented them to me. Leprechaun represented cheesy schlock.
Cube would probably be in my top 100! Leprechaun was a great choice as well, nothing wrong with it.
But I love going from the superlative beautify of Spirited Away to Leprechaun next. It's so jarring but also such a great example of how different genres can draw one in.
I'm not as organized in my movie watching and ranking as some people here are, but here are ten movies that stuck with me for some reason in no particular order other than that it was the order I remembered them. I'm pretty sure some great movies are missing that I forgot about right now, but it is what is.
my neighbour totoro
we need to talk about kevin
blade runner
the matrix
Leon
the life of brian
sixth sense
spirited away
full metal jacket
a room with a view
And three more that didn't quite make it to the final list.
up
Terminator 2
shrek
Aww yeah I love Shrek + Shrek 2
I watched Shrek so many times when I was studying, I guess it's more of a collection of short movies than anything, the story isn't actually that connected. But it's just so comfortable and every scene is so rewarding.
The soundtracks are still in my car and definitely part of longer drives. Fantastic
There's some real darkness in your list, but also some real beauty. We Need to Talk about Kevin was so dark, but Tilda Swinto was pretty brilliant in it, and Ezra Miller was deeply disturbed.
I haven't watched A Room With a View in many years, I think I'll add that to my rewatch list.
Thanks for sharing! Great list!
This is pretty white bread, but in case anyone's compiling for a list or data or something:
The Matrix
End of Evangelion
Alien
The Incredibles
Song of the Sea
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Brazil
5 cm per Second
Coco
Anchorman
Shortlist of Castle of Cagliostro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Shawn of the Dead, A Charlie Brown Christmas, No Country for Old Men, Men in Black, Anchorman, District 9, Knives Out, Pulp Fiction, The Sound of Music, Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal...
I thought about looking at the top movies and putting together a "Tildes Favourites" summary. I think after having read everything here, Tildes' favourite movie is probably Alien.
It's nice to see Song of the Sea on more lists. I'm also a little surprised that this is the first time I recall seeing Brazil on any list here!
I haven't seen 5cm per second, I will add that to my to-watch list.
Great list, thanks for sharing!
I'm not surprised about Alien - I personally love it because the sci-fi lasts so long past any of the horror, IMO.
Song of the Sea is wonderful. There are certain Miyazaki movies I really love, but Song of the Sea feels like it does it with just a bit more western feel and heart to it that resonates a bit more with me. I've also got a soft spot for good child characters; Ben and Saoirse are fantastic.
I'm a corporate drone, it's probably why Brazil hits me right. lol
I get why Your Name gets a lot of attention and love, but 5 cm's very personal and captures such a lovely progression of heartbreak in just the right amount of time.
I would for sure be interested in an entire list de-duped. I was considering making one myself, but I'm pretty short on free time this week. :/
I love Song of the Sea. It's so beautiful and does such a good job illustrating a sibling relationship.
5cm per second is fantastic! It's been so long since I've watched it , maybe it's time! And District 9! It's like modern day Kafka's metamorphosis for me. I hope it hasn't been forgotten too much by everyone
Purely curious: you like End of Eva better than Eva 3.0+1.0? :)
I need to re-watch Rebuild. My initial 3.0+1.0 response was that it felt like the movie's (or Anno's) feelings and the need to be an Eva movie felt a bit segmented, and while the last 30 minutes were fantastic it just kind of overshadowed anything actually... Going on? I hated 3, so I came in wanting to soak it in on its own merits or feel, but I just didn't get much out of it until the end.
The EoE Production Eva fight is my favorite fight scene, and the Third Impact scenes gave me a big existential derealization that made me separate the signal from movie scenes and completely reshaped how I watched things. And then on top of that I just find EoE extremely watchable, even though I didn't feel that way about some of the series. I feel a bit similarly towards 2.22, but the rest of Rebuild just never seemed to jive as well with me. I do want to give it another try, though. Did you find that kind of meaning out of 3.0+1.0?
I love EoE, still do. When I was reading your post, my brain automatically plays the music for Unit-02's battle with the Mass Production Models*, and Komm, Susser Tod. EoE happened at a point in my life where it had a massive impact, and it's just fanatic narratively, visually, psychologically ..... with best of series action, and finally the existential drama played out on a global stage.
But perhaps it's a bit of like Return of the King vs the Trilogy as a whole, for me. EoE isn't the end, it's a sort of transition point. I guess I found the original series +EoE extremely important and impactful, but perhaps not "enjoyable" in the sense of joy. It ends in a heady freedom, without the assurance of the planet's gravity nor a comfortable line separating my self from others.
But: from light hearted early episodes to episodes 25-26, to EoE, all the way to 3.0+1.0, when viewed as a whole, that's exactly the word I would use to describe the experience, joy. As wonderful as EoE is, the story isn't complete. The story of Shinji doesn't end with the end of the world, nor the struggle between him and accepting/rejecting Asuka, nor even with friends and family congratulating you on figuring something out about yourself. In real life, the struggle doesn't end with the Epiphany, it is only the first step.
The story of Evangelion finally ends on that station platform, when Shinji not only finally gets away from the giant robots of destiny, he gets off that dang existential folded chair in the spotlight, he gets out of that dang train to nowhere. He steps out into the sunlight, with someone he chose, and away from the train entirely. For me, that catharsis was decades in the making and I'm so, so happy for him. And so happy for Anno Hideaki. For me, 3.0+1.0 is my "congratulations 👏".
That is a great way to look at it... If I go for a rewatch, I'll try to do a full run through like that.
Children of Men
A post-apocalyptic journey. I particularly like how it introduced the world with an in-universe appropriate segment.
The Man From Earth
Just a few people talking in a room about a fantastical scenario. Strangely I tried to imagine a bigger more cinematic version going through the events and actually came to the conclusion the I'd probably like it less.
Stardust
A fantasy romance with a truly whimsical, wondrous feeling. And a bit of humor.
The three Lord of the Rings movies
They are they are and have some flaws but they are also competently executed fantasy movies.
Lola Rennt
In God we Trust(2000)
An independent short film
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
And now some that I would not have said I particularly liked watching but include as well.
Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and love the Bomb
Fifty million merits episode of Black Mirror
Technically not a movie and the most terrifying horror I saw.
Don't Look Up
Strong Idiocracy vibes and can be taken as metaphor to current events
Edit: added two films since I decided to count the Lord of the Rings trilogy as one.
Great list! I was deeply into Lola Rennt when it came out; I saw it multiple times in theatres, and owned multiple copies of it. It's one of the movies I credit with a bit of a film awakening for me - it really opened me up to films from other languages and cultures. I haven't watched it in years, so it's going on my re-watch list! Going to have to break out the DVD player I think.
Yours is also the second list with both Stardust and The Man From Earth, and it's awesome that they both showed up multiple times.
I love Black Mirror, and Fifteen Million Merits is a really strong episode. It was one of the first things I say Daniel Kaluuya in, and I was immediately pretty sure that I would be seeing him in a lot more; not surprised he eventually won an Oscar.
I haven't seen In God We Trust but that might go near the top of my to-watch list, since it's fully available on YouTube apparently.
Great list, thanks for sharing!
Non-fiction
Fiction
The fiction movies in that top 10 are mostly not set in stone, there are many other candidates (Memento, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dr. Strangelove, The first Pokemon movie, The Way He Looks (2014), Moonrise Kingdom, Stranger Than Paradise, ...)
In no particular order:
Forrest Gump
The Incredibles
Pulp Fiction
Saving Private Ryan
Star Wars : A New Hope
Blazing Saddles
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Raising Arizona
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Plenty of others I could add (Aliens, Godfather, Young Frankenstein, etc, etc) - choosing just ten is hard.
In no particular order, and as they pop into my head:
I have favorites that I will always watch if I have the opportunity, and favorites that resonate with me on an emotional level.
I feel deeply connected to:
The Fall by Tarsem Singh, it's stunningly beautiful in multiple ways.
The Barbie Movie for message and nostalgia
Moana, beautiful and optimistic
The Muppet Christmas Carol, for nostalgia and timelessness
I will always watch:
The Princess Bride
5th Element
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
D&D: Honor Among Thieves
Pirates of The Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
Edge of Tomorrow
One of my all-time favorite has to be Shine (not The Shining). I used to practice classic violin, and a teacher played this movie for us in high school and it has stuck with me since.
Shine was the first movie that made me aware of Geoffrey Rush; what a brilliant actor. An old friend of mine was really into Rush's movies as well, so we had a cycle of movies with Rush in them that we'd go through with some frequency - it was always fun when we had the Shine / Mystery Men double feature.
I hadn't thought about Rush nights in a long time, thanks for the reminder and the trip down memory lane.
Here are some of my favorites in no particular order using Trakt (a Letterboxd alternative)
I can't think of the others at the moment.
I love your list, but I am immediately drawn to and want to ask about Saw VI. Why is that one your favourite of the Saw franchise? What did you like about it? To be clear, I'm not asking from a place of judgment, but from a place of interest.
Saw VI has just the most intensity of any of the Saw films. The last three to five minutes of the film are the most intense I've ever seen in cinema at all. It has good traps, a compelling protagonist with actual depth to his character, and multiple storylines that all come together in a fucking insane climax to the film. The film briefly touches on the U.S. healthcare system and its for-profit nature as well.
Further, it literally made fans retroactively reassess how they feel about IV and V. They were disliked when they came out, but VI changed the general consensus on them. After bad Saw films since III, VI was a surprise and a breath of fresh air. It set everything up perfectly for VII, only for that film to be one of the worst films to ever be made, IMO.
These come to mind as movies I can keep enjoying over and over