Because Nobody Asked For It: The Panda's Top 250 Movies of All Time - COMPLETE

[The Panda]

Number 109

Amadeus (1984)

 

"Mediocrities everywhere... I absolve you... I absolve you... I absolve you... I absolve you... I absolve you all."

 

Most Valuable Player: Milos Forman's Direction and Murray Abraham's Lead Performance

Box Office: 51.6m (128m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 95%

Notable Awards: Won 8 Oscars, including Best Picture

Synopsis: The incredible story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, told by his peer and secret rival Antonio Salieri - now confined to an insane asylum.

Critic Opinion: "The first time I saw Milos Forman's "Amadeus" was at a small screening in Los Angeles a couple of weeks before its fall 1984 release. An anxious executive cornered me on the way out and asked what I thought of it. "I'll tell you after I've absorbed it," I said. Seventeen years later, I'm still absorbing it. But at a screening of its new, lengthened director's cut, which opens today, it struck me that I was watching perhaps the only legitimate masterpiece of Hollywood's impoverished '80s. The beauty of the film, which was shot in Forman's hometown of Prague, and its mastery of the music of Antonio Salieri and his sworn enemy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, make it as grand a sensual feast as any movie ever made. But it is the blending of its music and its period with the psychology of the characters and Peter Shaffer's murder mystery that pushes "Amadeus" into the realm of the classics. The scenes in which an institutionalized Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) describes the genius of Mozart to a priest (Richard Frank) by seeming to produce music with his fingers are beautifully constructed and profound in their emotional impact. Here, in the story if not in history, is a man devoting his life to projecting God's voice in music, and feeling rejected by the appearance of Mozart, a vulgarian whose genius can clearly only be God-given. Betrayed, he disavows God and sets out to destroy Mozart. At three hours, eight minutes, the director's digitally remastered cut is 20 minutes longer than the original, and contains four major new scenes, including one - of Mozart's ambitious young wife (Elizabeth Berridge) stripping naked before Salieri - that raised its MPAA rating from PG to R. The new scenes add to Salieri's menace and to our understanding of his madness. The performance of Abraham, who won the Best Actor Oscar for it, is monumental, and so is Forman's direction. " 'Amadeus' is about as close to perfection as movies get," I wrote in 1984." - Jack Matthews, New York Daily News

User Opinion: "I was avoiding this movie because I got burned by other tedious overlong historical epics of the 80s that won BP (Gandhi,Out of Africa, Last Emperor) and it looked just like them.
 
This movie is nothing like an average historical biopic. Instead of this genius did this and then he did that - (childhood flashback!) - and then in the end he changed the world blah blah blah like so many tedious biographies of great and/or iconic personalities, Milos Forman did something else. He turned the famous historical figure into a supporting character in order to talk about how it is to be mediocre and striving for excellence. The movie is fun, surprising and heartbreaking. 
 
I would recommend it to anyone who has reservations because of its genre." - Joel M

Reasoning: Not your typical lengthy historical costume bio-pic, Amadeus is a blast of a movie that tells the tale of someone wanting to be excellent but is always exceeded by somebody better.  In other words, he tells the story of the vast majority of musicians, and it has a great deal of relatability that comes with that.  The soundtrack is energetic and fun, the story of the rivalry is incredibly engaging and even quite sad at parts.  Everything about the film is absolutely gorgeous, you can tell there was a lot of heart dedication that went into every fine-tuned detail of this movie.  The performances are genius, more specifically Murray Abraham's lead performance as Salieri.  It's truly hard to find many biography dramas that are close to as good as this one is, even if the story being told isn't entirely in line with actual history.

Decade Count: 1930s: 8, 1940s: 12, 1950s: 7, 1960s: 12, 1970s: 15, 1980s: 30, 1990s: 19, 2000s: 19, 2010s: 17

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 108

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

 

"Hey, STELLA."

 

Most Valuable Player: The Ensemble of the Film

Box Office: N/A

Tomatometer: 98%

Notable Awards: Won 4 Oscars, nominated for Best Picture

Synopsis: Disturbed Blanche DuBois moves in with her sister in New Orleans and is tormented by her brutish brother-in-law while her reality crumbles around her.

Critic Opinion: "Howard Hawks once complained that, after he'd spent 20 years trying to scale down and simplify screen acting, Elia Kazan went and shot all his work to hell with this 1951 film, which features some of the most hysterical performances in film history. But they are also great performances, and Hawks could have taken heart from Kim Hunter's work, which provides superb, understated balance to the famous fireworks of Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh. Kazan's direction is often questionably, distractingly baroque, swelling up the considerable subtlety of the Tennessee Williams play, but if the hothouse style was ever justified, this is the occasion." - Kehr, Chicago Reader

User Opinion: None

 

Reasoning: A movie defined by masterclass performances from everyone in the ensemble, as well as compelling direction by Kazan.  A Streetcar Named Desire is a defining classic film that also manages to play out as something from the modern era.  Tennessee Williams, one of the great playwrites, crafts realistic material with a load of depth that gives quite a bit for the ensemble to work with, in particular Leigh, Brando, Hunter and Malden.  The film is quite graphic and touches on potent themes that are still edgy in todays time, there's an urban atmosphere to it all that makes everything feel a bit claustrophobic, that's helped quite a bit with how well everything in the movie lit.  As great as Williams' play is, Kazan's cinematic adaption might just be the definitive version of the story.  

Decade Count: 1930s: 8, 1940s: 12, 1950s: 8, 1960s: 12, 1970s: 15, 1980s: 30, 1990s: 19, 2000s: 19, 2010s: 17

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 107

Short Term 12 (2013)

 

"It's a real game that I just made up."

 

Most Valuable Player: Brie Larson's Lead Performance

Box Office: 1m (1.1m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 99%

Notable Awards:  Various Critic Circle Awards, as also nominated for Best Picture at the BOFFYs

Synopsis: A 20-something supervising staff member of a residential treatment facility navigates the troubled waters of that world alongside her co-worker and longtime boyfriend.

Critic Opinion: "Set in a foster-care facility outside of San Francisco, this independent drama is vivid and heartfelt in its depiction of social work, at times recalling some of Frederick Wiseman's great documentary portraits. Writer-director Destin Daniel Cretton (expanding on his 2008 short of the same name) once worked at a center like the one in the film, and you can feel the influence of firsthand experience in the immediacy of the action and specificity of detail. This feels somewhat contrived in its narrative mechanics, yet it gets so many things right—about state bureaucracy, the ways children internalize abuse, and working life in general—that the shortcomings are easy to overlook. The young actors who play the foster kids are extraordinary (you never sense they're grabbing for your heartstrings), and Brie Larson and John Gallagher Jr. are also impressive as dedicated care providers at the center." - Sachs, Chicago Reader

User Opinion: "Simply incredible. Movies that provide meaningful looks into real life can be more rewarding and powerful than even the showiest of films, and this is a perfect example. It's a story about helping others deal with wounds, both figurative and physical, as well as dealing with your own wounds. Brie Larson deserves every award she can get, but the rest of the ensemble cast, especially the young actors, is a revelation. They express their pain in real, cathartic manners without going the manipulative or sappy route. One scene at the end does come close to entering this territory, but the film knows it, and it soon leads to one of the best scenes of the year." - Spaghetti

Reasoning: A subtle drama that'll likely end up being forgotten by all but the biggest of the film buffs, especially given how overlooked the film was the year it came out in nearly every aspect (besides maybe Critic Circles).  Hell, I didn't even end up seeing this movie until a bit after it came out, it was a happenstance I managed to click on the film for something to watch on Netflix.  The movie was a subtle and realistic take on the hardships and life of troubled teens and the woman who takes care of them, it's heartfelt and I cried quite a bit when I was watching the movie.  It is quite moving, and filled with powerful performances.  This won't go down as a classic, and it's too contained and dramatic to ever become a cult classic, but it's a movie that I sure won't forget.  Maybe it'll be remembered as the film that kick-started Larson's career, that's something.  Get on Netflix and watch this film!

Decade Count: 1930s: 8, 1940s: 12, 1950s: 8, 1960s: 12, 1970s: 15, 1980s: 30, 1990s: 19, 2000s: 19, 2010s: 18

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

45 minutes ago, Tower said:

Hadn't heard about Shane until it showed up in Logan, hope it's as good as Logan was.

 

Oh, it's better than Logan, it's a great movie.

[The Panda]

Number 106

Rear Window (1954)

 

"Intelligence. Nothing has caused the human race so much trouble as intelligence."

 

Most Valuable Player: Alfred Hitchcock's Direction

Box Office: 26.1m (408.1m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 100%

Notable Awards: Nominated for 4 Oscars

Synopsis:  A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.

Critic Opinion: "Of all Hitchcock's films, this is the one which most reveals the man. As usual it evolves from one brilliantly plain idea: Stewart, immobilised in his apartment by a broken leg and aided by his girlfriend (Grace Kelly at her most Vogue-coverish ), takes to watching the inhabitants across the courtyard, first with binoculars, later with his camera. He thinks he witnesses a murder... There is suspense enough, of course, but the important thing is the way that it is filmed: the camera never strays from inside Stewart's apartment, and every shot is closely aligned with his point of view. And what this relentless monomaniac witnesses is everyone's dirty linen: suicide, broken dreams, and cheap death. Quite aside from the violation of intimacy, which is shocking enough, Hitchcock has nowhere else come so close to pure misanthropy, nor given us so disturbing a definition of what it is to watch the 'silent film' of other people's lives, whether across a courtyard or up on a screen. No wonder the sensual puritan in him punishes Stewart by breaking his other leg." - Andrew, Time Out

User Opinion: "Brilliant stuff. This is a really fun movie that gets genuinely intense near the end. The production design is absolutely remarkable, and as I said Hitchock builds tension in an incredible fashion." - Jack Nevada

Reasoning: Hitchcock once again proved his power as a director by being able to make a movie taking place in a room become incredibly suspenseful, intense and ultimately fairly clever.  The whole thing feels like it could be made into a play for the stage, however, it still manages to be completely cinematic in nature.  James Stewart completely delivers in his role, being the focal point of it all.  If you want to know how to make an effective slow-burn thriller, this film is effectively how you do it, leaving you unsure exactly what is happening right up until the final act of the movie.  The film also manages to offer not only commentary on the inner desires of Stewart to watch others but as commentary on the new age of entertainment in which we watch the lives of others play out on screen.  A brilliant movie.

Decade Count: 1930s: 8, 1940s: 12, 1950s: 9, 1960s: 12, 1970s: 15, 1980s: 30, 1990s: 19, 2000s: 19, 2010s: 18

 

 

 

 

[franfar]

On 3/12/2017 at 3:17 PM, Ethan Hunt said:

Now I think To Kill a Mockingbird is a well made movie but personally it just doesn't hold a candle to the book

They never do

 

On 3/12/2017 at 3:32 PM, The Panda said:

Number 121

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

 

Movie is overrated and boring

[The Panda]

Number 105

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

 

"You ever take a dump made you feel like you'd just slept for twelve hours?"

 

Most Valuable Player: The Ensemble of the Film

Box Office: 10.7m (22.4m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 94%

Notable Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar

Synopsis: An examination of the machinations behind the scenes at a real estate office.

Critic Opinion: "Is Glengarry Glen Ross really about salesmen, or is it about a bankrupt culture that produces and nurtures them? Certainly, it stands alongside Wall Street as one of the most unflinching views of a mindset that informed a generation of salesmen and stockbrokers during the 1980s and 1990s. Gordon Gecko might have said that "greed is good," but the men in Glengarry Glen Ross lived the mantra. The film focuses on a group of unpleasant characters, each more disreputable than the next, and uses them to provide compelling drama. As in Reservoir Dogs (which reached theaters the same year), it’s the complexity of the characters not their lack of virtue that commands our attention.  Al Pacino. Jack Lemmon. Ed Harris. Alan Arkin. Kevin Spacey. Alec Baldwin. Among them, they have amassed an astonishing 25 Oscar nominations and five victories, with each of them being nominated at least once (and Pacino and Lemmon both garnering eight apiece). No wonder Jack Lemmon considered this the most accomplished cast he ever worked with. It's hard to argue with him; I can't think of another movie so talent-heavy from top-to-bottom. Since Glengarry Glen Ross is a character/actor piece, it gives each of these performers an opportunity to shine, and they all take advantage of it."

User Opinion: "One of my absolute favorites. Everyone is amazing in this, Pacino and Baldwin are obvious, but Jack Lemmon is utterly heartbreaking giving, in my opinion, the best performance of the lot, and the more understated guys like Alan Arkin and Jonathan Pryce are also invaluable if easy to overlook. The atmosphere of a never-sleeping, depression-filled city surrounding these people is beautifully conveyed in just a few touches (the lights, the constant rain, the noise of the night train, the overwhelmingly dark/gray visual palette) and makes the film cinematic enough and not just a piece of filmed theater.
 
It's strange that James Foley seemingly never even came close to making another movie this good. True, you can't really go wrong with this script and these actors, but Foley made not merely a good, but the best possible film out of this." - Jake Gittes

Reasoning: An acting heavy piece, with dense monologues, with a cast featuring some of the greatest actors of the time?  Of course, this is would be absolutely fantastic.  The screenplay is fierce with sharp dialogue, intelligent ideas, and gut-grabbing monologues, and it's delivered with such rigor that it makes it seem like easy material to convey (and it's not).  The film absorbs you into it, and each of the guys is so captivating in their deliveries that it's impossible not to be fully engaged in everything that is happening on screen.  Glengarry Glen Ross is gritty, edgy, elegant and an absorbing piece of art that is for sure not to be missed.  One of the best stage-to-screen adaptions ever made.  Alex Baldwin's "close" scene is also one of the greatest 10 minutes or so ever put to screen.

Decade Count: 1930s: 8, 1940s: 12, 1950s: 9, 1960s: 12, 1970s: 15, 1980s: 30, 1990s: 20, 2000s: 19, 2010s: 18

 

 

[The Panda]

14 minutes ago, franfar said:

They never do

 

Movie is overrated and boring

 

 

You're entitled to your wrong opinion 

[franfar]

Just now, The Panda said:

 

You're entitled to your wrong opinion 

 

HA!

[Webslinger]

Cool to see some love for Short Term 12! I've been hoping that perhaps Brie Larson's Oscar win for Room might bring more attention to it by way of viewers seeking out her other work.

[The Panda]

Number 104

The Shining (1980)

 

"Heeeeeeeere's Johnny!"

 

Most Valuable Player: Jack Nicholson's Lead Performance

Box Office: 44m (141.5m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 87%

Notable Awards: Ranked #61 on IMDb Top 250

Synopsis: A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.

Critic Opinion: "All of Stanley Kubrick’s films – be it ‘The Killing’ or ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ – demand to be seen on a big screen. They’re about people trapped in huge, indifferent machines gone wrong, from a heist plot to a spaceship, and only the huge indifference of the cinema does them justice. In ‘The Shining’, the machine is a haunted house: the Overlook Hotel, created by Stephen King and turned by Kubrick into an awry environment in which mental stability, supernatural malignance and the sense of space and time shimmer and warp to terrible effect.  The story sees Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) drag his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and psychic son Danny (Danny Lloyd) up a mountain to be the hotel’s winter caretaker. Things go badly. This is the original 1980 US version, 24 minutes longer than the one familiar to UK audiences. On the upside, it fleshes out the family’s city life and includes an intriguing TV-watching motif; on the downside, there are some daft scare shots and it didn’t ever exactly feel short at two hours. Still, a masterpiece." - Walters, Time Out

User Opinion: "Best horror film of all time. I love this movie, it is thrilling, suspenseful, Nicholson does a great job in my opinion it his best performance.  I can't say how much I love this film, it is in my top 10 of all time." - Dexter of Suburbia

Reasoning: This is a movie that was thoroughly misunderstood when it first came out, it's kind of crazy to think it has been panned pretty hard only to since be rediscovered as a cinematic classic.  The Shining is one of the greatest horror films to have ever been created, and it's easy to see why.  From the thrills and frights, to Kubrick's masterful and cinematic direction, to the iconic lines and images, to the chilling atmosphere, to Jack Nicholson's unforgettable performance, it truly is a horror classic.  The Shining offers a full theatrical experience that few movies manage to accomplish in the way it did, and so it's a blessing that this gem won't go down as a panned flop but as a film that etched its way into cinematic history.

Decade Count: 1930s: 8, 1940s: 12, 1950s: 9, 1960s: 12, 1970s: 15, 1980s: 31, 1990s: 20, 2000s: 19, 2010s: 18

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 103

Wall-E (2008)

 

"Eeeeevaaaaa"

 

Most Valuable Player: Andrew Stanton for Directing and Writing

Box Office: 223.8m (269.6m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 96%

Notable Awards: Won 1 Oscar, was nominated for 6

Synopsis: In the distant future, a small waste-collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind.

Critic Opinion: "A trash compactor, a cockroach and a garbage dump? Twenty minutes without a word being spoken? What is this, Beckett in CGI? No, it's Pixar's newest, boldest notion of mass-market family entertainment. Once again, the Pixar wizards have pushed the animation envelope in unexpected directions and come up with a winner. Wondrously inventive, funny and poignant, "WALL*E" is part sci-fi adventure, part cautionary fable, part satire and part love story, which may be the best and most improbable part of all." - Ansen, Newsweek

User Opinion:  "A huge achievement in filmmaking. It's incredibly intelligent, visually stunning, and emotionally powerful. I think the first half of the film is superior, and that is a testement to Wall-E's captivating story that even though there were barely any words spoken, it still managed to say everything it needed to with grace and poignancy. Is it even possible for someone not to feel moved when Eve desperately tried to revive Wall-E?"

Reasoning: My third favorite Pixar film, so I guess that's a spoiler that there's two more coming after this one, Wall-E is a grand sci-fi story about a little Robot, and it marks as one of the two most ambitious films Pixar has ever put to screen.  The first 20 minutes were entirely wondrous, no dialogue for an animated film, yet so much was accomplished and there wasn't a second of it that feels wasted.  Wall-E is timely in its themes, and manages to turn itself into one of the most good-natured films Pixar has created.  The romance aspect of it melts your heart, and you just can't help but cheer for Wall-E the entire way through.  Beyond that, there's plenty to contemplate beyond the romance, as Wall-E offers some of the more heavy thematic material to come out of a Pixar film (next to Up and Inside Out).  Overall, a near perfect animation.

Decade Count: 1930s: 8, 1940s: 12, 1950s: 9, 1960s: 12, 1970s: 15, 1980s: 31, 1990s: 20, 2000s: 20, 2010s: 18

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 102

Les Quatre Cents Coups (The 400 Blows) (1959)

 

"I'm an unstable psychotic individual with perverted tendencies."

 

Most Valuable Player:  Fancois Truffaut for Writing and Directing

Box Office: N/A

Tomatometer: 100%

Notable Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar

Synopsis: Moving story of a young boy who, left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.

Critic Opinion: "As nostalgic as The 400 Blows is, the movie is also made by an adult, one who knows that Antoine’s freedom, such as it is, will be short-lived. And so Antoine lands in jail (there’s a mournful shot of him sleeping on the floor of a cell) and is eventually sent to a seaside juvenile home. He attempts an escape, and Truffaut follows his flight with an extended tracking shot along a country road. You hope, for Antoine’s sake, that the shot never ends, but it does when Antoine comes to the ocean. He turns to the camera and Truffaut ends the film with one of the most famous freeze-frame shots in all of movie history. It’s an act of mercy, really – allowing Antoine an eternal moment of youth before the waves of adulthood come crashing in." - Larsen, Larsenonfilm

User Opinion: "A must-watch of any fan of cinema, this film is pretty great."  - Water Bottle

Reasoning: Les Quatre Cents Coups, or The 400 Blows, is a sensational coming-of-age film and one of the definitive pictures on the passage of youth.  The film is full of heavy themes of parenting and how it leads to juvenileism, but also many moments that keep a light and almost carefree nature in many parts throughout the film, youthful.  The 400 Blows is a film that really helped to shape cinema, and so I would say it's an essential viewing if you really want to get into film history.  The 400 Blows never truly gets to nostalgic, but is instead realistic and honest with all of its takes, but not without a dash of optimism and a young spirit to it.  Definitely watch this movie.

Decade Count:  1930s: 8, 1940s: 12, 1950s: 10, 1960s: 12, 1970s: 15, 1980s: 31, 1990s: 20, 2000s: 20, 2010s: 18

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Last one for today and I'll start the top 100 tomorrow...

 

Number 101

Mulholland Dr. (2001)

 

 

"Silencio"

 

Most Valuable Player: David Lynch's Direction

Box Office: 7.2m (11m Adjusted)

Tomatometer: 82%

Notable Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar

Synopsis: After a car wreck on the winding Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a perky Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.

Critic Opinion: "There was a time when any discussion about David Lynch's magnificent Mulholland Dr. would automatically turn into an attempt to piece out exactly what the fuck is happening within it. Having been right in the thick of the film's original release in 2001, I took part in more than my fair share of such conversations, and I am pleased that, in the interevening 13 years and change, cinephile culture has arrived at two basic groups of theories that represent the consensus "solutions" of the movie's mysteries ("it's all a dream" and "it's two versions of the same story in alternate universes" - I much prefer the former, but the film mostly works the same either way), thus freeing us all to talk about anything else. For I cannot think of a film that more clearly demonstrates the truth of Roger Ebert's dictum that what a movie is about is less important than how it is about that thing. In fact, the how of Mulholland Dr. is almost totally inseparable from the what - it is a film that burns its artistic themes and believes about life deep into the bones of its story structure, its acting technique, its sound design, its editing. Unpack the gnarled narrative, and you find a potboiler about desperation among wannabe actresses. Unpack the aesthetic, and you find one of the best - no, fuck it, the best autocritique of cinema as a medium that has yet been made." - Tim Brayton, Antagony and Ecstacy

User Opinion: "It's a great, great movie -- haunting, disturbing, weird, fucked-up, and yes, sexy." - Telemachos

Reasoning: This is a David Lynch film that, overall, got overlooked when it came out, with the exception of Naomi Watt's performance.  This is most likely due to the fact that it's weird and needs time to digest what exactly all happens on the screen.  The film is messed up in all of the right ways, and it imprints itself into your memory like none other.  This is how you do an effective and trippy "dream" film, unlike that other mainstream dream film that just manages to be an alright movie.  The movie is technically brilliant and it all adds to the effect of all of what takes place on screen.  Mulholland Dr. is a surreal piece of art.

Decade Count: 1930s: 8, 1940s: 12, 1950s: 10, 1960s: 12, 1970s: 15, 1980s: 31, 1990s: 20, 2000s: 21, 2010s: 18

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Hints about upcoming films in my top 100

 

97: Have you always been alone?  Have you never loved again?

96: My plea of forgiveness to @TelemAAchos for placing T2 so low, and The Revenant so high

95: Johnny Be Good!

89: Features some stellar performances, including a leading one from Michael B. Jordan

88: In case Tele doesn't accept 96, I offer this one as well.

87: One of the few remakes to be better than the original

85: A classic, controversial musical

 

 

[chasmmi]

5 hours ago, The PandAA said:

Hints about upcoming films in my top 100

 

97: Have you always been alone?  Have you never loved again?

96: My plea of forgiveness to @TelemAAchos for placing T2 so low, and The Revenant so high

95: Johnny Be Good!

89: Features some stellar performances, including a leading one from Michael B. Jordan

88: In case Tele doesn't accept 96, I offer this one as well.

87: One of the few remakes to be better than the original

85: A classic, controversial musical

 

 

 

Lawrence at 96?

Mary McFly at 95

Creed at 89

Mad max at 88

Star trek into darkness at 87

Producers at 85?

[baumer]

Terrific write ups Panda.  I'm going to add a bunch of movies from your list to my must see list.

[The Panda]

Number 100

Moonlight - Again - (2016)

 

"At some point, you gotta decide for yourself who you're going to be. Can't let nobody make that decision for you."

 

Most Valuable Player: The Ensemble of the Film

Box Office: 26.9m

Tomatometer: 97%

Notable Awards: Won 3 Oscars, including Best Picture

Synopsis: A chronicle of the childhood, adolescence and burgeoning adulthood of a young black man growing up in a rough neighborhood of Miami.

Critic Opinion: "To describe “Moonlight,” Barry Jenkins’s second feature, as a movie about growing up poor, black and gay would be accurate enough. It would also not be wrong to call it a movie about drug abuse, mass incarceration and school violence. But those classifications are also inadequate, so much as to be downright misleading. It would be truer to the mood and spirit of this breathtaking film to say that it’s about teaching a child to swim, about cooking a meal for an old friend, about the feeling of sand on skin and the sound of waves on a darkened beach, about first kisses and lingering regrets. Based on the play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue” by Tarell Alvin McCraney, “Moonlight” is both a disarmingly, at times almost unbearably personal film and an urgent social document, a hard look at American reality and a poem written in light, music and vivid human faces." - A.O. Scott, New York Times

User Opinion: "Moonlight has been drawing comparisons to Richard Linklater's Boyhood, and it's not difficult to see why. Both films follow the journey of a young boy as he goes on to discover himself as he's grows up. This is a marvelous film that neither shies away from the ugliness that the protagonist, a black LBGT male, faces as he grows up (but neither does it wallow in the misery like most films of its ilk do) but never feels exploitative, and all of it feels true to life. We've encountered someone like Chiron at some point in our lives even if it was by passing a stranger on the streets. Especially phenomenal is the acting. The three of the actors who play Chiron, all relative newcomers, are magnificent discoveries, while Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris deserve the Oscar nominations they will receive. Andre Holland and Janelle Monae are also superb. This is what the SAG Awards were made for, people. In addition, the film is impeccably-directed by Barry Jenkins (also the screenwriter); there are many, many shots here that are terrifically put together. I look forward to seeing anything Jenkins does going forward. Year after year (and especially this year), movies are released that hardly register in the brain after they're over. This is not one of those movies. This is a film that will stay with everyone long after the end credits conclude. See it as soon as you can." - filmlover

Reasoning: I realize I gave this film quite a leap up in the rankings, however no regrets with my reactionary decision, sticking with it!  Moonlight is a film that sticks with you and haunts the soul long after you see it.  It's not going to work for everyone, but that doesn't take away from the powerful and unsettling experience about identity that it provides.  Chiron is a character who's lost throughout the movie, and is in no means always painted in a poor and innocent light, but there's some power in watching the character age and remain lost throughout the feature.  The ensemble work is incredible, Jenkins direction is subtle, yet evidently there, and there's plenty of images and lines that stick to you as the simple, but potent score rolls.  One of the best "Best Picture Winners" to come out of the Oscars.

Decade Count: 1930s: 8, 1940s: 12, 1950s: 10, 1960s: 12, 1970s: 15, 1980s: 31, 1990s: 20, 2000s: 21, 2010s: 18

Top 100 Decade Count: 2010s: 1

 

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 99

The Producers (1967)

 

"Well... Talk about bad taste!"

 

Most Valuable Player: Mel Brooks for his Direction and Screenplay

Box Office: N/A

Tomatometer: 91%

Notable Awards: Won 1 Oscar

Synopsis: Producers Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom make money by producing a sure-fire flop.

Critic Opinion: "This is one of the funniest movies ever made. To see it now is to understand that. To see it for the first time in 1968, when I did, was to witness audacity so liberating that not even "There's Something About Mary" rivals it. The movie was like a bomb going off inside the audience's sense of propriety. There is such rapacity in its heroes, such gleeful fraud, such greed, such lust, such a willingness to compromise every principle, that we cave in and go along." - Roger Ebert

User Opinion: "Mel Brooks first film. And what a fantastic one. Wilder is so funny in this, as is Kenneth Mars (who recently died, RIP)Trivia-Wilder lost supporting actor in this to the actor who played Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka. (Though Wilder should of been nominated for lead)Funny I saw this the same day I saw Captain America."

Reasoning: One of the outright funniest films ever made, there's a reason it's had a remake and a highly successful Broadway adaption of the movie since its release.  The film is bombastic and completely out there, especially when you consider it came out in the 60s.  Mel Brooks made plenty of hilarious films throughout his career, and I'd argue that this is his best one.  Satirizing Hollywood productions themselves, Brooks had no shame in the releasing of this film, and that makes it all the better.  The screenplay is ripe with hilarious lines, and Gene Wilder delivers a fantastic comedic performance.  There's really nothing of fault I can say against the Producers, it is comedy at its finest.

Decade Count:  1930s: 8, 1940s: 12, 1950s: 10, 1960s: 13, 1970s: 15, 1980s: 31, 1990s: 20, 2000s: 21, 2010s: 18

Top 100 Decade Count: 1960s: 1, 2010s: 1

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 98

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

 

"I am big.  It's the pictures that got small!"
 

Most Valuable Player: Bill Wilder's Direction and Writing

Box Office: N/A

Tomatometer: 98%

Notable Awards: Won 3 Oscars, was nominated for Best Picture

Synopsis: A screenwriter is hired to rework a faded silent film star's script only to find himself developing a dangerous relationship.

Critic Opinion: "In more than fifty years, only two pictures have offered such an uncompromising look behind Hollywood's red drapery: Sunset Blvd. and The Player. When the former film debuted in 1950, it was viewed as the product of a cynical director, but, for Billy Wilder, cynicism equates to reality. Sunset Blvd. is not an attack on Hollywood, but neither is it a love letter. It shows the movie business for what it is – an industry in which people are disposable commodities and where using others becomes second nature. What looks like a shining fantasy land from a distance comes across as a den of backstabbing, deceit, and cruelty up close. Many in Hollywood were upset with Wilder's bleak and black portrayal of the studios – not because it was a fabrication, but because it put the truth up on a screen for everyone to see." - Berardinelli, ReelViews

User Opinion: "A new addition to my top 10 movies of all time.
 
When the movie started, I thought I might only appreciate it on an intellectual level. I thought the narration was corny and the acting was hackneyed. However, once Norma Desmond appears on screen, the movie really gets started. This character is a screen icon, but not for the reasons she would understand.
 
And knowing many of these characters are played by real-life counterparts, like an actual silent film star Gloria Swanson playing Desmond, makes the film seem immediate and relevant even 60 years later.
 
The film is suspenseful even if it gives away the climax at the beginning! Quite an accomplishment." - Cannastop

Reasoning: A movie made by Hollywood that offers a fairly scathing take on Hollywood, it's no wonder films like Sunset Boulevard are fairly rare. Wilder writes and directs this film so masterfully, to the point where even Hollywood would be forced to recognized the efforts at the Academy Awards. Gloria Swanson lights up the screen in her leading performance, easily an acting standout in a movie filled to the brim with strong performances. Working with themes of how Hollywood exploits and uses many of its workers, I'm sure it was tough pill for the Academy to swallow at the time, possibly even now given the relevance of the film hasn't diminished in the 67 years since its release. Sunset Boulevard is a dark, powerful and bold film that managed to stand out in its time.

Decade Count:  1930s: 8, 1940s: 12, 1950s: 11, 1960s: 13, 1970s: 15, 1980s: 31, 1990s: 20, 2000s: 21, 2010s: 18

Top 100 Decade Count: 1950s: 1, 1960s: 1, 2010s: 1