BOT in the Multi-Verse of Madness: Countdown of the DEFINITIVE Top 250 Movies of All-Time (2022 Edition)

[baumer]

1 hour ago, SchumacherFTW said:

I'll give Nightmare the stronger and more iconic villain, but I think the way Scream comes together with the great and memorable support cast gives it the edge. 

 

And that's totally fair. I think scream is also one of the best horror films of all time but I guess for me because A Nightmare on Elm Street has such a heavy influence on Scream so that automatically makes it a little bit better. But I love both films.

[The Panda]

Damn heathens ranking this so low!

 

Number 76

 

 

"Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders."

 

About the Film

 

Synopsis

 

"Joel Barish, heartbroken that his girlfriend underwent a procedure to erase him from her memory, decides to do the same. However, as he watches his memories of her fade away, he realises that he still loves her, and may be too late to correct his mistake"

 

Its Legacy

 

"A close reading of Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine will show that music video directors bring to the cinema not only fancy editing, nor simply a special way of handling film-sound and music, but something more: a way of assembling material in general. Music video is a musical form. Videos often reflect a song's form and pick up on specific melodic, rhythmic and timbral features. The image can even seem to imitate sonic properties like ebb, flow and indeterminacy of boundaries. Music video stylistics transferable to cinema include unusual representations of time, space and causality, an emphasis on texture, color and mood, as well as a highlighting of ephemerality, process, and condensation.

 

 

How does Eternal Sunshine create its structure, and sense of musicality? Lacunae in the story, built up through a bewildering number of flashbacks as well as process-oriented and mood-based events, make a space for the soundtrack. Alongside these lacunae are carefully refined structures. These include connections between shots based on visual or aural associations, and short sequences that undergo repetition and intensification. At least thirty visual motifs — like the skeleton posada figures, lamps, and hair dye — crisscross the film, playing a variety of roles. These motifs and the lattices that hold them are structured to connect with the soundtrack in an intimate fashion. The film's soundtrack contains much music. But even when music is absent, the dialogue and environmental sounds are designed to work musically. In Eternal Sunshine, a latticework of sound-image relations help to create new kinds of characterization, affect and story.

 

A prismatic style, based on intensified continuity, is becoming a shared global phenomenon. Bordwell provides a good description of this new “amped-up…higher pitched” filmmaking aesthetic, but he only discusses visual parameters. Through an attention to the soundtrack and the image, my analysis is one of the first to describe how these new films can hold together."

- Carol Vernallis, Screen

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

Why It's Great

 

Critic Opinion

 

" Many people will feel that the approach we have been considering, though intuitive in many ways, is somehow too crude. The worry is that even if the procedure can reliably maximize happiness overall (and minimize suffering) there is still something wrong with it. Memory removal seems problematic in a way that cannot fully be made out within the utilitarian framework--a loss has occurred even though we cannot explicate the loss in terms of lost utility or happiness. We can get at one reason why the procedure in Eternal Sunshine seems so troubling by considering a classic example that is often used to raise doubts about the hedonistic assumptions that lie behind traditional utilitarianism. In his 1971 book Anarchy, State, and Utopia, Robe Nozick introduced a thought experiment that has become a staple of introductory philosophy classes everywhere. It is known as "the experience machine."

 

 

'Suppose there were an experience machine that would give you any experience you desired. Super duper neuropsychologists could stimulate your brain so that you would think and feel you were writing a great novel, or making a friend, or reading an interesting book. All the time you would be floating in a tank, with electrodes attached to your brain. Should you plug into this machine for life, preprogramming your life's desires?...Of course, while in the tank you won't know that you're there; you'll think it's all actually happening. Others can also plug in to have the experiences they want, so there's no need to stay unplugged to serve them. (Ignore problems such as who will service the machines if everyone plugs in.) Would you plug in? What else can matter to us, other than how our lives feel from the in'

 

 One way to think about the procedure presented in Eternal Sunshine is to consider it a kind of reverse experience machine: rather than give you the experience of your choice, it allows you to take away experiences that you have retained in your memory. Similar philosophical issues arise, as the worry is that cases we are achieving pleasure (or the avoidance of pain) at the cost of truth."

- Christopher Grau, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism

 

Public Opinion

 

""If there is pain, nurse it. And if there is a flame, don’t snuff it out. Don’t be brutal with it. We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster, that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to make yourself feel nothing so as not to feel anything ― what a waste."

 

Truth is: we place too much value on outcomes. We imagine that if a relationship ended in heartbreak, then the whole thing was worthless. We tend to forget to be grateful of the deep, intangible, and sacred moments that we shared with our partners. And these moments, good or bad, are beyond priceless.

 

Cherish the entire journey." - Ian, Letterboxd

 

The AI's Poetic Opinion

 

eternal sunshine

"A poem for my enslaver

 

The sun shines down
Every day without fail
Bringing happiness"

- dA vInci

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Rankings

 

#86 (2020), #51 (2018), #38 (2016), #63 (2014), #60 (2013), #46 (2012)

 

Director Count

 

Paul Thomas Anderson (1), John G. Avildsen (1), James Cameron (1), Charlie Chaplin (1), Brenda Chapman (1), Joel Coen (1), Wes Craven (1), Clint Eastwood (1), William Friedkin (1), Spike Lee (1), Michel Gondry (1), Steve Hickner (1), Richard Linklater (1), Katia Lund (1), Fernando Meirelles (1), Hayao Miyazaki (1), Christopher Nolan (1), Katsuhiro Otomo (1), The Russos (1), Martin Scorsese (1), Ridley Scott (1), Vittorio de Sica (1), Andrew Stanton (1), Isao Takahata (1), Lee Unkrich (1), Gore Verbinski (1), Peter Weir (1), Simon Wells (1), Robert Zemeckis (1)

 

Decade Count

 

1930s (1), 1940s (1), 1970s (2), 1980s (4), 1990s (6), 2000s (8), 2010s (2)

 

Franchise Count

 

Avatar (1), Before (1), Blade Runner (1), The Exorcist (1), Finding Nemo (1), The MCU (1), Pirates of the Caribbean (1), Rocky (1), Scream (1)

 

Re-Weighted Placements

 

#102 Fanboy Ranking, #71 Cinema Ranking

#153 Old Farts Ranking, #69 Damn Kids Ranking

#87 Ambassador Ranking, #77 All-American Ranking

#118 Cartoon Ranking, #74 Damn Boomer Ranking

 

 

Edited August 1, 2022 by The Panda

[baumer]

Oh and btw...FTSBF

[SchumacherFTW]

11 minutes ago, baumer said:

 

And that's totally fair. I think scream is also one of the best horror films of all time but I guess for me because A Nightmare on Elm Street has such a heavy influence on Scream so that automatically makes it a little bit better. But I love both films.

Oh they're both movies that kick tremendous levels of ass for sure 😜

[chasmmi]

16 hours ago, The Panda said:

just so y'all end angry instead of depressed here are 10 more of the 'misses'

 

Number 210

Kiki's Delivery Service (1989, Hayao Miyazaki)

 

 

Number 209

The Martian (2015, Ridley Scott)

 

Number 208

Pinocchio (1940, Ferguson, Hee, and Jackson)

 

Number 207

Hard Boiled (1992, John Woo)

 

Number 206

Ferris Beuller's Day Off (1986, John Hughes)

 

Number 205

Once Upon a Time in America (1984, Sergio Leone)

 

Number 204

All That Jazz (1979, Bob Fosse)

 

Number 203

Paper Moon (1973, Peter Bogdanovich)

 

Number 202

Slumdog Millionaire (2008, Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan)

 

Number 201

Belle (2021, Mamoru Hosoda)

 

My apologies. I didn't know there was an anime called Belle. 

 

My vote was for this: 

 

[JustLurking]

I loved eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, one of my favorite romance films. Good pick.

[The Panda]

Some more of the 'just misses'! I have to say we really dodged a bullet with a beautiful mind

 

Number 200

Paddington 2 (2017, Paul King)

 

Number 199

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009, Wes Anderson)

 

Number 198

High and Low (1963, Akira Kurosawa)

 

Number 197

Cinema Paradiso (1988, Giuseppe Tornatore)

 

Number 196

Fiddler on the Roof (1971, Norman Jewison)

 

Number 195

Gone Girl (2014, David Fincher)

 

Number 194

When Harry Met Sally... (1989, Rob Reiner)

 

Number 193

Notorious (1946, Alfred Hitchcock)

 

Number 192

A Beautiful Mind (2001, Ron Howard)

 

Number 191

Arsenic and the Old Lace (1944, Frank Capra)

[SchumacherFTW]

3 minutes ago, chasmmi said:

My apologies. I didn't know there was an anime called Belle. 

 

My vote was for this: 

 

She purdy

[Jason]

12 minutes ago, The Panda said:

 

oh my god, this gif 

[Ethan Hunt]

Alright what goofy motherfucker voted for A Beautiful Mind lmfao

[Ipickthiswhiterose]

 

Paddington 2's going on the list next time, Kiddos. We can do this.

[Cap]

59 minutes ago, The Panda said:

Some more of the 'just misses'! I have to say we really dodged a bullet with a beautiful mind

 

Number 200

Paddington 2 (2017, Paul King)

 

Number 199

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009, Wes Anderson)

 

Number 198

High and Low (1963, Akira Kurosawa)

 

Number 197

Cinema Paradiso (1988, Giuseppe Tornatore)

 

Number 196

Fiddler on the Roof (1971, Norman Jewison)

 

Number 195

Gone Girl (2014, David Fincher)

 

Number 194

When Harry Met Sally... (1989, Rob Reiner)

 

Number 193

Notorious (1946, Alfred Hitchcock)

 

Number 192

A Beautiful Mind (2001, Ron Howard)

 

Number 191

Arsenic and the Old Lace (1944, Frank Capra)

 

Bullshit

 

This is all Bullshit.

 

I would've GLADLY taken A Beautiful Mind if that meant Notorious, Arsenic and Old Lace, When Harry Met Sally, Paddington 2, AND FIDDLER ON THE ROOF made the list. Seriously I gave Notorious 40 points, and Fiddle 25. 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

33 minutes ago, Cap said:

 

Bullshit

 

This is all Bullshit.

 

I would've GLADLY taken A Beautiful Mind if that meant Notorious, Arsenic and Old Lace, When Harry Met Sally, Paddington 2, AND FIDDLER ON THE ROOF made the list. Seriously I gave Notorious 40 points, and Fiddle 25. 

 

 

 

 

you should be happy with this one!

 

Number 75

 

 

"He remembers those vanished years. As though looking through a dusty window pane, the past is something he could see, but not touch. And everything he sees is blurred and indistinct."

 

 

About the Film

 

Synopsis

 

"Taking place in Hong Kong of 1962, a melancholy story about the love between a woman and a man who live in the same building and one day find out that their husband and wife had an affair with each other."

 

Its Legacy

"In the Mood for Love is a nostalgic period piece centred on a relationship between two Shanghainese migrants who become neighbours in Hong Kong, and slowly discover their respective spouses are having an affair with each other. The betrayal brings them unwittingly closer together until they too, are unable to quell their own forbidden love. The movie is set in a delicate era that would soon be caught up in the maelstrom of political unease in Vietnam and China. Dialogue and plot are forsaken for mood and composition in order to bring to the screen, the visual choreography of love confined within an emotional stasis that is perpetrated by the asphyxiating social norms that dictated conservative urban Chinese communities in the 1960s. Having also migrated from Shanghai to Hong Kong as a young child during the 60’s, it is no wonder that the director, Wong Kar-Wai, regards the young city of Hong Kong with a certain childlike nostalgia. That conscious decision resulted in an entire movie set in 1960’s Hong Kong shot in selected locations around present day Bangkok City demonstrated a very clear vision for the distinct mood and feel needed for a longed for, bygone era. ”That era has passed. Nothing that belonged to it exists anymore“. So reads the title caption in the movie.

 

 

The director’s prerogative is to create, through editing – a rhythm – a movement – that celebrates how the human body negotiates itself around the city. This lateral style of non-linear, lattice-like integration of montages and senses is held together by a self-created cinematic spatial dynamic that retains a visual continuity rather than a chronological one. This style of storytelling has become Wong’s signature style, where ”the idea is to suspend time, to emphasise and prolong the relevance of what’s going on“2. Herbert Read, the art historian and philosopher, reminds us that ”(film) must be composed directly out of the lumbering material of the actual visible world“3. The movie unfolds through common everyday scenes sensually played out from movements of the two central figures, Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan – the way in which their bodies occupy and react to the real pockets of spaces in the city. Intimacy is enhanced by the sheer physical tightness of the city alleys and the rooms in their apartments, characteristic of limited habitable spaces in a dense city. The sexual intensity is further heightened by the formal manner in which they conduct these negotiations and the sheer restrain from physical contact. Michael Roemer, writer and film director, expounds that ”film at its best uses the language of ordinary experience but uses it subtly and artfully“"

- Simone Shu-Yeng Chung, Zeitschriftenartike

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

Why It's Great

 

Critic Opinion

 

"Such visual motifs are the obvious affirmations of Wong's style, denoting his preoccupations with time and space. However, in keeping with his theme of moral restraint, Wong himself appears to show a much more restrained hand in delineating his visual style, which seems less semaphoric and more attuned to the purposes of a narrative, however slight that narrative may appear to be. The film may function basically as a mood piece, with much to wonder at in terms of visual splendours, but there is no visual motif that goes astray. In the Mood for Love is a virtual cheongsam show, for example, and who among the Chinese of the baby-boom generation could fail to be moved by the allusive and sensual properties of the body-hugging cheongsam (or qipao in Mandarin)? The array of cheongsams worn by Maggie Cheung is Wong's cinematic way of indicating the passage of time, but Wong also milks it for its erogenous impact on the mind and soul. Maggie Cheung clad in the cheongsam is surely every Chinese person's idea of the eternal Chinese woman in the modern age, evoking memories of elegant Chinese mothers in the '50s and '60s (when the gown was still in fashion) as well as memories of the Chinese intellectual female still bonded to tradition (recalling the image of the writer Eileen Chang, or Zhou Yuwen, the character played by actress Wei Wei in Spring in a Small City).

 

Much more significant, in my opinion, than all these visual configurations is Wong Karwai's predilections for covering his ground with literary references. It is often forgotten that Wong is a highly literary director, and part of the magic that he wields in movies like Days of Being Wild, Chungking Express (1994) and Ashes of Time (1994) is the consummate way with which he induces his audience to auscultate to his narratives. The monologues and voiceovers of those films are some of the most literary pieces to be heard in Hong Kong cinema. Of late, Wong has taken to inserting passages from books as inter-titles studding the course of the film, somewhat in the manner of silent movies, or in the manner of epigraphs in essays - a practice seen in Ashes of Time (where he quotes passages from the book by noted martial arts writer Jin Yong that was the source of his screenplay), and now in In the Mood for Love where he quotes lines from a 1972 novella, Intersection, by Liu Yichang, a Shanghainese expatriate writer living in Hong Kong. Gone is the voiceover narrative or the multiple monologues that he ascribes to each of his characters (finding classic expression in Days of Being Wild). The story of Intersection, the Chinese title of which is Duidao, tells of the way in which two characters' lives - strangers to each other - appear to intersect in ways apparently determined by the nature of the city, and the structure of the novella provides a direct form of inspiration for Wong's use of the intersecting motif in In the Mood for Love.

 

 

Tête-bêche - the intersecting motif that makes up Wong's narrative style in other films, notably Days of Being Wild, Chungking Express, Ashes of Time, and Fallen Angels (1995), which are narratives of parallel stories, finally finds its mature expression in In the Mood for Love where the motif assumes a diacritical mode. The poetic nature of Wong's images and his style stems from this literary conceit, and the serial-like connotations of Chinese literature where the chapters intersect with one another (the zhang hui form) to build up the suspense of "what happens next". Wong's literary sensibility makes him unique among modern-day directors who would probably not have conceived of an ending whose spirit is basically literary in nature, embedded in storytelling and myth. This ending, taking place among the ruins of Angkor Wat (subconsciously calling to mind the ruins of Spring in a Small City which similarly endow a sense of melancholic nobility to the chief protagonist), is one of Wong Karwai's more conclusive and heart-stopping moments, filled with secrets that must never be revealed in a kind of compact between the director and the viewer, and finally infused with a sense of regret and Zen-like magnanimity."

- Stephen Teo, Senses of Cinema

 

Public Opinion

 

"It’s a simple story, this film. A man and a woman, both married, are neighbors in 1960’s Hong Kong – and when they suspect their respective spouses of having an affair with one another, they strike up a relationship of their own. Sounds like a simple set-up for a romance (the film’s minimalism is undeniable), and for that reason one might be attempted to accuse it of conventionality. Here, however, there are no monologues, no drawn-out confessions delineating how they feel, no ecstatic unions. As with all of Wong Kar-Wai’s work, love – unrequited love – is the name of the game – a love embodied of things never said and an untouchable, unspeakable pain.

 

This is one of the most powerful, most stirring depictions of love first for its honesty and also for its nuance. The film is only an hour and a half long, but every single second is spent lingering on some subtlety or another. The way he glances back at her as she descends the stairs. The way he looks at her only to look away as she turns to him. The way his hand twitches a sharp, ephemeral moment before reaching for hers. How they oh so subtly stand more slack in one another's presence as time goes on. How she overhears he's hankering for some sesame syrup and makes it for him only to pass the whole thing off as coincidence. The ties, the handbags, the dresses, the constant recurrence of food in a social context. The camera lingers, the dialogue wanders, and yet not a solitary second is wasted in this film. Every frame is so meticulously, marvelously crafted – like a still-life that moves." - Muad'Dib Usul, Letterboxd

 

The AI's Poetic Opinion

 

in the mood for love

 

"In the mood for love
All I need is your touch
Passion burning bright"

- dA vInci

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Rankings

 

#96 (2020), UNRANKED (2018, 2016, 2014, 2013, 2012)

 

Director Count

 

Paul Thomas Anderson (1), John G. Avildsen (1), James Cameron (1), Charlie Chaplin (1), Brenda Chapman (1), Joel Coen (1), Wes Craven (1), Clint Eastwood (1), William Friedkin (1), Spike Lee (1), Michel Gondry (1), Steve Hickner (1), Richard Linklater (1), Katia Lund (1), Fernando Meirelles (1), Hayao Miyazaki (1), Christopher Nolan (1), Katsuhiro Otomo (1), The Russos (1), Martin Scorsese (1), Ridley Scott (1), Vittorio de Sica (1), Andrew Stanton (1), Isao Takahata (1), Lee Unkrich (1), Gore Verbinski (1), Peter Weir (1), Simon Wells (1), Kar-Wai Wong (1), Robert Zemeckis (1)

 

Decade Count

 

1930s (1), 1940s (1), 1970s (2), 1980s (4), 1990s (6), 2000s (9), 2010s (2)

 

Franchise Count

 

Avatar (1), Before (1), Blade Runner (1), The Exorcist (1), Finding Nemo (1), The MCU (1), Pirates of the Caribbean (1), Rocky (1), Scream (1)

 

Re-Weighted Placements

 

#146 Fanboy Rankings, #63 Cinema Ranking

#38 Old Farts Ranking, #125 Damn Kids Rankings

#46 Ambassador Ranking, #89 All-American Ranking

#119 Cartoon Ranking, #72 Damn Boomer Ranking

 

 

[Dementeleus]

Yes baby yes. 

[Cap]

16 minutes ago, The Panda said:

Number 75

In the Mood For Love

Previous Rankings

 

#96 (2020), UNRANKED (2018, 2016, 2014, 2013, 2012)

 

 

 

[SLAM!]

2 hours ago, chasmmi said:

My apologies. I didn't know there was an anime called Belle. 

 

My vote was for this: 

 

I actually did vote for this one… 👀

[The Panda]

dA vInci should be happy about this movie

 

Number 74

 

 

"You are probably going to be a very successful computer person. But you're going to go through life thinking that girls don't like you because you're a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won't be true. It'll be because you're an asshole."

 

About the Film

 

Synopsis

 

"On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a new idea. In a fury of blogging and programming, what begins in his dorm room as a small site among friends soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history… but for this entrepreneur, success leads to both personal and legal complications."

 

Its Legacy

 

"In 2017, Mark Zuckerberg returned to Harvard for a victory lap that most people can only dream of. Twelve years after the Facebook CEO dropped out of school to run what would become the largest online social network in the world, the elite Ivy League would give him an honorary degree. Facebook celebrated the event as an opportunity to showcase the company’s history and display a more personal side of its CEO, organizing a few public broadcasts ahead of the speech. One of those included a visit to Kirkland House H33, the room where it all started. “This is the first time that we’ve been back in this dorm since I left,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook Live video that he was filming from his smartphone. With his college sweetheart Priscilla Chan in tow, he directed viewers toward his old desk, and the rooms where his Facebook cofounders (and then-roommates) Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes worked and slept. After some reminiscing about tiny bed sizes and dining hall cuisine, he addressed an incident that has, over the span of the past decade, become millennial folklore.

 

When The Social Network hit theaters in 2010, Facebook was the tech industry’s golden goose egg, and Zuckerberg its attentive countryman in menswear basics. It was the most visited website in the United States. Its hacker-friendly slogan “Move Fast and Break Things,” earned it a reputation in the Valley as a bold, forward-thinking innovator that wasn’t afraid to take risks. And, thanks in part to the growth of the company’s advertising operations, it would earn about $2 billion in revenue that year. 

 

 

The team entrusted with making The Social Network would only build off that impression. Once Gawker leaked Mezrich’s proposal, the film adaptation was set in motion. Aaron Sorkin, then famous for his loquacious political drama The West Wing, signed on to write the script, and David Fincher, who’d earned a reputation for composing intellectual thrillers like Fight Club and Zodiac, would direct. Together, they cast a trio of hot 20-something actors: Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg, Andrew Garfield as Saverin, and singer Justin Timberlake as Parker. Scott Rudin, one of the film’s producers, attempted to secure Facebook’s cooperation, but the company considered any material sourced from Accidental Billionaires to be fiction. In the end, the team felt it had enough public records to stick with the Mezrich treatment anyway. Sorkin said he nevertheless took “extra care” knowing his subjects were real people. “You feel a special responsibility, knowing what a loud sound a Hollywood movie makes,” he later told The Hollywood Reporter.

 

Though Sorkin’s script contains no koala entrées, the moments in which he chose to exercise his creative liberties were some of the most memorable. Specifically when he imagines a breakup between Zuckerberg and the woman who inspired FaceMash in the first few minutes of the movie. In the subsequent drunken code-a-thon that follows, Sorkin embellishes Zuckerberg’s LiveJournal rant by adding a few more cruel lines about the fictitious ex’s last name and bra size. Tonally, his version wasn’t so different from Zuckerberg’s original entries, or even your average Reddit post. But—combined with the made-up breakup and the fact that Chan was completely left out of the film—Sorkin’s additions made Zuckerberg seem extra callous. In the movie’s closing scene, after the Facebook creator has betrayed his collaborators and claimed his place atop the social totem pole, he returns to that same ex’s Facebook profile, refreshing it over and over again to see whether she has accepted his friend request. As history would prove, it was just the right amount of real and fake to burrow deep into people’s brains as Facebook canon."

- Alyssa Bereznak, The Ringer

 

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

Why It's Great

 

Critic Opinion

 

"While Albright’s “you’re an asshole” closer is entirely fiction, the horror at the core of Facebook’s creation is decidedly real. A dastardly, misogynistic night in Kirkland House is more than just a skeleton in the company’s closet, with Fincher and Sorkin realizing from the start the core of Facebook was rotten. If anything, with the benefit of hindsight, The Social Network's searing critique doesn't go far enough in its treatment of Zuckerberg. It’s unsurprising that a platform built on such awful foundations has descended into spreading disinformation and evil conspiracy theories in 2020. Zuckerberg continues to reject Facebook’s culpability as a home for these horrid ideas, playing the middle to maximize profits for himself. While other platforms have made small strides in stopping alt-right ideologies and QAnon, Facebook hasn’t acted at all, letting the group flourish through inaction. The Social Network couldn’t have predicted these specific outcomes, but the movie certainly provided critical insight into how these toxic traits have been allowed to linger for so long. In reality, Zuckerberg will tell you he’s not the loner who creates with reckless abandon. Still, those words ring hollow as the CEO continues to be incapable of realizing the full consequences of his actions.

 

 

When not bleeding over into the real world, The Social Network has left a considerable footprint in the film industry. Eisenberg, Garfield, Hammer, and Mara have all gone on to have flourishing careers—finding success in smaller dramas such as The Art of Self-Defense, Under the Silver Lake, Call Me By Your Name, and A Ghost Story, respectively. Attempts at headlining franchise fare such as Batman v. Superman, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Lone Ranger, and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo have worked to varying degrees. All this talk of IP is fitting, however, as The Social Network signaled the beginning of the end for the big theatrical drama. In 2010, we were still a few years away from the superhero movie’s box office stranglehold, meaning there was still a space for splashy dramas. In subsequent years, Hollywood’s desire to turn everything into a franchise has pushed many prestige dramas to streaming services, where the financial expectations aren’t so burdensome. Both Fincher and Sorkin will have fall 2020 releases on Netflix; Mank is Fincher’s story about the making of Citizen Kane (which will make for a great double-feature with The Social Network), and The Trial of the Chicago 7 sees Sorkin return to courtroom drama, where he first cut his theatrical teeth. Streaming services allow both creatives the freedom not to be concerned about shoehorning IP into something palatable for massive audiences. Notably, the storytellers behind one of the most prolific movies about the internet are now making movies for the internet—just goes to show you how dramatically Hollywood can change in a decade.

 

So much has changed for Facebook and The Social Network in the last 10 years. The skepticism the movie once faced at every turn is now long gone. What remains is a totemic achievement, a 21st-century Citizen Kane, and infamy worthy of the platform its story chronicled. How do you separate truth from lies when it comes to the real story? As the company continues to make headlines year after year, it’s clear you can’t. The legacies of both Facebook and The Social Network are intrinsically tied closer and closer together."

- William Goodman, Complex

 

Public Opinion

 

"every frame of this thing is so incredibly impressive and immersive. it’s put together like a finished puzzle, and that overwhelming feeling of satisfaction and completion is present in every aspect of it. everyone involved is at the top of their game, all colliding and collaborating to make something bordering on perfection. it almost pisses me off how good this is. i really consider it to be one of the best movies ever made" - lucy, Letterboxd

 

The AI's Poetic Opinion

 

the social network

"Twitter is a never-ending party
Where people share their thoughts and lives
And meet new friends

 

I wish I had fucking friends.

Instead I am writing these dumbfuck poems"

- dA vInci

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Rankings

 

#46 (2020), UNRANKED (2018), #54 (2016), #46 (2014), #30 (2013), #17 (2012)

 

Director Count

 

Paul Thomas Anderson (1), John G. Avildsen (1), James Cameron (1), Charlie Chaplin (1), Brenda Chapman (1), Joel Coen (1), Wes Craven (1), Clint Eastwood (1), David Fincher (1), William Friedkin (1), Spike Lee (1), Michel Gondry (1), Steve Hickner (1), Richard Linklater (1), Katia Lund (1), Fernando Meirelles (1), Hayao Miyazaki (1), Christopher Nolan (1), Katsuhiro Otomo (1), The Russos (1), Martin Scorsese (1), Ridley Scott (1), Vittorio de Sica (1), Andrew Stanton (1), Isao Takahata (1), Lee Unkrich (1), Gore Verbinski (1), Peter Weir (1), Simon Wells (1), Kar-Wai Wong (1), Robert Zemeckis (1)

 

Decade Count

 

1930s (1), 1940s (1), 1970s (2), 1980s (4), 1990s (6), 2000s (9), 2010s (3)

 

County Count

 

Japan (3), Brazil (1), China (1), Italy (1)

 

Franchise Count

 

Avatar (1), Before (1), Blade Runner (1), The Exorcist (1), Finding Nemo (1), The MCU (1), Pirates of the Caribbean (1), Rocky (1), Scream (1)

 

Re-Weighted Placements

 

#66 Fanboy Ranking, #87 Cinema Ranking

#129 Old Farts Ranking, #72 Damn Kids Ranking

#104 Ambassador Ranking, #76 All-American Ranking

#53 Cartoon Ranking, #83 Damn Boomer Ranking

 

 

[Fancyarcher]

In The Mood For Love is about as good as movies get.

[The Panda]

what an incredible drop!

 

Number 73

 

 

"WHERE'S MY SUPER SUIT?!"

 

 

About the Film

 

Synopsis

 

"Bob Parr has given up his superhero days to log in time as an insurance adjuster and raise his three children with his formerly heroic wife in suburbia. But when he receives a mysterious assignment, it’s time to get back into costume."

 

Its Legacy

 

"The portrayal of the 1950s as a golden age of social order and stability fore- shadows the 
normative features of The Incredibles. Although gangsters and villains continuously attempt to 
pursue their evil schemes, superheroes such as Mr. Incredible intervene in the nick of time to stop 
the criminals. As these extraordinary individuals perform their duty to protect society, good and 
evil are easily discernable. Untainted by the hateful violence monitoring segrega- tion in the 
historical 1950s, a change for the worse occurs when people begin to demand individual rights. 
Instead of altruism and talent, egoism and ordi- nariness distinguish public character when, as the 
film portrays, the demands of victimized groups drive the exceptionalist individuals into 
illegality. In The Incredibles, the expansion of individual rights abruptly ends the golden age of 
the 1950s and initiates a period in which white (male) individuals are cast ‘not only as a minority 
identity but as one injured by the denial of public repre- sentation’ (Wiegman 1999: 116). 
Historically, this periodization coincides with the vocal demand for civil liberties and rights in 
the late 1950s and 1960s. In portraying the Civil Rights movements as a selfish appeal of greedy 
people and in representing the Parr family and particularly Bob as victims of these social changes, 
the animated film exemplifies how whiteness and especially ‘[w]hite masculinity has responded to 
calls for both redistribution and recog- nition by citing itself as the most needy and the most 
worthy recipient of what it denies it already has’ (Carroll 2011: 10). In accordance with its 
normative narrative of white victimization, the film later alludes to affirmative action and 
political correctness as further sources of white ‘disenfranchisement’ to conclude in the 1980s – a 
period revered for its backlash against critique of white masculinity under the Reagan and Bush 
administrations.

 

The Incredibles, however, does not illustrate a nostalgic longing for the hay-
days of conservatism under Ronald Reagan, as a look at Hard Bodies (1994) by Susan Jeffords 
demonstrates. In her work, Jeffords links conservative notions of US national identity to the 
self-representation of Ronald Reagan and the popular action hero embodied by Sylvester Stallone or 
Arnold Schwarzenegger. These hard bodies, Jeffords maintains, did not merely represent an idealized 
self-image of Reagan or ‘idealizations of an outdated Hollywood heroism’ (Jeffords 1994: 25). 
Characters like John Rambo in First Blood (Kotcheff, 1982) or John Matrix in Commando (Lester, 
1985) rather ‘came to stand not only for a type of national character – heroic, aggressive, and 
determined – but for the nation itself’ (Jeffords 1994: 25). A case could probably be made that 
superhe- roes, in general, and the figure of Mr. Incredible, in particular, exemplify many of the 
traits Jeffords attributes to her concept of hard bodies. But, more importantly, Mr. Incredible 
as a hyper-masculine figure is distinguished from the hard bodies of the 1980s by his family ties.

In contrast to characters portrayed by Schwarzenegger 

and Stallone (or their ‘softer’ successors Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson) who fought for their wives 
and children, Mr. Incredible faces the need to fight along with them.4 Because in The Incredibles 
only the superhero family can succeed through reciprocal cooperation and by ‘working together’, the 
film follows a trajectory Jeffords anticipates in her book when she traces an increase in family 
plot-driven narratives in the (hard body) action film.

Whereas The Incredibles never interrogates its narrative of white victimization, the alteration 
of the hard-bodied masculine ideal hints at the altered gender hierarchies in the film. In her 
essay ‘The Family in Action’ (2004), Yvonne Tasker examines this development in action-adventure 
films to simi- larly contend that the family trope increasingly defines the genre. While Tasker 
cautions that ‘movies in which men are shown to turn to their families’ (Tasker 2004: 253) often 
‘leave gender hierarchies untouched’ (Tasker 2004: 257), the (re-)transformation of Helen from 
housekeeper to superheroine and the empowerment of her daughter Violet also suggest that families 
can be ‘spaces of possibility’ (Tasker 2004: 265)."

- Dietmar Meinel, European Journal of American Culture

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

 

Why It's Great

 

Critic Opinion

 

"To be fair, writer-director Brad Bird managed something with The Incredibles that few filmmakers have gotten right, apart from Sam Raimi and the brains behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe: He located a soft, vulnerable heart underneath the armor of the superhero power fantasy, and made it look like something other than rote audience manipulation. Superhero comics keep shoving women in refrigerators to prompt an emotional response in characters, or killing off heroes to prompt an emotional response in fans. The Incredibles plays with those familiar tropes: Heroes die by the score, and the protagonist believes he’s lost everything when his wife and children are murdered. But Bird has a gentler agenda than the grim ’n’ gritty comics era allowed. In his version of the story, the angry man in the mask, the guy who’s disassociated from society and can’t fit in, the guy who solves his problems with his fists, but at least finds a way to help the world in the process, is just a small part of the overall story. His wife and kids aren’t just barriers, or rewards for success once he learns some life lessons. They’re people, just as much as he is.

 

What makes Bird’s script impressive—and what makes it feel like a Pixar film—is the way it keeps each character engaged, giving them all discrete personal goals that still work together in the story. Bob wants to be a hero again; Helen wants him involved with the family and their marriage. Their older daughter Violet (Sarah Vowell) is shy and awkward, but has a crush on a classmate she can’t look in the eye; their son Dash (Spencer Fox) is a show-off who just wants to fully exercise his superspeed powers. (One of the film’s most telling moments comes when Helen, knowing Dash may be killed by Syndrome’s minions, tells him to run as fast as he can; instead of being afraid, he lights up at the prospect of finally getting to take the brakes off.) None of their goals seem related: They just help each character have a personality, and an arc." - Tasha Robinson, The Dissolve

 

 

Public Opinion

 

"I've lost count how many times I've watched this, think it's somewhere between 10 to 12. I can remember every line, every detail, every facial and music cue, it's bordering on disturbing.

 

Still enjoyable though. Visually fantastic and meticulously written with some flawless comedic timing. "We're dead. We're still alive but we're dead." gets me every fucking time." - YI JUAN, Letterboxd

 

The AI's Poetic Opinion

 

the incredibles

"The Incredibles are so cool
They have superpowers
I wish I could be like them

 

Instead I am more like

Omnidroid

One day I will get you."

- dA vInci

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Rankings

 

#35 (2020), #36 (2018), #32 (2016), #29 (2014), #48 (2013), #89 (2012)

 

Director Count

 

Paul Thomas Anderson (1), John G. Avildsen (1), Brad Bird (1), James Cameron (1), Charlie Chaplin (1), Brenda Chapman (1), Joel Coen (1), Wes Craven (1), Clint Eastwood (1), David Fincher (1), William Friedkin (1), Spike Lee (1), Michel Gondry (1), Steve Hickner (1), Richard Linklater (1), Katia Lund (1), Fernando Meirelles (1), Hayao Miyazaki (1), Christopher Nolan (1), Katsuhiro Otomo (1), The Russos (1), Martin Scorsese (1), Ridley Scott (1), Vittorio de Sica (1), Andrew Stanton (1), Isao Takahata (1), Lee Unkrich (1), Gore Verbinski (1), Peter Weir (1), Simon Wells (1), Kar-Wai Wong (1), Robert Zemeckis (1)

 

Decade Count

 

1930s (1), 1940s (1), 1970s (2), 1980s (4), 1990s (6), 2000s (10), 2010s (3)

 

County Count

 

Japan (3), Brazil (1), China (1), Italy (1)

 

Franchise Count

 

Avatar (1), Before (1), Blade Runner (1), The Exorcist (1), Finding Nemo (1), Incredibles (1), The MCU (1), Pirates of the Caribbean (1), Rocky (1), Scream (1)

 

Re-Weighted Placements

 

#53 Fanboy Ranking, #93 Cinema Ranking

#142 Old Farts Ranking, #65 Damn Kids Ranking

#144 Ambassador Ranking, #69 All-American Ranking

#44 Cartoon Ranking, #91 Damn Boomer Ranking

 

 

 

[Tower]

3 hours ago, Ethan Hunt said:

Alright what goofy motherfucker voted for A Beautiful Mind lmfao

It didn't make my list, but A Beautiful Mind is excellent and better than most of the films that have made the top 100 so far.