BOT Top 250 Films of All-Time: or How We Learned to Start Shitposting and Love the Countdown!

[The Panda]

 

166.    Barry Lyndon (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1975)
167.    The Insider (dir. Michael Mann, 1999)
168.    The Wolf of Wall Street (dir. Martin Scorsese, 2013)
169.    A Clockwork Orange (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
170.    Arrival (dir. Denis Villeneuve, 2016)
 

[The Panda]

Number 50

 

 

"Come on, cat."

 

Synopsis

 

"During its return to the earth, commercial spaceship Nostromo intercepts a distress signal from a distant planet. When a three-member team of the crew discovers a chamber containing thousands of eggs on the planet, a creature inside one of the eggs attacks an explorer. The entire crew is unaware of the impending nightmare set to descend upon them when the alien parasite planted inside its unfortunate host is birthed." - The Movie Database

 

 

From the Scholar

 

"I offer a settler colonial reading of Sir Ridley Scott’s Alien films: Alien (1979), Prometheus (2012), and Alien: Covenant (2017). My purpose is to underscore the historical dimensions within Alien’s depiction of the future and to demonstrate that the film series is far more exercised with historicity than with futurity. Specifically, I argue that Scott’s metaphors, themes, and plots were intentionally evocative of the horrors of British imperial expansion within North America and function as a kind of mnemonic device that remember the violence of the settler colonial past. More broadly, I offer this analysis because, like many other scholars, I view the science fiction and horror genres, between which we can locate Alien, as remarkably provocative and productive. Such non-realist depictions of monsters, zombies, ghosts, alien invasions, or the human colonization of outer space contain archives of historical feeling that can be accessed through what Chickasaw scholar Jodi Byrd called a “mnemonic reading” praxis. In The Transit of Empire, Byrd explains that a mnemonic reading seeks to “connect the violences and genocides of colonization to cultural productions […] in order to disrupt the elisions of multicultural liberal democracy that seek to rationalize the originary historical traumas that birthed settler colonialism through inclusion” (xii-xiii). In reading Scott’s film series mnemonically as a larger story invested with settler colonial genocide and preoccupied with foreclosures of human futurity, I add to a considerable body of scholarly literature on Alien that has [End Page 188] shaped my reading of the series as well as my approach to the horror and science fiction genres as cathected with coloniality.

 

 

For readers unfamiliar with Alien, it will suffice to describe it here as a popular series of films, graphic novels, comic books, video games, and other cultural productions that stage violent and horrific conflicts between human beings and a particular species of “Alien” that wreaks havoc upon the crews of spaceships attempting to explore, settle, or mine a futuristic galactic frontier. The titular “Alien,” whose fully-developed form is called the Xenomorph, is monstrous and has acidic blood. It also has a second set of jaws that protrude from a tongue-like appendage extending from the monster’s mouth, though this is not its most grotesque or defining feature. The Xenomorph is able to use human bodies for its own sexual reproduction cycle and attacks its hosts with a gestational implant that later bursts from the chest of the victim in what has become a signature body horror sequence in any Alien cultural production. In addition to the fact that Alien films have women as protagonists, this recurring body horror motif wherein human beings are fatally impregnated by the Xenomorph has made the series particularly interesting to feminist scholars, who (at least in my view) have generated the most productive conversations on the franchise since the first film debuted in 1979 (Bell-Mettreau; Creed; Jeffords; Rushing; Torry; Vaughn). In many such readings, Alien is a science fiction and horror fusion that contained several complex themes associated with motherhood as well as many gendered horror movie tropes, such as “the final girl,” which Carol J. Cleaver theorized in Men, Women, and Chainsaws as the heroine who survives the violent ordeal and is able to kill the villain of a horror film; some examples include Jamie Lee Curtis’s character in Halloween or Betsy Palmer’s character in Friday the 13th. In my reading, Alien’s body horror and staging of reproductive violence on the galactic frontier remains remarkably gendered"

- Hay, Travis. "Founding Violence in the Future: A Mnemonic Reading of Ridley Scott's Alien." Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée 49, no. 1 (2022): 188-207.

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"The people who developed Alien did so in the shadow of Star Wars and Close Encounters, the films which had proved that, post-Vietnam, cinema audiences had a new appetite for cosmic escapism. But where these were feelgood family films, Alien marked a return to the malevolent flying-saucer flicks of the 50s — with a dash of John Carpenter's Halloween thrown in. Writer Dan O'Bannon and co-storyman Ron Shusett intended Alien to be a low-budget affair, like Halloween — in fact, like Dark Star, O'Bannon's previous film. Over three months, a modest script emerged from a half-finished O'Bannon story about a distress signal in space called Memory. It was retitled Star Beast and finally Alien. When a draft was handed to artist Ron Cobb for preliminary sketchwork, he described it thus: "A small, modest little ship with a small crew land on a small planet. They go down a small pyramid and shake up a medium-sized creature. That's about it." And that was about it, except with "small, modest, little" replaced by "fucking huge": the ship, commercial towing vehicle Nostromo, ended up being 800 feet long, and the "small pyramid" became a derelict spacecraft as big as a skyscraper. However, the crew stayed small (seven, plus cat), the alien stayed medium-sized (no bigger than the man who played him, supple Masai tribesman Bolaji Badejo) and the story stayed simple: ship lands on planet in response to an SOS that turns out to be a warning; alien infects one of the crew; alien kills the rest of the crew one by one. It's Ten Little Indians in space.

 

 

...

 

Alien set a new blueprint for sci-fi horror: the claustrophobia, the crew class system, and the inevitable scene where someone goes after a cat. Some favour James Cameron's gung-ho sequel, but in duplicating the alien for shoot-'em-up potential, it serves only to highlights the reserve and purity of the original. There are thrills of the highest order — Dallas (Skerritt) in the air shaft while a blip on the tracker closes in; and, of course, the famous chest-burst — but the beauty of Alien remains... its beauty."

- Kim Newman, Empire Magazine

 

From the Public

 

"I love this movie. But i feel that i would like it even more if i found this film to be actually scary. Because its not. Its just very suspensfull. Ridley Scotts second best movie (imo) creates its own unique world, establishes different, interesting and likable characters and shows of great visuals in the first half - and the title star has not even appeared. I dont care if they showed the Alien for only 4 Min because the suit looked terrible or the budget was too small for more alien scenes - the moments when we dont see the alien but we know it is somewhere and could attack at any moment make this movie stand above your typical monster movie. Granted, its not as rewatchable as its (first) sequel and some scenes could have been a tad shorter but this will stand the test of time as one of the best SciFi Movies of all time." - @Brainbug

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #50, 2013 - #45, 2014 - #40, 2016 - #45, 2018 - #30, 2020 - #30, 2022 – #33

 

Director Count

J. Cameron (2), A. Hitchcock (2), A. Kurosawa (2), J. Lasseter (2), S. Leone (2), R. Linklater (2), D. Lynch (2), C. Nolan (2), R. Scott (2), S. Spielberg (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), F. Capra (1), J. Carpenter (1), J. Coen (1), M. Curtiz (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), P. Docter (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), T. Jones (1), B. Joon-Ho (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Kubrick (1), S. Lee (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), A. Molina (1), J. Peele (1), S. Raimi (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), M. Scorsese (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), L. Unkrich (1), B. Wilder (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

1990s (10), 2000s (10), 2010s (7), 1960s (6), 1980s (5), 1950s (4), 1970s (4), 1940s (3), 1920s (1), 1930s (1),

 

International Film Count

France (3), Italy (3), Japan (3), United Kingdom (2), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1), South Korea (1)

 

Franchise Count

Pixar (4), Alien (2), Before (2), WDAS (2), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (2), Toy Story (2), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Monty Python (1), Spider-Man (1), The Thing (1)

 

Genre Count

Drama (12), Comedy (11), Historical Fiction (11), Horror (9), Epic (7), Animation (6), Black Comedy (6), Sci-Fi (6), Fantasy (5), Romance (5), Musical (4), Thriller (4), Adventure (3), Coming of Age (3), Crime (3), Mystery (3), Noir (3), Religious (3), Satire (3), Western (3), Action (2), Christmas/Holiday (2), Comic Book (2), Jidaigeki (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Superhero (2), Tragedy (2), War (2), Alternative History (1), Neorealism (1)

 

A Recipe

Avocado Xenomorph Eggs

 

From: https://laughingsquid.com/alien-cookbook/

 

 

[Brainbug]

Alien is a timeless classic.

[The Panda]

Number 49

 

 

"Wendy, I'm home!"

 

Synopsis

 

"Jack Torrance accepts a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel, where he, along with his wife Wendy and their son Danny, must live isolated from the rest of the world for the winter. But they aren't prepared for the madness that lurks within." - The Movie Database

 

 

From the Scholar

 

"The Shining met the fate of several other Stanley Kubrick films when it came out; most viewers did not like it, so they rejected it. Most importantly, they did not understand it in any way which allowed them to deal with it constructively. Also, the criticism it received did not clarify the film. It remained obscure and confusing to its viewers. It failed with most viewers for two basic reasons. It was not the same as Stephen King's novel, and it was not terrifying in the conventional way a horror film is supposed to be. So lacking the model of the novel or the conventional horror genre, viewers became disconcerted. The Shining is a Stanley Kubrick film, satiric and abstract. It can be understood, perhaps not fully but enough for one to take pleasure and challenge from it. There are a few perceptions that one can use to help him deal with a Kubrick film.

 

First of all, Kubrick sees human beings as empty, their values shallow and vacuous. Everything about them suggests banality-their dress, their habits, their environment. And since they are banal they don't communicate, except in trite, mundane ways. Their basic banality is most evident in their dialogue. Kubrick (Diane Johnson co-scripted The Shining) intends it to be inane, but critics keep accusing him of not being able to create good dialogue. What better way to show that people can't communicate than by having them speak dialogue that has no life or meaning to it?

 

 

The interview sequence near the beginning of The Shining has the same quality of dullness as the briefing scene·in 2001-a scene and a film that received many of the complaints about dull human beings as does The Shining. Barry Nelson, with his patter and plastic environment, is a perfect manifestation of banality. The scene is meant to be dissatisfying; it's not meant to excite or provoke. It sets a tone with which the rest of the picture can contrast. Out of banality comes the star-child in 2001; out of banality comes Jack the Ripper in The Shining. Jack is going to return to the elemental from the world of banality. He is going to be like the apes at the beginning , of 2001; his tool (the axe) too is going to become a weapon. If one is prepared for the banality, one can understand its purpose and transcend it."

- Macklin, F. Anthony. "Understanding Kubrick: The Shining." Journal of Popular Film and Television 9, no. 2 (1981): 93-95.

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"It’s almost beside the point to cite the staying power and inventory the iconography of Stanley Kubrick’s hugely unfaithful and inarguably visionary riff on a book that’s also very possibly its author’s best. What’s interesting is how even while diverging so aggressively from his source material, Kubrick still extracted all the rich marrow from its bones. On the page, The Shining is a tale of human frailty, with Jack Torrance succumbing pathetically to a haunted hotel’s atmosphere of temptation; onscreen, Jack Nicholson’s complicitous grin invites us to enjoy the liberation of stir-craziness, and the onus is on us to not get caught up in his good vibes. The altered tone suits Kubrick’s gallows humor, which was always about confronting and critiquing his audience’s baser impulses: reinventing The Shining as a slapstick comedy about murderous patriarchal insecurity is a daring move.

 

King’s objections to the result are fair enough: He has every right to feel betrayed, and even insulted (as anyone who’s seen Room 237 knows, the shot of a crushed VW bug by the side of the road was a subliminal diss on Kubrick’s part, reducing the book’s featured vehicle to a bit of background collateral damage). But history is not on the writer’s side. The most memorable thing about the follow-up 2013 novel Doctor Sleep is how hard King works to make us try to forget the movie of The Shining, mentioning “room 217” rather than “room 237” on the second page and flashing back to a climax involving a croquet mallet instead of an ax. It’s a nice try, but it doesn’t work: Kubrick’s movie is part of modern horror’s DNA double helix, and it’ll never be extracted. Just ask Mike Flanagan, whose upcoming movie version of Doctor Sleep is seemingly designed in line with Kubrick’s aesthetics—or Steven Spielberg, who devoted a long stretch of Ready Player One to reverent Overlook Hotel cosplay. There’s a wonderful, savage irony in King’s least favorite adaptation of his work also being the best—and so it will remain, forever, and ever, and ever."

- Adam Nayman, The Ringer

 

From the Public

 

"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." - @Kvikk Lunsj

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #70, 2013 - #46, 2014 - Unranked, 2016 - #89, 2018 - #48, 2020 - #50, 2022 – #58

 

Director Count

J. Cameron (2), A. Hitchcock (2), S. Kubrick (2), A. Kurosawa (2), J. Lasseter (2), S. Leone (2), R. Linklater (2), D. Lynch (2), C. Nolan (2), R. Scott (2), S. Spielberg (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), F. Capra (1), J. Carpenter (1), J. Coen (1), M. Curtiz (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), P. Docter (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), T. Jones (1), B. Joon-Ho (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), A. Molina (1), J. Peele (1), S. Raimi (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), M. Scorsese (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), L. Unkrich (1), B. Wilder (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

1990s (10), 2000s (10), 2010s (7), 1960s (6), 1980s (6), 1950s (4), 1970s (4), 1940s (3), 1920s (1), 1930s (1),

 

International Film Count

France (3), Italy (3), Japan (3), United Kingdom (2), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1), South Korea (1)

 

Franchise Count

Pixar (4), Alien (2), Before (2), WDAS (2), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (2), Toy Story (2), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Monty Python (1), Overlook Hotel (1), Spider-Man (1), The Thing (1)

 

Genre Count

Drama (12), Comedy (11), Historical Fiction (11), Horror (10), Epic (7), Animation (6), Black Comedy (6), Sci-Fi (6), Fantasy (5), Romance (5), Musical (4), Thriller (4), Adventure (3), Coming of Age (3), Crime (3), Mystery (3), Noir (3), Religious (3), Satire (3), Western (3), Action (2), Christmas/Holiday (2), Comic Book (2), Jidaigeki (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Superhero (2), Tragedy (2), War (2), Alternative History (1), Neorealism (1)

 

 

A Recipe

 

Redrum Red Rum

 

 

Ingredients

2 ounces white rum
2 ounces grenadine syrup
3 ounces orange juice
ice

Instructions

Combine rum, grenadine syrup and orange juice in a cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously until well mixed. Pour over ice and serve.

 

 

From: https://nibblesandfeasts.com/2018/10/red-rum/

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 48

 

 

"With great ability comes great accountability."

 

Synopsis

 

"Struggling to find his place in the world while juggling school and family, Brooklyn teenager Miles Morales is unexpectedly bitten by a radioactive spider and develops unfathomable powers just like the one and only Spider-Man. While wrestling with the implications of his new abilities, Miles discovers a super collider created by the madman Wilson "Kingpin" Fisk, causing others from across the Spider-Verse to be inadvertently transported to his dimension." - The Movie Database

 

 

From the Scholar

 

"When Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was first announced, as the fourth feature film starring Spider-Man in three years and the ninth since Sam Raimi first brought the character to the big screen in 2001, it was clear that the hero’s first animated feature would have to do something to distinguish itself from its live action counterparts. The film’s teaser trailer suggested this would not be a problem, revealing three key unique selling points: firstly, it would focus on Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), the half-Dominican, half-African-American Spider-Man introduced in 2011, rather than the traditional, white Peter Parker character. Secondly, entitled Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, it would be a dimension-hopping adventure, bringing together a diverse group of alternate spider-people, including an older Parker (Jake Johnson); Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld), a spider-powered take on one of Parker’s classic love interests; the cartoonish, porcine Spider-Ham (John Mulaney); the anime-inspired cyborg SP//dr (Kimiko Glenn); and the gritty, 1930s-esque Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage). Thirdly, it would combine brand-new computer animation techniques with hand-drawn flourishes and graphic elements taken straight from comic books to create a unique visual style unlike anything seen before in mainstream animated feature filmmaking."

- Summers, Sam. "Adapting a Retro Comic Aesthetic with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse." (2019): 190-194.

 

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"“Into the Spider-Verse” makes great use of those other characters by using their different animation styles (like the gritty black and white color palette of noir Spider-Man) and characterizations (the large wooden mallet and anvil of Spider-Ham) to inform the story and visual language. There are elements straight out of comic books here, like dialogue bubbles, sound effects presented as text, and pixelated blobs of outrageous color, but the story is strong enough to stand on its own, too.

 

Watching Miles realize that he has the power to protect his family, and that he can do it through teamwork and a desire to help his friends return to their own homes, is a strong message for young viewers wrapped in striking visuals. And the different spin on this character—younger than we’re used to seeing Peter Parker, half-African American and half-Puerto Rican, working to figure out who he will be in his young teen years—makes it a refreshing change of pace from the Marvel and DC Cinematic Universes to which we’ve become accustomed."

- Roxann Hadadi, Chesapeake Family Magazine

 

From the Public

 

"no less than the best superhero movie of the 2010s. i have no issues with it. a perfect film." - @CoolioD1

 

":wub:" - @That One Girl

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - NA, 2013 - NA, 2014 - NA, 2016 - NA, 2018 - NA, 2020 - #93, 2022 – Unranked

 

Director Count

J. Cameron (2), A. Hitchcock (2), S. Kubrick (2), A. Kurosawa (2), J. Lasseter (2), S. Leone (2), R. Linklater (2), D. Lynch (2), C. Nolan (2), R. Scott (2), S. Spielberg (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), F. Capra (1), J. Carpenter (1), J. Coen (1), M. Curtiz (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), P. Docter (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), T. Jones (1), B. Joon-Ho (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), A. Molina (1), J. Peele (1), B. Persichetti (1), S. Raimi (1), P. Ramsey (1), R. Rothman (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), M. Scorsese (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), L. Unkrich (1), B. Wilder (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

1990s (10), 2000s (10), 2010s (8), 1960s (6), 1980s (6), 1950s (4), 1970s (4), 1940s (3), 1920s (1), 1930s (1),

 

International Film Count

France (3), Italy (3), Japan (3), United Kingdom (2), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1), South Korea (1)

 

Franchise Count

Pixar (4), Alien (2), Before (2), WDAS (2), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (2), Spider-Man (2), Toy Story (2), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Monty Python (1), Overlook Hotel (1), The Thing (1)

 

Genre Count

Drama (12), Comedy (11), Historical Fiction (11), Horror (10), Animation (7), Epic (7), Black Comedy (6), Sci-Fi (6), Fantasy (5), Romance (5), Musical (4), Thriller (4), Adventure (3), Comic Book (3), Coming of Age (3), Crime (3), Mystery (3), Noir (3), Religious (3), Satire (3), Superhero (3), Western (3), Action (2), Christmas/Holiday (2), Jidaigeki (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Tragedy (2), War (2), Alternative History (1), Neorealism (1)

 

 

A Recipe

Spider-Man Pretzel Pops

 

Description of how to make them: https://www.momendeavors.com/spider-man-spiderweb-pretzel-pops/

 

 

 

Edited July 28 by The Panda

[The Panda]

 

161.    Children of Men (dir. Alfonso Cuaron, 2006)
162.    Boogie Nights (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997)
163.    Blade Runner (dir. Ridley Scott, 1982)
164.    The Best Years of Our Lives (dir. William Wyler, 1946)
165.    When Harry Met Sally… (dir. Rob Reiner, 1989)

[The Panda]

Number 47

 

 

"Rosebud."

 

Synopsis

 

"In the most dazzling debut feature in cinema history, twenty-five-year-old writer-producer-director-star Orson Welles synthesized the possibilities of sound-era filmmaking into what could be called the first truly modern movie. In telling the story of the meteoric rise and precipitous fall of a William Randolph Hearst–like newspaper magnate named Charles Foster Kane, Welles not only created the definitive portrait of American megalomania, he also unleashed a torrent of stylistic innovations—from the jigsaw-puzzle narrative structure to the stunning deep-focus camera work of Gregg Toland—that have ensured that Citizen Kane remains fresh and galvanizing for every new generation of moviegoers to encounter it."

- The Criterion Collection

 

 

From the Scholar

 

"Something more than the obvious psychological interpretation must be made of Rosebud, the. object from the protagonist's childhood that is the focus of the plot activity in Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941). This essay applies traditional methods of literary criticism—interpretation of symbolic imagery, close reading of dramatic language and gesture, and source and influence study—toward a solution of this major critical problem in one of the most important films. To assume that Rosebud will provide a definitive explanation of Charles Foster Kane is to disregard the function of the film's complex narrative organization. The position that Rosebud will explain everything is maintained by a character who is an object of comedy; the film's symbolic imagery and dramatic organization pose the issue quite differently: not Rosebud will explain everything! but Will Rosebud explain anything? Far from being a sign of the film's intellectual shallowness, Rosebud is the surest guide into its undetected complexities."

- Carringer, Robert L. "Rosebud, dead or alive: Narrative and symbolic structure in Citizen Kane." PMLA 91, no. 2 (1976): 185-193.

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"The ghosts that haunt barons of industry and commerce—breeding obsession, greed, arrogance, vanity, and cruelty of the most malicious sort—are the same as those that envelope, corrupt, and exhaust the titans of the screen and those most talented of artists, a fact that has never more evident than in Citizen Kane. Wunderkind Orson Welles’s deeply haunting depiction of the life of William Randolph Hearst, from working-class hero to failed political powerhouse to newspaper baron, has long been synonymous with the director’s spectacularly odd and genuinely tragic career—and for good reason. Hunger for power and control were at once central to both Hearst and Welles’s legacies and the fatal wound that led to their most devastating pitfalls.

 

To now return to that famous image of Welles’s Kane in his paper-strewn office after losing a bid at political office, towering above Gregg Toland’s camera as he gets a proper moral thrashing from his only true friend in the world, it becomes impossible to not consider all those similar thrashings that friends, colleagues, and complete strangers gave Welles at the impetus of the project, during its production, and most of all, upon its release. Hollywood threw an epic hissy fit, but what appeared on the screen was immediately recognizable of a singular artistic vision that made many, if not all, of Welles’s peers and colleagues look behind the times." - Chris Cabin, Slant Magazine

 

 

From the Public

 

"The most boring film I have ever seen, up there with the likes of Transformers and Knight And Day as the worst films of all time." - @Tower

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #53, 2013 - #64, 2014 - #82, 2016 - #50, 2018 - #83, 2020 - #59 , 2022 – #35

 

Director Count

J. Cameron (2), A. Hitchcock (2), S. Kubrick (2), A. Kurosawa (2), J. Lasseter (2), S. Leone (2), R. Linklater (2), D. Lynch (2), C. Nolan (2), R. Scott (2), S. Spielberg (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), F. Capra (1), J. Carpenter (1), J. Coen (1), M. Curtiz (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), P. Docter (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), T. Jones (1), B. Joon-Ho (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), A. Molina (1), J. Peele (1), B. Persichetti (1), S. Raimi (1), P. Ramsey (1), R. Rothman (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), M. Scorsese (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), L. Unkrich (1), O. Welles (1), B. Wilder (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

1990s (10), 2000s (10), 2010s (8), 1960s (6), 1980s (6), 1940s (4), 1950s (4), 1970s (4), 1920s (1), 1930s (1),

 

International Film Count

France (3), Italy (3), Japan (3), United Kingdom (2), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1), South Korea (1)

 

Franchise Count

Pixar (4), Alien (2), Before (2), WDAS (2), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (2), Spider-Man (2), Toy Story (2), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Monty Python (1), Overlook Hotel (1), The Thing (1)

 

Genre Count

Drama (13), Comedy (11), Historical Fiction (11), Horror (10), Epic (8), Animation (7), Black Comedy (6), Sci-Fi (6), Fantasy (5), Romance (5), Musical (4), Thriller (4), Adventure (3), Comic Book (3), Coming of Age (3), Crime (3), Mystery (3), Noir (3), Religious (3), Satire (3), Superhero (3), Western (3), Action (2), Christmas/Holiday (2), Jidaigeki (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Tragedy (2), War (2), Alternative History (1), Neorealism (1)

 

 

A Recipe

Citizen Kane's Steakhouse Sauteed Mushrooms

 

Ingredients
1 pound button mushrooms
1 tablespoon clarified butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon white pepper
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
4 tablespoon Chablis
Fresh parsley and a lemon wedge, for serving
 

Directions: https://www.copymethat.com/r/rmiuZrYTu/side-sauteed-mushrooms-citizen-kanes-ste/

 

 

 

[Brainbug]

6 years ago i made a horror countdown here and had Shining at my No 1. It still is.

I consider The Shining to actually be a perfect movie. I cant think of a single thing wrong with it.

[The Panda]

Number 46

 

 

"We accept the reality of the world with which we're presented."

 

Synopsis

 

"Every second of every day, from the moment he was born, for the last thirty years, Truman Burbank has been the unwitting star of the longest running, most popular documentary-soap opera in history. The picture-perfect town of Seahaven that he calls home is actually a gigantic soundstage. Truman's friends and family - everyone he meets, in fact - are actors. He lives every moment under the unblinking gaze of thousands of hidden TV cameras." - The Movie Database

 

From the Scholar

 

"On our television screens today we are bombarded by a plethora of
so-called ‘‘reality television’’ programming. Talk shows of every
conceivable kind, tabloid news, civil court cases, extreme sport
events, home videos that capture every contingent disaster imaginable,
police shows and man-hunts, and the latest parade of reality game shows
litter the televised landscape. The video technology of the camcorder has

made possible an unprecedented voyeurism into the lives of ‘‘ordinary’’ people
captured across a full range of emotional situations: from the ‘‘hot-housed’’
effects of reality game shows to the ‘‘confessional’’ discourses found on talk
shows and in civil court rooms. The obsession of such programming is to
present viewers ‘‘live’’ the reality of urban living with all its violence and pathos.
Reality TV presents us with a challenge as to how to grasp the significance of
this phenomenon. On the one hand ‘‘survivor’’ game and talk shows are claimed
to be the very cure for what ails us in a postmodern consumer society of global
capitalism. Survival tactics are precisely what is required today to face the true
horror of living in such a global capitalist landscape where fierce competition
and unbridled consumerism require new forms of individualism. In order to
survive we must become tactful, clever, skilful, immune and ‘‘hardened’’ to the
changed conditions like all those ‘‘survivors’’ of the game series we identify with.
The ‘‘therapeutic effects’’ of these game shows, however, form only part of the
cure. The other part comes from the ‘‘democratic effects’’ of talk shows to make
the cure complete. Talk shows are said to give free reign for citizens to be heard;
their concerns, struggles, prejudices are aired for public scrutiny. The collapse of
public and private space should not alarm us but be celebrated as the new form
of participatory democracy."

- Jagodzinski, Jan. "The Truman Show: A Symptom of Our Times? or, A Cure for an Escape Attempt!." Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society 10 (2005): 61-78.

 

 

And the abstract of a somewhat famous neuropsych paper...

 

"Introduction. We report a novel delusion, primarily persecutory in form, in which the patient believes that he is being filmed, and that the films are being broadcast for the entertainment of others.

 

Methods. We describe a series of patients who presented with a delusional system according to which they were the subjects of something akin to a reality television show that was broadcasting their daily life for the entertainment of others. We then address three questions, the first concerning how to characterise the delusion, the second concerning the role of culture in delusion, and the third concerning the implications of cultural studies of delusion for the cognitive theory of delusion.

 

Results. Delusions are both variable and stable: Particular delusional ideas are sensitive to culture, but the broad categories of delusion are stable both across time and culture. This stability has implications for the form a cognitive theory of delusion can take.

 

Conclusions. Cultural studies of delusion have important contributions to make to the cognitive theory of delusion."

- Gold, Joel, and Ian Gold. "The “Truman Show” delusion: psychosis in the global village." Cognitive Neuropsychiatry 17, no. 6 (2012): 455-472.

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

""The Truman Show" is "Candid Camera" run amok, a sugar-spun nightmare of pop paranoia that addresses the end of privacy, the rise of voyeurism and the violation of the individual. Not that there's anything wrong with that. This show-within-the-show makes for a parody all by itself, but it is couched in an even more subversively entertaining satire. One of the smartest, most inventive movies in memory, it manages to be as endearing as it is provocative.

 

 

...

 

If the film is a showcase for Carrey, who gives a performance of enormous charm and restraint, it's also a triumph for Harris as the misguided man behind the curtain. Linney plays the plastic wife with scary success. And even the smallest roles, like smarmy Harry Shearer's TV reporter, are deftly cast. Who would have expected this from "The Cable Guy"? This splendid movie is about as far from "Dumb and Dumber" as "60 Minutes" is from "Jerry Springer.""

- Rita Kempley, The Washington Post

 

From the Public

 

"The Truman Show remains the peak of cinema. Everything in this movie is done to its smartest possibility. The camerawork is insane, Weir’s direction is pitch perfect, Carrey’s and Harris’s performances are all time greats. The story gets even better when you familiarize yourself with media; watching it now helps me realize how much television and films it’s re-contextualizing within its narrative. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it, and it excels at everything it puts it mind to. The Truman Show is remarkable in how absolutely perfect it is, proving to be the absolute crowning achievement of mainstream cinema, and for me, the absolute best film ever made." - @Blankments

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #49, 2013 - #52, 2014 - #38, 2016 - #49, 2018 - #66, 2020 - #46, 2022 – #50

 

Director Count

J. Cameron (2), A. Hitchcock (2), S. Kubrick (2), A. Kurosawa (2), J. Lasseter (2), S. Leone (2), R. Linklater (2), D. Lynch (2), C. Nolan (2), R. Scott (2), S. Spielberg (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), F. Capra (1), J. Carpenter (1), J. Coen (1), M. Curtiz (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), P. Docter (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), T. Jones (1), B. Joon-Ho (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), A. Molina (1), J. Peele (1), B. Persichetti (1), S. Raimi (1), P. Ramsey (1), R. Rothman (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), M. Scorsese (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), L. Unkrich (1), P. Weir (1), O. Welles (1), B. Wilder (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

1990s (11), 2000s (10), 2010s (8), 1960s (6), 1980s (6), 1940s (4), 1950s (4), 1970s (4), 1920s (1), 1930s (1),

 

International Film Count

France (3), Italy (3), Japan (3), United Kingdom (2), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1), South Korea (1)

 

Franchise Count

Pixar (4), Alien (2), Before (2), WDAS (2), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (2), Spider-Man (2), Toy Story (2), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Monty Python (1), Overlook Hotel (1), The Thing (1)

 

Genre Count

Drama (14), Comedy (12), Historical Fiction (11), Horror (10), Epic (8), Animation (7), Sci-Fi (7), Black Comedy (6), Fantasy (5), Romance (5), Musical (4), Thriller (4), Adventure (3), Comic Book (3), Coming of Age (3), Crime (3), Mystery (3), Noir (3), Religious (3), Satire (3), Superhero (3), Western (3), Action (2), Christmas/Holiday (2), Jidaigeki (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Tragedy (2), War (2), Alternative History (1), Neorealism (1)

 

 

A Recipe

The Truman Martini

 

INGREDIENTS
3 oz    Truman Vodka
Lemon Twist or Olives (Garnish)

TOOLS OF THE TRADE
Jigger
Mixing Glass
Bar Spoon
Martini Glass

RECIPE
Use a mixing glass to add Truman Vodka with ice.
Stir 3-5 times.
Pour into a chilled martini glass.
Garnish with a lemon twist or olives.

 

From: https://cocktail-lounge.reservebar.com/blogs/all-cocktail-recipes/truman-vodka-truman-martini

 

 

 

Edited July 28 by The Panda

[The Panda]

Number 45

 

 

"Danger always strikes when everything seems fine."

 

Synopsis

 

"Seven Samurai (Japanese: 七人の侍, Hepburn: Shichinin no Samurai) is a 1954 Japanese epic samurai action film co-written, directed and edited by Akira Kurosawa. Taking place in 1586[a] in the Sengoku period of Japanese history, it follows the story of a village of desperate farmers who seek to hire samurai to combat bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops.

 

At the time, the film was the most expensive film made in Japan. It took a year to shoot and faced many difficulties. It was the second-highest-grossing domestic film in Japan in 1954. Many reviews compared the film to westerns.[4]

 

Seven Samurai is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films in cinema history. Since its release, it has consistently ranked highly in critics' lists of greatest films, such as the BFI's Sight & Sound and Rotten Tomatoes polls.[5][6][7][8] It was also voted the greatest foreign-language film of all time in BBC's 2018 international critics' poll.[9] It is regarded as one of the most "remade, reworked, and referenced" films in cinema." - Wikipedia

 

 

From the Scholar

 

"In The Seven Samurai, the ronin never discuss money or self. They all join the group to fall behind a new leader, a cause, a sensei. The samurai played by Takashi Shimura accepts the role of temporary sensei out of a sense of social responsibility. The establishing sequences introducing the leaders in the American and Japanese films, point out a primary difference between the genre. Brynner, obviously a gunman, with holster strapped low, clothes tight, agrees to drive a dead Indian to Boot Hill in a hearse even though a group of town bigots have threated to kill anyone who tries to bury the Indian. Brynner calmly mounts the hearse, lights a cigar dramatically, and proceeds up the hill. In the brief shootout, Brynner easily outshoots two of the town toughs, intentionally not killing them, and forces them to back down. The town applauds his bravery (and that of Steve McQueen who backs him up). Brynner is the hero of the moment and has proved himself to the audience. Shimura, in contrast, is SOish, decidedly unhandsome and apparently undistinguished. He proves himself and his right to act as a surrogate sensei by laying his sword aside, cutting off his hair which is braided samurai fashion, and pretending he is a priest so that he can rescue a girl being held captive in a hut by a raving madman with a knife. Kurosawa shows us that courage is moral. A confident samurai need not constantly test himself."

- Kaminsky, Stuart M. "The Samurai film and the Western." Journal of Popular Film 1, no. 4 (1972): 312-324.

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"Akira Kurosawa’s best film is also his most Americanized, drawing on classical Hollywood conventions of genre (the western), characterization (ritual gestures used to distinguish the individuals within a group), and visual style (the horizon lines and exaggerated perspectives of John Ford). Of course, this 1954 film also returned something of what it borrowed, by laying the groundwork for the “professional” western (Rio Bravo, etc) that dominated the genre in the 50s and 60s. Kurosawa’s film is a model of long-form construction, ably fitting its asides and anecdotes into a powerful suspense structure that endures for all of the film’s 208 minutes. The climax—the battle in the rain and its ambiguous aftermath—is Kurosawa’s greatest moment, the only passage in his work worthy of comparison with Mizoguchi."

- Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

 

 

From the Public

 

"Setting the archetype for literally every action movie that came after it, Kurosawa's Seven Samurai is a masterful epic that blueprints beat by beat how to make this kind of movie with prime efficiency. The opening hour is perhaps a bit overlong, taking too much time to set pieces in a way that's more mundane than desired. It doesn't help that this is the kind of movie so chock full of main characters who aren't clearly defined that a lot of the names and faces get blurred into one collective group. I kept having moments where I'd see a name mentioned and have to think, "wait, who is that again?". Of course, this bloating in duration and character count also set its own standard for what this action blockbuster genre would become. And all of that table-setting does have a purpose, one that pays off once we get to the final hour which is essentially an almost episodic sequence of one highly choreographed action moment after another.

 

Unlike the habit of modern blockbusters to create spectacle so overwhelmed with CGI that you can't tell the green blob from the blue blob from the yellow one, Seven Samurai forges the chaos of war with the meticulous craftsmanship of its creator. It actually employs intelligence and real strategy to the way that these men strategize their battle plan, and it makes for a far more engaging viewing, despite the rudimentary action necessitated by the era in which it was created. Of course, like all good movies, this is about more than one thing, and I was quite taken with the ways that Kurosawa keyed in themes on class, gender relations, and sacrifice in unexpected ways. Those elements ended up being the things that stuck with me the most from the movie, as well as that brutally downbeat ending that took a victory and turned it into something else entirely." - Mitchell Beaupre, Letterboxd

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - Unranked, 2013 - Unranked, 2014 - Unranked, 2016 - #43, 2018 - #52, 2020 - #47, 2022 – #36

 

Director Count

A. Kurosawa (3), J. Cameron (2), A. Hitchcock (2), S. Kubrick (2), J. Lasseter (2), S. Leone (2), R. Linklater (2), D. Lynch (2), C. Nolan (2), R. Scott (2), S. Spielberg (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), F. Capra (1), J. Carpenter (1), J. Coen (1), M. Curtiz (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), P. Docter (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), T. Jones (1), B. Joon-Ho (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), A. Molina (1), J. Peele (1), B. Persichetti (1), S. Raimi (1), P. Ramsey (1), R. Rothman (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), M. Scorsese (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), L. Unkrich (1), P. Weir (1), O. Welles (1), B. Wilder (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

1990s (11), 2000s (10), 2010s (8), 1950s (5), 1960s (6), 1980s (6), 1940s (4), 1970s (4), 1920s (1), 1930s (1),

 

International Film Count

Japan (4), France (3), Italy (3), United Kingdom (2), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1), South Korea (1)

 

Franchise Count

Pixar (4), Alien (2), Before (2), WDAS (2), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (2), Spider-Man (2), Toy Story (2), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Monty Python (1), Overlook Hotel (1), The Thing (1)

 

Genre Count

Drama (14), Comedy (12), Historical Fiction (11), Horror (10), Epic (9), Animation (7), Sci-Fi (7), Black Comedy (6), Fantasy (5), Romance (5), Adventure (4), Musical (4), Thriller (4), Action (3), Comic Book (3), Coming of Age (3), Crime (3), Mystery (3), Noir (3), Jidaigeki (3), Religious (3), Satire (3), Superhero (3), Western (3), Christmas/Holiday (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Tragedy (2), War (2), Alternative History (1), Neorealism (1)

 

 

A Recipe

Kibi Dango (sweet millet dumplings)

 

Ingredients

⅓ cup takakibiko (millet flour)

¾ teaspoon potato starch

¼ cup kinako (soybean flour)

¼ cup brown sugar

Pinch of salt

 

1 In a medium bowl, whisk millet flour and potato starch to combine.

2 Add ¼ cup boiling water.

3 Using a rubber spatula, mix until the dough almost comes together.

4 Use your hands to knead the dough into one solid mass.

5 Pinch off small pieces of dough, about ½ inch in diameter.

6 In a separate medium bowl, whisk together soybean powder, sugar, and salt.

7 Transfer to a shallow bowl.

8 Bring a medium pot of water to a boil over medium heat.

9 Add the Kibi dango dough balls and continue to cook over medium-low heat until the Kibi dango float, then cook one minute longer.

10 Transfer the balls to a bowl using a slotted spoon or small fine mesh strainer.

11 Toss the Kibi dango in the soybean powder to coat.

12 For a traditional preparation, arrange Kibi dango in groups of three on small skewers or toothpicks.

 

 

 

Edited July 28 by The Panda

[The Panda]

 

156.    Black Swan (dir. Darren Aronofsky, 2010)
157.    Kiki's Delivery Service (dir. Hayao Miyazaki, 1989)
158.    Scream (dir. Wes Craven, 1996)
159.    High and Low (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1963)
160.    Groundhog Day (dir. Harold Ramis, 1993)

[baumer]

59 minutes ago, Brainbug said:

6 years ago i made a horror countdown here and had Shining at my No 1. It still is.

I consider The Shining to actually be a perfect movie. I cant think of a single thing wrong with it.

 

I remember in the past you and I had some good conversations about horror. I too love the shining. Not as much as you do but I would definitely have it in my top 25 horror films of all time.

[baumer]

Another unfortunate miss, groundhog Day should have been in the top 100 in my opinion

[Daxtreme]

Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse really?

 

Great top so far, came back from vacation, quite excited about all the shift in the 80-100 range! Haven't seen many of them but always great to see new blood

 

Kiki's Delivery Service is one of the smoothest, gentlest, kindest, and most chill movie ever made. Sad it missed, but it came quite close!

[The Panda]

Number 44

 

 

"You had me accused of animal cruelty."

 

 

Synopsis

 

"In 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer genius Mark Zuckerberg begins work on a new concept that eventually turns into the global social network known as Facebook. Six years later, he is one of the youngest billionaires ever, but Zuckerberg finds that his unprecedented success leads to both personal and legal complications when he ends up on the receiving end of two lawsuits, one involving his former friend." - The Movie Database

 

 

From the Scholar

 

"Though critics’ praise for David Fincher’s film, The Social Network, thundered across the media, ironically, it still could not drown out the informal feminist outcry taking place on social media platforms. Blogs sprang up across cyberspace as women virulently objected to the misogyny of the film supposedly capturing “the character of a generation.” Articles and reviews titled, “Is the Facebook Movie Sexist?”, “The Social Network: Where Women Never Have Ideas,” “The Homosocial Network,” and “The Social Network’s ‘Angry Nerd Misogyny,’” proliferated from popular social commentary sites such as Slate.com, Jezebel.com, Salon.com, and IFC.com. However, in lieu of formal criticism, faculty at elite institutions availed themselves of these virtual venues as well. In her blog, Jill Dolan, head of Princeton’s Gender and Sexuality Studies, declares the film’s “male worldview” to be “miserable to women,” depicting them as “insane, fear-inspiring shrews or vacuous, sexualized objects” (“The Feminist Spectator”).  

 

Eventually, these cries of protest reached critical mass, eliciting an online apology and defense from the screenwriter himself, Aaron Sorkin. After conceding that, “It's not hard to understand how bright women could be appalled by what they saw in the movie,” he adds, “but you have to understand that that was the very specific world I was writing about . . . I was writing about a very angry and deeply misogynistic group of people” (Barr). Thus, Sorkin redirects feminist criticism, steering it away from his authorial agenda and toward the subculture explored by the film, even providing empirical evidence for the accuracy of his depiction of these Harvard men. He argues, “Mark's blogging that we hear in voiceover as he drinks, hacks, creates Facemash and dreams of the kind of party he's sure he's missing, came directly from Mark's blog … Facebook was born during a night of incredible misogyny.” "

- McDonald, Danielle. "A New Masculinity for a New Millennium: Gender and Technology in David Fincher’s The Social Network." (2013).

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"Even a visual stylist like David Fincher can’t find anything to do with the internet and algorithms. And so The Social Network, a faintly scandalous account of the foundation of Facebook, is the director’s murkiest, least distinguished looking picture to date. No matter. Fincher does, at least, make decent entertainment out of such inherently unprepossessing subjects as computer use and legal hearings.

It hardly needs to be said that none of the principals emerges unscathed. Working from Ben Mezrich’s 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires, Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay throws up an unsympathetic ensemble only to suggest that they are, behind what the studio could get past the lawyers, much, much worse." - Tara Brady, Hot Press

 

 

From the Public

 

"One of the greatest films of all time. An intoxicatingly entertaining movie with some of the snappiest and most intelligent dialogue I've ever heard, amazing performances (especially from the mesmerizing Jesse Eisenberg who deserved an Oscar), great cinematography, slick editing, a fucking fantastic score, a goosebump inducing final scene and overall masterful directing from David Fincher.The Social Network is about as close as you can get to cinematic perfection. It will go down as the best movie of its time." - @Jack Nevada

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #17, 2013 - #30, 2014 - #46, 2016 - #54, 2018 - Unranked, 2020 - #45, 2022 – #74

 

Director Count

A. Kurosawa (3), J. Cameron (2), A. Hitchcock (2), S. Kubrick (2), J. Lasseter (2), S. Leone (2), R. Linklater (2), D. Lynch (2), C. Nolan (2), R. Scott (2), S. Spielberg (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), F. Capra (1), J. Carpenter (1), J. Coen (1), M. Curtiz (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), P. Docter (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), D. Fincher (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), T. Jones (1), B. Joon-Ho (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), A. Molina (1), J. Peele (1), B. Persichetti (1), S. Raimi (1), P. Ramsey (1), R. Rothman (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), M. Scorsese (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), L. Unkrich (1), P. Weir (1), O. Welles (1), B. Wilder (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

1990s (11), 2000s (10), 2010s (9), 1950s (5), 1960s (6), 1980s (6), 1940s (4), 1970s (4), 1920s (1), 1930s (1),

 

International Film Count

Japan (4), France (3), Italy (3), United Kingdom (2), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1), South Korea (1)

 

Franchise Count

Pixar (4), Alien (2), Before (2), WDAS (2), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (2), Spider-Man (2), Toy Story (2), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Monty Python (1), Overlook Hotel (1), The Thing (1)

 

Genre Count

Drama (15), Comedy (12), Historical Fiction (12), Horror (10), Epic (9), Animation (7), Sci-Fi (7), Black Comedy (6), Fantasy (5), Romance (5), Adventure (4), Musical (4), Thriller (4), Action (3), Comic Book (3), Coming of Age (3), Crime (3), Mystery (3), Noir (3), Jidaigeki (3), Religious (3), Satire (3), Superhero (3), Western (3), Christmas/Holiday (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Tragedy (2), War (2), Alternative History (1), Neorealism (1)

 

A Recipe

 

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 43

 

 

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

 

Synopsis

 

"My Neighbor Totoro (となりのトトロ , Tonari no Totoro) is an animated film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, produced by Toru Hara and animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten. It premiered alongside Grave of the Fireflies as a double-feature on April 16, 1988. The film, which is set Tokorozawa City, Saitama Prefecture, tells the story of a professor's two young daughters (Satsuki and Mei) and their interactions with friendly wood spirits in post-war rural Japan. It stars the voice actors Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, and Hitoshi Takagi. My Neighbor Totoro received critical acclaim and has amassed a worldwide cult following in the years after its release. It won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize and the Mainichi Film Award and Kinema Junpo Award for Best Film in 1988. It also received the Special Award at the Blue Ribbon Awards in the same year."

- Ghibli Wiki

 

From the Scholar

 

"Though it certainly carries many of the themes that Miyazaki
previous features, My Neighbor Totoro also marks many changes in
nature of the director s work, changes that may explain why it got so
outside the animation community. While Miyazaki s three previous film
action-oriented, fast-moving adventure plots, two of them featuring "m
protagonists who were accompanied by far more passive female ch
protagonists of My Neighbor Totoro are not only female, but the gradu
of their characters is the main theme of the film. And this developmen
not through an action-oriented plot, but through an episodic exam
daily childhood life.

Above all, My Neighbor Totoro differs from Miyazaki s three pr
in the directors choice of the films location; this is Miyazakis first
place in Japan and can in a sense be called his first truly Japanese
to the cosmopolitan (pseudo-European or futuristic-post-apocalypt
his previous films. It also remains his most personal film; Miyazaki
in Japan during the 1950s, and like the films protagonists, his mot
tuberculosis and was hospitalized at the time.

 

 

...

 

Miyazaki s involvement with animated adaptations of classic children's literature
began in the 1970s, and as noted above, the roots of My Neighbor Totoro are strongly
evident in these adaptations from their very basic premise; the shows follow young
girls through their everyday life in a somewhat slow pace, which is very different
from the fast-moving plots of the other projects that involved Miyazaki prior to his
becoming a feature-film director. However, though Miyazaki served in a large variety
of production roles related to these adaptations, he did not direct any of themģ They
were directed by Isao Takahata, his long-time colleague (who later became - and
still is - Miyazakis partner in managing the animation studio Ghibli), and had an
enormous influence on Takahatas later career as a feature-film director as well -
notably in Takahatas tendency for realistic stories as opposed to Miyazaki s attraction
to the fantastic."

- Greenberg, Raz. "Giri and Ninjo: The Roots of Hayao Miyazaki's" My Neighbor Totoro" in Animated Adaptations of Classic Children's Literature." Literature/Film Quarterly 40, no. 2 (2012): 96-108.

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"Sheer enchantment, this 1989 animated feature is a key early work by Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away). A man and his two daughters move into an old house in the countryside and encounter Totoro, a giant slothlike (and slothful) creature who arranges for the girls to visit their ailing mother, riding in a phantom Cheshire-cat bus. Like much of Miyazaki’s work, the film has an ecological bent that recalls the Shinto reverence for animal spirits and reflects quintessential Asian values like respect for one’s parents and community in the face of crisis. It exemplifies Ghibli’s style of fanciful realism, paying close attention to minute details as well-drawn figures move across a fluid backdrop. It also deals straightforwardly with substantial emotions like fear of death, though at times it veers toward the heart-tugging cuteness of the Pokemon series." - Ted Shen, Chicago Reader

 

 

From the Public

 

"Childhood is a weird thing. Everything, at least in the perspective of a young one who knows next to nothing about how the world works, is simple. The tiniest things bring out the greatest joys. But it also means the scariest moments are all the more terrifying. Especially when we have no control over them.

 

The fantastical imagery and creative creatures are of course fun and what would likely resonate with most children watching. Yet it's the more lowkey and tender moments, ones that involve sisters Satsuki and Mei, that are the most entrancing. Two girls dealing with their own trauma and fears of the future. Without even realizing they are doing that, being so young and immature. It speaks to an authenticity about childhood, the actual real world of childhood, that is seldom translated effectively. Such a beautiful, beautiful gem of a movie." - @Eric Wilson

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #84, 2013 - Unranked, 2014 - Unranked, 2016 - Unranked, 2018 - Unranked, 2020 - #96, 2022 – #80

 

Director Count

A. Kurosawa (3), J. Cameron (2), A. Hitchcock (2), S. Kubrick (2), J. Lasseter (2), S. Leone (2), R. Linklater (2), D. Lynch (2), C. Nolan (2), R. Scott (2), S. Spielberg (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), F. Capra (1), J. Carpenter (1), J. Coen (1), M. Curtiz (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), P. Docter (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), D. Fincher (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), T. Jones (1), B. Joon-Ho (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), H. Miyazaki (1), A. Molina (1), J. Peele (1), B. Persichetti (1), S. Raimi (1), P. Ramsey (1), R. Rothman (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), M. Scorsese (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), L. Unkrich (1), P. Weir (1), O. Welles (1), B. Wilder (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

1990s (11), 2000s (10), 2010s (9), 1980s (7), 1960s (6), 1950s (5), 1940s (4), 1970s (4), 1920s (1), 1930s (1),

 

International Film Count

Japan (4), France (3), Italy (3), United Kingdom (2), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1), South Korea (1)

 

Franchise Count

Pixar (4), Alien (2), Before (2), WDAS (2), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (2), Spider-Man (2), Toy Story (2), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Monty Python (1), Overlook Hotel (1), The Thing (1)

 

Genre Count

Drama (15), Comedy (12), Historical Fiction (12), Horror (10), Epic (9), Animation (8), Sci-Fi (7), Black Comedy (6), Fantasy (6), Romance (5), Adventure (4), Coming of Age (4), Musical (4), Thriller (4), Action (3), Comic Book (3), Crime (3), Mystery (3), Noir (3), Jidaigeki (3), Religious (3), Satire (3), Superhero (3), Western (3), Christmas/Holiday (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Tragedy (2), War (2), Alternative History (1), Anime (1), Neorealism (1)

 

 

A Recipe

Satsuki's Bento Box

 

INGREDIENTS
Shishamo (Smelt)
Umeboshi (Japanese Pickled Plum)
Edamame
Sakura Denbu
Cooked Short Grain Rice
Oval Bento Box

 

Instructions

Sprinkle salt onto the Shishamo. Cook on medium heat in a non-stick oiled pan until it’s cooked through and slightly golden. Fill an oval bento box with cooked short grain rice. Place the cooked shishamo in the center . Add an Umeboshi on the right side of the bento. Sprinkle on Sakura Denbu on the top half of the left side and add Edamame next to the Sakura Denbu. Enjoy!

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 42

 

 

"Get busy living, or get busy dying."

 

Synopsis

 

"Imprisoned in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank prison, where he puts his accounting skills to work for an amoral warden. During his long stretch in prison, Dufresne comes to be admired by the other inmates -- including an older prisoner named Red -- for his integrity and unquenchable sense of hope." - The Movie Database

 

 

From the Scholar

 

"The space of the prison is no longer on the margins in relation to societal `centres', but instead acts as an adjunct to the urban environment. With the disappearance of the Gothic prison from the archi-texture of contemporary cities, the meaning conveyed by its façade has lost much of its potency. It is now contemporary prison drama, as opposed to the physical façade, that represents the interface between the public and the prison. This article explores a dramatic representation of the prison (The Shawshank Redemption) through the lens of Freud's (1919/1955) notion of the uncanny and Bachelard's (1958/1994) poetics of domestic space. Incarceration, as depicted in film and television, reinforces the `place myths' of the prison (Shields, 1991). Contemporary prison drama portrays the prison as a marginal space in much the way that the Gothic façades of the 19th-century prison projected a particular message. The prison, as depicted on screen, is a simulacrum. It is a facsimile of an architectural idea that only ever existed as a façade — a façade that occluded as much as it projected."

- Fiddler, Michael. "Projecting the prison: The depiction of the uncanny in The Shawshank Redemption." Crime, Media, Culture 3, no. 2 (2007): 192-206.

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"In the ten years since it bombed at the box office, The Shawshank Redemption has become probably the most popular picture of the 90s. Frank Darabont's debut is adored, praised as literally life-changing by some, and so impressive that people are even prepared to forgive its writer-director for The Majestic. Now, after making its reputation on home video, the powerful drama - about two convicts (Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman) whose friendship is forged in America's most unforgiving prison - receives a welcome anniversary re-release.

 

It's simple to say The Shawshank Redemption is about hope, but it is also about faith and love. In an age and culture saturated with sex, it allows for a close relationship unburdened by bodily fluids. Enigmatic new inmate Andy (Robbins) and the regretful, older Red (Freeman) could hardly contrast more, yet they connect. They love each other. That neither actor nabbed an Oscar in the year Tom Hanks won for Forrest Gump shows stupid is as stupid does, indeed. Freeman, in particular, is exceptional. His performance is so unshowy it can easily go unnoticed, but it's the soul of Shawshank."

- Nev Pierce, The BBC

 

From the Public

 

"My first time being exposed to this movie was as a kid from they did a parody of this on Family Guy and literally the next day I watched it with my dad lol." - @YM!

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #24, 2013 - #22, 2014 - #14, 2016 - #18, 2018 - #25, 2020 - #25, 2022 – #26

 

Director Count

A. Kurosawa (3), J. Cameron (2), A. Hitchcock (2), S. Kubrick (2), J. Lasseter (2), S. Leone (2), R. Linklater (2), D. Lynch (2), C. Nolan (2), R. Scott (2), S. Spielberg (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), F. Capra (1), J. Carpenter (1), J. Coen (1), M. Curtiz (1), F. Darabont (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), P. Docter (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), D. Fincher (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), T. Jones (1), B. Joon-Ho (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), H. Miyazaki (1), A. Molina (1), J. Peele (1), B. Persichetti (1), S. Raimi (1), P. Ramsey (1), R. Rothman (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), M. Scorsese (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), L. Unkrich (1), P. Weir (1), O. Welles (1), B. Wilder (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

1990s (12), 2000s (10), 2010s (9), 1980s (7), 1960s (6), 1950s (5), 1940s (4), 1970s (4), 1920s (1), 1930s (1),

 

International Film Count

Japan (4), France (3), Italy (3), United Kingdom (2), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1), South Korea (1)

 

Franchise Count

Pixar (4), Alien (2), Before (2), WDAS (2), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (2), Spider-Man (2), Toy Story (2), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Monty Python (1), Overlook Hotel (1), The Thing (1)

 

Genre Count

Drama (16), Comedy (12), Historical Fiction (12), Horror (10), Epic (9), Animation (8), Sci-Fi (7), Black Comedy (6), Fantasy (6), Romance (5), Adventure (4), Coming of Age (4), Musical (4), Mystery (4), Thriller (4), Action (3), Comic Book (3), Crime (3), Noir (3), Jidaigeki (3), Religious (3), Satire (3), Superhero (3), Western (3), Christmas/Holiday (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Tragedy (2), War (2), Alternative History (1), Anime (1), Neorealism (1), Prison Break/Heist (1)

 

 

A Recipe

Peach, Jalapeno, and Shrimp Ceviche

 

Ingredients

1/2 pound shrimp deveined and shelled
1/2 medium red onion finely diced
1/4 cup cilantro chopped
1 tsp lime zest
3 tbsp lime juice
1 jalapeno pepper finely diced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 ttsp cumin
1/4 tsp pepper
1 peach skin removed and diced into small cubes
1 avocado diced into small cubes

 

Instructions

To prepare the shrimp, cut each shrimp into small 1/4 inch sized pieces. Transfer to a bowl. Alternatively if you prefer to cook the shrimp first, place the chopped shrimp in a skillet on medium heat with 1/2 cup of water. Cook the shrimp for 4 minutes until pink and cooked through and then remove the shrimp from the pan and run under cold water to prevent them for overcooking. Once the shrimp is cold, place it in a bowl.
To the bowl with the shrimp add the sliced red onion, cilantro, lime juice, lime zest, diced jalapeno, salt, cumin and pepper. Transfer to the fridge for 20 minutes to marinate (you can skip this step if using cooked shrimp).
Before serving, use a spatula to gently fold in the diced peach and avocado.

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 41

 

 

"Give it to us raw and wriggling, keep your nasty chips!"

 

Synopsis

 

 

From the Scholar

 

 

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

 

From the Public

 

"I hate Two Towers" - @Jason

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #11, 2013 - #29, 2014 - #19, 2016 - #12, 2018 - #10, 2020 - #36, 2022 – #12

 

Director Count

A. Kurosawa (3), J. Cameron (2), A. Hitchcock (2), S. Kubrick (2), J. Lasseter (2), S. Leone (2), R. Linklater (2), D. Lynch (2), C. Nolan (2), R. Scott (2), S. Spielberg (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), F. Capra (1), J. Carpenter (1), J. Coen (1), M. Curtiz (1), F. Darabont (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), P. Docter (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), D. Fincher (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), P. Jackson (1), T. Jones (1), B. Joon-Ho (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), H. Miyazaki (1), A. Molina (1), J. Peele (1), B. Persichetti (1), S. Raimi (1), P. Ramsey (1), R. Rothman (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), M. Scorsese (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), L. Unkrich (1), P. Weir (1), O. Welles (1), B. Wilder (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

1990s (12), 2000s (11), 2010s (9), 1980s (7), 1960s (6), 1950s (5), 1940s (4), 1970s (4), 1920s (1), 1930s (1),

 

International Film Count

Japan (4), France (3), Italy (3), United Kingdom (2), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1), South Korea (1)

 

Franchise Count

Pixar (4), Alien (2), Before (2), WDAS (2), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (2), Spider-Man (2), Toy Story (2), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Middle Earth (1), Monty Python (1), Overlook Hotel (1), The Thing (1)

 

Genre Count

Drama (16), Comedy (12), Historical Fiction (12), Epic (10), Horror (10), Animation (8), Fantasy (7), Sci-Fi (7), Black Comedy (6), Adventure (5), Romance (5), Coming of Age (4), Musical (4), Mystery (4), Thriller (4), Action (3), Comic Book (3), Crime (3), Noir (3), Jidaigeki (3), Religious (3), Satire (3), Superhero (3), Western (3), Christmas/Holiday (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Tragedy (2), War (2), Alternative History (1), Anime (1), Neorealism (1), Prison Break/Heist (1)

 

 

A Recipe

Fish and Chips

 

Ingredients

1 ½ lbs white fish fillets* , cut into long strips
▢1 cup all-purpose flour , plus more for dredging fish
▢1/2 cup cornstarch
▢1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
▢¼ teaspoon paprika
▢½ teaspoon salt , plus more for seasoning fish
▢¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper , plus more for seasoning fish
▢1 cup cold light beer*

 

 

Instructions

or the oil temp (at least 350 and no higher than 375). If the oil is too hot, the fish wont cook fast enough before the coating is overly crisp. If the oil is not hot enough, the coating will be soggy/soft instead of crisp. Also, don’t overcrowd the pot, which can lower the oil temp, and keep the coating from crisping.

Prepare Fish: Depending on the size and shape of your fillets, cut them into strips that are long and at least 1 inch wide. Lay the fish fillets on a paper towel and pat dry. Season them generously with sea salt and pepper and then dredge each filet in a little bit of flour.

Make Batter: In a large bowl, mix the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, paprika, salt and pepper. Whisk in the beer (or club soda) to the flour mixture and continue mixing until you have a slightly thick, smooth batter. If it’s too thick, add a little more beer.
Batter and Fry: Check oil temperature to make sure it’s about 350 degrees F. Dip prepared fillets into the batter and use a spoon if needed to help coat the entire fillet. Working in small batches so you don’t overcrowd the pans, carefully lower a few dipped fillets at a time into the hot oil. Fry for approximately 5-7 minutes, turning occasionally, until the batter is crisp and golden and the fish is perfectly cooked. I like to cook just one at the beginning to get an estimated cook time, before cooking more. You don’t want to overcook the fish! Keep in mind the fish will continue to cook a little more as it cools off on the paper towel.
(If you have any leftover batter, you could also dip and fry onion rings, calamari, or shrimp!)

Rest: Once cooked, remove the fillets from the hot oil and drain on paper towels. You can keep the cooked fish warm in a 200 degree oven while you cook it all, if you want.

Serve: Use the same pot of hot oil to make French Fries, or make my Baked French Fries or Air Fryer French Fries. Serve with homemade tartar sauce (it can be made days ahead of time!) and malt vinegar, for dipping.

 

 

 

[Avatree]

21 hours ago, The Panda said:

Number 48

 

 

"With great ability comes great accountability."

 

Synopsis

 

"Struggling to find his place in the world while juggling school and family, Brooklyn teenager Miles Morales is unexpectedly bitten by a radioactive spider and develops unfathomable powers just like the one and only Spider-Man. While wrestling with the implications of his new abilities, Miles discovers a super collider created by the madman Wilson "Kingpin" Fisk, causing others from across the Spider-Verse to be inadvertently transported to his dimension." - The Movie Database

 

 

From the Scholar

 

"When Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was first announced, as the fourth feature film starring Spider-Man in three years and the ninth since Sam Raimi first brought the character to the big screen in 2001, it was clear that the hero’s first animated feature would have to do something to distinguish itself from its live action counterparts. The film’s teaser trailer suggested this would not be a problem, revealing three key unique selling points: firstly, it would focus on Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), the half-Dominican, half-African-American Spider-Man introduced in 2011, rather than the traditional, white Peter Parker character. Secondly, entitled Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, it would be a dimension-hopping adventure, bringing together a diverse group of alternate spider-people, including an older Parker (Jake Johnson); Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld), a spider-powered take on one of Parker’s classic love interests; the cartoonish, porcine Spider-Ham (John Mulaney); the anime-inspired cyborg SP//dr (Kimiko Glenn); and the gritty, 1930s-esque Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage). Thirdly, it would combine brand-new computer animation techniques with hand-drawn flourishes and graphic elements taken straight from comic books to create a unique visual style unlike anything seen before in mainstream animated feature filmmaking."

- Summers, Sam. "Adapting a Retro Comic Aesthetic with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse." (2019): 190-194.

 

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"“Into the Spider-Verse” makes great use of those other characters by using their different animation styles (like the gritty black and white color palette of noir Spider-Man) and characterizations (the large wooden mallet and anvil of Spider-Ham) to inform the story and visual language. There are elements straight out of comic books here, like dialogue bubbles, sound effects presented as text, and pixelated blobs of outrageous color, but the story is strong enough to stand on its own, too.

 

Watching Miles realize that he has the power to protect his family, and that he can do it through teamwork and a desire to help his friends return to their own homes, is a strong message for young viewers wrapped in striking visuals. And the different spin on this character—younger than we’re used to seeing Peter Parker, half-African American and half-Puerto Rican, working to figure out who he will be in his young teen years—makes it a refreshing change of pace from the Marvel and DC Cinematic Universes to which we’ve become accustomed."

- Roxann Hadadi, Chesapeake Family Magazine

 

From the Public

 

"no less than the best superhero movie of the 2010s. i have no issues with it. a perfect film." - @CoolioD1

 

":wub:" - @That One Girl

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - NA, 2013 - NA, 2014 - NA, 2016 - NA, 2018 - NA, 2020 - #93, 2022 – Unranked

 

Director Count

J. Cameron (2), A. Hitchcock (2), S. Kubrick (2), A. Kurosawa (2), J. Lasseter (2), S. Leone (2), R. Linklater (2), D. Lynch (2), C. Nolan (2), R. Scott (2), S. Spielberg (2), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), F. Capra (1), J. Carpenter (1), J. Coen (1), M. Curtiz (1), J. Demme (1), J. Demy (1), P. Docter (1), C.T. Dreyer (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), T. Jones (1), B. Joon-Ho (1), W. Kar-Wai (1), M. Kobayashi (1), S. Lee (1), K. Lund (1), L. McCarey (1), F. Meirelles (1), R. Minkoff (1), A. Molina (1), J. Peele (1), B. Persichetti (1), S. Raimi (1), P. Ramsey (1), R. Rothman (1), A. Russo (1), J. Russo (1), M. Scorsese (1), M.N. Shyamalan (1), V.D. Sica (1), Q. Tarantino (1), G. Trousdale (1), L. Unkrich (1), B. Wilder (1), K. Wise (1)

 

Decade Count

1990s (10), 2000s (10), 2010s (8), 1960s (6), 1980s (6), 1950s (4), 1970s (4), 1940s (3), 1920s (1), 1930s (1),

 

International Film Count

France (3), Italy (3), Japan (3), United Kingdom (2), Brazil (1), Hong Kong (1), South Korea (1)

 

Franchise Count

Pixar (4), Alien (2), Before (2), WDAS (2), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (2), Spider-Man (2), Toy Story (2), Avatar (1), Exorcist (1), Fargo (1), Gladiator (1), Hannibal Lecter (1), Hawkguy Cinematic Universe (1), Man With No Name (1), Monty Python (1), Overlook Hotel (1), The Thing (1)

 

Genre Count

Drama (12), Comedy (11), Historical Fiction (11), Horror (10), Animation (7), Epic (7), Black Comedy (6), Sci-Fi (6), Fantasy (5), Romance (5), Musical (4), Thriller (4), Adventure (3), Comic Book (3), Coming of Age (3), Crime (3), Mystery (3), Noir (3), Religious (3), Satire (3), Superhero (3), Western (3), Action (2), Christmas/Holiday (2), Jidaigeki (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Tragedy (2), War (2), Alternative History (1), Neorealism (1)

 

 

A Recipe

Spider-Man Pretzel Pops

 

Description of how to make them: https://www.momendeavors.com/spider-man-spiderweb-pretzel-pops/

 

 

 

disgusting. this nauseating heap of junk does not belong anywhere near this list.

[ZeeSoh]

4 hours ago, The Panda said:

Number 41

 

 

"Give it to us raw and wriggling, keep your nasty chips!"

 

 

Sad to see it dropped this much.