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

[Tower]

23 hours ago, The Panda said:

Number 47

 

 

 

 

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

 

I wrote this a long time ago and have since seen the film again and I definitely do not stand behind this statement. I still wouldn't vote for Citizen Kane in the top 100 of all time, but it's fine and nowhere near the worst of all time, or even amongst the worst on this list.

[Tower]

On 7/28/2024 at 9:21 PM, The Panda said:

 

169.    A Clockwork Orange (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1971)

 

 

Disappointing, especially since if I remember correctly it made the previous list.

 

Edited July 29 by Tower

[The Panda]

 

151.    Everything, Everywhere All at Once (dir. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2022)
152.    Top Gun: Maverick (dir. Joseph Ksinski, 2022)
153.    No Country for Old Men (dir. Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007)
154.    Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (dir. Steven Spielberg, 1989)
155.    Magnolia (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)
 

[Jake Gittes]

5 minutes ago, Tower said:

 

Disappointing, especially since if I remember correctly it made the previous list.

 

 

No. it was #146 last time. Made it in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2020 though.

[cannastop]

1 minute ago, The Panda said:

151.    Everything, Everywhere All at Once (dir. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2022)

lol I get the reference in the picture.

[The Panda]

Number 40

 

 

"E.T. phone home!"

 

Synopsis

 

"An alien is left behind on Earth and saved by the 10-year-old Elliot who decides to keep him hidden in his home. While a task force hunts for the extra-terrestrial, Elliot, his brother, and his little sister Gertie form an emotional bond with their new friend, and try to help him find his way home." - The Movie Database

 

 

From the Scholar

 

"In September 1983 Atari Inc. buried truckloads of its poorly designed film/game tie-in E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial in a landfill in Alamogordo, NM. The game was buried with the epitaph, “The Worst Game of All Time,” as its design flaws are often cited as a major catalyst of the video games industry crash of 1983–4. Atari's stealthy attempt to dispose of surplus stock has triggered 25 years of curiosity, rumor, doubt, conspiracy theory and archaeological fantasy. This obituary records several phases of E.T.'s life and afterlife: its conception and compromised design as an Atari game program and “worst game of all time,” its shift from failed product to waste, and its afterlife status as relic and memorialized object. I offer a biography of the deceased in an attempt to understand the life cycle of an infamous artifact."

- Guins, Raiford. "Concrete and clay: The life and afterlife of ET the extra-terrestrial for the Atari 2600." Design and Culture 1, no. 3 (2009): 345-364.

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"The sense of strain is felt most clearly in the closing sequence. Spielberg obviously hoped to achieve an andante movement in contrast to the prestissimo that dominated the opening. But the resulting series of images is like a row of half-length, moist-eyed saints, arranged in a display of the results of a competition for a tête d’expression. It shows a lack of imagination reminiscent of the final tired shots of Cheyenne Autumn, with its similarly ponderous invocation of home. The director has been overwhelmed by reverence for his own material, and has fallen into the trap of believing that simple presentation is sufficient. But long close-ups demand either the most subtle control of facial expression from actors – as in Bergman – or a compositional inventiveness which can find an independent but related formal interest in the image. Spielberg is compelled to make use of a soundtrack as domineering as that in a Preminger film to wind his audience to the required emotional pitch. Static close-ups are out of place within Spielberg’s visual style and betray his best qualities: his unusually precise awareness of where to end a sequence to produce in his audience an expectation for the next; his crisply handled overlapping of sound and image in group sequences; his flair for allusiveness within the image. E.T. works marvellously on a first viewing, but the weaknesses will tell more strongly on re-runs."

- Paul Joannides, London Book Review

 

From the Public

 

"OMG a thread for my favorite movie of all time! It's an A of course!  This movie have had a powerful impact on my life!" - @Fullbuster

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #42, 2013 - #25, 2014 - #69, 2016 - #34, 2018 - #35, 2020 - #24, 2022 – #28

 

Director Count

A. Kurosawa (3), S. Spielberg (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),), 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 (8), 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), Sci-Fi (8), Fantasy (7), Black Comedy (6), Adventure (5), Coming of Age (5), Romance (5), 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

Reese's Pieces Cookies

 

Ingredients

½ cup (113g) unsalted butter, melted
▢⅓ cup (66 g) granulated sugar
▢½ cup (104g) light brown sugar, packed
▢1 large egg
▢1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
▢½ teaspoon baking soda
▢½ teaspoon salt
▢1 ½ cups (186g) all-purpose flour
▢1 ¼ cups Reese's Pieces Candy

 

Instructions

Note: This dough requires chilling.
Place melted butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a large bowl if using a hand mixer). Add granulated and brown sugars and mix on low speed until the mixture is smooth. Mix in egg and vanilla extract and mix on medium speed until combined.
Mix in baking soda and salt, then slowly mix in flour and mix just until the batter is smooth and comes together. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl during mixing. Slowly mix in Reese's Pieces.
Line a cookie sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Scoop 2 tablespoon balls of dough onto the cookie sheet. Spacing doesn’t matter because you will be chilling the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a second cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Remove the chilled cookie dough balls from the refrigerator and space them 2-inches apart on the cookie sheets. Bake (2 tablespoon sized cookies) for 11-15 minutes, or until the edges are a light golden and the tops are no longer glossy. Let cool on the cookie sheets at least 10 minutes before removing.

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 39

 

 

"WALL-E"

 

Synopsis

 

"Travel to a galaxy not so far away for a cosmic comedy adventure about a determined robot named WALL-E. After hundreds of lonely years of doing what he was built for, the curious and lovable WALL-E discovers a new purpose in life when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. Join them and a hilarious cast of characters on a fantastic journey across the universe."

 

 

From the Scholar

 

"Animation’s legacy of subversion can be traced back to early trick films, lightning sketches and comics, and the modernist avant-garde.1 The industrialization of hand-drawn animation, its integration into Hollywood, and its standardization as children’s entertainment have in turn defused much of the medium’s association with subversion, disruption, and distortion. The production processes, creative tools, and aesthetic goals have certainly changed since Sergei Eisenstein praised early Disney animation for its protean, plasmatic qualities.2 Nevertheless, this legacy remains active, as the recent work of queer theorist Jack Halberstam and media scholar Scott Bukatman attests. Both of their books highlight the tendency for animated media to challenge social order as well as physical rules. Bukatman traces a history of rebellious animated characters or “disobedient machines” back to Winsor McCay and others, and Halberstam analyzes the [End Page 53] rebelliousness that pervades contemporary animated films for children, Pixar films in particular.3 Within animation history, Disney-owned Pixar has certainly established a privileged position, but to what extent has Pixar continued or modified this occasionally overstated legacy of subversion through its advancement of computer animation and its crowd-pleasing storytelling?

 

 

Asking this question of Pixar has serious implications for understanding the recent history of the medium, given the studio’s highly visible position as an industry standard and tech-startup success story, at least during the 1990s and early 2000s. Pixar’s prominent position within the technological climate and expansive mediascape of this period compels investigation into how their narratives and aesthetics have participated in this recent phase of modernization, which includes the proliferation of computer programming, digital media, and communication networks, as well as anxieties about human intimacy and new technological forms of life. To begin to answer these large questions, this article focuses on Pixar’s WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008), a film that explicitly addresses modernization and subversion. I argue that computer animation has a critical role in the aforementioned context as it provides a medium for reexamining nature and exploring digital space but that a close reading of WALL-E demonstrates how the play of alien and naturalized elements can distract from the narrative’s perpetuation of specific cultural values and practices: heterosexuality and liberal desire. Using this film to better understand Pixar’s place within animation’s legacy of subversion and recent phases of modernization is a problematic that involves complex relationships among medium, diegesis, production, and recent cultural and political formations. Using recent scholarship in animation studies, theories of technical media, comments from director Andrew Stanton, and Walter Benjamin’s ideas about animation and cinema, this article establishes WALL-E’s reflexive relation to computer animation and its broad historical and sociocultural relevance, and it theorizes how computer animation has denaturalized the cinematic experience for the digital age."

- Herhuth, Eric. "Life, love, and programming: The culture and politics of WALL-E and Pixar computer animation." Cinema Journal 53, no. 4 (2014): 53-75.

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"Annoyingly, WALL•E - from Finding Nemodirector Andrew Stanton,who previously had a less auteurist cachet than Ratatouille'sBrad Bird - is exceptionally good. In fact it's one of Pixar's best films, ranking alongside Toy Story 2 (1999) and The Incredibles (2004). Moreover, it indeed feels 'new', moving out of Pixar's comfort zone while retaining the brand's populist virtues: loveable characters, crafted jokes, aw-shucks niceness and wonderful images." - Andrew Osmond, Sight & Sound

 

From the Public

 

"The simple yet elegantly crafted story, the rich atmosphere, the romance between WALL-E and EVE (probably one of the best/cutest/well-executed romances ever put on-screen), the gorgeous animation, etc. Everything just clicked for me like it hadn't before." - @Rorschach

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #47, 2013 - #19, 2014 - #20, 2016 - #31, 2018 - #62, 2020 - #53, 2022 – #51

 

Director Count

A. Kurosawa (3), S. Spielberg (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),), 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), A. Stanton (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 (12), 2010s (9), 1980s (8), 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 (5), 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 (9), Sci-Fi (9), Fantasy (7), Black Comedy (6), Adventure (5), Coming of Age (5), Romance (5), 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

Homemade Twinkies

 

Ingredients

Nonstick cooking spray or vegetable oil
▢1/2 cup cake flour
▢1/4 cup all-purpose flour
▢1 teaspoon baking powder
▢1/4 teaspoon salt
▢2 tablespoons milk, preferably whole
▢4 tablespoons (2 oz) unsalted butter
▢1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
▢5 large eggs, at room temperature
▢3/4 cup granulated sugar
▢1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
▢Seven-Minute Filling, er, Frosting

 

Instructions in the recipe: https://leitesculinaria.com/71100/recipes-homemade-twinkies.html#wprm-recipe-container-447019

 

 

 

[The Panda]

 

146.    The Bridge on the River Kwai (dir. David Lean, 1957)
147.    All the President's Men (dir. Alan J. Pakula, 1976)
148.    Cabaret (dir. Bob Fosse, 1972)
149.    Planet of the Apes (dir.Franklin J. Schaffnfer, 1968)
150.    Wild Strawberries (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
 

[baumer]

Well well well, that British film critic that you quoted for the review can go fuck himself. ET is just as brilliant on the 50th viewing as it is in the first. If my list would have been submitted ET would have been top five.

[TalismanRing]

15 minutes ago, The Panda said:

 

146.    The Bridge on the River Kwai (dir. David Lean, 1957)
147.    All the President's Men (dir. Alan J. Pakula, 1976)
148.    Cabaret (dir. Bob Fosse, 1972)
149.    Planet of the Apes (dir.Franklin J. Schaffnfer, 1968)
150.    Wild Strawberries (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
 

 

So far the best grouping of great films.

[The Panda]

Number 38

 

 

"We're going to win this war not by fighting what we hate, but saving what we love!"

 

Synopsis

 

"Rey develops her newly discovered abilities with the guidance of Luke Skywalker, who is unsettled by the strength of her powers. Meanwhile, the Resistance prepares to do battle with the First Order." - The Movie Database

 

 

From the Scholar

 

"Political discourse on social media is seen by many as polarized, vitriolic and permeated by falsehoods and misinformation. Political operators have exploited all of these aspects of the discourse for strategic purposes, most famously during the Russian social media influence campaign during the 2016 presidential election in the United States and current, similar efforts targeting the U.S. elections in 2018 and 2020. The results of the social media study presented in this paper presents evidence that political influence through manipulation of social media discussions is no longer exclusive to political debate but can now also be found in pop culture. Specifically, this study examines a collection of tweets relating to a much-publicized fan dispute over the Star Wars franchise film Episode VII: The Last Jedi. This study finds evidence of deliberate, organized political influence measures disguised as fan arguments. The likely objective of these measures is increasing media coverage of the fandom conflict, thereby adding to and further propagating a narrative of widespread discord and dysfunction in American society. Persuading voters of this narrative remains a strategic goal for the U.S. alt-right movement, as well as the Russian Federation. The results of this study show that among those who address The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson directly on Twitter to express their dissatisfaction, more than half are bots, trolls/sock puppets or political activists using the debate to propagate political messages supporting extreme right-wing causes and the discrimination of gender, race or sexuality. A number of these users appear to be Russian trolls. The paper concludes that while it is only a minority of Twitter accounts that tweet negatively about The Last Jedi, organized attempts at politicizing the pop culture discourse on social media for strategic purposes are significant enough that users should be made aware of these measures, so they can act accordingly."

- Bay, Morten. "Weaponizing the haters: The Last Jedi and the strategic politicization of pop culture through social media manipulation." First Monday (2018).

 

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"Let's not mince words: This will be remembered as one of the best science fiction/fantasy movies of all time, and this backlash simply must stop, because that's no way to treat a near-masterpiece." - Samuel Murrian, Parade

 

"A glorious cinematic tour-de-force, a sci-fi gift that never stops giving, a real achievement. With enough epic moments to fill two years of ecstatic chatter, the wait for the next entry and Johnson’s completely new trilogy could be the toughest yet." - FrewFilm

 

" It’s certainly the best film in the saga since Empire, and perhaps with time it may even surpass it. Rian Johnson sets a new precedent for what you can do with a mainline Star Wars film, one I fear JJ Abrams won’t live up to in the next instalment" - Jennifer Heaton, Alternative Lens

 

 

From the Public

 

"By far the most ambitious and emotionally straining Star Wars movie; within an hour it has accomplished more than most of these films ever do thematically and entertainment-wise, and then there's still 90 minutes left of greatness. The pacing is pitch perfect and it's full of lived-in moments of legitimate consequence that test our characters to the brink while introducing new ones who feel instantly iconic and lovable. A film that starts with guns blazing and only builds and builds while never missing a moment to stop and contemplate the sheer gravity of what's happening. One of the best films of the decade and quite easily the greatest live-action blockbuster of it. An epic that brings Star Wars entirely back to the imaginative awe-inspiring as it was decades ago, simply by moving forward with ambition and no fear of failure. Love this so much." - @Blankments

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - NA, 2013 - NA, 2014 - NA, 2016 - NA, 2018 - #96, 2020 - #99, 2022 – #43

 

Director Count

A. Kurosawa (3), S. Spielberg (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),), 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), R. Johnson (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), A. Stanton (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 (12), 2010s (10), 1980s (8), 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 (5), 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), Star Wars (1), The Thing (1)

 

Genre Count

Drama (16), Comedy (12), Historical Fiction (12), Epic (10), Horror (10), Animation (9), Sci-Fi (9), Fantasy (8), Adventure (6), Black Comedy (6), Coming of Age (5), Romance (5), 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

 

Salty Tears Cocktail

 

Ingredients:
Silver Tequila 45ml.
Lemon Mrytle Liquer 15ml.
Blue Curacoa 15ml.
Tangelo and Pineapple Syrup 15ml.
Bar Ice Cubes.
Lime Juice.
Cocktail Shaker.
Snowy River Bloody Mary Cocktail Salt.

 

 

How To:
Pre-rim the glass with Snowy River Bloody Mary cocktail salt using lime/lemon (use simple syrup for thicker rim).
Fill shaker with ice to chill.
Add tequila, lemon liquer, blue curacao and juice to cocktail shaker.
Shake and strain into glass.

 

From: https://snowyrivercocktails.com/cocktail-ideas/salty-tears-cocktail/

 

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 37

 

 

"Anyone can cook."

 

Synopsis

 

"From the creators of Cars and The Incredibles comes a breakthrough comedy that lets you experience Paris from an all-new perspective. In one of Paris’ finest restaurants, Remy, a determined young rat, dreams of becoming a renowned French chef. Torn between his family’s wishes and his true calling, Remy and his pal Linguini set in motion a hilarious chain of events that turns the City of Lights upside down."

- Disney+

 

 

From the Scholar

 

"The definition of democracy most appropriate to the world of Ratatouille belongs to
Jacques Ranciere. Democracy, for Ranci ` ere, is not simply a state ruled by the many or by a `
sovereign collective of representatives, but more precisely involves the activity of disrupting
what he calls the police order and altering a given distribution of the sensible through
instances of dissensus. The police order refers to the forces sustaining the hierarchical
organization of society. The partitioning or distribution of the sensible is defined as “the
implicit law governing the sensible order that parcels out places and forms of participation
in a common world by first establishing the modes of perception within which these
are inscribed;” it determines who or what is perceptible.3 Dissensus refers to events that
interrupt a given distribution of the sensible and enable a reconfiguration of perception, what
is perceptible, and thereby the coordinates of any political debate. In democracy, dissensus
neutralizes the logic of the arkhe`, i.e. when “the exercise of power is anticipated in the
capacity to exercise it, and this capacity in turn is verified by its exercise” (9); in other words,
because you can, you will, and because you did, you can. This logic legitimates hierarchy

and the activity of the police order. Paradoxically, democracy calls for the dismissal of
dissymmetrical positions and disrupts this logic.

Ranciere writes, “Democracy is this astounding principle: those who rule do so on the `
grounds that there is no reason why some persons should rule over others except for the
fact that there is no reason.” This structure facilitates political community. There are many
ethical4 structures within this community where one party dominates another, but because
the democratic principle exceeds all of the other principles governing social organization, a
political community develops. This is what Ranciere refers to as the democratic supplement. `
The demos ¯ supplements dissymmetrical structures. In regard to demos ¯ , Ranciere writes, `
“I have called it the part of those without part, which does not mean the underdogs but
means anyone. The power of the demos ¯ is the power of whoever.”5 The “anyone” of
the demos ¯ designates a heterological element but one that is endlessly substitutable. In
Ranciere’s formulation, the ethical order, the police, which operates by ` arkhe` –logic, is
supplemented by the demos ¯ and the notion that anyone can rule. Democracy “can be
said to exist only when those who have no title to power, the demos ¯ , intervene as the
dividing force that disrupts the ochlos,” i.e. the community obsessed with pursuing its
unification.6

 

As will be shown, the proposition that “anyone can” is central to Ratatouille and
contributes to the sensorial disruption and reorganization experienced by the characters.
Further, this disruption in the world of the film translates into a disruption of the cinematic
medium. Computer animated cinema is well suited to depict dissensus

because of its capability to generate realism and fantasy with more precise control than live-action recording,
and this offers viewers a sensorial experience commensurable with the dissensus depicted.
The emphasis on sensorial effects, transmission over representation, is not new to cinema,7
but in keeping with the technical innovation that made cinema

one of the defining technologies of modernity, computer generated images mark another disruption in the formal
aesthetic organization of the industry, which is also a social organization. As Lev Manovich
observes, the shift to computer media in the 1990s shifted the little recognized but long used
techniques of cinematic construction—special effects, animation, etc.—from the margins
to the center of the industry."

- Herhuth, Eric. "Cooking like a rat: Sensation and politics in Disney-Pixar's Ratatouille." Quarterly Review of Film and Video 31, no. 5 (2014): 469-485.

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the *new*. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations. The new needs friends. Last night, I experienced something new: an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core. In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto, "Anyone can cook." But I realize, only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist *can* come from *anywhere*. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at Gusteau's, who is, in this critic's opinion, nothing less than the finest chef in France. I will be returning to Gusteau's soon, hungry for more."

- Anton Ego

 

 

From the Public

 

"I remember seeing Ratatouille for the first time when I was 7. I was a huge Pixar fan, had all the DVDs but A Bugs Life and Toy Story 2. I saw it with my mom and cousin, and despite being a two hour movie and in a summer with childhood “classics” like Shrek The Third, Fantastic Four 2, Transformers, Spider-Man 3 and The Simpsons Movie (though to be fair Shrek 3 and FF2 are garbage and the other three are great films), 7 year old me walked out of Ratatouille being my favorite film, and went to see it three times again in theaters.

 

Despite one scene that doesn’t age well, Ratatouille is thought provoking, beautifully animated, down right hysterically quirky and well written animated film, with a strong message that has inspired me today. I think a lot of why kid me liked Ratatouille was because it felt somewhat adult for me, and a lot of what Ratatouille was got me interested in the film world. Ratatouille will always be my favorite Pixar film and maybe my favorite film of all time. Please watch this masterpiece." - @YM!

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #51, 2013 - #62, 2014 - #31, 2016 - #52, 2018 - , 2020 - #61, 2022 – #66

 

Director Count

A. Kurosawa (3), S. Spielberg (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),), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), B. Bird (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), R. Johnson (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), A. Stanton (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

2000s (13), 1990s (12), 2010s (10), 1980s (8), 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 (6), 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), Star Wars (1), The Thing (1)

 

Genre Count

Drama (16), Comedy (13), Historical Fiction (12), Animation (10), Epic (10), Horror (10), Sci-Fi (9), Fantasy (8), Adventure (6), Black Comedy (6), Coming of Age (5), Romance (5), 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

 

 

 

[The Panda]

 

141.    The Rocky Horror Picture Show (dir. Jim Sharman, 1975)
142.    Guardians of the Galaxy (dir. James Gunn, 2014)
143.    Uncut Gems (dir. Josh and Benny Safdie, 2019)
144.    Days of Heaven (dir. Terrence Malick, 1978)
145.    Dazed and Confused (dir. Richard Linklater, 1993)
 

[WorkingonaName]

Last Jedi at 38 and River Kwai at 146 is my 9/11.

[Dementeleus]

Rocky Horror above GOTG… *chef’s kiss*

[The Panda]

I'm sorry about some of the delay recently, there's been a lot of work that I've needed to sort out (and still do to some extent). I wanted to keep this going some, I can't promise a sustained pace right now but hopefully we can progress this closer to the finish line.

 

Number 36

 

 

"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

 

Synopsis

 

"Young Dorothy finds herself in a magical world where she makes friends with a lion, a scarecrow and a tin man as they make their way along the yellow brick road to talk with the Wizard and ask for the things they miss most in their lives. The Wicked Witch of the West is the only thing that could stop them." - The Movie Database

 

From the Scholar

 

"The Wizard of Oz is perhaps the best-loved American children's story.
The movie, starring Judy Garland, Bert Lahr, Ray Bolger, and company,

is an annual television ritual. The book on which the movie is
based, L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, however, is not
only a child's tale but also a sophisticated commentary on the political
and economic debates of the Populist Era.' Previous interpretations
have focused on the political and social aspects of the allegory. The
most important of these is Littlefield ([1966] 1968), although his inter

pretation was adumbrated by Nye (1951), Gardner and Nye (1957),
Sackett (1960), and Bewley ([1964] 1970). My purpose is to unlock the
references in the Wizard of Oz to the monetary debates of the 1890s.
When the story is viewed in this light, the real reason the Cowardly
Lion fell asleep in the field of poppies, the identity of the Wizard of
Oz, the significance of the strange number of hallways and rooms in
the Emerald Palace, and the reason the Wicked Witch of the West was
so happy to get one of Dorothy's shoes become clear. Thus interpreted,

the Wizard of Oz becomes a powerful pedagogic device. Few
students of money and banking or economic history will forget the
battle between the advocates of free silver and the defenders of the
gold standard when it is explained through the Wizard of Oz.
 

This paper also serves a more conventional purpose. William Jennings Bryan

and his supporters in the free silver movement, who play
a central role in the story, have been treated as monetary cranks even
by historians who are sympathetic to them on other issues.2 Here I
show that Bryan's monetary thought was surprisingly sophisticated
and that on most issues his positions, in the light of modern monetary
theory, compare favorably with those of his "sound money" opponents.

 

 

...

 

The Wizard of Oz, conceived over several years, was written mostly in
1899. It is a cautionary tale, recounting "the first battle" of 1896 (the
title of Bryan's [1896] immensely popular account of that election)
and warning of the dangers that lay ahead.

The story is rich in references to the current scene, but it is not a mathematical puzzle. Baum's
main purpose was to tell a good story, and his need for symmetry,
interesting characters, and so on took precedence over historical accuracy.

Nevertheless, the references to the current scene are sufficiently
numerous to make looking for them rewarding and informative. The
heroine is Dorothy, a little girl who lives with her Aunt Em on an
impoverished farm in Kansas. Dorothy represents America-honest,
kindhearted, and plucky.7 Her best friend is her dog, Toto.8 The
populist movement began in the West, so it is natural that the story
begins there. But there may also be a reference here to Kansas City,
Missouri, where the Democratic convention of 1900 would be held. In
1900, going "from Kansas to Fairyland" (an early title) meant

following the campaign trail from Kansas City to Washington, D.C.
Dorothy is in her home when it is carried by a cyclone (tornado) to
the land of Oz.

 

This is Baum's fantasy counterpart to America, a land
in which, especially in the East, the gold standard reigns supreme and
in which an ounce (Oz) of gold has almost mystical significance. The
cyclone is the free silver movement itself. It came roaring out of the
West in 1896, shaking the political establishment to its foundations. A
cyclone is an apt metaphor. Bryan was first elected to Congress in
1890 and made his first important speech in Congress on the silver
question in 1893. Three years later he was the leader of a national
movement. Dorothy's house lands on the Wicked Witch of the East.
The Witch dries up completely, leaving only her silver shoes. These
represent the silver component of a bimetallic standard and are given
to Dorothy to wear by the Good Witch of the North, who has been

summoned to the scene.9 The silver shoes have a magical power that
the Wicked Witch of the East understood but which the Munchkins
(citizens of the East) do not.

On a general level the Wicked Witch of the East represents eastern
business and financial interests, but in personal terms a Populist
would have had one figure in mind: Grover Cleveland.

It was Cleveland who led the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, and it
was his progold forces that had been defeated at the 1896 convention,
making it possible for America to vote for Bryan and free silver. But
the American people, like the Munchkins, never understood the
power that was theirs once the Wicked Witch was dead. Timberlake
(1978) argues that the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act,
rather than the campaign of 1896, was the real end of the possibility
of a bimetallic standard. He shows in detail that repeal

was a bipartisan movement. He then asks the following question: "Why should
anyone then [in 1896] have believed that a Democratic vote would
have any greater effect in promoting silver monetization than it had
in 1892?" (p. 42). The free silver Democrats had a simple but not
naive answer: the Wicked Witch of the East was (politically) dead."

- Rockoff, H. (1990). The “Wizard of Oz” as a Monetary Allegory. Journal of Political Economy

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"While film historians have rightly called foul over the colourisation of black-and-white classics, they surely will have less cause to complain about the decision to remaster Oz digitally and to present it as if it's a new James Cameron movie. The digital makeover does have some unexpected consequences. We can now see the joints in the make-up and the sweat on the faces of the long-suffering Ray Bolger, Jack Haley and Bert Lahr as the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion. However, the crystal-clear restoration should finally scotch the old myth that if you look closely enough, you can spot the corpse of a munchkin hanging in the forest.

 

The Wizard of Oz is one of the most familiar and often revived films of all time and yet it is worth watching (yet again) on the very biggest screen possible. Seventy-five years on, it hasn't dated in the slightest. Its use of colour, music and trompe-l'oeil effects still astounds, as does Judy Garland's extraordinarily febrile and emotional performance as Dorothy."

- Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent

 

From the Public

 

"Judy Garland is the best to ever do it. The best of the best. Peerless." - @Cap

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #39, 2013 - #63, 2014 - #54, 2016 - #51, 2018 - #49, 2020 - #31, 2022 – #64

 

Director Count

A. Kurosawa (3), S. Spielberg (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),), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), B. Bird (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), Victor Fleming (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), P. Jackson (1), R. Johnson (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), A. Stanton (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

2000s (13), 1990s (12), 2010s (10), 1980s (8), 1960s (6), 1950s (5), 1940s (4), 1970s (4), 1930s (2), 1920s (1)

 

International Film Count

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

 

Franchise Count

Pixar (6), 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), Oz (1), Star Wars (1), The Thing (1)

 

Genre Count

Drama (16), Comedy (13), Historical Fiction (12), Animation (10), Epic (10), Horror (10), Fantasy (9), Sci-Fi (9), Adventure (7), Black Comedy (6), Coming of Age (5), Musical (5), Romance (5), 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

Yellow Brick Scones

 

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter
1 and 1/4 cup milk
zest and juice of 1 lemon
4 tablespoons honey
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
2 tablespoons roasted sunflower seeds

 

Instructions:
Mix the lemon juice and milk together and place one stick of butter in the freezer. Place the other stick of butter on the counter. Let sit for 10 minutes while preheating the oven to 425°F.
Blend the flour, granulated sugar, salt, baking powder, and cornmeal together with a wire whisk in one of the mixing bowls. Then grate the cold butter into the mixture, gently tossing through with a spatula.
Gradually pour 1 cup of the milk into the bowl, stirring and folding with the spatula until thoroughly moistened.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Lift and fold the dough four times, giving it a quarter-turn after each fold. Roll the dough into an 8″x8″ square and slice it into 16 pieces with a butter knife.
Transfer the dough squares to a foil-lined baking sheet and brush with the remaining milk on the scones. Bake in the oven 12 to 15 minutes until lightly browned. Allow the scones to cool on the sheet or a cooling rack.
In a separate mixing bowl, beat the remaining butter, honey, half of the lemon zest, and powdered sugar with a fork until smooth.
Frost the cooled scones with a layer of icing and garnish with sunflower and poppy seeds, and lemon zest.
Refrigerate the scones for 10 minutes before serving to set the frosting.

 

 

From: https://thegluttonousgeek.com/2019/09/23/oz-yellow-brick-scones/

 

 

Edited August 8 by The Panda

[TalismanRing]

5 minutes ago, The Panda said:

I'm sorry about some of the delay recently, there's been a lot of work that I've needed to sort out (and still do to some extent). I wanted to keep this going some, I can't promise a sustained pace right now but hopefully we can progress this closer to the finish line.

 

Number 36

 

 

"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

 

 

Synopsis

 

"Young Dorothy finds herself in a magical world where she makes friends with a lion, a scarecrow and a tin man as they make their way along the yellow brick road to talk with the Wizard and ask for the things they miss most in their lives. The Wicked Witch of the West is the only thing that could stop them." - The Movie Database

 

From the Scholar

 

"The Wizard of Oz is perhaps the best-loved American children's story.
The movie, starring Judy Garland, Bert Lahr, Ray Bolger, and company,

is an annual television ritual. The book on which the movie is
based, L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, however, is not
only a child's tale but also a sophisticated commentary on the political
and economic debates of the Populist Era.' Previous interpretations
have focused on the political and social aspects of the allegory. The
most important of these is Littlefield ([1966] 1968), although his inter

pretation was adumbrated by Nye (1951), Gardner and Nye (1957),
Sackett (1960), and Bewley ([1964] 1970). My purpose is to unlock the
references in the Wizard of Oz to the monetary debates of the 1890s.
When the story is viewed in this light, the real reason the Cowardly
Lion fell asleep in the field of poppies, the identity of the Wizard of
Oz, the significance of the strange number of hallways and rooms in
the Emerald Palace, and the reason the Wicked Witch of the West was
so happy to get one of Dorothy's shoes become clear. Thus interpreted,

the Wizard of Oz becomes a powerful pedagogic device. Few
students of money and banking or economic history will forget the
battle between the advocates of free silver and the defenders of the
gold standard when it is explained through the Wizard of Oz.
 

This paper also serves a more conventional purpose. William Jennings Bryan

and his supporters in the free silver movement, who play
a central role in the story, have been treated as monetary cranks even
by historians who are sympathetic to them on other issues.2 Here I
show that Bryan's monetary thought was surprisingly sophisticated
and that on most issues his positions, in the light of modern monetary
theory, compare favorably with those of his "sound money" opponents.

 

 

...

 

The Wizard of Oz, conceived over several years, was written mostly in
1899. It is a cautionary tale, recounting "the first battle" of 1896 (the
title of Bryan's [1896] immensely popular account of that election)
and warning of the dangers that lay ahead.

The story is rich in references to the current scene, but it is not a mathematical puzzle. Baum's
main purpose was to tell a good story, and his need for symmetry,
interesting characters, and so on took precedence over historical accuracy.

Nevertheless, the references to the current scene are sufficiently
numerous to make looking for them rewarding and informative. The
heroine is Dorothy, a little girl who lives with her Aunt Em on an
impoverished farm in Kansas. Dorothy represents America-honest,
kindhearted, and plucky.7 Her best friend is her dog, Toto.8 The
populist movement began in the West, so it is natural that the story
begins there. But there may also be a reference here to Kansas City,
Missouri, where the Democratic convention of 1900 would be held. In
1900, going "from Kansas to Fairyland" (an early title) meant

following the campaign trail from Kansas City to Washington, D.C.
Dorothy is in her home when it is carried by a cyclone (tornado) to
the land of Oz.

 

This is Baum's fantasy counterpart to America, a land
in which, especially in the East, the gold standard reigns supreme and
in which an ounce (Oz) of gold has almost mystical significance. The
cyclone is the free silver movement itself. It came roaring out of the
West in 1896, shaking the political establishment to its foundations. A
cyclone is an apt metaphor. Bryan was first elected to Congress in
1890 and made his first important speech in Congress on the silver
question in 1893. Three years later he was the leader of a national
movement. Dorothy's house lands on the Wicked Witch of the East.
The Witch dries up completely, leaving only her silver shoes. These
represent the silver component of a bimetallic standard and are given
to Dorothy to wear by the Good Witch of the North, who has been

summoned to the scene.9 The silver shoes have a magical power that
the Wicked Witch of the East understood but which the Munchkins
(citizens of the East) do not.

On a general level the Wicked Witch of the East represents eastern
business and financial interests, but in personal terms a Populist
would have had one figure in mind: Grover Cleveland.

It was Cleveland who led the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, and it
was his progold forces that had been defeated at the 1896 convention,
making it possible for America to vote for Bryan and free silver. But
the American people, like the Munchkins, never understood the
power that was theirs once the Wicked Witch was dead. Timberlake
(1978) argues that the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act,
rather than the campaign of 1896, was the real end of the possibility
of a bimetallic standard. He shows in detail that repeal

was a bipartisan movement. He then asks the following question: "Why should
anyone then [in 1896] have believed that a Democratic vote would
have any greater effect in promoting silver monetization than it had
in 1892?" (p. 42). The free silver Democrats had a simple but not
naive answer: the Wicked Witch of the East was (politically) dead."

- Rockoff, H. (1990). The “Wizard of Oz” as a Monetary Allegory. Journal of Political Economy

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"While film historians have rightly called foul over the colourisation of black-and-white classics, they surely will have less cause to complain about the decision to remaster Oz digitally and to present it as if it's a new James Cameron movie. The digital makeover does have some unexpected consequences. We can now see the joints in the make-up and the sweat on the faces of the long-suffering Ray Bolger, Jack Haley and Bert Lahr as the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion. However, the crystal-clear restoration should finally scotch the old myth that if you look closely enough, you can spot the corpse of a munchkin hanging in the forest.

 

The Wizard of Oz is one of the most familiar and often revived films of all time and yet it is worth watching (yet again) on the very biggest screen possible. Seventy-five years on, it hasn't dated in the slightest. Its use of colour, music and trompe-l'oeil effects still astounds, as does Judy Garland's extraordinarily febrile and emotional performance as Dorothy."

- Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent

 

From the Public

 

"Judy Garland is the best to ever do it. The best of the best. Peerless." - @Cap

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #39, 2013 - #63, 2014 - #54, 2016 - #51, 2018 - #49, 2020 - #31, 2022 – #64

 

Director Count

A. Kurosawa (3), S. Spielberg (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),), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), B. Bird (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), Victor Fleming (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), P. Jackson (1), R. Johnson (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), A. Stanton (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

2000s (13), 1990s (12), 2010s (10), 1980s (8), 1960s (6), 1950s (5), 1940s (4), 1970s (4), 1930s (2), 1920s (1)

 

International Film Count

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

 

Franchise Count

Pixar (6), 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), Oz (1), Star Wars (1), The Thing (1)

 

Genre Count

Drama (16), Comedy (13), Historical Fiction (12), Animation (10), Epic (10), Horror (10), Fantasy (9), Sci-Fi (9), Adventure (7), Black Comedy (6), Coming of Age (5), Musical (5), Romance (5), 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

Yellow Brick Scones

 

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter
1 and 1/4 cup milk
zest and juice of 1 lemon
4 tablespoons honey
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
2 tablespoons roasted sunflower seeds

 

Instructions:
Mix the lemon juice and milk together and place one stick of butter in the freezer. Place the other stick of butter on the counter. Let sit for 10 minutes while preheating the oven to 425°F.
Blend the flour, granulated sugar, salt, baking powder, and cornmeal together with a wire whisk in one of the mixing bowls. Then grate the cold butter into the mixture, gently tossing through with a spatula.
Gradually pour 1 cup of the milk into the bowl, stirring and folding with the spatula until thoroughly moistened.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Lift and fold the dough four times, giving it a quarter-turn after each fold. Roll the dough into an 8″x8″ square and slice it into 16 pieces with a butter knife.
Transfer the dough squares to a foil-lined baking sheet and brush with the remaining milk on the scones. Bake in the oven 12 to 15 minutes until lightly browned. Allow the scones to cool on the sheet or a cooling rack.
In a separate mixing bowl, beat the remaining butter, honey, half of the lemon zest, and powdered sugar with a fork until smooth.
Frost the cooled scones with a layer of icing and garnish with sunflower and poppy seeds, and lemon zest.
Refrigerate the scones for 10 minutes before serving to set the frosting.

 

 

From: https://thegluttonousgeek.com/2019/09/23/oz-yellow-brick-scones/

 

 

 

Rockoff, H. (1990). The “Wizard of Oz” as a Monetary Allegory. Journal of Political Economy

 

[The Panda]

Number 35

 

 

"Waiting to die alone..."

 

Synopsis

 

"Cobb, a skilled thief who commits corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible: "inception", the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious." - The Movie Database

 

From the Scholar

 

"The paper aims to revitalise Gérard Genette’s literary term of ‘metalepsis’ within a cinematic context, emphasising the expression’s creative potentials for both analytical and creative approaches. Through its ‘mainstream complexity,’ Christopher Nolan’s 2010 film Inception provides a novel, and at best, progressive contribution to contemporary Hollywood cinema; exemplified in its playful take on the diversified possibilities that the metaleptic logic allows. Nolan hereby (and similarly to Memento and The Prestige) follows his auteur affinity of converting, moreover converging narrative and cognitive values into, and within a fictional story. By introducing a fantastic, but at least conceivably possible futuristic, world of permeable dreams in Inception, Nolan ‘diegetises’ the narrative feature of the embedded structures’ metaleptic transgressions, and inversely, by thoughtfully considering its viewer’s abilities of comprehension, ‘narrativises’ human cognitive skills into storytelling forms."

- Kiss, Miklós. "Narrative metalepsis as diegetic concept in Christopher Nolan’s Inception (2010)." Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies 05 (2012): 35-54.

 

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"For the first 15-20 minutes I had absolutely no idea what was going on. Dreams-within-dreams, projections, figments and mazes are part of the fancy talk batted around by DiCaprio and his cool young team of specialists, who include Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Dileep Rao. As the fog thins, we find that Nolan is dispersing his narrative over a number of levels, flip-flopping between a car chase through rain-lashed streets, a gunfight atop an Alpine redoubt, another in "unreconstructed dream space" – wherever that is. So we're essentially watching a sychronized cycle of dream sequences, with occasional intrusions from the ghost of DiCaprio's wife (Marion Cotillard), who still has some unspecified grievance with her husband. This is a lot to digest, even at two-and-a-half hours' length. It is intricate, it is convoluted, it is mysterious. It is also lavishly boring.

 

 

Advance word on the movie promised mind-blowing visual effects, and there are indeed some arresting images along the way. Admire, if you will, a city folding over on itself like a gigantic sandwich, or the funhouse spectacle of Gordon-Levitt fighting a bad guy in a zero-gravity hotel corridor. But the point of them? Are we really admiring inventiveness here, or just those tricks that designers can conjure in a lab? It is said that Inception is a long-cherished project of Nolan's, though its metaphysical hoop-jumping has nothing new on the first Matrix, or Minority Report, or even his own great Memento, which is about 10 times more exciting and made for a fraction of the present film's $200m. The real cause of wonder, though, is why Nolan should have embraced technocratic complexity in the service of such a puny story – namely, how to dupe the unloved son of a tycoon into breaking up his business empire. What possible insight does that afford us into our dreams, or our fears, or that level of consciousness we know as "life"? And this is a film I've already heard being hailed as a masterpiece. Hmm. In your dreams..."

- Anthony Quinn, The Independent

 

From the Public

 

"First time seeing this in Imax, it's easy to take for granted how good this film is sometimes. It all comes together beautifully in this environment" - @SchumacherFTW

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #14, 2013 - #24, 2014 - #10, 2016 - #22, 2018 - #24, 2020 - #29, 2022 – #29

 

Director Count

A. Kurosawa (3), S. Spielberg (3), C. Nolan (3), J. Cameron (2), A. Hitchcock (2), S. Kubrick (2), J. Lasseter (2), S. Leone (2), R. Linklater (2), D. Lynch (2), R. Scott (2),), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), B. Bird (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), Victor Fleming (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), P. Jackson (1), R. Johnson (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), A. Stanton (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

2000s (13), 1990s (12), 2010s (11), 1980s (8), 1960s (6), 1950s (5), 1940s (4), 1970s (4), 1930s (2), 1920s (1)

 

International Film Count

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

 

Franchise Count

Pixar (6), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (3), Alien (2), Before (2), WDAS (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), Oz (1), Star Wars (1), The Thing (1)

 

Genre Count

Drama (16), Comedy (13), Historical Fiction (12), Animation (10), Epic (10), Horror (10), Sci-Fi (10), Fantasy (9), Adventure (7), Black Comedy (6), Coming of Age (5), Musical (5), Romance (5), Thriller (5), Action (4), Mystery (4), Comic Book (3), Crime (3), Noir (3), Jidaigeki (3), Religious (3), Satire (3), Superhero (3), Western (3), Christmas/Holiday (2), Prison Break/Heist (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Tragedy (2), War (2), Alternative History (1), Anime (1), Neorealism (1)

 

 

A Recipe

Inception Fish Dogfood Recipe

 

 

Daily Feeding Guidelines Weight of        SERVING SIZE Dog (lbs)          (Adult)* 10 or less        ½ – 1 cup 10 – 20            1 – 1 ½ cups 20 – 30            1 ½ – 2 ¼ cups 30 – 40            2 ¼ – 2 ¾ cups 40 – 60            2 ¾ – 3 ¾ cups 60 – 80            3 ¾ – 4 ½ cups 80 – 100          4 ½ – 5 ¼ cups *Standard 8-fluid ounce measuring cup Puppy – Feed up to twice the amount per day. Gestation & Lactation – Feed up to three times the adult amount per day. For combination Feeding – Feed 1/3 cup less dry food for every 1/2 can of wet food. When switching your dog’s diet, we recommend that it should be done gradually over 5-7 days, increasing the amount each day with the present diet as sudden change in diet may result in digestive disturbances.

 

From: https://www.inceptionpetfoods.com/fish-dog/

 

 

[The Panda]

Number 34

 

 

"You shouldn't keep souvenirs of a killing. You shouldn't have been that sentimental."

 

Synopsis

 

"Vertigo received mixed reviews on release, but it has since come to be considered Hitchcock's magnum opus and one of the greatest films of all time.[7] In 1989, it was one of the first 25 films selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[8][9] The film appears repeatedly in polls of the best films by the American Film Institute, including a 2007 ranking as the ninth-greatest American film ever.[10] Attracting significant scholarly attention, it replaced Citizen Kane as the greatest film ever made in the 2012 Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time poll,[11] and came in second place in the 2022 edition of the poll.[12]" - Wikipedia

 

From the Scholar

 

"The Mise-en-Abime in Hitchcock's Vertigo
by Deborah Linderman
During its sequestration, Hitchcock's Vertigo, along with four of his other
similarly inaccessible films, seemed particularly fit to answer to Foucault's
imperatives in his essay "What is an Author?": "What are the modes of existence
of this discourse? Where has it been used, how can it circulate, and who can
appropriate it for himself?"' As was more or less well known, the films had
been appropriated by the representatives of the Hitchcock estate, one Chasin-
Park-Citron Agency in Beverly Hills, for what Herman Citron called "our own
reasons,"2 and occulted in a vault somewhere. Although there was no announced
purpose for this blockage of the films' circulation, the vicissitudes of capitalism
could only ensure that as commodities they would have appreciated upon their
eventual rerelease. In this way they were hoarded against the death of their
author, the occurrence of which in 1982 stimulated their recirculation in 1983.
The films are capital, the estate banks on interest accruing to the attribution
"Hitchcock," for the name-of-the-author constitutes the films as missing from
what that name itself defines as a stylistically and conceptually homogeneous
corpus. Cinephiles of suspense are whetted by the gap. Since there is also, of
course, a ban on its reproduction, the film in its immanence acquires an aura,
that of the work of art (Walter Benjamin). It is thus doubly appreciated, on
grounds of its singularity as well as its occultation. And being thus hidden from
view as well as withheld from exchange, it assumes in its material history the
two functions of the fetish: to deflect the gaze and to foreclose the symbolic.

 

 

Since the resurrection of the film in 1983, there have been surprisingly few
commentaries on it, and among these there is no thoroughgoing textual analysis
that saturates the film in the way that the present article attempts to do. Three
commentators use the film in a more or less "ulterior" way to make arguments
about points of theory, in two cases to contest Mulvey's founding episteme in
"Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,"3 and in one case to interrogate the
privilege that film criticism has accorded to psychoanalysis.4 Two other critics,
Robin Wood and William Rothman, each undertake to read in detail selected
sequences from Vertigo, Rothman focusing on the sequence before the first fall
of Madeleine and on the final sequence of the film starting with Judy's
transformation,5 and Wood dealing with the first four sequences of the film,
rethinking it after twenty years (his Hitchcock's Films came out in 1965), this
time as he says with some new consciousness of the "oppression of women

within out culture".

- Linderman, Deborah. "The Mise-en-Abîme in Hitchcock's" Vertigo"." Cinema Journal 30, no. 4 (1991): 51-74.

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

From the Critic

 

"Alfred Hitchcock tops his own fabulous record for suspense with Vertigo, a super-tale of murder, madness and mysticism that stars James Stewart and Kim Novak. Aside from being big box office, it is a picture no filmmaker should miss if only to observe the pioneering techniques achieved by Hitchcock and his co-workers.

 

Hitchcock tells three distinct types of story in this one picture without a moment of disharmony or audience confusion. The first part of the film is given a fascinating editorial tone of the supernatural. The second act is told from the point of view of the hero’s obsession; the finish is a bang-up straightaway love and detection story.

 

The measure of a great director lies in his ability to inspire his associates to rise above their usual competence and Hitchcock exhibits absolute genius in doing this in Vertigo. The animated spirals of Saul Bass’s title designs create an effect of dizziness and audience participation (more effective than 3-D) at the very start. Colored lights, filters and tinted printing (in Technicolor) put photographer Robert Burks at the top of his profession. In shot after shot, he makes commonplace scenes of San Francisco traffic seem spiritually macabre. Aided by Richard Mueller, the color consultant, he has equaled (and perhaps surpassed) South Pacific in his creation of dramatic mood by use of tinted lighting. John Ferren’s special sequence of Stewart’s nightmares is hair-raising."

- Jack Moffitt, The Hollywood Reporter

 

 

From the Public

 

"hahahaha what a banger lmao

 

there's a like a 20 minute sequence early on in this movie that is no dialogue, just one person following another person. And it's like the most riveting shit ever. Just observation but it's just as telling about the observer as the observed. 

 

winds down a bit and you wonder where it's gonna go and then BOOM they pull the rug and it's so smooth ahahaha so good"

- @Ethan Hunt

 

 

Factoids

 

Previous Year's Rankings

2012 - #79, 2013 - Unranked, 2014 - Unranked, 2016 - #61, 2018 - #50, 2020 - #52, 2022 – #22

 

Director Count

A. Hitchcock (3), A. Kurosawa (3), Nolan (3), S. Spielberg (3), CJ. Cameron (2), S. Kubrick (2), J. Lasseter (2), S. Leone (2), R. Linklater (2), D. Lynch (2), R. Scott (2),), R. Allers (1), R. Altman (1), P.T. Anderson (1), B. Bird (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), Victor Fleming (1), M. Forman (1), W. Friedkin (1), T. Gilliam (1), P. Jackson (1), R. Johnson (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), A. Stanton (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

2000s (13), 1990s (12), 2010s (11), 1980s (8), 1950s (6), 1960s (6), 1940s (4), 1970s (4), 1930s (2), 1920s (1)

 

International Film Count

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

 

Franchise Count

Pixar (6), Nolanite Cinematic Universe (3), Alien (2), Before (2), WDAS (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), Oz (1), Star Wars (1), The Thing (1)

 

Genre Count

Drama (16), Comedy (13), Historical Fiction (12), Animation (10), Epic (10), Horror (10), Sci-Fi (10), Fantasy (9), Adventure (7), Black Comedy (6), Thriller (6), Coming of Age (5), Musical (5), Romance (5), Action (4), Mystery (4), Comic Book (3), Crime (3), Noir (3), Jidaigeki (3), Religious (3), Satire (3), Superhero (3), Western (3), Christmas/Holiday (2), Prison Break/Heist (2), Spaghetti Western (2), Tragedy (2), War (2), Alternative History (1), Anime (1), Neorealism (1)

 

 

A Recipe

Vertigo

 

Ingredients
2 ounces Averna amaro
1/2 ounce lemon juice, freshly squeezed
4 ounces ginger ale, chilled
Garnish: lemon wheel
Garnish: lime wheel

Steps
Add the Averna and lemon juice to a highball glass filled with ice.

Top with the ginger ale, then stir briefly and gently to combine.
Garnish with a lemon wheel and lime wheel.

 

From: https://www.liquor.com/recipes/vertigo/

 

 

 

[The Panda]

 

136.    The Avengers (dir. Joss Whedon, 2012)
137.    Airplane! (dir. David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams, 1980)
138.    Stalker (dir. Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
139.    Blazing Saddles (dir. Mel Brookos, 1974)
140.    Come and See (dir. Elem Klimov, 1985)