A Very Personal List of Top 250 Films - Part 1: #250-201

It’s finally time to start unveiling this list of 250 films. There are a lot of surprises in here and a lot of new rankings that fly in the face of what I might have thought going into it. That said, as a whole this is a list I’m remarkably proud of, though I’m shocked some of these landed this low, especially considering I thought at least a few of these would crack even the Top 100. For a lot of these, it’s a game of inches.

To remind about the methodology: I chose 440 movies and threw them into a ranking engine. Almost all of these came from Letterboxd, specifically movies I’ve rated at least 4 stars OR to which I have given a like. Everything from the Building the Top 250 series of the last six months got consideration, as did everything in my 2022 rendition of a Top 100. It was roughly 2,800 comparisons, and even then the framework was such that I broke the rough list into blocks of 50 and did a re-ranking within that. So this is something I’ve vetted quasi-extensively.

But enough of bragging about how great my list is. Take a look for yourself.

250. Memories of Murder (2003)

Directed by: Bong Joon Ho
Written by: Bong Joon Ho, Shim Sung-bo, Kim Kwang-lim (original text)
Previous Ranking: N/A

Bong Joon Ho burst onto the scene in 2003 with this crime thriller about a true yet unsolved series of murders. It’s a tremendous experience, if also deeply, horribly depressing. It helps to know that they managed to solve the case years after this movie’s release, though the lingering trauma of “this monster is still out there” persists regardless of that fact. The best way to describe it is “what if Bong Joon Ho ripped off Zodiac”, only he did it four years before Fincher’s masterpiece and made a movie that is, quite frankly, nearly as good.

249. Rififi (1955)

Directed by: Jules Dassin
Written by: Auguste Le Breton, Jules Dassin, René Wheeler
Previous Ranking: N/A

My friend Ian recommended this movie to me back in 2023 and parts of it live rent-free in my head. Rififi regularly comes up on “best heist movies” lists, which sounds insane considering it’s a French movie from just before the New Wave. Watching it, though, it’s an undeniable work. The central jewel heist is one of the greatest such sequences ever put into film. Technical, tense, and done in thirty minutes of complete silence. Watching it, it’s easy to see why real thieves ripped off their methods for decades afterwards. It’s not that the actual heist looks simple to execute, but with these crooks’ level of meticulous care and attention to detail, the entire operation looks both doable and believable. The rest of the movie is good too, but the gravitational pull of that central setpiece is the reason to watch.

248. Panic Room (2002)

Directed by: David Fincher
Written by: David Koepp
Previous Ranking: N/A

It’s a perfect, minimalist premise executed with David Fincher’s exacting perfection and flair. Films that live within constraints are always going to appeal to me, and Fincher making a one-night, one-location home invasion crime thriller lives up to everything imaginable. Jodie Foster is fabulous as a newly single mom, but so is a very young Kristen Stewart, showing how good she is from a very early age. Forrest Whittaker is great as always, bringing a softness to a character who just might be in a bit over his head with this cadre of violent criminals. But the stealth best thing in this movie is (weirdly) Jared Leto, who plays a little bitch boy accomplice for the whole runtime until (spoilers) he bites it in delicious fashion. If you’re not a Leto fan? Delicious.

247. Beauty & the Beast (1991)

Directed by: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
Written by: Linda Woolverton (Screenplay), Brenda Chapman (Story),Chris Sanders (Story), Bunny Mattinson (Story), Kevin Harkey (Story), Brian Pimental (Story), Bruce Woodside (Story), Joe Ranft (Story), Tom Ellery (Story), Kelly Asbury (Story), Robert Lence (Story)
Previous Ranking: N/A

The Disney Renaissance’s undeniable masterpiece. There aren’t a lot of animated movies on my list, but Beauty & The Beast has always been a particular favorite. The idea to anthropomorphize the castle’s objects alone is the best idea Disney had for decades, and it helped define generations of animation to come. Most of the joy, though, is the music by Howard Ashman & Alan Menken. As one of the best lyricists of all time, Ashman himself is the best Disney’s ever had, and outside of Lin-Manuel Miranda no one has really come close. Everyone reading this knows these songs, but because of that it’s easy to take his lyrics for granted. Menken was never better than his partnership with Ashman, and the loss of the latter to AIDS robbed the world of so, so many other incredible works.

246. Phantom Thread (2017)

Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Written by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Previous Ranking: N/A

As Phantom Thread was coming out, Daniel Day-Lewis spoke in interviews about how this would probably be his last movie. He’d been threatening it for multiple projects at that point, but with Phantom Thread he finally followed through until this year’s Anemone (which his son directed). What was more shocking was hearing writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson loosely echo the sentiment. There was something different about this collaboration, a sense of completion or artistic satisfaction with which no future work could compete. Watching it… yeah. It’s good PTA didn’t stop after this, as both of his followups are incredible too, but this is such a wonder of filmmaking and acting. Unlike their previous collaboration (There Will Be Blood, for which Day-Lewis won an Oscar), Anderson modulates this to be more than just the central performance. Even if you pulled out the central performance and someone else played fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock, there’s so much else going on in the movie (especially Vicky Krieps as Alma Elson and Lesley Manville as Woodcock’s sister Cyril) that it would still hold. Only PTA could go toe-to-toe with Daniel Day-Lewis giving one of his all-time best performances and walk away an equal match.

245. Blade Runner: 2049 (2017)

Directed by: Denis Villeneuve
Written by: Hampton Fancher (Story/Screenplay), Michael Green (Screenplay)
Previous Ranking: N/A

It feels sacrilegious to have this on a list of 250 films (albeit very low) and not to include the original Blade Runner. Ridley Scott’s seminal sci-fi noir is iconic for many reasons, but it’s never captured my interest so much as engendered a respectful appreciation for its genre-defining qualities. Denis Villeneuve’s sequel comes 35 years later, and follows a different story about a different character. It’s the sort of movie that grows with each subsequent viewing, where even the slow investigation of the first half feels poignant as it slots into the larger, more emotional story that reveals itself as it goes. Gosling is great, and Ana De Armas is excellent as his A.I. companion, and Villeneuve even manages to pull out a great late-career Harrison Ford performance.

244. Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025)

Directed by: Chris McQuarrie
Written by: Chris McQuarrie, Erik Jendresen
Previous Ranking: N/A

It’s strange for this to be on this list while Dead Reckoning is not. But even though Final Reckoning only came out this year, I can’t stop thinking about it. Everything I talked about in my review is still bouncing around in my head. The first half is slow. It takes its time. And it’s the point at which McQuarrie’s “we just keep making the movie until we find it” ethos finally hits its limit. And yet, the larger context is what makes it good. Mission: Impossible films are nonstop thrill rides, yes, but making a movie that is slow, methodical, and about all the disparate pieces slowly moving into place. It runs against the modern ethos of convenient plotting, go-go-go action, and easy solutions. Saving the world like should be hard. It’s not something that Ethan can do on his own, nor could even the President, or anyone else for that matter. Success in the face of impossible odds requires a team of individuals with insane skills and a reckless attitude that will not accept either failure or compromise. All of that, and there’s a 99% silent submarine sequence and a brain-melting biplane chase? Kind of a perfect movie.

243. The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Directed by: George Cukor
Written by: Donald Ogden Stewart, Philip Barey (original play)
Previous Ranking: N/A

Katherine Hepburn finds herself torn between her ex-husband Cary Grant and a tabloid reporter played by James Stewart? This is the sort of classic film that lives in obscurity until you’re aware of it. But then, once you’ve seen it and know how great it is, it comes up all the time as a great example of the era. Fabulous romantic comedy from the first golden era of film.

242. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

Directed by: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (uncredited, but… come on)
Written by: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Homer (original poem)
Previous Ranking: N/A

One of the Coens’ sillier movies, O Brother, Where Art Thou? explores the Great Depression-era American South through the prism of Homer’s The Odyssey. With George Clooney at the helm, this has the sort of screwball energy the Coens like to deploy whenever they use him. The highest praise I can think of is that this is one of the few movies my grandfather saw and liked enough to see in a theater and stay awake the whole time (at least as far as I heard). He wasn’t a movie guy, but this took him back to his childhood and recreated the world he nostalgically remembered. Listening to the excellent soundtrack takes me back to his house in early 2001 and when my grandparents were playing songs on repeat. More than any other movie, this is one that makes me feel close to him. For that, it will always be more than just a standout Coen Bros movie.

241. The Red Shoes (1948)

Directed by: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Written by: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, Hans Christen Andersen (original fairy tale)
Previous Ranking: N/A

Saying this is Singin’ in the Rain, only as a ballet instead of a musical makes it sound like this has a Hollywood ending when in reality it’s far more bittersweet. But where this overlaps with that iconic musical is in its incredible dance sequences, celebration of the medium, and hint of magic. The recent restoration is gorgeous, and the love story at the center about an up and coming dancer who has to choose between her career and the love of her life is truly timeless.

240. The Sting (1973)

Directed by: George Roy Hill
Written by: David S. Ward
Previous Ranking: #48

When I was learning to play Scott Joplin music on the piano, my dad showed me The Sting for its use of ragtime music. While that might be the reason I showed up to begin with, the double act of Robert Redford and Paul Newman pulling con jobs (both large and small) inspired a lifetime obsession with stories about con artists and crime. While they might be obvious to modern eyes, every con’s twists and turns were surprising and new to my young brain. It’s not the peak of 70s cinema. Hell, it’s not even the peak of 1973. But it is a solid movie with the breezy ease of a great director directing great actors through a great script.

239. The Last of Sheila (1973)

Directed by: Herbert Ross
Written by: Anthony Perkins, Stephen Sondheim
Previous Ranking: N/A

Rian Johnson cited this as a major influence on Glass Onion, but that was just the thing that catalyzed me pressing play. Its legacy as Sondheim’s lone screen credit (alongside Anthony “Norman Bates” Perkins no less) had it on my radar for at least a decade leading up to me finally watching. While I wouldn’t trade anything for Sunday in the Park with George or Into the Woods, it’s a damn shame this is the only movie like this Sondheim wrote. Much like Rian Johnson could make Benoit Blanc movies for the rest of his life and I’d be happy, if Sondheim had spent the last three decades of his life just churning out murder mysteries like this, I would have loved it. Ugh. This one example of what he could do in this respect is so clever, inventive, and good. Sad we never got more.

238. The Wind Rises (2013)

Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki
Written by: Hayao Miyazaki
Previous Ranking: N/A

It was supposed to be Miyazaki’s swan song, an attempt to go out by making “something beautiful”. While it’s not the former, it’s certainly the latter. It doesn’t pretend to appeal to children (which was an issue he had with Porco Rosso), but that doesn’t mean they can’t watch it or find it enjoyable. Instead, this is a film about work/life balance, and struggling with a creating art that others might weaponize in the name of harm the creator didn’t intend. That complexity is a more mature theme children might miss, but it helps Miyazaki to go out on his own terms and saying something without a metaphor getting in the way. And god it really is just so so beautiful.

237. The Avengers (2012)

Directed by: Joss Whedon
Written by: Joss Whedon (Story/Screenplay), Zak Penn (Story)
Previous Ranking: #46

This has definitely aged a bit. The Whedon of it all is still enough to make me itchy, and the costumes (especially Captain America’s) feel rudimentary and amateurish compared to the lived-in designs of subsequent films. We also now live in a world where the Avengers movies are many times bigger and more sprawling that this. But this is still a miracle in and of itself. Juggling all of these characters this well is Whedon’s forte, and revisiting it in a post-Endgame world shows just what’s possible when Marvel is at its best. If Black Panther is the ultimate auteurist achievement within Marvel’s assembly line, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the ultimate expression of all the pieces of the machinery serving Marvel’s purposes without a standout author, this is the harmonic apotheosis of those two apexes. Humming along, perfectly in sync, but undeniably a Whedon movie; action packed, exciting, emotional, and with every single character getting a moment? May we be so lucky for any of these blockbusters to get back to something this good.

236. Pulp Fiction (1994)

Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Written by: Quentin Tarantino (Story/Screenplay), Roger Avary (Story)
Previous Ranking: N/A

When I was in high school, the AFI updated its Top 100 Films and put this at #94. At the time, it felt like they got this completely wrong. How dare they insult Tarantino’s sprawling crime triptych masterpiece? And yet, here I am many years later (and older) and I understand why Pulp Fiction ranked so low. This is a mindblowing movie on first watch, especially at a young age where this level of R-rated mayhem and carnage alongside this much mastery of tone and filmmaking was simply inconceivable. Now, though, there’s a vinegar to it that’s only slightly less than Reservoir Dogs. In 1994, Tarantino is young and eager to prove how edgy and hardcore he is. That doesn’t make it bad, but it lacks the refinement and maturity of his later work. Was a time I thought the man had peaked early. Now I recognize this for the sophomoric effort it is. It’s still a terrific movie (albeit enjoyment depends on viewer’s taste), but growing up is recognizing its flaws and appreciating it for all its contexts, both contemporary and after.

235. Sinners (2025)

Directed by: Ryan Coogler
Written by: Ryan Coogler
Previous Ranking: N/A

Building a list like this comes with certain concessions. Sinners is a movie that’s existed for less than a year, and there’s no way to know if it will hold up years or decades into the future. And yet, if I had to guess about how time will affect this movie, it’s only going to grow in popularity. From great kills to terrifying moments, Ryan Coogler’s vampire thriller hits all the right notes, but there are two things that make it an instant classic. The first is its performances: Michael B. Jordan is absolutely incredible as twin brothers Smoke and Stack, such that it’s easy to forget that the same actor is playing both characters. But there’s also Hailee Steinfeld as one brother’s former lover, Wunmi Mosaku as the other’s ex-wife, and Miles Caton blowing off the doors with his first-ever screen performance. The second is the themes about art, culture, and companionship. And that’s not just the iconic one-take shot as the history of music fills the juke joint. It’s the coda that spikes this football, when an older Sammie receives a visit from an old friend. It’s one of the most amazing scenes this year, recontextualizing the film from an elevated schlocky horror movie into a profound celebration of community and freedom.

234. Shakespeare In Love (1998)

Directed by: John Madden
Written by: Marc Norman, Tom Stoppard
Previous Ranking: N/A

Even with only one viewing, Shakespeare In Love is an undeniable, fabulous romantic comedy. The setting helps, and it also helps that it’s riffing on Shakespeare while playing in his era. It might not wind up on this list the next time I run it, but it’s a delightful surprise that it made it here. And… who knows? Maybe this’ll make me watch it more regularly and it’ll be one of those movies that’s in quasi regular rotation. I know my partner won’t complain.

233. Barbie (2023)

Directed by: Greta Gerwig
Written by: Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach
Previous Ranking: N/A

The current era of studio-driven sequels, prequels, and remakes might seem bleak. Every purchasable idea is some crazy exec and a few million dollars away from happening because “brand recognition” is more marketable than a great story told well. But Barbie is proof that while “brand recognition” can get people in the theater, it’s the movie itself that will keep them coming back for weeks to come. Alongside her co-writer/husband Noah Baumbach, Greta Gerwig takes a massive consumerist facet of Americana and turns it into a bold expression of feminism and an unapologetic celebration of women. It demands a society that can be so much more, and proves that’s possible by turning what should be a lame money grab into a thematically rich experience. No wonder it made a billion dollars at the box office.

232. North By Northwest (1959)

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Written by: Ernest Lehman
Previous Ranking: N/A

There’s a bunch of ways to remember this Hitchcock spy thriller… the use of Mount Rushmore, the iconic plane chase in the middle of nowhere… but what’s great about it is the Cary Grant plot of mistaken identity and what amounts to a movie-long chase scene. The best detail about it is the costume designer gave Cary Grant the best suit in the movie. Perfectly tailored, elegant, expensive… until James Mason shows up as the villain at the end. And they gave him an even better, classier, better fitting suit to prove he’s the most dangerous person in the movie. So good.

231. Coco (2017)

Directed by: Lee Unkrich
Written by: Adrian Molina (Story/Screenplay), Matthew Aldrich (Story/Screenplay), Lee Unkrich (Story), Jason Katz (Story)
Previous Ranking: N/A

Pixar has had a number of releases since Coco’s 2017 release, but that is the last time the company released a no-qualifications smash. There’s a number of reasons for this, but all of those are it really hitting every box that Pixar checks off so well. It’s deeply emotional (which most Pixar films are), but Unkrich’s conception of the afterlife is so vibrant and wonderful and original. The adventure narrative properly explores it, and the main song weaves its way in and out of the narrative in ways that are surprising and gut-wrenching. Every time the movie plays it, it progresses the story forward until the utterly heartbreaking final rendition. Coco is everything a Pixar movie should be. Maybe one day they’ll hit this high again, but nothing in their upcoming releases seems like they’ll get there anytime soon. Sadness.

230. Before Midnight (2013)

Directed by: Richard Linklater
Written by: Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Kim Krizan (characters)
Previous Ranking: N/A

God willing this will be the final installment of the Before saga. While I deeply love the characters of Jesse and Celine and their lifelong love story, even the possibility of a fourth movie where the two of them aren’t together is too painful to imagine. This ending is precarious enough, with the two of them sitting seaside in Greece, their vicious, relentless fight still ringing in everyone’s ears, the future uncertain. For all the discomfort, though, it’s still a great movie, exploring the challenges of turning a mythic love story past the simple pleasure of “falling in love” into a loving, working relationship. Being partners with someone is hard work, and it’s better living in a world where these crazy kids might be able to pull it off rather than some future world where Linklater & co reveal whether or not that’s true.

229. The Game (1997)

Directed by: David Fincher
Written by: John Brancato, Michael Ferris
Previous Ranking: N/A

It’s easy to forget Fincher made a movie between Se7en and Fight Club, but this Michael Douglas vehicle is a perfect thriller, where playing with reality destabilizes the audience’s confidence in what they can trust. It’s a relentless series of twists, playing through the eponymous scenario for the full run time until basically the final scene. Creepy, engaging… it’s nice to see early Fincher in a mode that isn’t the pure gnarly of his films on either side of this.

228. Drive My Car (2021)

Directed by: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Written by: Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Screenplay), Takamasa Oe (Screenplay), Harukami Murakami (original text)
Previous Ranking: N/A

This is a three hour movie about a dude who’s directing a new production of Chekov’s Uncle Vanya and how he lives in the world after the death (and infidelity) of his wife. I was always going to like this movie, but what made it a transcendent experience was watching it for the 2023 Criterion Challenge. I happened to be watching another movie for the challenge called Vanya on 42nd Street, which is a filmed version of an actors-playing-around rehearsal of Uncle Vanya. I happened to mention all of this to my friend Chris, who pointed out Drive My Car was about that same play. It led to me watching that movie the following night. With the Chekov in my head, it helped Drive My Car come alive and became one of the great serendipitous double feature experiences of my life. Together, they both became greater than the sum of their parts and to this day I recommend anyone wanting to watch this movie incorporate the other one too.

227. Superman (2025)

Directed by: James Gunn
Written by: James Gunn
Previous Ranking: N/A

There’s almost nothing to say here that didn’t already come up in my review. What I’ll add is this is finally a Superman story that I can point to as an example of who the character is, why he matters, and what he could be. This should be simple, but it’s been impossible to crack in film and not that much easier in the comics. Here, though, it looks easy. James Gunn and everyone else nail just about every aspect of this, and even if the rest of DC’s upcoming slate crashes and burns, we’ll always have this iteration of Superman. If we’re lucky, though, there’ll be even more that will be just as good or better. I’d love to see it.

226. It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)

Directed by: Frank Capra
Written by: Frances Goodrich (Screenplay), Albert Hackett (Screenplay), Frank Capra (Screenplay), Jo Swerling (additional scenes), Phillip Van Doren Stern (original text)
Previous Ranking: N/A

The first thing It’s a Wonderful Life makes me think of has nothing to do with George Bailey. It’s the way my dad told me at a young age that the stars talking to each other was a major special effect at the time. That’s always stuck with me. Otherwise… I don’t know. Studios should let more movies fall into the public domain. It helps make this movie feel like it’s a public good rather than some muted-response movie that didn’t do well in theaters but audiences then discovered when it played regularly on network TV. It’s to the point now where I know people who actively can’t watch this because it makes them too emotional. That level of emotional connection is a special thing. Wish we had more like it.

225. Creed (2015)

Directed by: Ryan Coogler
Written by: Ryan Coogler (Story/Screenplay), Aaron Covington (Screenplay), Sylvester Stallone (characters)
Previous Ranking: N/A

2015 is the year the legacy sequel hit the zeitgeist. Hollywood had been doing remakes for ages, but by incorporating characters and settings from source-text films it allowed Hollywood to at least appear to be making something new without throwing out the old. This idea of “what you’ve loved but for a new generation” happened with Jurassic World, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Terminator: Genysis, and a new film from a young up-and-comer named Ryan Coogler. Creed comes after six Rocky movies and follows an entirely new character in Adonis “Donny” Creed, the illegitimate son of Rocky’s once-rival-turned-friend Apollo Creed. Coogler would continue to work in the studio system with the Black Panther movies, but Creed is an incredible experience, adding to the Rocky mythos and paying homage while blazing its own trail into the future. The sequels (especially Creed II) pull away from this, turning more into a Rocky movie than a Creed one, but iif all legasequels were this good, no one would complain about them.

224. Se7en (1995)

Directed by: David Fincher
Written by: Andrew Kevin Walker
Previous Ranking: #76

It’s hard to escape the gravitational pull of the ending (“What’s in the boxxxx?”), but the entire ride to get there is an incredible buddy cop drama that looks into the gnarly aftermaths of a serial killer whose designs grandiose crime scenes to invoke the seven deadly sins. Fincher’s first proper outing as a major director is one of the most shocking, visceral films of the 90s. Gnarly and disturbing, its exploration of the pits of depravity and how affects the two detectives at the center is one of the great examples of the genre.

223. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Directed by: Gore Verbinski
Written by: Ted Elliott (Story/Screenplay), Terry Rossio (Story/Screenplay), Stuart Beattie (Story), Jay Wolpert (Story)
Previous Ranking: N/A

An impossible movie. No one making it knew how big it would be and the phenomenon that would result from basing a great film on a theme park ride… but even watching it today it’s an undeniable blast of a blockbuster. Adventure on this scale with sets and practical effects? A smart deployment of CGI where necessary rather than an over reliance on it to accomplish everything? Keira Knightley becoming a movie star the instant she opens her eyes? The incredible Johnny Depp performance as Captain Jack Sparrow? God it’s terrific.

222. Big Fish (2003)

Directed by: Tim Burton
Written by: John August, Daniel Wallace (original novel)
Previous Ranking: #98

It’s a movie that’s captured my imagination from the first trailer. Tim Burton bringing John August’s adaptation of Daniel Wallace’s novel to life is one of the great achievements of his post-Ed Wood career. The director sprinkles his magic magic over all of Edward Bloom’s stories to give them a sense of fantasy and wonder. But the big power of the movie is the climax, when Will finally understands his father enough to tell their final story. It’s one of the most emotional sequences in cinema history, and even after a dozen or so viewings it still reduces me to bittersweet tears every time.

221. Weapons (2025)

Directed by: Zach Cregger
Written by: Zach Cregger
Previous Ranking: N/A

The premise is upsetting, the trailer disturbing. But Zach Cregger’s followup to Barbarian is one of the best movies of 2025. It has its scary moments (one of which made me curse inappropriately loud in my screening), but it’s also wicked funny. There are incredible jokes,+ and the climax is a surprising Ferris Bueller riff. But what makes it all come together is Cregger’s use of multiple POV-centric threads, pinging around the community and painting the picture of how this trauma at the center has affected everyone, even those without an obvious connection to the mystery. Not only that, but for all its fun resolution, the ending isn’t as simple as “and they all lived happily ever after”. These events will linger for years to come, and some of those involved may never recover from it. But this level of evil infecting the world has a cost. Some can walk away okay, others might have lingering scarring, but some will slip into a coma from they will never wake up.

220. La La Land (2016)

Directed by: Damien Chazelle
Written by: Damien Chazelle
Previous Ranking: N/A

It is so uncool for Damien Chazelle’s musical to be on this list, especially ten years after its release when general consensus has imagined this movie to be some war crime. But this is a movie built on both joy and melancholy. Despite the Pasek & Paul of it all, the numbers are great, whether it’s shutting down a major L.A. freeway over a weekend for the big choreographed opener or the magic hour duet as Seb & Mia dance their way into falling in love. There are even critiqueable moments. Ryan Gosling’s character explaining jazz to John Legend is the shorthand most critics glom onto, but everyone seems to ignore that Ryan Gosling’s character is problematic and not some dashing hero of old. Seb is an asshole. He’s always been an asshole. He’ll always be an asshole. The final sequence is a fantasy imagination that rewrites the past to bring Seb & Mia back to the present via an alternate path. It’s bittersweet because in reality they’re not together, yes, but the happy ending is that there is no world where Mia doesn’t get what she wants (stardom and success). Meanwhile, Seb (who could have been perfectly happy just being with her) instead gets the club he claims he’s always wanted to have, but not the girl he was in love with. In the city that makes dreams come true quality can bring some success, but assholery puts a ceiling on emotional satisfaction. It might not always be true, but we can hope.

219. In the Heights (2022)

Directed by: John M. Chu
Written by: Quiara Alegria Hudes, Lin Manuel Miranda (original production/music & lyrics)
Previous Ranking: N/A

When it won the Tony for Best Musical, a “hip hop” musical sounded like something I didn’t want to engage with. Foolish. When I finally listened to it, In the Heights became an instant favorite, but Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “hip-hopera” is a massive leap forward for the medium of musical theater. Every song is a banger and for the cinematic adaptation director John M. Chu both captures the scope of big numbers like the eponymous opener and “96,000” while toning it down for the quiet intimacy of “When the Sun Goes Down” and “Champagne.” Musicals become transcendent when they enter an impressionistic world of magic and the unexplainable. Miranda (and his co-writer Quiara Alegria Hudes) capture that while also making a musical about a setting and people the medium rarely explores, and certainly not on a major Broadway production scale. While the film might not have shifted movie musicals in the same way the show shifted Broadway, it’s still a fabulous cinematic adaptation worthy of the source text.

218. Escape From New York (1981)

Directed by: John Carpenter
Written by: John Carpenter, Nick Castle
Previous Ranking: #100

Put me in a theater. Let John Carpenter’s pulsing synthy score play over the black screen and those simple credits. And then let the Jamie Lee Curtis voiceover deliver the massive exposition dump to explain this vision of a dystopic future. Everything after is a slick, grungy, indie film that has all the schlocky goodness of a B-movie elevated to cinematic excellence by Carpenter’s undeniable talent. Kurt Russell’s Snake Plissken is instantly iconic, but it’s the film’s fearless execution of a blockbuster premise on a shoestring budget that makes it awesome. The rotted decay of “New York” is incredible production value, and the visual effects really hold up remarkably well (thanks in part to a couple of smart innovations by James Cameron). It’s one of those movies that proves the medium can take its audience anywhere and do anything, a perfect mix of high and low art.

217. You’ve Got Mail (1998)

Directed by: Nora Ephron
Written by: Nora Ephron, Delia Ephron, Samson Raphaelson (original film), Miklós Lázló (original play)
Previous Ranking: N/A

With Sleepless In Seattle, the movie spends its entire runtime waiting for the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan meeting to play out in the last thirty seconds. But for Nora Ephron’s great romantic comedy, she lets the two bounce off each other in person as they slowly fall in love despite being business rivals. Add in the use of early e-mail, and it’s a rich experience of watching the love happen between two people as their online avatars slowly sync up with their real life personas. It’s not all cake walk. The fate of The Shop Around the Corner is sad (though it was always going to happen) and the scene where Joe Fox (“F-O-X”) interrupts Kathleen Kelly while she unknowingly waits for him is prickly though delicately handled. But the heart of the piece shines through. Via all of this, You’ve Got Mail really is the great romcom of the decade and one of the best of all time.

216. Attack the Block (2011)

Directed by: Joe Cornish
Written by: Joe Cornish
Previous Ranking: #30

Alien invasion in a London housing project is a great movie premise. Writer/director Joe Cornish (in his directorial debut) executes it perfectly, but includes different flairs that make it something special. He builds empathy with the “block boys”, constructing the first few minutes such that it seems like there’s no way the audience will ever root for them. He then figures out a way to create terrifying, unique aliens on a micro budget. And he somehow finds a very young John Boyega to lead the group, turning him from a stoic street tough into a hero the entire block (and the audience watching) will spend the final minute of the movie cheering for. This has always been a go-to movie for lists like this, and this iteration of favorite movies sees it having a major fall from its original rankings. That said, I don’t know if this movie will ever fully fall out of a list like this for me. It’s just too special, and I wish Joe Cornish would get to make more movies just so we can get another something like this.

215. Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

Directed by: Drew Goddard
Written by: Drew Goddard
Previous Ranking: #82

Maybe I’m giving this movie too much credit, but there’s something wonderful about seeing Drew Goddard have the opportunity to make this small crime thriller about a small group of people who all wind up at the same remote hotel on the California/Nevada border. It’s got terrific characters, with everyone getting a flashback to fill out what brought them to this moment. Its postmodern sensibilities evoke Tarantino and its quirky sensibilities and affection for its odd character feel like the Coen Bros., but that’s just the jumping off point for a movie that feels like more than just its inspirations. Bad Times At the El Royale is doing its own specific thing and that fills a niche in my soul I didn’t know need filling. This sort of small crime thriller is always for me, but through the prism of Goddard’s voice this is something intimate and special and fabulous.

214. Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Directed by: Joseph Kosinski
Written by: Ehren Kruger (Screenplay), Eric Warren Singer (Screenplay), Christopher McQuarrie (Screenplay), Peter Craig (Story), Justin Marks (Story), Jim Cash (characters), Jack Epps Jr. (characters
Previous Ranking: N/A

Perfect blockbuster filmmaking. No one but Tom Cruise could pull off something like this movie, and the best note about him is one a friend pointed out: after half a dozen Mission: Impossible movies and god knows what else… the dude convincingly falls on his ass after sneaking out of Jennifer Connelly’s window. As if the dude can’t land a jump. Sure. But more than that, this is the movie I always wanted Top Gun to be. Yeah, it’s a Mission: Impossible movie in Top Gun clothing, but the idea of an elite squad of navy pilots running a seemingly impossible mission is far more interesting than watching a glorified flight school for two hours. That premise, though, leads to the film’s best sequence, in which Maverick does the impossible run in a live simulation. It’s a breathless experience, with every fighter jet roll and acceleration a pulse-pounding thrill ride. None of it is real, but everyone treats it like it’s the real thing. Not only that, but it’s crazy that the third act pulls off its multiple tricks and reveals as well and surprisingly as it does. A more popcorn movie does not exist.

213. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)

Directed by: J.J. Abrams
Written by: Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams, Michael Arndt, George Lucas (characters)
Previous Ranking: #96

There’s the complaint that this is just rehashing old Star Wars tropes. And… yeah. That’s somewhat true. Coming off the bumpiness of the prequels, just proving that Star Wars can recapture the magic of yore is value in and of itself. More than that, though, The Force Awakens layers a solid foundation from which the series can go… anywhere. The Last Jedi is not possible if this doesn’t open the space for new stories in the future. But even before Rian Johnson pays that off, there’s the two subversions Kasdan and Abrams put into play that make this different. The first is the big death, which plays out like a cynical screed about how Star Wars needs to tell new stories. Make a story about sons needing to kill fathers to self-actualize, and… well… what else would happen if Han Solo has a son? The other is the big reveal of Rey embracing her power. Luke’s lightsaber flying into her hand is one of the great moments in all of Star Wars. It’s predictable sure, but that doesn’t matter when every time I watch that movie I still get the visceral thrill of seeing Daisy Ridley hold it up, light it, and embrace a destiny for herself. Ten years ago, Star Wars was back. It might have faded (especially in the wake of Abrams’s return for Episode IX), but it doesn’t take much to get back to the thrilling day audiences found out “Luke Skywalker has vanished.”

212. Strange Days (1995)

Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow
Written by: James Cameron, Jay Cocks,
Previous Ranking: N/A

It’s hard to recommend this movie. It’s pretty bleak and nasty, where the most extreme use of the VR technology comes at the hands of a truly sadistic serial killer. That alone is one of the most horrifying, revolting experiences I’ve ever seen on film. But that doesn’t take away Kathryn Bigelow making a great cyberpunky noir about Ralph Fiennes bombing around a near-future L.A. with Angela Bassett. Halfway through watching this, I couldn’t believe how good it was. “Who the hell wrote this?” I asked. And then when I saw who I was like “oh.” No wonder this has a perfect structure and pace and sense of story.

211. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Directed by: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Written by: Stephen Marcus, Christiopher McFeely, Stan Lee (characters), Jack Kriby (characters)
Previous Ranking: #62

Just an undeniable Avengers movie. As the MCU rounded into the final act of its first era, it made a fully celebratory, throw-everyone-in-the-mix Avengers movie. Jubilant, fast-paced, the Russos’ ability to juggle all of these disparate threads is astonishing. There’s also an incredible cliffhanger ending that completely knocked audiences off their feet in 2018. What I like most about it, though, is the way Marcus & McFeely structure the entire film like an old school comic book crossover, jumping around the cosmos to capture the scope of Thanos putting his plan into motion. It even almost breaks down like they’ve made it out of individual issues. The first issue ends with Spidey hiding on board the Maw’s spaceship to rescue Tony Stark. Turn the page and the last beat is Bruce Banner in NYC, picking up the cell phone with the promise that he’s going to call Steve Rogers so they can save the universe. In comic books, we’d have to wait a whole month to find out what happens next. But in a world where Marvel has made this medium come to life, the next thing that happens is the introduction of the Guardians of the Galaxy and a head-on collision with Thor. The story continues from there. With no other film like it, if Avengers: Doomsday is half as good as this, I will be delighted.

210. RRR (2022)

Directed by: S.S. Rajamouli
Written by: S.S. Rajamouli (Screenplay), V. Vijayendra Prasad
Previous Ranking: N/A

A few weeks ago, I attended my eighth theatrical screening of RRR. With a runtime of three hours, it means I’ve now spet a full day of my life in a theater watching S.S. Rajamouli’s most recent action epic. It’s impossible to understate just how electric it is to experience this movie, let alone in a theater full of people experiencing the madness for the first time. Rajamoui himself cites James Cameron as one of his inspirations, and (like Cameron) he brings a populist sensibility to every aspect of this historical fiction account of two legends of the anti-colonial movement in early 20th Century India. In eight screenings, I’ve never seen an audience that doesn’t cheer, scream, stand up and shout, applaud, clap along, or dance in the aisles at this perfectly calibrated experience. The musical numbers are incredible and the action is absolutely mind-melting, where a maximalist philosophy means audience engagement is the top priority. Whatever it takes as long as it doesn’t break the emotional story of revolution and friendship. Most valuably, RRR plays extremely well to a western audience, with production values and storytelling conventions that feel totally in tune with the way Hollywood works. In a vacuum it’s basically perfect, but with a little research it falls apart somewhat. Rajamouli can’t help but put classist stereotypes into the portrayal of Bheem as a badass from the forest who is also (of course) illiterate. And the closing credits play in a nigh-uncomfortable space of propagandist nationalism. As a non-Indian, though ignoring that is easy enough, especially when the movie is just this fun.

209. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)

Directed by: Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone
Written by: Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone
Previous Ranking: N/A

Maybe the hardest I’ve laughed at a narrative film. The songs are hilarious, but the other laughs throughout are utterly fabulous, and the way Schaffer & Taccone play with the cinematic form to capitalize on jokes only enhances the experience. Anytime this movie comes up, the first thing I say is “Surprise, motherfucker! with Snoop Dogg” and I cackle all over again. Perfect bit.

208. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Written by: Terence Winter, Jordan Belfort (memoir)
Previous Ranking: N/A

It’s late Scorsese, and probably the last time he’ll ever make a movie in the genre of immature men with amazing power behaving absolutely horribly. But he goes out with a bang. A three hour epic about an absolute shitheel of a human being. DiCaprio crushes his role as professional asshole Jordan Belfort, but it’s the juice Scorsese infuses into this movie’s bloodstream that remains its legacy. The dude was 70 years old when he made this. Feels like the work of a man three decades younger, and it’s so much more than the “White Collar GoodFellas” clone I (and others) read it as on first release. It rules.

207. The Boy & The Heron (2023)

Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki
Written by: Hayao Miyazaki
Previous Ranking: N/A

Miyazaki left retirement to continue his career and made a movie that’s maybe even more beautiful than The Wind Rises. It’s strange, dreamlike, and at times working on an inscrutible internal logic. The end, though, is utterly profound in ways that defy vocalization or even explanation. It’s nakedly emotional without bothering to make narrative sense, but… one of the all-time greats working long past the point of mastery means it completely works. The more the years pass and the more I revisit this, the higher The Boy and the Heron will undoubtedly climb. Miyazaki’s still got it, and we’ll see how many more the great Japanese animator has left in him.

206. Moneyball (2011)

Directed by: Bennett Miller
Written by: Steve Zaillian (Screenplay), Aaron Sorkin (Screenplay), Stan Chervin (Story), Michael Lewis (original book)
Previous Ranking: N/A

This cleanly explains the plight of Oakland Athletics coach Billy Bean and his use of math to try to juice a limited budget to get the A’s out of the bottom of the league. While he didn’t personally succeed, he really did change the course of the MLB and how it operates. For all that it’s good, though, the movie itself would crack the top 100 under a different director. Bennett Miller does a fine job generally, but it’s painful to hear him treat Sorkin dialogue with such a naturalistic cadence. By just cranking the speed up to the musicality of Sorkin’s other work, the movie would be 20 minutes shorter and even more electric.

205. The Martian (2015)

Directed by: Ridley Scott
Written by: Drew Goddard, Andy Weir (original novel)
Previous Ranking: #47

Whether it’s Weyland Yutani treating the Alien crew like they’re lines on an expense report or Thelma & Louise running from the cops for committing an entirely justifiable act of self-defense, Ridley Scott has built his entire career off a skeptical view of institutions and large, impersonal systems. The Martian, though, is an outlier. Andy Weir’s original novel is a comedic sci-fi romp whereby he pairs math via sarcasm. Drew Goddard is a very funny writer who brings out the inherent comedy in Weir’s story. Scott, meanwhile, isn’t really a funny guy and any jokes that Matt Damon or Donald Glover (or whoever) sneak through feels entirely incidental. What’s best, though, is the process by which the entire planet comes together to root for the rescue of Mark Watney. It’s a triumph of the human spirit and incredible ingenuity that sent us to the stars in the first place or saved the astronauts of Apollo 13. It’s weird to see Scott be so… perky and optimistic, but it looks good on him.

204. Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Directed by: Joe Russo & Anthony Russo
Written by: Stephen Markus, Christopher McFeely, Stan Lee (characters), Jack Kriby (characters)
Previous Ranking: N/A

While Infinity War is the exuberant Avengers movie that feels like a comic book crossover, Endgame is the capper that absolutely shouldn’t work. The first hour is slow, revealing that Thanos’s snap at the end of the previous movie is not something Earth’s mightiest heroes will be able to easily undo. But then it bursts into the second act, which celebrates the short yet robust history of the MCU. Everyone remembers the climax, which is an astonishing, massive third act that gives the audience all its favorite characters making big nerdgasm action moments together. More than anything, though, it really is the end of a massive slate, the likes of which no one had ever done before. Bringing twenty separate movies to a sense of conclusion and finality should be impossible, but this makes it look easy. It’s the one time Marvel has ever been content to look at the world as it exists and (aside from some nostalgia) live entirely in the moment without really caring what comes next. They should try that more. If this movie’s position as the second highest grossing film of all time proves one thing, it’s that people love endings and resolutions and payoffs. When they hit, there’s nothing like it.

203. Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)

Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki
Written by: Hayao Miyazki
Previous Ranking: N/A

Cute little witch girl flying on a broom and acting as a local delivery person so she can make it in the big city? Hell yeah. Kiki’s Delivery Service is so cute and wonderful. And yet, the thing that makes it so good is watching Kiki grow up and succeed outside of her powers. Her meeting a new best friend and connecting with her is when the movie transcends from being just a cute little kid story and into something utterly profound, a commentary on the world being more than just doing tasks to make the month’s rent. There’s so much more to life, and that begins with the people we surround ourselves with. It’s a total gem of the Ghibli canon and probably even underrated within Miyazaki’s filmography.

202. Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Directed by: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman
Written by: Phil Lord (Story/Screenplay), Rodney Rothman (screenplay
Previous Ranking: #28

Truly one of the best superhero movies ever made. It was revolutionary at the time, using new animation techniques that didn’t feel even a bit like the Pixar style that had do dominated the medium for decades. This feels special, specific, lived in. And it manages to tell a rich emotional story about a brand new Spider-man (Miles Morales) and what it takes for him to be worthy of the title of Spider-man. It’s completely insane that after this, Miles was a household name and started to be a regular rotation in the Halloween circuit. It also introduces batshit alternate universe Spider-men like Spider-Ham, Spider-Gwen, and Spider-man Noir. If it’s less than it was when it came out, it’s because the sequel utterly blows this one out of the water. Doesn’t make this any less revolutionary or seismic to both the medium and the genre.

201. The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

Directed by: Lana Wachowski
Written by: Lana Wachowski, David Mitchell, Aleksander Hemon
Previous Ranking: N/A

Almost two decades after The Matrix Revolutions left a bad taste in audience’s mouths, Lana Wachowski returned to the world she and her sister created to make The Matrix Resurrections. It’s not got the same visionary action setpieces of the original trilogy, but it makes up for that with an engaging story about embracing nostalgia to make something better. It’s not as good as The Matrix (and to be fair, few things are), but this is a showcase of how to utilize older work as a means of interrogating the past. More importantly, it recognizes that “canon” should never get in the way of telling better stories. How else to explain a movie that will literally replay iconic moments from the original film and have it so they don’t overshadow what’s currently playing. It should inspire the audience to revolt, turn off Resurrections, and go watch the clearly superior product. Miraculously, what it does instead is acknowledge the deep, unshakable love of a source text and use it to fuel something fresh. Even if the entire movie didn’t work, the last shot basically justifies the entire movie, and the final beat of love reborn and joy recaptured is a glorious, wonderful way to end an underrated film and heal the lingering sour wound of boring ass hero’s journey narratives.

Thanks for reading!

And I’ll see you all back here tomorrow for the next 50.

(Gosh this is a lot of reviews…)