My response to NYT's 100 Best Films List

It's a good list(!) but here's my own

The New York Times put out a terrific list of the Best Movies of the 21st Century. It’s one of the best movie lists I’ve seen. It’s a nice combo of popular and under-the-radar films. It’s international and — thank goodness — apolitical.

The biggest surprise for me was Parasite at #1, which I thought was a fine enough movie, but, when I was watching Parasite, I didn’t think I was watching a classic.

Here’s my list of 100, chosen by smashing together two qualities: A. Films I really liked, and B. The films having some cultural/historic/cinematic importance.

Films I took out

Superbad, Memories of Murder (never watched), Black Panther, Worst Person in the World, Minority Report, Frances Ha, Gleaners and I, Anchorman, Black Swan, Volver (never watched), The Tree of Life, Everything Everywhere All At Once (never watched), O Brother Where Art Thou?, Amour, Ratatouille, Carol, Ocean’s Eleven, The Hurt Locker, Spotlight, Oppenheimer, Little Miss Sunshine, Memento, Toni Erdman, Best in Show, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Favourite, 12 Years a Slave, Up, Almost Famous, Moneyball, Yi Yi, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Call Me By Your Name, A Serious Man, Bridesmaids, The Departed, Arrival, The Dark Knight, Grand Budapest Hotel, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Wolf of Wall Street, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Spirited Away, Get Out, No Country for Old Men, In the Mood for Love.*

A note on my removals

I liked all the films I took out except Anchorman, Oppenheimer, and Black Panther. I might be wrong to remove films like No Country for Old Men or Y Tu Mama Tambien, both of which were good (and highly ranked), but they always felt a touch overrated in my mind. For a lot of these films, all I’m going on is my lasting impression from one viewing almost twenty years ago. So I publish this post with more humility than hubris. Maybe I’d feel differently about a few of them if I gave them a second watch.

What was NYT’s biggest snub?

I don’t know why no voters included Cast Away, which I recently watched and which I think is an all-time classic. I think excluding Avatar is also unforgivable—a film that not only smashed worldwide records in ticket sales but was an amazing technical feat (and a damn good blockbuster). Also, Kenneth Lonergan might be the 21st Century’s greatest storyteller—his absence from NYT’s list is also unforgivable, so I included two of his (Margaret and Manchester By the Sea). Same with Kelly Reichardt: she needed one in here so I put in my favorite, Night Moves, in the #19 slot.

What are my honorable mentions?

Sicko, A Serious Man, In the Mood for Love, Sound of Metal, Edge of Tomorrow, Black Swan, The Guilty (Danish), Eastern Promises, O Brother Where Art Thou?, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Wild Tales, 12 Years a Slave, Still Walking, Get Out, The Kids Are Alright, 127 Hours, The Hunger Games I, Little Children, In the Bedroom, This Is England, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring, Touching the Void, Apocalypto.

A note on my #1, A Prophet (aka Un Prophete)

I don’t claim that this is indeed the greatest film of the 21st Century, but it may be my favorite and it may be my most watched. At my graduate school’s library, we had little “viewing booths” for watching rented out DVDs, and I probably watched Un Prophete each semester over my three years there. It’s just an outstanding rags to riches story.