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Tuesday, February 15, 2022

RETROSPECT: "Greatest Films" or, User Picks from IMDb's "Top 250"


WRITER'S NOTE: The following is a companion piece to "Greatest Films of All-Time," focusing this time on picks from IMDb's "Top 250" list that don't currently have critical metascores. Instead, said films (as of this writing) are listed as they're ranked numerically, along with their respective star ratings by users, as well as review excerpts. 

The Great Dictator (1940, dir. Charlie Chaplin, USA) 


IMDb "Top 250": #57

IMDb Star Rating: 8.4

Review excerpt: 
Charlie Chaplin's first talkie, made over a decade after the introduction of sound, stands as a brave and controversial piece of filmmaking. . . . Chaplin plays a dual role: firstly as Adenoid Hynkel, the great dictator of the title and despotic ruler of Tomainia; and secondly - in a stroke of genius - as an amnesiac Jewish barber . . . Strangely, though, what remains so powerful about the film's satire is its outright silliness . . . [which] exposes the farcical base of fascism, bursting the swollen bubble of reactionary pomposity with deafening finality. The result is an incredibly effective satire.

Sunset Blvd. (1950, dir. Billy Wilder, USA) 


IMDb "Top 250": #61

IMDb Star Rating: 8.4

Review excerpts: 
Gloria Swanson deserves to be called iconic in Billy Wilder's priceless 1950 classic. She is Norma Desmond, the forgotten silent movie queen living in shabby, mouldering opulence. It is a delicious comedy with a psycho edge, as hard-up screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) has car trouble and pulls off Sunset Boulevard into a strange driveway, at the top of which lies a veritable Bates motel of sociopathy and rage: Norma's creepy mansion. He is sucked into the world of a kept man, with horrifying results. This is an unmissable commentary on Hollywood's rejection of its silent past: a kind of Sobbin' in the Rain.
~Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian 

Witness for the Prosecution (1957, dir. Billy Wilder, USA) 


IMDb "Top 250": #64

IMDb Star Rating: 8.4

Review excerpt: 
Agatha Christie’s popular blend of mysterious murders, eccentric characters, droll humor, and surprise endings have translated smoothly into many entertaining movies, including some all time-classics. In that glittering club . . . is Billy Wilder’s 1957 gem . . .
~Keith Humphreys, All Good Movies 

High and Low (1963, dir. Akira Kurosawa, Japan) 


IMDb "Top 250": #79

IMDb Star Rating: 8.4

Review excerpt(s): 
Here is one import—for suspense fans and students of moviecraft—that simply must be seen. Using, of all things, Ed McBain's strictly American novel, "King's Ransom," as a source, Mr. Kurosawa and two co-scenarists have transferred the kidnaping yarn from Manhattan to Yokohama, using a fine cast headed by the famous Toshiro Mifune. The result is a sizzling, artistic crackerjack and a model of its genre, pegged on a harassed man's moral decision, laced with firm characterizations and tingling detail and finally attaining an incredibly colorful crescendo of microscopic police sleuthing.

Come and See (1985, dir. Elem Klimov, Soviet Union) 


IMDb "Top 250": #88

IMDb Star Rating: 8.3

Review excerpt: 
Elem Klimov, the new head of the Soviet Filmmakers Association, explores the horrors of war in his classic coming-of-age drama Come and See. Directing with an angry eloquence, he taps into that hallucinatory nether world of blood and mud and escalating madness that Francis Coppola found in Apocalypse Now. And though he draws a surprisingly vivid performance from his inexperienced teen lead, Klimov's prowess is his visual poetry, muscular and animistic, like compatriot Andrei Konchalovsky's in his epic Siberiade.
~Rita Kempley, Washington Post 

Like Stars on Earth (2007, dir. Aamir Khan & Amole Gupte, India) 


IMDb "Top 250": #92

IMDb Star Rating: 8.4

Review excerpt: 
A far cry from the formulaic masala flicks churned out by the Bollywood machine, this sensitive drama centres on an eight-year-old dyslexic boy (Darsheel Safary) who struggles to be understood by the people and world around him, until a teacher reveals his hidden talent. An inspirational story that is as emotive as it is entertaining; this is a little twinkling star of a movie.

M (1931, dir. Fritz Lang, Germany) 


IMDb "Top 250": #94

IMDb Star Rating: 8.3

Review excerpt(s): 
It's an impeccable film -- a model of psychological suspense and a stunning display of Lang's power and skill. But it's [Peter] Lorre, in a seamless performance that seems to come from some horrifying source, whose image lingers long after the end of M.
~Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle

Bicycle Thieves (1948, dir. Vittorio De Sica, Italy) 


IMDb "Top 250": #102

IMDb Star Rating: 8.3

Review excerpt: 
Although not a comedy, The Bicycle Thief was inevitably compared to Chaplin in its content, its structure, its pathos, and its universality. (The mournful music and circular narrative predict the post–neorealist mannerism of Federico Fellini.) The Bicycle Thief looks back at the nickelodeon and forward to the European art film. De Sica’s masterpiece was not so much part of a new wave as the crest of an old one—the epitome of movies as a popular modernism.
~J. Hoberman, The Village Voice 

The Kid (1921, dir. Charlie Chaplin, USA) 


IMDb "Top 250": #104

IMDb Star Rating: 8.3

Review excerpt: 
The film's ability to combine genuine warmth, pathos and humor would later become a Chaplin trademark. No moment better illustrated that sublime combination than when the Tramp escapes the grim circumstances of his lot in the slums by imagining the place transformed into Heaven and its residents dressed in angel's wings.
~Felicia Feaster, Turner Classic Movies 

Dangal (2016, dir. Nitesh Tiwari, India) 

For a biopic to work well it should have a certain level of realism but there should be enough drama to keep the viewers engaged. Nitish Tiwari and team succeed in seamlessly blending realism and drama with a whiff of humor. 
~Murtaza Ali Khan, A Potpourri of Vestiges

Pather Ponchali (1955, dir. Satyajit Ray, India) 

It is about a time, place and culture far removed from our own, and yet it connects directly and deeply with our human feelings. It is like a prayer, affirming that this is what the cinema can be, no matter how far in our cynicism we may stray.
~Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Jai Bhim (2021, dir. T.J. Gnanavel, India) 


IMDb "Top 250": #138

IMDb Star Rating: 9.3

Review excerpt: 
Jai Bhim, a powerful political salutation and slogan, is not verbalised in the film. But the phrase captures the film’s objective – to inform the viewers of the atrocities committed by the larger society on the impoverished minority communities, and more importantly, to instil the hope that truth and justice will eventually prevail, thanks to the work of good people.
~Aswathy Gopalakrishnan, Silver Screen India

The Gold Rush (1925, dir. Charlie Chaplin, USA) 

The Gold Rush is still Chaplin’s most perfectly realized comedy and one of those rare movies that enchant anew no matter how many times you’ve seen it. Viewing advice: Go with the restored silent version on the bonus disc instead of the 1942 rerelease for which Chaplin replaced intertitles with an annoyingly wordy narration.
~Tim Purtell, Entertainment Weekly 

Dersu Uzala (1975, dir. Akira Kurosawa, Japan/Soviet Union) 


IMDb "Top 250": #165

IMDb Star Rating: 8.3

Review excerpt: 
After a roughly ten-year decline in popularity and output (during which time Kurosawa attempted suicide), the master rose again in this stunning Russian-language film, co-produced by the Soviets. Based on a real-life adventurer's autobiographical journals and enhanced by the grizzled [Maksim] Munzak's poignant portrayal of the title character, this story of unlikely friendship and the passing of a way of life has a subtle beauty and near-mythic power. Kurosawa's versatile talents are on full display in this film, which won the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 1975.

Tokyo Story (1953, dir. Yasujirō Ozu, Japan) 


IMDb "Top 250": #181

IMDb Star Rating: 8.2

Review excerpt(s): 
Tokyo Story . . . lacks sentimental triggers and contrived emotion; it looks away from moments a lesser movie would have exploited. It doesn't want to force our emotions, but to share its understanding. It does this so well that I am near tears in the last 30 minutes. It ennobles the cinema. It says, yes, a movie can help us make small steps against our imperfections.
~Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

My Father and My Son (2005, dir. Çağan Irmak, Turkey) 


IMDb "Top 250": #183

IMDb Star Rating: 8.2

Review excerpt: 
A father wants his son to earn a degree in agriculture and takeover the family farm. The son instead goes off to the city to become a journalist. The military coup of 1980 is not kind to many, especially this family. Years later, he returns to the village with his own son. The way the family deals with the events, results in a wonderful movie. 
~Arun Krishnan, Asian Movie Pulse 

Stalker (1979, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union) 


IMDb "Top 250": #187

IMDb Star Rating: 8.1

Review excerpt: 
Switching between grainy monochrome for the scenes in the industrially-ravaged police state and faded colour for those in the contaminated landscape of the Zone, Tarkovsky leads the viewer on an undeniably arduous journey. The shaven-haired and raggedly dressed appearance of Stalker himself suggests a political allegory, whilst there are numerous biblical and ecological references - from the crown of thorns donned by one of the pilgrims to the way the camera pans over rusting man-made detritus in a muddied river.

The General (1927, dir. Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman, USA) 


IMDb "Top 250": #189

IMDb Star Rating: 8.1

Review excerpt: 
The majority of the film is a long train chase and, as such, doesn’t demand much in the way of dialogue. The intertitles are therefore sparse, allowing the viewer to concentrate on the images. Keaton was interested in presenting a film of epic scope. 
~James Berardinelli, ReelViews

Sherlock Jr. (1924, dir. Buster Keaton, USA) 

The technical skill is faultless and, even if you’re not wowed by how they pulled it off, the sequences are immensely entertaining in their own right. Maybe it’s just personal taste, but this is why I have a preference for Keaton: his skits are more ingenious, better paced, and backed up with impressive stunt work. When you mix those daredevil antics with genuine movie magic, as he does here, you get a majestic, unforgettable farce.
~Richard Nelson, 100 Films

Mary and Max (2009, dir. Adam Elliot, Australia) 

The film labels itself as being based on a true story, but writer-director Adam Elliot has said . . . that Max was inspired by “a pen-friend in New York who I’ve been writing to for over twenty years.” So, less “based on a true story” and more “very loosely inspired by a true story” . . . While the film presents a gloomy, issue-heavy take on life, it also has a whimsical side, and that “true story” claim feels like it’s trying to justify both how grim things get and how fantastical they sometimes are, too.
~Richard Nelson, 100 Films in a Year 

Andhadhun (2018, dir. Sriram Raghavan, India) 

Raghavan’s script . . . rewards fans of crime thrillers with familiar genre nods like femmes fatales and characters who aren’t what they seem. Yet the story veers in unexpected ways, forcing the audience into a giddy series of emotional pivots, from shock to uneasy chuckles to horror to hysterical laughter, all in a matter of seconds. It’s astonishing how well Andhadhun pulls this off.
~Kathy Gibson, Access Bollywood

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer, France) 

You cannot know the history of silent film unless you know the face of Renee Maria Falconetti. In a medium without words, where the filmmakers believed that the camera captured the essence of characters through their faces, to see Falconetti in Dreyer's [film] is to look into eyes that will never leave you.
~Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Autumn Sonata (1978, dir. Ingmar Bergman, West Germany) 

Writer/director Ingmar Bergman’s . . . troubling family drama is almost entirely contained within [married couple] Viktor and Eva’s house over the thrifty 93-minute runtime.  Ingmar’s picture is minimalist, but he infuses so much backstory into the here and now that both Ingrid [Bergman] and Liv [Ullmann] relive their characters’ past strife and command it to the surface in subtle and brutally frank ways.
~Jeff Mitchell, Art House Film Wire

La Haine (1995, dir. Mathieu Kassovitz, France) 


IMDb "Top 250": #223

IMDb Star Rating: 8.1

Review excerpt(s): 
Unlike the spate of American " 'hood movies" we've seen in the past five years, which romanticize their gangsta protagonists at the same time that they deplore them, [La Haine] has a plaintive, sympathetic chord that runs beneath the anger. It cuts deeper and shows us the foolishness of its characters as it mourns their inevitable tragedy.
~Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle (1996) 

Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009, dir. Lasse Hallström, USA) 


IMDb "Top 250": #226

IMDb Star Rating: 8.1

Review excerpt: 
Parents need to know that Hachi: A Dog's Tale is the story of great love and respect between a college professor and the puppy he rescues on a snowy night. It's a very gentle film that quickly engages the audience as it introduces a heroic dog, a man with a loving heart, and an idyllic setting. That engagement intensifies emotions, which later carry the story through the years to its bittersweet conclusion. 
~Joly Herman, Common Sense Media 

The 400 Blows (1959, dir. François Truffaut, France) 


IMDb "Top 250": #227

IMDb Star Rating: 8.1

Review excerpt: 
The 400 Blows is more than semi-autobiographical. Both [main protagonist] Antoine [Doinel] and the young Truffaut were social outcasts - failures at school, who turned to delinquency, ran away from home, and ended up in custody. But most significantly, as would become apparent throughout Truffaut's career, the one thing that made their lives worth living was their passion for cinema.

The Bandit (1996, dir. Yavuz Turgul, Turkey) 


IMDb "Top 250": #233

IMDb Star Rating: 8.2

Review excerpt: 
Most reviews of 'Bandit' have been highly positive. Several critics suggested that the film owed some of its popularity to the coincidence that it was released just as the scandal broke. One reviewer wrote that the film touched a nerve in Turkey because it reflected ''scandals which have touched the highest levels of the state."

Drishyam (2013, dir. Jeethu Joseph, India) 

Although it starts simply enough by drawing a picture of a fairly conventional family, [Drishyam] develops into a fascinating thriller where it’s difficult to predict exactly what will happen next.  The very ordinariness of the family makes their reactions and those of the other characters unexpected, while the developments in the plot are surprising at every turn.  There are a few moments where the story falters a little, but overall it’s intelligently written to show the effects of a sudden crisis and how important it is for a family to stick together when faced with adversity.
~Heather Wilson, Cinema Chaat

Miracle in Cell No. 7 (2019, dir. Lee Hwan-kyung, Turkey) 

One of the most satisfying aspects of Miracle of Cell No. 7 is the theme of redemption, the reminder that people who have committed crimes, as well as prison authorities, can change and see their own actions and the actions of others in ways that are the opposite of their own first impressions. Is Miracle of Cell No. 7 corny and manipulative? Sure. But if you like tearjerkers, you can’t go wrong with this one.
~David Wallechinsky, World Film Reviews

Hera Pheri (2000, dir. Priyadarshan, India) 

A milestone in BOLLYWOOD comedy.
~"familiar s" (Rotten Tomatoes, Audience Review) 

Andrei Rublev (1966, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union) 


IMDb "Top 250": #248

IMDb Star Rating: 8.1

Review excerpt: 
Andrei Rublev is arguably the most accessible of Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky’s films. It is also his longest. Unlike his better-known movies, Solaris and Stalker, Andrei Rublev is historical (not science fiction). Nevertheless, it shares the same essential qualities as those later films in that it relies more on mood and atmosphere than narrative and character. Tarkovsky’s goal with Andrei Rublev was to recreate Medieval Russia (early 15th century) and drop the viewer into it, allowing him or her to explore the landscape along with the characters.
~James Berardinelli, ReelViews 

Nights of Cabiria (1957, dir. Federico Fellini, France/Italy) 


IMDb "Top 250": #249

IMDb Star Rating: 8.1

Review excerpt(s): 
Cabiria is a Roman prostitute whose hope for a better life is doomed because of her naivete. As the film opens, she is humiliated when her "boyfriend" grabs her purse and pushes her into the river. This shouldn't be funny, but Cabiria's innocent and romantic nature, combined with her bantam's anger at being duped, makes it a superb comic sequence, summing up Cabiria's nature: She's a bit ridiculous, maybe, but still a suffering human being.
~Walter Addiego, San Francisco Examiner
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Monday, February 14, 2022

ESSAY: What Makes "Encanto" Special


By now, most of you will have seen--or have, at least, become familiar with--Disney's latest animated phenomenon, Encanto. Having just scored three Academy Award nominations (including Best Animated Feature, not surprisingly) along with a #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 (a first in the studio's history, believe it or not), it would otherwise be easy to dismiss this fantasy musical as just another "family-friendly" or "kid-centered" movie in the Mouse House's ever-growing repertoire. However, like its eponymous home and colorful cast of characters, there's a lot more, as strong sibling Luisa would put it, under the surface. Here are four reasons why Encanto is not only one of Disney's very best (and arguably the best film of 2021), but also, perhaps, its most transcendent and universal film to date. 

Cultural Representation 
When they made the anthropomorphic comedy Zootopia in 2016, Disney presented something of a heartfelt apology for their history of cultural insensitivity (Song of the South and Peter Pan, anyone?). On the heels of such now-iconic characters as the African-American princess Tiana and the Polynesian-born Moana, Disney has been making great strides by embracing various cultures in their most recent films, in turn helping respective audiences feel seen and heard--some for the first time. In the case of Encanto, they represented the South American country of Columbia, from its food to its locales, architecture (the central casita is arguably the most famous animated home since Carl & Ellie Frederickson's from Pixar's Up), forests, music and various dance styles, and people. And its years of research and production really show, doing its respective community proud. 

Cast of Characters
The basic summary of Encanto involves a magical home in Columbia, with a family where each member has a magical gift--except for the titular Mirabel. The film follows her journey of saving her home, and discovering more about herself and her relatives along the way. With that said, the film expertly takes it times to get to know each family member, revealing unexpected layers and depth than their abilities (or lack thereof) suggest. 

Lin-Manuel Miranda
Known for his groundbreaking stage musicals Hamilton and In the Heights (the latter of which was adapted into a superb feature film in 2021), Miranda got his feet wet at Disney with the songs for 2016's Moana, as well as a supporting role in the 2018 sequel Mary Poppins Returns. 2021 marked an incredible (and busy) year for the multi-talented singer-songwriter-actor, not only with Encanto and Heights, but also the Netflix/Sony Animation-produced Vivo (a charming adventure where Miranda voices a kinkajou) and an impressive directorial debut with the Jonathan Larson biopic tick, tick . . . Boom! For Encanto, the now-catchy and re-playable songs are thoroughly character- and story-driven as they are entertaining. It also helps that they're just as rich and lively as the film's animation and artistry (further enhanced by a tall 1.85:1 aspect ratio. This is truly best experienced on the big screen). 

More Than a "Disney" Film
I admit, I thought Encanto was "good" when I first saw it. But after I saw the film again, and the more I listened to its soundtrack (and I've listened to it a lot since then), the more I came to appreciate its originality, its risk-taking, and its infectious charm. Like 2017's The Greatest Showman (another great soundtrack), Encanto really grows on you, whether through its strong themes and dynamics involving the pain of living up to expectations, or the discovery of one's true potential and/or the realization that we don't simply need superpowers to be great. 

With that in mind, the film has become a form of therapy for families and children who relate to these themes and dynamics, whether they identify with the awkward and bespectacled Mirabel, the flower-sprouting Isabela, the innocence of the animal-loving cousin Antonio (who's become a viral sensation), the well-meaning-but-stubborn Abuela Alma, or even the mysterious Bruno (oh, I forgot, we're not supposed to talk about him). Further themes of embracing the flaws in others--and with courage and grace--have helped Encanto officially transcend its Disney label (as well as its medium) with a beautiful story of family and community. It's almost hard to believe they told such a great story in one primary setting but on such a massive scale. 

I would argue that this is a terrific film for those who are generally cynical towards Disney movies, let alone animated musicals, princesses, and animal sidekicks, of which this film doesn't really have any (save for possibly two key family members). Furthermore, if you only see one Disney animated film this century (no offense, Anna and Elsa), make it Encanto. You may be surprised. 
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RETROSPECT: "Greatest Films of All-Time" or, The 25 Highest-Rated Critical Picks From IMDb's "Top 250"


Last year marked the 80th anniversary of Orson Welles' landmark 1941 feature Citizen Kane, which topped the American Film Institute (AFI)'s inaugural list of the "Greatest American Movies" in 1998 (and, once again, in their 10th anniversary poll in 2007). The film continues to turn up in various conversations on "The Greatest Movies of All-Time." This year (2022) marks the 50th anniversary of Francis Ford Coppola's celebrated big-screen adaptation of Mario Puzo's crime novel The Godfather, which also regularly stands shoulder-to-shoulder with cinema's greatest achievements. 

I've been thinking a lot lately about why it is that such films as these have endured over the years, and why it is that various critics and historians have curated or highly-regarded them. I did some research a few months back, reading everything from the AFI to the British Film Institute, Rolling Stone, Steven Schneider's "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die," and late critic Roger Ebert. 

Apart from these resources, I'm an avid user of the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) the most, and I sometimes like to browse through excerpts of their respective reviews, as well as trivia, for further insight. For the following, I've arranged a list of the highest-rated picks from IMDb's "Top 250" (as ranked and rated by users), focusing primarily on metascores from critics and how they rank, from scores of 100 on down. Granted, not all of these flicks are universally-known, nor are they all for general audiences. It's just another interesting way of looking at the history of cinema. With that in mind, here are the top 25 films (as of this writing), along with synopses and other facts from IMDb, as well as review excerpts from some of the aforementioned resources. (Spoiler alert: Citizen Kane isn't at the top of this particular list, while only three films from the 21st Century made the cut for now.) 

25. Ran (1985, dir. Akira Kurosawa, Japan) 


Metascore: 96

IMDb "Top 250": #128

IMDb Star Rating: 8.2

Review excerpts: 
Kurosawa pulled out all the stops with Ran, his obsession with loyalty and his love of expressionistic film techniques allowed to roam freely.
~G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Examiner 

In many respects, it's Kurosawa's most sumptuous film, a feast of color, motion and sound: Considering that its brethren include Kagemusha, The Seven Samurai and Dersu Uzala, the achievement is extraordinary. 
~Shawn Levy, Portland Oregonian 

The Japanese title means chaos, and that is what is let loose when a powerful king foolishly tries to release the reins of power, in the hopes of enjoying a peaceful old age.
~F.X. Feeney, Mr. Showbiz 

24. Modern Times (1936, dir. Charles Chaplin, USA) 


Metascore: 96

IMDb "Top 250": #40

IMDb Star Rating: 8.5

Review excerpts: 
Chaplin's sentimental politics and peerless comic invention dovetailed more perfectly in this film than in any other he made.
~Ty Burr, Boston Globe 

The final outing for Charlie Chaplin’s beloved Tramp character finds him enduring the pratfalls and humiliations of work in an increasingly mechanised society.
~British Film Institute (#63 in 2012 poll) 

23. Parasite (2019, dir. Bong Joon Ho, South Korea)


Metascore: 96

IMDb "Top 250": #31

IMDb Star Rating: 8.6

Review excerpts: 
A masterful dissection of social inequality and the psychology of money.
~John Bleasdale, CineVue

Parasite begins in exhilaration and ends in devastation, but the triumph of the movie is that it fully lives and breathes at every moment, even when you might find yourself struggling to exhale.
~Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

[A] furious and fiendishly well-crafted . . . film. ... Giddy one moment, unbearably tense the next, and always so entertaining and fine-tuned that you don’t even notice when it’s changing gears, Parasite takes all of the beats you expect to find in a Bong film and shrinks them down with clockwork precision.
~David Ehrlich, IndieWire

22. Spirited Away (2001, dir. Hayao Miyazaki, Japan) 


Metascore: 96

IMDb "Top 250": #29

IMDb Star Rating: 8.5

Review excerpt: 
Miyazaki's works . . . have a depth and complexity often missing in American animation. Not fond of computers, he draws thousand of frames himself, and there is a painterly richness in his work. He's famous for throwaway details at the edges of the screen (animation is so painstaking that few animators draw more than is necessary). And he permits himself silences and contemplation, providing punctuation for the exuberant action and the lovable or sometimes grotesque characters. 
~Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun Times) 

21. 12 Angry Men (1957, dir. Sidney Lumet, USA)

A penetrating, sensitive, and sometimes shocking dissection of the hearts and minds of men who obviously are something less than gods. It makes for taut, absorbing, and compelling drama that reaches far beyond the close confines of its jury room setting. 
~The New York Times

20. Gone With the Wind (1939, dir. Victor Fleming, USA)


Metascore: 97

IMDb "Top 250": #180

IMDb Star Rating: 8.1

Review excerpts: 
The movie comes from a world with values and assumptions fundamentally different from our own--and yet, of course, so does all great classic fiction, starting with Homer and Shakespeare. . . . As an example of filmmaking craft, [it's] still astonishing. . . . The real auteur was the producer, David O. Selznick, the Steven Spielberg of his day, who understood that the key to mass appeal was the linking of melodrama with state-of-the-art production values. . . . [The film] will be around for years to come, a superb example of Hollywood's art and a time capsule of weathering sentimentality for a Civilization gone with the wind, all right--gone, but not forgotten.
~Roger Ebert, Chicago-Sun Times

Well, even if it is essentially four hours about a selfish, silly cow, it's impeccably well made, and should be seen by anyone with even a passing interest in romance or movies.
~Kim Newman, Empire 

Gone with the Wind is a very good movie, perhaps bordering on being great, but its subject matter and running time (which is easily 60 minutes too long) argue against its status as a masterpiece.
~James Berardinelli, ReelViews 

Gone with the Wind's epic grandeur and romantic allure encapsulate an era of Hollywood filmmaking -- but that can't excuse a blinkered perspective that stands on the wrong side of history.

19. The Third Man (1949, dir. Carol Reed, UK)


Metascore: 97

IMDb "Top 250": #169

IMDb Star Rating: 8.1

Review excerpts: 
Director Carol Reed outdid himself with this noirish thriller set against a Europe physically and morally devastated by war. . . . The Third Man is a consummate production, from Graham Greene’s witty, disturbing screenplay to Robert Krasker’s evocatively skewed photography and Anton Karas’ unforgettable zither score. But, despite his minimal screen time, Orson Welles’ amoral Harry Lime steals the show . . .
~British Film Institute (#73 in 2012 poll) 

A gorgeously atmospheric thriller about the black market in postwar Vienna offers a never-better Orson Welles as cheeky villain Harry Lime. And, oh, that cuckoo clock.
~Peter Travers, Rolling Stone (1999) 

18. Dr. Strangelove or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964, dir. Stanley Kubrick, UK/USA) 


Metascore: 97

IMDb "Top 250": #67

IMDb Star Rating: 8.4

Review excerpts: 
The genius of Dr. Strangelove is that it's possible to laugh -- and laugh hard -- while still recognizing the intelligence and insight behind the humor.
~James Berardinelli, ReelViews

The film is a model of barely controlled hysteria in which the absurdity of hypermasculine Cold War posturing becomes devastatingly funny--and at the same time nightmarishly frightening in its accuracy.
~TV Guide Magazine

17. Psycho (1960, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, USA) 

Metascore: 97

IMDb "Top 250": #38

IMDb Star Rating: 8.5 

Review excerpt:
What makes Psycho immortal, when so many films are already half-forgotten as we leave the theater, is that it connects directly with our fears: Our fears that we might impulsively commit a crime, our fears of the police, our fears of becoming the victim of a madman, and of course our fears of disappointing our mothers.
~Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

16. Pan's Labyrinth (2006, dir. Guillermo del Toro, Spain/Mexico)

Metascore: 98 

IMDb "Top 250": #148

IMDb Star Rating: 8.1

Review excerpts: 
[A] haunting mixture of horror, history and fantasy that works simultaneously on every level.
~Liam Lacey, The Globe and Mail (Toronto) 

There's plenty of blood -- both literal and figurative -- coursing through the veins of Pan's Labyrinth, a richly imagined and exquisitely violent fantasy from writer-director Guillermo del Toro.
~Justin Chang, Variety

15. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948, John Huston, USA)

Metascore: 98 

IMDb "Top 250": #147 

IMDb Star Rating: 8.2

Review excerpts:
This superb tale of how greed eats at the soul, casting heroic Humphrey Bogart as a murderous panhandler looking for gold in Mexico and Walter Huston, the director’s father, as a toothless prospector.
~Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Mr. Huston has shaped a searching drama of the collision of civilization's vicious greeds with the instinct for self-preservation in an environment where all the barriers are down. And, by charting the moods of his prospectors after they have hit a vein of gold, he has done a superb illumination of basic characteristics in men. One might almost reckon that he has filmed an intentional comment here upon the irony of avarice in individuals and in nations today...But don't let this note of intelligence distract your attention from the fact that Mr. Huston is putting it over in a most vivid and exciting action display.
~Bosley Crowther, The New York Times

14. Some Like It Hot (1959, dir. Billy Wilder, USA)


Metascore: 98

IMDb "Top 250": #136 

IMDb Star Rating: 8.2

Review excerpt:
Billy Wilder’s zany cross-dressing comedy begins with a massacre – resembling the gangland St Valentine’s Day killings of 1929 – and ends with one of the most celebrated last lines in cinema history. Written in cahoots with the director’s new collaborator I.A.L. Diamond, Some Like It Hot ascends to inspired heights of silliness in-between, with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon both on career-best form as dragged-up musicians hiding out with Sugar Kane’s girl band.

Both the gangster story and the screwball antics hark back to Hollywood films of the 1930s, but Wilder’s outrageous and subversive play with gender was truly boundary pushing and helped lead to a loosening of censorship after United Artists released the film without certification.
~British Film Institute (#42 in 2012 poll) 

13. All About Eve (1950, dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, USA)

IMDb "Top 250": #134 

IMDb Star Rating: 8.2 

Review excerpts:
“Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night,” says diva supreme Bette Davis in this immortal take on the freaks of the theater, including Anne Baxter as Davis’ cutthroat protégée, George Sanders as an acerbic critic and the young Marilyn Monroe as a budding talent who trained, claims the critic, “at the Copacabana School of Dramatic Arts.”
~Peter Travers, Rolling Stone (1999) 

Set in the Broadway jungle rather than among the ‘sun-burnt eager beavers’ of Hollywood, Joseph L Mankiewicz’s film dissects the narcissism and hypocrisy of the spotlight as sharply as Wilder’s, but pays equal attention to the challenges of enacting womanhood.
~Time Out

All About Eve is the consummate backstage story, a film that holds a magnifying glass up to theatrical environs and exposes all the egos, tempers, conspiracies and backstage back-biting that make up the world of make-believe on Broadway.

12. Rashomon (1950, dir. Akira Kurosawa, Japan) 

Metascore: 98

IMDb "Top 250": #132 

IMDb Star Rating: 8.2

Review excerpt: 
The word ‘Rashomon’ has passed into the English language to signify a narrative told from various, unreliable viewpoints. In this case, the mystery relates to the murder of a samurai and the rape of his wife in 11th century Japan, events which are relayed in wildly differing versions by those present: the bandit, the treacherous wife, a passing woodcutter and the spirit of the dead samurai.

This radically non-linear structure, with its profound implications about the fallibility of perspective, impressed judges at the 1951 Venice Film Festival. They awarded Akira Kurosawa’s film the Golden Lion, helping to encourage a broader interest in Japanese film in the west. With its snaking bolero-like score and poetic use of dappled forest light, Rashomon is a work of enduring ambiguity.
~British Film Institute (#26 in 2012 poll) 

11. Metropolis (1927, dir. Fritz Lang, Germany) 

Metascore: 98

IMDb "Top 250": #110 

IMDb Star Rating: 8.2

Review excerpt: 
Fritz Lang claimed to have been inspired to make Metropolis by his first glimpse of the New York skyline. The result is the grandest science fiction film of the silent era (and for many years to come), a seminal prediction of a megacity where the masses work as slaves for the good of a ruling elite.

The DNA of huge swathes of sci-fi cinema is traceable in Lang’s production, from the mad-scientist creation of the robot Maria, which would feed into Hollywood’s Frankenstein (1931), to the imposing Art Deco cityscapes (ingeniously created using miniatures by Eugen Schüfftan), which became the model for later depictions of dystopian cities, from Blade Runner (1982) to Brazil (1985). The strikingly angular set design is characteristic of the German Expressionist cinema of the 1920s.
~British Film Institute (#35 in 2012 poll) 

10. North By Northwest (1959, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, USA) 

Metascore: 98 

IMDb "Top 250": #99 

IMDb Star Rating: 8.3

Review excerpts:
This is Hitchcock's longest film and also his most self-referential. Little jokes abound about art and artifice, role play and reality, duty and duplicity and each viewing reveals something new to enhance the pleasure of watching the Master of Suspense at his most mischievous and assured.
~David Parkinson, Empire 

North by Northwest is the Alfred Hitchcock mixture - suspense, intrigue, comedy, humor. Seldom has the concoction been served up so delectably.

9. Seven Samurai (1954, dir. Akira Kurosawa, Japan)

Metascore: 98 

IMDb "Top 250": #19 

IMDb Star Rating: 8.6

Review excerpts:
Strongly influenced by the poetic westerns of John Ford, Kurosawa’s story of farmers recruiting a motley troupe of samurai to help them fend off bandits in turn had a huge impact on subsequent westerns and action films . . . The early section’s gathering together of the diversely talented fighters is a trope in action movies to this day, while the restrained use of slow-motion in the frenzied final faceoff has since been abused to far less subtle ends. Kurosawa expertly sustains the suspense over a lengthy duration, instilling the story with an almost Shakespearian grandeur.
~British Film Institute (#17 in 2012 poll) 

Rich in detail, vivid in characterization, leisurely in exposition, this 207-minute epic is bravura filmmaking -- a brilliant yet facile synthesis of Hollywood pictorialism, Soviet montage, and Japanese theatricality that could be a B western transposed to Mars.
~J. Hoberman, Village Voice 

8. Singin' in the Rain (1952, dir. Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, USA)

Metascore: 99 

IMDb "Top 250": #98 

IMDb Star Rating: 8.3

Review excerpts:
To follow the acclaim for An American in Paris, which won him the 1951 Oscar for best picture, songwriter-turned-producer Arthur Freed charged screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green with writing a musical based around some of his own most popular early songs. The result was a nostalgic tribute to the Hollywood of a bygone era starring Gene Kelly as Don Lockwood, the swashbuckling silent star at a film studio grappling with the coming of sound.

From the iconic scene in which Lockwood, smitten with young actress Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), dances home during a downpour singing the title song, to the extended ballet sequence featuring Cyd Charisse in a parody of the gangster film, Singin’ in the Rain represents the musical genre at its most energetic and ambitious.
~British Film Institute (#20 in 2012 poll) 

There is no movie musical more fun than Singin' in the Rain, and few that remain as fresh over the years. Its originality is all the more startling if you reflect that only one of its songs was written new for the film, that the producers plundered MGM's storage vaults for sets and props, and that the movie was originally ranked below An American in Paris, which won a best picture Oscar. The verdict of the years knows better than Oscar: Singin' in the Rain is a transcendent experience, and no one who loves movies can afford to miss it.
~Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

7. City Lights (1931, dir. Charlie Chaplin, USA)

Metascore: 99 

IMDb "Top 250": #46 

IMDb Star Rating: 8.5

Review excerpts: 
City Lights comes the closest to representing all the different notes of Chaplin’s genius. It contains the slapstick, the pathos, the pantomime, the effortless physical coordination, the melodrama, the bawdiness, the grace.
~Roger Ebert, "The Great Movies" (2002)

By 1931 talkies were the industry norm, but Chaplin was autonomous enough to be able to make City Lights silent, preferring the purity of mute pantomime for the antics of his iconic Tramp character. Despite this anachronism, the result was a huge success with audiences, who responded to the film’s exquisitely poised balancing act between humour and pathos.

Earnestly sentimental in its story of the downtrodden Tramp being mistaken for a wealthy benefactor by a blind and impoverished flower girl, the film nonetheless yields some of Chaplin’s most ingenious comic set-pieces, including a classic sequence in which the Tramp becomes an unwilling contestant in the boxing ring. The closing shot, after it dawns on the girl who her sponsor really was, counts among the cinema’s most moving.
~British Film Institute (#50 in 2012 poll) 

6. Lawrence of Arabia (1962, dir. David Lean, UK) 

Metascore: 100 

IMDb "Top 250": #103 

IMDb Star Rating: 8.2

Review excerpts:
It was a miracle that picture... And maybe the greatest screenplay ever written for the motion-picture medium.

“I’m different,” declares Peter O’Toole’s T.E. Lawrence. Director David Lean had worked on something approaching this scale on The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), but his masterstroke with Lawrence of Arabia was to centre this colossal epic about the WWI Arab revolt on a strange and fascinating performance from O’Toole, then enough of an unknown to merit the credit “And Introducing...”.

One stunning set piece follows another: the entrance of Sherif Ali (Omar Sharif) through a mirage, the capture of the town of Aqaba and the attack on a Turkish train. But for all this epic splendour Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson’s script asks searching questions about identity and loyalty, and the ultimately grim view of British intervention in Arab affairs remains all too relevant.
~British Film Institute (#81 in 2012 poll) 

5. Citizen Kane (1941, dir. Orson Welles, USA)

Metascore: 100 

IMDb "Top 250": #96 

IMDb Star Rating: 8.3

Review excerpts: 
The 26-year-old Welles, already renowned for his work in radio and theatre, used the unprecedented artistic license offered to him by RKO to create a fictionalised portrait of one of America’s most powerful men – press baron William Randolph Hearst. Charting the rise of Charles Foster Kane (played by Welles himself) – who decides to start a newspaper with his inherited fortune – Welles’ film is a classic story of the corrupting effects of power. 

The use of deep-focus photography (keeping both foreground and background in focus) and abstracted camera angles, the non-chronological narrative structure and overlapping dialogue, were just some of the myriad formal innovations that Welles brought together for his groundbreaking debut. Such novelty and controversy proved a curse for Welles, whose career never enjoyed such indulgence again.

Any film to go after the dark heart of the American dream, from The Godfather (1972) to There Will Be Blood (2007), owes Citizen Kane a debt.
~British Film Institute (#2 in 2012 poll) 

Pauline Kael claims that Welles’ debut film – the wonder boy was just twenty-five – is “more fun than any other great movie.” You can still sense Welles’ enthusiasm for film as “the biggest toy-train set any boy ever had.” The techniques he used to tell the story of a tycoon destroyed by ambition and childhood neglect revolutionized movies in ways that are still being felt.
~Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

4. Vertigo (1958, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, USA) 

Metascore: 100 

IMDb "Top 250": #93 

IMDb Star Rating: 8.3

Review excerpt: 
This classic from the master of suspense was so poorly received upon release that Alfred Hitchcock later withdrew it from distribution for several years. Its reputation has since grown and it is now widely regarded as Hitchcock’s finest film, a haunting examination of male desire memorably filmed in real San Francisco locations.

The story of acrophobic Scottie Ferguson (brilliantly played by James Stewart), who compulsively remodels Judy Barton (Kim Novak) in the image of his dead love Madeleine Elster (also Novak), is unflinchingly dark and tragic. Though Hitchcock was originally deemed to have erred in giving away the film’s plot twist halfway through, Vertigo succeeds as a hallucinatory fable about the traps of desire. A thriller of dreamlike allure, it’s whipped to dizzying heights by Bernard Herrmann’s Wagner-influenced score.
~British Film Institute (#1 in 2012 poll) 

3. Rear Window (1954, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, USA)

Metascore: 100 

IMDb "Top 250": #51 

IMDb Star Rating: 8.4

Review excerpts:
A superb example of suspense filmmaking, especially when one considers the technical limitations of its single set.

Hitchcock confines all of the action to this single setting and draws the nerves to the snapping point in developing the thriller phases of the plot. He is just as skilled in making use of lighter touches in either dialog or situation to relieve the tension when it nears the unbearable. Interest never wavers during the 112 minutes of footage.

What's extraordinary, for a film that works on . . . different levels, is that it also manages to be a riveting thriller.

Simply put, Rear Window is a great film, perhaps one of the finest ever committed to celluloid. All of the elements are perfect (or nearly so), including the acting, script, camerawork, music (by Franz Waxman), and, of course, direction. The brilliance of the movie is that, in addition to keeping viewers on the edges of their seats, it involves us in the lives of all of the characters, from Jefferies and Lisa to Miss Torso. There isn't a moment of waste in 113 minutes of screen time.
~James Berardinelli, ReelViews

2. Casablanca (1942, dir. Michael Curtiz, USA)

Metascore: 100 

IMDb "Top 250": #49 

IMDb Star Rating: 8.4

Review excerpts: 
Casablanca is as much about movies as about romantic adventure. It taps our love of movies, our involvement with them, our dreamy bondage by them.
~Jay Carr, "The A List: The National Society of Film Critics’ 100 Essential Films" (2002)

Set in Vichy-controlled Morocco during WWII, Casablanca revolves around a nightclub run by cynical American expat Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), where resistance fighters, immigrants and Nazis converge to police or partake in an illicit economy. In this colourfully exotic setting, created entirely on the Warner Bros studio lot, an affair is rekindled between Rick and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), the latter now the wife of a resistance leader.

Directed by Hungarian refugee Michael Curtiz, Casablanca exemplifies the consummately crafted Hollywood drama, in which all the elements seem to have fallen alchemically into place. The screenplay sparkles with memorable lines, the supporting cast overflows with indelible performances, and the whole is given an urgent, topical edge by being made on the cusp of America’s involvement in the war.
~British Film Institute (#84 in 2012 poll) 

1. The Godfather (1972, dir. Francis Ford Coppola, USA) 

Metascore: 100 

IMDb "Top 250": #2 

IMDb Star Rating: 9.2

Review excerpts:
One of the most brutal and moving chronicles of American life ever designed within the limits of popular entertainment.
~Vincent Canby, The New York Times 

The wedding sequence... is a virtuoso stretch of filmmaking: Coppola brings his large cast onstage so artfully that we are drawn at once into the Godfather's world.
~Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times 

Overflowing with life, rich with all the grand emotions and vital juices of existence, up to and including blood. And its deaths, like that of Hotspur in Henry IV, Part I, continue to shock no matter how often we've watched them coming.
~Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times 

Adapting a bestseller by Mario Puzo, young Italian-American director Francis Ford Coppola – then known primarily for low-budget countercultural films such as The Rain People – fashioned one of New Hollywood’s signature works, for a few years the most commercially successful film ever made.

Starring Marlon Brando as Don Corleone, an ageing Mafia ‘Godfather’, and Al Pacino as Michael, the youngest son who takes up the mantle despite his better intentions, The Godfather is a vast fresco of family life that is also a compelling account of the ruthless machinations of a criminal empire.

Revisiting the 1930s Hollywood trend for gangster movies, Coppola moved the genre in a grandiose, near-operatic new direction, assisted by Nino Rota’s lilting score and cinematography by Gordon Willis that’s full of inky darknesses.
~British Film Institute (#21 in 2012 poll) 

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