I've made many Favorites or Top 100 Lists over the years. Unfortunately I always end up amending or deleting the lists without saving. So earlier this year while thinking about a list my friend and I created back in the early days of using Letterboxd, I realized I no longer had that list and desperately wanted to know what movies I had put on my first ever top 100 list. With that in mind, my goal in publishing this list is to continue publishing a new Top 100 every May. I'll save and be able to compare to the prior lists to be able to see how my opinions have shifted over time.
The process of making this list was... extensive to say the least. I started with around 250 films, then imposed a few rules so I could finally whittle it down to this list of 100. Don't get too tripped up by the actual number rankings, because if a movie is on this list, then it is already an all-time favorite for me.
I imposed a few rules. There can be no more than 3 films by any one director. And if the director of a film was a woman or person of color, I gave it a boost to make it more likely to get on the list. Unfortunately one of my discoveries is that I just have major work to do in seeing more films by women and people of color.
What films do I consider? Most of these are movies that I have at one point said are in my Top 20 of all time or they are movies that I talk about incessantly, i.e. Face/Off.
Lastly, to make sure to shake things up for next year, any film in my Top 10 this year will enter my personal "canon" and be ineligible for following years' lists.
I hope you enjoy reading this list if you've already made it this far and feel free to leave polite comments at the bottom.
1. In the Mood For Love (2000) by Wong Kar-Wai 2. Fargo (1996) by the Coen Brothers 3. Boyhood (2014) by Richard Linklater 4. The Three Colors Trilogy (1993-4) by Krzysztof Kieslowski 5. Some Like It Hot (1959) by Billy Wilder 6. Ordet (1955) by Carl Theodore Dreyer 7. Hoop Dreams (1994) by Steve James 8. City Lights (1931) by Charlie Chaplin 9. Jaws (1975) by Steven Spielberg 10. A New Leaf (1971) by Elaine May
11. Do the Right Thing (1989) by Spike Lee 12. The Tree of Life (2011) by Terrence Malick 13. Die Hard (1988) by John McTiernan 14. Heat (1995) by Michael Mann 15. Almost Famous (2000) by Cameron Crowe 16. Rules of the Road (1993) by Su Friedrich 17. The Mirror (1997) by Jafar Panahi 18. The Red Shoes (1948) by Powell & Pressburger 19. Sunrise (1927) by F.W. Murnau 20. Brooklyn (2015) by John Crowley
21. Brief Encounter (1945) by David Lean 22. The Second Mother (2015) by Anna Muylaert 23. He Got Game (1998) by Spike Lee 24. Silence (2016) by Martin Scorsese 25. Carlos (2010) by Olivier Assayas 26. The Lives of Others (2006) by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck 27. One Week (1920) by Buster Keaton 28. Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) by Maya Deren 29. Cooley High (1975) by Michael Schultz 30. Stranger Than Paradise (1984) by Jim Jarmusch
31. Thelma & Louise (1991) by Ridley Scott 32. Still Walking (2008) by Hirokazu Koreeda 33. A Touch of Zen (1971) by King Hu 34. Personal Shopper (2017) by Olivier Assayas 35. The Night of the Hunter (1955) by Charles Laughton 36. The Apartment (1960) by Billy Wilder 37. Speed (1994) by Jan de Bont 38. Ocean's Eleven (2001) by Steven Soderbergh 39. Taste of Cherry (1997) by Abbas Kiarostami 40. Badlands (1973) by Terrence Malick
41. Groundhog Day (1993) by Harold Ramis 42. Halloween (1978) by John Carpenter 43. Wendy & Lucy (2008) by Kelly Reichardt 44. School of Rock (2003) by Richard Linklater 45. Say Anything (1989) by Cameron Crowe 46. Clueless (1995) by Amy Heckerling 47. Face/Off (1997) by John Woo 48. Domesticas (2001) by Fernanda Merielles and Nando Oval 49. Collateral (2004) by Michael Mann 50. The Heartbreak Kid (1972) by Elaine May
51. Casablanca (1942) by Michael Curtiz 52. Lost in Translation (2003) by Sofia Coppola 53. Modern Times (1936) by Charlie Chaplin 54. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) by John Ford 55. The Little Fugitive (1953) by Ray Ashley, Ruth Orkin, and Morris Engel 56. Dry Summer (1963) by Metin Erksan 57. Paris, Texas (1984) by Wim Wenders 58. They Live By Night (1948) by Nicholas Ray 59. The Seven Year Itch (1955) by Billy Wilder 60. Alien (1979) by Ridley Scott
61. Female Trouble (1974) by John Waters 62. Ishtar (1987) by Elaine May 63. Vision: Aus dem Leben der Hildegard von Bingen (2009) by Margarethe von Trotte 64. Something Wild (1986) by Jonathan Demme 65. The Double Life of Veronique (1991) by Krzysztof Kieslowski 66. The Killer (1989) by John Woo 67. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) by the Coen Brothers 68. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) by George Miller 69. The Florida Project (2017) by Sean Baker 70. A Separation (2011) by Asghar Farhadi
71. Broadcast News (1987) by James L. Brooks 72. Lady Bird (2017) by Greta Gerwig 73. Pan's Labyrinth (2006) by Guillermo del Toro 74. Paddington 2 (2018) by Paul King 75. Night Moves (2013) by Kelly Reichardt 76. Bottle Rocket (1996) by Wes Anderson 77. Things To Come (2016) by Mia Hansen-Love 78. Point Break (1991) by Kathryn Bigelow 79. Mostly Martha (2001) by Sandra Nettelback 80. Le Bonheur (1965) by Agnes Varda
81. M (1931) by Fritz Lang 82. Goodfellas (1990) by Martin Scorsese 83. Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015) by Merielle Heller 84. Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) by Sharon McGuire 85. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2011) by Edgar Wright 86. Certain Women (2016) by Kelly Reichardt 87. Edge of Seventeen (2016) by Kelly Fremon Craig 88. Killer of Sheep (1978) by Charles Burnett 89. Terra em Transe (1967) by Glauber Rocha 90. Love & Basketball (2000) by Gina Prince-Blythewood
91. The Before Trilogy (1994-2013) by Richard Linklater 92. Out of Sight (1998) by Steven Soderbergh 93. Polyester (1981) by John Waters 94. Stalker (1979) by Andrei Tarkovsky 95. The Host (2007) by Bong Joon Ho 96. The Village (2004) by M. Night Shymalan 97. Little Miss Sunshine (2007) by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris 98. I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang (1932) by Mervyn Leroy 99. Casino Royale (2006) by Martin Campbell 100. Snake Eyes (1998) by Brian de Palma