I’m turning forty-two this Thursday, June 11. In the spirit of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I’ve spent some time considering the existential mundanity of turning this age, and what has been the answer to the question of my life, my universe, and everything. Since I turned thirty and on every birthday since, I’ve curated an annual list of my “100 Favorite Films of All Time” and posted it to Instagram (it’s a personal ‘time capsule,’ not what I consider the “best” films of all time; please note the difference). I feel that commemorating this meaningful/meaningless birthday with an extrapolated version of my annual list would be fun, and it turns out to be a lot of work.
I have also decided to hang up my film critic hat. Over thirteen years and nearly three hundred film reviews written, beginning with my April 2013 review of 42 (see, it’s fate that I finish on my 42nd birthday), I’m ready for my next chapter. Of course, I’ll leave the door open for the occasional guest post or podcast appearance.
Without further ado, here’s my current list of 100 Favorite Films (divided into four countdown posts, because 100 is a lot) with short blurbs reasoning why each title is included, what each means to me personally (if applicable), and a link to my Spinning Platters review (also if applicable)… And presented in reverse order for added suspense. Here we go…
Why: A fun (and the superior) film adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel that fits perfectly into the Coen Brother’s tonal wheelhouse.
Favorite Scene: Tom Chaney gets the jump on Mattie.
Why: A stacked cast and great performances power this western actioner to the peaks of rewatchability, even if the final few minutes are hokey.
Favorite Scene: Doc Holliday’s surprise showdown with Johnny Ringo.
Why: Such a beautiful film. Also, this is my wife’s favorite film and one which I quoted in my wedding vow. But that didn’t factor into this 😉
Favorite Scene: Black’s discovery of peanut butter.
Why: Say what you want about J.J. Abrams’s action-oriented reboot, I frickin’ love it. The casting is perfect, the sense of adventure is top-notch, and the frenetic pace never lets up.
Favorite Scene: Kirk warns the bridge about an ensuing Romulan trap.
Why: When the TV teaser ad premiered during the 1999 Super Bowl, my jaw dropped (and everyone in the room sat in awed silence). When I saw the movie three times in theaters, my jaw kept dropping.
Favorite Scene: Training simulation in the dojo.
Why: Charlie Chaplin’s finest performance, combining the Tramp’s complex slapstick choreography with a profoundly charming romanticism.
Favorite Scene: The final scene. I’m not crying, YOU’RE crying!
Why: The Odyssey is one of my favorite books, so when I learned that the Coen brothers were adapting it to a story set during the Great Depression, I was immediately sold. I love Clooney’s performance, the bluegrass soundtrack, and the sepia-toned cinematography.
Favorite Scene: The Soggy Bottom Boys perform at the Homer Stokes rally.
Why: A hilarious and incisive comedy about the haves and have-nots, and an obvious “Prince and the Pauper” story with the twist of a petty $1 bet.
Favorite Scene: Winthorpe III crashes a Christmas Eve party in an absolutely repulsive Santa suit.
Why: My mileage on Chevy Chase varies greatly (mostly negative), but I love this film’s Monty Python meets Magnificent Seven plotline and memorable ridiculousness (like a singing bush and invisible swordsman).
Favorite Scene: The “plethora” exchange.
Why: Pedro Pascal and Nicolas Cage in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent captured my feelings on Paddington 2 perfectly.
Favorite Scene: Paddington wins over ‘Knuckles.’
Why: An easily rewatchable romantic comedy. Nothing beats catching it late at night on a hotel room TV.
Favorite Scene: Jonathan and Sarah share a Frrrozen Hot Chocolate (iykyk).
Why: The quintessential warm blanket movie (Serendipity is a close second). Sleepless in Seattle may be a ‘better’ movie, and You’ve Got Mail has some good Christmas sequences, but the charming tête-à-tête between Ryan and Hanks makes this a year-round delight.
Favorite Scene: Joe Fox spoils Kathleen Kelly’s blind date.
Why: A too-close-for-comfort yet endearing modern-day tech romance. I love its colors, its humor, and its underlying message that even though tech/AI may help us in a multitude of ways, human connection still reigns supreme.
Favorite Scene: Samantha breaks up with Theodore.
Read my full review.
Why: Funny how when The Mummy came out in 1999, it was a throwback to Universal’s golden age of monster movies. Nowadays, I treat The Mummy as a throwback to the golden age of late 1990s summer blockbusters. What a time to be alive!
Favorite Scene: Escape from Cairo. “Imhotep! Imhotep! Imhotep!”
Why: This hysterical British sendup of action films is my favorite of Edgar Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End).
Favorite Scene: Sgt. Angel tries to arrest the baddies. “The greater good.”
Why: I had the privilege of acting with Eric Jungmann in Military Intelligence and You! He’s hilarious. This send-up of teen films is so detailed and nuanced in its parodic silliness (minus Randy Quaid, who isn’t funny at all).
Favorite Scene: Race to the airport.
Why: A powerful, visceral movie-watching experience.
Favorite Scene: When the titular Black Hawk goes down.
Why: Sometimes older films get boring or succumb to the pitfall of bad child actors. Not this. Mitchum is one of the most terrifying movie villains in cinema history, and the film moves along at a steady pace, filled with precise dialogue and expressionistic techniques, delivering a universally haunting southern gothic fable about our society of sheep and wolves.
Favorite Scene: The story of right hand, left hand.
Why: Prometheus is one of the few instances where I’m glad a filmmaker added extra mythology to an existing property.
Favorite Scene: The Engineer’s spaceship crashes and rolls over (yes, I know, the characters could’ve just run sideways).
Why: My press screening of Interstellar featured a projection issue right at a crucial moment in the third act, resulting in the need to “rewind” the film and watch from fifty minutes prior. It was a long day. But this is still Gen-Z’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and one of the most mind-blowing big-screen spectacles of my lifetime.
Favorite Scene: The water planet.
Read my full review.
Why: Very few films have tapped directly into my own personal reckoning with the nature of existence, mortality, and the undeniable tragic beauty of life as this Terrence Malick masterpiece.
Favorite Scene: A 15+ minute evolution sequence.
Why: My introduction to Yorgos Lanthimos. I couldn’t believe that such absurdity and idiosyncrasy could be folded into what is, ultimately, a romantic comedy.
Favorite Scene: The dance banquet.
Read my full review.
Why: Tom Hanks cast against type as a soft-spoken gangster, Paul Newman as a stoic mob boss father figure, Daniel Craig as the mob boss’s spoiled brat son, Jude Law as a demented hit man, and Stanley Tucci as a rival mob boss. Need I say more?
Favorite Scene: The solemn ‘Rain Hammers’ shootout.
Why: A rare director’s cut that completely changes the film (positively). I wrote a college paper on the film score by Harry Gregson-Williams, focusing on the track “Crusaders.” (I got a 95/100 on it!)
Favorite Scene: King Baldwin (and his army) meets with Saladin (and his army).
Why: As a tech employee when The Social Network was released, there was something uncomfortably joyous about watching nerds rise to power. Of course, we now know that the most powerful tech nerds are evil in real life, and the film basically portends that.
Favorite Scene: Eduardo Saverin gets burned by Facebook.
That’s it for now. Return tomorrow for #75-51 of my all-time favorites.
