100 not out!

Some thoughts on my trip down Empire magazine's Top 100 Films Of The Century (so far!).

I really enjoyed this exercise - I fully admit to approaching some of the films with something less than 100% enthusiasm, but for the most part I was at least intrigued to see what the fuss was about and in some cases they were films I'd wanted to see and just missed.  I'd also say that generally the list was a very high quality - there were no absolute stinkers in there, just some films that weren't to my taste but I can understand the reason for their inclusion.

All in all, I'd seen 73 of the films before which means I watched 27 as part of this exercise - which took me almost exactly 9 months to get around to completing.  Of these 27, I was going to try and say how many I liked - but it's not that simple because there were films I admired but didn't "like" eg Whiplash, Joker, Call Me By Your Name and then there were films I just didn't like eg Before Sunset, Roma, Sweeney Todd.  So I'll settle for just calling out some good 'uns and some bad 'uns...

Top 5 "new" films

• Moonlight
• Carol
• Almost Famous
• Frances Ha
• Lady Bird

Special mention here for Frances Ha because I spent most of the film not really seeing the point to it all and then, all of a sudden, it just clicked and came together beautifully.  Interestingly, all these films are driven by one central character and their relationships with others - that appears to be my thang (or is that just what most films are about?)

Bottom 5 "new" films

• Roma
• Before Sunset
• Apocalypto
• Sweeney Todd
• Before Midnight

So special congratulations are due here to Richard Linklater for making Boyhood bearable enough he didn't end up with 3 films here!

Bottom 3 "old" films

• Mulholland Drive
• The Irishman
• Casino Royale

There's only a bottom 3 because the rest of the films I'd seen I actually enjoyed to a greater or lesser extent - but I found Mulholland Drive pointless, The Irishman far too long (and full of itself) and Casino Royale to be not nearly as good as it thought it was (but it was no Quantum Of Solace, I'll give it that!).  Seeing as that leaves us with 70 "old" films that I like to some extent or another, I've not made any effort to try and pick a top X - it just feels I won't get anywhere with that!

Omissions

When deciding which list to work my way through, I took a look at a few others as well (although Empire was my first choice because I like the magazine - even if it generally takes me 6 months to get round to reading it!).  Looking across all the lists, it was quite interesting to see which films made all of them and which ones were missing from Empire that I would have put on my list instead of some of the more (imho) dubious choices.  I've broken them down into somewhat random categories but I like all of them - and am interested to hear any opinions you have on the matter!

"Big" films

• Traffic
  Strong story, strong cast - doesn't treat you like an idiot.
• The Edge Of Tomorrow
  An excellent story - and Tom & Emily work well as a partnership.  I was surprised this didn't do better at the box office - but the confusion around what it was called didn't help!
• Thor : Ragnarok
  Marvel - and funny!
• Monsters Inc
  Just a lovely, lovely film.
• The Lego Movie
  No-one expected this to turn out as well as it did
• A Quiet Place
  Offsetting a very poor horror representation on the list - whilst it's not generally my thing, this is very well done.
• Mission Impossible – Fallout
  A surprising omission imho - eg it's way better than either of the Bond entries.

Smaller films

• Leave No Trace
  A beautifully shot and poignant film
• Rocketman
  I loved this way more than I was expecting - no can accuse Elton of taking himself too seriously.
• Easy A
  Gentle humour with a winning performance from Emma Stone
• Persepolis
  Black and white (mostly black!) animation about finding your place in a difficult world
• Spotlight
  A surprisingly low profile Best Film Oscar winner
• Booksmart
  Who'd want to go through growing up again, eh?
• Team America : World Police
  Yes, it's juvenile.  But at the same time, it's very well done.

Foreign Language films (another under-represented category)

• The Lives of Others
  Just a stunning film which really shifts you to a different time and place.
• Infernal Affairs
  Delivers all the suspense that The Departed succesfully removed.
• The Handmaiden
  An adaptation of the Sarah Walters novel Fingersmith, but transplanted to Korea.  Obviously.

Documentaries (we definitely could have more than 0 of these on the list)

• Free Solo
  This looks soooo good and is soooo suspenseful
• Man on Wire
  Ditto.  And is sadly poignant now.
• Spellbound
  The very definition of cute!
• 20 Feet From Stardom
  An interesting tale of those that got so close - but so far.

Not omissions

A special set of films that appeared on some other lists but should in no way have been on any such lists ever:-)

• The Shape Of Water
• Hereditary
• The Master

Given that The Shape Of Water won the best picture Oscar, it's quite interesting to consider how many such films from the period made it on to the list - the split is approx 50:50.  Of the ones that didn't make it, I haven't seen most of them so can't comment - although Slumdog Millionaire feels like it could have snuck on somewhere.

So, after all this I'm taking a break from watching films because I have to - in order to spend time watching films or TV because I want to, but I will definitely do another such exercise at some point in the future.  I'd quite like to do something on TV shows, but that feels like it would be a serious time investment - so I suspect I'll end up with a "best films ever" list or something (although I'm a bit concerned as to the amount of black and white that might involve).  I might also do some kind of Oscars thang depending upon what films they find to reward this year - I'll gratefully receive any thoughts you have on a suitable list.

Many thanks to everyone for their comments both agreeing and disagreeing with my views - it's always interesting to hear what others think!