What’s going on here?
I made a list of my favorite movies, then decided to watch them all in alphabetical order by title. To keep track of the project, I started writing brief reactions to each movie and sharing them on a private friend group Discord and on Facebook. My friends said they were enjoying the reviews and suggested I put them on the internet in a more accessible form. So here they are! All 124 of them, eventually.
What possessed you to do this ridiculous thing?
I was listening to my favorite podcast about movies, This Had Oscar Buzz. The hosts mentioned some movie or other, and I thought, “Man, that’s really one of my favorite movies, and I haven’t watched it in years.” That thought drifted into, “I wonder how many favorite movies I have, and what they actually are?” So I made a list. While I was making it, I realized that I wanted to watch all of them again, and that my tenth month of pandemic isolation was the perfect time to do so. I’d been overloading myself on new-to-me films and TV, and it’s been relaxing to watch a bunch of familiar movies that I know I like.
How did you compile the list?
I went through Wikipedia’s lists of movies by year, starting with 1931 and going all the way through to 2020. It took me about three days. ADHD hyperfocus is an incredible superpower that I don’t wish on anyone.
How are you dividing this up and formatting it?
For each film, I’ll provide some basic information (title, release year, director, language, notable cast members); my prior history with the film (when and how I originally saw it, how long it’s been since I’ve seen it); and the short review I wrote right after I rewatched it for this project. The plan is to put 10 or 11 movies in each blog post in the series, for a total of 12 blog posts.
Why 124 movies?
Because there were 124 movies on my list when I finished making it. I didn’t set out to make a list of any preset size – on the contrary, I wanted to see how long it would get. 124 is a pleasantly arbitrary number.
Why alphabetical order by title?
It seemed like a good strategy for mixing things up so I’m not watching too many similar movies in a row. So far, it’s working out.
What makes a movie a “favorite”?
It’s hard to define, but I know it when I see it. Usually, the difference is emotional connection. If I wasn’t sure, I asked myself, “Is this really one of my favorite movies, or is it a good movie I like?” Many movies that I think are great works of filmmaking, and that I enjoyed when I saw them, are not on my list because I don’t feel a strong emotional connection to them. Many of the movies on my list have huge flaws or are just silly, but I love them.
Why isn’t [TITLE] on your list?
Maybe I haven’t seen it. Maybe I like it and appreciate it, but it’s not a favorite. Maybe I saw it and hated it. Maybe it’s a genre that I’m not naturally inclined toward: period costume dramas and horror, for example, are harder sells for me, and movies in those genres seldom become favorites even when I enjoy and respect them.
You should really watch [TITLE]!
I’m pretty focused on this project right now, so I’m happy to hear about good movies but unlikely to watch anything that gets recommended to me in the near future.
How did you deal with movies that have not aged well because of the people involved, or because of fundamental shifts in social acceptability?
I kept them on the list, and I’m watching them anyway. I’m curious to see how these movies hold up, and one of the factors in whether they hold up is whether I can still stand to look at them. In grad school, I developed a defense mechanism where I’m able to enjoy great art made by despicable people. When a filmmaker or director is a problem for me, it usually comes up in my review. I also tend to note when racism, sexism, queerphobia, etc. have made a movie age badly, or when a casting decision, such as a cisgender actor playing trans or an able-bodied actor playing disabled, would be offensive if the film were made today.
How do you justify a list that’s so dominated by straight white men, both behind and in front of the camera?
It bothers me. I can blame it somewhat on the film industry: the vast majority of films accessible to me as an American viewer, especially those made before the 1990s, were made by straight white men. I briefly considered adding some extra movies made by women and BIPOC to improve my ratios, but that seems disingenuous and performatively woke. One of the major conclusions I’ve drawn from this project is that I need to work harder to make sure I’m watching lots of films made by marginalized filmmakers, so that if I remake this list in five or ten years, they’ll be better represented among my favorites.
But which one is really your favorite movie?
I have a stock answer for when I’m making small talk and don’t want to lecture a stranger about why it’s better to have 124 favorite movies than just one. (What’s the answer? Read my posts and see. It comes along pretty close to the beginning of the alphabet.) When I finish watching all these movies, I might have a clear top 10 or top 20, or I might not see any benefit to narrowing things down that way.
What’s the lecture about why it’s better to have 124 favorite movies than just one?
I love a lot of different kinds of movies for a lot of different reasons. Sometimes I’m in the mood for a triumph of filmmaking, and sometimes I want to wrap myself in a cozy story. Sometimes I want an intimate drama, and sometimes I want big, loud superheroes. Sometimes I’m in the mood for drag queens, or talking animals, or gratuitous violence. No movie can be all things, and love doesn’t diminish when you spread it out.
How are you accessing all these films?
Thanks to the overpriced cable package I refuse to get rid of and the “family plan” arrangement I have with my parents and brother, I have access to most major video streaming services. The majority of the movies on my list are on one streaming service or another, and I have an app on my phone that tells me which. Almost all of the rest are available for rental for a couple of bucks. (My preferred video rental app is really happy I am engaging in this project and keeps sending me discounts.) When all else fails, one can always poke around the internet to see what people have put in lockers, although I don’t endorse this approach. All my DVDs and VHS tapes are in boxes in storage, where it is dark and cold, so I have not resorted to digging them out.
What if I want to make my own list and do this project myself?
You can and you should! I’d love to see other people’s lists and their reactions to revisiting their favorites. I won’t publish anyone else’s lists or reviews on my website, but I’ll gladly share links here and on Twitter. If you do embark on this adventure, please link back to this post and give me credit for inspiring you. Thanks!
What if I watch or rewatch a movie you wrote about, and I want to tell you what I thought?
I would love to get tons of comments on these posts. There are few things I love to talk about more than movies I like. If you hated it or disagree with me, I want to hear it. If I made you discover your new favorite film, I really want to hear it.
What’s Zeerust, and why do you keep referring to outdated film elements as”rusty”?
Zeerust is what happens to science fiction that looked futuristic at the time, but now looks like an artifact of when the work was created. For example, movies before the 1990s couldn’t conceive of a world where everything was on the internet, and a pocket-sized device could access information wirelessly from anywhere. Zeerust isn’t always a fatal flaw; often, it’s a clue to what a film is trying to say about its own present and its fears for the future. The term is so ingrained in my mind that I’ve expanded it to describe anything in a film that seemed really cool at the time but now looks meaningfully dated. A movie’s wardrobe, score, or gender politics might have gotten rusty in the decades since its release.
What’s the Great Binge?
When I was about sixteen years old, I permanently borrowed my parents’ collection of Roger Ebert film reviews and made it my mission to see as many of the well-reviewed movies in it as possible. I programmed the VCR to pull classics off late-night cable, and I spent so much time at my local video rental store that they offered me a job. Then, I went to a college with a highly regarded film program, where the library had a great selection of classic movies I could rent for free. When I say I first encountered a film as part of the Great Binge, I mean that I first saw it as a teenager/young adult sometime between 1996 and 1999, but I can’t place it more specifically than that.
Who’s Elena, and why do you see so many movies with her?
Elena is one of my best friends. We met shortly after I moved back to Chicago in 2013, and literally the first thing we ever did together was see a movie. (It was Thor: The Dark World.) We have similar taste in films and are both incorrigible introverts, so most of our hanging out together involves seeing movies or live theater and then talking about what we saw over dinner and a drink. When the pandemic hit, we started watching a movie together every Sunday afternoon by syncing our streaming services and live-texting as we go.
Have you seen any movies since you started the project that you would retroactively add to the list?
Of the dozens of movies I’ve watched for the first time since October 2020, there are six that would make the list if I were to write it today (March 2022). I’ll cover them – and anything else great that I watch between now and the completion of the project – in a supplemental post at the end.
So you’re watching new movies, not just the ones on the list.
Yes, that’s a big part of what’s taking so long. This project reminded me that I love watching movies, and that there are a whole lot of films still to see. Follow me on Letterboxd to see what I’m watching and read my brief reviews.
Why are you writing about this instead of figure skating?
I had planned to turn this back into a figure skating blog for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, but the pandemic didn’t cooperate. Athletes were still getting COVID-19 from unsafe practices in the 2021-22 season, and then a positive doping test revealed what most skating fans already knew: the Russian figure skating system is abusive and corrupt and has been flouting the rules of fair and safe sport for decades. It’s hard to be a figure skating fan or write about the sport these days, and I’m sad to say I don’t know when that will change.
How are you holding up? You know, in general?
Since I updated this in January 2021 (it’s now March 2022), things have gone from fine to pretty darn good. I mean, we’re still living in a pandemic, there’s a war in Ukraine that’s keeping me up nights, and inflation has been rough on my wallet. But I got married to a really cool lady in November, in the queer rainbow wedding of our dreams.
I still miss my departed old lady cats, but we adopted two adorable young kitties, Pigeon and Momo, who are full of energy and love. My small business is thriving, and I’m exhausted but happy with the work I’m doing.
Do you have any other projects I should be following?
In 2021, my friend Elana Levin and I started a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine podcast, Deep Space Dive. Our posting schedule is intermittent, to say the least, but we’ve had some awesome guests and great conversations about our favorite ’90s sci-fi soap opera, its lasting impact on culture, and its connections to politics.
Can you put a master list at the end of this post and update it every time there’s a new installment of Some of My Favorite Movies?
That is, indeed, the very purpose of this post. (Well, that and cat photos.)
I’ll add the rest as soon as they exist!