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Monday, August 6, 2012

The Best Films of My Lifetime

One of the loudest complaints about the Sight & Sound list is that it skewed too old, or that it was somehow stodgy and conservative since it didn’t have any film made after 1968. (Never mind that all of the films on the list are considered revolutionary.) Well, my own list is not much better in this regard. I do have Network on my list, which was made in 1976. What makes that all the more remarkable is that I was born in 1986, so I don’t have a single film which was released in my lifetime on my own list.

Since there of course have been many great movies released since 1986, I thought it would be interesting to see what my list would look like if confined only to those movies released since then. I have a friend who refuses to watch any movie made before he was born, although he seems to think that every movie released before his birth must be in black and white despite being my age. But if I shared his prejudice against the past, what movies would make the cut?

1. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
2. The Big Lebowski (1998)
3. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
4. Goodfellas (1990)
5. The Social Network (2010)
6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
7. Miller’s Crossing (1990)
8. The Princess Bride (1987)
9. Raising Arizona (1987)
10. Kicking and Screaming (1995) – no, not the Will Ferrell youth soccer comedy.

That’s right, three Coen Brothers made the list, and Fargo is not among them. I actually would go with A Serious Man if I wanted to put a fourth on the list. Among the films that came close to making this list: Rushmore, Toy Story 3, Up in the Air, Little Miss Sunshine, Pulp Fiction, A Few Good Men, Broadcast News, Black Swan, Memento, and The Dark Knight.

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