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❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️/❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

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Wait, so I was wrong about guys named Chad this whole time?!

Damn! I mean, seriously: whodathunk that, in the process of meticulously crafting deeply insightful and intelligent video essays about filmmaking that are renowned the world over these last ten years, Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos would somehow end up being more than capable and prepared of making their own amazing and exemplary piece of filmmaking this whole time?

Alright, so, yes — it should probably go without saying at this point that this short film is good. Really, really good. With Zhou and Ramos’s insight into what makes for good filmmaking, I think it more or less goes without saying that was inevitable, and I for one am truly delighted that Tony and Taylor have finally migrated from making videos about films into just making their own films. (If anything deserved a deep-hearted, patently Internet™-style “Finally,” it would definitely be this.)

But let me actually go further, by saying that “The Second” is honestly a really great masterclass in filmmaking, To be fair, if you were paying attention to their work (at both Every Frame A Painting and Noir) along the way this whole time, you already knew they had a meticulous handle on the craft as well as a rich narrative voice, so this short film probably doesn’t come as a surprise — but damn, if it isn’t still just so so great. What I think that I love most about it, though, is when you take the time to go through it bit by bit — moment by moment, scene by scene — and deconstruct it, perhaps even taking the time to pair it with companion episodes and relevant insights from their YouTube essays. That’s when you begin to appreciate it the most, and I think you really learn that, in every frame of the masterclass filmmaking on display before you, there really is… a painting.

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(Wow, it’s already 2025?)

• Young Hearts
• Sinners
• Black Bag
• Thunderbolts*
• Paddington in Peru
• Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
• Warfare
• The Legend of Ochi
• A Minecraft Movie
• Lilo & Stitch

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

2024 films, ranked…

1. Dìdi (弟弟)
2. Anora
3. Inside Out 2
4. Good One
5. The Wild Robot
6. Wicked
7. Dune: Part Two
8. Thelma
9. A Real Pain
10. Conclave

...plus 28 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

All the movies I’ve seen from 2023, going from my absolute favorites onward.

1. The Boy and the Heron
2. Barbie
3. Oppenheimer
4. The Holdovers
5. The Zone of Interest
6. Godzilla Minus One
7. Perfect Days
8. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
9. Wonka
10. Broker

...plus 29 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Yep, these are movies. They came out in 2016, and I'm ranking 'em as I see 'em — based purely on subjective and nonsensical reasoning, which basically amounts to what I simply enjoyed most. So without further ado...

1. Hunt for the Wilderpeople
2. Pete's Dragon
3. The Nice Guys
4. Arrival
5. The Jungle Book
6. The BFG
7. Hell or High Water
8. Finding Dory
9. Midnight Special
10. 13th

...plus 72 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Here are just a selection of documentary films that explore the everyday lives and worlds inhabited by the young.

While some of these films are about specific issues and topics related to children & childhood, often taking an editorial approach that is more macro-focused and structural in nature, there are just as many that, delightfully, remain contented to simply explore the lives of an individual child or group of children — helping us to see the world from their perspectives and empathize with their experiences.

Collectively, these documentaries highlight both the great joys and overlooked struggles of childhood. They examine the unfortunate and often domineering prejudices that children experience in a society intended for — and controlled by — adults, and they demonstrate children's agency and creativity in responding to these injustices. These are stories that are united by the tapestry of emotions that go along with childhood friendships and adventures, challenges and triumphs, and they brilliantly showcase children's struggles as they attempt to master their own private world and find their place in the larger one.

This… is childhood.

• Only the Young
• Babies
• The Beginning of Life
• I Am Eleven
• Maidentrip
• The Land
• School's Out: Lessons from a Forest Kindergarten
• To Be and to Have
• Seven Up!
• Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak

...plus 126 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

These are movies I watched this year! Why am I making a list out of this, I dunno! But exclamation point!

• Mike Birbiglia: The New One
• Star Trek
• Wonka
• Duel
• The Creator
• Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
• Con Air
• Dune
• Mr. & Mrs. Smith
• Perfect Days

...plus 93 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

These are all Pixar films. I really love them all, and it is impossible to rank them — but I'm gonna try anyway, since, well, lists.

1. Inside Out

   One word summary: ummmmm… dangit, this one's too hard to put into one word! (Growth, maybe? I'd use "growing up," but I kind of hate how pejorative and simplistic most people have made that term, and I think anybody at any age can relate to the kind of growth that Riley — and all kids — experience.)

2. Up

   One word summary: wonder. Wonder and gratitude for the great, amazing adventure that is life.

3. Finding Nemo

   One word summary: trust. Learning to trust in your child and their abilities, learning to trust yourself, and learning to trust random sea turtles that come along.

4. WALL·E
5. Ratatouille

   One word summary: Pride. Pride and satisfaction about knowing what you were meant to do, and doing it well.

6. Luca
7. Coco
8. The Incredibles
9. Monsters, Inc.

   One word summary: KITTY!

10. Toy Story

    One word summary: well duh, friendship.

...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Whoa, what a weird year.

1. Luca
2. C'mon C'mon
3. Dune
4. Dug Days
5. The Mitchells vs. the Machines
6. Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street
7. The Green Knight
8. CODA
9. Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar
10. Ghostbusters: Afterlife

...plus 24 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The greatest hits of 2020: movies released in 2020 that I’ve seen, cobbled together more-or-less in order of my love for them...

1. Soul
2. Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution
3. Enola Holmes
4. Onward
5. Hamilton
6. Sonic the Hedgehog
7. Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made
8. Just Mercy
9. Tenet
10. Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga

...plus 17 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

All the films that have made it to my Top Four here on Letterboxd. Rotated regularly, and heavily influenced by the nifty backdrops for some films and how cool all their posters look next to each other. I am not a nerd.

• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
• Jurassic Park
• Where the Wild Things Are
• The Black Stallion
• Time Bandits
• Small Change
• My Neighbor Totoro
• Stand by Me
• Paddington
• Paddington 2

...plus 9 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

All of 2022, from my absolute favorites onward. 

I’m also busting with joy and hope at the prospect that this list is already shaping up to become much more populated than the lists from the last two (pandemic-y) years… Gosh, I’ve missed movies!

• Everything Everywhere All at Once
• The Fabelmans
• Glass Onion
• Turning Red
• Top Gun: Maverick
• Director by Night
• The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
• Nope
• Werewolf by Night
• Enola Holmes 2

...plus 28 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Wait, whoever came up with this idea of ranking the movies that came out this year? So novel!

1. Paddington 2
2. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
3. Won't You Be My Neighbor?
4. Mission: Impossible – Fallout
5. Capernaum
6. Black Panther
7. A Quiet Place
8. Crazy Rich Asians
9. Bumblebee
10. Incredibles 2

...plus 50 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Top 10? Ehhh. Top 20? Nah. Top 15...? Aha! That's it!

Wait, no, scratch that: let's go with top 22—or basically everything I can seeing from 2009. (That's probably inaccurate, but what the hey.)

1. Where the Wild Things Are
2. Fantastic Mr. Fox
3. Up
4. Coraline
5. Inglourious Basterds
6. Away We Go
7. Star Trek
8. The Hole
9. Zombieland
10. Up in the Air

...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 8½ List creates a new birthday: a film birthday. Intended for all children on the day they turn eight-and-a-half, the 8 ½ List celebrates films that invite children into a broader world of cinema, expanding their horizons and introducing them to worlds beyond what is normally made available to them at the multiplex or on their TV screens.

This list is based upon a speech that actress Tilda Swinton originally gave in 2005, which was in the form of a letter addressed to her 8½-year-old son, attempting to answer his question about what people's dreams were like before movies. Ultimately, in her speech, Swinton hoped to address how we might improve the "state of cinema" for children — and shortly thereafter, with some help from filmmaker and critic Mark Cousins, the 8½ List was formed.

Here, I present the Letterboxd version of that very list.

While I sadly had no role in the creation of the original 8½ List or the foundation created to carry out its mission, I am needless to say a big fan of both, and I wanted to share the list here so that many more 8½-year-olds (and kids of all other ages too) around the world would have an opportunity to watch these great films. For good measure, I've also decided to continue the list onward by sharing my own humble suggestions at... you guessed it... The 8 ¾ List. I'd be honored if you checked it out as well afterward, and please feel free to offer your own suggestions for continuing this great exploration of cinema!

1. The Wizard of Oz
2. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

   “Who doesn’t want to see a giant squid attack a boat?! In this story, lots of ships are being sunk, so a special ship goes to find out why. They discover that the culprit is a submarine. Its captain, Nemo, hates life and wants revenge. Adventure, special effects, intrigue… It's all there!“

3. The Adventures of Prince Achmed

   “The wild adventures of a prince on a flying horse, who fights an evil sorcerer; falls in love with a princes; hears the story of Aladdin and meets the Fire Mountain witch. This is one of the first animated films ever made! It's hard to believe it, but it was made just by cutting out black bits of paper. If you like this, you’ll like Lotte Reiniger’s Fairy Tales, too.”

4. The Adventures of Robin Hood

   “And what adventures! In Sherwood Forest! Prince John becomes a brutal and nasty King. An archer called Robin Hood, and his band of friends, defend the people against him. The horrible Sheriff of Nottingham tries to capture Robin…but the merry men have a few tricks up their sleeves. A joyful Hollywood romp.”

5. Azur & Asmar: The Princes' Quest

   “A little French boy, Azur, and an Arab boy, Asmar, who are growing up together, both dream of finding the Djinn Princess…Life separates them. Azur becomes blind. Asmar becomes a great horseman…This is a dazzlingly beautiful animation about growing up, discovering life’s wonder, the harshness of racism but the thrill of friendship…glorious!”

6. Beauty and the Beast

   “A beautiful woman gets drawn into the world of a hairy beast, but he’s sad rather than scary. He lives in an enchanted place where arms come out of walls and everything seems lit by moonlight…A gorgeous, dreamlike fantasy…”

7. The Boy Who Stopped Talking

   “Memo is a boy who lives in Kurdish Turkey. When a war starts against his people, his father takes the family to the safety of the Netherlands. Memo’s angry at being taken away, so decides to stop speaking in protest! But then he makes a friend….”

8. The Brave Little Toaster

   "A toaster, a lamp, a radio, an electric blanket and a vacuum cleaner are abandoned in a shack, so set out on an adventure to find their owner, a teenage boy. This is a lovely wee animated movie about friendship…"

9. Great Expectations

   “An ordinary boy called Pip visits an eerie, crumbling mansion, where he meets an ancient lady and a beautiful girl called Estella. As he grows older, a secretive person starts to give him money. He guesses that it is the old lady, but he is wrong….”

10. The Hidden Fortress

    “If you have seen Star Wars, this beautiful Japanese film will seem strangely familiar. It starts with two bickering, feardie guys – a bit like R2D2 and C3PO. Soon they hear of a Princess who will be at war against an evil man – a bit like Princess Leia and the evil empire. There are fights with samurai swords (which became light sabers in Star Wars). Action, adventure and comedy all follow. The Hidden Fortress isn’t a sci-fi movie, and its pace is slower than Star Wars but its images are amazing, it has exactly the same ‘wipes’ from one scene to another as you get in Star Wars, and it was directed by one of the world’s great filmmakers, Akira Kurosawa.”
    

...plus 105 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

So, yeah, here are all of my movie favorites (and not-so-favorites) from the year 2014, basically ranked in order of awesomeness. I don't really know why they're in disguise, other than the fact that I have the Transformers theme song stuck in my head right now....

1. Selma
2. Boyhood
3. I Am Eleven
4. Maidentrip
5. The Lego Movie
6. Whiplash
7. John Wick
8. The Grand Budapest Hotel
9. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
10. Edge of Tomorrow

...plus 64 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Movies! In a best-of-the-year list! With exclamation points!

1. Inside Out
2. Steve Jobs
3. Spotlight
4. Paddington
5. Room
6. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
7. Bridge of Spies
8. The Martian
9. Sicario
10. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

...plus 66 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Little Women
• Jojo Rabbit
• Knives Out
• The Kid Who Would Be King
• Chernobyl
• Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
• Parasite
• The Farewell
• The Last Black Man in San Francisco
• Ford v Ferrari

...plus 43 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

After not much deliberation and thinking at all, I decided I'd make a sequel to the 8 ½ List.

The original list was a collection of films recommended by actress Tilda Swinton and filmmaker Mark Cousins, with the intention of introducing children to a broader world of cinema. Though I won't pretend this list is anywhere near as good as the original, you could I suppose think of it as a continuation of the 8 ½ List. There are some films here that I loved and enjoyed deeply as a child, and others that have come out or I've watched since, which I know my younger self would have cherished. In all cases, there's just something about these films that radiates with the warmth and childlike magic of the cinema.

So plop yourself down, pull out some half-eaten movie snacks from underneath the couch cushions (ooh, a lollipop!), and get ready for a truly magical experience.... I'll see you at the movies! (*)

(*Yes, I just stole that line from Roger Ebert. All my respect, Roger bro.)

• Cinema Paradiso

  Candidly, I was never able to make it through the second half of this movie when I was a kid. But no matter how old you are, it's downright impossible not to love the first half!

• The First Movie

  Honestly not advisable for kids, since... well, how do I put this gently? It's kind of dull. I mean, it's fascinating—and benefits greatly from Mark Cousins' insight—but for kids who would rather watch movies, rather than watch other kids watch movies, I'd recommend a ; I'm including it here mostly as a matter of interest, because of the topic matter.

• Son of Rambow

  Just be prepared for your kid to spend a LOT of time sporting an English accent and making their own films after this.

• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

  I went through about five VHS tapes of this during my childhood. Curiously, I absolutely loved this film to death from around age four to six — but then, for no apparent reason at all, I started getting completely and utterly TERRIFIED 100%, by E.T. whenever I watched it since. Finally, my ten-year-old self just bucked up, plugged in that nightmarish,"great, now I just wet the bed"–inducing VHS cassette, and gave E.T. a second chance... and ended up falling in love with him all over again.

  Yeah, I was a weird kid growing up.

• Millions
• The Boy Who Could Fly
• The Gods Must Be Crazy
• The Gods Must Be Crazy II
• Mio in the Land of Faraway
• The City of Lost Children

  Bit of a more daring choice, but many children may find it enchanting.

...plus 49 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

From director Mark Cousins comes the world’s first movie about children in global cinema.

A Story of Children and Film is a ionate, poetic documentary about the richness and diversity of childhood — its surrealism, loneliness, fun, destructiveness and stroppiness — as portrayed through 53 great films from 25 countries around the world. Together, the films not only explore what cinema tells us about childhood, but what childhood tells us about cinema.

These are those films (and then some, thanks to Cousins' parallel ongoing film festival, Cinema Of Childhood). I've included annotations from Cousins about each film where I can, but in all cases please know that this is his genuine labor of love; I'm simply re-appropriating it shamelessly for my own use. :)

And now, if you'll excuse me, it looks like I have some films to catch up on...

• A Story of Children and Film
• The 400 Blows

  "Les Quatre Cent Coups: Truffaut's first feature length film is a moving portrayal of adolescence, loneliness, rebellion, cinephilia and freedom in the life of a young Parisian boy." – Farid Jamae

• Alyonka
• An Angel at My Table

  "Based on the autobiography of the same name by Jane Frame, New Zealand's most distinguished novelist, Campion evokes Frame's life - her impoverished childhood, growing interest in language, her shyness, diagnosis of schizophrenia, more than 200 electroshock treatment and battles with the mental health world - in a frontal, patient, and highly coloured way." – Farid Jamae

• An Inn in Tokyo
• Big Business

  "Laurel & Hardy are cinema's oldest kids. Even when they were really old the audience never wanted to believe this duo has anything to do with responsibilities of growing. Here they are shown at their most destructive, and of course their funniest!" – Farid Jamae

• The Boot

  "A little girl, Samaneh, pesters her mother to buy her red boots, then loses one, then tries to find it. The story is fairy-tale simple, but the emotions swell, like in Bicycle Thieves. Director Mohammad Ali Talebi had been working with children for years, and it shows. He makes Samaneh one of the most vivid characters in the movies. The Boot is a brilliant introduction to his world." – Mark Cousins, Cinema of Childhood

• Children in the Wind

  "Sampei is a little rascal, the leader of his village gang, rallying his troops with the Tarzan cry of his hero Johnny Weissmuller. But when his father is falsely imprisoned for fraud, his idyllic life falls apart. Sent to stay with his uncle, Sampei runs away any chance he gets – up a tree, down the river, to the circus. If only he can help his father to clear his name, everything will be all right again. Hiroshi Shimizu’s luminous masterpiece is nearly 80 years old, but still shines brightly." – Mark Cousins, Cinema of Childhood

• Curly Top
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

...plus 45 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Boy, my film-watching notes from 2011 are kinda sparse… I blame Letterboxd for this. Shame on you for not existing throughout all of time and history, Letterboxd! SHAME ON YOU!

(Ok, ok: I'm sorry, no shame intended. I love you, Letterboxd! You know that, right?)

1. Attack the Block
2. Hugo
3. Moneyball
4. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
5. The Adventures of Tintin
6. Super 8
7. The Descendants
8. Hanna
9. The Muppets
10. Jiro Dreams of Sushi

...plus 23 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The goal: Try to watch 500 movies in 2013. Begins when the clock hits January 1, 2013 ends when the clock hits January 1, 2014.

Seems easy enough, right? I mean, everybody else is doing it. So why not try? (This is the point where my mother would step in and say, "Well, if everybody else jumped off a cliff, would you jump off it too?" To which I'd say, "Yes. Yes, I would.")

• Django Unchained

  1/1. I have to fess up: technically I started watching this while it was still 2012. But that still counts, right? (By the way, I now have a new New Years Eve tradition!)

• The Impossible

  1/4. Wow, Naomi Watts very-nearly-dies a lot in this movie.

• The Story of Film: An Odyssey

  1/6.

• Beasts of the Southern Wild

  1/10.

• Zero Dark Thirty

  1/11.

• Promised Land

  1/13.

• This Is 40

  1/14.

• The Visitor

  1/15.

• Son of Rambow

  1/17. Shown in my "Children in Cinema" class (woo hoo!).

• Broken City

  1/18. I basically forgot I'd seen this film the moment I walked out of the theatre.

...plus 146 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

One of the personal projects I established for myself in 2013 was to watch 365 movies by the year's end. Sadly, I did not end up watching 365 movies by the year's end.

So: my new goal for 2014 is to watch 14 movies. This seems like a slightly more manageable project, suffice it to say.

It's all about expectations, you know?

• Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
• Frozen
• Saving Mr. Banks
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
• Her
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
• The Lego Movie
• 21 Jump Street
• The Karate Kid

...plus 137 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Here it is: a list of all the Muppet movies, somehow (unfathomably, since they're all [mostly] so brilliant) ranked. It's a muppet palooza! Wokka wokka?

(And yes, I'm totally a '90s Muppets kid. Nothing can beat Pirate Muppets!)

• Muppet Treasure Island
• The Muppet Christmas Carol
• The Muppet Movie
• The Muppets
• The Great Muppet Caper
• The Muppets Take Manhattan
• Muppets from Space
• Muppets Most Wanted
• The Muppets' Wizard of Oz

Taking a page from Jordan, Kevin, and probably quite a few others I'm forgetting, here is my take on all the past winners of the Best Picture Oscar, ranked (kinda) by my own dubious standards of favoritism/historical value/awesomeness. (With quite a few left out, I should mention, simply because it's been far too long since I've seen them.)

Let the disappointments, squabbling, and regret — mostly from me, with myself — begin!

1. Casablanca
2. Lawrence of Arabia
3. The Godfather Part II
4. The Godfather
5. Schindler's List
6. The Apartment
7. The Bridge on the River Kwai
8. The Silence of the Lambs
9. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
10. Slumdog Millionaire

...plus 25 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Because ehhh: why not?

(And yes, I have no idea what to do about his short films. For now, they're going on the list.)

1. Moonrise Kingdom
2. Fantastic Mr. Fox
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel
4. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
5. Rushmore
6. Castello Cavalcanti
7. The Royal Tenenbaums
8. Cousin Ben Troop Screening
9. The Darjeeling Limited
10. Bottle Rocket

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

All the Harry Potter films, ranked in a list by favorites/enjoyment/value/whatever. Because that's what people on Letterboxd do, of course…

1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
3. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
6. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
7. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
8. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

A horribly imprecise and undefinitive ranking of every movie that came out in 2017 (that I've seen, at least).

1. The Florida Project
2. Call Me by Your Name
3. Get Out
4. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
5. Coco
6. Baby Driver
7. The Shape of Water
8. The Post
9. The Big Sick
10. It

...plus 47 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

These are movies. They came out in 2013. I watched 'em. Now I'm ranking 'em (quite subjectively, I should add).

That is all.

1. Short Term 12
2. Wadjda
3. Mud
4. The Wolf of Wall Street
5. Ernest & Celestine
6. 12 Years a Slave
7. Much Ado About Nothing
8. The Spectacular Now
9. Ain't Them Bodies Saints
10. A Story of Children and Film

...plus 94 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

You know the drill...

1. Beasts of the Southern Wild
2. Moonrise Kingdom
3. In the Family
4. Lincoln
5. ParaNorman
6. Life of Pi
7. The Cabin in the Woods
8. Looper
9. Brooklyn Castle
10. Zero Dark Thirty

...plus 16 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Tippity tops of 2007. (A bit hastily and retroactively assembled as a list, so undoubtedly missing a bunch.)

1. Ratatouille
2. Michael Clayton
3. 3:10 to Yuma
4. Into the Wild
5. Juno
6. Paranoid Park
7. Hot Fuzz
8. No Country for Old Men
9. Zodiac
10. Ocean's Thirteen

...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

These are movies I made my friend Brendan watch. They're pretty great. Even he now says so (for the most part).

• Beverly Hills Cop
• Attack the Block
• Assault on Precinct 13
• The Birdcage
• Galaxy Quest
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind
• Game Night

Long before a young, militarily-gifted child named Ender Wiggin would end up saving the world from alien destruction by playing a fancy video game… a bunch of other kids in different movies did basically the same thing, just with much worse special effects.

So, in honor of Ender's Game's long-awaited arrival on the silver screen, here are all the "kids saving the world with video games" movies that came before it. (And yes, The Wizard totally counts.)

• Ender's Game
• WarGames
• Flight of the Navigator
• Tron
• The Last Starfighter
• Solarbabies
• SpaceCamp
• Cloak & Dagger
• D.A.R.Y.L.
• Explorers

...plus 4 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

As a (seven months late) New Year's resolution, this year I decided I while watching their resulting movies. Call it a "52 Week Film School,” maybe — except, you know, not, since I'm starting this in July.

But whatever. Semantics schmantics.

Anyway, all hail the Script-O-Palooza!

• The Bourne Identity
• Steve Jobs

  The single most overwhelming thought that dominated my mind while reading this was: "Damn. This is a good script."

  And it's true. Damn. This is a good script. I think you can automatically peg it as the frontrunner for Best Screenplay at the Academy Awards for this year — and while I'm still having trouble getting used to Michael "Decidedly Doesn't Look Like Steve Jobs" Fassenbender playing Steve Jobs, if Danny Boyle has even an ounce of magic left in him, I suspect the movie itself will also be a smashing success. It may not end up creating as much of a splash as The Social Network did, as it arguably lacks the social immediacy and resonance of that film, but there's very little doubt in my mind that Steve Jobs represents another career pinnacle for Sorkin. It's a breathtaking, funny, poignant whirlwind of an experience that truly gets to the core emotional heart of what it means to change the world in the way that Steve Jobs did.

  <<WORK IN PROGRESS: I've run out of steam with this thought, but rest assured I'll revisit it once I read the script again.>>

• Jurassic Park

  (I've read all three drafts of this film! Woo hoo!)

• Big Fish
• The Adventures of Tintin
• Clear and Present Danger
• Demolition
• Harriet the Spy
• Smoke Signals
• Star Trek Into Darkness

  A super-fun, crazy, and utterly manic screenplay to read. I really love Lindelof, Kurtzman and Orci’s style….

...plus 6 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Taking a page from Mike Harding, here are all the classics that, as a film nerd, I'm ashamed to it I've never seen before, but probably should have by now.

/Guilt.

• Taxi Driver
• Scarface
• Raging Bull
• Seven Samurai
• Amélie
• A Clockwork Orange
• The Graduate
• M
• Once Upon a Time in the West
• Annie Hall

...plus 9 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Per Maxwell's ingenious plan for staging a mutiny against Sight and Sound, here are my ten film contributions. Not in any particular order.

Also: dangit, this is hard.

1. My Neighbor Totoro
2. The Black Stallion
3. Small Change
4. Jurassic Park
5. Casablanca
6. Searching for Bobby Fischer
7. Where the Wild Things Are
8. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
9. Seven Up!
10. My Life as a Dog

Shamelessly borrowed from Paul Rudd’s new list as guest editor at IMDb—where, in honor of Ant-Man's release, he shares the top ten best heist films he's never before seen (and I'm pretty sure I haven't, either).

(Click on Read Notes to view Paul Rudd's witty, insightful, and completely non-informed commentary on each film.)

1. Rififi

   "Wow. This movie sounds right up my alley. I’d heard the title for years, but just assumed it was about a dog or something. Trust me, it’s not! Basically, it’s the blueprint for all modern heist films. A French noir film directed by blacklisted American director Jules Dassin. The 30-minute heist sequence is shot without dialogue or music. It’s so expertly done, so precise, that real life thieves have studied it as a how-to guide. Rififi is probably a masterpiece and I’m guessing deserves the #1 slot on this list."

2. The Italian Job

   "The original, not the remake. Again, I haven’t seen the remake (see: #4), but the 1969 original starring Michael Caine and Noel Coward is one of my friend Dan’s favorite movies. He says it’s phenomenal and I bet he’s right! Dan is smart and has great taste in movies. Then again, everyone who knows him makes fun of the music he likes."

3. The Asphalt Jungle

   "For years I talked about how great this movie is. I always said it was daring for it’s time, and obviously its importance resonated with audiences upon its release. It’s a classic with towering performances and blistering social commentary about inner city schools. It was only in researching this list that I discovered I’d always been thinking of Blackboard Jungle with Glenn Ford and Sidney Poitier. I really need to check out Asphalt Jungle. It sounds bad ass."

4. The Thomas Crown Affair

   "This is the original, not the remake with Pierce Brosnan, which I also haven’t seen. The original is a classic that justifies ranking #4 on the list. Nothing against the remake, but there are so many other heist films that I haven’t seen that would rank higher."

5. To Catch a Thief

   "This 1955 romantic thriller from master director Alfred Hitchcock is one of his most charming. Cary Grant and Grace Kelly sparkle as brightly as its lavishly shot location, the glorious French Riviera. It’s a riveting, rollicking classic. So say many of the critics who, unlike me, have actually seen it."

6. Thief

   "This was Michael Mann’s 1981 directorial debut and is supposedly outstanding. Not surprising, right? I mean, 14 years later he went on to make Heat, one of the greatest heist movies of all time that I’ve seen. I the poster for Thief as a kid and thinking James Caan looked really cool. By the way, how great is Val Kilmer in Heat?"

7. The Killing

   "This 1956 Kubrick film was his third film (though first Hollywood effort) and a huge influence on Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (a film I’ve seen and loved). Stanley Kubrick is one of the greatest directors of all time and that’s why when I was recently asked in an interview about my favorite heist movie I wanted to look cool and said this one."

8. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

   "This one is a total blast! That’s what I hear anyway. It has its own rhythms and knock-out performances. And everyone always talks about how brilliant and unintelligible Brad Pitt is in it. Or is that Snatch? I think it might be Snatch. I haven’t seen that one either."

9. The Friends of Eddie Coyle

   "I actually own this DVD. Well, technically I don’t own it, but my friend Phil lent it to me years ago and I just never gave it back. He loves this movie. I also have another friend named Bill who loves it, too. He randomly mentioned it once. Anyway, I reckon it’s pretty awesome. Those guys have good taste."

10. Sexy Beast

    "I'm an idiot. Everyone I know has seen this Jonathan Glazer movie and loves it. I heard Ben Kingsley is amazing in it and Ray Winstone is beyond. I mean, come on, Ray Winstone! That guy is incredible. Maybe I’ll finally watch this one tonight after dinner. It depends on how tired I get."

Ignore me, I'm just procrastinating.

1. The Social Network
2. Toy Story 3
3. The Kids Are All Right
4. How to Train Your Dragon
5. Let Me In
6. The Trip
7. The King's Speech
8. True Grit
9. Inception
10. Despicable Me

...plus 16 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Stolen — wait wait, strike that, I mean "inspired" by — this list at Film.com, here are some of the craziest, most impressive, elaborate, and awesomest things kids have ever built in the movies. From elaborate boobytraps and inventions ("Slick shoes, Mikey! Slick shoes!"), to space ships made of junk and treehouses in the woods, these films offer us a glimpse of children's unmatched ability, dedication, and creative ingenuity — and the very imagination that fuels the movies. They deserve our tip of the hat.

Build on, kids. Build on.

Note: this is still a work-in-progress, especially as I figure out a set of criteria for which "things kids have built" count and which ones don't cut the mustard. I'm open to suggestions, if you have any!

• The Kings of Summer
• Explorers
• The Sandlot
• Where the Wild Things Are
• Joey
• Radio Flyer
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
• October Sky
• Rushmore
• The Manhattan Project

...plus 9 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

100(-ish) of my absolute favorite films of all time, ired and assembled based solely upon my own nonsensical criteria — which can only be described as wildly subjective, illogical, and tip-top-secret. (Sorry about that.)

So... *drumroll please*

In no particular order, I give you: my favorite films!

1. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
2. Jurassic Park
3. Where the Wild Things Are
4. Small Change
5. Boyhood
6. My Neighbor Totoro
7. Casablanca
8. Lawrence of Arabia
9. Raiders of the Lost Ark
10. The Godfather

...plus 71 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.