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Watched on Monday May 26, 2025.

Lots of effort to connect.  Not sure I succeeded

I saw the clip of Thatcher speaking German to the cop and was taken in by it.

Watched on Saturday May 24, 2025.

Another version of Seven Samurai and wasn’t hiding it by naming the people the Akir. And with Robert Vaughn playing basically the same character in the Magnificent Seven.  Much of this was painful to watch. But it’s been on my list of missed movies from my childhood.

Screwballs.

Watching Johnny Depp maneuver all the obstacles to his vision is joy. I couldn’t see Landau 99% of the time. That was Lugosi.  Lush black and white.

Watched on Friday May 16, 2025.

Saw this in the theater when it was first released.  Seeing it now as a sci fi/political intrigue/disaster movie, clunky with its aging cast was not as exciting as it once was.  Too many minutes of arguing then watching space activity, kind of like Star Trek the Motion Picture.  Speaking of which there were some soundtrack moments that sounded a lot like some of Jerry Goldsmith’s themes.  I was expecting something lighter on its feet coming from Ronald Neame who made Hopscotch.  It feels like someone else shot the effects shots and a separate editor added them in.  And the effects felt more like what they were doing on TV.  Still, it has its charms and I like this stuff, bad effects and all.

I think Joan Fontaine’s eyebrow does her a disservice by bringing her further into the realm of Acting. You could almost watch this film with no sound and get what’s going on. Joan is walking through the shadows of a spiderweb - and at one point, design on the dress she was wearing seems like the two of the spider’s legs were clutching her. 
And our old pal Nigel Bruce, not playing a doctor this time.

I seeing this poster when I was a kid.  It both terrified and and intrigued me.  Now that I’ve finally seen it, it is both horrible: these kids kept going up there even though they know something bad is up there.  So stupid.  The Tubular Bells ripoff soundtrack.  But then it is also awesome. The ideas that were tossed around were so creative and interesting. The silver sphere.  The other world. They made the Tall Man somewhat iconic.  At the beginning, the cuts with the cloaks just disappearing behind a tombstone or a corner worked to creep me out and interest me. Throw in a little Dune in there too.  Not sure I liked the end.

Kevin Klein actually feels like a different person here.

Haute cinema.  Years ago, I went to a screening of one of Godard’s films at possibly the French Institute in NYC.  Godard’s cinematographer Raoul Coutard was there.  I brought a t shirt with Belmondo with the dynamite and asked him to sign it.  He chuckled before he did.   That is all.

I saw this in the theater when first released. I liked it better now.

Not what I expected, but I liked it.  A small film with superhero trappings with a splash of Michel Gondry.

Wow.  This was a mess. People and situations felt fake/forced.  Keith David criminally underused.  I also wanted more Marg Helgenberger. Still, it was lovely to see Audrey again.

I’m listening to Elmore Leonard’s The Switch and there are interesting similarities.  The central characters are both wealthy married women living in the Midwest.  Rape-y men “friends” close by.
The movie poster makes it seem more salacious than it really is.

Watched on Wednesday April 23, 2025.

Due to the death of the Pope, I with, I assume many others watched this film.  It feels like the people who made the Bourne Identity made this movie.  Like Petit Maman, the small sounds were major players here, especially Fiennes’ breathing. It also reminds me that there are still good conscientious people out there.  At least I hope they are.  
I noted the white letters standing out from the otherwise orange end titles.  What does it mean?

I liked this more the first time I saw it.

My, what an extraordinarily attractive couple.  My, how long the party scene was.

I needed something mindless and this was it.  Sci-Light.

Watched on Friday April 11, 2025.

I haven’t seen this for years. Adventure occult and mysticism.

Seen on a 35mm print at the Paris theater. The first scene alone is written so well. The scant lines of dialogue say so much. My favorite shot when Lisa opens the door and the two seeing each other for the first time, but with the glass between them. Marvelous telling.

Seen as a double short with Ilya Chaiken’s Match Flick.

Nice and tight.  Although she says, “I’ll do anything to save my husband” then they cut away and our fugitive is now super anxious to help…

By the numbers.  A bit long at times, but vehicle for the cast, right?

This was the happy ending?

After watching a few 1950s sci fi movies, I am convinced that Hugh Marlowe and Richard Carlson are the same person. And I’m glad that Rod Taylor continues to fight the Good Fight in whatever future he finds himself in.

This is a movie about Life.  Sacred Moments of Childhood.  No, it’s an Essay, no more a Poem.  It left me Cold.

With the flashes of calf or stocking, I wonder if this would be considered a (s)exploitation film from the 30s. I wonder about that ending.

I wanted to like this more than I did.  All of the elements were there, but too much of some, not enough of the others.  Oh well, it was still nice to see the gang together one more time.

Watched on Saturday March 22, 2025.

The ratio of happy to unhappy makes me sad.

Great shots.  Cast is top notch. Kirk Douglas effective as the heavy.

There’s something off. From the odd few jump cuts to the manifestation of the illness to the end.  Something not clicking.  And it seems that Nigel Bruce has made a career of playing versions of this character.

Watched on Sunday March 16, 2025.

This movie encomes so much. Oh and people suck.

I think I’ve seen this before, but it effected me more this time.

This is a delicate and beautiful flower of a movie.  The small sounds of fabric or breathing are as important as dialogue which is sparse. A couple times I found tears flowing.  I feel that it wouldn’t be the same if I saw it again, which is sad.  I hope I’m wrong.

More than a Medical thriller, this is a straight up horror film to me.  Well handled.  It’s great to see the machinery at work when scientists and s have to solve a problem.  So, is it a good idea to sever ties with WHO, weaken the CDC and FEMA, etc, et al, ad infinitum?

There’s certain group of people that give me the creeps.  Jeff Fahey is among them. I can’t tell you why, but he did a good job(e) here in this clunky dated update of Flowers for Algernon.

Political sci fi. Enjoyable, but something felt a bit lacking.  Not as sharp as  I had hoped. 
IMAX

Sweet. Everything tied up with one big hair ribbon. The one eyed trick at the end was clever.  And there’s a quality to Ginger Roger’s esses that gets to me.

At the Ziegfeld baby

Watched on Friday June 18, 1999.

Cheesy?  Yup.

This was on the Criterion Channel.

There aren’t enough nice guys in this world

Letterboxd's Top 250 movies, based on the average weighted rating of all Letterboxd s. I removed all stand-up specials, stage plays, concert films, documentaries, shorts, 'collection listings' and other 'rarities', so only feature length narrative movies are listed here. Films should have a minimum of 5,000 ratings to be eligible to enter the list.

As a sister to this list, we also have a Top 50 films with less than 5,000 ratings, so be sure to check out the more obscure gems there!

My friend Jack Moulton made a list of Letterboxd Top 250 documentaries, go check it out!

And last but not least there is a companion piece to this list with all films that were once part of the Top 250.

A few statistics...

The oldest movie on the list is Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr., released in 1924. The most popular decade in the list is the 1990's with 37 entries. A complete overview:
1920's - 4 entries
1930's - 4 entries
1940's - 15 entries
1950's - 34 entries
1960's - 34 entries
1970's - 27 entries
1980's - 26 entries
1990's - 37 entries
2000's - 29 entries
2010's - 30 entries
2020's - 10 entries

Akira Kurosawa seems to be Letterboxd's most popular director, with 7 entries in the list, of which 4 in the top 40. Next in line with 6 titles are Bergman and Tarkovsky.

All popular directors:
7 entries - Akira Kurosawa
6 entries - Andrei Tarkovsky, Ingmar Bergman
5 entries - Masaki Kobayashi, Stanley Kubrick, Billy Wilder
4 entries - Hayao Miyazaki, Martin Scorsese, Wong Kar-wai, Satyajit Ray
3 entries - Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, Alfred Hitchcock, Peter Jackson, Abbas Kiarostami, Francis Ford Coppola, Sidney Lumet, Charlie Chaplin, Sergio Leone, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Emeric Pressburger & Michael Powell, Federico Fellini, Hideaki Anno, Yasujiro Ozu

Fun fact:
Highest ranked movies in IMDb's top 250 that are absent in the Letterboxd list: Forrest Gump (11), The Matrix (16), The Green Mile (27), Léon: The Professional (35) and Gladiator (37).

Latest update:
October 31, 2022

New in the list:
Ratatouille at #250

Gone, but definitely not forgotten:
Rashomon

1. Parasite
2. Come and See
3. Harakiri
4. A Dog's Will
5. The Godfather
6. The Godfather Part II
7. The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer
8. 12 Angry Men
9. Seven Samurai
10. The Shawshank Redemption

...plus 240 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.