Signs of Bad Movie Times

National Review ^ | 7/30/25 | Armond White

[DallasBiff]

I know a very long article. Surprised this came from NR, given their Trump hate.

My choice for best movie, like if it means anything, of the early 21st century, would be Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" released in 2004.

Have fun and flame away, it's saturday.

[BenLurkin]

Battle: Los Angeles (2011) has to be in the top ten.

[UnwashedPeasant]

01. Parasite (Bong Joon Ho)
02. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)
03. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
04. In the Mood For Love (Wong Kar Wai)
05. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)
06. No Country For Old Men (Joel & Ethan Coen)
07. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry)
08. Get Out (Jordan Peele)
09. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki)
10. The Social Network (David Fincher)

11. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
12. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)
13. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron)
14. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
15. City of God (Fernando Mereilles)
16. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee)
17. Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee)
18. Y Tu Mama Tambien (Alfonso Cuaron)
19. Zodiac (David Fincher)
20. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)

21. The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson)
22. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
23. Boyhood (Richard Linklater)
24. Her (Spike Jonze)
25. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)
26. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)
27. Adaptation (Spike Jonze)
28. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan)
29. Arrival (Denis Villeneuve)
30. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)

31. The Departed (Martin Scorsese)
32. Bridesmaids (Paul Feig)
33. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)
34. WALL-E Andrew Stanton)
35. A Prophet (Jacques Audiard)
36. A Serious Man (Joel & Ethan Coen)
37. Call Me By Your Name (Luca Guadagnino)
38. Portrait of A Lady on Fire (Celine Sciamma)
39. Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig)
40. Yi Yi (Edward Yang)

41. Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
42. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)
43. Oldboy (Park Chan Wook)
44. Once Upon A Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino)
45. Moneyball (Bennett Miller)
46. ROMA (Alfonso Cuaron)
47. Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe)
48. The Lives of Others (Florian Donnersmarck)
49. Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)

50. Up! (Pete Docter)
51. 12 Years A Slave (Steve McQueen)
52. The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos)
53. Borat (Larry Charles)
54. Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro)
55. Inception (Christopher Nolan)
56. Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson)
57. Best in Show (Christopher Guest)
58. Uncut Gems (Josh and Benny Safdie)
59. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)
60. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)

61. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino)
62. Memento (Christopher Nolan)
63. Little Miss Sunshine (Dayton & Faris)
64. Gone Girl (David Fincher)
65. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
66. Spotlight (Tom McCarthy)
67. TAR (Todd Field)
68. The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
69. Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
70. Let The Right One In (Tomas Alfredson)

71. Ocean’s Eleven (Steven Soderbergh)
72. Carol (Todd Haynes)
73. Ratatouille (Brad Bird)
74. The Florida Project (Sean Baker)
75. Amour (Michael Haneke)
76. O Brother Where Art Thou (Joel & Ethan Coen)
77. Everything Everywhere All At Once (The Daniels)
78. Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)
79. Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)
80. Volver (Pedro Almodovar)

81. Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky)
82. The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer)
83. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen)
84. Melancholia (Lars Von Trier)
85. Anchorman (Adam McKay)
86. Past Lives (Celine Song)
87. The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson)
88. The Gleaners and I (Agnes Varda)
89. Interstellar (Christopher Nolan)

90. Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)
91. Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold)
92. Gladiator (Ridley Scott)
93. Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy)
94. Minority Report (Steven Spielberg)
95. The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier)
96. Black Panther (Ryan Coogler)
97. Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron)
98. Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog)
99. Memories of A Murder (Bong Joon-ho)
100. Superbad (Greg Motolla)

Nolan leads the pack with 5 films in the top 100, follow by Cuarón (4), Coen (4), PTA (4), Tarantino (3), and Fincher (3).

Some of the submitted lists published include Edgar Wright, Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie, Pedro Almodovar, Bong Joon Ho, Sofia Coppola, Robert Eggers, Luca Guadagnino, Barry Jenkins, Sean Baker, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Lee Chang-dong, Cristian Mungiu, and Joachim Trier.

[BradyLS]

Probably the one film folks need to see is Sound of Freedom

I enjoyed the following:

Gran Torino
Black Hawk Down
The Hurt Locker
Tropic Thunder
Joker
The Batman
Arrival
Ex Machina
No Country for Old Men
Godzilla Minus One

[BradyLS]

Can’t believe I left out the two DUNE movies. That makes my Baker’s Dozen.

I’d put Lord of the Rings up there if it weren’t for the liberties taken and putting the weight of The Hobbitses around its neck.

[BenLurkin]

Arrival is a superb film. The director/cinematographer team is tops.

[BradyLS]

👍

[dfwgator]

Margin Call, should be on the list, just for the “You know I built a bridge once?” scene. The entire cast of that movie was great.

[discostu]

Did Spielberg pay for this? They picked 3 of his movies. 2 of them are terrible and shouldn’t be on any list of good movies.

[Fiji Hill]

I haven’t seen any of those movies. My favorite films of the century are “Unplanned,” “Sound of Freedom,” “I Heard the Bells” and “The Darkest Hour.”

[Blurb2350]

The Spinal Tap sequel is due out in September, with Elton John joining them onstage to perform their megahit, “Stonehenge.” The official trailer is on Youtube. Crank the volume up to 11 and check it out.

[SaveFerris]

I saw part of that

Horrendous - at best

I haven’t seen John Travolta
and his Scientology film

[Theophilus]

“The Darkest Hour” made tears come to my eyes.

[notdownwidems]

never heard of most of these movies, and I’m glad about that!

[nathanbedford]

ping

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

In looking at that list I have only seen 5 of those movies.
My favorites not on this list were made in the 1930s, 40s, 50s. 60s when movies were fit to watch.

[PeaRidge]

Number one by category:

Western……..The Searchers

Sci. Fi…..Forbidden Planet

Historical…..Gone With the Wind

Noir…..Cape Fear

War…..Battleground

Political…..The Manchurian Candidate

Horror…..Frankenstein (original)

Adventure…..The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Romance…..Casablanca

Intrigue…..The Third Man

[edwinland]

Reading the article was like playing Space Invaders against all the pop-ups.

[Getready]

We still got 75 more years for the list to be true or relevant.

[Yardstick]

My first thought was “where’s The Big Lebowski?” but that was 1998.