Yearly First Viewing Top Tens

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Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
At the time, both were
. I just remembered another one - Marketa Lazarová (Frantisek Vlácil, 1967) -
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In no particular order:

West of the Tracks
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
The Last Bolshevik
Love Streams
Spring in a Small Town
Quince Tree of the Sun
The River
Two Years at Sea
Inside Llewyn Davis
Waiting for Happiness

I'm probably missing some, and there's still a week left in the year, but this is close enough.
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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."



Welcome to the human race...


1. Barry Lyndon
2. Kiki's Delivery Service
3. Grave of the Fireflies
4. Clue
5. Three Colours: Red
6. Ponyo
7. Rope
8. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
9. Paprika
10. The Muppet Movie


Honourable mentions: Shadow of a Doubt, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, The Cat Returns, Porco Rosso, Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil, Man Bites Dog, Strangers on a Train, From Here to Eternity, Rififi and A Perfect World.

I limited my choices to films that had not been released in either 2013 or 2014 so as to allow for some overlap due to the complicated nature of release dates when it came to Australian film distribution. Now on to the write-up...

Barry Lyndon got the #1 pick because it was Kubrick taking on a period drama that could have been a little too stuffy for its own good - three hours long with a fairly predictable rise-and-fall kind of story about a young Irish rogue making his way in the world - but in Kubrick's hands it became a minor masterpiece. Excellent photography, amazing art direction, stunning choices of background score and some very well-executed sequences made it rise above my expectations considerably.

As you can probably tell, I spent a good chunk of time catching up on Studio Ghibli films - while Grave of the Fireflies has earned its reputation as an emotionally draining wartime tragedy, I gave the edge to Kiki's Delivery Service because of how well it managed to handle its coming-of-age narrative with such skill that I was very much willing to give up some tough suspension of belief (witches exist, but people are generally apathetic unless they either cause trouble or do something awesome? I can roll with that). This also applies to Ponyo to a lesser extent, which mixed and matched elements of Kiki with the more fantastic visuals of Spirited Away and provided another excellent addition to the top ten. As for the honourable mentions, Laputa was generally good but a little on the rough side, The Cat Returns was a brief but underrated variation on Alice in Wonderland that was understandably overshadowed by Spirited Away, while Porco Rosso was well-made but was a little too inconsistent when it came to its tone.

There were also quite a few Hitchcock films I saw and liked - Rope got the top ten pick because it had a great high concept that was backed up by Hitchcock experimenting with making a film that seemed to be shot in a single take. Shadow of a Doubt was a solid tale of small-town malice that's weighed down a bit by certain minor flaws - the same sort of applied to Strangers on a Train, which had a suspenseful enough narrative but didn't quite have the best execution.

As for the other top ten picks - Clue wins because of its masterful approach to building a narrative off the boardgame that resulted in black comedy that was amusing (if not always laugh-out-loud funny) and centred around a plot that always kept you (and the cast) guessing. Three Colours: Red was a striking piece of work about the fragility and unpredictability of human connections aided by an amazing colour palette. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three was a slick Seventies heist that still holds up forty years later (even if parts of it come across as a little too dated for their own good) and kept up the suspense until the very last second of film. Paprika was a wild technicolour nightmare ride that I sort of expected from a creator like Satoshi Kon, with its vibrant yet troubling imagery backing up a decent enough "dream-or-reality" kind of narrative. The Muppet Movie - well, that's just good old-fashioned family fun. Not much more to it than that.

The remaining honourable mentions: Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil was a clever little horror-comedy that evoked some great comic moments in its subversion of the killer redneck genre, Man Bites Dog was a very messed-up mockumentary, From Here to Eternity was a fine piece of wartime melodrama that was only really dragged down by executive meddling, Rififi was another slick heist movie that had a great second act involving the main heist being conducted in near-silence but didn't quite stick the first and third acts, and A Perfect World was an interesting enough take on the fugitive road movie.
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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0



In no particular order:

West of the Tracks
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
The Last Bolshevik
Love Streams
Spring in a Small Town
Quince Tree of the Sun
The River
Two Years at Sea
Inside Llewyn Davis
Waiting for Happiness

I'm probably missing some, and there's still a week left in the year, but this is close enough.
I have had West of the Tracks and As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty on my watchlist for so long. I should watch them rather soon, both films looks pretty radical

The Last Bolshevik and Spring in a Small Town looks really interesting!

Quince Tree of the Sun was one of my biggest experiences with my parents this year and one of my favorites of the nineties. My mom actually bought quinces after watching the movie.

I havent seen The River by Renoir yet but The River by Tsai Ming-Liang is really recommendable!



Great write up Iroquois. I have seen a bunch of what you mentioned. No surprise that my favorites are two of the Hitchcock. I love both Rope and Shadow Of A Doubt. I re-watched A Perfect World about a month ago. I didn't love it like I used to, but still think it is really solid, good movie. I also went through a lot of Ghibli films this year. Including all the Miyazaki and Fireflies. Haven't seen Paprika yet. I grew to respond to Miyazaki quite a bit. I don't think you will be sering him on any of my lists outside of animation anytime soon. I certainly liked a good number of them though. If nothing else it made it so I will be checking out some anime from time to time. I get the appeal for sure.
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Strictly first time watches (in order of release):

Bigger than Life (Ray, 1956)
Elevator to the Gallows (Malle, 1958)
The Battle of Algiers (Pontecorvo, 1966)
Sonatine (Kitano, 1993)
Strange Days (Bigelow, 1995)
Ali (Mann, 2001)
The Wolf of Wall Street (Scorsese, 2013)
12 Years a Slave (McQueen, 2013)
Boyhood (Linklater, 2014)
Birdman (Innaritu, 2014)

Honourable mentions:
Breathless (Godard, 1960)
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Hooper, 1974)
The Parallax View (Pakula, 1974)
Boyz N the Hood (Singleton, 1991)
La Haine (Kassovitz, 1995)
Drinking Buddies (Swanberg, 2013)



I saw that at the Los Gatos Theatre in 1986 But that's one of only three on your list I've seen.
I did try to be as obscure as possible. Nah, but I think I'd recommend The Last Bolshevik for its focus on a time and place in movie history - something you might appreciate.

I have had West of the Tracks and As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty on my watchlist for so long. I should watch them rather soon, both films looks pretty radical
Yeah, they were on my watchlists for a long time too, but sometimes you gotta rip off that bandaid despite the runtime - I find I'm usually rewarded when I do.



This list is subject to change, since I could see something mind-blowing in the next few days.
  1. On the Waterfront (1954)
  2. 12 Angry Men (1957)
  3. La Dolce Vita (1960)
  4. Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
  5. Autumn Sonata (1978)
  6. The Apartment (1960)
  7. Akira (1988)
  8. The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)
  9. Le Samouraď (1967)
  10. Do the Right Thing (1989)



every movie i saw for the first time this year, ranked. sorry for the long post, but this is the smallest font there is.

1. The Shining
2. Stalker
3. Bigger than Life
4. Apocalypse Now
5. Pierrot Le Fou
6. Life, and Nothing More
7. Citizen Kane
8. The Shop Around the Corner
9. The Graduate
10. Synechdoche, New York
11. The Passion of Joan of Arc
12. Singin’ In the Rain
13. Mulholland Drive
14. The Wrong Guy
15. The Wrong Man
16. 8 1/2
17. Where is the Friend’s House
18. Sweet Smell of Success
19. La Rupture
20. Goodfellas
21. Julien Donkey-Boy
22. The Mortal Storm
23. On the Waterfront
24. Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction
25. Stop Making Sense
26. The Wind Will Carry Us
27. Johnny Guitar
28. Close-Up
29. The Wolf of Wall Street
30. Bad Lieutenant
31. Rebel Without a Cause
32. The Conversation
33. Wings of Desire
34. Solaris
35. Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall… and Spring
36. Through the Olive Trees
37. Trouble in Paradise
38. The Double
39. Frances Ha
40. The Sacrifice
41. The Act of Killing
42. I Was Born, But
43. The Heartbreak Kid
44. Birdman
45. The Place Beyond the Pines
46. Blue Ruin
47. Short Term 12
48. This is the End
49. Duel
50. F for Fake
51. The Lego Movie
52. Cruising
53. M
54. The Grand Budapest Hotel
55. Mauvais Sang
56. The One I Love
57. In a Lonely Place
58. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
59. Fallen Angel
60. Yojimbo
61. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
62. Strangers On a Train
63. Aguirre: The Wrath of God
64. Inside llewyn Davis
65. Blue is the Warmest Color
66. 4:44 Last Day on Earth
67. Straw Dogs
68. Shoot the Piano Player
69. Two-Lane Blacktop
70. Dog Day Afternoon
71. The Fisher King
72. Au Revoir Les Enfants
73. A Woman is a Woman
74. Annie Hall
75. Touch of Evil
76. My Dinner with Andre
77. Pain & Gain
78. The Wages of Fear
79. Locke
80. Days of Heaven
81. Misery
82. Contempt
83. Sherlock Jr.
84. The Lusty Men
85. Beyond the Hills
86. Jaws
87. The 400 Blows
88. The Butcher
89. Two Lovers
90. Scenes From a Marriage
91. Badlands
92. The Rambler
93. The Mirror
94. Cool Hand Luke
95. Purple Noon
96. The Comedy
97. Blue Jasmine
98. Kill Bill Vol. 2
99. Black Swan
100. Klute
101. Family Plot
102. Casblanca
103. House
104. Band of Outsiders
105. Dirty Harry
106. They Live By Night
107. The Best Offer
108. Her
109. Atlantic City
110. Taxi Driver
111. Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff
112. Trash Humpers
113. Identity
114. The Swimmer
115. Only Lovers Left Alive
116. The Lady Vanishes
117. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
118. Frenzy
119. Chinatown
120. The Big Lebowski
121. Computer Chess
122. American Hustle
123. Puella Magi Madoka Magica Part 1
124. Autumn Sonata
125. Child’s Play (1972)
126. The Evil Dead
127. The Holy Mountain
128. Hi, Mom!
129. Blue Caprice
130. Observe and Report
131. Borgman
132. Ivan’s Childhood
133. Mud
134. Magic Mike
135. On Dangerous Ground
136. The Grandmaster
137. Guardians of the Galaxy
138. Greenberg
139. Eastern Promises
140. Amadeus
141. Robocop
142. Interstellar
143. Riot in Cell Block 11
144. Vivre Sa Vie
145. Some Like It Hot
146. Fruitvale Station
147. The Driver
148. Escape From Alcatraz
149. Urga
150. The Last Temptation of Christ
151. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
152. Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
153. Frankenstein
154. The Spirit of the Beehive
155. Prisoners
156. Nostalghia
157. Ed Wood
158. Letter Never Sent
159. Bastards
160. Casino
161. Gummo
162. It’s Such a Beautiful Day
163. Only God Forgives
164. The Great Beauty
165. The Hedgehog
166. The Draughtsman’s Contract
167. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
168. Sabrina
169. Underground
170. Once Were Warriors
171. Puella Magi Madoka Magica Part 2
172. Captain Phillips
173. Team America: World Police
174. Sansho the Bailiff
175. Evil Dead II
176. The Darjeeling Limited
177. Steamboat Bill Jr.
178. Fantastic Planet
179. Django Unchained
180. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay
181. Zero Dark Thirty
182. Nightcrawler
183. The Driller Killer
184. Doctor Zhivago
185. Welcome To New York
186. The Virgin Spring
187. Sahara
188. Naked
189. A Man Escaped
190. Eraserhead
191. Blast of Silence
192. Harakiri
193. Scarface
194. Little Big Man
195. Algiers
196. My Neighbor Totoro
197. 12 Years a Slave
198. The Straight Story
199. The Last Picture Show
200. Mister Lonely
201. The Insider
202. Mystic River
203. Mean Streets
204. Dallas Buyers Club
205. To Live
206. Network
207. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
208. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
209. Mary and Max
210. Foreign Correspondent
211. Donnie Darko
212. Maps to the Stars
213. Escape From Tomorrow
214. The Conformist
215. Nebraska
216. Alphaville
217. How To Train Your Dragon
218. Above Suspicion
219. Kill Bill Vol. 1
220. Stranger By the Lake
221. Unforgiven
222. Cherry Blossoms
223. A Most Wanted Man
224. Manhattan
225. The Apartment
226. Nausicaa
227. Back Street
228. Hotel Rwanda
229. The Departed
230. Primal Fear
231. Godzilla
232. Frozen
233. Ain’t Them Bodies Saints
234. West Side Story
235. Five Easy Pieces
236. Philomena
237. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
238. Cries and Whispers
239. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
240. The Negotiator
241. Blow-Up
242. The Crying Game
243. The Way Way Back
244. Army of Darkness
245. MASH
246. The Counselor
247. Killing Them Softly
248. The African Queen
249. True Romance
250. Night Moves (2014)
251. Gone Baby Gone
252. Bad Santa
253. Following
254. Funny Games
255. All is Lost
256. V for Vendetta
257. 300
258. Magic in the Moonlight
259. Santa Sangre
260. Alien
261. Rocky
262. The Dictator
263. The Matrix
264. The Canyons
265. The Purge: Anarchy
266. Divergent
267. Nymphomaniac Pt 1
268. Nymphomaniac Pt 2
269. Andrei Rublev
270. Sophie Scholl: The Final Days
271. Stuck in Love
272. The Spectacular Now
273. 42
274. Revolutionary Girl Utena
275. Upstream Color



Master of My Domain
1. Ran
2. Fantasia
3. Ed Wood
4. Infernal Affairs
5. Trainspotting
6. MASH
7. Monty Python's Life of Brian
8. Raging Bull
9. Grand Budapest Hotel
10. Inside Lweyn Davis



@Inmate Thanks for sharing that. You saw a lot of the big boys this year. I was sorry to see The Apartment so low. That is a heck of a year.

@Gatsby Nice list. The bottom three are my favorites by a pretty good margin but I also really enjoy Ed Wood and MASH.



yeah 2014 was really only the second year that i've really been into film so there's still a lot of big stuff i haven't seen. The Apartment was a little disappointing, but i still liked it and i could seeing liking it more with a rewatch. really the only films on that list that i dislike are the bottom 20 or so, and even then most of them are redeemable. i feel like i'm way too generous with my ratings, but when i try to lower them i realize that i do genuinely enjoy most of what i watch on some level and have a hard time giving below a
.



I sometimes feel like I am that way with ratings too. Then I go on a streak where I hate a few in a row, and I remember yeah I am doing just fine. It is all up to my subjectivity anyway.



I always feel like I need to be less generous with my ratings, but at the same time I genuinely love a lot of what I watch.



It's that time of year again. Hard to believe 2016 is here. These are my top ten films that I watched for the first time in 2015. This doesn't include any 2015 movies because I will make a top ten for that right before the Oscars. It was certainly the year of Noir and Documentaries for me. I saw lots of great stuff though including a new all time top ten. Looks like I will hit about 275 movies watched this year, that was an unthinkable number for me just three years ago. Movies have become the hobby of choice for me and I look forward to beating that number in 2016.

10) American Movie 1999


9) Thief 1981


8) Out Of The Past 1947


7) The Killers 1946


6) Dear Zachary 2008


5) Man On Wire 2008


4) Playtime 1967


3) The Magnificent Ambersons 1942


2) In A Lonely Place 1950


1) Once Upon A Time In The West 1968