Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Aw, hell nah...

I'll admit it's unclear to include it since you're following around someone who isn't in organized crime, but rather someone who gets themselves indebted to organized crime, but I do like it more than Goodfellas or The Godfather.


I like messy pictures that feel like they accurately capture the messiness of people.

When I was younger, I used to think that you could divide science fiction cinema into two separate eras - before Star Wars and after Star Wars. While this is arguably still true, I now regard 2001 as the true linchpin for the genre that managed to seriously elevate a genre that had already demonstrated considerable potential for intellectual engagement and cinematic innovation but this does now read as an evolutionary step forward similar to the ones that are made each time humanity comes into contact with one of the mysterious black monoliths scattered across time and space. Thus is the cryptic (but not exactly incomprehensible) story of 2001, unforgettably transitioning from prehistoric apes learning how to use tools to a future in which interplanetary exploration is a tangible reality - of course, the whole thing is driven by a collective need to seek answers to what exactly is going on with these monoliths. The end result is very much a journey-is-destination kind of deal that covers the spectrum from dryly scientific discourse between man and machine alike to an inevitable break in cosmic reality that defies immediate understanding. 2001 is the kind of film where it's more than okay to not understand it on an initial viewing as it's easy to get swept up in the (admittedly rather tongue-in-cheek) majesty of space travel set to classical music before silence and avant-garde atonality set in as the seemingly cut-and-dry mission deteriorates (or is that transcends) away from its original objective. Sci-fi is probably my favourite of all genres and, regardless of how the rest of this list might turn out, this really does seem like the ideal choice for representing the genre at its cinematic peak.

2005 ranking: #88
2013 ranking: #35

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Can you identify what change has occurred in your feelings towards all these movies and their rankings?

If asked, sure. Regarding 2001, my 2005 ranking is towards the tail end of the list because I could tell it was a masterpiece but it still felt like a film I didn't totally understand and thus I kept it at a lower ranking compared to films with which I had a more straightforward appreciation. By 2013, this had become actual straightforward appreciation. By 2022, this had become undeniable.

Fwiw, if I were to name a favorite all time movie, I'd probably choose 2001.
I don't know what to say about it, since it feels like it's been talked to death online over the decades.
I don't know if there's some type of lesson one learns when they're favorite movie is both l, understandably, not for everyone, and even for myself, it was definitely one that grew over time. It was definitely good on the first completed watch (took only 6 attempts in high school, when I kept starting it too late at night), but it really took took a while to really start to readjust to its sense of timing and pacing and that's nothing to say of finally cluing into a thematic arc - but even on those early viewings it did leave me with a sense of awe, as I recall. But it's been decades. Odds are I don't recall correctly.

If one has to choose the greatest film of all time, I don't know how anything else but 2001 qualifies. It baffles me that the Sight and Sound poll is still trying to catch up to this obvious reality.


Because I have deeper ties to The Exorcist, it's never going to be my personal number one. But....it's the best movie ever made. Not Citizen Kane. Not Vertigo. Not even the Exorcist. 2001 will be the standard all filmmakers of the future should be looking towards. It is untoppable.

Aw, you're not on the Interstellar > 2001 bandwagon?

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It's ironic in that arguably the one thing 2001 is lacking is an overtly strong human core - its characters are effectively interchangeable ciphers by design - but at the same time you see how a film like Interstellar tries to explicitly incorporate a sense of humanism into the proceedings and, well, you see what happens.

Which means he is sane, yes.
Maybe if we're talking about American cinema. Maybe. But World Cinema has much stronger masterpieces than 2001.

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

Maybe to some (I can imagine how one might gravitate more to some Tarkovksy films, some might be really into the fluid POV of The Red & The White, maybe one's really big on the minimalism of Ozu), but admittedly, Crumbs asserted something much more stronger and a more definitive claim.


But I'm a little curious, what were some of the examples that were jumping to your mind when you asserted a strong counter-claim.

Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky

• Sátántangó
• Zerkalo
• Persona
• Sansho the Bailiff
• L' année derničre ŕ Marienbad
• As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
• And so on...

A masterpiece but not as good as 2001.

I was just joking, btw. 2001 is #2 in my favorite's list, and I think I gave Interstellar a 4 or 5/10.

All great. All worth being in the discussion. And they all probably do specific things better than 2001. But as a whole package, I stick with the hyperbolic verdict that nothing is better than what Kubrick did. As a piece of film. As a story. As a technical marvel. As a mystery for the ages. As a revolution. As poetry. As eye candy. As entertainment. As a possible window into the meaning of life. As a **** you to Hollywood traditionalism. 2001 has it all covered.

Is there anything worse than a second tier director thinking they can make a modern 2001?


Well, Babydriver...but other than that.

you are my hero.

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"My Dionne Warwick understanding of your dream indicates that you are ambivalent on how you want life to eventually screw you." - Joel

"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel

"I just can't get pass sticking a finger up a dog's butt." - John Dumbear

Chalk another victory of Chinese Bookie. I'm on that train too. The desperate loneliness of Gazarra's character. His pathetic charade. Timothy Carey's creepy and philosophical hitman. Mr. Sophistication the cryptkeeper of the lamest of all strip bars. Cassavetes crying behind the scenes over his decision of whether or not to kill 'the Chinaman'.



Clearly superior to Godfather in the ways that matter to me. Godfather always has that perfection thing working against it. And only 2001 is allowed such a crime as perfection. Chinese Bookie is this wondrous crime-movie stumble. Movies rarely get much better, which is a marvel considering how much Cassavetes goes out of his way to alienate the viewer and subvert any expectation we might want from a mob film.

I don't see what those movies' countries of origin have to do with whether or not they're better than 2001, though.

While I disagree with Mr Minio, his literal claim wasn't necessarily that non-American cinema was better, but rather once you go for that wider pool of movies, he thinks there's a lot in there that is.


Maybe there was an implication there, but I will point out, one of the films on his list is American.