My 100 Favorite Movies (2015 Edition)

Frances McDormand in "Fargo"

Hurrah, it's that time of year again! I know I look forward to this day when I dust off my pedestal and vainly declare film absolutes to any who may hear! And no, that is not what I do all year round! Usually, I'm riding a horse.

Each year I like to sit down and make a list of what I currently consider to be my 100 favorite movies of all time. I make the list from scratch without referring to any previous lists so that I can see how different my opinion is from year to year. I like to think it's an important ritual in my film hobby because it not only provides specific examples of which movies I can personally recommend higher than all others (at least of those I've seen, and I've seen a few), but it is also a look at what kinds of movies I like in general. People who are familiar with these annual lists know something about both my tastes and myself.

And what a variety of styles, subjects, and origins this year's list holds! There are 25 comedies, 10 horror movies, 8 science fiction movies, 7 musicals, 4 action movies, 3 cartoons, and a western. 27 hail from foreign countries. Hitchcock and Kubrick both have 4 inclusions, and Spielberg has 3. A whopping quarter of the movies were released in the 60s. Another quarter are from the 50s and older. Another makes up the 70s and 80s, and another the 90s and later. The oldest movie is Faust from 1927 and the newest is Whiplash which just came out five months ago.

That was the hardest thing about compiling the list this year; knowing that a brand new movie like Whiplash and also the relatively new The Tree of Life deserved to be ranked among my favorites. I included them even though I have always had an unwritten rule that newer movies have to wait until time has passed and I can see them fresh and know they are favorites of all time and not just of a given year. But these both are great enough that they have passed the test more quickly than usual.

That goes for the other 6 new inclusions as well, most of which I recently revisited and were impacted by strongly enough to warrant their appearance here. The new movies this year are All the President's Men, The Lion in Winter, Mary Poppins, Ordinary People, The Tree of Life, The Triplets of Belleville, Waiting for Guffman, and Whiplash. Movies from last year's list that didn't make it: Bringing Up Baby, King Kong, The Maltese Falcon, Le Samourai, Sweet Smell of Success, The Ten Commandments, West Side Story, and The Wild Bunch. It's not that I like these movies any less. I'm merely throwing some different, equally great movies into the spotlight.

Anyways, here is the uncensored, sacred 2015 list, in alphabetical order.

1. All the President’s Men (1976)
2. Amadeus (1984)
3. Annie Hall (1977)
4. Back to the Future (1985)
5. The Bank Dick (1940)
6. Barton Fink (1991)
7. Beauty and the Beast (1945)
8. Being There (1979)
9. The Birds (1963)
10. Blade Runner (1982)
11. Blazing Saddles (1974)
12. Brazil (1985)
13. The Breakfast Club (1985)
14. Cache` (2005)
15. Carrie (1976)
16. Casablanca (1942)
17. Chinatown (1974)
18. A Christmas Story (1983)
19. Citizen Kane (1941)
20. City Lights (1931)
21. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
22. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
23. La Dolce Vita (1960)
24. Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
25. Dracula (1931)
26. Duck Soup (1933)
27. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
28. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
29. 8 ½ (1963)
30. The Exorcist (1973)
31. The Exterminating Angel (1962)
32. Fantasia (1940)
33. Fargo (1996)
34. Faust (1926)
35. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
36. Goldfinger (1964)
37. Gone with the Wind (1939)
38. The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1966)
39. The Graduate (1967)
40. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
41. Great Expectations (1946)
42. Groundhog Day (1993)
43. Halloween (1978)
44. A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
45. If… (1968)
46. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1962)
47. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
48. Kill Bill (2003)
49. Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
50. The Lion in Winter (1968)
51. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
52. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
53. Mary Poppins (1964)
54. Metropolis (1927)
55. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
56. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
57. Mulholland Dr. (2001)
58. My Fair Lady (1964)
59. Nashville (1976)
60. Network (1976)
61. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
62. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
63. Ordinary People (1980)
64. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
65. Pandora’s Box (1929)
66. Persona (1966)
67. Pink Floyd-The Wall (1982)
68. Planet of the Apes (1968)
69. Playtime (1967)
70. Psycho (1960)
71. Pulp Fiction (1994)
72. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
73. Rashomon (1950)
74. Rear Window (1954)
75. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
76. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
77. Saturday Night Fever (1977)
78. Schindler’s List (1993)
79. The Seventh Seal (1956)
80. The Shining (1980)
81. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
82. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
83. The Sixth Sense (1999)
84. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
85. Some Like It Hot (1959)
86. Star Wars (1977)
87. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
88. Taxi Driver (1976)
89. The Third Man (1949)
90. The Tree of Life (2011)
91. The Triplets of Belleville (2003)
92. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
93. Unforgiven (1992)
94. Vertigo (1958)
95. Vivre sa vie (1962)
96. Waiting for Guffman (1996)
97. Whiplash (2014)
98. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
99. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
100. The Wizard of Oz (1939)

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How many have YOU seen?! Carve the answer into your forehead so that we'll know you're one of us.
Or you can post it in the comments below or in an e-mail to me at beauxmoviemail@gmail.com.