Charts: Lists

This page shows you the list charts. By default, the movies are ordered by how many times they have been marked as a favorite. However, you can also sort by other information, such as the total number of times it has been marked as a dislike.

  1. 10 Famous Films That Are Secretly About Movie-Making's icon

    10 Famous Films That Are Secretly About Movie-Making

    Favs/dislikes: 2:0. Over the years, there have been many films – both documentaries and works of fiction – focussed on the art of filmmaking itself. On the fictional side of things, films like 8½, Ed Wood, Bowfinger, Be Kind Rewind and The Disaster Artist are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to movies that are themselves actually about making movies. But not every flick that touches on the craft behind the moving pictures trade is as explicit as the above examples. On the contrary, sometimes, the filmmakers involved express their commentary on the movie-making game through symbolism, relying on the film’s underlying themes to convey their message, instead. With this in mind, we’ve pulled together this list of 10 movies that – believe it or not – are secretly about movie-making.
  2. 10 Great Anti-Detective Films For The Post-Truth Era's icon

    10 Great Anti-Detective Films For The Post-Truth Era

    Favs/dislikes: 4:0. There is a moral in detective fiction perhaps put best by a slogan of The X-Files, a science fictional inheritor of the genre: The Truth is out there. More than the conviction of evidence for extraterrestrial life this is in the context of the show, this phrase also speaks to a belief in objective truth, and the knowability of this truth essential to the entire detective genre, to the implication of forces which conceal it, and the moral imperative of its pursuit. This is the project of the detective, a knight errant of the modern world who seeks the hidden coherency of truth from out of a web of disparate and often contradictory clues and in finding it, restores some justice, order, or at least sense to the world. Of course the genre’s moral core is often offset by its characteristic cynicism, where truth alone unbiased and pure may well be the only moral good. Where the hero is often positioned outside any law, private, unincorporated, as comfortable in the world of criminality as order, never above snooping, lying, breaking and entering, aiding or abetting in order to make a case, and devoted even to truth by profession alone, driven as much by mercenary selfishness as any moral force. Where the detective is just as often frustrated in their quest, if not by the all pervasive corruption of the law and its society of cheats, as in the ending of Polanski’s Chinatown, then by the ultimate inaccessibility of the facts. But even when frustrated, the detective still traditionally secures us within a world where truth exists as something objective and knowable and where there are those capable of and committed to its pursuit. But what happens when the detective enters a strange abstracting space where truth is no longer knowable or based on objective grounds, where contradictory truths seem to coexist, where paranoid fantasy replaces intuition, and the process of detection itself becomes suspect? These are the questions asked by a countercurrent of anti-detective films emerging in the 1960’s and 70’s art cinemas – striking a new resonance, and re-emerging in our current era of ‘post-truth’ – which in one way or another deconstruct the assumptions on which the genre is founded from the perspectives of a new skeptical relativism, not only as genre critique, but also as a repurposing of this now disemboweled form to new and creative ends. Through it all the detective persists, stubborn holdovers as they are from a world where truth was absolute. There is another slogan in The X-Files: I want to believe. Here is a list of ten anti-detective films to put Philip Marlowe on his ass.
  3. 10 Great Documentaries That Challenge the Conventions of the Genre's icon

    10 Great Documentaries That Challenge the Conventions of the Genre

    Favs/dislikes: 2:0. A documentary film is predisposed toward exposition. Whether shedding light on an artifact of popular culture or something more esoteric, the intention is nonetheless to share a slice of life that is assumed to be outside the bounds of common knowledge. By focusing on a subject outside the limelight, a documentary seeks to inform, enrich, and expand the perspective of its audience. However, certain films achieve these aims with such brilliance as to broaden the definition of documentary filmmaking. This type of film may challenge the conventions of narrative, create a new style, develop new techniques, blur the boundaries between fiction and the real, or some combination of these innovations. Sometimes the break with tradition is quite radical, as was case with the multiverse of perspectives in William Greaves’ Symbiopsychotaxiplasm. In others, the break may be subtle, as demonstrated by Errol Morris’ befuddling ode to mortality, Gates of Heaven. By challenging the conventions of their medium, the films in this list made an indelible impression on the history of documentary filmmaking.
  4. 10 great films about life in the digital age's icon

    10 great films about life in the digital age

    Favs/dislikes: 3:0. Remember when it took ages to dial up and go online in the early days of the digital age? Hollywood’s relationship with the internet evolved at a similar pace, with stories that struggled to connect our everyday experiences online with narratives that actually made sense. Because of this lag, there have been plenty of films that failed to represent the internet accurately without already feeling dated by the time that they hit our screens. Even as far back as 1999, our online experiences were already about so much more than just the sprawling green code seen in The Matrix, and since then countless techno-thrillers have shown hackers somehow infiltrating top-tier government systems in the blink of an eye. However, there are some directors out there who have managed to cut through the clichés to better represent what life is really like now we live so much of it online. With the internet now 30 years old, here are 10 powerful time capsules charting our digital evolution.
  5. 10 great films about making a fresh start's icon

    10 great films about making a fresh start

    Favs/dislikes: 1:0. Each new year comes with tantalising scope for self reinvention. The turn of the calendar presents an illusory milestone that lures many of us into hoping we can somehow force a step-change in our character or situation that will bring us closer to being the person we really want to be. Yet, however big or small the resolutions we make for ourselves, the change is fraught with the pitfalls of simply relaxing back into the person it’s always been easy to be – with the same shortcomings and neuroses. In films, turning over a new leaf comes so much easier. All the same pitfalls and setbacks are there, of course, but the arc of a satisfying story depends on forward movement and the sense that the characters are ending in a different place from where they began. Hopes can and will be fulfilled. In Eric Rohmer’s spellbinding 1986 film The Green Ray, change comes not in January but at the height of summer. Parisian secretary Delphine (Marie Rivière) has been dumped by her boyfriend just prior to holiday season. Her plans abandoned, she flits from one destination to another, joining friends, striking off on her own – but it seems there’s nothing anyone can do to awaken her from her sadness and sense of isolation. It’s easy to take against Delphine. She’s self-absorbed and prickly to engage with – refusing to do much to help her situation. But therein lies the truthfulness of her character. Despondency makes a mountain of starting over and pulling your own socks up. Yet, while completely naturalistic in its 16mm filming and improvised acting, there’s a sublime, almost mystical feel to Rohmer’s film. It’s something about the wind in the trees, and the playing cards that Delphine finds from time to time abandoned in the street. And hope will come in the strangest place: in an overheard conversation about an optical illusion (the ‘green ray’ of the title) which – on rare occasions – can be glimpsed as the sun sets over the sea. When, like Rohmer’s heroine, you need inspiration for taking a new step, these 10 films offer 10 possible paths to fresh horizons.
  6. 10 great films about recluses's icon

    10 great films about recluses

    Favs/dislikes: 1:0. From the broody loners of gothic literature to the rugged pioneers of survivalist documentaries, recluses have long been a source of fascination for artists and audiences alike. We’ve all heaved a sigh of relief after escaping tedious company, but to leave society forever? Humans are fundamentally pack animals, so when one separates from the herd and wanders off, we can’t help but plumb the depths of their psyche for answers. Defining a recluse isn’t as straightforward as it seems. It’s a person who lives a solitary existence, of course, but there also needs to be an element of self-determination, otherwise any old prisoner will do. Dae-su Oh in Oldboy (2004)? Prisoner. Carol in Repulsion (1965)? Recluse. The incarcerated children in Dogtooth (2009)? Prisoners. Miss Havisham of Great Expectations? Recluse. You get the idea. Prisoners and recluses have very different motivations and mindsets; conflating the two would be a mistake. Marie Lidén’s new documentary Electric Malady is about William, a man who believes modern life – and specifically, electricity – is making him ill, and his only option for survival is to live in a log cabin deep in the Swedish woods. Whether or not William’s electrosensitivity is real or psychosomatic (something Lindén tactfully explores in the documentary), his pain is real. It’s a key theme among the films on this list, many of which feature recluses whose impetus is a push from society, rather than a pull towards solitude.
  7. 10 Great Movies That Explore Human Alienation's icon

    10 Great Movies That Explore Human Alienation

    Favs/dislikes: 1:0. Some of the best movies ever made have been inspired by loneliness and isolation. There is still something to be said for the film that shines a light on the theme of alienation. By returning to this timeless concept, and taking a look at all the different lonely characters in film, there are lessons to be learned for our own lives. Here are 10 of the best films that explore human alienation.
  8. 10 Great Movies That Meditate On Time's icon

    10 Great Movies That Meditate On Time

    Favs/dislikes: 3:0. Cinema is truly one of the most complex forms of art. Legendary director Andrei Tarkovsky once said, “No art form can fix time as cinema does. So, what is a film? It’s a mosaic made of time.” In this list, we’re approaching movies that somehow have reflections about time in its theme (or themes). As always, it is never too late to remember that many aspects interfere on the choice of the titles of an article like this. But, as usual, memory and personal preferences are the main factors. If you think any other movie should be on this list, please leave it as a recommendation in the comments section below. So, here are 10 amazing movies that meditate on time:
  9. 10 Great Movies That Will Change Your View On Cinema's icon

    10 Great Movies That Will Change Your View On Cinema

    Favs/dislikes: 2:0. Three acts. Beginning, middle, end. Shot reverse shot. Do all stories need to be told this way? Cinema is one of the most complex forms of art. The number of elements this art form uses to compose a piece of work are truly vast and the possibilities tend to be infinite. Sometimes we watch a movie that is able to change the way we view cinema. For the way it uses images, or sounds, or editing or any of the many elements cinema has, some films simply show us a path we may not have imagined before. And some films that do exactly that are the theme of this article. First of all, it is never too late to remember that the choice of the titles on this list is something very personal. Normally, the main factors that interfere with these choices are memory and personal preference, but this time there’s also the fact that the movies chosen were especially the ones that changed the way this writer used to view cinema before watching them. So, here are 10 movies that will (probably) change your view on cinema.
  10. 10 Great Movies You Need To See To Really Understand BDSM's icon

    10 Great Movies You Need To See To Really Understand BDSM

    Favs/dislikes: 1:0. When most people think of “BDSM”, they might immediately have an idea in mind about what it means. In the world of film, however, BDSM isn’t all whips and chains. Relationships can be depicted in different ways that are not heteronormative, often to great results. Before the recent popularizing of Fifty Shades of Grey, there were several other films that made use of nontraditional relationships. This list includes a few of the best to tackle to subject successfully.
  11. 10 great natural history films's icon

    10 great natural history films

    Favs/dislikes: 0:0. In 1910, audiences were mesmerised by the spectacle of a sepia- and cobalt-toned series of flowers bursting into bloom, their petals unfurling in what appeared to be real time. The Birth of a Flower (1910) by F. Percy Smith (1880-1945) was a watershed moment in the use of what we now know as timelapse, or ‘time magnification’ as this pioneer of British natural history filmmaking referred to it. Since then, filmmakers have deployed an array of techniques for bringing the natural world closer to human perception, from macro- and micro-cinematography through to illustrative animations and computer models. The camera has transported viewers to places they cannot go, from the deepest ocean floors to the sun-baking heat of the most arid deserts. Smith, however, filmed most of his material in the grandiose-sounding Southgate Studios – actually his own home, a terraced house in Enfield, north London. For him, of equal importance to the phenomena that fell beneath his lens was the technology used to fix it on film. Both aspects were the subjects of the trio of books he co-authored, Secrets of Nature (1939), Cine-Biology (1941) and See How They Grow (1952), which explain the motivation, methodology and science behind his cinematic probings of the natural world. Many of Smith’s films are included on the BFI’s Secrets of Nature DVD release from 2010. Now they have been repurposed by Stuart A. Staples and David Reeve for an immersive and hypnotic new work, Minute Bodies: The Intimate World of F. Percy Smith, featuring a suitably free-flowing and otherworldly original soundtrack by Tindersticks with Thomas Belhom and Christine Ott. This new film presents a hidden universe that is sensual, abstract and alien, yet strongly resonates with our own perceptions of the ecosystem around us. The release of Minute Bodies on Blu-ray and DVD prompts an opportunity to cast our eyes to some of the more revolutionary endeavours in the field of natural history filmmaking over the past century.
  12. 10 great puzzle films's icon

    10 great puzzle films

    Favs/dislikes: 1:0. “What’s in the box?” wails Brad Pitt’s panicked detective to Kevin Spacey’s implacable serial killer at the end of David Fincher’s pitch-black thriller Se7en (1995). Soon enough Pitt, and the audience, learn the horrific truth about Spacey’s special delivery. It’s testament to the enduring power of mysteries – the who-, why- and how-dunnits – that we always need to know, no matter how awful the solution might be. And those that can still pull one over on game and experienced armchair sleuths – Rian Johnson’s Knives Out (2019) and its upcoming sequel are fine recent examples – are valuable indeed. Of course, those are just one type of ‘puzzle’ movie. Some don’t so much contain a riddle to solve as much as the film itself is constructed as an enigma that defies easy answers, or any definite answer at all. This could be the interlocking double timeframes of Christopher Nolan’s Memento (2000), which tries to replicate its amnesiac protagonist’s short-term memory lapses. Or the playful narrative diversions and roundelay of shifting identities in certain Jacques Rivette films. Peter Greenaway’s breakthrough feature, The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982), appeared 40 years ago and immediately put its own deft, acerbic headspin on British period films. It tells of the titular, entitled 17th-century draughtsman hired to make 12 drawings of a landowner’s country estate by his wife. In return, and in addition to his fee, she will satisfy his pleasures. But that’s only the start of a series of covert transactions, concealed vantage points and hidden motivations to be teased out by the viewer from Greenaway’s precise tableaux. The director would go on to make even more oblique, enigmatic work (often structured around a particular key or code), one of which features below in a selection of cinema’s most beautifully, often hypnotically, baffling brainteasers.
  13. 10 great stressful films's icon

    10 great stressful films

    Favs/dislikes: 2:0. Going to the movies is fun, right? A blissful escape from the day-to-day pressures of modern living. But from the moment a desperado aimed his loaded pistol directly at the audience in 1903’s The Great Train Robbery, filmmakers have delighted in making us feel threatened, anxious, on edge. The techniques may have developed, from the blunt jump-scares of Val Lewton to the sophisticated emotional brutality of Lars von Trier, but the intention and the result are essentially the same: get a viewer settled in a confined space, then turn the thumbscrews on them for 90-plus minutes. It’s hard to pinpoint the precise appeal of a truly stressful movie. Take this month’s Netflix release, Uncut Gems, a masterpiece of relentless, brain-hammering tension in which Adam Sandler plays Howard Ratner, a New York jeweller with an apparent death wish. Howard’s life ought to be perfect: he’s a nice guy, already wealthy, he’s got celebrity customers queueing up to buy his bling and he’s just taken possession of a rare Ethiopian gem. But somehow, he can’t stop shooting himself in the foot. Do we come to a film like Uncut Gems for life lessons, for a handy what-not-to-do? Are we trying to make ourselves feel better about our own comparatively insignificant anxieties? Or are we just gluttons for punishment, hungering for an intense but ultimately non-threatening experience, and the sense of relief that follows? Whatever the reason, stressful movies can be some of the most memorable. Here are 10 of the very best.
  14. 10 great walking films's icon

    10 great walking films

    Favs/dislikes: 1:0. Cinema loves journeys. As a structuring tool, creating a long or short journey is one of the commonest occurrences in film; one that provides a physical beginning and end to a narrative. While a multitude of directors and genres have toyed with the potential mapping various journeys via transport – the road movie in particular – there’s something far more dramatic in showing characters that determinedly walk to where they want to go. Whether using it as a visual tool, just as British director Alan Clarke did in his many famed walking shots, or building whole narratives around a walk, as in many films by French directors Éric Rohmer and Agnès Varda, walking has always been a powerful way to not simply explore place and geography but also to explore character. Considering the slow pace, at least in comparison to other possible methods of getting from A to B, walking can make for surprisingly powerful and dramatic visuals on screen, whether traipsing across dangerous industrial zones, guarded national borders or simply down the busy street of a capital city. As the new British comedy The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry sends Jim Broadbent on an epic traipse from Devon to Berwick-upon-Tweed, here are 10 films it follows in footsteps.
  15. 10 great whodunnit mysteries's icon

    10 great whodunnit mysteries

    Favs/dislikes: 3:0. Rian Johnson’s Knives Out joins the devilishly entertaining tradition of suspect-filled murder mysteries in which the audience plays sleuth. Rian Johnson’s riotously enjoyable movie Knives Out has all the ingredients of a classic whodunnit: a dead body in a country house, a variety of plausible suspects, an eccentric investigator and a plot with more twists than a coiled rattlesnake. Daniel Craig plays Benoit Blanc, a southern-fried sleuth called in to solve the murder of novelist and patriarch Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer). Naturally, suspicion falls on every member of his family, and Blanc must eliminate them one by one. From the procedural cop shows on TV to big-screen thrillers, the murder mystery is perennially popular, but the classic whodunnit makes more sporadic appearances. Part intellectual puzzle, part comedy, the whodunnit is at its most enjoyable when it is witty and light on its feet. It’s not about doling out justice, but tickling the audience with the pleasures of plot and character. That’s partly why Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap remains the longest-running show in the West End – although she famously asked the audience not to reveal the ending to their friends. In a perfect whodunnit the identity of the murderer should not be easily guessed at the outset, although looking back there will have been unmistakable clues. The plot should be garlanded with so many red herrings and dead ends that the audience’s heads are spinning by the end anyway. The detective may be an amateur, but he or she must be brilliantly clever, utterly idiosyncratic and dogged in their pursuit of the one person who had the means, the motive and the opportunity to commit the murder. For the most satisfying possible finale, the culprit’s true identity should be unveiled with a flourish, in front of all the suspects who have been gathered for the coup de théâtre. While Knives Out is self-consciously a throwback to the classic form, packed with allusions to its predecessors, this is a sub-genre that has taken a few enjoyable detours of its own. So let the games begin…
  16. 10 Most Complex Sci-fi Movies of All Time (Taste of Cinema)'s icon

    10 Most Complex Sci-fi Movies of All Time (Taste of Cinema)

    Favs/dislikes: 0:0. By its very nature, the sci-fi genre is relatively complex: the short stories, novels, TV series and films that comprise speculative fiction necessitate detailed expository passages to build its far-flung futures, reality-bending premises, and stories set in a galaxy far, far away. Whether the story is set on an alien world populated by creatures markedly different from human beings, in a future separated by centuries or eons from the present in which society, technology, science, and civilization itself have evolved into a nearly unrecognizable state, or center around time or space travel, sci-fi stories require complex set-ups to create a believable reality that’s very different from our own. Because of this, the sci-fi genre also allows for its stories to become quite complex. Time travel stories thrive on complexity while, depending on the story, other elements may be willfully obtuse to create an air of mystery or disorientation in the viewer–and some sci-fi stories are much more complex than others. Here are 10 sci-fi films that are purposely complex, either in order to replicate the extraordinary events occurring in the story, to mirror the effect an advanced technology that’s in use as part of the plot, or simply to keep the viewer in the dark about unknowable creatures and the nearly inexplicable that happens during the film.
  17. 10 Movies with The Best Uses of Point-of-View Shots's icon

    10 Movies with The Best Uses of Point-of-View Shots

    Favs/dislikes: 0:0. A point-of-view (POV) shot is one where the camera is positioned in such a way to give the audience the impression that they are viewing the scene as a character in the film. It creates the effect that the viewer is immersed in the action, as if he/she were directly taking part in the movie itself, as opposed to a deep-focus or master shot where the viewer is placed outside of events, passively observing like a “fly on the wall”. There are various types of POV available to the film-maker: the ‘subjective viewpoint’, for example, can be used to replicate the first-person narrative of a novel by showing the action through the eyes of the central character, whereas a more objective experience may be achieved by placing the camera cheek-to-cheek with another actor in the film to show what that character is able to see without implying that the viewer is actually taking part in their place. These kinds of shots are often followed immediately by a close-up of the character in order to show his/her reaction to what they (and the audience) have just seen — an editing combination known as “shot, reverse-shot”. A similar type of POV angle, regularly used in action movies, is where the camera is placed close to ground level alongside one of the wheels of a speeding car, adding excitement through a feeling of participation in the drama of a chase scene. POV shots have been used by directors since the dawn of cinema and they are a standard part of the film-maker’s toolkit. One of the earliest well-known uses of the technique is in Napoleon (Abel Gance,1927) when the camera was wrapped in protective padding and then violently punched around the set by a group of actors in order to recreate the ordeal of the central character being beaten up. Orson Welles originally planned in 1939 to film an entire version of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (later transplanted to the Vietnam war and shot from regular angles by Francis Ford Coppola in Apocalypse Now) entirely as a first-person narrative from the protagonist’s perspective. He discarded the idea as impractical, however, and concentrated on Citizen Kane instead; although he did later revisit the technique in 1952 when he used POV in his 1952 adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play, Othello. Some directors, such as Alfred Hitchcock, are famous for using point-of-view cinematography in many of their works to build suspense or add to the sense of fear they are trying to instil in the audience. The technique is especially beloved of horror and thriller filmmakers who can use it to show the villain’s actions without revealing the identity of the culprit. Nowadays, POV photography is everywhere and has become totally ubiquitous as just about anybody can go out and buy a Go-Pro camera, strap it to their ski- or bike-helmet and start filming away; Facebook and YouTube are full of first-person accounts of thrill-seekers hurtling down black runs or bumping along single-track mountain trails. It is the more memorable cinematic examples, however, that shall be examined in the following list.
  18. 10 Tajik Films Known to the World + 15 Films from Tajikistan that Everyone Should Watch's icon

    10 Tajik Films Known to the World + 15 Films from Tajikistan that Everyone Should Watch

    Favs/dislikes: 1:0. actually nobode knows em https://asiaplustj.info/ru/news/10-tadzhikskikh-filmov-kotorye-znaet-mir well not everyone surely https://halva.tj/articles/education/tadzhikskiy_kinematograf_kakie_filmy_dolzhen_posmotret_kazhdyy_/ see also https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/available+online+with+english+subtitles+tajikistan/melvelet/ watch em https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5301648
  19. 10 Underrated Time Travel Movies (Den of Geek)'s icon

    10 Underrated Time Travel Movies (Den of Geek)

    Favs/dislikes: 1:0.
  20. 100 best animated films of all time (TimeOut)'s icon

    100 best animated films of all time (TimeOut)

    Favs/dislikes: 1:0. in 17. Song of the Sea (2014) 43. Inside Out (2015) 52. Coco (2017) 71. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) 76. Flee / Flugt (2021) 83. Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) 90. The Mitchells vs. The Machines (2021) out 56. Wreck-It Ralph 63. Jason and the Argonauts 64. King Kong (1933) 78. Kung Fu Panda 85. Coonskin 89. ParaNorman 92. James and the Giant Peach (1996)
  21. 100 best comedy by Maxim's icon

    100 best comedy by Maxim

    Favs/dislikes: 3:0.
  22. 100 Best Horror Films according to BHM (2010)'s icon

    100 Best Horror Films according to BHM (2010)

    Favs/dislikes: 4:0.
  23. 100 Best Movies of All Time (according to 24/7 Wall St.)'s icon

    100 Best Movies of All Time (according to 24/7 Wall St.)

    Favs/dislikes: 3:0. Film is arguably the art form that evokes the most emotions. And great films are those that move audiences most. They generate a deep connection between moviegoers and the story. While 24/7 Wall St.’s list of 100 best movies of all time attempts a more impartial approach of aggregating and averaging critic and audience reviews, these reviews were no doubt influenced by the films’ emotional appeal.
  24. 100 Greatest Train Movies by Trains Magazine's icon

    100 Greatest Train Movies by Trains Magazine

    Favs/dislikes: 1:0. 2010 list With some titles, im not sure about which are actually talked about. There's also a typo wherein #75 is missing and instead there are two #85s. I'll choose Wendy and Lucy until someone clears this up because it's a more prominent film.
  25. 100 Greatest underrated movies's icon

    100 Greatest underrated movies

    Favs/dislikes: 17:0. underrated films according to digitaldreamdoor.com
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