Following up on the Movie thread’s idea for a central list of UP’s favorite movies, let’s see if we can make that happen.
Personally, I think it’s too difficult to just start right in with an all-time list; I think it needs to be sourced decade-by-decade. If there’s an appetite for it, we could eventually pit the best-of lists from the various decades against each other to make one final all-time list. But let’s start out a bit more manageable, and let’s play in a sandbox that is probably pretty common to the lot of us: the 90s. After working the 90s, I figure we go popcorn-style and jump all over the map to create these lists rather than going in any sort of chronological order.
I think the eventual way to crowdsource is to get as many participants as possible to post their top 20 list from the decade, but since it would be easy for many people to post lists and go “oh shit, how did I forget to list THAT one?” it makes sense to me that we could start out by simply naming off movies that would at least be in contention for ours, a way of developing a master list for people to use as a resource when posting their rankings. At the time of list-posting, literally all feature-length movies are eligible whether they came in at the brainstorm phase or not, but obviously it’s going to advantage movies to have had them brought to front of mind before the first person volunteers a list.
Once lists are posted, I’ll tabulate a consensus list by assigning the appropriate weight to each ranking depending on where each person puts it in their list.
So the task right now? Name as many awesome 90s movies as come to mind. Don’t worry about ranking them in order of personal preference yet. In the spirit of the “any relation to Wade Boggs?” tweet, just naming movies is a great form of conversation all by itself.
Go.
UPDATE: the initial brainstorming phase has completed and I am now accepting top-20 1990s rankings by PM. These are the 1990s movies that people brainstormed onto the list, but all 1990s movies are eligible to be placed in your ranking:
10 Things I Hate About You
The Addams Family
Addams Family Values
The Age of Innocence
American Beauty
American History X
American Movie
The American President
Apollo 13
Arlington Road
As Good As It Gets
Austin Powers
The Basketball Diaries
Batman Returns
Beautiful Girls
Beau Travail
Beauty and the Beast
Before Sunrise
Being John Malkovich
The Big Lebowski
Black Cat, White Cat
Boogie Nights
Boyz N the Hood
Braveheart
Breaking the Waves
A Brighter Summer Day
Buffalo 66’
Can’t Hardly Wait
Cape Fear
Carla’s Song
Carlito’s Way
Casino
The Celebration
Central Station
Chasing Amy
Chungking Express
The City of Lost Children
Clifford
Clueless
The Commitments
Con Air
Contact
Crash
Dazed and Confused
Defending Your Life
Delicatessen
Dogma
Donnie Brasco
Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead
The Double Life of Veronique
Dreams
Dumb and Dumber
Edward Scissorhands
Election
Empire Records
Encino Man
Existenz
Eyes Wide Shut
Face/off
Fallen Angels
Falling Down
Farewell My Concubine
Fargo
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
A Few Good Men
Fight Club
The Fisher King
Forrest Gump
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Fucking Amal
Funny Games
The Game
Gattaca
Get Shorty
Glengarry Glen Ross
Goodfellas
Good Will Hunting
Groundhog Day
Hackers
Hands on a Hard Body
Hard Boiled
Heat
Home Alone
Hoop Dreams
Independence Day
Infinity
The Insider
Insomnia
In the Name of the Father
Jackie Brown
Jerry Maguire
JFK
Jumanji
Jurassic Park
Kingpin
Knock off
L.A. Confidential
L.A. Story
La Haine
Land and Freedom
The Last of the Mohicans
A League of Their Own
Leaving Las Vegas
Legends of the Fall
Leon: the Professional
Life is Beautiful
The Lion King
Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Lost Highway
Lovers of the Polar Circle
The Lovers on the Bridge
M. Butterfly
Maborosi
Malcolm X
Matilda
The Matrix
Meet Joe Black
Miller’s Crossing
Misery
Mission: Impossible
My Cousin Vinny
My Own Private Idaho
Naked Lunch
Notting Hill
Office Space
Open Your Eyes
The Paper
Peppermint Candy
Philadelphia
Pi
The Player
Point Break
Pretty Woman
Primal Fear
Princess Mononoke
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Pulp Fiction
Pump Up the Volume
Pusher
The Quick and the Dead
Quick Change
Quiz Show
Raise the Red Lantern
Ratcatcher
Reality Bites
Rebels of the Neon God
The Remains of the Day
Reservoir Dogs
The Road Home
The Rock
Ronin
Rounders
Run Lola Run
Rushmore
The Sandlot
Saving Private Ryan
Schindler’s List
Scream
Se7en
Searching for Bobby Fischer
Seven
Shallow Grave
The Shawshank Redemption
The Silence of the Lambs
A Simple Plan
Singles
The Sixth Sense
The Spanish Prisoner
Speed
Starship Troopers
Star Wars the Phantom Menace
Straight Story
Suicide Kings
A Summer’s Tale
Swimming with Sharks
Swingers
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Taste of Cherry
Terminator 2
That Thing You Do!
Thelma & Louise
Three Colors Trilogy
Three Kings
Titanic
Tombstone
Total Recall
Toy Story
Trainspotting
True Romance
The Truman Show
Twin Peaks Fire Walk with Me
Underground
Unforgiven
The Usual Suspects
Varsity Blues
White Men Can’t Jump
Wild at Heart
Wild Things
