New Year, Two New Top 100 Movies
In the newsletter edition of 2025, we discuss the two new additions to the top 100, Greta Gerwig’s masterpiece, and Jason Robards being a nasty little freak.
The Academy Award nominations were announced last week, and as of this writing, I have seen eight of the 10 movies nominated for Best Picture. I’m hoping to watch the two others — The Substance and Emilia Pérez — within the next few days.
This is the time of year when I scramble to catch as many Oscar nominees as possible, plus any of the other movies from the past year that I missed but wanted to see. That’s what brought me to the Alamo Drafthouse in Downtown Brooklyn last Saturday morning to see I’m Still Here, a Brazilian film that somewhat unexpectedly earned a Best Picture nomination.
I’m mentioning I’m Still Here specifically because I have not stopped thinking about it since I saw it, and unlike The Brutalist, Anora and Conclave — let alone Dune Part II and Wicked — it has gone relatively under the radar. It recently opened wide in theaters, and I encourage all of you to see over the next few weeks. It is one of my favorite movies of the past year, and I will be writing about it in early March when I run through my 2024 movie rankings ahead of the Oscars.
Anyway, let’s get into the latest top 100 list. Usually when I update these rankings, I make the title a mashup of the movies that I’m highlighting in that particular newsletter. I decided that wasn’t a good idea this time, because “Once Upon a Time in the Crowded Apartment of Little Women” sounded creepy.
This edition features two newcomers to the top 100. I came close to adding a third, Shampoo, but I just couldn’t find a place for it. It was hard enough to cut the two movies that I did. If anything, this fun little side project of mine has made me realize that there are way more than 100 great films out there for us to see.
100. Witness (1985)
Director: Peter Weir
Cast: Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis, Lukas Haas
99. A Face in the Crowd
Director: Elia Kazan
Cast: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Walter Mathau
Earlier this month, I decided to watch A Face in the Crowd on the Criterion Channel on the recommendation of my friend (and boss) Meg Rowley, who’d watched it a week or so earlier and raved about it. Her Slack message to me that night said, “We are watching A Face in the Crowd and you have to watch it.” So now, I’m telling all of you the same thing: You have to watch it.
Directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg, A Face in the Crowd stars Andy Griffith as Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, a folk-singing drifter who is picked out of an Arkansas drunk tank by local radio producer Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) to be the latest subject of her series, “A Face in the Crowd.” He quickly becomes a small-town sensation, more for his rambling tales of growing up and societal grievances than his music. Soon word gets out, and he turns that buzz into a Nashville TV show. In Nashville, Lonesome pisses off some sponsors for going off script and not doing ad reads, then for lampooning the sponsors during his ad reads. They threaten to take him off the air, prompting protests across the south. This only increases his appeal, and with the help of a shrewd young advertising man named Joey DePalma (Anthony Franciosa), he continues to climb the entertainment ladder until he his own show, broadcast nationally, out of New York City. Politicians and corporate executives come calling his influence over the masses grows, as they try to cash in on Lonesome’s celebrity. As the story progresses, we begin to suspect that Lonesome may not be everything as he seems to be.
Griffith is a revelation as Lonesome, and the movie works so well because he captivates us from the moment he first opens he mouth to sing. He isn’t a great singer, but he’s charismatic and his voice is powerful, and we can’t help but want to keep listening to him. We can understand Lonesome’s appeal even as we begin to see through him because we are just as entranced as the other characters are by him. It’s hard to imagine a world in which we didn’t know Andy Griffith, yet that was the case when A Face in the Crowd was made. He was a comedian and he’d done some theater, but this was his first film or TV credit. Even more remarkable is that he is playing against type. Watching this now, we see shades of Andy Taylor in Lonesome Rhodes, and because of this, we want to believe in Lonesome even more.
A Face in the Crowd received mixed reviews upon its release, but now, nearly 70 years later, it is essential. It is not simply an indictment of TV and mass media, nor is it a story about the corrupting nature of power. Lonesome doesn’t become more corrupt as he becomes more powerful; rather, he is a fraud all along. This is a story of demagogues, of false prophets, of how easy it is to fall victim to them and what they can do with their influence.
“We get wise to him. That’s our strength. We get wise to him,” says Mel Miller, as played by Walter Mathau. If only that were so…
98. Anatomy of a Fall (2023)
Director: Justine Triet
Cast: Sandra Hüller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado Granerv
97. Sorcerer (1977)
Director: William Friedkin
Cast: Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Amidou
96. Double Indemnity
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson
95. The Apartment
Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray
Jack Lemmon’s facial expressions during the first half of the movie are comedy gold, but the subtlety of the second half is what makes his role as C.C. Baxter an all-time performance. The Apartment satirizes the ways in which American society values and promotes capitalism, masculinity and sex, but it also works as an achingly beautiful romantic comedy.
94. Ishtar (1987)
Director: Elaine May
Cast: Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Isabelle Adjani
93. Boogie Nights (1997)
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds
92. Spirited Away (2001)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Cast (English Voices): Daveigh Chase, Suzanne Pleshette, Jason Marsden
91. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Director: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury
90. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Director: Sergio Leone
Cast: Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern
89. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Director: Charles Laughton
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish
88. Frances Ha (2012)
Director: Noah Baumbach
Cast: Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Adam Driver
87. The Parallax View (1974)
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Cast: Warren Beatty, Hume Cronyn, Paula Prentiss
86. The Searchers (1956)
Director: John Ford
Cast: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Natalie Wood
85. Mikey and Nicky (1976)
Director: Elaine May
Cast: Peter Falk, John Cassavetes, Ned Beatty
84. Babylon (2022)
Director: Damien Chazelle
Cast: Margot Robbie, Diego Calva, Brad Pitt
83. Past Lives (2023)
Director: Celine Song
Cast: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro
82. Out of the Past (1947)
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Freer, Kirk Douglas
81. The Conversation (1974)
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield
80. Toy Story 3 (2010)
Director: Lee Unkrich
Cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack
79. Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi
Director: Richard Marquand
Cast: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
78. A Few Good Men (1992)
Director: Rob Reiner
Cast: Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore
77. The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
Director: Martin McDonagh
Cast: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon
76. Road to Perdition (2002)
Director: Sam Mendes
Cast: Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Tyler Hoechlin
75. The Right Stuff (1983)
Director: Philip Kaufman
Cast: Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris
74. JFK (1991)
Director: Oliver Stone
Cast: Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones
73. North By Northwest (1959)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason
72. Seven Samurai (1954)
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima
71. High Noon (1952)
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell
70. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Director: Frank Capra
Cast: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore
69. There’s Something About Mary (1998)
Director: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly
Cast: Cameron Diaz, Ben Stiller, Matt Dillon
68. Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)
Director: Carl Franklin
Cast: Denzel Washington, Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Beals
67. 12 Angry Men (1957)
Director: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam
66. Moneyball (2011)
Director: Bennett Miller
Cast: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman
65. The Irishman (2019)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci
64. To Live and Die in L.A (1985)
Director: William Friedkin
Cast: William Petersen, Willem Dafoe, John Turturro
63. Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)
Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Cast: Vince Vaughn, Christine Taylor, Ben Stiller
62. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Director: Peter Weir
Cast: Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany, James D’Arcy
61. Bull Durham (1988)
Director: Ron Shelton
Cast: Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins
60. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns
59. Tár (2022)
Director: Todd Field
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss
58. The Social Network (2010)
Director: David Fincher
Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake
57. Thief (1981)
Director: Michael Mann
Cast: James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Robert Prosky
56. Paths of Glory (1957)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou
55. Back to the Future (1985)
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Cast: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson
54. Little Women (2019)
Director: Greta Gerwig
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh
Not to brag, but I am officially a member of the Pickwick Club.
My friend Ashley hosts a Little Women screening every December, and this year, I scored an invitation. Pretty big deal! We dressed up in mid-19th century attire and ate made food that wouldn’t have looked out of place if it were served at the March home. It was a delightful evening of film, food and friends.
This was the first time I’d seen Greta Gerwig’s masterpiece since it hit theaters back in December 2019, when I went with my dad to see it at the Regal in Fishkill (RIP). That year was one of the best for movies in recent memory; four of them are featured on this list — the other three: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (no. 7), Parasite (no. 33), The Irishman (no. 64) — and another handful would probably be included among my favorite movies of the 2010s: Knives Out, Uncut Gems, 1917, Ford v. Ferrari, The Lighthouse. (I still have not seen Portrait of a Lady on Fire, but that’s also one of the most acclaimed movies of 2019. It’s a major blind spot for me, especially because I live with a French lesbian. Sorry, Elina!)
Anyway, Little Women had always been firmly the fourth-best movie of that year in my eyes, until recently anyway, and I think that’s why I’d kept it somewhere in the 90s on my top 100 rankings. Maybe that’s also why I’d only seen it just the one time until Ashley’s watch party. I loved the experience of seeing it with my dad — also, let’s briefly laugh at the image of my dad and I sitting in a crowded theater of mostly mothers and daughters, welling up with emotion as we watched this essential story of sisterhood — and in a way, I wanted to hold onto that memory for as long as I could.
I think I also remember that first viewing so vividly and look back at it with such fondness because it came at precisely the moment when I could best relate to Jo (Saoirse Ronan), Amy (Florence Pugh) and Laurie (Timothée Chalamet). The three actors are about my age and their experiences felt like my own, just set 150-plus years in the past: Jo, as the ambitious young writer who wants the world but also doesn’t want to venture too far away from her family; Amy, for her insecurities, dreams and occasional impulsive behavior; Laurie, for his hopeless devotion to Jo, his struggles to live up to what’s expected of him and his questioning of whether those expectations are what’s best for him. Simply, I wasn’t sure if, five years later, I would connect as I did before.
Turns out, those concerns were ridiculous. Little Women is even more exceptional than I’d remembered. Back in 2019, I was still living at home with my parents; now that I’ve moved out, on this viewing, I related even more to Jo’s experiences as a young writer in New York. Also, I am one of the only single members of my friend group, so the scenes in which Jo grapples with the emotions of Amy and Meg getting married — her sadness that things won’t be like they were before, her happiness that her sisters found love, her regret that she’d rejected Laurie, her fear of being left behind — greatly affected me. I don’t live with my brother anymore, and although Josh is in perfect health and I see him at least once a month, the conversation on the beach between Jo and Beth (Eliza Scanlen) overwhelmed me. It made me want to spend as much time as possible with my brother, and I’m so grateful that soon after that rewatch, I went home for Christmas. It was that scene, more than the one in which we learn of Beth’s death, that momentarily wounded me.
(Quick aside: I know Josh isn’t reading this, even though he is a subscriber, so to his friends who are regular readers, please let him know that I got real sappy about him for a sec and he missed out.)
For all the universal themes and emotions that Little Women captures beautifully, what struck me most on this viewing is its earnestness. It is sentimental without being cheesy, and true to the traditions of its genre while still being revelatory. I can’t think of another movie in which every single frame is filled with so much love. Its warmth radiates from the screen.
53. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Director: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Al Pacino, John Cazale, Chris Sarandon
52. Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Director: Irvin Kershner
Cast: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
51. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Director: George Roy Hill
Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross
50. Phantom Thread (2017)
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Krieps, Lesley Manville
49. Oppenheimer (2023)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr.
48. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Director: Sergio Leone
Cast: Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards
Beginning with the drawn out opening sequence, which features a fly buzzing in the face of an outlaw at a remote train station, Once Upon a Time in the West is a masterclass in tension building. Henry Fonda is perfectly cast as the sadistic villain Frank. Playing Cheyenne, Jason Robards makes a meal of every line of dialogue; with his astute and hilariously perverted observations of the world around him, he makes us question the myths of the American West.
47. Good Will Hunting (1997)
Director: Gus Van Sant
Cast: Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck
46. Rear Window (1954)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey
45. There Will Be Blood (2007)
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciarán Hinds
44. Goodfellas (1990)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci
43. That Thing You Do! (1996)
Director: Tom Hanks
Cast: Tom Everett Scott, Liv Tyler, Tom Hanks
42. Do the Right Thing (1989)
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Spike Lee, Ossie Davis, Danny Aiello
41. Lincoln (2012)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones
40. The Third Man (1949)
Director: Carol Reed
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles
39. When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Director: Rob Reiner
Cast: Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher
38. After Hours (1985)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom
37. The Other Guys (2010)
Director: Adam McKay
Cast: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes
36. Get Out (2017)
Director: Jordan Peele
Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford
35. Almost Famous (2000)
Director: Cameron Crowe
Cast: Billy Crudup, Patrick Fugit, Kate Hudson
34. Malcolm X (1992)
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Albert Hall
33. Parasite (2019)
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Cast: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong
32. Zodiac (2007)
Director: David Fincher
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo
31. Apocalypse Now (1979)
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall
30. The Nice Guys (2016)
Director: Shane Black
Cast: Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Angourie Rice
29. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden
28. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Director: Jonathan Demme
Cast: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Ted Levine
27. The Insider (1999)
Director: Michael Mann
Cast: Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, Christopher Plummer
26. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Alison Doody
25. The Hateful Eight (2015)
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh
24. Heat (1995)
Director: Michael Mann
Cast: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer
23. Network (1976)
Director: Sidney Lumet
Cast: William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch
22. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie
21. Spotlight (2015)
Director: Tom McCarthy
Cast: Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams
20. In a Lonely Place (1950)
Director: Nicholas Ray
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy
19. Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, Robert De Niro
18. Magnolia (1999)
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast: Tom Cruise, Jason Robards, Julianne Moore
17. All the President’s Men (1976)
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Cast: Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Robards
16. Taxi Driver (1976)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd
15. Rio Bravo (1959)
Director: Howard Hawks
Cast: John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson
14. Casablanca (1942)
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains
13. Chinatown (1974)
Director: Roman Polanski
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston
12. The Fugitive (1993)
Director: Andrew Davis
Stars: Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Sela Ward
11. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Mélanie Laurent
10. A League of Their Own (1992)
Director: Penny Marshall
Cast: Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, Lori Petty
9. Reds (1981)
Director: Warren Beatty
Cast: Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson
8. The Godfather Part II (1974)
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall
7. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie
6. Gangs of New York (2002)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz
5. L.A. Confidential (1997)
Director: Curtis Hanson
Cast: Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman
3. The Godfather (1972)
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan
2. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Director: Frank Darabont
Cast: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton
1. The Departed (2006)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson
Additions:
A Face in the Crowd The Apartment
Subtractions:
On the Waterfront, Michael Clayton
Highest Risers:
Little Women (+27), The Night of the Hunter (+10), Seven Samurai (+8), The Right Stuff (+5), The Manchurian Candidate (+4), Paths of Glory (+3), Once Upon a Time in the West (+3)
Furthest Fallers:
Boogie Nights (-15), A Few Good Men (-5), Saving Private Ryan (-5), Sorcerer (-4), High Noon (-4), Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi (-3), JFK (-3), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (-3)
Honorable Mentions (Non-Cuts):
Citizen Kane, City of God, Licorice Pizza, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, No Country for Old Men, Shampoo, Silence, The Age of Innocence, The Big Short, The Dark Knight