Gaps
I'm going to go ahead and lay some ignorance bare for you all: there are some important movies I haven't seen.
This may not surprise you in general, because that statement is true for almost everyone, even part-time film critics, even full-time film critics. But the particulars may look a little damning. I've caught up with a lot of movies in my life, but I do believe in the importance of keeping current with movies that are actually coming out in my lifetime, even (sometimes especially) the mediocre or bad ones. So I try to both: catch up with the movies I haven't seen yet, keep up with contemporary movies as they come out.
I subscribed to Netflix in large part as a catch-up measure, but last year Marisa and I switched to streaming only for a variety of reasons (rising costs; already having Amazon Prime and cable and now HBO; feeling that eight dollars a month for unlimited streaming was probably better bang than fifteen or sixteen with physical discs we weren't always great about watching). But I acknowledge that part of the problem of the vision of a streaming-only future is the way a streaming service generally gives you access to a selection of movies rather than movies you specifically pick out. You trade choice for convenience. It's fun, of course, seeing what movies pop up unexpectedly on Netflix or Amazon streaming; it's less fun when they disappear, or when you can no longer just send for The Last Days of Disco because you don't want to pay extra for discs and Hulu Plus is the service that streams Criterion movies.
As such, I've stalled a little on my catch-up operation. But I have decided to return to a running list of movies that I need to see, inspired by my departed Netflix mail-queue and, perversely, my current inability to see a lot of these immediately (though a few of the movies listed below-- some Scorseses, Kubricks, and Hitchocks -- I have at home or will soon, thanks to overzealous box-set purchases). Maybe you can help with it. If there's anything not listed below that you don't think I've seen and feel like I really need to, feel free to pipe in. I'm focusing primarily on U.S. movies at the moment, though there are some foreign-language selections sprinkled throughout. And I'm pretty much not putting documentaries on this list for now. I'll see the odd documentary here and there, but it's not really an area of expertise or great interest for me. An area where I'm probably more deficient would be cultier movies, those less likely to pop up on your standard best-of-decade or massive-influence type of retrospectives.
So yeah, tell me what else I need!
100 Movies to Watch, Give or Take a Few:
Ace in the Hole
Adam's Rib
The Adventures of Robin Hood
The African Queen
The Age of Innocence
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Altered States
Another Woman
Badlands
Barry Lyndon
Big Trouble in Little China
Body Double
Born Yesterday
Brief Encounter
Bullitt
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Candidate
Carnival of Souls
Cat People
City Lights
The Color of Money
The Color Purple
Days of Heaven
Dead Ringers
The Deer Hunter
Don't Look Now
Dressed to Kill
Duck Soup
Easy Rider
The Gold Rush
Family Plot
Five Easy Pieces
The 400 Blows
Frenzy
Gone with the Wind
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The Godfather, Part III
The Great Escape
Harold and Maude
Heaven Can Wait
High Noon
Holiday
Interiors
Isthar
Kiss Me Deadly
The Last Temptation of Christ
Lawrence of Arabia
Lifeboat
Lost in America
M
The Magnificent Ambersons
The Maltese Falcon
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Marnie
M*A*S*H
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
Modern Romance
Modern Times
Moonstruck
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Nashville
Network
New York, New York
A Night at the Opera
Night Moves
No Way Out
Notorious
On the Waterfront
Once Upon a Time in the West
Out of the Past
Pickup on South Street
Rebecca
Rio Bravo
Rocky
Roman Holiday
Scarecrow
September
Serpico
Shadows and Fog
Shampoo
Sisters
Some Like It Hot
Spartacus
Stagecoach
Stardust Memories
Straight Time
Sullivan's Travels
Sunset Boulevard
Superman II
The Thin Man
The Third Man
To Have and Have Not
To Kill a Mockingbird
Topaz
Torn Curtain
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Various James Bond movies (particularly: Dr. No; From Russia with Love; Diamonds Are Forever; The Spy Who Loved Me; Moonraker)
Who's That Knocking on My Door
The Wild Bunch
You Can't Take It with You
This may not surprise you in general, because that statement is true for almost everyone, even part-time film critics, even full-time film critics. But the particulars may look a little damning. I've caught up with a lot of movies in my life, but I do believe in the importance of keeping current with movies that are actually coming out in my lifetime, even (sometimes especially) the mediocre or bad ones. So I try to both: catch up with the movies I haven't seen yet, keep up with contemporary movies as they come out.
I subscribed to Netflix in large part as a catch-up measure, but last year Marisa and I switched to streaming only for a variety of reasons (rising costs; already having Amazon Prime and cable and now HBO; feeling that eight dollars a month for unlimited streaming was probably better bang than fifteen or sixteen with physical discs we weren't always great about watching). But I acknowledge that part of the problem of the vision of a streaming-only future is the way a streaming service generally gives you access to a selection of movies rather than movies you specifically pick out. You trade choice for convenience. It's fun, of course, seeing what movies pop up unexpectedly on Netflix or Amazon streaming; it's less fun when they disappear, or when you can no longer just send for The Last Days of Disco because you don't want to pay extra for discs and Hulu Plus is the service that streams Criterion movies.
As such, I've stalled a little on my catch-up operation. But I have decided to return to a running list of movies that I need to see, inspired by my departed Netflix mail-queue and, perversely, my current inability to see a lot of these immediately (though a few of the movies listed below-- some Scorseses, Kubricks, and Hitchocks -- I have at home or will soon, thanks to overzealous box-set purchases). Maybe you can help with it. If there's anything not listed below that you don't think I've seen and feel like I really need to, feel free to pipe in. I'm focusing primarily on U.S. movies at the moment, though there are some foreign-language selections sprinkled throughout. And I'm pretty much not putting documentaries on this list for now. I'll see the odd documentary here and there, but it's not really an area of expertise or great interest for me. An area where I'm probably more deficient would be cultier movies, those less likely to pop up on your standard best-of-decade or massive-influence type of retrospectives.
So yeah, tell me what else I need!
100 Movies to Watch, Give or Take a Few:
Ace in the Hole
Adam's Rib
The Adventures of Robin Hood
The African Queen
The Age of Innocence
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Altered States
Another Woman
Badlands
Barry Lyndon
Big Trouble in Little China
Body Double
Born Yesterday
Brief Encounter
Bullitt
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Candidate
Carnival of Souls
Cat People
City Lights
The Color of Money
The Color Purple
Days of Heaven
Dead Ringers
The Deer Hunter
Don't Look Now
Dressed to Kill
Duck Soup
Easy Rider
The Gold Rush
Family Plot
Five Easy Pieces
The 400 Blows
Frenzy
Gone with the Wind
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The Godfather, Part III
The Great Escape
Harold and Maude
Heaven Can Wait
High Noon
Holiday
Interiors
Isthar
Kiss Me Deadly
The Last Temptation of Christ
Lawrence of Arabia
Lifeboat
Lost in America
M
The Magnificent Ambersons
The Maltese Falcon
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Marnie
M*A*S*H
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
Modern Romance
Modern Times
Moonstruck
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Nashville
Network
New York, New York
A Night at the Opera
Night Moves
No Way Out
Notorious
On the Waterfront
Once Upon a Time in the West
Out of the Past
Pickup on South Street
Rebecca
Rio Bravo
Rocky
Roman Holiday
Scarecrow
September
Serpico
Shadows and Fog
Shampoo
Sisters
Some Like It Hot
Spartacus
Stagecoach
Stardust Memories
Straight Time
Sullivan's Travels
Sunset Boulevard
Superman II
The Thin Man
The Third Man
To Have and Have Not
To Kill a Mockingbird
Topaz
Torn Curtain
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Various James Bond movies (particularly: Dr. No; From Russia with Love; Diamonds Are Forever; The Spy Who Loved Me; Moonraker)
Who's That Knocking on My Door
The Wild Bunch
You Can't Take It with You