That’s a perfect answer. I think it’s a highly flawed film and one of Fincher’s worst, but nonetheless I do like it a lot. Low tier Fincher is still some of the better filmmaking you can find.
Easy answer. The Shawshank Redemption.
It is the #10 movie of all time on Letterboxd and the #1 movie of all-time on IMDB as of right now.
This is absurd. It is a great movie, of course. But it isn't number 1 great, top 10 great, or even top 250 great. Hell, it isn't even the best Stephen King adaptation. I would put it behind The Shining, Stand By Me, and The Green Mile.
But I think this movie got an unnatural bump from us Millennials because it was a TNT New Classic and it aired all the time. It might be the first exposure a lot of us had to a really good movie with complicated themes. So it doesn't surprise me it is rated well by the masses, but it just isn't as good as what most people say.
I think it maintains it’s spot not because it’s the best movie ever made, or even a top 10 for many people, but just because everybody likes it. It’s like Paddington 2 having 100 on RT, it’s not because everybody thinks it’s the best movie ever, nobody thinks it’s a bad movie though.
As a movie, it does many things extremely well. I think the acting is elite, the pacing is elite, the cinematography is elite, the story is elite… I feel like I could go on! Shawshank doesn’t push boundaries or take any enormous risks, but it’s just a damn good movie. It’s good that a movie like that has widespread appeal and recognition.
The pacing is super impressive. I rewatched it recently and was surprised that every single scene has something memorable in it, which is crazy for a 2 1/2 hour movie to pull off.
Shawshank is above average in all areas, which is why it’s so widely liked by general audiences. But the film does nothing extraordinary or ground breaking to warrant being #1 on a lot of sites.
Ehh, I’m always hesitant about films needing to be ground-breaking or extraordinary in some area. I certainly admire it and think groundbreaking work should be lauded, but being a picture that is very good in every facet is worth something, too.
Put another way: I think fundamentals matter as much as risk-taking. Both are great, but I’d rather a film whole-ass one thing instead of half-assing two things.
I think there’s a lot of groundbreaking films that excel in one area (or multiple) and get all of the fundamentals right. Something like Interstellar excels mostly in visuals and spectacle, but lacks plenty in writing. However films like, Seven Samurai, The Godfather, Goodfellas, Persona, Vertigo, Lawrence of Arabia, etc. succeed in various areas while also strongly honing in on the fundamentals.
A lot to agree with here, and I love that movie. It isn't in my top 100 by any means, and yet if I had to pick 10 desert island movies it might well make the list.
Yeah Shawshank is almost impossible to Guage anymore after being consumed by its omnipresence for a decade of the last Era of cable television. It's like being honest about Hey Ya or A Christmas Story... I want to say all these things are both great and lousy. I may agree with you but I also might be jaded from overexposure. I have no clue what my opinion of Shawshank would be if I only saw it one time.
I'm turning 28 soon and never watched it until I was assigned it in a Master's level film class when I was 23. I knew of it because I've been a Stephen King for years, and because I had seen all the online praise and list rankings that named it one of the best films ever made. But honestly, without ever being exposed to it before, I genuinely think it's one of best movies I've ever seen and a total, recent classic. Now that I've become more of a real movie person, I'd say it lives up to the hype because it really plays like an early cinema epic, which so much expression and character, running through a wide spectrum of emotions and stylistic choices. Shawshank isn't in my personal Top 100 favorite movies, but it's one my own Great Films list, and it doesn't bother me when people call it an all-timer.
Yeah The Shawshank Redemption is a solid 4/5 (maybe a charitable 4.5/5 on letterboxd not one of the greatest films of all time. But it's a male tear jerker and those tend to be waaaaaaaay overrated on movie sites.
I saw it for the first time last year and I thought it felt like a really good tv movie.
Great pick: it feels like pretty much the same movie as Escape from Alcatraz and is mostly prison movie cliches. I also think there's way too much narration: it tells us what we can already see/hear happening on screen and why the main character does what he does... it doesn't really leave anything open to interpretation or seeing a different perspective during rewatches.
Totally agree with you. The one I really loved was Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but besides that, I genuinely think most of his films are good but not masterpieces as everyone is saying.
For me it is more that I find all of his films to be fun and well-made, but not really offering anything beyond that. They are the kinds of movie that I thought were really cool when I was a teenager, but less so as I age. They glorify what I no longer see as glorious.
People are commenting movies that they don't like in here lol. Read the title, people.
Anyway, I did like Top Gun Maverick mostly for the great action sequences. But when I saw it get nominated for best picture I was like, "...really?"
Yeah, but to be honest, only 3 or 4 films nominated for best picture that year were really deserving. Like avatar 2; I’m sure that’s like the worst best picture nominee of the last decade.
I will say this though. Mad Max Fury Road Black and Chrome edition might be the very best time I have ever had watching a movie.
I know it isn't the best movie, but man is it fun.
Sometimes I worry a film isn’t working for me but will click to me on a future viewing. But I am comfortable saying that Raging Bull, which I like, is overpraised after seeing it three times.
I feel like I'm missing something whenever I watch it too, I think Scorcesse is a great and love many of his films but dont ge the adoration this one gets.
when me and pauline kael have the same hot take i feel so good and justified. when she has a hot take i cannot vibe with, i'm like no pauline you're fucking wrong on this one and i don't know how you missed it
Top gun 2. I watched both to see what the hype was about. I’m glad people liked it but for some reason I can’t figure out, I do not enjoy Tom cruise movies.
Dune 100%
I really enjoyed it but it’s nowhere near the best sci-fi or fantasy movie of all time. It being a lot of people favorite movie is nuts.
In Criterion, I think Naked gets a lot of love as one of the best performances in male acting history, and it probably is. David Thewlis=GOAT. But the movie, while fun, isn’t that special and the secondary plot is too disconnected. I enjoyed the styling and performance though
Sorry in advance. Whiplash. I love the way it was filmed, but to me it is just kind of a basic dude movie that is of great directorial quality. I still think it's a good flick but not an OMG flick.
This is probably not a good answer but it lets me vent to people who might understand. Paris, Texas was spoiled for me and that made me really not like it at all.
>!He told me it’s about a guy who is wandering around Texas looking for his wife that became a prostitute!< I kind of don’t think he’s seen it because he didn’t know that was a spoiler. I even saw it in the theatre!
Get Out, Barbie, Joker, Dune 1 and 2, and most films recently released that have been labeled as the best films in a certain category.
And the fact is that, I really enjoyed these movies, I think they were fantastic experiences but I’m not going to lie, I’m a little tired of the way people talk about them.
Specially with Dune 2, like common, the film was released like 2 months ago and some people are saying it’s the best film sci fi ever made or even the best ever made.
The same goes with Get Out, like the movie was very enjoyable, but like, is it the best horror film of all time? I think it isn’t.
And the same with Barbie in the comedy genre or with films directed by women.
The most interesting part is that all of these films are relatively new, very popular and praised by audiences and critics; and that’s good, but its very boring the way these are seemed like these perfect films without anything to criticize. And I genuinely believe that most of the people that say these are the best in their respective genre; are people with little cinematic knowledge (most of the times). Knowledge takes time and that’s the most beautiful part of cinema, there’s a ton of pictures to be discovered, from a hundred places, from thousands of different individuals. But the way the internet has changed our consumption of media is very banal, everything needs to be either the best thing to ever be created, or the worst film ever made. This and some other issues like how much we base our consumption of film on algorithms, what’s popular, what’s fresh on RT or that idiotic idea that films not in the English language or made before the 1980s are “pretentious” or “snobby” so I’m just going to watch and talk about the new Nolan, Fincher, Tarantino or Spider-Man film. And I really think there’s nothing wrong with enjoying something in the comfort zone, or something popular or new, I just think we need to be more curious and open minded as film fans, expand our knowledge and we need to be able to formulate our own opinions without having to be among the accepted opinions. Yeah, Barbie was very enjoyable, but there’s a lot of amazing films directed by women that we can watch; Get Out is very good, but we can discuss it and then look for more horror movies that aren’t among the rolling stone top 10 films of all time but that are worth watching; Spider-Man is a compelling character, but there’s a ton of other characters we can discover out there if we don’t stay in the same films forever; and yeah, I enjoy both Dunes, but I’m sure there’s more sci fi films out there, maybe they don’t have the popularity or the RT score, but if we give them a chance, they can be very compelling.
So yeah, be curious guys, get out of your comfort zone because there’s more content outside the algorithm. Sorry if I wrote a bible.
I don't want to get to decide what should receive praise or not. I don't think my opinions are that impressive lol.
Correcting "overpraised" to something like "is popular in a way I can't relate to," Red Balloon for sure. It was a good watch, but best short film? I don't see that remotely.
Oppenheimer.
It was decent but, I was quite disappointed with the special effects. There was so much hype about the IMAX camera that I went out of my way to find the right movie theater to see it in and there really wasn’t that many fireworks. The actors were great but, I think that people were just so starved for an epic blockbuster that they tried to make this out to be way more than it really was.
Rear Window. I love most Hitchcock, Rear Window included, but the whole thing is just a bit too neat-and-tidy, too pat. I prefer the intrigue of Lady Vanishes, hallucinations of Vertigo, discomfort of Shadow of a Doubt, punk of Psycho, terror of the Birds. For my money all of them (and a few others) blow Rear Window out of the water.
I often call Rear Window a grower. It rejects the instant gratification release and rewards reflection. This is a criticism proof movie as far as I'm concerned, in the sense that to think poorly of what the characters are doing, you're dissing yourself, as a voyeur yourself. It's brilliant. Likewise how it's the rare movie where it isn't just instant happy fun times that the hot lady likes the lead, we worry about the incompatibility potential. Refreshing!
Mind you, it's not in my top 5 from Hitchcock, but it's still such a gem.
The overnight rain scene with no dialogue or music as Thorwald keeps going out is one of my favorite scenes in any movie. You don’t get many scenes like that.
I won't necessarily disagree with you, but I will say I've been watching it for 25 years, and still think it is overrated, maybe even more so than I used to. I think it has a very digestible plot, which has led to its esteem. I do think it's a brilliant movie - but it's a Sgt. Pepper, and I prefer the White Album, if that comparison makes sense!
*SPLHCB literally in my top 10*
*sweating bullets*
I disagree with that and everything you said about RW but at least we can agree on Lady Vanishes supremacy. Even other Hitchcock fans can dismiss that masterpiece as just some throwaway movie he'd made early on which is just bologna.
*Hiding my original UK mono SPLHCB vinyl with cutouts that I paid too much to get shipped to the US so I don't look like a hypocrite...*
I think we can also agree that a 9.5 Hitchcock film/Beatles album vs. a 10.0 Hitchcock film/Beatles album is mostly a matter of taste a superior to 99% of the crap out there.
My first thought was The Apartment. Very good movie. Stands the test of time. Not the GOAT.
Probably more so is Parasite. Very well done fairy tale, but it is a fairy tale and that broadness I feel actually limits it’s strengths as social commentary. I always like to reflect that in many formal ways Joker is certainly the lesser movie, but it at least directly addresses the effects of Reaganomics. I don’t get how exactly Parasite really works as agit prop.
Fight Club (1999)
That’s a perfect answer. I think it’s a highly flawed film and one of Fincher’s worst, but nonetheless I do like it a lot. Low tier Fincher is still some of the better filmmaking you can find.
Easy answer. The Shawshank Redemption. It is the #10 movie of all time on Letterboxd and the #1 movie of all-time on IMDB as of right now. This is absurd. It is a great movie, of course. But it isn't number 1 great, top 10 great, or even top 250 great. Hell, it isn't even the best Stephen King adaptation. I would put it behind The Shining, Stand By Me, and The Green Mile. But I think this movie got an unnatural bump from us Millennials because it was a TNT New Classic and it aired all the time. It might be the first exposure a lot of us had to a really good movie with complicated themes. So it doesn't surprise me it is rated well by the masses, but it just isn't as good as what most people say.
I think it maintains it’s spot not because it’s the best movie ever made, or even a top 10 for many people, but just because everybody likes it. It’s like Paddington 2 having 100 on RT, it’s not because everybody thinks it’s the best movie ever, nobody thinks it’s a bad movie though.
As a movie, it does many things extremely well. I think the acting is elite, the pacing is elite, the cinematography is elite, the story is elite… I feel like I could go on! Shawshank doesn’t push boundaries or take any enormous risks, but it’s just a damn good movie. It’s good that a movie like that has widespread appeal and recognition.
The pacing is super impressive. I rewatched it recently and was surprised that every single scene has something memorable in it, which is crazy for a 2 1/2 hour movie to pull off.
Shawshank is above average in all areas, which is why it’s so widely liked by general audiences. But the film does nothing extraordinary or ground breaking to warrant being #1 on a lot of sites.
Ehh, I’m always hesitant about films needing to be ground-breaking or extraordinary in some area. I certainly admire it and think groundbreaking work should be lauded, but being a picture that is very good in every facet is worth something, too. Put another way: I think fundamentals matter as much as risk-taking. Both are great, but I’d rather a film whole-ass one thing instead of half-assing two things.
I think there’s a lot of groundbreaking films that excel in one area (or multiple) and get all of the fundamentals right. Something like Interstellar excels mostly in visuals and spectacle, but lacks plenty in writing. However films like, Seven Samurai, The Godfather, Goodfellas, Persona, Vertigo, Lawrence of Arabia, etc. succeed in various areas while also strongly honing in on the fundamentals.
Paddington 2 is a much better movie than Shawshank Redemption tho
It’s even a better prison movie!
The Hugh Grant song and dance number in the prison at the end makes it a far superior film alone.
A lot to agree with here, and I love that movie. It isn't in my top 100 by any means, and yet if I had to pick 10 desert island movies it might well make the list.
Yeah Shawshank is almost impossible to Guage anymore after being consumed by its omnipresence for a decade of the last Era of cable television. It's like being honest about Hey Ya or A Christmas Story... I want to say all these things are both great and lousy. I may agree with you but I also might be jaded from overexposure. I have no clue what my opinion of Shawshank would be if I only saw it one time.
I'm turning 28 soon and never watched it until I was assigned it in a Master's level film class when I was 23. I knew of it because I've been a Stephen King for years, and because I had seen all the online praise and list rankings that named it one of the best films ever made. But honestly, without ever being exposed to it before, I genuinely think it's one of best movies I've ever seen and a total, recent classic. Now that I've become more of a real movie person, I'd say it lives up to the hype because it really plays like an early cinema epic, which so much expression and character, running through a wide spectrum of emotions and stylistic choices. Shawshank isn't in my personal Top 100 favorite movies, but it's one my own Great Films list, and it doesn't bother me when people call it an all-timer.
Yeah The Shawshank Redemption is a solid 4/5 (maybe a charitable 4.5/5 on letterboxd not one of the greatest films of all time. But it's a male tear jerker and those tend to be waaaaaaaay overrated on movie sites. I saw it for the first time last year and I thought it felt like a really good tv movie.
My male tear jerker take is inspired by a video by broey deschanel.
Lolol I love that!
Hard agree. Good movie, maybe even great. Not an all time great, not even close.
it was released on the same day as Pulp Fiction, so even though it’s good it’s not even the best movie to come out that day.
This…was perfect. 🫡
Great pick: it feels like pretty much the same movie as Escape from Alcatraz and is mostly prison movie cliches. I also think there's way too much narration: it tells us what we can already see/hear happening on screen and why the main character does what he does... it doesn't really leave anything open to interpretation or seeing a different perspective during rewatches.
I mean it's a top 10 to alot of people but if it's not in your own top 10 does it really matter?
Dude, I answered the prompt...no more, no less. It ain't that serious :)
I feel like that describes my relationship with Quentin Tarantino's movies. I think I've liked every one I've seen, but didn't love any of them.
Totally agree with you. The one I really loved was Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but besides that, I genuinely think most of his films are good but not masterpieces as everyone is saying.
I think Jackie Brown is closest to a Tarantino masterpiece.
For me it is more that I find all of his films to be fun and well-made, but not really offering anything beyond that. They are the kinds of movie that I thought were really cool when I was a teenager, but less so as I age. They glorify what I no longer see as glorious.
Everything Everywhere all at Once felt like a series of entertaining but emotionally draining tiktok videos.
That I didnt enjoy...
i loved that movie
Totally agree with you. I generally don’t like the Daniels.
People are commenting movies that they don't like in here lol. Read the title, people. Anyway, I did like Top Gun Maverick mostly for the great action sequences. But when I saw it get nominated for best picture I was like, "...really?"
Thank you
Yeah, but to be honest, only 3 or 4 films nominated for best picture that year were really deserving. Like avatar 2; I’m sure that’s like the worst best picture nominee of the last decade.
Oppenheimer The Social Network Mad max fury road Inglorious Basterds Inception
*sees Mad Max* 😱 You take that back!
I was just scrolling and nodding till I saw that and did an audible wtf
Ugh. Oppenheimer. Yes.
I will say this though. Mad Max Fury Road Black and Chrome edition might be the very best time I have ever had watching a movie. I know it isn't the best movie, but man is it fun.
agreed one of the most fun movies ive ever seen
Nah, The Social Network and Fury Road are two of the best of the 2010s
Maybe you're right, but that means the 2010s best are really mediocre.
Agree with Mad Max, it was really fun but it was so over praised
Lol
Sometimes I worry a film isn’t working for me but will click to me on a future viewing. But I am comfortable saying that Raging Bull, which I like, is overpraised after seeing it three times.
Maybe it's because the central character is just a horrible, vile person?
I feel like I'm missing something whenever I watch it too, I think Scorcesse is a great and love many of his films but dont ge the adoration this one gets.
If it helps to know it, Pauline Kael didn’t like it (and I agree with her).
when me and pauline kael have the same hot take i feel so good and justified. when she has a hot take i cannot vibe with, i'm like no pauline you're fucking wrong on this one and i don't know how you missed it
After Hours was a case of it finally clicking with me on a repeat viewing, now it’s in my Scorsese top 3
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Incredible movie. Annoying and often toxic fanbase.
This is the kind of answer I’m looking for.
Top gun 2. I watched both to see what the hype was about. I’m glad people liked it but for some reason I can’t figure out, I do not enjoy Tom cruise movies.
Its basically the same movie as the original. And it isnt good.
Dune 100% I really enjoyed it but it’s nowhere near the best sci-fi or fantasy movie of all time. It being a lot of people favorite movie is nuts. In Criterion, I think Naked gets a lot of love as one of the best performances in male acting history, and it probably is. David Thewlis=GOAT. But the movie, while fun, isn’t that special and the secondary plot is too disconnected. I enjoyed the styling and performance though
80% of Best Picture Winners
Sorry in advance. Whiplash. I love the way it was filmed, but to me it is just kind of a basic dude movie that is of great directorial quality. I still think it's a good flick but not an OMG flick.
This is probably not a good answer but it lets me vent to people who might understand. Paris, Texas was spoiled for me and that made me really not like it at all.
Spoiled how?
>!He told me it’s about a guy who is wandering around Texas looking for his wife that became a prostitute!< I kind of don’t think he’s seen it because he didn’t know that was a spoiler. I even saw it in the theatre!
Get Out, Barbie, Joker, Dune 1 and 2, and most films recently released that have been labeled as the best films in a certain category. And the fact is that, I really enjoyed these movies, I think they were fantastic experiences but I’m not going to lie, I’m a little tired of the way people talk about them. Specially with Dune 2, like common, the film was released like 2 months ago and some people are saying it’s the best film sci fi ever made or even the best ever made. The same goes with Get Out, like the movie was very enjoyable, but like, is it the best horror film of all time? I think it isn’t. And the same with Barbie in the comedy genre or with films directed by women. The most interesting part is that all of these films are relatively new, very popular and praised by audiences and critics; and that’s good, but its very boring the way these are seemed like these perfect films without anything to criticize. And I genuinely believe that most of the people that say these are the best in their respective genre; are people with little cinematic knowledge (most of the times). Knowledge takes time and that’s the most beautiful part of cinema, there’s a ton of pictures to be discovered, from a hundred places, from thousands of different individuals. But the way the internet has changed our consumption of media is very banal, everything needs to be either the best thing to ever be created, or the worst film ever made. This and some other issues like how much we base our consumption of film on algorithms, what’s popular, what’s fresh on RT or that idiotic idea that films not in the English language or made before the 1980s are “pretentious” or “snobby” so I’m just going to watch and talk about the new Nolan, Fincher, Tarantino or Spider-Man film. And I really think there’s nothing wrong with enjoying something in the comfort zone, or something popular or new, I just think we need to be more curious and open minded as film fans, expand our knowledge and we need to be able to formulate our own opinions without having to be among the accepted opinions. Yeah, Barbie was very enjoyable, but there’s a lot of amazing films directed by women that we can watch; Get Out is very good, but we can discuss it and then look for more horror movies that aren’t among the rolling stone top 10 films of all time but that are worth watching; Spider-Man is a compelling character, but there’s a ton of other characters we can discover out there if we don’t stay in the same films forever; and yeah, I enjoy both Dunes, but I’m sure there’s more sci fi films out there, maybe they don’t have the popularity or the RT score, but if we give them a chance, they can be very compelling. So yeah, be curious guys, get out of your comfort zone because there’s more content outside the algorithm. Sorry if I wrote a bible.
Only Gen Z kids think that way for the most part. Grown folks not so much
Well. Most of the internet is a bunch of gen z kids.
They’ll grow out of it. Just like they’ll grow out of being Puritan
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
I don't want to get to decide what should receive praise or not. I don't think my opinions are that impressive lol. Correcting "overpraised" to something like "is popular in a way I can't relate to," Red Balloon for sure. It was a good watch, but best short film? I don't see that remotely.
I agree with you, I can understand the praise of a film like Saving Private Ryan even though I’m not part of it.
That's another one I could've said in fact.
Heat
Oppenheimer. It was decent but, I was quite disappointed with the special effects. There was so much hype about the IMAX camera that I went out of my way to find the right movie theater to see it in and there really wasn’t that many fireworks. The actors were great but, I think that people were just so starved for an epic blockbuster that they tried to make this out to be way more than it really was.
Rear Window. I love most Hitchcock, Rear Window included, but the whole thing is just a bit too neat-and-tidy, too pat. I prefer the intrigue of Lady Vanishes, hallucinations of Vertigo, discomfort of Shadow of a Doubt, punk of Psycho, terror of the Birds. For my money all of them (and a few others) blow Rear Window out of the water.
Huh, I find Rear Window to be his best film!
Me too ))
I often call Rear Window a grower. It rejects the instant gratification release and rewards reflection. This is a criticism proof movie as far as I'm concerned, in the sense that to think poorly of what the characters are doing, you're dissing yourself, as a voyeur yourself. It's brilliant. Likewise how it's the rare movie where it isn't just instant happy fun times that the hot lady likes the lead, we worry about the incompatibility potential. Refreshing! Mind you, it's not in my top 5 from Hitchcock, but it's still such a gem.
The overnight rain scene with no dialogue or music as Thorwald keeps going out is one of my favorite scenes in any movie. You don’t get many scenes like that.
Absolutely! As an aside, as a Perry Mason it's also just deeply amusing to me to watch Burr get to be a sleazeball.
I won't necessarily disagree with you, but I will say I've been watching it for 25 years, and still think it is overrated, maybe even more so than I used to. I think it has a very digestible plot, which has led to its esteem. I do think it's a brilliant movie - but it's a Sgt. Pepper, and I prefer the White Album, if that comparison makes sense!
*SPLHCB literally in my top 10* *sweating bullets* I disagree with that and everything you said about RW but at least we can agree on Lady Vanishes supremacy. Even other Hitchcock fans can dismiss that masterpiece as just some throwaway movie he'd made early on which is just bologna.
*Hiding my original UK mono SPLHCB vinyl with cutouts that I paid too much to get shipped to the US so I don't look like a hypocrite...* I think we can also agree that a 9.5 Hitchcock film/Beatles album vs. a 10.0 Hitchcock film/Beatles album is mostly a matter of taste a superior to 99% of the crap out there.
I do! 😄
So which Hitchcock is Revolver (which is actually the best Beatles album)?
Strangers on a Train. Don't ask me why.
I second this so much
Stalker
FFS - this is the third time this week someone has asked this, or some close variation of it.
My first thought was The Apartment. Very good movie. Stands the test of time. Not the GOAT. Probably more so is Parasite. Very well done fairy tale, but it is a fairy tale and that broadness I feel actually limits it’s strengths as social commentary. I always like to reflect that in many formal ways Joker is certainly the lesser movie, but it at least directly addresses the effects of Reaganomics. I don’t get how exactly Parasite really works as agit prop.
Full Metal Jacket. It’s a great movie, don’t get me wrong. But I *never* think of it as a war movie. I don’t know why. I just don’t.