Ranking every movie

Each of the past four years, the Manifesto has engaged in a fun and ludicrous exercise wherein we ranked every movie we saw that year. It’s always been a profoundly silly column, one that’s more designed to inspire debate than to operate as any sort of official statement of my opinions; for example, it’s provoked heated reactions like “How dare you disrespect Paddington 2!” and “Dude, you ranked Avengers: Infinity War 40 spots below Aquaman, what the fuck?” While I always enjoy getting yelled at on the internet, I acknowledge that these rankings are flawed, because they give the appearance of an ironclad hierarchy that doesn’t really exist. Last year, I ranked First Man 17th and Hereditary 25th; did I really think that the former was significantly better than the latter?

Still, I maintain that a comprehensive year-end wrap-up has its virtues. For one, it serves as a handy recordkeeping function, allowing me to track what I watched and (perhaps more importantly) what I didn’t. It also features a #servicey component: I always include in parentheses, along with the name of each movie’s director and its respective ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, any service where it’s streaming (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc.). In theory, this is helpful for readers who have the ubiquitous questions of “What should I watch?” and “How can I watch it?” Read More

Yesterday, the Manifesto unveiled its list of the 10 best movies of 2018. Today, per annual tradition, we’re expanding that list and ranking every single movie of the year, or at least every single one that we saw. This is a deeply silly exercise, but it’s also a fun one, designed to inspire frivolous debates and indignant arguments, which are of course what the internet does best.

It’s also meant to be something of a service. For each title, in addition to embedding a hyperlink to my full review (where applicable), I’ll include a parenthetical identifying the movie’s director, its Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic scores (to see whether I conform with or diverge from the critical consensus), and—most usefully—a notification if it’s currently available on a particular streaming service. The idea is that you can continually refer back to this list over the coming years when you’re craving something to watch and you’re too lazy to Google the latest Indiewire poll. You’re welcome. Read More

Yesterday, we posted our list of the 10 best movies of 2017. Today, per annual tradition, I’m ranking every single theatrical release of the year (well, except for all the ones I didn’t see). To be clear, this is a stupid and arbitrary exercise; if I made the same list from scratch tomorrow, I’m sure it would look dramatically different, especially the bottom half. But I like doing it because it serves as a recordkeeping function, and it encourages people to yell at me about my taste.

Housekeeping: For each movie that I formally reviewed, the hyperlink will take you to that review. I’m also including the Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic scores for each film, just to show whether I conform to or diverge from the so-called critical consensus. And because I’m first and foremost a public servant, if a movie is currently streaming on a popular service, I’ll note that, just in case that nudges you into watching something from the comfort of your couch. Read More

Following up on yesterday’s top 10, it’s time for the Manifesto’s silly annual tradition of ranking every movie we watched in the past year. This is an undeniably foolish exercise, but it’s useful as a recordkeeping function. Plus, it makes people angry, which is always fun.

Click on the hyperlinks to read my review for a particular movie. Per usual, for each film, I’m parenthetically adding the director’s name, as well as its Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic scores; both of those metrics are deeply problematic, but they do tend to reveal whether I conform to or diverge from the critical consensus. In addition, as a new feature this year, I’m noting if each movie listed is currently streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Go, or Hulu. So, even if you’re one of those worthless oafs who never goes to the theater anymore, this list can still provide you with some helpful viewing recommendations, free of charge.

That’s about it. Here are the Manifesto’s rankings of every movie we watched in 2016 (with the unfortunate caveat that I’ve still yet to see Toni Erdmann): Read More

The Manifesto has already delivered its list of the top 10 movies of 2015. Now, it’s time to look at the rest. What follows is a ranked list of every 2015 theatrical release that I’ve seen up to this point. It’s far from comprehensive—as ever, there are a number of films that I’ve failed to see, whether through lack of theatrical distribution, laziness, or bad luck. (The only movie that I truly regret being unable to include here is Son of Saul; I’ll be seeing it this weekend, but I just couldn’t hold off on publishing that long.)

As for the movies I did see, well, there were still quite a few. And while this post is just a pure list, I’ve added hyperlinks to the 56 different titles that I formally reviewed, so you can click over to those for more detailed analysis. Per my custom, I’m also including each film’s director in parentheses, as well as its respective scores on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, so you can see whether I confirm with or diverge from the critical consensus.

I’ll dispense with the usual rhetoric about the arbitrary nature of list-making (besides, I already did that yesterday for the top 10). But please, when you find yourself tempted to exclaim, “How could this idiot possibly rank [X] ahead of [Y]!” just bear in mind that the list is more of a guideline than a firm set of rules.

That should do it. Here are the Manifesto’s rankings of every movie we watched in 2015: Read More