Definitive Ranking of Wes Anderson movies: UPDATED

People of the Internet: Isle of Dogs is a movie that is stunning to look at, but without much soul (for a movie about dogs!) Also, the American exchange student storyline needs to be cut. 50% better movie without the Greta Gerwig Character. UPDATE: I just saw the French Dispatch. I enjoyed it. Anderson's use of meticulous detail in every frame means there's always something interesting going on, even if the thread connecting the pieces of this anthology film is unclear. I think by deeply diving into small, intensely crafted vignettes Anderson aims to illuminate something larger about humanity; restating the argument for his overarching methodology since Rushmore. He may not always be successful, but his films are usually entertaining, and never boring.  Here is the definitive list of Wes Anderson movies from best to worst:

1. The Royal Tenenbaums
2. Rushmore
3. Asteroid City
4. Grand Budapest Hotel
5. Fantastic Mister Fox
6. Bottle Rocket
7. The French Dispatch

7.5 (american express commercials)
8. Life Aquatic
9. Moonrise Kingdom
10. Isle of Dogs
11. Darjeeling Limited

 

Top 10 Sci-Fi Movies: The Undisputed List

People of the Internet! I've been thinking about the movie Annihilation a lot recently. A great movie about troubled humans dealing with a very believable alien? troubling situation. It needs to go on the updated list of top 10 sci-fi movies. Also, I moved Solaris in front of Zardoz and BSG...I don't know what I was thinking there.

1. 2001
2. Blade Runner (You know, one of the director's cuts)
3. Moon
4. Solaris (Tarkovsky)
5. Zardoz
6. 2003 Battlestar Galactica Pilot
7. On the Silver Globe
8. Annihilation!
9. Dark City
10. Matrix
Honorable Mention: Primer, Ex Machina, Flesh Fair sequence of AI

DEFINITIVE Top Five All Time Movie Soundtracks

People of the Face: Here are the DEFINITIVE Top Five All Time Best Movie Soundtracks: COMPILATIONS Only*

1. Until the End of the World: REM, Talking Heads, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, KD Lang, Neneh Cherry, Nick Cave's I'll Love You Till the End of the World is a top 10 great story song.

2. The Harder They Come - If you made a movie about a renegade reggae singer then this is the soundtrack you would have to have. Cheating a little because it's mostly Jimmy Cliff.

3. Trainspotting - Seamless integration of music and film from the opening Iggy Pop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCxgqHqakXc to Temptation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyJbUN9MU7Q to Mile End to Perfect Day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6uBkJSbQO0&t=41s

4. Repo Man This movie and the Decline of Western Civilization Part I taught me everything I know about 80's L.A. Punk. Great movie, great songs

5. Royal Tenenbaums - The best of the twee Wes Anderson soundtracks: Kinks, Eliot Smith, Nico's These Days, John Lennon, Me and Julio, Clash, Lou again.

Honourable Mention: Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction, Rushmore, 24 Hour Party People, O Brother Where Art Thou, Inside Llewyn Davis, Pretty in Pink, Zero Effect, Natural Born Killers without the stupid movie dialog, Pump up the Volume

*Rules: 
1. No single artist movies: Leaves out all time greats - Superfly, Purple Rain, Hard Days Night, Shaft
2. No performance movies: No Stop Making Sense, The Last Waltz, Woodstock
3. No music docs: No DOA, Muscle Shoals, Buena Vista Social Club

Others:
Do The Right Thing - Out because it hinges too much on one great song
Baby Driver - not eligible because it feels like he picked the songs first then built great sequences around them to hold together a mediocre film
Guardians of the Galaxy- doesn't count because they just made a cheesy, catchy 80's mixtape
Big Chill - Boomer nostalgia mixtape

Top 10 Movies of 2018

People of the Face: The Academy sucks: Here is my ranking of the top 10 movies from 2018 I saw so far that I would recommend: 

1. Roma
2. Sorry To Bother You
3. Ballad of Buster Scruggs
4. Annihilation
5. Death of Stalin
6. Widows
7. The Favourite
8. Blackkklansman
9. If Beale Street Could Talk
10. First Reformed 

I still want to see: Burning, Hale County, Shoplifters, Vice, Paddington 2

Other movies that were good but flawed: Black Panther, Other Side of the Wind, First Man

Movies I will never, ever see: Bohemian Rhapsody, Green Book, Mary Queen of Poppins 2: The Revenge

UPDATED Ranking of Coen Brother's Movies

My UPDATED list of Coen Brother's movies ranked as of this moment:

1. Miller's Crossing
2. Fargo
3. Raising Arizona 
4. Inside Llewyn Davis
5. Barton Fink
6. A Serious Man
7. The Hudsucker Proxy
8. The Big Lebowski
9. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
10. Hail Caesar!
11. Blood Simple 
12. True Grit
13. O Brother Where Art Thou 
14. No Country For Old Men 
15. The Man Who Wasn't There
16. Burn After Reading

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17. Intolerable Cruelty*
18. Ladykillers*

*I've only seen the bottom two once, years ago