And this is by no means a comprehensive list, and while my top 10 was fairly static as a teenager and a man in my 20s, as I've gone through my thirties I find it changes all the time. Ordered by date of release. Also, it's a work in progress, so some have descriptions, others don't, and they're probably a bit rambly (no proof reading or anything).
1940 - Rebecca - This is the earliest film I'm aware of that has a fantastic twist. It's one of the greatest film adaptations of a book ever made. Also Hitchcock's first Hollywood film. The whole film works like a psychological mind fuck of the protagonist (who has no name in the film, kind of like Fight Club's protagonist, later). She marries a wealthy man, Maxim, who she barely knows. He takes her to his mansion Manderley, and is constantly compared to Maxim's former wife, Rebecca. She becomes more and more isolated as the plot moves along, and then comes possibly the first great twist of Hollywood cinema; although, unlike fight club, it doesn't come in the last 3 minutes of the film.
1942 - Casablanca - Even if you don't think this film is anywhere near the best of all time, as it is often rated, it's undeniably the most iconic film of all time with almost the entirety of the film being homaged in later films and TV, and it's riddled with famous lines: Of all the gin joints, here's lookin at you, we'll always have Paris, I'm shocked gambling is going on here, round up the usual suspects, etc... etc... In short, it's a world war 2 era drama that features characters representing various groups: the resistance, Vichy France, the Nazis, and the US. And the shot below includes real tears, as the film was made just after the fall of Paris, and just before the Americans entered the war.
1946 - Notorious - A story about a special agent (played by Cary Grant) who sells the daughter of a former Nazi (played by Ingrid Bergman) into sex slavery in order to find out what some Nazi exiles in South America are hiding. This is one of those films that I mildly liked the first time watching, and then loved on subsequent viewings.
1950 - Sunset Boulevard - One of the most fun dark comedy films of all time. An entire season of Archer was made based on this film. Also, American Beauty is largely inspired by this film. It follows a writer who ends up stuck in the mansion of an ex-Hollywood star. Being older, and rich, she hires him to write for her. As time passes, she becomes more and more controlling of him, and develops a sexual control over him.
1954 - Rear Window - A photographer (Jimmy Stewart) breaks his leg and is stuck in his room. The summer is hot, and everyone has their back windows open, he peeps in on them acting weird and begins drawing together stories together, giving all of the actors different names. Then he spots something odd: did that guy just kill his wife? Or is he actually just suffering the insanity of being stuck in his room? He, his girlfriend (Princess Grace Kelly), and his nurse (Thelma Ritter) try to figure it out. This is one of the films (along with Citizen Kane, Heavenly Creatures, and Cape Fear) that earned a Simpsons episode remake that wasn't a THOH segment (of those there are many).
1958 - Vertigo - I don't even want to get into this one. If you don't know anything about it, the less you know, the better. But this is my favourite film of all time. A bit from the opening (but the film goes way deeper beyond this): an ex detective who quit the police force is hired to follow a woman (Kim Novak) who seems to be suffering from mental delusions, or is she possessed by an ancestor of hers that committed suicide? This film is a bit arty, containing a lot of subtle meanings and actions (as is the case with many Hitchcock films, much of the really scandelous stuff is equated/implied rather than explicitly stated).
(Below is not the greatest scene, but I can't really post the later scenes of the film without major spoilers. This has a subtle hint to a scandalous action, do you know what it is?)
1978 - Dawn of the Dead - A large large gap until the next one on my list. While often called the greatest zombie film ever made, I think this transcends the zombie sub-genre. It's more of a post-apocalyptic survival pic about the rise and fall of a society of survivors that takes place over roughly a year (unlike the much shorter 2005 remake which is more of an action film that takes place over a few days). There are many social issues brought to light, and many questions of where human morality needs to be in order to survive. Much of what happens in the outside world is relayed over the radio and TV. This is also one of the early films that starred a black protagonist (Night of the Living Dead also had a black lead).
1980 - The Shining - a slowburn horror film that was WAY ahead of its time, having much more of an influence on horror of 2010 to current time than it did in the decades following its release.
[youtube]www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtI0uG6tjew[/youtube]
1982 - The Thing
1990 - Goodfellas
1991 - Silence of the Lambs - Another one of those films that is just so excellently shot and plotted and acted. Maybe the best of any ever put on screen. I always forget how much I love this film until I watch it again. It's a crime drama with LOTS of dark humour elements. Some of the most insane scenes ever filmed, such as the Goodbye Horses segment.
2000 - American Psycho - a dark comedy film that takes the late 90s early 2000s office genre and puts it at its most brutal. It's based on Bret Easton Ellis's controversial book of the same title. While the book doesn't follow a traditional plot structure, and the film does, just about every scene in the film can be found in the book. Ellis himself found that the book didn't work well as a film because too many questions that demanded an answer popped up, but in getting into the head of Bateman a lot more in the book, that sort of thing wasn't demanded. For example: Did Bateman kill all those people, or was it his delusion? This is true in the film and the book, but the film leads viewers to want an answer where the book it's clear this is beside the point.
2009 - Avatar - Probably the most controversial film on this list because of the tremendous amount of backlash it received - but fuck that, I think it's unwarranted and is more or less a "lets hate it because its popular" type thing; most of the criticism I've seen is pointing out the obvious "the Navi are based on native Americans and Africans" which is kind of the point, "this film is just like Pocahantas and Dances with Wolves" which is also kind of the point: all of them are colonial culture clash films - but stating the fact isn't really a valid criticism; but simple minded people will think "Hey that's true, this does make it bad!" without actually considering the logical disconnect. I like it because of its elements of trans-humanism, like a VR world where the VR is reality, a biological collective unconsciousness that can be brought out in ritual, and also the sci-fi rendition of the age old story of colonialism and betrayal. There's also Jake's addiction to his Na'Vi body, and his actual body begins to deteriorate heavily as he lives more and more as a Na'Vi, learns their ways. Also, it's spectacular. I normally dislike blockbusters, this one and a few other sci-fi ones (Interstellar and the Blade Runners) are exceptions. This film is art.
2017 - Blade Runner 2049
(Note, actually a featurette short that takes place before the film proper)
2018 - Hereditary - I've spoken enough about this one, easily my favourite film of the last 3 years, and one of my top 5 of the millennium. In short, I think this is the most horrific film ever made. While it doesn't get the tension and freakout stuff down to the art that James Wan had with Conjuring, it's a film that made me feel discomfort, dread, and physical illness at one point. Like many of the other films on the list, it has its share of dark humour, but a dryer more perverse type than the slap-stick dark comedy of 80s and 90s slashers. Anyway, there's a lot of The Shining in this film. Stylistically, camera work, the pacing, and genre smashing, the weirdness, and the descent of the cast into insanity, and general structure. There's also this opening scene which is a direct homage to the maze scene in the Shining.
1940 - Rebecca - This is the earliest film I'm aware of that has a fantastic twist. It's one of the greatest film adaptations of a book ever made. Also Hitchcock's first Hollywood film. The whole film works like a psychological mind fuck of the protagonist (who has no name in the film, kind of like Fight Club's protagonist, later). She marries a wealthy man, Maxim, who she barely knows. He takes her to his mansion Manderley, and is constantly compared to Maxim's former wife, Rebecca. She becomes more and more isolated as the plot moves along, and then comes possibly the first great twist of Hollywood cinema; although, unlike fight club, it doesn't come in the last 3 minutes of the film.
1942 - Casablanca - Even if you don't think this film is anywhere near the best of all time, as it is often rated, it's undeniably the most iconic film of all time with almost the entirety of the film being homaged in later films and TV, and it's riddled with famous lines: Of all the gin joints, here's lookin at you, we'll always have Paris, I'm shocked gambling is going on here, round up the usual suspects, etc... etc... In short, it's a world war 2 era drama that features characters representing various groups: the resistance, Vichy France, the Nazis, and the US. And the shot below includes real tears, as the film was made just after the fall of Paris, and just before the Americans entered the war.
1946 - Notorious - A story about a special agent (played by Cary Grant) who sells the daughter of a former Nazi (played by Ingrid Bergman) into sex slavery in order to find out what some Nazi exiles in South America are hiding. This is one of those films that I mildly liked the first time watching, and then loved on subsequent viewings.
1950 - Sunset Boulevard - One of the most fun dark comedy films of all time. An entire season of Archer was made based on this film. Also, American Beauty is largely inspired by this film. It follows a writer who ends up stuck in the mansion of an ex-Hollywood star. Being older, and rich, she hires him to write for her. As time passes, she becomes more and more controlling of him, and develops a sexual control over him.
1954 - Rear Window - A photographer (Jimmy Stewart) breaks his leg and is stuck in his room. The summer is hot, and everyone has their back windows open, he peeps in on them acting weird and begins drawing together stories together, giving all of the actors different names. Then he spots something odd: did that guy just kill his wife? Or is he actually just suffering the insanity of being stuck in his room? He, his girlfriend (Princess Grace Kelly), and his nurse (Thelma Ritter) try to figure it out. This is one of the films (along with Citizen Kane, Heavenly Creatures, and Cape Fear) that earned a Simpsons episode remake that wasn't a THOH segment (of those there are many).
1958 - Vertigo - I don't even want to get into this one. If you don't know anything about it, the less you know, the better. But this is my favourite film of all time. A bit from the opening (but the film goes way deeper beyond this): an ex detective who quit the police force is hired to follow a woman (Kim Novak) who seems to be suffering from mental delusions, or is she possessed by an ancestor of hers that committed suicide? This film is a bit arty, containing a lot of subtle meanings and actions (as is the case with many Hitchcock films, much of the really scandelous stuff is equated/implied rather than explicitly stated).
(Below is not the greatest scene, but I can't really post the later scenes of the film without major spoilers. This has a subtle hint to a scandalous action, do you know what it is?)
1978 - Dawn of the Dead - A large large gap until the next one on my list. While often called the greatest zombie film ever made, I think this transcends the zombie sub-genre. It's more of a post-apocalyptic survival pic about the rise and fall of a society of survivors that takes place over roughly a year (unlike the much shorter 2005 remake which is more of an action film that takes place over a few days). There are many social issues brought to light, and many questions of where human morality needs to be in order to survive. Much of what happens in the outside world is relayed over the radio and TV. This is also one of the early films that starred a black protagonist (Night of the Living Dead also had a black lead).
1980 - The Shining - a slowburn horror film that was WAY ahead of its time, having much more of an influence on horror of 2010 to current time than it did in the decades following its release.
[youtube]www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtI0uG6tjew[/youtube]
1982 - The Thing
1990 - Goodfellas
1991 - Silence of the Lambs - Another one of those films that is just so excellently shot and plotted and acted. Maybe the best of any ever put on screen. I always forget how much I love this film until I watch it again. It's a crime drama with LOTS of dark humour elements. Some of the most insane scenes ever filmed, such as the Goodbye Horses segment.
2000 - American Psycho - a dark comedy film that takes the late 90s early 2000s office genre and puts it at its most brutal. It's based on Bret Easton Ellis's controversial book of the same title. While the book doesn't follow a traditional plot structure, and the film does, just about every scene in the film can be found in the book. Ellis himself found that the book didn't work well as a film because too many questions that demanded an answer popped up, but in getting into the head of Bateman a lot more in the book, that sort of thing wasn't demanded. For example: Did Bateman kill all those people, or was it his delusion? This is true in the film and the book, but the film leads viewers to want an answer where the book it's clear this is beside the point.
2009 - Avatar - Probably the most controversial film on this list because of the tremendous amount of backlash it received - but fuck that, I think it's unwarranted and is more or less a "lets hate it because its popular" type thing; most of the criticism I've seen is pointing out the obvious "the Navi are based on native Americans and Africans" which is kind of the point, "this film is just like Pocahantas and Dances with Wolves" which is also kind of the point: all of them are colonial culture clash films - but stating the fact isn't really a valid criticism; but simple minded people will think "Hey that's true, this does make it bad!" without actually considering the logical disconnect. I like it because of its elements of trans-humanism, like a VR world where the VR is reality, a biological collective unconsciousness that can be brought out in ritual, and also the sci-fi rendition of the age old story of colonialism and betrayal. There's also Jake's addiction to his Na'Vi body, and his actual body begins to deteriorate heavily as he lives more and more as a Na'Vi, learns their ways. Also, it's spectacular. I normally dislike blockbusters, this one and a few other sci-fi ones (Interstellar and the Blade Runners) are exceptions. This film is art.
2017 - Blade Runner 2049
(Note, actually a featurette short that takes place before the film proper)
2018 - Hereditary - I've spoken enough about this one, easily my favourite film of the last 3 years, and one of my top 5 of the millennium. In short, I think this is the most horrific film ever made. While it doesn't get the tension and freakout stuff down to the art that James Wan had with Conjuring, it's a film that made me feel discomfort, dread, and physical illness at one point. Like many of the other films on the list, it has its share of dark humour, but a dryer more perverse type than the slap-stick dark comedy of 80s and 90s slashers. Anyway, there's a lot of The Shining in this film. Stylistically, camera work, the pacing, and genre smashing, the weirdness, and the descent of the cast into insanity, and general structure. There's also this opening scene which is a direct homage to the maze scene in the Shining.
