Last week at the Stake, Jeff Michler and I ranked the last 25 years of Best Picture winners. The exercise was a fascinating way to explore the Academy and the kinds of films the Academy celebrates. But that list begged the question: if the Academy is bad at picking the best films of the year, then what ARE the best films of the year?

So Jeff and I are back, to oblige. We each picked what we consider the Best Picture of the past 25 years (1990 - 2014). We then took that list, and ranked them. These parameters are somewhat arbitrary, but that is the nature of list making.

All that matters is, at this moment in time, we consider these films to be the best of their year. Full lists are at the bottom. Let us know what we got wrong. I mean, it’s two opinions, so one of them (at least) is always going to be wrong.

Christopher Zumski Finke: A word about what it means to call a film the best. Obviously, such a selection process is completely subjective. For me: there are several metrics that are considered, including technical achievement, originality, legacy, impact, social relevance, etc. A special achievement might outrank a more competently made movie; because competence doesn’t mean the best. I worked very hard not to pick my favorite movies, but those that I believe represent the best cinema. Sometimes, those selections surprised even me. But that’s how these things go.

Jeff Michler: Like you said, best is a tricky beast. I made a list of five or so movies for each year and have spent the last couple of moving the films around, one day ranking a film as best of the year, the next day realizing it was a sentimental favorite but not the best, and then, a day later, doubting my assessment and throwing a new movie at the top. Two things I’ve found difficult in doing this ranking. One is seperating best from favorite, since I always want to think my taste is so sublime that the movie I like the best IS the best. The other is understanding how to place newer movies alongside old. One thing you will notice on my list is that newer movies tend to rank lower, and that is just a function of not being able to live with them for as long. With that, here we go!

#25
CZF: Restrepo (2010)
JDM: Boyhood (2014)

JDM: I love Boyhood but I don’t know how well it will age. Will it be remembered more as a gimmick movie, like Slacker, or will it prove to be an endurable testament of youth, liked Dazed and Confused?

CZF: Well Slacker endures. So watch it. I have Restrepo in as the best movie of 2010. I was tempted to pick Winter’s Bone or Social Network, but neither seemed quite as important or memorable an achievement as what Tim Heatherington and Sebastian Junger produced after their year embedded in Afghanistan.

#24
CZF: Dazed and Confused (1993)
JDM: Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

CZF: This is probably the one time that I let my heart interfere with my head. I mean, Jurassic Park is one of the best blockbusters ever. But Dazed is one of the defining 90s movies. Quentin Tarantino called it the best movie of the 1990s. So I feel okay saying it’s the best of 1993.

JDM: Another film I love and think is exquisitely crafted and clever but it still too new to rank higher. This is not my favorite Wes Anderson (Rushmore) movie nor do I think it is the best (The Royal Tenenbaums). But given the weak competition for the top spot in 2012 I think Anderson’s story of youthful love is the best of the year.

#23
CZF: Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
JDM: Gravity (2013)

CZF: You said 2012 wasn’t a great year, and I agree. With age Zero Dark Thirty might fade in favor, given its well-known issues. But it’s also possible it will take on a JFK reputation: less about the facts and more about capturing something inimicable and crucial to the age in which it was made.

JDM: Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity floored me when I saw it in 3D in the theater and watching it at home does not diminish the experience. The movie is a seamless rush to survive but still has time to contemplate the beauty of space and the reasons we so much want to stay alive.

#22
CZF: Malcolm X (1992)
JDM: Hugo (2011)

CZF: The biopic is in general a terrible genre. Most of them age out of fashion quickly. I didn’t get Spike Lee’s Malcolm X when I was younger, but I’ve revisited it a few times and am convinced that it is that as good as biopics get, and getting better with age.

JDM: As Voyage to Italy is Martin Scorsese’s love letter to cinema in documentary form, Hugo is his love letter to cinema in narrative form. I am not sure how the special effects will age but as of 2015 this movie shines with life and love as few other films do.

#21
CZF: District 9 (2009)
JDM: The Pianist (2002)

CZF: Neill Blomkamp managed something weird and wonderful in District 9: a fantasy that combined social commentary and fantasy expertly. It’s not unusual, but it’s rarely so good. Avatar tried the same thing in 2009, for 10x the money. Too bad Blomkamp’s never done it again.

JDM: District 9 really struck home for me only after visiting the District 6 museum in Cape Town. I think why it works and Avatar doesn’t is Blomkamp is speaking with a very particular vocabulary while Cameron uses the broadest generalities. Your comments earlier on the biopic is apropos of my choice here. I expected this movie to fade away in my memory but instead it has burrowed in. The intensity of Adrien Brody keeps this movie devastating.

#20
CZF: The Matrix (1999)
JDM: L.A. Confidential (1997)

CZF: Picking The Matrix for 1999 was not my original plan. I had figured Magnolia was a lock. But when I got down to it, I think the legacy The Matrix, combined with its technical achievement and originality just takes the Best spot. Magnolia, which I love, is already showing its age.

JDM: 1999 is one of two great movie years in the last 25. While not my pick, there are literally a half dozen movies from 1999 that could be on this list and The Matrix is one of them. For me, #20 is the first movie on the list that is not from this century. I think Curtis Hanson crafted a noir gem that is still Russell Crowe at his best. The seedy Hollywood that the film creates feels so lived in that it comes as a bit of a shock that the movie was made 50 years after the time it depicts.

#19
CZF: A History of Violence (2005)
JDM: The Social Network (2010)

JDM: To me, The Social Network is akin to The Graduate or Rebel Without a Cause in its investigation of the fears and ambition, both of which tend to be sexually motivated, that drives young men. They are also time capsule of their moment in history. We will have to wait and see if David Fincher’s movie endures.

CZF: Basically I am just repeating what you said, but for Cronenberg’s History of Violence. 2005 was an underwhelming year, and Cronenberg’s exploration of American violence and sex is a powerful and strange film, one I am confident will only improve with time.

#18
CZF: A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
JDM: Heat (1995)

JDM: The movie has a brilliantly cold and minimal look that has come to define the Michael Mann Movie. Here is is working with three actors at the height of their power. But, what makes this movie special is the time it takes with the women who choose to live with these men. As Martin Scorsese says, Heat is a “modern American epic.”

CZF: I praised this movie endlessly upon release because I am a prophet, but the Kubrick/Spielberg mash-up is very slowly being seen for the masterpiece that it is. One of the best movies of the century, so far. It’s reputation will only grow. As for Heat, well, more on that to come…

#17
CZF: The Truman Show (1998)
JDM: Ocean’s Eleven (2001)

CZF: I am stunned to find The Truman Show on my list. Again, I had assumed that The Thin Red Line was a lock for this spot. But the more I thought about it, the more the intricate humor nestled in the damning satire usurped Malick’s ruminating war epic. It’s better now than it was in 1998, a testament to a great film.

JDM: 2001 is the other year that was a bonanza for the movies. Despite all the amazing films that came out that year, as I whittled things down I just could not get Ocean’s Eleven off the list. While a great many great films came out in 2001, I believe that Steven Soderbergh’s caper is the only film we will still be watching 50 years from now.

#16
CZF: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
JDM: Traffic (2000)

JDM: That’s right, Steven Soderbergh made the best movie of both 2000 and 2001. Hollywood loves to make the social commentary film. Typically, these a trite affairs double fisting drama and platitudes. Traffic, with its multiple storylines, examines but refuses to solve the puzzle that is our nation’s addiction to drugs.

CZF: You love Soderbergh. Eternal Sunshine is another movie that wowed critics and audiences upon release, and has only revealed itself to be better and better as it ages. Also: I am shocked to find two Jim Carrey movies on my list. I don’t even like Jim Carrey.

#15
CZF: Goodfellas (1990)
JDM: Brokeback Mountain (2005)

CZF: Scorsese’s mob classic is not a favorite of mine, but it’s undeniably a classic and pretending otherwise is no use to anyone. It’s a great movie, deserving of its reputation.

JDM: I’m not sure how my picks for #15 and #14 will endure over 25 years but, having just watched them again, a decade on, they still impress me with their depth of humanity. In Brokeback Mountain Ang Lee, maybe the best director of the last quarter century, has crafted a movie on contemporary social issues that connects to the long Hollywood tradition of the Western. But, most amazing, the movie never feels more than about two people in love.

#14
CZF: Short Term 12 (2013)
JDM: Lost in Translation (2003)

CZF: Everyone’s talking about Brie Larson for her work in Room. I hope they saw Short Term 12. The best movie of 2013 contains a group of young actors at the peak of the craft. The movie is ambitious and emotional and perfectly contained. A ‘small movie’ in the best way possible. It’s probably too high on this list, but so few films arrive on this subject matter that I can’t help bump it up.

JDM: I’ve never even heard of this film. Chris, this is supposed to be Best Movie, not the Independent Spirit Awards. For me, Lost in Translation, like Brokeback, is just simply a great piece of humanist art.

#13
CZF: Rachel Getting Married (2008)
JDM: The Incredibles (2004)

CZF: Anne Hathaway as a recovering drug addict who travels like a wrecking ball through her sister’s wedding weekend. A family drama both hard to watch and impossible to resist, Rachel Getting Married is the second stone cold masterpiece of Jonathan Demme’s career.

JDM: What did I say about this not being the Independent Spirit Awards!?! I agree Rachel Getting Married is a masterpiece, but best movie of 2008? If a Brad Bird film was going to end up on my list I expected it to be Iron Giant or Ratatouille but both happen to fall in years with other great films. Which is not to take anything away from The Incredibles, as a movie critic at The Stake writes, “escapist comedy action animation at its absolute best.”

#12
CZF: Titanic (1997)
JDM: No Country for Old Men (2007)

CZF: Hollywood grandeur at its pinnacle. I appreciate that James Cameron still works at the outmost size and scale of the medium, even though it usually turns out overwrought and dumb. Titanic didn’t; it’s just an amazing piece of ego-driven spectacle.

JDM: Given your praise of No Country in our last list I am surprised not to find it on your list here. In 2007 I thought There Will Be Blood was the better film, it certainly is the grander film. But P.T. Anderson’s morality tale now looks a bit creaky while No Country remains, as you said earlier, nearly perfect in its photography and direction, a lesson in how form is content.

#11
CZF: Oldboy (2003)
JDM: Children of Men (2006)

CZF: Revenge is de rigueur at the movies, and no one owns the genre like Tarantino. But Chan-wook Park’s Oldboy remains the best revenge movie of the modern years, and one of the most influential. The director’s bravura technical work and Min-sik Choi’s performance combined with this nasty moral universe are the foundation of this ultra-violent story. All while condemning the violence it portrays.

JDM:. For me, Children of Men is a hard film to place on this list. As it stands at #11 it looks like my feelings toward the film are favorable but not enthusiastic. That could not be further from the truth. As we move into the top ten, you will see I have only two movies from the last 15 years in the top ten. That means Children of Men is, for me the third best movie made in this new century. Its premise and execution are superb and it has maybe the most arresting final 45 minutes in a film since 2001: A Space Odyssey.

#10
CZF: Tree of Life (2011)
JDM: The English Patient (1996)

CZF: With Tree of Life Malick found a movie to match the scale of his ambition. All he needed was to marry the creation of the universe with the story of a single human man. A tremendous bit of Malick, to be sure, but 2011 didn’t offer much competition. Tree of Life beat Bridesmaids. After that, not much.

JDM: A strong choice with Tree of Life, which is a radiant film, though I still think Hugo is just a bit better. For The English Patient, you know my love for the movie. Nuff said.

#9
CZF: Zodiac (2007)
JDM: The Hurt Locker (2009)

JDM: As you will notice my top five movies in the last list all made the top ten on this list, so many of these I’ve already talked about. For The Hurt Locker, I just want to say that most war movies are big, extravagant productions. That a small picture like The Hurt Locker is one of the best war movies ever is a testament to Kathryn Bigelow’s skill as a director.

CZF: 2007 was one of the toughest choices on this list. Three Great American Explorations of Violence arrived: No Country, There Will be Blood, and Zodiac. Any could appear on this list, in this spot, justifiably. I gave Zodiac the edge. Fincher’s management of the story surpasses the Coen’s dreaminess and PT’s drooping middle.

#8
CZF: Citizenfour (2014)
JDM: Unforgiven (1992)

CZF: Most of the year end conversation in 2014 was Boyhood v. Birdman (I’m with Boyhood). But that debate shirks the best movie of the year: the Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour. We’ll see what happens with age, but right now, this one is in. No movie in the past few years is as surprising and terrifying as Citizenfour.

JDM: I’m very surprised at your choice here, Chris. While many documentaries could claim a place on a list like this, I tend to find those films to be about political events in the past or tell non-political stories (The Act of Killing, Capturing the Friedmans, Man on Wire). I can’t think of any documentary about contemporary political issues (Fahrenheit 9/11, No End in Sight, Inside Job) that will be a great film, or even an interesting film, a decade from now. With Unforgiven, I still think we have one the best commentaries, documentary or narrative, on America’s history of violence.

#7
CZF: Spirited Away (2002)
JDM: Synecdoche, New York (2008)

JDM: I gave you shit for your indy choices earlier, now is your chance to repay. But, before you weigh in, let me tell you why I think Synecdoche, New York is the best movie so far this century. No movie that I have ever seen gets across how we live our lives with such clarity, tragedy, and compassion. The film is sprawling and ambitious and difficult but, as the last scene plays out you realize the movie is really just about a single man, a specific life, and to tell that story, to tell any of our stories, is extremely difficult, will be of necessity sprawling, and requires great ambition. This is because, as I quoted in my obituary for Philip Seymour Hoffman, “There are millions of people in the world. None of those people is an extra. They’re all the leads of their own stories. They have to be given their due.”

CZF: No complaints, Jeff. I don’t love Synecdoche as much as you, or say, Amy Nicholson. But it’s a great film. As we get closer to the top picks, everything gets compounded by questions of greatness. But Spirited Away makes it easy: Miyazaki’s most well-known film is also an imaginative masterpiece. One of the most inexplicable animated films you’ll find, and one that is as beloved by adults and kids and even toddlers (my own, at least). It’s just irresistible.

#6
CZF: Pulp Fiction (1994)
JDM: Goodfellas (1990)

CZF: Pulp Fiction may be aging better than any movie of the 1990s. It blew audiences away with its originality in ‘94. But it also reveals just how hard it is to make something special at the movies. Watch Pulp Fiction today, 20+ years later, and it feels as fresh as anything hitting theaters today. That includes QT’s most recent revenge-porn.

JDM: Goodfellas is a movie I don’t really care for. But, I can’t deny that it is a masterpiece. And, as time goes on, the number of films and filmmakers indebted to this film grows. It, along with Pulp Fiction, may be the two most influential movies of the last quarter century.

#5
CZF: Fargo (1996)
JDM: Magnolia (1999)

JDM: I know you think Magnolia is showing its age but I disagree. I watch this movie nearly every year, during Holy Week, as we lead into Easter or Pascha. And each time I watch again believe that in this film Paul Thomas Anderson has given us a piece of crystalline truth and hope - that this life, despite its seeming meaninglessness, has meaning and that, above all else, forgiveness is possible.

CZF: Well that is some high fucking praise, man. Holy week and forgiveness and shit. That’s why movies are great. Anyway, Fargo is the just the best. The Coens also get that the midwest is full of weirdos, in the best sense. We are weirdos; and no one knows it like Coens. But the way Fargo mixes midwestern weirdness with genre elements and “Hollywood interests” if you will, provided a film as rare as a unicorn. An hilarious, wood-chipped unicorn.

#4
CZF: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
JDM: Schindler’s List/Jurassic Park (1993)

JDM: We’ve both spoken at length about Schindler’s List but what may not have come across in my praise for the movie is just how hard I find it to choose Schindler’s List over Jurassic Park. So, I won’t. I have a hard time comprehending how Steven Spielberg made both in the same year. They are each technically so different. Yet each are about the same idea, “that life, uh… finds a way.”

CZF: A tie? You called a tie! Good one. You commented earlier that Ang Lee is perhaps the best director of the past quarter century. He’s certainly in the discussion. Early drafts of this list had Brokeback and Eat, Drink, Man, Woman on it. Though both of those have dropped off, Crouching Tiger remained. The poetry of the film’s action is stunning and what is best remembered, but the story is powerful, and the performances, especially of Michelle Yeoh, are incredible.

#3
CZF: Heat (1995)
JDM: Pulp Fiction (1994)

CZF: Getting down to the wire here. I have in the past argued that Heat is the best film of the 1990s, and I do think it’s right there at the very, very top of that list. Michael Mann’s epic tete-a-tete between De Niro and Pacino is payoff enough, but the world Mann builds in the LA bank-robbing drama is so compelling, and the characters he creates (Mann is an underrated writer) are nuanced and fulfilled. Add to that, Heat is just so fucking slick and cool.

JDM: I’m with you there on Heat and I am a little disappointed that it isn’t higher on my list. There are just too many good movies from the 1990s that keep Heat down in the teens. As an example, Pulp Fiction. In the run-up to Hateful Eight, I re-watched all QT’s films. As you say, Chris, none of Pulp Fiction feels dated. None of the elements (dialogue, narrative structure, costuming) feel like a gimmick, which is often the case in QT imitators as well as in QT’s own movies. And, QT has never told a better story or a story better than that of the redemption of Jules Winnfield.

#2
CZF: The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
JDM: The Thin Red Line (1998)

CZF: Good and Evil have never been better, right? We talked out Silence in our last list and I don’t have anything else to add. It’s perfect.

JDM: Apparently not perfect enough for you, Chris. While the categories Good and Evil are well defined in Silence, my #2 movie spends three hours trying to define these categories. Every time I return to Malick’s war epic I worry that it will have diminished in its imagery or become hackneyed in its meditations. But, every time I am proven wrong. And I think the reason is that first and foremost Malick has made an excellent war movie. The battle set-pieces are perfectly staged and as intense as anything in Saving Private Ryan (also 1998). With such a strong backbone, the movie is able to hold the weight of even the heaviest of Malick metaphors.

#1
CZF: Children of Men (2006)
JDM: The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

JDM: While both of us had The Silence of the Lambs as the best Best Picture of the last 25 years, only I have it as the best picture. We’ve both already talked about why we think it is such a great film. So, I will leave you to fill the space with why Children of Men, a film I also consider a masterpiece, is at the top of your list.

CZF: In my esteem, Alfonso Cuaron is the most gifted director working today. Each of his films display a consistent level of mastery and efficiency and self-control (something far too rare from today’s ‘greats’ *cough Terrence Malick). He can work in any genre, telling big stories or small, and he does each with the technical acuity and storytelling chops of, say, Hitchcock. I’m serious about that. His last four films have each been great, but Children of Men is his masterpiece. Other movies on this list probably meet the technical achievement of Children of Men. But there’s something about this film’s vision of the world that elevates it to the top, at least at this moment on earth. Watching a war torn city house a science-fiction nativity story for a depressed, and failing world…it’s just beautiful and dark as fuck. A perfect movie for our time.

Chris Full List
25. Restrepo (2010)
24. Dazed and Confused (1993)
23. Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
22. Malcolm X (1992)
21. District 9 (2009)
20. The Matrix (1999)
19. A History of Violence (2005)
18. A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
17. The Truman Show (1998)
16. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
15. Goodfellas (1990)
14. Short Term 12 (2013)
13. Rachel Getting Married (2008)
12. Titanic (1997)
11. Oldboy (2003)
10. Tree of Life (2011)
9. Zodiac (2007)
8. Citizenfour (2014)
7. Spirited Away (2002)
6. Pulp Fiction (1994)
5. Fargo (1996)
4. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
3. Heat (1995)
2. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
1. Children of Men (2006)

Jeff Full List
25. Boyhood (2014)
24. Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
23. Gravity (2013)
22. Hugo (2011)
21. The Pianist (2002)
20. L.A. Confidential (1997)
19. The Social Network (2010)
18. Heat (1995)
17. Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
16. Traffic (2000)
15. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
14. Lost in Translation (2003)
13. The Incredibles (2004)
12. Titanic (1997)
11. Children of Men (2006)
10. The English Patient (1996)
9. The Hurt Locker (2009)
8. Unforgiven (1992)
7. Synecdoche, New York (2008)
6. Goodfellas (1990)
5. Magnolia (1999)
4. Schindler’s List/Jurassic Park (1993)
3. Pulp Fiction (1994)
2. The Thin Red Line (1998)
1. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

 

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