A summary, sorted by my ratings. There are a lot of films with my highest 10/10 rating, due to my participation in the Facebook Fave Fifty group where I watched and ranked my fifty favorite movies (the films in that list are in bold, below). I tend to save the 10/10 ratings for older classics, so a more recent film that gets 9/10 is very good indeed. Movies that are just shy of greatness will get 8/10. I waste more time than is necessary trying to distinguish 7/10 from 6/10 … both ratings signify slightly better-than-average movies, where if I like them I’ll pop for a 7 and if I don’t, I’ll lay out a 6. I save 5/10 for movies I don’t like, and anything lower than 5 for crud. This explanation comes after the fact … I don’t really think it through when I give the ratings. They skew high because I try very hard to avoid movies I won’t like … if I saw every movie ever made, my average might be 5/10, but I skip the ones that would bring the average down. Thus, the average for the 125 movies I rated in 2011 (not including the Facebook movies) is 7.3/10.
10:
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
The Big Sleep
Bonnie and Clyde
Breathless
Cabaret
Citizen Kane
City of God
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Do the Right Thing
The Earrings of Madame de ...
Fires on the Plain
From Here to Eternity
The Godfather
The Godfather Part II
A Hard Day's Night
His Girl Friday
Hoop Dreams
In the Mood for Love
King Kong
Kiss Me Deadly (“The detective hero doesn’t bring order from chaos, but instead blunders his way into atomic apocalypse.”)
L'Avventura
The Lives of Others
The Maltese Falcon
Mean Streets
Night and Fog
The Night of the Hunter
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Paths of Glory (“Can the man who created such perfection as Paths of Glory really be the same person who gave us 2001: A Space Odyssey, Barry Lyndon, and Eyes Wide Shut?”)
Performance
The Rapture
Rio Bravo
The Rules of the Game
Run Lola Run
Sherlock Jr. (“Must have been at or near the top of Jackie Chan’s viewing schedule in his formative years.”)
Singin' in the Rain
The Sorrow and the Pity
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Taxi Driver
The Terminator
The Third Man
Top Hat
Touch of Evil
Vertigo
Walkabout (“One of the reasons why, as a film major in the early-70s, I thought Nicolas Roeg was the best director.”
"What's Opera, Doc?"
The Wild Bunch
9:
13 Assassins
A Better Tomorrow
Army of Shadows
Before Sunset
Close-Up
From Russia with Love
Gimme Shelter
Hunger
Inside Job
My Family
My Man Godfrey
Near Dark
Shoot the Piano Player
Sid and Nancy
The Times of Harvey Milk
Under Fire
The White Ribbon
Welfare
8:
Animal Kingdom
Another Year
Attack the Block
Being There
Capote
A Christmas Tale
Crumb
Dumbo
Evil Dead II
The Heart of the Game
Incendies
The Informer
Inglourious Basterds
Juno
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Let the Right One In
Mildred Pierce
Minority Report
Police Story 3: Super Cop
The Red Balloon
Restrepo
Smoke
The Social Network
Still Walking
Stones in Exile
Straight Time
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
Super 8
To Be or Not to Be
Vengeance
The Virgin Suicides
7:
127 Hours
The Big Lebowski
Biutiful
Black Swan
Blow-Up
Broadcast News
A Bucket of Blood
Buster Keaton Rides Again
Catfish
Cedar Rapids
Down from the Mountain
Exit Through the Gift Shop
The Fighter
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
I Am Love
In a Better World
In the Realm of the Senses
Inception
Keane
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
The King's Speech
La Strada
Little Sinner
Lost in America
Magic Trip
The Magician
The Man from Laramie
Margin Call
Moneyball
Morocco
My Fair Lady
Nights of Cabiria
The Other Guys
Outside the Law
Page Eight
Point Break
A Serious Man
Shadows
Source Code
Summer Wars
They Live
The Thin Red Line
Thunderball
Tomorrow Never Dies
The Town
A Woman Under the Influence
6:
Another Woman
Barney’s Version
Bridesmaids
The Cat Returns
The Conspirator
Country Strong
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Doctor Zhivago
Drones
Eraserhead
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Grace of My Heart
Heart Like a Wheel
The Heartbreak Kid
Il Posto
Imitation of Life
It Came from Outer Space
Marathon Man
On the Town
The Producers
The Railrodder
Rango
Red
A Star Is Born
Tucker and Dale vs Evil
Velvet Goldmine
Wagon Master
Waiting for "Superman"
Whistling in Brooklyn
5:
Synecdoche, New York
The Tree of Life
4:
Eyes Wide Shut
The Terror
3:
Bride of the Monster
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