Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

A friend, The Cousin, shared a list of 100 Top Movies on her LiveJournal yesterday, asking people how many they'd seen.

Then, after I posted a response, she asked me what I'd choose for my top 100 movies. Here they are, in alphabetical order.

To compile this list, I started by reviewing my mini reviews page, which I've been keeping for the last several years.

I added all the films which I'd given my top rating of five stars. Then I added movies I'd seen earlier which I felt deserved to be on the list.

To be on this list, a movie has to be more than simply a good film. I've seen many of the classics, and I appreciate a wide variety of movie styles. Instead, I was looking for films that really resonated with me, that stayed with me. These are movies I still think about, movies that still form the subtext of my emotional life. You'll notice there's a range of films, from comedies to romances to musicals to dramas to action films.

I'm sure I've probably left some films off this list, but here's how it stands today:

1. Across the Universe
2. Aguirre, Wrath of God
3. All About Eve
4. Adaptation
5. Amélie
6. American Splendor
7. Annie Hall
8. As Good as It Gets
9. The Aviator
10. Being John Malkovich
11. The Big Lebowski
12. Bob Roberts
13. Boogie Nights
14. Bowling for Columbine
15. Brazil
16. The Breakfast Club
17. Breakfast at Tiffany's
18. Broadcast News
19. Brokeback Mountain
20. Cast Away
21. Chasing Amy
22. Children of Men
23. Chinatown
24. The City of Lost Children
25. Coffee and Cigarettes
26. The Color Purple
27. The Commitments
28. Dangerous Liaisons
29. Dead Poets Society
30. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
31. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
32. Frankenstein (1931)
33. A Fish Called Wanda
34. Fists of Fury (1971)
35. From Hell
36. The Full Monty
37. Garden State
38. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
39. The Gold Rush
40. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
41. The Graduate
42. Grosse Pointe Blank
43. Hanging Garden (2005)
44. Hard Candy
45. Henry V (1989)
46. Hero
47. High Fidelity
48. Horror of Dracula (1958)
49. The Incredibles
50. Juno
51. Kill Bill: Vol 1
52. Kill Bill: Vol 2
53. L.A. Story
54. Labyrinth
55. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
56. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
57. Lost in Translation
58. Magnolia
59. The Man Who Fell to Earth
60. Memento
61. Million Dollar Baby
62. Monty Python's Life of Brian
63. Napoleon Dynamite
64. Nine Souls
65. Noises Off
66. Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror (1922)
67. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
68. Once Upon a Time in Mexico
69. The Philadelphia Story
70. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
71. The Player
72. The Princess Bride
73. Requiem for a Dream
74. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
75. Rumble in the Bronx
76. Run Lola Run
77. A Scanner Darkly
78. School of Rock
79. Secretary
80. Serendipity
81. The Seven-Year Itch
82. Shadow of the Vampire
83. Shakespeare in Love
84. Shaolin Soccer
85. A Shot in the Dark (1964)
86. Sideways
87. The Sixth Sense
88. Spirited Away
89. Star Wars IV: A New Hope
90. Stranger Than Fiction
91. Survive Style 5+
92. Thank You For Smoking
93. This is Spinal Tap
94. Trainspotting
95. The Unforgiven
96. The Wall
97. Waking Life
98. Wizard of Oz
99. Young Frankenstein
100. Zatôichi (2003)

As you're no doubt aware, today the Pennsylvania primaries are being held, and I went out early today to cast my vote. First, I checked smartvoter.org to find out which statewide elections were being held. Based on the information about the candidates, as well as a little Internet research, I wrote my selections on a piece of paper. This was easy, because only one of the races was contested.

I walked down to my voting location, where an older man in a checked shirt handed me a Republican flyer. I didn't really want to take it, but it was in my hand before I could decline it.

Inside, the place was full of motorcycles with two voting booths in the front. They explained to me, though, that only one booth was being used. The other one was a backup, because they'd had problems with the original booth earlier. "What sort of problems?" I asked.

"Battery problems," a volunteer replied. He assured me it had been fixed.

The volunteers were telling all Democratic voters that Republican Mario Civera was running a write-in campaign for State Representative, since he was running unopposed. Honestly, I have no idea why he would even want to be on both sides of the ballot, except that he might get a larger number of votes in the fall. The woman ahead of me was interested in writing him in, which was a rather complicated process, since they were using a computerized voting system.

While she was voting, I chatted with the woman behind me about the weather. Then finally, I got to cast my vote. For the first time in my lifetime, the Pennsylvania primary could actually make a difference, so it will be interesting to see what the results will be.

Copyright 2008 by Alyce Wilson

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