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What Is Your Favorite Movie for Each Year Since Your Birth?

posted 4 years ago by FilmBuff (7437)
32 replies | jump to latest

This was originally posted on the seemingly defunct "Film General" board by another user, and it didn't gain much traction. I think it's a very clever question, and thought I'd repost it here. You can see the original post, and the original poster's selections, here:

https://moviechat.org/bd0000007/Film-General/60e3d7ef9fc7160f4b953b17/Whats-everyones-number-one-favorite-movie-of-each-year-since-birth

I found this very hard to do, and I couldn't always narrow it down to one film, but here's the best I could do. 1999 is a total toss-up.

1970 Patton
1971 Harold and Maude
1972 The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
1973 The Sting
1974 Chinatown
1975 Monty Python & the Holy Grail
1976 The Tenant
1977 Annie Hall
1978 Animal House
1979 The Jerk
1980 Hopscotch / The Blues Brothers
1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark
1982 The Thing
1983 Trading Places
1984 Broadway Danny Rose / Repo Man
1985 My Life as a Dog
1986 Down By Law
1987 House of Games
1988 Die Hard / Midnight Run
1989 Crimes and Misdemeanors
1990 Goodfellas / Miller’s Crossing
1991 Delicatessen
1992 Unforgiven
1993 True Romance
1994 Pulp Fiction (but The Hudsucker Proxy and Chungking Express are masterful)
1995 Heat / Get Shorty
1996 Trainspotting
1997 Jackie Brown
1998 Rushmore / The Last Days of Disco
1999 10 Things I Hate About You / Fight Club / Office Space / The Matrix / Galaxy Quest / Mystery Men / Dogma
2000 O Brother, Where Art Thou?
2001 Donnie Darko
2002 City of God / Adaptation / The Rules of Attraction
2003 Lost in Translation
2004 The Aviator
2005 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
2006 The Lives of Others
2007 The Darjeeling Limited / Zodiac
2008 In Bruges
2009 Inglourious Basterds
2010 Black Swan / Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
2011 The Artist / Drive
2012 The Cabin in the Woods / The Avengers
2013 Gangster Squad / Nebraska
2014 Interstellar
2015 Mad Max: Fury Road
2016 Hacksaw Ridge
2017 Spider-Man: Homecoming / Baby Driver / Dunkirk
2018 The Death of Stalin
2019 Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood / Midsommar
2020 Minari
2021 The Green Knight (but the year is not done!)

[–] Mrmojo4700 (21722) 4 years ago

That’s going to be tough. 😀

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

This is an all day project. I'll be back.

[–] FilmBuff (7437) 4 years ago

Yes, compiling my list took some time!

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Done!

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

1961 - West Side Story
1962 - To Kill a Mockingbird
1963 - Lilies of the Field
1964 - Woman in the Dunes
1965 - Die! Die! My Darling
1966 - A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
1967 - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
1968 - Rosemary's Baby
1969 - Easy Rider
1970 - Gimme Shelter
1971 - Walkabout
1972 - Cabaret
1973 - Paper Moon
1974 - The Parallax View
1975 - The Stepford Wives
1976 - All the Presidents Men
1977 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1978 - Watership Down
1979 - Apocalypse Now
1980 - Little Darlings
1981 - Raiders of the Lost Ark
1982 - Poltergeist
1983 - Breathless
1984 - Romancing the Stone
1985 - The Breakfast Club
1986 - Stand By Me
1987 - Wings of Desire
1988 - Hairspray
1989 - Do the Right Thing
1990 - Goodfellas
1991 - T2
1992 - The Lover
1993 - Jurassic Park
1994 - Crooklyn
1995 - Braveheart
1996 - Romeo + Juliet
1997 - L A Confidential
1998 - Pleasantville
1999 - Galaxy Quest
2000 - Wonder Boys
2001 - The Royal Tenenbaums
2002 - Adaptation
2003 - Lost in Translation
2004 - Layer Cake
2005 - Mr. + Mrs. Smith
2006 - Children of Men
2007 - Zodiac
2008 - In Bruges
2009 - Fantastic Mr. Fox
2010 - Black Swan
2011 - We Need to Talk About Kevin
2012 - Silver Linings Playbook
2013 - The Wolf of Wall Street
2014 - Gone Girl
2015 - Dope
2016 - Hunt For the Wilderpeople
2017 - I, Tonya
2018 - The Favourite
2019 - Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
2020 - The King of Staten Island

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

i am not sure i could do this

[–] Rockman4 (1726) 4 years ago

Okay, took me a moment as well to think but here's mine

1985 – Back to the Future
1986 – Aliens
1987 – Predator
1988 – Die Hard
1989 – Dead Poets Society
1990 – Goodfellas
1991 – Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1992 – Reservoir Dogs
1993 – Tombstone
1994 – Pulp Fiction
1995 – Heat
1996 – Fargo
1997 – L.A. Confidential
1998 – American History X
1999 – The Matrix
2000 – Gladiator
2001 – The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2002 – The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
2003 – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2004 – Collateral
2005 – A History of Violence
2006 – The Departed
2007 – No Country for Old Men
2008 – The Dark Knight
2009 – Inglourious Basterds
2010 – The Town
2011 – Drive
2012 – Lawless
2013 – The Wolf of Wall Street
2014 – Nightcrawler
2015 – Mad Max: Fury Road
2016 – Hell or High Water
2017 – Wind River
2018 – Upgrade
2019 – 1917
2020 – The Kid Detective
2021 – Pig (so far)

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

this ended up being a lot easier than i thought it might be. letterboxd makes knocking something like this off fairly painless.

it was tougher to pick out favourites from recent years. some of that is just my own recency bias, i'm sure. plus i've seen so many features from the last decade that i like so much - 2017 there are 5 or 6 films that i think are pretty much perfect, for eg.

whereas once i hit the 80s & working back, each year had a clear favourite that was easy to choose, with a few exceptions.

2021 little fish - this is tough, cuz there are two others (green knight, pig) that i think are just as good.
2020 the wolf house
2019 tigers are not afraid
2018 into the spider-verse
2017 a ghost story
2016 sing street
2015 mad max fury road
2014 god help the girl
2013 this is martin bonner
2012 kill list
2011 warrior
2010 dogtooth
2009 a serious man
2008 happy go lucky
2007 brand upon the brain
2006 the lives of others
2005 funny haha
2004 palindromes
2003 zero day
2002 irreversible
2001 fat girl
2000 ginger snaps
1999 outer space
1998 dark city
1997 the manson family
1996 fargo
1995 safe
1994 crumb
1993 clean, shaven
1992 benny's video
1991 proof
1990 metropolitan
1989 things
1988 deadbeat at dawn
1987 evil dead 2
1986 something wild
1985 return of the living dead
1984 repo man
1983 videodrome
1982 pieces
1981 blow out/evil dead - refuse to put one over the other
1980 cannibal holocaust
1979 alien
1978 days of heaven
1977 eraserhead
1976 taxi driver - tough...i really don't feel passionately about anything this year tbh
1975 night moves
1974 the conversation
1973 messiah of evil
1972 pink flamingos
1971 the last picture show
1970 beyond the valley of the dolls
1969 bob & carol & ted & alice

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 4 years ago

> 1990 metropolitan

At present, of all the respondents old enough to have 1990 in their lists, you're the only one who didn't pick Goodfellas. :)

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

good catch.
i always have to ruin everything!
it doesn't look like there are any other consensus picks out there, unless i'm missing something.

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 4 years ago

> it doesn't look like there are any other consensus picks out there, unless i'm missing something.

I didn't check peoples' lists against each other, just looked to see if people picked any of the same ones I did, and noticed that. I'm a little surprised -- Goodfellas is an excellent movie but certainly not the only good one released in 1990. I could see people picking as a 1990 favorite Pretty Woman, Total Recall, Home Alone, Edward Scissorhands, Misery, The Hunt For Red October, and Awakenings, to name a few.

[–] MartyDeniro (4185) 4 years ago

I didn't want to list ties, so I broke those years (about a dozen of them) by coin flip.

1967 Cool Hand Luke
1968 Planet of the Apes
1969 Midnight Cowboy
1970 Woodstock 3 Days of Peace & Music
1971 The French Connection
1972 Deliverance
1973 The Exorcist
1974 The Godfather Part II
1975 Picnic at Hanging Rock
1976 Taxi Driver
1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1978 The Deer Hunter
1979 All That Jazz
1980 The Elephant Man
1981 The Road Warrior
1982 Blade Runner
1983 The Right Stuff
1984 Amadeus
1985 The Breakfast Club
1986 Hannah and Her Sisters
1987 Wall Street
1988 Heathers
1989 Glory
1990 Goodfellas
1991 The Silence of the Lambs
1992 Glengarry Glen Ross
1993 Falling Down
1994 Quiz Show
1995 Apollo 13
1996 The Cable Guy
1997 Gattaca
1998 Pi
1999 October Sky
2000 The Contender
2001 Donnie Darko
2002 Adaptation.
2003 Seabiscuit
2004 Collateral
2005 King Kong
2006 Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
2007 Once
2008 The Dark Knight
2009 Mary and Max
2010 Black Swan
2011 Melancholia
2012 Zero Dark Thirty
2013 Inside Llewyn Davis
2014 Whiplash
2015 Steve Jobs
2016 The VVitch
2017 The Rider
2018 First Reformed
2019 Apollo 11
2020 still catching up
2021 incomplete

[–] Boromir (10131) 4 years ago

1985- Back to the Future
1986 - Stand by Me
1987 - The Princess Bride
1988 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit
1989 - Back to the Future Part II
1990 - Goodfellas
1991 - Beauty and the Beast
1992 - Unforgiven
1993 - Schindler's List
1994 - The Lion King (what a year)
1995 - Twelve Monkeys
1996 - Independence Day
1997 - La vita è bella
1998 - American History X
1999 - The Mummy
2000 - Requiem for a Dream
2001 - Donnie Darko (LOTR The Fellowship of the Ring - second)
2002 - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
2003 - The Station Agent
2004 - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2005 - Capote
2006 - United 93
2007 - No Country for Old Men
2008 - WALL·E
2009 - Orphan
2010 - Inception
2011 - Shame
2012 - Silver Linings Playbook/Jagten
2013 - Inside Llewyn Davis
2014 - American Sniper
2015 - Creed
2016 - La La Land
2017 - The Death of Stalin/I, Tonya
2018 - Tully
2019 - The Irishman
2020 - ????
2021 - Cruella (5/10)

[–] actionkamen (23176) 3 years ago

How come a 5/10 movie is your favorite?

[–] Boromir (10131) 3 years ago

I watched maybe 5-6 movies, all of them are bad.
Enjoyed Cruella and love Emma Stone so picked this for number one.

[–] actionkamen (23176) 3 years ago

Quite a bad year for movies.

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 4 years ago

In the interest of protecting my privacy, I'm fudging my year of birth a little. And I don't get out and see movies very much, I'm content to wait for them to become available on cable or streaming, so I'm stopping at 2019 -- there are way too many movies from 2020 and this year which I haven't seen yet to pick any kind of a "favorite."

1960 Psycho
1961 West Side Story
1962 The Manchurian Candidate
1963 PT 109
1964 My Fair Lady
1965 King Rat
1966 A Man For All Seasons
1967 The Graduate
1968 2001: A Space Odyssey
1969 Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid
1970 MASH
1971 A Clockwork Orange
1972 The Godfather
1973 The Sting
1974 The Godfather: Part II
1975 Monty Python And The Holy Grail
1976 Marathon Man
1977 Capricorn One
1978 Superman
1979 Being There
1980 The Gods Must Be Crazy
1981 Excalibur -- Honorable mention to Stripes, but only because I'm in it
1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan
1983 The Right Stuff
1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four
1985 Cocoon
1986 Hoosiers
1987 Wall Street
1988 Eight Men Out
1989 Field Of Dreams
1990 Goodfellas
1991 The Silence Of The Lambs
1992 Glengarry Glen Ross
1993 The Firm
1994 Quiz Show
1995 Apollo 13
1996 The Craft
1997 Boogie Nights
1998 Apt Pupil
1999 The Green Mile
2000 Thirteen Days
2001 From Hell
2002 Auto Focus. Or, One Hour Photo. Can't make up my mind here.
2003 Wonderland
2004 The Aviator
2005 Capote
2006 The Queen
2007 No Country For Old Men
2008 The Hurt Locker
2009 Moon
2010 The King's Speech
2011 J. Edgar
2012 Looper
2013 The Great Gatsby
2014 Pawn Sacrifice
2015 Everest
2016 Sully
2017 It
2018 The Mule
2019 Once Upon A Time ... In Hollywood