Category Archives: Film

My Year in Review 2025: Movies, Books, Music & Live Performances

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MOVIES

It was a slow year for moviegoing.  I watched fewer movies than usual, either in the theaters or streaming.  I’m not sure why, but family health issues and national politics may each have played a part. Early in the year we caught up on some of the acclaimed movies from 2024, and about halfway through the year, we were inspired by the New York Times’ ‘best movies of the 21st century so far’ list to see some of the films on that list. (I also added the NYT list to my own meta-list of 21st Century films.) One of my New Year’s resolutions is to watch more movies in 2026.  Here are the films I watched in 2025, with my 1-10 rating:

10/10
The Zone of Interest (UK/Poland, 2023) Dir: Jonathan Glazer

9/10
Margaret (US, 2011) Dir: Kenneth Lonergan
Toni Erdmann (Germany/Austria, 2016) Dir: Maren Ade
The Worst Person in the World (Norway, 2021) Dir: Joachim Trier
I Saw the TV Glow (US, 2024) Dir: Jane Schoenbrun
Anora (US, 2024) Dir: Sean Baker
One Battle After Another (US, 2025) Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson

8/10
 Jazz on a Summer’s Day (US, 1959) Dir: Bert Stern
I Am Not Your Negro (US, 2016) Dir: Raoul Peck
His Three Daughters (US, 2023) Dir: Azazel Jacobs
The Outrun (Germany/UK, 2024) Dir: Nora Fingscheidt
A Complete Unknown (US, 2024) Dir: James Mangold
The Left-Handed Girl (Taiwan/US, 2025) Dir: Shih-Ching Tsou

7/10
The Snapper (Ireland, 1993) Dir: Stephen Frears
Hamilton (US, 2020) Dir: Thomas Kail
Hit Man (US, 2023) Dir: Richard Linklater
Challengers (US, 2024) Dir: Luca Guadagnino
Heretic (US, 2024) Dir: Scott Beck & Bryan Woods
The Substance (France/UK/US, 2024) Dir: Coralie Fargeat
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (UK, 2024) Dir: Nick Park

6/10
Ocean’s Eleven (US, 2001) Dir: Steven Soderbergh
Idiocracy (US, 2006) Dir: Mike Judge
Sicario (US, 2015) Dir: Denis Villeneuve

5/10
Hundreds of Beavers (US, 2022) Dir: Mike Cheslik
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (US, 2025) Dir: Christopher McQuarrie

BOOKS

In 2025, I continued to work my way through a large chronological ‘best literature’ reading list that is based on my meta-list of the greatest works of literature.  This year, I read a number of works published in the 1910s and 1920s.  I decided to take on Marcel Proust’s seven-volume novel In Search of Lost Time, which occupied most of my reading time this year (I hope to finish it in 2026).  I also read Miracles and Wonder, the newest book by Elaine Pagels about the history of Christianity (you can read my review here) as well as two of her earlier books. A trip to England inspired me to read two books on British history.  Here is a list of the books I read in 2025, with my 1-5 star rating.

5/5
In Search of Lost Time I: Swann’s Way (1913). By Marcel Proust. Translated by Lydia Davis.
The Rainbow (1915). By D.H. Lawrence.
The Education of Henry Adams: An Autobiography (1918). By Henry Adams.
In Search of Lost Time II: In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower (1919). By Marcel Proust. Translated by James Grieve.
In Search of Lost Time III: The Guermantes Way (1920). By Marcel Proust. Translated by Mark Treharne.

4/5
Kokoro (1914). By Natsume Sōseki. Translated by Meredith McKinney.
The Home and the World (1916). By Rabindranath Tagore. Translated by Surendranath Tagore.
Selected Stories (1918-1926). By Lu Xun. Translated by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang.
Main Street (1920). By Sinclair Lewis.
The Forsyte Saga (1921). By John Galsworthy.
Zeno’s Conscience (1923). By Italo Svevo. Translated by William Weaver.
Three Plays (1923-1926). By Sean O’Casey.
An American Tragedy (1925). By Theodore Dreiser.
Three Tragedies (1932-1936). By Federico García Lorca. Translated by James Graham-Lujan and Richard L. O’Connell.
Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity (1988). By Elaine Pagels.
The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans and Heretics (1995). By Elaine Pagels.
A History of Britain I: At the Edge of the World? 3500 BC-AD 1603 (2000). By Simon Schama.
These Truths: A History of the United States (2018). By Jill Lepore.
Life Between the Tides (2021). By Adam Nicolson.
Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures (2024). By Katherine Rundell.
Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus (2025). By Elaine Pagels.

3/5
A Short History of England: The Glorious Story of a Rowdy Nation (2011). By Simon Jenkins.
Me, But Better: The Science and Promise of Personality Change (2025). By Olga Khazan.

MUSIC

My music listening in 2025 was dominated by my discovery of the rock band The Warning, a trio of sisters from Mexico who play hard rock with tinges of metal, pop, and punk. Many of their fans refer to them as ‘the future of rock’ and I don’t disagree. I also spent a lot of time listening to new albums from my best of 2024 meta-list. I also binged several favorite artists of years past: The Roches, The Who, and Steely Dan. Classical music listening was down this year. Here are the top 50 albums I listened to in 2025: 

  1. The Warning – Keep Me Fed (2024)
  2. Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood (2024)
  3. The Warning – ERROR (2022)
  4. Vampire Weekend – Only God Was Above Us (2024)
  5. The Roches – Speak (1989)
  6. Clairo – Charm (2024)
  7. Charles Lloyd – The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow (2024)
  8. The Roches -The Roches (1979)
  9. The Who – Live at Leeds (1970)
  10. The Roches – A Dove (1992)
  11. Yasmin Williams – Acadia (2024)
  12. Mabe Fratti – Sentir Que No Sabes (2024)
  13. The Who – Quadrophenia (1973)
  14. Steely Dan – A Decade of Steely Dan (1972-1980)
  15. The Last Dinner Party – Prelude to Ecstasy (2024)
  16. Hurray For The Riff Raff – The Past Is Still Alive (2024)
  17. The Roches – Keep On Doing (1982)
  18. Adam Steinberg – Angels + Angles (2022)
  19. The Roches – Another World (1985)
  20. Steely Dan – Can’t Buy A Thrill (1972)
  21. Bob Dylan – The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live, 1966: The ‘Royal Albert Hall’ Concert (rec. 1966)
  22. Steely Dan – Pretzel Logic (1974)
  23. The Roches – Can We Go Home Now (1995)
  24. Alvvays – Blue Rev (2022)
  25. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Wild God (2024)
  26. World Party – Arkeology (rec. 1984-2011)
  27. Michael Kiwanuka – Small Changes (2024)
  28. Charlie Parker – The Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes (rec. 1944-1948)
  29. Steely Dan – Katy Lied (1975)
  30. Brittany Howard – What Now (2024)
  31. SZA – SOS (2022)
  32. Steely Dan – Countdown To Ecstasy (1973)
  33. Nala Sinephro – Endlessness (2024)
  34. The Who – Tommy (1969)
  35. The Who – Who’s Next (1971)
  36. Waxahatchee – Out in the Storm (2017)
  37. Jessica Pratt – Here In The Pitch (2024)
  38. Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud (2020)
  39. Janelle Monáe – The ArchAndroid (2010)
  40. Lucinda Williams – West (2007)
  41. The New Pornographers – Electric Version (2003)
  42. The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema (2005)
  43. Andrew Sue Wing – Seventeen (2024)
  44. Björk – Vespertine (2001)
  45. Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks (1975)
  46. Fontaines D.C. – Romance (2024)
  47. Jamey Johnson – The Guitar Song (2010)
  48. Kim Deal – Nobody Loves You More (2024)
  49. Lana Del Rey – Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd (2023)
  50. Oscar Peterson – Night Train (1962)

LIVE PERFORMANCES

For the first time in several years, I didn’t attend concerts by any of my favorite indie or alternative pop & rock artists.  Instead, most of the concerts I attended in 2025 were for classical music, with two jazz concerts, and one singer-songwriter concert at a new (to me) venue: the Rec Room in Belmont.  I didn’t see any plays this year, but did enjoy a night of improv comedy for the first time in many years.  Here are the live performances I attended in 2025, in chronological order:

  • The Makanda Project with Charles Tolliver at Boston Public Library, Roxbury, MA 3/5/25
  • Jeremy Denk at Mechanics Hall, Worcester, MA 3/21/25
    Performing Partitas (BWV 825-830) by J.S. Bach
  • Cambridge Jazz Festival at Danehy Park, Cambridge, MA 7/26/25
    Ron Reid’s Precious Metals Project
    Namisa Mdalose & Lumanyano Bizana
  • Improv Asylum at Charles Playhouse, Boston, MA 8/16/25
    The Main Stage Show (Barker, Carty, Gillis, Sosebee, etc.)
  • Andrew Sue Wing at The Rec Room, Belmont, MA 9/9/25
  • A Tribute to Scott Nickrenz at Calderwood Hall, Gardner Museum. Boston, MA 9/10/25
    Performers included: Yo-Yo Ma, Jason Bell, Paavali Jumppanen, Lawrence Dutton, Borromeo Quartet, A Far Cry
  • Convivium Musicum at First Unitarian Church, Worcester, MA 11/23/25
    Performing works of Gregorio Allegri, Noel Bauldeweyn, Adrian Willaert, Jacob Handl, and Josquin des Prez
  • Paula Robison & Paavali Jumppanen at Williams Hall, NEC, Boston, MA 12/14/25
    Performing works of J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, and Mozart

The Best of 2025: Movies, TV, Music & Books

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It’s that time of year again, when various publications and individuals publish their “best of the year” lists. It seems like these lists come out earlier every year.  (I only hope that the listmakers go back to the prior December to find any gems they’ve missed in their eagerness to get their list out in late November or early December.)

I’ve compiled dozens of lists, as I do each year, to see which items reached a critical consensus as the best in their particular art form.  These are not my personal opinions.  I have not seen all these movies or TV shows, read all these books, or listened to all this music.  The links to the lists are below:

Best Films of 2025
Best TV Shows of 2025
Best Music of 2025
Best Books of 2025

To give you a sneak peek, here are the top items on each of the four lists:

BOOKS (3-way tie)
A Guardian and a Thief. By Megha Majumdar.
Audition. By Katie Kitamura.
Mother Mary Comes To Me. By Arundhati Roy.

MUSIC 
Geese – Getting Killed

TV SHOWS
Andor 

FILM
One Battle After Another

Please feel free to leave your comments about favorite movies, books, TV, and music of 2025 in the comments!

Thumbs Down: My Least Favorite Films of the 21st Century (so far)

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There’s nothing quite as infuriating as someone hating something you love. It feels personal in a way that’s different than someone loving something you hate. So it is with some trepidation that I have compiled a list of my least favorite films of the 21st Century so far.  I rate every movie I see from 1-10 and this list consists of every movie since 1/1/2000 (I know, actually a year before the 21st Century began…) that I gave a rating of 5 stars or less.

Please don’t be offended if I didn’t share your love for a favorite film. These aren’t facts; they’re just opinions. And hey, maybe I was wrong. Maybe I need to give that film another chance. I probably won’t, but maybe I should. Maybe I was just having a bad day. Or maybe this is a truly terrible film. We may never know the answer, but I can live with that uncertainty. I hope you can too.

You’ll notice that certain types of films tend to crop up on my “least favorite films” list. For example, I find most modern comedies to be awful. Even if they provide some laughs, they come at the expense of credible characters, coherent scripts, and emotional richness.  I find that so many comedies in the past 30+ years are little more than SNL-type skits that someone padded out to 90 minutes. It might have been funny as five minutes on TV show, but sitting through a feature-length movie is a chore. Other frequent fliers are: overrated animated films that hope we’ll overlook the lack of substance because it’s cute and clever; by-the-numbers rom-coms; by-the-numbers action flicks; and science fiction films that, upon serious examination, make no sense (I can only suspend my disbelief so far – Chris Nolan, Wachowskis, I’m looking at you…).

Anyway, here’s the list (in chronological order, as per usual):

  1. Meet the Parents (US, 2000) Dir: Jay Roach
  2. Scary Movie (US, 2000) Dir: Keenen Ivory Wayans
  3. Bamboozled (US, 2000) Dir: Spike Lee
  4. The Matrix Reloaded (US, 2003) Dir: Lilly Wachowski & Lana Wachowski
  5. The Matrix Revolutions (US, 2003) Dir: Lilly Wachowski & Lana Wachowski
  6. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (US, 2003) Dir: Gore Verbinski
  7. Gothika (US, 2003) Dir: Mathieu Kassovitz
  8. Spanglish (US, 2004) Dir: James L. Brooks
  9. National Treasure (US, 2004) Dir: Jon Turteltaub
  10. The Village (US, 2004) Dir: M. Night Shyamalan
  11. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (US, 2004) Dir: Adam McKay
  12. Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (US, 2004) Dir: Brad Silberling
  13. Collateral (US, 2004) Dir: Michael Mann
  14. Spider-Man 2 (US, 2004) Dir: Sam Raimi
  15. The Stepford Wives (US, 2004) Dir: Frank Oz
  16. King Kong (New Zealand/US, 2005) Dir: Peter Jackson
  17. Wedding Crashers (US, 2005) Dir: David Dobkin
  18. The Upside of Anger (US, 2005) Dir: Mike Binder
  19. Notes on a Scandal (UK, 2006) Dir: Richard Eyre
  20. Happy Feet (US/Australia, 2006) Dir: George Miller
  21. The Break-Up (US, 2006) Dir: Peyton Reed
  22. The Mist (US, 2007) Dir: Frank Darabont
  23. Ratatouille (US, 2007) Dir: Brad Bird
  24. Live Free or Die Hard (US, 2007) Dir: Len Wiseman
  25. Next (US, 2007) Dir: Lee Tamahori
  26. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (UK/US, 2007) Dir: Tim Burton
  27. Evan Almighty (US, 2007) Dir: Tom Shadyac
  28. WALL·E (US, 2008) Dir: Andrew Stanton
  29. The Hangover (US, 2009) Dir: Todd Phillips
  30. Taking Woodstock (US, 2009) Dir: Ang Lee
  31. Up (US, 2009) Dir: Pete Docter
  32. Avatar (US, 2009) Dir: James Cameron
  33. He’s Just Not That Into You (US/Germany, 2009) Dir: Ken Kwapis
  34. Inception (US/UK, 2010) Dir: Christopher Nolan
  35. Source Code (US/France, 2011) Dir: Duncan Jones
  36. Cedar Rapids (US, 2011) Dir: Miguel Arteta
  37. House at the End of the Street (US, 2012) Dir: Mark Tonderai
  38. The Equalizer (US, 2014) Dir: Antoine Fuqua
  39. The Endless (US, 2017) Dir: Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead
  40. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (US/UK, 2020) Dir: Jason Woliner
  41. A Man Called Otto (US, 2022) Dir: Marc Forster
  42. Hundreds of Beavers (US, 2022) Dir: Mike Cheslik
  43. Saltburn (UK/US, 2023) Dir: Emerald Fennell
  44. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (US, 2025) Dir: Christopher McQuarrie

My Top 100 Films of the 21st Century (so far)

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The New York Times recently published a list of the top 100 films of the 21st Century so far (actually, films made from January 1, 2000 to the present).  Here is the list (unfortunately, you may reach a paywall at the NYT site).  I have added the list to my meta-list of best films of the 21st Century (so far), which you can find HERE.  (The meta-list also includes music and books.)

I thought it would be fun to come up with my own list of 100 personal favorites from the first quarter of the new millennium.  I had to make a lot of difficult choices, and many films I rated 9 out of 10 didn’t make the cut.  Here is my list, in chronological order (with an asterisk if the film is on the New York Times list).

  1. Yi Yi (Taiwan, 2000) Dir: Edward Yang*
  2. You Can Count on Me (US, 2000) Dir: Kenneth Lonergan
  3. Memento (US, 2000) Dir: Christopher Nolan*
  4. Best in Show (US, 2000) Dir: Christopher Guest*
  5. In the Mood for Love (China, 2000) Dir: Wong Kar-Wai*
  6. Requiem for a Dream (US, 2000) Dir: Darren Aronofsky
  7. Songs from the Second Floor (Sweden, 2000) Dir: Roy Andersson
  8. Traffic (US, 2000) Dir: Steven Soderbergh
  9. The Piano Teacher (France/Austria, 2001) Dir: Michael Haneke
  10. Ghost World (US/UK/Germany 2001) Dir: Terry Zwigoff
  11. Spirited Away (Japan, 2001) Dir: Hayao Miyazaki*
  12. Waking Life (US, 2001) Dir: Richard Linklater
  13. Fat Girl (France, 2001) Dir: Catherine Breillat
  14. Mulholland Dr. (US, 2001) Dir: David Lynch*
  15. Moulin Rouge! (US, 2001) Dir: Baz Luhrmann
  16. The Royal Tenenbaums (US, 2001) Dir: Wes Anderson*
  17. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (US/NZ 2001) Dir: Peter Jackson*
  18. Talk to Her (Spain, 2002) Dir: Pedro Almodóvar
  19. Dogville (Denmark, 2003) Dir: Lars von Trier
  20. Capturing the Friedmans (US, 2003) Dir: Andrew Jarecki
  21. American Splendor (US, 2003) Dir: Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini
  22. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (US/NZ 2003) Dir: Peter Jackson
  23. Oldboy (South Korea, 2003) Dir: Park Chan-wook*
  24. Before Sunset (US, 2004) Dir: Richard Linklater*
  25. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (US, 2004) Dir: Michel Gondry*
  26. Fahrenheit 9/11 (US, 2004) Dir: Michael Moore
  27. Downfall (Germany, 2004) Dir: Oliver Hirschbiegel
  28. Tarnation (US, 2004) Dir: Jonathan Caouette
  29. Born Into Brothels: Calcutta’s Red Light Kids (US/India, 2004) Dir: Zana Briski & Ross Kauffman
  30. Grizzly Man (US, 2005) Dir: Werner Herzog*
  31. The Squid and the Whale (US, 2005) Dir: Noah Baumbach
  32. Caché [Hidden] (France/Austria, 2005) Dir: Michael Haneke*
  33. A History of Violence (US/Canada, 2005) Dir: David Cronenberg
  34. The Lives of Others (Germany, 2006) Dir: Florian Henckel von Donnersmark*
  35. Once (Ireland, 2006) Dir: John Carney
  36. Children of Men (UK/US, 2006) Dir: Alfonso Cuarón*
  37. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Romania, 2007) Dir: Cristian Mungiu
  38. Encounters at the End of the World (US, 2007) Dir: Werner Herzog
  39. Juno (US, 2007) Dir: Jason Reitman
  40. No Country for Old Men (US, 2007) Dir: Joel & Ethan Coen*
  41. There Will Be Blood (2007) Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson*
  42. Slumdog Millionaire (UK, 2008) Dir: Danny Boyle
  43. Food, Inc. (US, 2008) Dir: Robert Kenner
  44. Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) Dir: Mike Leigh
  45. The White Ribbon (Germany/Austria 2009) Dir: Michael Haneke
  46. Mother (South Korea, 2009) Dir: Bong Joon-ho
  47. Dogtooth (Greece, 2009) Dir: Yorgos Lanthimos
  48. The Secret in Their Eyes (Argentina/Spain, 2009) Dir: Juan José Campanella
  49. Cave of Forgotten Dreams (US, 2010) Dir: Werner Herzog
  50. The Kids Are All Right (US, 2010) Dir: Lisa Cholodenko
  51. Poetry (South Korea, 2010) Dir: Lee Chang-dong
  52. The Tree of Life (US, 2011) Dir: Terence Malick*
  53. A Separation (Iran, 2011) Dir: Asghar Farhadi*
  54. Melancholia (Denmark/Sweden, 2011) Dir: Lars von Trier*
  55. Moonrise Kingdom (US, 2012) Dir: Wes Anderson
  56. The Act of Killing (Denmark, 2012) Dir: Joshua Oppenheimer*
  57. Amour (France/Austria, 2012) Dir: Michael Haneke*
  58. The Master (US, 2012) Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson*
  59. Inside Llewyn Davis (US, 2013) Dir: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen*
  60. The Great Beauty (Italy/France, 2013) Dir: Paolo Sorrentino
  61. Under the Skin (UK/US, 2013) Dir: Jonathan Glazer*
  62. Ida (Poland/Denmark, 2013) Dir: Paweł Pawlikowski
  63. Her (US, 2013) Dir: Spike Jonze*
  64. Boyhood (US, 2014) Dir: Richard Linklater*
  65. Two Days, One Night (Belgium/France, 2014) Dir: Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne
  66. Goodbye to Language (France/Switzerland, 2014) Dir: Jean-Luc Godard
  67. Anomalisa (US, 2015) Dir: Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson
  68. Son of Saul (Hungary, 2015) Dir: László Nemes Jeles
  69. Mustang (France/Germany/Turkey, 2015) Dir: Deniz Gamze Ergüven
  70. Moonlight (US, 2016) Dir: Barry Jenkins*
  71. Toni Erdmann (Germany/Austria, 2016) Dir: Maren Ade*
  72. American Honey (UK/US, 2016) Dir: Andrea Arnold
  73. Paterson (US, 2016) Dir: Jim Jarmusch
  74. The Florida Project (US, 2017) Dir: Sean Baker*
  75. First Reformed (US, 2017) Dir: Paul Schrader
  76. Lady Bird (US, 2017) Dir: Greta Gerwig*
  77. Phantom Thread (US, 2017) Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson*
  78. The Favourite (Ireland/UK/US, 2018) Dir: Yorgos Lanthimos*
  79. Happy as Lazzaro (Italy/Switzerland, 2018) Dir: Alice Rohrwacher
  80. Burning (South Korea, 2018) Dir: Lee Chang-dong
  81. Roma (Mexico/US, 2018) Dir: Alfonso Cuarón*
  82. The Souvenir (UK, 2019) Dir: Joanna Hogg
  83. The Irishman (US, 2019) Dir: Martin Scorsese
  84. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (France, 2019) Dir: Céline Sciamma*
  85. Parasite (South Korea, 2019) Dir: Bong Joon-ho*
  86. Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (US, 2019) Dir: Quentin Tarantino*
  87. Uncut Gems (US, 2019) Dir: Ben Safdie & Joshua Safdie*
  88. I’m Thinking of Ending Things (US, 2020) Dir: Charlie Kaufman
  89. Small Axe: Lovers Rock (UK, 2020) Dir: Steve McQueen
  90. The Worst Person in the World (Norway/France, 2021) Dir: Joachim Trier*
  91. The Power of the Dog (NZ/Australia/UK, 2021) Dir: Jane Campion
  92. The Lost Daughter (Greece/US, 2021) Dir: Maggie Gyllenhaal
  93. Licorice Pizza (US, 2021) Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson
  94. Aftersun (US/UK, 2022) Dir: Charlotte Wells*
  95. Tár (US/Germany, 2022) Dir: Todd Field*
  96. The Zone of Interest (UK/Poland, 2023) Dir: Jonathan Glazer*
  97. Past Lives (South Korea/US, 2023) Dir: Celine Song*
  98. Anatomy of a Fall (France, 2023) Dir: Justine Triet*
  99. Poor Things (Ireland/US/US, 2023) Dir: Yorgos Lanthimos
  100. Anora (US, 2024) Dir: Sean Baker

More Stars Than There Are in Heaven: The Updated Actors List

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I’ve added about 10 more lists to the Best Actors meta-list, which hasn’t been updated in about 10 years. It was due.  In making this meta-list, I have been conscious that the lists probably have biases.  Some are biased toward the past, others toward the present. Some are biased toward male actors.  Many are biased toward Hollywood and/or English-speaking actors.  Still, even with these biases, the meta-list includes old and new, male and female, and Hollywood and non-Hollywood.  Although the majority of the actors on the meta-list are Americans, with a strong showing by actors from other English-speaking countries, the list also includes actors from several countries in Europe (particularly France and Sweden) and Asia (especially India and Japan).

One change from the earlier version of the meta-list is that I added many more television credits to the selected “filmography” for each actor.  (Filmography is therefore not a completely accurate term, since some of the credits are not films, and – truth be told – many movies are not even made on film anymore.)

Another change is that I’ve eliminated the term “actress” and now refer to film and television performers of all genders as “actors.”

Here is the link to the meta-list:

Best Actors of All Time

For those who can’t wait for the results, here are the top male and female actors on the meta-list:

Male
1. Marlon Brando
2. Robert De Niro
3. Jack Nicholson
4. Humphrey Bogart (tie)
4. Al Pacino (tie)
4. Daniel Day-Lewis (tie)
5. James Stewart
6. Cary Grant
7. Charlie Chaplin (tie)
7. Tom Hanks (tie)
8. Henry Fonda (tie)
8. Dustin Hoffman (tie)
8. Denzel Washington (tie)
9. John Wayne (tie)
9. Paul Newman (tie)
9. Johnny Depp (tie)

Female
1. Meryl Streep
2. Katherine Hepburn
3. Bette Davis
4. Ingrid Bergman
5. Judy Garland (tie)
5. Audrey Hepburn (tie)
6. Barbara Stanwyck (tie)
6. Cate Blanchett (tie)
6. Kate Winslet (tie)
7. Greta Garbo (tie)
7. Jodie Foster (tie)
7. Nicole Kidman (tie)
8. Joan Crawford (tie)
8. Vivien Leigh (tie)
8. Marilyn Monroe (tie)
8. Natalie Portman (tie)

 

Meta-List Updates

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I’ve updated a number of the website pages on Make Lists, Not War.

(1) Timeline of Human History, Part V: 2000-Present
I’ve been a little behind in doing the year-by-year summaries, but I am now up to date.  I’ve added important world events for the years 2021-2024.  The big additions include the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, various items regarding Donald Trump, and news about climate change.  I’m still delinquent about adding photos to the years since 2016. I’ll get to that eventually.
Here’s the link:
Timeline of Human History Part V: 2000-Present

(2) Best of the 21st Century (so far): Film, Music, and Books
As we approach the end of the 1st quarter of the 21st Century, a number of new lists have been published, and I’ve added these to the meta-list.  The new lists didn’t change the top items in music or film (The White Stripes – Elephant, and There Will Be Blood), but the top of the book list is now a three-way tie: The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen, Atonement, by Ian McEwan, and The Road, by Cormac McCarthy.  As I mention elsewhere, one of the odd results of collecting “best of the 21st century” lists over time is that the meta-list tends to be biased toward the first part of the century.  The lists contain almost no items from 2020 or later.  I’m sure that will be remedied as new lists are produced and added to the meta list.
Here’s the link
Best of the 21st Century (so far)

(3) Best Athletes of All Time
It has been several years since I updated the Best Athletes lists. I found six new lists and added them to the meta-lists.  New additions include Simone Biles and Novak Djokovic.  Athletes who were already on the lists but moved up considerably included Serena Williams, Tom Brady, and LeBron James.  To the dismay of all, Lance Armstrong remains on the list, due to a glitch in the meta-list process. Even though none of the lists that were made after 2013 include Armstrong, I found 8 lists made before the revelations about his performance-enhancing drug use that did include him. I have left this artifact of time on the list with an asterisk to explain the oddity.  Not yet on enough lists to make the meta-list are swimmer Katie Ledecky and basketball phenom Caitlin Clark, although my guess is that they will reach the meta-list in the future.
Here are the lists:
Best Athletes of All Time – Ranked (with photos)
Best Athletes of All Time – By Sport (without photos)

The Best of 2024: Film, TV, Music, Books

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I’ve created meta-lists of the best of 2024 by collecting end-of-year lists from the critics.  Here are the meta-lists, organized with the items on the most lists at the top.

Every year since the 1990s, I’ve been creating these meta-lists to help me decide what to watch, listen to, and read.  I hope they can provide you with some guidance in making intelligent choices for the use of your precious time!

Best Films of 2024
Best TV Shows of 2024
Best Music of 2024 (Albums)
Best Books of 2024

The Best of 2023: Movies, TV, Music & Books

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Once again, I have compiled meta-lists of the best of the year in film, television, music, and literature.  I began undertaking this project over 20 years ago when I decided that, with limited time to read books, watch movies and TV shows, and listen to music, I wanted to reduce my chances of encountering dreck and increase the percentage of that I would encounter gems.  The solution I chose to this problem was to collect the opinions of multiple critics when they issue their end-of-year “best of” lists.  While the method is not foolproof (I do occasionally find critical faves that I don’t like, and I also sometimes run across items I rate highly that the critics didn’t like so much), it has been a success overall.  One of the best aspects of this method is that it gets me outside my comfort zone.  By collecting and collating these lists, creating the meta-lists that are linked below, I have expanded my horizons and encountered works of art that I might not have found if I had stayed within the recommendations of friends and family, or of just one favored critic.  Why go by the recommendations of one random person when you have at your fingertips the critical consensus of over a dozen experts?

Here are the links to this year’s lists:

Best Films of 2023
Best TV Shows of 2023
Best Music of 2023
Best Books of 2023

Getting Up To Speed: A Meta-List Update Report

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I’ve updated a number of the meta-lists, using original source lists I obtained from various sources, including books, magazines, and websites.  I’ve updated several of the film lists and the literature (book) lists.  I added three new film lists, including a best 100 films from Stephanie Zacharek at Time magazine, and about 10 new best literature lists.  The literature lists hadn’t been updated in almost 10 years.  Here are the links to the updated lists:

MOVIES
Best Films of All Time – Ranked
Best Films of All Time – Chronological
Best Films of All Time – By Director
Best of the 21st Century (So Far)  (Note: Only the movies section of this list has been updated.)

LITERATURE
Greatest Works of Literature – Ranked
Greatest Works of Literature – Chronological
Greatest Works of Literature – By Author
The Big Literature List: A Meta-Meta List

Some may be wondering, why make lists of the greatest literature and not the greatest books?  I have actually given this quite a bit of thought.  I do have some lists that reference books, but the category of literature gives me an opportunity to include bodies of work, not just specific books. In many cases (esp. for writers known best for their poems, essays or short stories), people making “best of” lists will simply list the author’s entire body of work, without singling out any particular poem, story or essay.  There are often multiple collections of the author’s work in the genre, but instead of randomly selecting one of these collections as a “best book”, I thought it made more sense to reference the works as bodies of work (thus the italicized items in the literature lists).  (Although when listers do reference a specific collection/compilation, I have included it.)  Because these bodies of work aren’t books as such, I’ve used the more encompassing term “literature” for these lists (even though I’m aware that the algorithms and search terms might be looking for “best books”).

The Best of 2022: The End-of-Year Lists

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I have compiled meta-lists of the best movies, TV shows, music, and books of 2022 by combining multiple end-of-year lists published in magazines, newspapers, and websites.  These lists provide a critical consensus of the year’s best.

Here are links to the lists:

Best Films of 2022
Best TV Shows of 2022
Best Music of 2022
Best Books of 2022

As a sneak preview, here are the most-listed items in each category:

Film: Aftersun
TV: Better Call Saul
Music: (tie): Beyoncé – Renaissance and Rosalía – Motomami 
Book: The Candy House. By Jennifer Egan