Over on my Zaak Watches Movies by himself blog, I’ve reached the 700 movies milestone. I started the blog about four and a half years ago when I was living in Guatemala as a way to practice writing but also to write about the values I drew from film. The reviews were longer and far more reflective than they are now. Now, I’m too busy to get into long discourses. The reviews are typically only 5-7 sentences long now.
Based on my current milestone, I know that I watch three movies per week. I watch very little television (a couple shows a week) and I think this is far more edifying.
The 147 best films of the 700 can be referenced here, and I’ve listed them below:
Documentaries
… And the
Pursuit of Happiness
Darwin’s
Nightmare
Deliver Us From
Evil
Encounters at
the End of the World
Fahrenheit 9/11
Grizzly Man
Hoop Dreams
No Direction
Home: Bob Dylan
Sicko
Taxi to the Dark
Side
To Be and To Have
Foreign Language Films
4 Months, 3
Weeks, and 2 Days
8 ½
As it is in
Heaven
Caché
Che: Part One
Che: Part Two
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Departures
I’ve Loved You
So Long
It’s Not Me, I
Swear!
Joyeux Noël
Lady Chatterley
Letters from Iwo
Jima
Tell No One
The Child
The Class
The
Counterfeiters
The Diving Bell
and the Butterfly
The Girl With
the Dragon Tattoo
The Human
Condition
The Lives of
Others
The Motorcycle
Diaries
The Necessities
of Life
The Post
The Postman
The Reader
The Son’s Room
The Time of the
Wolf
Wings of Desire
Yi yi
Animated Films
Fantastic Mr.
Fox
Grave of the Fireflies
Persepolis
Ratatouille
Spirited Away
The Man Who Planted Trees
The Secret of
the Kells
WALL-E
Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Everything Else
127 Hours
500 Days of
Summer
A Passage to
India
A Serious Man
Alice in
Wonderland
All the
President’s Men
American
Gangster
An Education
Atonement
Badlands
Barry Lyndon
Barton Fink
Black Swan
Blue Valentine
Borat: Cultural
Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Cast Away
Chinatown
Choke
Control
Crazy Heart
Dancer in the
Dark
District 9
Do the Right
Thing
Dog Day
Afternoon
Doubt
Flags of our
Fathers
Forrest Gump
Frost/Nixon
Get Low
Gran Torino
Green Zone
Half Nelson
Hunger
I’m Not There
Inception
Inglorious
Basterds
Judgment at
Nurenberg
Junebug
Juno
Kick-Ass
Kill Bill: Vol.
2
Kramer vs. Kramer
Lars and the Real Girl
Little Children
Little Miss Sunshine
Manderlay
Michael Clayton
Milk
Moon
My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown
Mysterious Skin
No Country for Old Men
Once
Punch-Drunk Love
Rachel Getting Married
Revolutionary Road
Shaun of the Dead
Shopgirl
Shutter Island
Sling Blade
Slumdog Millionaire
Sunshine Cleaning
Synecdoche, New York
Syriana
The Apostle
The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New
Orleans
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Fall
The Fighter
The Godfather
The Godfather Part III
The Hurt Locker
The King’s Speech
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of
the Ring
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the
King
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Machinist
The Prestige
The Road
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Social Network
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
The Taste of Others
The Tree of Life
The Visitor
The Wind that Shakes the Barley
The Wrestler
The Young Victoria
There Will Be Blood
Things We Lost in the Fire
True Grit
Up in the Air
Vatel
Where the Wild Things Are
You Can Count on Me