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jostiel
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An error has ocurred. Please try againThese are my guidelines, which you can skip, unless you feel I have some explaining to do....
Those ranked from 1-90, I've rated 10 or 9 (I believe in generosity). After that, my rating tends to be 8, though those at the bottom have a lower rating, however none lower than 6. Also, only 1-100 are arranged according to how highly I hold them. After that, titles appear in a rough ranking order.
The list contains no animated or non-English movies, of which I've seen too few to give a fair inclusion. Nor does it include comedies that aren't satires or titles which arguably belong to other genres, such as fantasy, horror or superhero movies. To give prominence to variety, the list only includes the best installment of each franchise, representing the series as a whole, and to give more room to original ideas, only unique remakes and reboot films qualify.
American Film Institute defines science fiction as “a genre that marries a scientific or technological premise with imaginative speculation.” It covers hypothetical yet scientifically possible events we so far haven't experienced (see Gravity), or technology used in ways that yet hasn't happened (see The Martian). Just as any story about going to the moon was science fiction before 1969, so was Contagion speculative fiction before 2020. There was a high likelihood that these events would happen, but until they became reality, these stories were fiction based on scientific probabilities. Other stories may hypothesize about more unlikely events, but the definition requires that a scientific explanation is given within the frame of the story. Hence, stories with supernatural elements are ruled out.
While this is primarily a list of what I personally love, it's also intended to highlight shared experiences collectively loved. Granted, it doesn't consistently reflect the current consensus, but I've given due consideration to iconic works that have had a lasting impact on film history. Still, movies move us all differently. What an individual takes away from a story is subjective and personal, which is why no one's list can be identical to anyone else's. Also, what we value highest won't stay the same as we change. I hope you'll enjoy this version.
Lost showed that love is the biggest mystery of all, an act in which we create together. And all we need in order to create is imagination, beginning with the infinite unpredictability of inspiration and ending with a heartfelt choice between futures unforeseen until imagined. Elements of mystery are often symbolic, and Lost's island may symbolize redemption. With a beginning hinting that all that happens means something, a middle asking if meaning is an illusion, the end tells us that love is our constant whose meaning we can't fathom.
The mysteries of mystery-box shows are sometimes too complex to be solved in just one way. Leftovers, for instance, "let the mystery be," offering more than one possibility. In other shows, like Tales from the Loop, characters may find they're happier not knowing or that the answer is unknowable. A third approach is to provide an answer but leave it ambiguous, welcoming discussion. Undone is an engrossing show that fits this approach, as it sparks and stimulates our imagination by giving us only the hints we need to fill in the missing pieces.
Honorable mentions: Alphas, Ascension, Colony, Dark Angel, Dark Matter, Dollhouse, Earth 2, Emergence, Extant, FlashForward, Fringe, Hanna, Homecoming, Invasion, Killjoys, Kyle XY, Manifest, The Prisoner, Raised by Wolves, Revolution, The Society, Soulmates, Snowpiercer, The Stranger, Surface, Terra Nova, This Is Us, Twin Peaks, Utopia, Wild Palms, Zoo, The 100.
Special consideration has been given to old films that have had a lasting impact on film history. Films part of a series are ranked collectively to give more room to stand-alone films as well as a wider variety of directors, and each series is judged by its best installment.
When interviewed by James Cameron for an AMC documentary series, Christopher Nolan said, "If waking life is prose, dreams are poetry." True. Science fiction imagines an incredible yet possible future and fantasy a believable yet mythical past, and in their exploration of the human condition they are universal and timeless, like dreams. Yet drama movies that entirely rely on realism are less about escape and wonder and more about holding up a mirror to our shared experience of the ordinary world and waking life.
The choice of which I rank highest changes with time. Also, new releases means new entries and there are many lauded films I've yet to see, so the list will be revised regularly. The list will however consistently reveal my fondness for adventure movies, which combine wonder with realism. That non-English speaking movies are excluded also shows my soft spot for the English language. Out of the acclaimed non-English speaking movies I've seen, I'd place many near the top. But to add them and leave out classics I haven't seen would make the list incomplete. As it is, this list focuses on drama movies in English that struck a chord with me.
Reviews
Children of the Dog Star (1984)
Disturbing and evocative
This show aired in Sweden in 1985. I was seven then and my older sister read the subtitles for me (she used to do that so frequently that when I went to bed she would forget to stop reading them out loud). I remember that I thought it was disturbing that you never see the alien activity, yet the invisible alien presence has an impact on these kids. Their parents don't understand and can't believe in what the kids experience, as the unnatural force is invisible and can only be sensed when coming close to it or in nightmares. It was very similar to the British series Chocky, the adaptation of Wyndham's book which premiered in Sweden at the end of 84. Chocky was about an unseen force channeling its thoughts to a boy, giving him all the right answers in school, discussing things with him though no one but him can hear it, which, like The Invisible Man, was quite a disturbing concept for a seven- year-old to process. In Children of the Dog Star, the protagonist is similarly influenced, yet mostly when asleep. I remember the characters as easy to sympathize with, smart, free-thinking and autonomous. There are few series from my childhood I remember this vividly. Though I can't rate it, as I haven't seen it as an adult, the fact that I have such vivid images of it tells me the show was evocative, thought-provoking, spooky and probably made for older kids.