The Top 100: Intro

I've been wanting for some time to rewatch some of my favorite movies. There are several that either launched themselves into my heart earlier in my life and I haven't seen them in several years, or I watched them once, loved them dearly, and never saw them again -- although those are less likely to be called my all-time favorites. Some I've seen multiple times but they continue to connect with me every time.

I also find that when I do rewatch these, they're my favorites for a reason. They are refreshing. They make me laugh. They make me cry. They resonate in my soul. And when I'm done, I feel I want to talk about them.

So I'm going to start a little project here. I'm calling it The Top 100. I'm going to rewatch each of the movies in my current top 100 on Flickchart. After each movie, I'll write about it -- the things I love, any things I wish were different, maybe my history with the movie. I'll also rerank them on Flickchart. I sometimes find that I'm too hesitant to change the rankings in my top 100, and I'd like to shake that up. Maybe some of these movies are better in my memory than they are in actual watching, and I'll end up with completely different movies at the top of my chart. We'll see.

I'm going to aim for two a month, which would have me finished in a little over 4 years, though given my track record with scheduling projects, I fully expect to fall behind. But the point is that eventually I'll finish it. And at that point, maybe my top 100 will look completely different.

To avoid watching this in perceived declining order (though every movie on here is one I love), I'm going to watch these in a random order. I'll also announce with each blog post what my next one is going to be, so if you'd like to follow along and watch or rewatch some of my absolute favorite movies with me so we can talk about them later when I blog about them, I would love that.

My current top 100 looks like this:

1. Casablanca (1942)
2. Love Actually (2003)
3. Moulin Rouge (2001)
4. Annie Hall (1977)
5. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008)
6. Beauty and the Beast (1991)
7. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
8. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
9. Rear Window (1954)
10. The Truman Show (1998)

11. The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

12. Fight Club (1999)

13. Monsters, Inc. (2001)

14. Hairspray (2007)

15. Memento (2000)

16. Mary Poppins (1964)

17. Noises Off (1992)

18. Company: A Musical Comedy (2007)

19. Into the Woods (1991)

20. Back to the Future (1985)

21. West Side Story (1961)

22. The Sixth Sense (1999)

23. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

24. Charlie Bartlett (2007)

25. WALL·E (2008)

26. The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2003)

27. The Music Man (1962)

28. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

29. Waiting for Guffman (1996)

30. Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)

31. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

32. The Princess Bride (1987)

33. Groundhog Day (1993)

34. American Beauty (1999)

35. Donnie Darko (2001)

36. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

37. The Odd Couple (1968)

38. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

39. 12 Angry Men (1957)

40. The Last 5 Years (2014)

41. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

42. Charade (1963)

43. The Court Jester (1956)

44. Rent (2005)

45. Newsies (1992)

46. Lars and the Real Girl (2007)

47. Amadeus (1984)

48. The Prince of Egypt (1998)

49. Amélie (2001)

50. A Beautiful Mind (2001)

51. Star Wars (1977)

52. Bringing Up Baby (1938)

53. Lost in Translation (2003)

54. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

55. When Harry Met Sally... (1989)

56. Bug (2006)

57. Before Sunrise (1995)

58. The Emperor's New Groove (2000)

59. My Fair Lady (1964)

60. Star Spangled Girl (1971)

61. Angels in America (2003)

62. Legally Blonde: The Musical (2007)

63. Edward Scissorhands (1990)

64. The Seven Year Itch (1955)

65. Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

66. Cyrano De Bergerac (1990)

67. Wit (2001)

68. Up (2009)

69. Frost/Nixon (2008)

70. Ladyhawke (1985)

71. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

72. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

73. Billy Elliot (2000)

74. The Lion King (1994)

75. The Remains of the Day (1993)

76. Doubt (2008)

77. Proof (2005)

78. Ordinary People (1980)

79. Vanilla Sky (2001)

80. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

81. All the President's Men (1976)

82. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

83. Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

84. Dave (1993)

85. Back to the Future Part II (1989)

86. Desk Set (1957)

87. While You Were Sleeping (1995)

88. The History Boys (2006)

89. 1776 (1972)

90. Midnight in Paris (2011)

91. Peter Pan (1953)

92. Chicago (2002)

93. Schindler's List (1993)

94. Shrek (2001)

95. Harvey (1950)

96. The Philadelphia Story (1940)

97. A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

98. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

99. Tootsie (1982)

100. The Producers (1968)

Some of these movies will remain. Some will leave. Some will shift all around and land higher or lower on the list.

Choosing my first movie with a random number generator, it looks like my first movie is... #83, Sleepless in Seattle.

So I'll be watching that in the next couple weeks, reranking it, and writing about it, and I'd love to invite you all to watch it and talk about it with me! I'll post about it no earlier than April 20, so you have at least until then for a watch or a rewatch.