Filmnut

My Top 100 Films: 2009 Edition

Jul 31, 2009 at 12am

Psst! I now have a 2017 edition of this list.

Every serious film nerd has taken the time to compile a top hundred list. So, here's mine. I'm calling it the "2009 Edition" because I'd like to do this once every five years or so, and see how it changes.

For what it's worth, I'm generally uncomfortable with listing any film as being in my top 100 if (a) I've seen it less than three times, and/or (b) it was released in the last three years. With regard to (b), I've made a few exceptions, but I moved them pretty far down on the list. Point being: I feel like a film has to age some before you can really decide how much you like it. Also, keep in mind that I'm not arguing these are the best 100 films ever made, but that these are the 100 films I love the most.

2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)
The Insider (Mann, 1999)
Kids (Clark, 1995)
The Silence of the Lambs (Demme, 1991)
Crumb (Zwigoff, 1994)
Lost in Translation (Coppola, 2003)
Sexy Beast (Glazer, 2000)
Manhattan (Allen, 1979)
Once Upon a Time in America (Leone, 1984)
Lovely & Amazing (Holofcener, 2001)
A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick, 1971)
Magnolia (Anderson, 1999)
Fight Club (Fincher, 1999)
American Beauty (Mendes, 1999)
Punch-Drunk Love (Anderson, 2002)
Ghost World (Zwigoff, 2001)
Bully (Clark, 2001)
DiG! (Timoner, 2004)
Spirited Away (Miyazaki, 2001)
The 400 Blows (Truffaut, 1959)
I Heart Huckabees (Russell, 2004)
Jackie Brown (Tarantino, 1997)
The Exorcist (Friedkin, 1973)
The Dreamers (Bertolucci, 2003)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Mulligan, 1962)
Dazed and Confused (Linklater, 1993)
Clueless (Heckerling, 1995)
Capturing the Friedmans (Jarecki, 2003)
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Mitchell, 2001)
Sabrina (Pollack, 1995)
Kill Bill: Volume 1 (Tarantino, 2003)
Kill Bill: Volume 2 (Tarantino, 2004)
Singin' in the Rain (Donen, 1952)
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
Being John Malkovich (Jonze, 1999)
The Cell (Tarsem, 2000)
Donnie Darko (Kelly, 2001)
Natural Born Killers (Stone, 1994)
24 Hour Party People (Winterbottom, 2002)
Tombstone (Cosmatos, 1993)
Rounders (Dahl, 1998)
Casino (Scorsese, 1995)
Good Will Hunting (Van Sant, 1997)
The Royal Tenenbaums (Anderson, 2001)
Almost Famous (Crowe, 2000)
The Asphalt Jungle (Huston, 1950)
Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960)
American History X (Kaye, 1998)
Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick, 1999)
Boogie Nights (Anderson, 1997)
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (Gibney, 2005)
Se7en (Fincher, 1995)
Startup.com (Noujaim/Hegedus, 2001)
There Will Be Blood (Anderson, 2007)
Auto Focus (Schrader, 2002)
Sex, Lies and Videotape (Soderbergh, 1989)
Wayne's World (Spheeris, 1992)
Badlands (Malick, 1973)
Barry Lyndon (Kubrick, 1975)
Wonder Boys (Hanson, 2000)
The Squid and the Whale (Baumbach, 2005)
The Blair Witch Project (Myrick/Sanchez, 1999)
Lorenzo's Oil (Miller, 1992)
Triplets of Belleville (Chomet, 2003)
Traffic (Soderbergh, 2000)
Lolita (Kubrick, 1962)
Point Break (Bigelow, 1991)
True Lies (Cameron, 1994)
Romeo + Juliet (Luhrman, 1996)
Welcome to the Dollhouse (Solondz, 1995)
The Shining (Kubrick, 1980)
One Hundred and One Dalmatians (Geronimi/Luske/Reitherman, 1961)
Fear (Foley, 1996)
Igby Goes Down (Steers, 2002)
Bend it Like Beckham (Chadha, 2002)
Gosford Park (Altman, 2001)
The Game (Fincher, 1997)
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (Cassavetes, 2004)
Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 1994)
Boiler Room (Younger, 2000)
Moulin Rouge! (Luhrman, 2001)
Object of My Affection (Hytner, 1998)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (Zemeckis, 1988)
Top Gun (Scott, 1986)
Annie Hall (Allen, 1977)
Rebel Without a Cause (Ray, 1955)
Empire Records (Moyle, 1995)
Eagle vs Shark (Cohen, 2007)
Comedian (Charles, 2002)
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Fassbinder, 1974)
Full Frontal (Soderbergh, 2002)
The Kid Stays in the Picture (Burstein/Morgen, 2002)
Friday (Gray, 1995)
The Original Kings of Comedy (Lee, 2000)
The Basketball Diaries (Kalvert, 1995)
Rachel Getting Married (Demme, 2008)
Superbad (Mottola, 2007)
Not Another Teen Movie (Gallen, 2001)
Spellbound (Blitz, 2002)
The Good Girl (Arteta, 2002)