The Danman Top 100 Films (2024 Edition)
10 years (and one day) ago, I created my Top 100 Films (the Letterboxd list for that 2014 edition is here). Five years (and one day) ago, I created the 2019 edition of my Top 100 Films (the Letterboxd list for the 2019 edition is here). Since I decided to task myself with reevaluating this list every five years, here we are with the 2024 edition. I set similar criteria for myself as I did in 2014 and 2019:
1. I had to currently own a physical copy of the film on Blu-ray or 4K UHD. This potentially meant that there would be films missing from the list that would have been included. Ironically, Blue Velvet (1986) (review) got snubbed for the second time because The Criterion Collection just announced that they are releasing the film on 4K UHD in June, so I had already set aside my Blu-ray copy to sell, in anticipation of upgrading that title (the same thing happened five years ago when CC announced their Blu-ray edition). The biggest omission this time around is Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West (1968) (review), which is scheduled to be released on 4K UHD in May.
1. I had to currently own a physical copy of the film on Blu-ray or 4K UHD. This potentially meant that there would be films missing from the list that would have been included. Ironically, Blue Velvet (1986) (review) got snubbed for the second time because The Criterion Collection just announced that they are releasing the film on 4K UHD in June, so I had already set aside my Blu-ray copy to sell, in anticipation of upgrading that title (the same thing happened five years ago when CC announced their Blu-ray edition). The biggest omission this time around is Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West (1968) (review), which is scheduled to be released on 4K UHD in May.
2. I forced myself to limit the number of titles I chose by the same director, even more so than in 2019. It was really tough, and it meant that a few really excellent and important films (particularly by Stanley Kubrick, my favorite director) were left off the list, but I limited myself to two titles per director. As in 2019, not all of my Top 20 Directors made it into my Top 25 (only 11 did), but they all made into the Top 100. A sub-criteria I made for myself, and again followed here, was to only include one title by any given director in my Top 10.
3. Re: the Top 25, I stuck with the criteria chosen last time—these are my actual Top 25 films; titles 26–100 are then listed in alphabetical order.
4. All titles in the list must have been rated ****1/2 or ***** by me.
Some observations on the 2024 edition of this list:
- The Top 11 titles remained exactly the same as in the 2019 edition.
- The Top 25 (mostly the bottom half) changed more significantly from 2019 to now than it did from 2014 to 2019. Some titles were dropped and added. Some changed positions.
- The rest of the list didn't change too much either, but again, some titles were dropped and some were added. Again, this was partially based on my owning a copy and partially wanting to shake it up a bit.
Some observations on the 2024 edition of this list:
- The Top 11 titles remained exactly the same as in the 2019 edition.
- The Top 25 (mostly the bottom half) changed more significantly from 2019 to now than it did from 2014 to 2019. Some titles were dropped and added. Some changed positions.
- The rest of the list didn't change too much either, but again, some titles were dropped and some were added. Again, this was partially based on my owning a copy and partially wanting to shake it up a bit.
- This time around, Criterion-released titles take up 28 spots on my list (in 2019 it was 30).
- It's fun to see which editions have remained the same and which have been upgraded. I always like to have the best available edition of films I choose to own (with picture and sound quality being the most important factor). The last time I made this list I didn't own a 4K TV or player and it was still relatively early days for the format, so I've upgraded a significant number of titles to 4K UHD (17 titles in my Top 25 and 45 titles overall). It's also interesting to note some seriously classic films that still have yet to receive releases in 4K!
- It's fun to see which editions have remained the same and which have been upgraded. I always like to have the best available edition of films I choose to own (with picture and sound quality being the most important factor). The last time I made this list I didn't own a 4K TV or player and it was still relatively early days for the format, so I've upgraded a significant number of titles to 4K UHD (17 titles in my Top 25 and 45 titles overall). It's also interesting to note some seriously classic films that still have yet to receive releases in 4K!
So, without further ado, I present to you The Danman Top 100 Films (2024 Edition)! For a listing of the titles in the 2024 edition, please visit my Letterboxd list here.
Comments
Post a Comment