Top Ranked Films of Douglas Sirk

Douglas Sirk
4 titles, 82nd in points with 10,048

Douglas Sirk made some well crafted films of what many would call soap opera, but if included in that class, then he made some of the best ones ever made during this era of the 50’s, dominated by Madison Avenue and a desire to conform.

These are all the films of American director Douglas Sirk that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. Written on the Wind (1956) #256
2. All That Heaven Allows (1955) #325
3. Imitation of Life (1959) #520
4. There's Always Tomorrow (1956) #929

Out of the top 1000
5. Tarnished Angels, The (1958) #1049
6. Time to Love and a Time to Die, A (1958) #2035

I’ve only seen the top two films here, Written on the Wind and All That Heaven Allows. Both were well done, and I should see more, but I'm not that interested in romance films from that era very often; Sirk’s are definitely a level above the normal films of that genre.

See the full list of top ranked 100 directors here: Top Ranked 100 Directors, 2011 Edition

Top Ranked Films of Rob Reiner

Rob Reiner: actor, director, dad

Rob Reiner
3 titles, 93rd in points with 9,078

Rob Reiner is best known as (a) the son of Carl Reiner, who played the producer on the Dick Van Dyke show (b) the Meathead on All in the Family on tv (c) a quality comedy director. Pick any letter, I first knew him as Meathead; at any rate, he’s far funnier than his dad.

These are all the films of American director Rob Reiner that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of theTop Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. This is Spinal Tap (1984) #208 Great parody of heavy metal, only you have to listen to the terrible music, which should put it in the lower 500 at best; fast forward! head bangers are so stupid they thought this was a real band and music stores were swamped with dummies looking for real Spinal Tab cds – proof that the music makes your synapses go on permanent vacation
2. Princess Bride, The (1987) #321 Fun silliness with the fantasy genre
3. Stand by Me (1986) #571 An ok, nostalgic comedy about kids being kids; seemed to lack passion and punch to me, I’ve never wanted to rewatch it

Out of the top 1000
4. When Harry Met Sally (1989) #1695 A crime that this isn’t ranked, one of the best romantic comedies of our era, though Billy Crystal is a first-class jerk of a guy

Reiner the Meathead with Sally Struthers

in All in the Family

When Harry Met Sally is becoming one of the most rewatched New Year’s films, and romantic films. I know couples that have parties to watch this on New Year’s Eve, which is the day the film ends with, and it feels appropriate when it does.

Other good films of Reiner’s that didn’t make polls are A Few Good Men, An American President, Misery, The Story of Us, and Ghosts of Mississippi – he could arguably have 6-7 ranked titles.

Reiner has won 12 awards out of 34 nominations. His A Few Good Men was nominated for a best picture Oscar. Some are a little bogus, like “lifetime acheivement” at a California film festival, and two are Emmys for supporting actor in All in the Family. (I never count the 'star on the Hollywood walk of fame' as an award, though IMDB does, making Rin Tin Tin and Winnie the Pooh award winning actors)

Penny Marshall and Rob Reiner

See the full list of top ranked 100 directors here: Top Ranked 100 Directors, 2011 Edition

Top Ranked Films of Vincente Minnelli

Vincente and Liza Minnelli

Vincente Minnelli
5 titles, 91st in points with 9,392

Minnelli is perhaps best known as the husband of Judy Garland that father Liza Minnelli, giving rise to one of the greatest Oscar® trivia facts ever: who is the only Oscar®-winner whose parents also won Oscars®? He is an underrated director, considered two of his films won best picture, and his most popular films have withstood the test of time, these are all over 50 years old now.

These are all the films of American director Vincente Minnelli that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of theTop Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls. In fact, these are all of the films of Darren Aronofsky, so each of his titles is held in high esteem.

1. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) #412
2. Band Wagon, The (1953) #441
3. An American in Paris (1951) #581 [AA]
4. Some Came Running (1958) #800 Overrated, boring
5. Bad and the Beautiful, The (1952) #944 Underrated, a very good film about filmmaking

Out of the top 1000
6. Gigi (1958) #1443 [AA] I always thought it’s 10 Oscars was a bit of a joke, that it spoke more of the competition than its own merit; now it’s not even in the top 1000 films

I guess I’d put either Meet Me in St. Louis or An American in Paris at the top. Meet Me in St. Louis is the better story, and a tighter film overall, but American in Paris is a more artistic musical film with some stunning choreography by Gene Kelly, plus I grew up on George Gershwin’s music. The film won a best picture Oscar. Actually, I can always watch St. Louis, my favorite of Judy Garland’s, if for no other reason than the best Halloween in films, and the songs “The Trolley Song”, and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. Watch during The Trolley Song as someone yells out "Hiya, Judy!", and she looks over but doesn't miss a beat in the song.

The Band Wagon is more average Hollywood big budget musical, I can hardly remember it. Some Came Running is overrated at 800, while The Bad and the Beautiful is perhaps underrated, and is one of the better films about the filmmaking industry itself. I think my complaint with it is Kirk Douglas trying to carry the film on his shoulders; I would rather have seen a stronger actor in that role, perhaps Burt Lancaster or Fredric March. A supporting actress Oscar went to Gloria Grahame in one of her more forgettable roles.

Missing: Cabin in the Sky - Minnelli's first film as a director was an all-black musical, starring Lena Horne. I'd have loved to have been in the meeting when he told them his plan.

See the full list of top ranked 100 directors here: Top Ranked 100 Directors, 2011 Edition

Top Ranked Films of Darren Aronofsky

Darren Aronofsky
3 titles, 86th in points with 9,885

For my money, Aronofsky is the best young director currently working - well, ok, it's a toss up between him and Christopher Nolan, who’s also very good, but I think Aronofsky is more creative and has a more diverse body of work so far – he seems to go more out on a limb, such as The Fountain, than most modern directors. Aronofsky's films delve deeper into complex and real characters, while Nolan directs more action oriented, less personal films that nonetheless display superb technical skills, such as Inception, Memento, and The Prestige.

These are all the films of current American director Darren Aronofsky that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of theTop Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls. In fact, these are all of the films of Darren Aronofsky, so each of his titles is held in high esteem.

1. Black Swan (2010) #289
2. The Wrestler (2008) #294
3. Requiem for a Dream (2000) #323

Just out of the top 1000
4. Pi (1998) bw #1242
5. The Fountain (2006) #1253

I’ve reviewed all of his films so far, because I like them all and think each one should be in the top 1000. My order of preference places Requiem for a Dream at the top, hands down, a head above all his other films. I gave it a perfect 10 rating, one of just 39 of those I’ve given out after 820 reviews. The film is difficult to watch for a reason, and actually left me physically shaking. I had to go outside (in the dark) and walk around for about half an hour after watching it, so I think he achieved his goal.

After that one I have a hard time ranking them. I suppose Black Swan was the most intruiging after that, and had the best acting for an entire ensemble. Natalie Portman got a long overdue Oscar for her performance, which may have been a little over the top compared to her Oscar-nominated role in Closer.

The Fountain [photo above] was a complex, ambitious fantasy that delved into science fiction in its future sequences, mythology in its ‘past’ (which was a novel by Rachel Weisz’ character), and romance and medicine in it’s present day story, where Hugh Jackman played a research scientist trying to find a cure for his wife’s terminal illness.

The Wrestler showed us that Mickey Rourke can really act, as he gave his career best performance as an aging professiounal wrestler coming to grips with his own mortality and breaching the gulf with his estranged daughter. This film wasn’t like any other Aronofsky film so far, and was a complete surprise for me on several levels. Marisa Tomei’s performance was also Oscar worthy.

His first film Pi, was based on a student film in which a man seeking answers runs across a group of occult mathmaticians trying to find a numeric code hidden in the bible that could be a holy grail of science. This is Aronofsky’s least artistic film based on craftmanship, which is to be expected with what is basically a student film.

Aronofsky is certainly one to watch, steadily building a career that I’d have to say is ahead of either Scorsese’s or Spielberg’s after just five films. Go look up their first five sometime and compare them all.

See the full list of top ranked 300 directors here: Top Ranked Directors, 2011 Edition

Top Ranked Films of Wim Wenders

Wim Wenders
4 titles, 77th in points with 11,082

These are all the films of German director (who made most of these in the U.S.) Wenders that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. Wings of Desire (1987) #165 A bit of modern magic has some angels mingling with the living
2. Paris, Texas (1984) #316 Interesting film, especially for the performance of Harry Dean Stanton, but ultimately flows like asphalt in Texas summer
3. Kings of the Road (1976) #642
4. Alice in the Cities (1974) #705

Out of the top 1000
5. American Friend, The (1977) #1494

I've only seen the top two ranked films here. Wings was more amiable than Paris, Texas, but both are worth seeing, so it makes me think that so are the other three, and probably more. He's not exactly Werner Herzog, but then not many other German filmmakers are.

See the full list of top ranked 100 directors here: Top Ranked 100 Directors, 2011 Edition

Top Ranked Films of David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg
6 titles, 75th in points with 11,293

Cronenberg is a mixed bag. On the one hand he’s noted for over the top horror fantasy films like The Fly and Videodrome. On the other, he can make some serious dramas, albeit a bit disturbing, such as Dead Ringers, A History of Violence, and Eastern Promises, which lean toward the realistic. Dead Ringers is, in fact, based on a true story and stars Jeremy Irons in a earth-shattering performance as twin gynocologists, one with a disturbing s/m streak. Not only it is hard to believe he didn’t win an Oscar®, he wasn’t even nominated, but he got his ‘apology’ Oscar® for his next (and much more average) performance in Reversal of Fortune. In his acceptance speech he said, “there are many of you out there who know I owe this to David Cronenberg”.

These are all the films of Canadian director David Cronenberg that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. Dead Ringers (1988) #308
2. Videodrome (1983) #482
3. History of Violence, A (2005) #612
4. Eastern Promises (2007) #700
5. Crash (1996) #863
6. Fly, The (1986) #943
7. Spider (2002) #1122

Both A History of Violence and Eastern Promises star Viggo Mortenson, the latter being his best performance as a seasoned Russian criminal with a history of prisons in his tattoos. He helps Naomi Watts in her search for the baby of a murdered Russian woman. Mortenson's performance in Promises netting him his only Oscar® nomination to date.

Cronenberg’s Crash is the much more interesting one; this one pre-dated the terrible best picture one that resembled a tv show, and was based on SF author J.G. Ballard’s novel (he also wrote Empire of the Sun based on his childhood). In this bizarre story, a group of car wreck survivors are turned on by auto crashes. I’d say this film is more notable for James Spader getting to make love onscreen to Holly Hunter, Rosanna Arquette, and Debra Kara Unger in the same film.

One thing is for certain, Cronenberg is definitely not for the squeamish. Crash and A History of Violence will be the easiest to take for newcomers to this bold, agressive director.

See the full list of top ranked 100 directors here: Top Ranked 100 Directors, 2011 Edition

Top Ranked Films of Nicholas Ray

Nicholas Ray
4 titles, 80th in points with 10,267

Nicholas Ray was a maverick and innovative American director who had great influence on other younger directors, especially in Europe. Before directing, Ray was close friends through radical theater in New York with Elia Kazan, and when Kazan got his first directing job for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, he hired Ray as first assistant director, which was Ray’s introduction to filmmaking. His films usually featured alienated characters, existing in their own solitude.

These are all the films of classic American director Nicholas Ray that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. Rebel Without a Cause (1955) #265
2. Johnny Guitar (1954) #387
3. In a Lonely Place (1950) bw #392 My favorite Bogart performance, a great underrated film
4. Bigger Than Life (1956) #793

Just Out of the Top 1000
5. They Live by Night (1948) #1089
6. Lusty Men, The (1952) #1404

He’s really underrated here as all six of these films could be in the top 1000, and In a Lonely place could be ranked much higher, certainly in the top 150.

My favorite of Ray’s (and a candidate for my all-time top 100) is the underappreciated In a Lonely Place, which features Humphrey Bogart’s most complex, vulnerable performance, as well as Gloria Grahame’s most memorable and subtle; she won a supporting Oscar® for something far much less than this in The Bad and the Beautiful, with a tiny part as a southerner’s shallow wife. It’s about a screenwriter (Bogart), who hires a girl to pre-read a novel for him to get her ideas before he turns it into a screenplay, and the girl shows up dead the next day; he’s the last person to see her alive, so he’s the prime suspect. Gloria Grahame is a neighbor who lives in the same small quadraplex of apartments, and who can see who comes and goes into Bogart’s apartment below hers. Grahame was also Ray’s second wife, but it ended disastrously after Ray caught her in bed with his son from his first wife. (She later married his son, Anthony Ray; of Grahame, he said “I was infatuated with her, but I didn’t like her very much”)

I thought Rebel Without a Cause a little too laden with melodramatic histrionics, but still it’s a classic of teen angst, just a bit melodramatic in parts - what’s with all the weeping? Normal people have these same feelings without responding this way, though I guess you could argue that James Dean externalized through acting what most people keep bottled up inside due to social decorum. Ray let Dean both inprovise and direct some scenes, even though he was a stage actor in his first film, and he certainly created a memorable debut. Both Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo were 15-yr olds, and both were nominated for supporting acting Oscars®. I liked it, but would flip Lonely Place and Rebel in my rankings. The public prefers Rebel, obviously.

Johnny Guitar is a very offbeat western, a film Ray himself hated making. It features Sterling Hayden as a singing gunslinger and boyfriend of Joan Crawford, who runs a bar in the middle of nowhere - but he’s hardly in the Gene Autrey-Roy Rogers mold, after all, this man was Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove (1964), and he’s always a little offbeat. This western also has perhaps the only all-female gunfight in cinema, certainly at that point in history.

They Live By Night is Ray’s first film, and is another about alienation of youth, like the later Rebel. This should probably be in the top 1000, it’s close at #1089. The Lusty Men is another good film for Robert Mitchum, and is a modern western worth seeing; it’s a better than average rodeo story, but not quite Hud (1964) either.

Ray’s career ended far too abrubtly, after making the big budget films King of Kings (1961), and 55 Days in Peking (1963) - he had a major heart attack during the filming of Peking and retire from filmmaking.

Here’s an excellent biography on him at IMDB, from fan Goodbye Ruby Tuesday, it’s the longer one here labels mini-biography, but’s it’s pretty thorough -

The Nicholas Ray Foundation, which has this quote from Ray, “Film recognizes neither time nor space, only the limits of man’s imagination”


Ray Quotes:
As a human being, Joan Crawford is a great actress.
If it were all in the script, why make the film?
The imagination is a pretty precious source of protection.
The closer I get to my ending, the closer I am getting to rewriting my beginning.


See the full list of top ranked 100 directors here: Top Ranked 100 Directors, 2011 Edition

Top Ranked Films of Jonathan Demme

Jonathan Demme
4 titles, 78th in points with 10,819

Some may say that Demme is more popular than talented but I think he can direct a variety of films well, as I like his concert documentaries as much as his feature films. The best picture winning Silence of the Lambs is a classic homicide mystery, mixing elements of film noir with horror to create two of the creepiest portraits of psycho killers in cinema, played by Oscar®-winning Anthony Hopkins and Ted Levine, not to mention Oscar®-winning actress Jodie Foster’s most compelling performance as a young FBI trainee on her first homicide case, brought in for her psychological input. This is a modern classic, and a must-see film.

These are all the films of American director Jonathan Demme that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) #47
2. Stop Making Sense (1984) #724
3. Rachel Getting Married (2008) #910 This story kind of got on my nerves, not sure why
4. Neil Young: Heart of Gold (2006) #963 Very good film, Neil Young is a songwriting genius, one of the best of all-time

Out of the top 1000
5. Neil Young Trunk Show (2009) #1105
6. Agronomist, The (2003) #1209

Stop Making Sense, a film put together from three nights of Talking Heads shows in Hollywood, may well be the best single-act concert film ever made.

Talking Heads in Stop Making Sense

See the full list of top ranked 100 directors here: Top Ranked 100 Directors, 2011 Edition

Top Ranked Films of Ernst Lubitsch

Ernst Lubitsch
5 titles, 72nd in points with 11,597

Born in Berlin, Germany in 1892, Lubitsch came to Hollywood in 1922 (contracted as director by Mary Pickford), then made his mark with a too short career of classic comedies, dying there in 1947 at age 55 after his sixth heart attack. What’s called The Lubitsch Touch is a sophisticated comedy of manners, a term applied after a few successful American comedies. Critic Michael Wilmington said 'made by a man amused by sex, not afraid of it'.

These are all the films of classic American director Ernst Lubitsch that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. Trouble in Paradise (1932) bw#322
2. To Be or Not to Be (1942) #331
3. Ninotchka (1939) #471
4. The Shop Around the Corner (1940)#561
5. Angel (1937) #980

Out of the top 1000
6. Design for Living (1933) #1104
7. Heaven Can Wait (1943) #1887

These are all very memorable films. My favorite is also Trouble in Paradise, #1 of his films, which is a pre-code film that is rather risque by comparison to most; it involves two con-artists who use romance to fleece their suspects, while the two remain just platonic friends, more like real co-workers. For me, it was easily the best film of 32 (Grand Hotel won, which was ok but not as involving as one would think, and best pic was its only Oscar). In Trouble, you get the idea that a lot more is going on in the dark, because the film is full of innuendos and other signs that there’s a lot of unseen action.

The Shop Around the Corner was a very good romantic comedy, and one that has proven so classic that’s it’s been remade twice more, as In The Good Ole Summertime, and You’ve Got Mail. The basic premise is that two co-workers who are not very friendly to each other are secret admirers as pen pals, and plan to get together to meet face-to-face sometime. Since they work together, it’s hard for them to both be off at the same time, which adds to the delay of them finding out their admirer’s true identities (which of course, are each other). Classic situation comedy, and each film has been popular, but Lubitsch’s was the first, and is still the best. It was his own personal favorite of all of his films.

I never did get To Be or Not To Be, however (though many other obviously do); for me, it wasn’t very funny (I never find the Nazis comic material), and it wasn’t a very good drama either (Benny and Lombard in a spy film?), so I’m not sure what it is besides boring. Jack Benny, though at his best here, is no actor, and is only barely a comedian; his schtick worked better on tv when it was over quickly. It’s the slow delivery followed by the slow double-take, and that’s about all he ever does. Ninotchka is just ok, it moves pretty slowly, and Garbo had laughed quite heartily in The Painted Veil (1934), so not a lot new here. It was a pre-cold war comedy about the soviets, it just didn’t have much spark so the humor was lukewarm, especially for a Billy Wilder penned script.

Leaving his funeral, Billy Wilder said ‘no more Lubitsch’. William Wyler replied ‘worse than that – no more Lubistch pictures’.

See the full list of top ranked 100 directors here: Top Ranked 100 Directors, 2011 Edition

Top Ranked Films of Leo McCarey

Leo McCarey
4 titles, 70th in points with 11,916

McCarey had a great touch with comedy, directing the best Marx Brothers film, and his own top rated film, Duck Soup. He won a directing Oscar® for 37’s The Awful Truth, a sparkling comedy with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, then a 2nd for directing, and 1st for writing, for Going My Way (1944), which also netted Oscars® for best picture, and for actors Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald. However, it made no polls this time, it wasn’t even mentioned.

These are all the films of classic American director McCarey’s that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. Duck Soup (1933) #53
2. The Awful Truth (1937)  #515
3. Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) #633
4. Affair to Remember, An (1957) #791 This is the inferior remake of his own Love Affair (1939)

Out of the top 1000
5. Bells of St. Mary's, The (1945) #1988

To this list I would definitely add Love Affair (1939), a poignant love drama remade as a glossy 50’s color magazine looking shoot as An Affair to Remember with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in the roles originally played by Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne. I didn’t find this version as moving, and consider Love Affair McCarey’s best drama.

See the full list of top ranked 100 directors here: Top Ranked 100 Directors, 2011 Edition

Top Ranked Films of John Cassavetes

Cassavetes, John
5 titles, 66th in points with 12,669

John Cassavetes was a so-so actor, best known as Mia Farrow's husband in Rosemary's Baby, who would rather have been behind the camera, so he picked one up and improvised a few films. The only problem with his improvised films is they look like higher class home movies, with friends like Peter Falk and Ben Gazzara hanging out with Cassavetes himself, all in front of the camera. They look like a would-be rat pack just hanging out and having fun (basically bulling about women), they don’t look and feel like real movies, with a point or even a style. His better films don’t look improvised, like A Woman Under the Influence and Minnie and Moscowitz, but some may like the easy-going nonchalant style of Faces, Shadows, Husbands, Killing of a Chinese Bookie. For me they seem a little effortless and half-baked.

These are all the films of American director John Cassavetes that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. Woman Under the Influence, A (1974) #177
2. Faces (1968) #434
3. Shadows (1959) #451
4. Killing of a Chinese Bookie, The (1976) #552
5. Love Streams (1984) #808

Out of the top 1000
6. Opening Night (1977) #1077
7. Husbands (1970) #1223

For me, his most engaging film is missing, Minnie and Moscowitz, starring Seymour Cassel and Cassavetes wife (and often star) Gena Rowlands as two people no one seems to want who find each other in a romance of misfits, she being a museum curator, while he is a parking lot attendant.

Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands

A Woman Under the Influence is easily the best acted of these, garnering Gena Rowlands a best actress nomination, but like many other films about alcoholics (Days of Wine and Roses, Leaving Las Vegas) it’s just a major drag to sit through as an audience. It’s hard to make a film about this into something really unique, the whole genre needs the literal shot in the arm that Darren Aronofsky gave addiction in Requiem For a Dream (2000).

See the full list of top ranked 100 directors here: Top Ranked 100 Directors, 2011 Edition

Top Ranked Films of John Lasseter

John Lasseter
3 toy titles, 63rd in points with 12,806

John Lasseter's main claim to fame (and we're all grateful) was as basically the idea behind, and the co-founder of Pixar Studios, with dollar help from Steve Jobs of Apple Computer. Lasseter was working as an animator at his dream job, for Disney (he also once operated the adventureland boat ride at Disneyland!), when he was told to experiment with using computer animation. He was still using hand cel animation for the characters, while using computers to control the background and scenery animation. After a year of this, which was slow as any new media would be, Disney let him go, telling him "you're wasting our time."

He continued this dream but had no money for implementing it. Ironic that capitalism, while claiming to be entrepreneurial based, really only supports those wealthy enough to create companies and jobs, that there is little or no government support for startups and other ideas that eventually will generate revenue and therefore tax dollars for the system. So it's a system closed to average people, who usually (just based on numbers alone) come up with most original ideas in the first place, like Lasseter and Disney, so most of these ideas generate the windfall revenue for the owners, not the creators.

Seeking someone with capital, Lasseter was able to convince Steve Jobs of Apple Computers that his dream was a viable one, and one that would likely generate revenue, so Jobs became backer and co-founder of Pixar, who created the films, subsequently a deal was worked out with Disney to distribute the films, using the network and clout they already had in place.

Lasseter's first success was Tin Toy (1988), a short animated film involving a pretty stiff baby and some toys, winning an Oscar® for animated short. The toys turned out to be easier to animate in the new medium, as hair especially proved problematic (if you remember, it always looked like sheets of plastic in the beginning, like Max Headroom). Lasseter's first envisioned film actually involved a robot, and was eventually made in 2008 as Wall-E (perhaps the best animated film ever) [photo below], but it took Pixar about 10-12 years to get to the technical level to create Wall-E as envisioned.

The toys came easier, so the first full-length Pixar release was Toy Story in 1994 - I believe it grossed 60 million it's first weekend, which made it the most successful animated feature in history right away. Lasseter's studio has since gone on to make about a dozen terrific films, with Wall-E and Finding Nemo probably my favorite two, but it's staple has always been the Toy Story series, and all three are Lasseter's only ranked films as director.

He usually produces the other Pixar films and lets newer directors take that role, such as Andrew Stanton on Wall-E and Peter Docter on Up. I also enjoyed Cars, having spent months on Route 66 growing up in three separate trips. For newer generations who don't know the original highway, this story won't be as touching as it is to those of us over 50, but it's truly about the death of a great U.S. highway, one that had a life of its own that's now gone forever, bypassed by progress and the lack of foresight to put the new highway on the old route.

These are all the films of American animation director John Lasseter that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. Toy Story (1995) #72
2. Toy Story 3 (2010) #180
3. Toy Story 2 (1999) #485

My favorite is now the last, Toy Story 3 - which was so good that it was nominated for six Oscars®, including best screenplay and best picture, the first animated feature ever nominated for picture (although in a year when they had expanded that award to 10 nominees), though Beauty and the Beast (1991), Finding Nemo (2003), and Wall-E all could have been, in my opinion - all three were certainly as worthy as all five real-action films in their years. I think it's the stories that have improved, the screenplays - they've perfected the art of humanizing the toys to the point that, like Wall-E the robot, they remind us of ourselves, so they become identifiable and realistic characters as a result, enabling us to empathize with their situations.

I was especially touched by the metaphor of aging applied in Toy Story 3, even though the toys don't get old, their human counterpoints do and the toys' lives irrevocably change as a result, just like for real humans. For me, this is brilliant storytelling, and they're putting it in a medium appreciated by all ages, down to about three years old. That is both art and magic, the creation of a new mythos for a new age. This is what cultures do, and our current medium for our modern mythos is cinema, which has replaced traditional art and books in this endeavor. Popular sentiment will alway change because we progress and evolve over time.

Lasseter himself has won 28 awards, including one Oscar®, for the Toy Story 3 screenplay (ironic, he wins one for writing, but it's a terrific screenplay and well-deserved) with over 40 nominations overall.

NOTE: Walt Disney has a long anti-labor history. Two terrific early animators quit over a contract dispute with Walt in the late 20's (he renigged on promises), named Ray Ising and Hugh Harman, and they started their own animated shorts called Happy Harmonies, renamed them Merry Melodies, became partners with Warner Brothers, and along with the Looney Toons, created the greatest pantheon of animated characters in history: Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam ("I smell a varmint!"), Sylvester and Tweety, Foghorn C. Leghorn, the Tasmanian Devil, and many more. Late in the series they created a cat and mouse cartoon, called "Puss n Boots", who were later simplified and renamed Tom and Jerry, winning several Oscars under that title for cartoon shorts.

Yep - and while at Disney these two created nearly every character after Mickey Mouse - they were responsible for Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, even Minnie Mouse. Some people never learn to give equal financial footing for the real creators, since they have basically a slave mentality - I'm the owner and the workers are my volunteered slaves. In this case Disney's creative cartoon output was nearly eclipsed by the Merry Melodies series, still popular today. How many people do you know that still watch 30's Donal Duck or Mickey Mouse cartoons by comparison? There's also not nearly as many because Harman and Ising were producing their voluminous output elsewhere. (There's likely a thousand Warner Bros. cartoon shorts compared to 200-300 Disney ones).

See the full list of top ranked 100 directors here: Top Ranked 100 Directors, 2011 Edition

Top Ranked Films of Michael Curtiz

Michael Curtiz
3 titles, 69th in points with 12,398

Born Manó Kertész Kaminer in Budapest, Hungary in 1886. After acting in then directing films there, Kaminer moved the the U.S. in 1926 to begin directing movies in Hollywood, and of course, created a stage name. He directed films first as Kertész Mihály, then in the U.S. as Michael Kertész. He has 173 film titles to his credit as director overall, with around 110 of those in the U.S. Probably the first film of his everyone knows is The Kennel Murder Case (1933), with William Powell in one of his earliest detective films, followed by Captain Blood with Errol Flynn in 1935.

These are all the films of classic (Hungarian) American director Michael Curtiz that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. Casablanca (1942) bw#55
2. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) w. Wm Keighley #227
3. Mildred Pierce (1945) #599

Out of the top 1000
4. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) #1511

Of course, the top two here are classics, one could argue that Casablanca is the best romance in cinema, it certainly wins popular polls for that title. It seems to have found the perfect spot between sentimentality and cynicism, all mirrored in Bogart’s face. How they don’t award Oscars® for cinema-defining moments like this is beyond my comprehension; they reward Bogart later for the far inferior performance in The African Queen, which was almost a parody of Bogart and Huston’s real personalities during the making of this film according to Katharine Hepburn – they never got dysentary like everyone else because they were so tanked up on alcohol that not even bacteria could survive. Now that’s funnier than anything in the African Queen.

I guess if you watch Casablanca enough times, it can seem a little corny, but it was during the war, and millions of spouses were missing their mates, and this also spoke to those who’d never reunite. I think it definitely belongs on nearly every all-time top 100 list, somewhere – I suppose a consensus ranking of around #55 where it is now is pretty accurate.

His version of Robin Hood remains one of the most lively and colorful; it playfully captures the feel of the original legendary myth – after all, it’s a band of merry men cavorting in the woods in tights! These are the people who invented the phrase ‘derring-do’, that pretty well sums it up. It’s a film of fluff and derring-do, all with gusto and tongue-in-cheek. For it’s time, this was some of the best technicolor ever put on film, it’s a beautiful palette to behold, one of my favorites (I’m a painter and a photographer, with a degree in Painting and Drawing).

The other two here are ok for one viewing, but mostly forgettable, though Joan Crawford did win a best actress Oscar® for Mildred Pierce, her performance is enough to make this a must see classic film, but it’s not a very powerful film.

The one film of Curtiz’ missing here is the better and more faithful version of Ernest Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not, The Breaking Point (1950) bw, starring an understated John Garfield and a smoothe as silk Patricia Neal, at an age when she was most tempting. This was Hemingway’s own favorite film adaptation of any of his works, and is definitely worth seeing. To Have and Have Not is the Hollywood version, and is still more entertaining thanks to it’s stars, Bogart, Bacall, in her first film, and Walter Brennan (“Was ya ever bit by a dead bee?”), but Breaking Point may actually be the better film, it's the more credible version.

See the full list of top ranked 100 directors here: Top Ranked 100 Directors, 2011 Edition

Top Ranked Films of David Fincher

David Fincher
4 titles, 64th in pts w 12,755

Fincher should be rising in the polls over time as he's just hitting his stride. I predict he'll end up in the top 20 eventually, as will Christopher Nolan.

These are all the films of American director David Fincher’s that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.



1. Fight Club (1999) #201
2. The Social Network (2010) #235
3. Se7en (1995) #300
4. Zodiac (2007) #723 Should have been a best picture nominee

Out of the top 1000
5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) #1538
6. The Game (1997) #2046 This should be ranked!

I found Fight Club to be hilarious, but I was the only one laughing in the theater – like the scene with Edward Norton beating himself in front of his boss. Then I saw an interview with Fincher about the film and he said “I make comedies, why does no one laugh in the theater?” I felt vindicated, at least I was on the same wavelength as Fincher, so I guess he’s one I feel that I understand. Fight Club also has an incredible cast and performances – loved Helena Bonham Carter in this, she deserved an Oscar®.

I don’t know how they can rank Seven so highly and The Game so lowly (a relentless film that never slows down except when you need a breather), they should be reversed. Seven is just basically a disgusting murder spree film - another of the category of "let's see how many ways we can kill a human". This formula was old in the 50's already - can we please give it a rest?

Zodiac (starring Jake Gyllenhaal, photo left) is also underrated, I found it far more riveting than The Social Network, though that one is a well-crafted film for business history, low on drama or existential meaning relative to humanoids, just “will our business survive”, so pretty light for subject matter compared to all the other Fincher films, the best of which are about human survival and meaning. Zodiac shed credible light on an old unsolved mystery, a series of killings in the San Franciso area that were accompanied by letters from the killer to the newspapers, as if taunting both the public and law enforcement.

In The Game, a wealthy, lonely CEO played by Michael Douglas has everything, so what does young brother Sean Penn give him for an important birthday? A fiendishly designed game, tailored for the individual recipient, who must first sign a legal waiver that they can't sue no matter what, so a gullible and trusting Douglas does just that, and his controllable reality is turned into a nightmarish fight for survival. This is as fun as movies get to me, if you're in the mood for mindless action, in this case danger fabricated for a price for the bored and jaded upper-class. Yet the film also has existential angst as a theme, embedded within the action, as do all his best three films. For me, an unforgettable scene of Douglas eating a meal in solitude and silence at home prepared by his cook says a lot about the real point of this underrated film.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button should have been better, the F. Scott Fitzgerald story is a great premise for a film, about a man born old who regressively ages toward childhood, so his age will criss-cross those he loves at some point, and only be the same age briefly. But it curiously lacks much passion, it's a little matter-of-fact in its treatment. Perhaps it’s hampered by length and poor pacing, something that worked in Zodiac’s favor, as that detective film was about a long, slow investigation into the Zodiac killings by a journalist well after the police have basically drawn a blank.

Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett in

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

For me, he has three great films, and four pretty good ones, five legitimate top 1000 films, with more on the way. (He's just remade the Danish film The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo). All are worth seeing, each has it’s moments of brilliance, and all are interesting stories, and well-crafted films. I don't think any have a lot of heart, he's more a product of the insanity of the modern world - the new milennia could be one of chaos and near-anarchy, so Fincher's films fit right in. Even Social Network was about business without rules, a computer hacker steals databases and builds a success story, apparently with legal immunity. What kind of world is this now?

I think he’ll later be considered one of the classic American directors, after he’s made about twenty films. He seems to be documenting in myth and fact-based reconstructions the decline and fall of western civilization as we know it.

These are all films I like, and here’s my order of preference for Fincher (and roughly where I’d rank the film):
1- Zodiac (125) - probably his most intelligent, literate film
2- The Game (140) - controlled chaos, what could be more accurate?
3- Fight Club (175) - ok, it's a little excessive and repetetive at first, still a great anachist statement
4- The Social Network (600) - where was the FBI during all the hacking and data theft? that's a federal crime.. interesting; I guess if the money outweighs legality and ethics, anything is possible
5- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (800)
6- Se7en (1200)
[In all honesty, I could flip-flop the top 3 after rewatching each one]

See the full list of top ranked 100 directors here: Top Ranked 100 Directors, 2011 Edition

Top Ranked Films of D.W. Griffith

D.W. Griffith
3 titles, 58th in points with 13,198

These are all the films of classic American director D.W. Griffith's that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. Intolerance (1916) #148
2. Birth of a Nation, The (1915) #162
3. Broken Blossoms (1919) #247

Out of the top 1000
4. Way Down East (1920) #1779
5. True Heart Susie #1880

Griffith is primarily of interest to fans of cinema history, for he did create the 'modern epic' with some massive casts and sets, usually in historical films. His films were the archetype for the William Wylers and David Leans and others that followed.

I would say watch Intolerance and skip Birth of a Nation due to the Klan theme. Intolerance is an epic about times history was changed due to mankind's intolerance.

See the full list of top ranked 100 directors here: Top Ranked 100 Directors, 2011 Edition

Top Ranked Films of Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges
4 titles, 60th in points with 13,154

As a wealthy kid, he worked on staged productions for his mother’s friend, Isadora Duncan – in fact, his mother’s company made the scarf that strangled the famous dancer after it became entangled in the wheel of a sports car. Beat that for a background in the movies.

These are all the films of classic American director Preston Sturges’ that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. The Lady Eve (1941) #149
2. Palm Beach Story, The (1942) #242
3. Sullivan's Travels (1941) #296
4. Miracle of Morgan's Creek, The (1944) #868
5. Unfaithfully Yours (1948) #1187

Where is Hail, the Conquering Hero (1944)? The Great McGinty (1940)?
He could have several more ranked films.

I’d have him much higher than 60th on my director’s list, he’s a top 25 type of director because he was one of the best in the 40’s, on a level with the comedies of Capra. You can’t say that about any modern comedy directors – well, Woody Allen is ranked 20th but look at the rest. Preston did have 3 comedies in the top 300. Capra also has 3; Woody has 4, and two in the top 100.

Joel McRae and Veronica Lake

in Sullivan's Travels

Top Ranked Films of Paul Thomas Anderson

Paul Thomas Anderson
4 titles, 53rd in points with 13,990

1. There Will Be Blood (2007) #150
2. Boogie Nights (1997) #212
3. Magnolia (1999) #320
4. Punch-Drunk Love (2002) #536

Out of the top 1000
5. Hard Eight (1997) #1630

Interesting that my favorite of his films, Hard Eight (1997), is the one not in the top 1000, but it’s an excellent con-artist film, and also Anderson's tightest film overall, it's lean and mean. John C. Reilly stars as a newcomer on the gambling scene in Vegas who’s shown how to game the system there by a cagey veteran gambler, played by Philip Baker Hall in probably his career best; Gwyneth Paltrow has a nice supporting role, so the cast is excellent.

After that, I guess these are ranked about right vs. each other, though I’d lower each film by about 100 places myself, and not rank Punch-Drunk Love (the only Sandler film I’ve liked is 50 First Dates (2004) – it’s very weak compared to the others, and to Hard Eight. I found the others excessive in one way or another, though still very good films; usually a bit too long (or they just lost pacing), each could use a little editing.

Top Ranked Films of Terrence Malick

Terrence Malick
4 titles, 55th in points with 13,683

These are all the films of U.S. director Terrence Malick’s that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. Days of Heaven (1978) #110
2. Badlands (1972) #232
3. The Thin Red Line (1998) #373 [photo top]
4. Tree of Life, The (2011) #650
5. New World, The (2005) #1329 [photo bottom]

An amazing artist, he has chosen to make about one film per decade. I believe these five are all of his films so far. I like them all, but have not seen The Tree of Life yet.

The New World should be ranked in the top 1000 as well, a beautifully filmed story of John Smith and the first settlers in Virginia.

I’d probably move Days of Heaven down some, beautiful to look at but I wasn’t as emotionally involved in it for some reason, perhaps the performance of Richard Gere.

Badlands is a very good crime film, a fictional telling of the Starkwether murder spree, starring a young Martin Sheen and an even younger Sissy Spacek.

The Thin Red Line is also an underrated war film, perhaps a little to existential for many, but still a good combination of both philosophy and action.

Colin Farrell and Q'orianca Kilcher in The New World

See the full list of top ranked 100 directors here: Top Ranked 100 Directors, 2011 Edition

Top Ranked Films of Elia Kazan

Elia Kazan
3 titles, 54th in points with 13,688

Severely underrated on the polls today, all seven of these films should be in the top 1000. America, America is based on his own immigrant uncle’s experience coming to the the U.S.

These are all the films of U.S. director Elia Kazan’s that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. On the Waterfront (1951) bw #42
2. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) bw #158
3. East of Eden (1955) #573

Those just outside the top 1000
4. Splendor in the Grass (1961) #1003
5. America, America (1963) #1264
6. Wild River (1960) #1758
7. A Face in the Crowd (1957) bw #1853

Were all these included, and they should all be ranked in the top 1000, Kazan would still only be ranked 44th, after Peter Jackson, and just ahead of Christopher Nolan.

On the Waterfront is a classic, winner of 8 Oscars®, and deservedly in the top 100. A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the best acted films ever recorded. Three of the four lead actors won Oscars®, only Brando did not - go figure! Vivien Leigh was tremendous, I thought, amazing versatility and vulnerability is on display here.

Of these the most underrated is A Face in the Crowd, a brilliant indictment of the power of mass media to make anyone popular and also manipulate the voters. Andy Griffith was cast against character in a dramatic part and it worked, while a young Patricia Neal turned in one of her best performances. An added bonus is Walter Matthau in an early dramatic role before he switched to comedy exclusively.

Splendor in the Grass is also a puzzling yet mesmerizing romance with some bizarre performances from nearly everyone in the cast – it definitely belongs in the top 1000. So does Wild River. For me, East of Eden could come down a bit, I didn’t like it as much as the rest of these. Still, he’s a genius.