The Projector #88: What’s Your 10?: Part 2 (Patreon)

by Keith Phipps

Last week I responded to a letter from Jerry in Seattle asking about my Top 10 list. I offered something like a Top 10 in reply but also a lot of explanation about why I find them hard to do. I asked the same question of my co-hosts and received a couple of interesting responses. And, without further ado, here they are. First, Genevieve, who also struggles with responding, but for different reasons:

As I hinted in another recent newsletter when I mentioned Clueless as “the film I typically cite as my favorite movie when pressed (rudely, imo) for such information,” I kind of dread being asked to present my personal “all-time best” list; similarly, I always drag my feet when it comes to making any sort of year-end top 10 list, especially now that I have minimal professional obligation to do so. And I think that “professional obligation” thing is what informs my reluctance to craft ranked lists and recommendations in my free time: that’s been a part of my job in some form or another for so long, it’s hard not to think of the whole endeavor as, well, labor. While I admire and respect those with a natural inclination toward list-making/record-keeping when it comes to their media consumption (hi Scott!), it is not an instinct I possess — which is why I always fail spectacularly in my sporadic attempts to keep up with Letterboxed. Coming up with a list of favorites, and by extension being able to “show my work” as to why they’re my favorites, feels like a task to be undertaken, not a fun exercise for me. Additionally, as a critic whose tastes have always skewed a bit more populist, and who has been on the receiving end of some unkind words over the years regarding those tastes, I admit that I often feel an undercurrent of confrontation when presented with the request to name my personal best, as if I’m being “tested” on my film/TV/music/whatever acumen, or being asked to kick off the first volley in some sort of imagined critic-off. I’m well aware this is to some extent a “me problem,” but it’s worth keeping in mind how often critics, particularly women critics, get harassed by those whose tastes don’t align exactly with theirs. It’s frankly more trouble and strife than I want to engage with, and certainly don’t want to associate with films or series that I love. I’m always happy and eager to champion things I watch that excite me, as I encounter them, but enshrining them in some hypothetical personal canon is frankly just not something I’m interested in at this point in my life and career; I’d much rather keep my eyes ahead and looking for new favorites. But I will always love Clueless.

Next, Scott weighs in. And, guess what, he has trouble too:

I struggle to answer the “What’s your favorite movie?” question and haven’t been that consistent with my choices over the years. Most recently, I’ve settled on the same answer as Keith, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, maybe because I’ve grown into its exquisitely bittersweet qualities. As a younger person, I don’t know that I completely appreciated the full arc of that movie, and how the feelings two people have for each other can change over time. In college, I’d have said Taxi Driver was my favorite, but later it seemed like too much a poster-on-the-dorm-wall sentiment to have. In the years between, I often cited Sansho the Bailiff, which isn’t a film many people call their favorite, but moved me to tears at several points with its story of oppression, loss and resilience. Even still, if asked, I’ll often rattle off a bunch of other movies from my top five or six or seven, including Duck Soup, Tokyo Story, Shoot the Piano Player and Once Upon a Time in the West. But there’s never been a time when I’ve been that comfortable answering the question, because the films are so incomparable. (And I’m a guy who likes making lists!)

Argh! Once Upon a Time in the West should be on my list too. And maybe I’d put Late Spring over Tokyo Story and Stolen Kisses over Shoot the Piano Player. Anyway, that’s the perils of listmaking.

That said, feel free to share any of your lists in the comments. We’d love to read them. And we hope you’re enjoying our current episode on Picnic at Hanging Rock, a definite favorite of mine. (Also, we failed to mention that it was turned into a miniseries a couple of years ago. Did anyone watch that? I tried the first episode but didn’t feel the need to press on.)

And speaking of stuff to read, here’s a couple items you might enjoy.

• It’s the 40th anniversary of Raiders of the Lost Ark. For The Guardian, Scott Tobias took another look. And at Uproxx, Mike Ryan talked to co-stars Paul Freeman and Karen Allen.

• For GQ, Keith Phipps wrote about how Marvel’s recent TV shows suggest the MCU is better when it’s not afraid to get weird.

• For Uproxx, Keith Phipps wrote about Frank’s Place, a great, too-short-lived ‘80s dramedy.

• For Vulture, Emma Fraser talked to In the Heights costume designer Mitchell Travers.

• For Animus, Charles Bramesco lamented the disappearance of daring exploitation films (and daring films in general).

• For RogerEbert.com, Matt Zoller Seitz eulogized the great Clarence Williams III.