Ten films that will be on IMDB's next list of the top 1000 films of all time

 I started watching IMDB's original list in 2015. Almost a decade later, I am 620 films deep. I don't know when the original list was released, but presumably 2015, as there is only one film from that year on the list.  Although I don't quite understand why, but there aren't any films from 2014.

In this list I will count down ten films released from 2014 onwards that are so good they will surely appear on IMDB's next iteration of the top 1000 films of all time. As usual, this list is in no other order but chronology.

Whiplash (2014)

Damian Chazelle directed this stunner of a film. Only two years later, he went onto become the youngest winner of the Best Director Oscar. It is no surprise as his depiction of a relationship between a tyrannical music teacher and his student is cinema at its best.

JK Simmons and Miles Teller are brilliant in the lead roles with JK Simmons taking home a much-deserved Best Supporting Actor Oscar. This film is all about a teacher putting his student to be the absolute best whatever the cost. It was a rollercoaster that will leave you with whiplash in more ways than one.

Manchester by the Sea (November 2016)

This isn't the first time I've mentioned this film on one of my listicles. It also appeared on my list of films too traumatic to watch again. It is a damn depressing film. Considering it follows a man coming to terms with losing his family in a house fire, this is no surprise really. It is a poignant if heart-breaking examination of the different ways that we handle grief.

Casey Affleck plays the tragic husband and father in a role that won him an Oscar. This is a powerful if depressing film that would not be out of place on an updated list of the top 1000 films of all time.

Star Wars: Rogue One (December 2016)

It wouldn't be controversial to say that Disney's new saga of Star Wars films have been polarising. But with five films to pick from one of them has to make the list.

That film should be Rogue One: the best out of the bunch. It is a grittier realisation of the Star Wars universe: albeit it still has some comedic elements, but overall, it is much darker. It also takes some brave creative risks that separate it from the other Star Wars films.

Yes, the age-regression CGI looks dodgy, but the Darth Vader sequence at the end was enough to excite even a casual fan like me.

Blackkklansman (August 2018)

It is all too easy to dismiss the United States' obsession with race relations as a perversion. But when you see films like Blackkklansman, you can see the US' troubled relationship with race over the years.

Spike Lee tells the true story of Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) a black cop who infiltrates the KKK in the seventies with the help of his Jewish colleague Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver.) Washington and Driver are both absolutely fantastic in his film that brings new life to a hackneyed conversation - a conversation that was particularly prescient considering the context of Charlottesville.

Green Book (November 2018)

America's examination of race continues in this superlative film. It won the Best Picture Oscar with some arguing it didn't deserve that award. Critics said it was too derivative of older films like Driving Miss Daisy, as well as failing to consult the families of the people it was portraying like Don Shirley.

Yet it is still a much better film than 2005's Crash which engages with similar themes and also controversially won the Best Picture Oscar.

Viggo Mortenson and Mahershala Ali were great in the lead roles with Ali winning a much-deserved Oscar. This is an excellent, feel-good film that shows you there is still hope for everyone.

Joker (October 2019)

It is no secret that I am not a fan of comic book/super hero films. I never have been. But Joker is a far cry from the campy 60's TV shows or the CGI, special-effect heavy films that have dominated so much of the noughties and 2010s.

It is a dark, gritty re-imagining of one of Batman's most compelling villains. Director Todd Philips shows exactly what can happen when people are pushed past their limits in frightening fashion. Joaquin Phoenix earned a long-overdue Oscar for playing the Crown Prince of Crime. But this wans't just a legacy win. He was a true marvel.

El Hoyo (The Platform) (November 2019)

This is a Spanish Netflix release that took the streaming service by storm. Considering how the original IMDB list loves its kooky, science-fiction/dystopian films, I think El Hoyo would fit in perfectly in an updated version of its list.

Goreng wakes up to find himself prisoner in a vertical tower block. The prisoners are fed via floating platform covered in a feast of food that stops at each level for a couple minutes before moving onto the next one. The catch? The food isn't replenished from top to bottom meaning that the upper levels gorge while the lower levels starve.

Beyond the obvious moral message, El Hoyo also hosts a range of interesting characters who all have their own stories to follow.

Help (2021)

This British film stars the incredible actor Stephen Graham, as well as the equally fantastic Jodie Comer. Help was a TV film that follows care worker Sarah (Jodie Comer) as she struggles working in a care home during the pandemic. Stephen Graham plays one of her patients - Tony - a man with early-onset dementia.

I similarly worked in a care home all through Covid so this film hit me hard. I'm not afraid to say it made me cry. It was a gut-wrenching but magnificent piece of film-making.

Boiling Point (January 2022)

Another British film starring Stephen Graham! Here he plays a struggling head chef at a prestigious London restaurant in this one-take Netflix release. This film had an absolutely terrific energy that made it difficult to look away for a second.

It highlights every single element that goes into creating a successful restaurant service from the cooking to the dish-washing to the serving. We quickly understand that every single college is essential. Without them, the whole system collapses. The whole cast is great, but so is writer-director Philip Barantini for creating a set of characters where everybody is interesting.

Everything Everywhere All At Once (March 2022)

The final film I will mention was one of the biggest films of 2022. It received critical acclaim as well as a whole bunch of awards including seven Oscars. It is a powerful film that is funny, tragic, amazing and heart-warming.

This mind-bending science-fiction film follows Chinese-American immigrant Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) as she navigates her family life and the multiverse. The film's surreal, complicated storytelling is certainly not for everyone, but Michelle Yeoh and Key Huy Quan gave performances that earned them well-deserved Oscars. I may argue that Stephanie Hsu deserved the Best Supporting Actress Oscar over her co-star Jamie Lee Curtis, but maybe that's just me.

That's my list. I freely admit that by having spent so many years dogmatically wading through IMDB's original list, I am at least ten years behind on popular films. Have I missed any out? Let me know in the comments below.

Help review

 Help is too modern to be on the top 1000 films of all time, but I'm reviewing it as it touched me so profoundly.

Sarah (Jodie Comer) is a directionless, young woman just starting work in the Bright Sky care home in Liverpool. There she quickly befriends Tony (Stephen Graham) who has early-onset dementia. But their world comes crashing down when the Covid-19 pandemic hits.

I've spent the last six years working in care homes. I worked in a care home all throughout the Covid era, so this film hit close to home for me. A little uncomfortably close. It was a raw, unflinching and visceral look at how the adult care sector was completely forgotten. No, not forgotten. Abandoned. Nobody cared about us. But Help honed in perfectly on what makes a care home a care home. There are the relationships between the staff and the residents, as well as the residents and their families. We see the residents enjoying poetry, meeting sheep and having a Christmas party. The authenticity was brilliant. But it also focussed on the stress that carers are under. It really is a thankless job.

Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham were terrific as the two leads. When Sarah begins, she is lost and directionless, but she quickly finds herself. She is a hard worker and a good carer. Comer was brilliant. She bought the role to life. I know many hard-working carers just like Sarah. Graham was also fantastic, as can only be expected from an actor of his calibre. Like Sarah he is lost. Some days he knows who he is and others he doesn't. But this touches upon a very important, but little-known aspect of dementia. People have a variable capacity. Some days they can be lucid and others not so much. If you'll permit me to be a little un-pc, they're not crazy loons all the time.

Graham played the role with a great subtlety. Tony is a quiet, but powerful character. Most importantly, he is human and never reduced to a gross caricature. Tony and Sarah's relationship was at the heart of this film. And this all culminates in a breath-taking 26-minute 1-take shot where Sarah is working a hellish night shift. With all her colleagues sick with Covid, she is forced to work a double and take care of all her residents by herself. One resident becomes particularly sick, and when it becomes clear, nobody is coming to help, Sarah enlists Tony to help her. It was heart-in-the-mouth action that was stunningly shot and acted. Comer and Graham's performances had literal tears running down my cheeks. That is saying something.

I may argue that the film peaked here. Perhaps this is where it should have ended, as the second half felt like a strange addendum that had been lazily tacked on. Tony is established as a flight risk, constantly trying to return home to his long-dead mother. When he tries escaping one too many times, the manager drugs him up to his eyeballs. Sarah protests this blatant abuse, but she is promptly fired. She goes rogue and breaks Tony free. They intend to self-quarantine at the seaside, before trying to send Tony to a different facility.

This is all well and good, but it felt incredibly disjointed. It didn't seem to match the first half at all, and it also lacked a lot of the same tension and immediacy. Writer Jack Thorne originally wanted to solely focus on the daily life of a care home, before he was convinced to write about Covid-19. I wonder if this was a latent idea that he tried and failed to shoe-horn into an otherwise faultless film.

Nonetheless, Help is a near perfect film. It was a damning indictment of how the adult social care sector was forsaken during the pandemic. Coming out in 2021, it is too new to make it onto the top 1000 list, but it has earned its place on any future lists.