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.

Sunshine review

 Number 997 on the top 1000 films of all time is Danny Boyle's 2007 science-fiction film 'Sunshine.'

The year is 2057. With the sun dying, the only hope for mankind is to send a team of astronauts and scientists to detonate a bomb in the core of the sun. The team consists of physicist Capa (Cillian Murphy,) Captain Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada) engineer Mace (Chris Evans) navigator Trey (Benedict Wong) biologist Corazon (Michelle Yeoh,) pilot Cassie (Rose Byrne,) Doctor Searle (Cliff Curtis) and comms/first officer Harvey (Troy Garrity.) Chipo Chung and Mark Strong also star.

There is a lot of good about this film, so let's get the bad stuff out the way first. Notably the accents. To reflect the international nature of space missions, Danny Boyle chose a deliberately international cast. Cillian Murphy is Irish, Hiroyuki Sanada is Japanese, Michelle Yeoh is Malayasian, Benedict Wong is Chinese, Cliff Curtis is Maori, Chipo Chung is Zimbabwean, Mark Strong is English, and Australia is also represented with Rose Byrne.

You have this internationally diverse cast, so why were Murphy, Byrne, Curtis and Chung all doing American accents. And why was Mark Strong doing a South African accent? One of the producers said it was to appeal more to an American audience, so why were Yeoh and Wong not included in this? Either have all the characters do American accents or none of them. It was a strange choice.

Pinbacker definitely could have used some more fleshing out as a villain. We quickly understand that he has lost his sanity, but little else beyond that. Sunrise was written by Alex Garland who had originally included strong themes of religion which were edited out. Elements of this remained in Pinbacker's character, but he remained largely undeveloped and two-dimensional.

Harvey's character was also the least developed among the crew. It wasn't really until the halfway point where Garland realised he had a scene with no conflict, and so he had Harvey commit a random villainous act that completely came out of nowhere.

But these criticisms aside, I thoroughly enjoyed Sunrise. Unlike sci-fi *cough cough* Space odyssey, it doesn't prioritise its big themes over its characters. The aforementioned characters aside, the remaining cast was well-characterised. These were complimented by some good performances. I thought Benedict Wong gave a standout performance. But this isn't to discredit the rest of the cast either.

For a big ensemble cast, I was surprised to find myself caring about most of the characters even if Garland didn't really know what to do with Cassie.

Visually, the film looked stunning. There were so many lens flares I thought I was watching a J.J Abrams film, but otherwise the CGI was gorgeous. I am, of course, excluding the final section, which looked like it had been shot and edited by a group of teenagers. Way too much shaky-cam and distortion. Also how did Cassie and Pinback end up on the same part of the ship that Capa needed to get to?

Yes, Sunshine is pure hokum, scientifically speaking, but the film's technical advisor Dr Brian Cox said that some inconsistencies are to be expected. This is a film and not a documentary after all.

Overall, I really enjoyed Sunshine. It's a great example of sci-fi done right.