MY CINEMANTHOLOGY
Hello
I present to you: my personal cinemanthology.
(cinema +anthology = cinemanthology)
Below is a tier list of movies that I’ve watched in 2020. Please keep in mind that these are my own opinions, and I’ve made these choices using personal and logical factors. I’m not a movie critic, so please don’t take it too seriously.
I won’t be talking about every movie, but I will choose a few from different tiers that I feel have really impacted my life. I think making the whole tier list, and putting every movie I watched this year is extra, but I liked rating them and it was a nice organizer for how I felt towards these films.
While making this list, I found it to be interesting how some movies, even though I rated it poorly, actually have made a bigger influence on my character than expected.
I’m going to group these tiers into three categories, low tier ( F-D ), mid tier (C-A), and high tier (S-SS), explaining what makes the movies place in their category and highlight the significant ones, which are:
Low Tier (F-D)
- Click
- Trolls: World Tour
Mid Tier (C-A)
- The Theory of Everything
- Avengers Endgame
- Arrival
High Tier (S-SS)
- Your Name
- Parasite
- Marriage Story
Low Tier (F-D)
Trolls World Tour, 2020
There’s no movie like Trolls World Tour. This film earns a spotlight due to the watch experience. I was streaming this film on Discord with 8 of my friends, and after a long competitive day of gaming, this movie really lifted up our spirits. With a good group of friends, this movie can be extremely fun to watch. It showed me how a film doesn’t have to be necessarily good to enjoy it.
Click, 2006
Despite the Click’s flaws, this film is special to me because it told — what was essentially — the right message at the right time. It was recommended to me by an old teacher of mine, who I talked to seek advice in tough times of my life. Early this year, I was very done with high school, and I was avoiding any challenges or work that came my way. When I told him this, he connected my situation with Click. In Click, it stars Adam Sandler, who gets what is basically a “life remote”. He has the ability to navigate through his life as if it was a TV, being able to skip, rewind, pause, etc. As he goes on to use this power, he starts to abuse it, skipping through all of the parts in life which he didn’t like. Skipping the dishes and taking out the trash, eventually went to skipping many years in his life which he didn’t see. This is a powerful message, because it shows the importance of going through life. It is significant to be present. I found this theme to be extremely helpful in my life. Click’s theme is what carries it to the top of low tier, as it certainly lacks within the other qualities.
Mid Tier (C-A)
The Theory of Everything, 2014
This was my favorite movie for a long time. It was such a heartfelt and inspiring film that told the story of theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Stephen Hawking. In 2014, I was already set on astrophysics as my future field of study, and after seeing The Theory of Everything, I was even more inspired to do so. I decided to never rewatch this film due to how much I liked it the first time, and I couldn’t bare seeing it again because I didn’t want to bawl my eyes out. However, as part of the quarantine movie binge series, I ended up rewatching it. It didn’t have the same effect, and it was clear that this wasn’t a high tier film. I think if I was still interested in astrophysics, this film would speak to me more, bringing its rating higher, but at this point my interest has dwindled down. It’s spoken more upon in my WP1 regarding my interest changing.
Avengers Endgame, 2019
I watched this movie maybe… 11 times now? I’ve rewatched the whole MCU again this year but I didn’t include all of their movies in the tier list because it would be too much. However, Avengers Endgame is my favorite movie ever. Watching it opening night, I literally cried 7 different times throughout the movie. Just the thought of one of my favorite characters dying was enough to bring tears. It’s amazing how attached I feel towards Marvel’s characters. If I could rewatch any movie for the first time, it would for sure be Avengers Endgame. This franchise really inspires me to pursue film production, simply because I hope to one day create characters that the audience loves.
Arrival, 2016
This film is fantastic. This movie had such a unique timeline and story narrative. It was truly intriguing how Arrival’s story flowed, and it had me so invested to learn more after watching. Arrival introduced such unconventional storytelling and I was all for it. I wish I could go more into detail, but I don’t want to spoil too much. This movie essentially didn’t have the traditional beginning, middle, and end most movies have, and this was captivating to me.
High Tier (S-SS)
Your Name, 2016
Your Name deserves all the love and recognition. I watch anime here and there, and this film is one of the few I’ve seen, and it’s easily my favorite anime. As an artist, it was amazing to see how good an animated film could be. Trolls World Tour is the only other entirely animated film on this list, and though it did get a spotlight, it did not leave me with a WOW factor that Your Name did. The art in this film is absolutely beautiful, and is a big reason it earns a spotlight here, for maybe one day I could make use of my art skills and create a picture as stunning as Your Name.
Parasite, 2019
This was one of those films that really humbles you after watching. Even though I paid full attention throughout the film, I could tell that so many things flew over my head. Parasite has to be one of the most intricate and well-crafted films of the century. It left me wanting to learn more about it. I was absolutely blown away by this film.
Marriage Story, 2019
This is it. This is what I put as the best film. Marriage Story, to me, was a flawless film, and it left me in tears. It spoke to me on a more personal level, which was a big factor to why I like it so much. I feel bad for talking about this movie again because I talked about it a lot in my WP1, but I related to this movie so much. I was moved to learn about the process of making this film, further moving me towards my passion. I’m so glad to have seen this film.
Reflection
These are films I watched in 2020 that have influenced my personal intellectual journey. They have shaped my perspective and my interests. Each film highlighted has encouraged my love for film. Making a tierlist for every movie was done because of three reasons; it was interesting to see how some movies earned a spotlight over other, despite rated lower; I was able to practice my critique; and it was very fun. I hope you enjoyed my personal cinemanthology of 2020.
