Why are you trying to watch the Top 100 movies of all time?

In 2021, I fell in love with movies. This was the result of a lot of factors: the never-ending pandemic, moving across the country to a city where I knew nobody, and, perhaps biggest of all, discovering Letterboxd.

Letterboxd is like iMDB with a modern interface. It perfectly scratches that itch many of us feel to keep our digital lives neat and organized no matter the state of our physical lives. Since February 2021, I have cataloged every movie (and the random TV shows present on Letterboxd) I have seen, dutifully assigning each work of cinema a star rating and writing up my thoughts and feelings at the conclusion.

Turns out, I really enjoy writing movie reviews. But as a fairly late-comer to the world of cinema I realized there were hundreds of films regarded as classics that I had yet to experience. Thankfully, Letterboxd maintains an Official Top 250 list.

How did you determine which movies count as the 100 greatest movies of all time?

I am using the Letterboxd Top 100 as of 25 Jan 2022, which I have archived here thanks to the Wayback Machine.

Using that top 250, recommendations from friends, and other Letterboxd lists, I attempted to develop a canon of films to watch. However, like any good watchlist does, mine quickly spiraled out of control and, at last glance, has over 300 movies on it at this point.

I plan to eventually make my way through all 300+ of the films on my watchlist. In the meantime, Iam taking on a slightly different challenge. I am going to watch the 100 greatest movies of all time.

Of course, this list is not truly the “100 greatest movies of all time”, but rather the 100 highest-rated full-length narrative films as judged by the 5 million or so people with Letterboxd films. This list seems like as good of a list as any to use to undertake this quest, and its my quest so I can make the rules.

Stop saying the word quest.

No.

What if you have already seen the movie before?

I will still watch it again and write an original review.

How are you deciding what order to watch the movies in?

I will watch the films in reverse order from rank 100 to rank 1.

Why are some of the reviews out of order?

While I am working backwards like any good countdown should, if a movie in the list is ranked below another movie from its series, I will watch all of the movies in the franchise in their inteded order upon arriving to the first ranked entry. The simplest example of this phenomenon will be The Lord of the Rings trilogy, where The Two Towers is ranked 70th but The Fellowship of the Ring is the first movie in the trilogy and therefore the first movie I will watch when arriving to rank 70.

So won’t you actually watch more than 100 total movies?

Yes.

How many of the top 100 have you seen prior to starting this quest?

I have seen both the 100th and 1st highest-rated films already, but in total I have only seen 22 of the top 100 prior to starting this project.

Do you actually… know anything about movies?

No.

What will you do for movies in languages other than English?

I will watch the movie in its original language using English subtitles unless otherwise noted

Can I track your progress or suggest other movies for you to watch?

You can follow my completion percentage by using this spreadsheet or by connecting with me on Letterboxd. Please comment below with your favorite movie from the top 100, the biggest snub from Letterboxd’s list, or any other film recommendations for a cinematic novice like me.