Live Poll: NY Times: 25 Best Movies of the 21st Century

Umm..thanks for the suggestion, Jen!

I liked the idea asking about the one which has the best chance of standing the test of time. I have changed it accordingly.

Strange coincidence..but even I have seen only 13 from them..precisely!

Thanks Peter!

Speaking of favorite, L'enfant or Yi Yi would have gotten my vote. 

But since I have changed the question, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind might get my vote.

I voted for Moonlight. Since it's still new, it's perhaps harder to claim that it stands the test of time, but I will watch it again any time.

I can't believe The 40 Year Old Virgin is on their list.

I agree with "Spirited Away".
But the answer to the question "Will it stand the test of time?" may be easy to figure out using a few indicators. Indicators that one is not more important than the other but more of a balancing act across them.
- Popularity at the release. Did people see it? Usually the IMDb's user reviews were a good indicator of that. The draw back is that many films play to smaller markets than others because of different languages.
- Did the the film inspire imitation? Imitation is how the industry changes. A film maybe groundbreaking but if it doesn't inspire others to absorb some of it's groundbreaking techniques and such, through imitation, it didn't change a thing. This also means that while the film may have not have been popular, a small group of creative and powerful people within the industry had seen it and were moved by it enough to incorporate some of it in their own films.
- Does the film still inspire conversation decision years after it's release? Great films do that. Dan you may not want to read this part, but the activity on IMDb individual film's message boards were another indicator of that. I mean that after the normal decay of activity after the film's release, the film still had people posting about it a year or two after it was released? I know that one to be true because I had gotten into a "The Hurt Locker" (THL) vs "Avatar" (A) argument with a James Cameron hater who bashed everything Cameron did (aka, he was throwing up the fact that Cameron's ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow, and THL won best director and best picture over Cameron and A , but the basher did not talk about in the actual film, THL. So I went to both of the boards a year after and saw that nobody was posting any new topics on THL for over six to a year. The board was dead. I went over to A's message board and there is still many new posts on it a week or a few days old. Slow but there was still talk. That is how I know that THL on this list is already faded away or forgotten film. It did not stand the test of time.
- Lastly, the crass capitalist and commercial one. Is the film still generating enough commercial interest to sell them on DVD, Blu-ray, broadcast them on Cable and TV, or stream them online? Are they highly marketable? Always remember that while the film industry is an artistic form of communication, it is always is a business. And for it to stay in business, it does have to fallow what the public wants to see. That way, they can have the cash to invest in the more artistic films that may not be profitable but push and change the industry.

dgranger,

I agree and wish to echo your statement. In essence that is why I chose Spirited Away (2001).

Despite the high noise to signal ratio, the IMDb message boards offered an insight that will be sorely missed.

Another way to glean this kind of information is via Google Trends. This is the one for Spirited Away:
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=%2Fm%2F0j6b5

Spirited Away has sustained popularity over time and had renewed interest in January of this year.

Yet another way is to sort the films by popularity:
Most Popular Titles In Your "NY Times: 25 Best Movies of the 21st Century" List
http://www.imdb.com/search/title?lists=ls068588224

or

http://www.imdb.com/list/ls068588224/?start=1&view=detail&sort=moviemeter:asc&defaults=1

Thanks dgranger for the detailed explanation.

Thank you, Dan!

hey dgranger...

although i appreciate your thorough analysis of which movie will 'stand the test of time', unfortunately, i do believe i would have to disagree with you in this disposable day and age...

in the past, movies like '12 angry men', 'network', 'all the president's men', etc., held up because they were quality films of brilliance and importance...and that's why we still, not only talk about them today, but also respect them for their excellence...

they also had the opportunity of being the only movie in the theatre (possibly the main movie of a double feature), and it could sometimes easily stay for 6 months or more at the same theatre...

do you really think that, 20 or 40 years from now, anybody will look at the 78th reboot of spider-man or the 42nd remake of fantastic four as a masterpiece...

as i always say...ya' gotta remember that the billy ray cyrus song 'achy breaky heart' was once one of the biggest selling singles...now, its considered a joke...

i do believe that the pieces that survive will be those with some credibility...probably mostly arthouse films and small independents...

but ya' can't look at the box office intake...a billion people can go see a movie but walk out hating it...just because it made money could only mean that it was new that week...and the only thing people were talking about when they left the theatre was what was coming out the following week...

Point taken. But let me point out that all the movies that you mentioned were box office successes. Also let remind you that I had said does it inspire conversation years after it was released, and that it was a balencing act accross the indicators. That , in someways, early box office successes. But the box office should be a factor as to did people see it? Also let me point out that in today's society, news of a bad film gets out faster and washes out of the theaters faster than it did back in the day.
My contention is that the one that is going to stand the test of time is going to be the one that did the best adverage accross and including, to some degree, all of the factors. It will be successful, have content, some artistic content, inspire imitation, inspire discussion years after it's release, be commercially marketable years after it's release, and be well made (definite factor there).
Oh here is two other points to consider.
- read the article. http://nofilmschool.com/2017/06/new-y... Their top three choices in order were 1) "There Will Be Blood", 2)" Spirited Away" and 3) "Million Dollar Baby". Now compare that to google trends. Two are holding interest very well. ( in charting, you just don't look at the peaks, you have to look at the vallies and draw a projection connecting the deepest lows and another line connecting the highest peaks in order to get a projection.) Only one film of their top three had interest raising. That was "Spirited Away"
https://trends.google.com/trends/expl...
https://trends.google.com/trends/expl...
https://trends.google.com/trends/expl...

- But now compare their list to the far more trust worthy IMDb's top 250 list and you get even bigger shocks. http://www.imdb.com/chart/top?ref_=tt... Their no. 2 was the highest one rated on the IMDb's 250 at position 28, "Spirited Away". Going down the IMDb's list, with the NYT's list positions in parentheses, the next one is at
- 85) "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (24)
- 132 "Inside Out" (7)
- 176 "There Will Be Blood" (1)
- 195 "Mad Max: Fury Road" (19)
- 202 "Million Dollar Baby" (3)
The rest were not on it.

You should see all the ones NYT left out! That would be a much more interesting poll. "Which movie of the 21 century, and on IMDb's top 250, should have been on "The New York Times': 25 best movies of the 21st Century" list?

Nice choice, rocky!

Thanks for your vote, Laiath!

I agree about your opinion about the movie. Even though I liked Anomalisa more from that year, I feel Inside out will be praised even after decades!

Yes, it does. It really doesn't matter if you had seen them all because you are voting on what you have seen. It matters that you have seen at least two or more of the list so that you can make a comparison decision. You said about a quarter of them. That makes it about 6 or 7 films of that list that you had seen. (1/4 of 25 = 6.25). That is a good chunk of those films.

Thanks Ruby!

Thanks!

You are welcome.

Thanks!

Thanks!