I had a thought: If I were to do life all over again with a list of movies to see, what would I want on that list?
Whether or not I saw it that specific time, these are the movies I’d want to see or have immediately available to me to see on the year of its release. There are plenty more I wouldn’t mind seeing, but this list is more about if family, friends, advertising, random picking, or TV wasn’t a factor in my decision and I had a guardian angel from the future pushing me in the right direction towards movies of quality and/or movies I loved. If someone stock-added movies to my collection as they were released, regardless of anything else I might have watched or been exposed to elsewhere, this is what I’d want.
I was born in mid-1982, so it stands to reason that would be the place to start. I’ve adjusted the first 10-15 years for age appropriateness as baby me wasn’t going to be watching Videodrome. I did see some of these “R” movies when I was a little kid, so they stay.
You can also take these as recommendations, particularly for movies released after 1994-1995. Be warned that adult me likes movies that can be off-putting if you’re coming from a superheros and Oscar winners perspective.
In vague order of release. I’ve linked a few that I assume less people have heard of that I can easily find on Amazon.
1982-1987
Here I’m 0-5.5 years old. These aren’t all kids movies but they’re movies I either grew up on or would have appreciated having at release to see sooner than later. I’m basically setting aside anything I probably shouldn’t see before the age of 10 here.
Conan the Barbarian + the Destroyer + Red Sonja
Poltergeist
The Secret of NIMH
The Dark Crystal
Footloose
Nausicca of the Valley of the Wind
Ghostbusters
A Nightmare on Elm Street + 2 + 3
Fandango
The Breakfast Club
The Goonies
Return to Oz
Back to the Future
Explorers
Fright Night
Legend
The Neverending Story + 2
Once Bitten
Enemy Mine
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Labyrinth
Flight of the Navigator
Howard the Duck
An American Tail
Little Shop of Horrors
The Gate
The Brave Little Toaster
The Witches of Eastwick
Spaceballs
Innerspace
Dirty Dancing
The Princess Bride
Batteries Not Included
1988-1990
About 5-8 years old. Still mostly kids movies and comedies. Younger me wouldn’t have understood They Live exactly but it’s benign and would have been worth having for later.
Return of the Living Dead II
Beetlejuice
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
They Live
Child’s Play
The Land Before Time
Oliver & Company
My Stepmother is an Alien
Twins
Beaches
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Ghostbusters II
Batman
The Abyss
Little Monsters
Steel Magnolias
The Little Mermaid
Back to the Future II + III
She-Devil
Tremors
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Home Alone
Misery
Edward Scissorhands
Kindergarten Cop
1991-1993
About 8-11 years old. Content shifting here to preferring horror but quality new horror exposure was limited at the moment.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II
Career Opportunities
Robin Hood Prince of Thieves
Terminator 2
Dolly Dearest
The People Under The Stairs
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West
The Addams Family
My Girl
Hook
Poison Ivy
Fried Green Tomatoes
Wayne’s World + 2
Waxwork II: Lost in Time
FernGully
Sleepwalkers
Alien 3
Amityville It’s About Time
Batman Returns
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Death Becomes Her
A River Runs Through It
Home Alone 2
The Sandlot
Freaked
Robin Hood: Men In Tights
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Addams Family Values
1994-1995
I was pretty bored by movies meant for adults around this age but I was only a year or two away from tolerating verbose/complicated content, so I’ve left Clerks and Pulp Fiction.
Clerks
The Crow
Brainscan
Pulp Fiction
Muriel’s Wedding
The Lion King
Heavenly Creatures
Interview with the Vampire
Little Women
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight
Dolores Claiborne
The Langoliers
Braveheart
Casper
Clueless
Waterworld
The Day of the Beast
Welcome to the Dollhouse
Empire Records
1996-1997
Age 13.5-15.5. This is about when I wouldn’t have needed a filter but I still didn’t care about certain content. I saw a ton of new movies near this time and they were all over the place.
From Dusk Till Dawn
Freeway
The Craft
Boys
The Rock
Independence Day
The Frighteners
Mars Attacks!
Scream
The Fifth Element
Con Air
Face/Off
Men in Black
Contact
Princess Mononoke
Cube
As Good As It Gets
1998-1999
And the cynicism hits.
The Truman Show
The Faculty
Ravenous
Office Space
8MM
The Sixth Sense
Holy Smoke
The Blair Witch Project
Fight Club
But I’m A Cheerleader
Girl, Interrupted
2000-2003
Around this age I loved dark, fucked up movies I could be miserable with. I didn’t appreciate all of these at the exact time, though.
American Psycho
Dancer in the Dark
Ginger Snaps
Greedy Guts (or whatever they want to call the tree stump movie in english… no wonder no one knows it)
Castaway
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Amelie
Legally Blonde
Session 9
The Happiness of the Katakuris
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship + 2 + 3
Secretary
May
Igby Goes Down
Signs
Cabin Fever
28 Days Later
Party Monster
American Splendor
Lost in Translation
2004-2006
Continued cynicism but a lean more into sadness.
Primer
Maria Full of Grace
Dawn of the Dead
The Notebook
Mean Girls
A Series of Unfortunate Events
Hard Candy
Sin City
Batman Begins
Silent Hill
The Host
Marie Antoinette
Fido
2007-2009
This was peak The Doomening. I also saw most of these near release thanks to now having internet resources I was actually using instead of relying on random recommendations and whatever was popular.
Teeth
Waitress
Smiley Face
The Man From Earth
The Mist
No Country For Old Men
Stardust
3:10 to Yuma
REC
There Will Be Blood
Paranormal Activity
Let The Right One In
Such Hawks Such Hounds
The Good the Bad the Weird
The Dark Knight
Ponyo
Pontypool
An Education
Moon
Valhalla Rising
2010-2013
Alright – this is about where I would better need someone to prioritize movies for me to see rather than tell me what to see, because I was basically planning to watch everything I could. I’m cutting well-known movies in favor of personal favorites and “fun” little rides because I was going to watch the bullshit I didn’t really care about, too.
Womb
Black Swan
Paranormal Activity 2 (most of these are mid-quality but basically all of them henceforth)
Take Shelter
The Cabin in the Woods
Thale
Django Unchained
Willow Creek
Borgman
Only Lovers Left Alive
Contracted
Under the Skin
The Wolf of Wall Street
Nymphomaniac I/II
2014-2016
This is getting more difficult due to recency bias.
The Babadook
Creep
Starry Eyes
It Follows
As Above, So Below just so I can be mad at it again
Interstellar
Ex Machina
Green Room
Inside Out
Circle (murder laser)
The Visit
The Martian
The Devil’s Candy
The Revenant
10 Cloverfield Lane
Train to Busan
The Handmaiden
Raw
Cell
Arrival
The Autopsy of Jane Doe
2017-2018
A Ghost Story
Get Out
Wonder Woman
Dunkirk
Mother! to punish myself, evidently
I, Tonya
The Ritual
Mom and Dad
Creep 2
Happy Death Day
Mandy
Eighth Grade
Leave No Trace
Hereditary (dear imaginary self: watch this in the daytime)
Lords of Chaos
Annihilation
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before + 2
Border
Cam
In Fabric
2019-2021
Getting old makes one appreciate “film”, I guess.
Monos
Parasite
Midsommar
Joker
The Platform
Sound of Metal
Color Out of Space
1917
The Father – if I promised I wouldn’t see it until 2021.
Alive
Lapsis
Host
Nomadland
Nobody
Settlers
Benedetta
Titane
Lamb
Belle
The Green Knight
Dune
Don’t Look Up
2022
Major recency bias going on here.
You Won’t Be Alone
Piggy
X/Pearl
The Northman
Men
Crimes of the Future
Nope
Women Talking
Sisu
The Menu
All Quiet on the Western Front
And I haven’t seen enough movies from this year due to history-focused projects and usually being a bit late to the party on brand new stuff.
I’m undoubtedly missing something for not remembering to click a button or scrolling too fast, but 300 movies is a pretty decent movie collection without outside forces. A new, custom-picked movie every 48 days, on average? Not bad considering most years I had plenty of filler and actually was influenced by family, ads, etc.