When people ask me about my “favourite movie” or when I rank movies myself, I like to think about what type of movie it is.
Outright fun - Movies which are an absolute romp and will always cheer you up and make you laugh or smile
Cinematographic experience - Movies that really push and define the very medium of cinema. Beautiful, clever, and crafted with absolute skill
Personal impact - Movies which left a lasting impression on me, and made me reflect on life, and being. Movies where you feel like watching them actually changed you as a person a little.
There are so many ways that movies can be “good” it feels unfair to make them fight for just a single podium.
Personal impact - Movies which left a lasting impression on me, and made me reflect on life, and being. Movies where you feel like watching them actually changed you as a person a little.
I think favourite movie fits this more, the others are “best movie” or “guilty pleasure”/“film you watch the most”/similar
Schindler’s List had a lot of impact on me, for example, but I only ever watched it once and have zero desire to watch it again because it’s so very emotional.
I couldn’t really call it a “favourite” on that basis.
I genuinely think that ‘favourite’ is a linguistically overloaded term which means different things depending on who is asking, and the context of asking. And that’s why I find it useful to split things up a little.
When people ask me about my “favourite movie” or when I rank movies myself, I like to think about what type of movie it is.
Outright fun - Movies which are an absolute romp and will always cheer you up and make you laugh or smile
Cinematographic experience - Movies that really push and define the very medium of cinema. Beautiful, clever, and crafted with absolute skill
Personal impact - Movies which left a lasting impression on me, and made me reflect on life, and being. Movies where you feel like watching them actually changed you as a person a little.
There are so many ways that movies can be “good” it feels unfair to make them fight for just a single podium.
I think favourite movie fits this more, the others are “best movie” or “guilty pleasure”/“film you watch the most”/similar
I honestly think it depends.
Schindler’s List had a lot of impact on me, for example, but I only ever watched it once and have zero desire to watch it again because it’s so very emotional.
I couldn’t really call it a “favourite” on that basis.
I genuinely think that ‘favourite’ is a linguistically overloaded term which means different things depending on who is asking, and the context of asking. And that’s why I find it useful to split things up a little.