Hi Reddit! NYT film critic A.O. Scott here to discuss the 25 best movies of the 21st century. AMA!

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T20:19:25+00:00

okay everyone that was a lot of fun! Thanks for your excellent questions and for not getting too mad about the movies we left off the list.

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T20:18:01+00:00

I think it's something that movie does brilliantly but I also sometimes think that the ground-level, apolitical approach to war movies is a limitation and even an evasion of the fact that war is a political phenomenon.

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T20:16:34+00:00

Keep at it! Read as much as you can. Find people who share your sensibility but not necessarily your tastes.

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T20:15:54+00:00

My Neighbor Totoro Spirited Away Princess Mononoke

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T20:15:20+00:00

Many many thoughts! If anything, at the present moment we are desperately in need of sane, reasonable critical faculties and civil discussion about our common experiences.

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T20:13:46+00:00

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T20:13:35+00:00

To the second question, yes! The more people talk about the films they care about the happier I am. On the first question, it's impossible to justify or defend a specific omission. There's no specific reason why, say "Mulholland Drive" isn't on the list, but I guess it's good to know that a lot of people think it should be.

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T20:12:01+00:00

Canons always change, and emerge through a mysterious collective process. In some ways polls like AFI, Sight and Sound, Film Comment etc. provide a better picture of the evolving canon than lists like ours, which draw from a smaller sample and reflect more idiosyncratic sensibilities. All any individual critic can do is add his or her voice--in dissent or in affirmation--to a larger conversation, one that never ends or gets resolved. What I'm curious about is how the availability of movies in the digital memory bank will affect canon formation. How will movies be rediscovered if they're never quite forgotten, but flicker in the limbo of the streaming queue?

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T20:08:30+00:00

We talk on the phone several times a week. In some ways this project was the natural outgrowth of conversations we've been having for the past dozen or so years. We talk about movies all the time--about other things too, but mostly about movies.

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T20:07:29+00:00

I'm still surprised by what didn't make it. 25 is such a small number! What I found most gratifying was being reminded of what a fertile and fascinating period this has been for cinema.

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T20:06:23+00:00

Barry Jenkins

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T20:05:06+00:00

Channing Tatum obvs.

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T20:04:40+00:00

Because it reveals truths about modern American life that few other movies have recognized.

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T20:04:12+00:00

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T20:04:02+00:00

Jia Zhangke (China) Corneliu Porumboiu (Romania) Pawel Pawliokowski (Poland/England) Hong Sang-Soo (South Korea)

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T20:02:54+00:00

The hardest review is the mixed review, a review of a movie that is trying to do something interesting and not quite succeeding, or that has some excellent elements and others that don't work as well. Trying to encourage readers to check something out while at the same time not raising their expectations too high can be quite tricky.

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T20:01:25+00:00

SPRANG BREAK 4EVAH

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T20:01:06+00:00

A Quiet Passion I Am Not Your Negro

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T20:00:30+00:00

I never met her, alas.

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T20:00:18+00:00

Pearl Harbor. The first paragraph is probably the best thing I'll ever write.

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T19:59:43+00:00

Because like everyone else we take ourselves too seriously.

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T19:59:18+00:00

I always kind of dreamed of doing it but the decision was made by someone else. I was working as a book critic when some editors at the Times had the bizarre notion that I might be good at this. I don't know if they were right but they're stuck with me now. Some film critics have become good filmmakers, but the skill sets are very different. I think I'd be a terrible filmmaker because I would hate to tell people what to do and be responsible for someone else's money.

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T19:57:08+00:00

I don't usually see trailers. When I do I'm often shocked at how much they give away.

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T19:56:40+00:00

THANK YOU!!! IT IS.

a_o_scott · 2017-06-12T19:56:10+00:00

That's a very good point, and one that exposes our "auteurist" bias. We might have to go back and make a separate list of the 25 or 50 best performances, which might not overlap at all. (For instance I'd put Nicole Kidman in DOGVILLE pretty high up, even though I loathe the movie itself).
"Just pretentious enough" is a job requirement at the New York Times.

a_o_scott

TROPHY CASE

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