Borrowing heavily from the Filmspotting podcast’s Pantheon, I’ve created a Hall of Fame category for movies. The purpose for the Hall of Fame is to include movies that have frequently shown up on multiple “Best” lists, as this clues me in to the fact that I probably hold the movie in extremely high regard.

Since it stands to reason that if a particular movie shows up on a couple of lists the movie is also going to show up on many more future “Best” lists, it becomes less compelling to write about for a few reasons. It makes the “Best” lists less interesting because these usual suspects will continue to show up time and time again. Additionally because the movie has to claim a spot on any given list to give these list a modicum of legitimacy, it means that lesser known movies don’t get a shot at these lists. From a writing standpoint, it gets excruciating after awhile trying to find a new thing to say about the same movie over and over again.

So to combat those trends, I have the Hall of Fame. Hall of Fame movies are effectively retired from “Best” list eligibility. In any future lists where a future Hall of Fame might qualify, it will be briefly mentioned but not allowed to occupy a place in the Top 10. While I reserve some discretion as to what movies make the Hall of Fame, generally speaking they qualify once they have shown up in four separate “Best” lists. In honour of each movie’s so-called “retirement”, it will get its own special Hall of Fame review (unless I have previously written a full review on this site before).

(Note: The Hall of Fame numbering is strictly in terms of the date the movie was retired, and is not a ranking. Also the header image is reserved for the most recent entry in the Hall of Fame)

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#1 THE SHINING (1980, dir. Stanley Kubrick).
Retired: Jan. 19, 2018.

Lists appeared:
Best One-Shot Summer Blockbusters
Best Haunted Houses in Movies
Best Movies to Watch on Halloween (Grown-Ups Edition)
Best Winter Movies

 

#2 THE APARTMENT (1960, dir. Billy Wilder)
Retired: Apr. 6, 2018

Lists appeared:
Best Classic Movies (For People Who Think Black & White Films are Boring)
Best Christmas-Adjacent Movies
Best Romantic Comedies
Ranking Every Best Picture Winner Ever (#25-1)

 

#3 E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982, dir. Steven Spielberg)
Retired: May 18, 2018

Lists Appeared:

Best “One-Shot” Blockbusters
Best Movies to Watch on Halloween (Family-Friendly Edition)
Best Christ Figures in Movies
Steven Spielberg Ranked (Top 10)

 

#4 ALL ABOUT EVE (1950, dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
Retired: Feb. 19, 2019

Best “Classic Films” (For People Who Think Black and White Films are Boring)
Ranking Every Oscar “Best Picture” Winner (#25-1)
Best “Rags to Riches” Story
Best Movies About the Stage Life

 

#5 MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (1988, dir. Hayao Miyazaki)
Retired: April 12, 2019

Best Foreign Movies (For People Who Aren’t Into Foreign Movies)
Best Films to Watch When You Have a Newborn
Best “Nice” Movies
Best Films of 1988