Rotten Tomatoes sent out over 10,000 ballots, to practically every certified critic in their aggregate website. They have thus revealed the results of the Top 25 Films of the Past 25 Years.
The review aggregator commissioned the poll to celebrate their 25th anniversary, asking their certified critics to choose their five favourite films of the past quarter-century..
The winner was George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road”, with Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” second and David Lynch’s “Mulholland Dr” third. Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” and Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” rounded out the top five.
Filmmakers with multiple entries on the list include David Fincher, The Coen Brothers, and Paul Thomas Anderson. You can see the full top 25 below:
01. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)
02. Parasite (Bong Joon-ho)
03. Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch)
04. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan)
05. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma)
07. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki)
08. Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro)
09. The Matrix (The Wachowskis)
10. The Social Network (David Fincher)
11. No Country for Old Men (Joel & Ethan Coen)
12. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
13. Get Out (Jordan Peele)
14. Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)
15. Everything Everywhere All Once (The Daniels)
16. Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson)
17. Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
18. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen)
19. The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson)
20. Zodiac (David Fincher)
21. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
22. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)
23. Paddington 2 (Paul King)
24. Black Panther (Ryan Coogler)
25. Arrival (Denis Villeneuve)
Obviously, this skews more towards Hollywood fare. There are only four foreign-language films on the list, the rest are major studio movies.
Some of my personal picks, that didn’t appear in the top 25 — Cache, Margaret, Uncle Boonmee, The Master, This Is Not A Film, Holy Motors, The Wolf of Wall Street, Under the Skin, Son of Saul, Uncut Gems, A History of Violence, Children of Men, The Death of Mr Lazarescu, Dancer in the Dark, Punch Drunk Love, Elephant, WALL-E …
Do I believe “Fury Road” is the best film of the last 25 years? I personally wouldn’t even pick it as the best of its decade, but I understand why people would choose it. It’s a great movie, and one that has no doubt highly influenced the action genre since its release. Back in 2015, many writers, including myself, thought that maybe the movie would spark a change in how action movies were made, with less reliance on CGI. We’ve seen that revolution occur.
"Fury Road" restarted, in some circles, the trend of practical effects at the multiplex. It was action-driven via visual poetry; you could put the film on mute and still be enthralled by it. It is then not that surprising to learn that Miller actually stated that he wanted ‘Fury Road’ to serve like a silent film, without any dialogue.
Of note, Rotten Tomatoes released a list of the top 25 TV shows of the last 25 years; the top ten, in order, was comprised of Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, The Wire, Mad Men, Succession, The Leftovers, Game of Thrones, Twin Peaks: The Return, Lost and Six Feet Under.
The story being told in “Gold Mountain” feels right at home for Lee — especially after his tech-obsessed filmmaking of the last 14 years (“Life of Pi,” “Billy Lynn’s Halftime Walk,” “Gemini Man”).