The site has been quiet for a number of years. The podcasts dried up and new podcasts started in other places and the Gentlemen Media has been a bit of a ghost town, an archive of what once was and will never be again. That being the case it seems like a good spot to launch a new project.

As I sit reflecting on my 50^th birthday, I find myself looking back on the life I’ve lived and considering many of the things I have experienced and done in that time. Because of who and what I am, I realize as I do this that most of those things are punctuated by movies. Movies have always been an integral part of my life and of who I am, since I was a child seeing them with my dad because he didn’t have any idea what to do with a kid while my mom worked night shifts at Marie Calendar’s all the way to my eight years as a professional film critic and right through today in which I co-host a weekly movie podcast.  Movies are a big deal to me.

With my love of movies in mind, I have decided to embark on perhaps the most self-indulgent exercise I have ever attempted and will look back on a life time of being a movie fan, one year at a time. I am going to write about my favorite movie from every year I have been alive. It starts with 1976 and continues to 2025.  If your response is ‘who gives a shit?’ I understand. This is a free site and you can see yourself out. If you find this even a tiny bit interesting, then welcome aboard. Before I begin, there are some caveats and qualifications.

First, as I started down the path of this list, it became immediately clear that picking one single movie from a year is madness of the highest order. Sure, some years had more that others and some years had clear winners, but most of the time it was a near impossible Sophie’s Choice to pick just one and maintain any credibility whatsoever. So this will be a top five list for each year. The number one will receive the most attention but I will write about the other four as well. This is the only way I can justify such insanity as the Crow being chosen over Pulp Fiction.

That leads me to the second thing which is that this is not a list of the objectively best movies in any given year. That would be insanity as, with a few exceptions, there is no real consensus on what the best movies are anyway unless you want to go read the AFI top 100 and even then, that changes from time to time. This will instead be a collection of my favorite movies. Ones that mean something special to me for particular reasons and that is what this is all about. This is about what my favorites are and why.

Now, we may be at a second inflection point in which you ask yourself ‘why should I give a shit’ and once again, this is a free site and an ostensibly free country, and you can do with your time whatever you wish. But the real answer is that I would hope it would spark thought and conversation about your favorites and why. Sharing your favorite movies with me or friends and family is only a good thing and at a time when we are more divided than ever, talking about stuff we love is a great way to recenter.

The third thing here is that this is not going to be a predominately ‘film bro’ list, nor is it a list of hidden independent gems or awards pictures. Some of those things will be on here but there is also going to be a lot of genre films, schlocky bullshit, and B-movies because I love a lot of different sort of movies and some of this is colored by when I encountered them as a kid or some overriding love for the property they are based on. So, if you come at with me with an argument that I am no true cinephile because there are so many mainstream, populist choices here, then you are in the wrong place. There are a lot of best of lists out there that will allow you to feel superior and revel in how much more serious of a film enthusiast you are so you can go engage with those. This celebrates all sorts of movies and if you think that superhero movies or horror movies aren’t real cinema, then go somewhere else. This is not the place for you.

The fourth thing piggybacks on the last and is just that I am a geek. That is very clear to anyone who knows me (and probably to anyone who sees me in public) and there are a lot of things that I love from when I was a kid that I continue to cling to as an adult. It may be that I am Gen X or it may just be the natural order of adults finding solace in the things they loved as kids when adult life turns out to be a nightmare hellscape of intolerance and cruelty but either way, I love the shit I love hard. I bring this up just to emphasize the point that a lot of the choices on the list are driven by that so if you are appalled that a culturally significant masterpiece takes a backseat here to some goofy comedy or sci-fi b-movie then I understand but you have to understand that this is all about movies that bring me particular joy and comfort.

The last bit again follows from the fourth point that this is just a collection of movies that are special to me for particular reasons and is not in any way an indictment of your favorite movies nor is it attempting to suggest that the Bugs Bunny Road Runner movie is a better or more valid movie than the Godfather. In fact, none of the Godfather movies are on this list anywhere, which I admit is nuts but while I love both of those movies (3 can take a walk) they were not in my five favorites of that year.  That is it. Understand that I love all sorts of movies and I love Casino and Goodfellas but they aren’t on the list either. You will need to deal with it.

I would love it if this generates discussion and people sharing their own lists with me. What I would not love is if it generates hateful bullshit and arguing. I don’t need to know if you think I am an idiot and have shitty taste in movies. In the before times, when I would do my top 10 lists of the year, I would have no end of nonsense from people talking shit about my preferences. Stay the fuck out of here with that shit. I don’t care if you hate my taste. The whole thing about taste is that it is personal and there is no right or wrong. You can have different favorites but don’t tell me that my favorites are wrong. They are my favorites and as such can’t be wrong. But by all means share what you love and why. That is awesome.

The last thing I want to mention is that while the site is called the Gentlemen Media, it has always been meant as a designation of civility and not a declaration of any particular gender norms. It is a concept, not a gender statement so if you are looking for some kind of alt-right, men’s rights activist horseshit then you are in the wrong place. If you use the term ‘woke’ as a pejorative despite not knowing what it actually means, then you are in the wrong place. This is not the place for the politics of hate. Comments that promote homophobia, transphobia, sexism, or racism will be deleted immediately. We don’t do that shit here.

So after all that, if anyone is left to read it, let’s dive in!