Why Not Check Out Some Old Movies?

Great films celebrating anniversaries

Author

Riley Haas
April 20, 2025

Some Old Movies You Should Watch:

I watch lots of old movies, as you know. And since I am still in the midst of a multi-year writer’s block, I figure one thing I can do is share some old movies with you that are celebrating their anniversaries in 2025. You can (probably) trust me that these are worth watching, because I’ve seen 5,000 movies and because I have standards. (Unlike a lot of critics.)

So here they are: classic movies celebrating anniversaries in 2025 which you should watch.

Riley’s Best Movies of 2015:

  1. The Big Short: When I saw this, I declared it the most essential film of 2015. I have not seen it since, on purpose I suspect as I worry I overrated it.

  2. [tie] Anomalisa: Probably the most, um, anonymous Charlie Kaufman movie.

  3. [tie] Spotlight: Don’t skip the epilogue. If you’re still a Catholic after this movie…

  4. Best of Enemies: A great documentary about how the Buckley-Vidal debates ruined US news TV and had a pretty negative effect on US politics.

  5. What Happened, Miss Simone?: An excellent documentary about Nina Simone.

  6. Green Room: One of the great action thrillers of its era?

  7. Cartel Land: A good documentary about the cartels. (Obviously very out of date today.)

  8. Bridge of Spies: As many of you know, I don’t love Spielberg as a filmmaker. But this is pretty good.

  9. Thought Crimes: This is a provocative and morally ambiguous film about the so-called “Cannibal Cop,” the NYPD police officer who was charged and convicted of conspiracy to kidnap women, without kidnapping any women, and certainly without eating anyone.

  10. The Witness: A fascinating examination of the true story of how “38 people” heard a murder in New York City and “did nothing.”

Riley’s Best Movies of 2005:

  1. [tie] Sin City: No, I have not re-watched this in the ensuing 20 years. I have no idea if I would be as impressed now.

  2. [tie] Syriana: No, I have not re-watched this in the ensuing 20 years. I have no idea if I would be as impressed now. (Impressed for very different reasons than Sin City, obviously.)

  3. Grizzly Man: Don’t watch this if you don’t want to hear the audio recording.

  4. Brick: Unlike the above three films I have watched this at least once since I first saw it. I remain very taken with this hybrid film noir-high school movie.

  5. Cache: One of Haneke’s best thrillers.

  6. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu: Harrowing.

  7. Shooting Dogs: When I saw this, I felt like it was the fictionalized Rwandan genocide film that should get attention instead of Hotel Rwanda.

  8. Paradise Now: About suicide bombers.

  9. The War Within: About where terrorism comes from.

  10. Jarhead: The United States has invested so much money and resources in turning people into killers. There are consequences to that.

Riley’s Best Movies of 1995:

  1. Dead Man: One of my favourite ever westerns. Very much not a typical western and that’s a main reason why.

  2. Se7en: So I haven’t watched this in decades. Like so many men in their teens and 20s I absolutely loved it at the time. I have seen it at least twice.

  3. The Usual Suspects: I also haven’t watched this in decades. Like so many men in their teens and 20s I absolutely loved it at the time. I havee seen it many times.

  4. The City of Lost Children: As inventive as Delicatessen (their previous film), but a lot less fun. Still a pretty incredible accomplishment.

  5. [tie] Kicking and Screaming: When I saw it, I thought this was the best film about graduating university since The Graduate.)

  6. [tie] Safe: I really liked this film about a germaphobe when I saw it but didn’t save a review.

  7. [tie] 12 Monkeys: Another 1995 film that appeals to teenage and twentysomething boys that I absolutely loved back then but which I haven’t seen all the way through in decades. I have seen bits and pieces of this one over the years, though, because it’s on TV more frequently. (Is that because of Kevin Spacey acting in the other two?) I have also since seen the short film that inspired this. I believe this is better.

  8. Richard III: The is is the Ian McKellen, Richard as a fascist one.

  9. Before Sunrise: A little bit of a wish-fulfillment-as-film movie but also it’s hard not to love it.

  10. Maboroshi no hikari: I just watched this the other day. It’s about a widow who finds another widow so they can raise their children in a home with two parents.

Riley’s Best Movies of 1985:

  1. Shoah: If I could force everyone in the world to watch one “movie," it would be this 560+ minute documentary about the Holocaust. (I used quotes on “movie” because this is the length of a TV mini-series even though I believe it was released theatrically in France.) If you make me dictator of the world I will force everyone - especially everyone on The Right.

  2. [tie] Brazil: I suspect this holds up rather well in our current moment.

  3. [tie] Ran: I saw this King Lear adaptation so long ago I can’t rightly assure you it’s a masterpiece. But I thought it was at the time. (I’d say all of Kurosawa’s Shakespeare adaptations are worth watching, though.)

  4. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters: Normally I much prefer Schrader’s screenplays to be directed by others but I really liked this.

  5. Witness: I loved this movie as a teen. I have not seen it in decades.

  6. Tampopo: The first ever ramen western, I believe. What is a ramen western, you ask? Well, it’s a film that uses western genre conventions to tell a story about trying to succeed at your ramen restaurant business. Obviously.

  7. Idi i smotri [Come and See]: A war movie filmed as if it was a horror film.

  8. Return of the Living Dead: One of my favourite horror comedies ever. I have seen this so many times. (Though I haven’t watched it in at least 5 years.) Has some of my favourite lines ever. So utterly stupid.

  9. Prizzi’s Honor: Unfortunately I didn’t write a review and I don’t remember it so I can’t tell you why you should see it.

  10. Back to the Future: Haven’t seen since I was a kid.

Riley’s Best Movies of 1975:

  1. [tie] La batalla de Chile: La lucha de un pueblo sin armas – Primera parte: La insurreción de la burguesía: Part 1 of one of one of the great documentaries of the 20th century.

  2. [tie] Monty Python and the Holy Grail: If you put a gun to my head and said “Tell me the best film comedy of all time or I’ll kill you” it would be this movie. I have seen it more times than I can count. And yet, when Lancelot starts running towards that castle…I just cannot stop laughing.

  3. Nashville: I saw this when I was just beginning my Altman phase and was rather impressionable. I can’t guarantee you I’d even say it was his best movie if I watched it again. It is, though, one of the most unique and iconic American films of the 1970s.

  4. Professione: Reporter [The Passenger]: One of the great final shots (and endings) in film history.

  5. Dog Day Afternoon: I have seen this movie way too many times to be objective about it. Somehow I have not subjected Jenn to it. (I guess because my copy was on VHS.)

  6. Attila ‘74: the Rape of Cyprus: When I first saw this I thought it was one of the great documentaries of the 1970s. I have since seen tons of documentaries from the 1970s, so there’s that.

  7. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: Certainly an iconic film.

  8. Night Moves: Another film with one of the great endings in film history.

  9. Barry Lyndon: Seen during the height of my Kubrick obsession so you can’t trust this ranking.

  10. Jaws: One of the most important films in the history of American cinema, I think. But also, Spielberg wanted to show the shark. If he had the technology, he would have made this movie worse.

Riley’s Best Movies of 1965:

  1. [tie] Alphaville: An aggressively post-modern sci fi noir. I strongly recommend watching other Goddard films from earlier in 1960s first.

  2. [tie] Obchod na korze [The Shop on Main Street]: On how fascism just creeps up on us.

  3. Voyna I Mir [War and Peace]: One of the most technically impressive films I have ever seen.

  4. Tini zabutykh predkiv [Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors]: A bonkers Ukrainian romance/drama known for its legendary score (which really is something) and its extremely vivid colour palette.

  5. Bunny Lake is Missing: I loved this when I saw it decades ago.

  6. The Loved One: A kinetically edited comedy for its day. Probably quite influential on comedy editing going forward.

  7. The Collector: One of the rare films I’ve seen where I’ve read the novel, I thought this was a very good adaptation.

  8. For a Few Dollars More: Back when I head really strong opinions about Leone’s Dollars trilogy, I thought they got progressively better. So this second film is the second best on that reading. But I haven’t watched any of them in decades.

  9. Chimes at Midnight: Perhaps the most unique Shakespeare adaptation to date: one character, Falstaff, across multiple plays.

  10. Major Dundee: I saw this movie decades ago when I was still in my Peckinpah phase.

  11. [bonus]: Cat Ballou: I grew up with this western musical comedy starring Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin, the latter in dual roles of villain and hero. I haven’t watched it in decades but it was one of my dad’s favourite movies back then.

Riley’s Reviews of Movies from 1955:

  1. The Night of the Hunter: One of the first classic thrillers I saw that wasn’t Hitchcock. It’s on Tubi so I really should re-watch it.

  2. [tie] Bad Day at Black Rock: Another of my dad’s favourite movies when I was young. I watched it multiple times. I caught a little bit of it on TV a number of years back and quickly turned it off because of how mediocre it seemed. I didn’t want to know. I will hopefully watch it again when I am no longer afraid of destroying my childhood illusions.

  3. [tie] Kiss Me Deadly: When I saw it, I thought it was one of the great noirs, despite being a little past the peak of the era in terms of when it was released.

  4. Pather Panchali: An episodic and deliberately paced realist drama about a Bengali family struggling to survive in their ancestral home. It apparently started a new cinematic movement in Indian called “Parallel cinema,” essentially the Indian equivalent of neo-realism and chronologically prior to the various national New Waves. It is bleak, as much neo realism is, but it’s also pretty compelling. And the sort of lilting nature of the pace makes it feel more like “life” than a lot of supposedly realist films.

  5. Les Diaboliques: One of the great thrillers of the 1950s.

  6. Rebel Without a Cause: Iconic but I saw it in my year of trying to watch all of AFI’s “100 Years 100 Movies” list, which was, gulp, nearly 30 years ago.

  7. Rififi: A classic heist film.

  8. Smiles of a Summer Night: A Bergman romantic comedy.

  9. Ordet: A well-shot religious film.

  10. Marty: Ernest Borgnine’s greatest role.

Riley’s Best Movies from 1945:

  1. [tie] The Lost Weekend: It’s a classic for a reason. The first Hollywood film to deal directly and frankly with addiction.

  2. [tie] Rome, Open City: A remarkable film in part given when and where it was made. (In Rome at the immediate end of WWII.)

  3. Children of Paradise: The same can be said for this French film.

  4. Brief Encounter: One of the great romantic films of its era.

  5. Detour: One of the great low-budge noirs of the decade.

  6. Scarlet Street: An unconventional noir with painting playing a major role in the plot.

  7. Spellbound: Watched during my Hitchcock phase which means nearly 30 years ago.

  8. Leave Her to Heaven: I watched this thriller only a decade or so more recently.

  9. Mildred Pierce: I didn’t love this mashup of melodrama, dark comedy and mystery.

  10. Dillinger: Nor did I love this gangster film.

  11. The Body Snatcher: About a grave robber so nothing to do with the more famous Body Snatcher films.

Riley’s Best 1935 Movies:

  1. The Bride of Frankenstein: As the cliche goes, this might be better than the original Frankenstein film.

  2. The 39 Steps: I’ve seen this twice. I couldn’t believe how bad the quality of the film was the second time I saw it. Loved it the first time, liked it a little bit less the second time.

  3. Mutiny on the Bounty: Iconic.

  4. Triumph des Willens [Triumph of the Will]: Reputed to be the greatest propaganda film of all time, which is definitely what I thought when I saw it when I was in my early 20s and thought I cared about such things. If you must watch it I strongly suggest watching The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefentahl alongside.

  5. A Night at the Opera: I’m just not really a Marx Brothers guy. I understand this is a classic, though I also understand it’s tamer than their earlier films (only two of which I’ve seen, I think). I just think it really drags for the first two thirds and it has dated quite poorly. I laughed a few times, and more as it went on. But these films are just not for me.

  6. The Gold Diggers of 1935: I liked it so much I cannot remember a moment of it.

  7. Sylvia Scarlett: Very madcap and not my thing.

  8. Alice Adams: I did not enjoy this romantic comedy. (Is that what it is?)

  9. Top Hat: One of those films whose plot can be solved by any number of characters saying one name out loud. Also, the dancing doesn’t save this for me.

Riley’s Best Features from 1925:

  1. The Battleship Potemkin: This, really, is the greatest propaganda film of all time. Full of iconic moments including the most iconic, the Odessa Steps sequence.

  2. The Gold Rush: The film that got me into Chaplin.

  3. The Phantom of the Opera: A really boldly tinted film, using tinting (because colourizing wasn’t possible yet) as a way to help tell the story.

  4. Beggar on Horseback: A bold experiment for the day.

Riley’s Best Films of 1915:

Riley’s Best “Movies” (shorts) of 1905:

  1. [tie] “An Adventurous Automobile Trip”: This falls somewhere between Melies’s regular shorts (1-4 minutes) and his epics (15+ minutes) and so represents a kind of departure. It’s a humourous little comedy of errors (a man is inflated rather than respirated, for example) that also has some foreshadowing for buddy comedies.

  2. [tie] “The Palace of Arabian Nights”: I can’t tell whether or not the whole film is here, but if the switch from B&W to colour is intentional (and I can’t say that it is), this is something Melies invented decades before anyone else (like so many other things he invented). But I can’t be sure. (Final scenes are in B&W too – well, B&Y – so it’s likely it’s just something to do with the restoration.) Aside from that rather crazy moment, this “epic” is not quite up to the standard of Melies’ best work. It’s still well worth watching and it is still remarkable for its time, but it’s no “Impossible Voyage.”

  3. “Rip’s Dream”: This might be the earliest film version of Rip van Winkle. It’s creative, it’s extremely bright and it is the first one of Melies films I have seen with title cards. Not quite the masterpiece that are the other epics, but it’s still pretty great.

  4. “The Scheming Gambler’s Paradise”: A really ingenious use of sets with a good final joke.

  5. “Coney Island at Night”: Seen before I had ever seen any of Melies’ films, so I have no idea what I would think of it now, now that I know the standards of the era.

  6. “The Living Playing Cards”: Another magic act from Melies. This is a new variation as well, but it uses old tricks and is a little less interesting than some of his other works of this ilk.

  7. “The Black Imp”: Yet another haunted room short from Melies. This one is noticeable for a clear upgrade in film stock quality (or, perhaps it was preserved better). Everything looks better as if Melies has more money. But we’ve seen this before.

  8. “New York Subway”: Another short I saw before I was familiar with Melies so I can’t say how I’d rank it now.

  9. “The Lilliputian Minuet”: This is another fragment of a longer short from the collection of Melies films I watched. It features more of his tricks of shrinking people, but this one is rather obvious.

  10. “Panorama from the the Times Building, New York”: The title says it all. (This was a relatively common thing back then.)

Somehow (well, because I watched some collections) I have seen 14 shorts from 1905.

Riley’s Best “Movies” (shorts) from 1895: