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guilt, anger, empathy
I'm so fucking mixed up right now. My dad is so deeply invested in Trump and QAnon that he has completely fucked everything his father worked for til the day he died. Forced his mother, my complete saint of a grandmother, to sell their house and income property in one of the most desirable cities to live in and move out to BFE Oklahoma. She and my Uncle, his brother, both have heart conditions and now 0 infrastructure to manage them. My germaphobe Uncle is being forced to attend medical visits where he is regularly in contact with unmasked people. They feel unsafe and disconnected where they live, though they love the new house itself. I got the you-told-us-so call a few days ago, and I feel more upset than before. I managed to get my grandmother to stop actively propagating Q material on facebook, and my impression is that she just doesn't know what to believe at this point and is trying to avoid politics. I can understand that, at least. She is an extremely kind woman who was taken in on the child-trafficking claims and nothing else, it wasn't too hard to talk to her. My dad is so fucking sick now. He's in recovery and has now taken up gambling for fun, and has been going to the casinos and coming home (endangering the remainder of the at-risk household) since they reopened. He openly brags about being at bars, smoking and singing maskless. He voted for Trump in 2016 because he hated Hillary and the libertarian candidate wasn't going to win (or so he told me). Now he's so far gone he can do nothing but post on Twitter about HCQ and how he refuses to bend to "covid fascist edicts" and won't allow himself to be "reprogrammed" by the government. He railroaded my whole family into tearing up their roots and starting anew in a brand new place and now he isn't even unpacking because he plans to move to Texas with his girlfriend. My Uncle gave up the business he built for over a decade, and the relationship he'd been in for nearly as long. All of my grandma's comfort and independence have been stripped away. I kept begging them not to do it, I kept telling them it wasn't safe, but they were constantly being manipulated with my dad in the house and everyone screaming about the stupid governor trying to destroy everyone's livelihoods with shutdowns. So many people are dead, and all he could be assed to think about was his own freedom. I begged and begged, but my grandma just won't think of herself or her wellbeing. They used her for her money so that they could afford to move, and they are already priced out of the market they just left. My childhood home, lemon trees, rose vines, ugly old tile and all is being rented out to randoms now. The thought of picking up and moving again sounds horrific but less horrific than the consequences of staying where they are and in a home with him. I found out the day after the Capitol riot that he had traveled all the way to DC to take part when a friend I had at my last job sent me a news article with his extremely unique name in it. There he was, in front of God and everybody, disgracing the family name and making us look like a bunch of hateful lunatics. I wonder if I'll ever be able to get a job again. I was planning on changing my name when I get married, I might have to do it sooner. That day I discovered the extent of his issues (3200 tweets in 3 months) and how awful the things he was saying had become. When I found out he was one of the people joining 'militias" to "keep the peace" during the George Floyd protests, I knew he was gone. I didn't understand how deeply he had bitten into the conspiracies until now. Being someone who has frequented 4chan from much too young an age, it was so hard to fucking explain to these people that the things they were sharing (literal photos of computer screens showing 4chan posts!!! I'm not even making this shit up) came from a place with complete anonymity and less vetting for posts than any of their social media platforms, let alone wikipedia. An actual forum full of gore, porn, and memes. I could not get through to them, but now even my Uncle who voted for Trump thinks he has gone too far. This week has been a fucking mess for me. This is the man I used to call my hero. He used to be an avid musician, a gentle hand on my shoulder when I was wound up and tense, a patriot in the military who served and strove to better himself. There were several times in my life when it was us, and just us. I have been neglected or abused by most of my family, including him. My conflicted feelings go back further than when he started to openly oppose women's rights, back before QAnon even existed. But he is a different person now. He is not the man who spent all the cash in his wallet to win me the biggest dog at the booth in the fair, nor the man who brought me a copy of our favorite book when I was hospitalized for making an attempt on my life, nor the man who took me to see snow, stars, and the countryside in thousand-mile-trips cross country. He's gone. I am crying here with the letter he slipped me when I was in the mental hospital with instructions to read it when I was hurting. Here it is, the final sentence, a quote older than both of us. "You have been, and always shall be, my best friend." I reported him to the FBI the day before the inauguration. You won't see me on the news being called a hero, I am here in my home unable to sleep or eat, existing in obscurity. I have no parents anymore, though my chosen family is wiser than me to say I never really did. When I found out he had not returned home after the riot, and had a weapon with him, the choice was made for me. None of the adults in my family have the strength to even stand up to him, they certainly aren't going to grow up now. I don't know where he is, or what's going to happen. I don't think he can go back to being that person, he is as invested in avoiding admitting he is wrong as he is in getting his way. His actions are those of a bitter man who feels wronged by the world and is trying to extract what he can for himself from society. It saddens me to say that I am not his only child, which makes that outlook even more disturbing. I started treatment for PTSD a couple months ago, and I am barely functioning. Today, I had to email my landlord and go to the post office. I have already broken down three times, and drank until I could pass out for a few hours this afternoon. The nightmares are intense. The shaking is intense. I keep remembering things he did and said, good and bad. I wish I knew how to get through to him. He calls me a fucking libtard. The last safe space I had is gone because of him. He just doesn't care, about his kids, his mother, nothing. My grandfather is rotting in a grave miles from the product of his life's achievements, and the family is slowly going broke now. I stopped thinking of him as family years ago, but going through this with his mother is really difficult. I am sorry for being all over the place. I feel like I'm barely surviving right now, for a combination of reasons that reach far beyond my parents.
OBLIGATORY FILLER MATERIAL – Giving thanks edition: Kickin’ around Caracas, Pt. 5
Continuing… (It's Part 6 in the saga, I fucked up. Sorry.) So, after a few re-fueling and impromptu cigar-purchasing stops in South and Central America, we wheel up to the deserted jetway at LAX. “Thought we were going to Elmendorf?” I asked. “This isn’t it?” the pilot replied, feigning worry. “No.”, I replied, “Looks like California. Fruits and nuts. All around. What’s going on? One minute we’re off to Texas, then Cali, then Texas again, now we end up here at the California airport of the iconic tower.” “Yeah, it’s confusing enough haulin’ civilians around. But when we get a call from Virginia, we tend to comply without any questions,” the pilot explains. “Aw, shit!”, I sort of exclaim, “Rack and Ruin called?” “Yeah”, the pilot replies, “Figures you’d know these guys. They said they were closer to LAX rather than Texas and had us divert here. In fact, you look over there, see that dark blue Chevy? That’s them; and evidently, your ride.” I tipped the airman from earlier a couple of cigars as he helped me with my gear off the plane and into the trunk of Rack and Ruin’s plain-Jane blue late modeled Chevy. Had to move the Sidewinder Missiles off to one side, though. “Most honorable Agents Lack and Luin!” I quipped in my faux-racist greeting. “What the hell, guys? I’ve got to get to Japan and get some newly rigidified digits.” “Let’s see your hand”, Agent Rack asks. “Nasty.” “Yeah”, I sigh “And with the medicos in South America and their penchant for plaster, I don’t so much have a left hand as more of an ankylosaur tail.” “Or Thagomizer”, Agent Ruin tittered. “Anyone gives you grief, and one upside the head should set them right. Or dead.” “You’re a riot, Ruin.” I replied, “But not entirely incorrect.” We all agreed that I really didn’t need any extra accouterments to make myself look more dangerous. I mean with my severe haircut, stern beard clip, and perpetual ‘Go fuck yourself’ scowl. “Yeah”, I replied, stroking the aforementioned beard, “I just can’t get that. I’m such a people person.” After Agents Rack and Ruin finished drying their eyes from laughing what I thought was en extremis, we finally got down to business. “So, what’s the skinny, guys”, I asked. “New marching orders?” “No. Not as such”, Agent Ruin said, still sniggering over my ‘people person’ comment. I see we’re moving. Agent Rack is just driving casually, like Chewbacca when they were waiting to see if the Empire went for that expensive Bothan code. “Then, what?” I asked, getting a slight bit piqued. “Well”, Agent Ruin noted, “When you went to South America, you took some of your artillery collection with, correct?” “You know I did. You even made some snide comments about my personal choice of sidearms and their ‘excessive’ calibers, if memory serves”, I reiterated. “And if you are proceeding normally, as you always do, they’re all nestled in the trunk of this very car. All cleaned, quiet, unloaded, and smelling sweetly of Hoppe’s Number 9 and WD 40, correct?” Rack inquired. “Yes?” I cautiously venture. “Well, ya’ big dummy, do you think they’re going to let you saunter into Tokyo armed like the Third Fleet?” Agent Ruin chuckled. “Um…well…I do have a Diplomatic Passport.” I ventured. “That’s not going to work this time.”, Agent Ruin said, shaking his head. “They’re tighter than Dick’s Hatband about sidearms. Want to bring in your Rigby SXS .500 Nitro Express double rifle? Not a problem. Sidearms, especially in your alien hunting calibers, nope.” Well, that’s just….*dandy!”, I reply, semi-put out. “Now what the hell am I going to do?” “Ever think that’s why Ruin and I are here, now?”, Rack asks. “And here I thought it was just so you could bask in the warm glow of my fucking wonderful personality. Or that you actually cared about me as a real goddamn human”, I joshed. “Ummm…yeah”, Rack replies, “There’s no way we can answer that without going on some Deadpool list. “ I agreed. “OK, here’s the deal: you get your sidearms, ammunition, speed loaders, brass knuckles, Asp, laser range finders, Sap, Zeiss scopes, Kukri, Wisconsin Cheese Whittler, Buck folding skinner, Marine K-Bar, those two ultra-illegal Cheburkov Cobra titanium switchblades...” “Three. Olga the KGB lady sent me one for Geologist’s Day.” “Ahem. Those threeultra-illegal Cheburkov switchblades, that Wyoming Speedholer, your MASER Time-Distance Computer, garrote, pocket rail gun and whatever else lethal you carry and deposit it in the iron box in the trunk. We’ll ensure that it’s delivered to Esme post-haste. And by post-haste I mean one of our guys will deliver it personally.” “Well…I suppose”, I conceded, “But best send someone who’s been to the house recently. I don’t know how much bigger Khan has grown since I left on this little fantasy trip. Wouldn’t want a star on the wall in Langley for someone eaten by a mastiff. Want to see a picture….Oh, bother. That’s right. My phone’s at the bottom of fucking Lake Maracaibo.” “Good point”, Ruin interjects, “Guess we’ll do a little road trip and deliver it ourselves. Best call Esme and let her know what’s going on.” “I have no objections to your proposals. Please give Esme this when you see her. I had some luck in the Calaveras Casino and if I don’t send her some mad money. Ouch. She’ll never forgive me for not taking her along to Japan.” I asked. “But I thought Esme hated Japan? Too crowded and too ‘fussy’, I believe was her estimation.” Ruin asked. “Yes, but once she saw the Ginza, all bets were off. Shopping the likes of which even Allah himself hasn’t seen.” I replied, slowly shaking my head. “I see”, Ruin said, “Well, since you’re off to Sapporo, perhaps you can do a recon for Esme on the shopping there.” “Not bad. Not bad at all.”, I smiled, “Now I know why I let you guys hang around with me.” So, as advertised, I am now standing on the tarmac at LAX, basically feeling naked. “Can’t I keep just one switchblade?” I moaned to Agent Rack. “Go ahead, if you’re really keen on donating it to Japanese customs”, he replied. “Fuckbuckets.” I groused. “There, there now. That’s the usual Dr. Rocknocker of which we’re all so fond.” Agent Ruin chuckled. “Remember, you do have that wallet-sized credit card gizmo from the Company. So you’re not entirely ‘naked’. Think of it as an emergency breechcloth.” He smiled. “I’d like a larger model if you don’t mind. It’s chilly out here.” I joshed. After Agents Rack and Ruin stripped me metaphorically naked as they de-weaponized me, they handed me a Business Class ticket to Tokyo, and a pass to the Japan Airlines Hospitality Suite and Lounge. “So sorry you guys can’t hang around and have a few farewell snorts”, I chided, “But you’ve got a bit of a drive, so best be off before the weather turns to shit.” “Who says we’re driving?” Agent Rack asked as he hooked a thumb over his shoulder at the ready and waiting C-130 cargo plane currently taxiing slowly in our direction. “Well, in that case”, I smiled even more broadly, “Let’s invite the flight crew to join us. That’ll make the flight home all that much more interesting.” After near tear-jerking farewell sentimentalities, i.e., “Piss on you”, “Get stuffed” and “Take a fuckin’ hike”; Agents Rack and Ruin, my weapons and the Agency’s plain-Jane Blue Chevy were all nestled snugger than buggers in ruggers in the belly of the thundering C-130. Now truly on my own, I trudge the hundred thousand or so centisteps to my departure terminal, make a quick recon that my flight’s still slated to go in a generally westward direction, and hightail it to the nearest courtesy desk to ask for a motorized cart to take me and my remaining luggage to the JAL Hospitality Suite. Hey. I’m old, infirm, and currently among the walking wounded. Anyone that disagrees risks an Ankylosaur tail club swat or Thagomizer to the skull. Finally ensconced in the JAL Hospitality Suite, Polo Lounge of course; I was drinking Tokyo Teas (3 oz. vodka, 2 oz. gin, 2 oz. rum, 1 oz. triple sec, 1 oz. Midori, good splash of lime juice, a slight splash of 7-Up (diet, of course), over ice with a lime wheel) with Pabst Blue Ribbon Extra 1844 chasers and Hangar One’s “Fog Point” vodka on the side, hiding from the brutish realities of this foul year of two thousand and twenty-something, Common Era… I’ve already called Esme and we’ve had a good, long chat. She still managed to give me her shopping list for whenever I find myself bored on the Ginza. She’ll be shocked when she learns that I’m not going to be in Tokyo long, but have 1st class tickets on the Bullet Train to Sapporo. Still, I’ll probably find myself in Pole Town or the Stellar Place there, trading piles of US greenbacks for locally produced Japanese curios and clothing. I can hardly wait. I order another round of drinks, as the wonderful attendants in the Hospitality Suite were bored out of their skulls because of the COVID-induced drop-in customers flying anywhere that requires a hospitality room stay, and I was virtually the only one around. They tried their level best to outdo each other when it comes to Japanese efficiency and friendliness. After a couple of hours, they ask if I would like something from the grill, as the day chef had “the COVID” and the night chef just arrived. A quick perusal of the menu and I chose a 28-ounce dry-aged Porterhouse and another round of drinks. I usually don’t like to eat too much before I fly, but JAL tells me the flight is going to be virtually empty, something like <121 pax, all told, so restroom availability shouldn’t be too much of a concern. Plus, who am I to say no to a free, blue 28-ounce dry-aged Porterhouse? There was a bit of difficulty conveying to the chef through the intermediaries of the hospitality just how I wanted my steak. “Blue,” I said. “Brue?” was the reply. “Rare. Very, very rare.” I continued. Look of total bewilderment. I drag out my Personal Language Pro, speak “Steak, very, very rate” into the infernal gizmo, and hand the contraption to the attendant. “珍しい、非常に珍しいステーキ?”[ Mezurashī, hijō ni mezurashī sutēki?] “Raw! Nama!” I say, louder than need be. They toddle off to find the chef. “How is it sir, that you would like your steak cooked?” he asks. “Very rare. Just a minute or two per side. Inside still cold.” I instructed. All I got for the trouble was a puzzled smile. “Give me the language gizmo…” I type in a few words… “お尻を洗い、角をノックオフして、ここから出してください” [O shiri o arai,-kaku o nokkuofu shite, koko kara dashite kudasai.] “Wash its ass, knock its horns off, and walk it out here.” “OH!” as the lightbulb pops. “Rare. Got it! Excellent!” the chef laughs and zips back to the kitchen. Like I always say, I’m nothing if not the international ambassador of amity and goodwill. “Crack tubes!” Dinner was fantastic. I do wish I could have somehow mailed the Porterhouse bone back home for Khan. After that hambone incident, he might even taste it. Finally on the plane, in an almost empty Business Class, the flight captain informs us that we’re headed to Haneda Airport Tokyo and anyone not headed in that direction better ‘haul ass off’ the flight or forever hold their peace. Late-night international flights tend to be a bit more wooly than your average Chicago to Omaha gig. Especially when the flight’s damn near empty and we have the next 12 hours or so to be best friends. We taxi, turn and head into the wind. I’m doctoring up a couple of dossiers and keeping my personal cabin attendant, Luna since there were two of us in Business and two business flight attendants, busy with her trying to play ‘Stump the Geologist’. “I’ll bet you never had this before.” She beamed and handed me a tumbler of very dangerous-looking brown liquor. I cautiously sniff, take a modest gulp, swirl and glug the rest down. “Ohishi Single Sherry Cask”, I say with a muffled belch. “Light. Fruity. An Englishman’s drink.” “Oh. You knew. Let me try again.” She smiles beatifically. “I have no objections to your proposal.” I smile as nicely as this crotchety old Komodo Dragon could. She returns with another flagon of spirits; it smells of obsidian, leather, and earth. I just had some of this back in LAX. I take a snort, smile, and shotgun the rest. “Hibiki Japanese Harmony…lovely stuff.” I smile. “A little light for my jaded palate, but I’d never turn it down if it were free.” “Oh, you win again. Wait. One more.” She smiles and skitters off to the galley. She returns with another soupçon of some more dangerous brown liquor. “Here, try this. It will make you very popular at social gatherings”. She smiles. Sniff. “Splendid.” Snort. Swirl. Smile. Shotgun. “Kanosuke New Born, if I’m not mistaken.” I smile back. “Very nice. I really do like this one.” “You too good at this. One more!” she stands and stomps off defiantly. She returns in a trice and hands me the glass. “Hmm…brown. Light notes of earth, leather, dating your daughter, and Kentucky… “Beam Suntory, right?” “You know them all!” she says, feigning irritation. “And I thank you. Those were all excellent. Now, anything in the dangerous clear liquor category? I asked. Luna smiled as I palmed off a 20k yen tip. “Oh, no sir. Wait until we land.” She demurred, referring to the gratuity; which is know is not de rigueur in the Orient, but she didn’t seem to mind. “Just in case we never make it to Tokyo”, I laughed, unknowingly presciently. We both chuckled about that last line as she tried out various sakes and shōchūs and an actual Japanese ‘White Liquor’ (ホワイトリカー), which were all excellent as was the company. I tell her that I need to get some work done and could she bring me a tall Rocknocker. After explain the origins and construction of the eponymous drink, she brings me one that must tip the scales at 1 or so liters. She settles down to an empty seat and I get after the work that I need to finish before we land. I’m about ½ way through my drink when it felt as if the plane hit a brick wall. She quivered and quaked and clutched at herself while I made some comments about the pilot’s mental health. We dropped like a paralyzed falcon, then just as suddenly, felt like it was an express elevator to Angel’s 11. The plane bucked and shimmied, wickedly. Then we slam-danced right and fell a few more stories. It was like we were in a Mixmaster and the owner was trying out every speed. The emergency lights in the 777-300ER popped on, and the fasten seat belt sign barked loudly so even sleeping travelers could enjoy the show. Rinse. Spin. Shudder. Repeat. Finally, the ride smooths out and we hear the captain on the blower. “This is your captain speaking…ah, we seem to have hit some uncharted turbulence back there.” “Thanks, Captain Obvious”, I muttered. “Everything’s A-OK. “ he reports. “That’s good”, I note. “But…” “There’s always the but…” I groan. “…we have a couple of warning lights for which we can’t quite account. So to just be safe and certain, we’re going to divert to Hawaii, get a clean bill of health and resume this flight once we make sure everything here is hunky-dory.” There were scattered groans and applause. Add them together and divide by two and the average response on the flight was “Meh. Whatever.” Except for the other guy in Business, with whom I hadn’t shared two words. He began to absolutely lose his shit. “Oh, man! We’re so screwed! Mechanical malfunction? What does that mean?” he positively fizzed with fear. The flight attendants tried to calm him down, to no avail. They basically gave up and said they’d report his misgivings to the Captain. I motioned over to my personal flight attendant, Luna, and asked if I could be of service. “Oh, Doctor Rock”, she smiled at me, “If you could speak with him. You are so calm, and he is…” “Losing his bloody mind”, I chuckled as I finished her sentence for her. “Of course, I’ll take a stab at it.” So, I grab my drink and ease over to my Business Class partner and introduce myself. “Hey, pal. How’s it going? I’m Dr. Rock, gentleman, scholar, and connoisseur of cigars and things alcoholic. You doing OK?” He looks at me with an ashen face and his eyes the size of bloodshot dinner plates. “Yeah. I’m Todd Schotts. I’m flying to Japan for business.” He mumbles “No surprise there,” I reply calmly and take a slug of my drink. “But now we’re all going to die. The plane is busted and we’ll crash…” he started off again. “So, Todd is it? Good. You drink?” I asked. “Yeah?”, he stammered back. I asked Luna to make us a fresh batch of my eponymous cocktails. “OK, Todd, listen up”, I began after the drinks were served, “I have flown literally millions of miles over the last 4 decades. On Aeroflot when it was still the USSR. On TACA (Take A Chance Airways), on Chalk’s in the Caribbean, on Bob’s Verrifast Plane Company in Rhodesia, on regional carriers that don’t even exist anymore. All over the world. Had some bad experiences flying, and me ol’ mugger, this ain’t one of them. This is nothing more than the glitch for this mission.” I chuckled lightly and complimented Luna on a fantastic drink. “Yeah…yeah…yeah…but we have to land and check out some lights…” Todd squealed. “Well now, Todd. It would be rather difficult to do any external assessment while in flight, don’t you agree?” I asked. “But we’re diverting. We have to land and that adds more risk. We’re going to crash and die!” he was coming more and more unglued. “I will bet you every cent you have on your person and home bank accounts that that will not happen”, I chuckled. That took him by surprise. At least it shut him up for a while. “Look, Todd. This is Boeing’s latest model. They have the most incredible safety record. And if a little clear air turbulence were to be knocking planes out of the sky, don’t you think we’d hear about it as the press went berserk?” I asked. “But they don’t know what the lights mean! What if one of the engines’s out? How far can we fly on one engine?” Todd stuttered. Having my fill of a supposedly grown man with inane childlike fears, I calmly replied, “All the way to the crash site.” He went white. “...hope we hit something hard. I don’t want to limp away from this.” He went limp. Then I went to my seat and motioned for Luna to prepare a reload. Of course, 45 minutes later, we land without incident at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, Honolulu Hawaii. We were told to just wait around until they figure out what the problem if any, was. They had officials waiting at the end of the jetway to check our COVID status and passports before they let us loose in the terminal. I asked Luna if she knew this airport. She noted that she did. “Is there a JAL hospitality room here at this airport? I asked. “Yes, Doctor. It’s the Sakura Lounge. It is located on the third level above The Local, Terminal 2.” She replied. “Please notify whoever needs to know that that’s where I’ll be for the duration”, I smiled and handed her my business card. “See you soon, I hope.” “Oh, Dr. Rock”, she replied, “I am sure it is nothing much. We’ll be back in the air within mere hours.” “Well then”, I smiled, “Guess I’d better get ready to hoof it to the lounge.” “Oh, Doctor Rock”, she smiled, “No rush. I will call for you a courtesy cart. You are injured, you are Business, you are priority.” “I love that Asian efficiency.” I smiled back and toddled down the jetway. At the terminus of the jetway, I show my COVID-clear papers, dates and times of my Anti-Virus vaccine administrations, the letter from Virginia clearing me of all detention, and my red Russian diplomatic passport. While in the cart, whizzing our way to the JAL lounge, the driver said “Man! You must be some kind of VIP. You were through that welcoming committee in less than two minutes!” “Me? Nah!”, I chuckled, “Just an old phart of a geologist that they didn’t want to mess with. Not on such a bright, sunny day as this.” “I see you’re not wearing a mask.” The driver quipped. “Very observant. There are reasons for that.” I replied. He careens around a corner and if this were a normal pre-Covid day, I’m certain we’d have killed hundreds. However, the airport, as I’ve come to grow accustomed to, was virtually deserted. “Yeah? Like what?” he asks. “Well, Scooter, 1. I have an active and hardworking immune system that I let off the chain every once in a while for exercise. Got to let it know what it’s up against, right? 2. I’ve had all my shots and some that were experimental. They seem to have worked. And 3. I find it difficult to drink and smoke cigars while wearing a mask. However, if you’d prefer, I will mask up. No problem, though it still is optional.” “Nah, man”, he said, “I was just wondering if you were one of those religious idiots or conspiracy nuts.” Nope”, I smiled back, “Just another geologist out in the world plying his trade for cash. Y’know, whorin’ around for money.” He laughs aloud as we skid to a stop right in front of Lounge. I slip the guy a $20 and ask if he’d listen for the JAL flight I was just on. If we’re going on ahead today, I’d need him to scoot by and putt-putt me back to the plane. He laughs and pockets the $20 as quick as a mink ruts. “No worries. I’ll just hang around this area. I hear anything about the flight, I’ll come and let you know.” He grins. “Good man”, I say, as I hand him my card. “I’m Dr. Rocknocker. Call me Rock”. “And I’m Kapula Mano, call me Kap” he replies. “Good man”, I say again, “Hope to see you in a while.” He grins, floors his electric cart, and peels out at speeds approaching 4.5 MPH. I wander into the lounge, show my credentials, and am escorted to a post up on Mahogany Ridge. The bar is very quiet. Besides the bartender, I can’t see anyone else in the darkened and Smooth Jazz-infused drinking emporium. I order a local drink, a Mai Tai, just for the experience and something a bit different. It’s served in a goldfish bowl on a stem, bedecked with a slice of lime, a sprig of mint, a stick of sugar cane, a polychromatic orchid, and the obligate paper umbrella. “Ah. Mai Tai. I will enjoy it.” I said to no one in particular. One was enough, and I decided to go back to the old standard. Once I explained to the bartender what that was, he made them heroic and enthusiastically. I’m reading up on a random dossier, making notes in a new file, and puffing away on a Fuentes Onyx double Maduro Churchill cigar. I hear a slight cough coming from my right, and this here lovely lady, she sat to my immediate starboard and looked at me semi-quizzically. Not in the mood for shenanigans of any stripe, I give her the obligate Baja Canada nod and tilt of the drink. I return to my dossiers and continue to read and take notes. “Excuse me!” I hear. Fearing the worst, either the woman is Karen-oid anti-smoking or a religious fruit-and-nutburger, I slowly turn to face her and reply, somewhat glacially, I have to admit. “What?” “That cigar…” “Here we go…” I mutter, eyes rolling northward. “Smells exquisite. Could you tell me the brand? My husband would enjoy some like that.” She notes. Instantly my demeanor switches 1800. “Yes, ma’am. It’s an Arturo Fuentes Onyx. Churchill size, or 60 ring x 7” length, double Maduro. Here, take one for your husband. I have an ample supply.” I smile. “Oh, no. I couldn’t. Could I?” she asks. “Please. I insist.” I smile the best I could given the circumstances. “Thank you. You’re too kind…umm…Mr….?” “Doctor. Doctor Rocknocker. World traveler, oilman, and international ambassador of amity, good drinks, and fine cigars. Call me Rock” I said. “Oh! A Doctor?” she brightens. “Yes, of Petroleum Geology and Engineering. Not medicine.” I chuckle. She chuckles back. “And I am Hella Aaberg”, as she offers her hand for a quick shake. “Interesting name, Hella. Scandinavian or Old German heritage?” I ask. “On my father’s side. He’s Finnish.” She replies. “But I’ll wager your mother is not Scandinavian, correct?” I ask. “She was from Truk, an island…” “In the South Pacific, Micronesia. Was she from Weno city?” I asked. “Why yes. How could you possibly know that?” she asked. “Oh, I’ve been there. Great diving amongst the WWII wrecks. I think it’s actually called ‘Chuuk Lagoon’ or something like that now.” I said. “That’s right! Amazing. Where else have you been?” she asked. “Anywhere there’s oil, strife, booze, cigars, heavy explosives and typically long distances from whatever most normal people call civilization,” I replied with a chuckle. Suddenly, I hear a voice booming out behind me. “Why don’t you save that rapier-like wit for those musky-fuckers back home, Rocko?” My expression changes. My eyes pop fully wide open. “Hella?” I asked. “Yes?” “May I ask you a favor?” “You can ask…” “Thank you. Now, looking over my shoulder, is there a hulking goon of a person, thin up top, paunchy halfway down with the most ridiculously tiny sized shoes you’ve ever seen for a so-called grown man?” I ask. “Yes. Yes, there is.” She replies. “I thought so. Many thanks.” I spin and launch off my barstool and grab Toivo by the hand. He hadn’t seen my left-hand Thagomizer yet. “Toivo! You old sumbitch. What the flying fennec fox fuck are you, of all people, doing in Hawaii?” I laughed. “Just keeping an eye on you, Rock!” he laughed equally as loud. “No, fucking-A, seriously. What the actual fuck? What are you doing in this actual nice place?” I asked. “Just headed to Tokyo to conduct a bit of service company business. I walked into the lounge and smelled a foul cigar. I figured it can’t be the venerable Dr. Rocknocker. He’s back at some school up north terrorizing geology and engineering grads and undergrads.” Toivo laughed. “But there I was. Surprise!”, I laughed and pumped his hand. “What the fuck, Rock. Now what did you do?” he asks, referring to my Ankylosaur tail club left hand. “Ah, fuck. Long story. Oh, pardon me. Toivo, this is Hella. We were just talking about the South Seas Islands.” I said. “Planning on running off together?” Toivo laughs, to the amusement of neither party. “Oh, and this idiot is Toivo, a man with a congenital foot-in-mouth disorder. He’s mostly harmless.” I noted to Hella. Greetings were shared all around. Hella made some small excuses and said she needed to depart. I gave her another cigar for her husband, shook her hand, and wished her well. “Here’s my business card. If your husband has any questions, have him drop me a line.” I noted. Hella smiled beautifully. She said she would. Then she thanked me shook our hands, and like that, there she was, gone. “Well Toivo, you old bastard. Don't just stand there in the doorway like some lonesome goddamn mouse shit sheepherder, get your ass over here and have a drink.” I motioned over to my perch on Mahogany Ridge. “Don’t mind if I do”, he says as he deftly winds his way to a seat to my left, snagging a cigar out of my pocket on the way over. “You might want these”, I say in an exasperated tone, and hand him my gold Dunhill Hobnail lighter and V-cutter gizmo. He cuts and fires up his heater. “What you drinkin’, Rock”, he asks. “Anything with alcohol, as usual. You know that Toiv.” I reply. “No. I mean right now.” He clarifies. “Well, I had a Mai Tai. Very nice if you like fruity, flowery drinks. It’s the locals’ favorite.” I reply. “Sounds good. I’ll have several. And you?” Toivo asks. “My usual. The bartender is already apprised of the situation.” I reply. Toivo smiles the smile of one knowing his sobriety is going to be taken out for a swim. Hell, taken out and tossed into the deep end. Toivo and I sit there, swapping lies, smoking cigars and sipping at our toddies. Hell, Toivo was slurping them like a sump-pump during an extra-wet summer. We chattered about family, work, whether or not Tokyo was going to host the Olympics or if the COVID-boogie man scared everyone off. Toivo, always one afflicted with TB (“Tiny Bladder”) got up to go to the loo for the third time that hour. He left his pocket organizer on the bar and I swear on a stack of Origins of Species, I didn’t touch it. I reached over to his vacated seat to retrieve my cigar lighter when I looked down and saw in his organizer a tab that reads “Rack & Ruin”. “Oh. No. Fucking. Way.” I recoiled as I’d just reached out and petted a 6-foot hungover scorpion. “One of my best friends? Secretly allied with the Agency? No. Not possible.” I drained my drink and called for another. “No. No. No. It can’t be. No. No fucking way…” as doubt began to dissolve when I thought back to all those times I had just ‘run into’ Toivo. “But he’s oil patch as well. That could be chalked up to coincidence.” I ruminated quizzically in my brain. I quickly reflected back on J.M. Darhower: “Yes, you see, there’s no such thing as coincidence. There are no accidents in life. Everything that happens is the result of a calculated move that leads us to where we are.” She may be the author of the execrable New Adult Sempre series, which Esme likes and I loathe, but she might just be right on this occasion. Toivo return, lighter in the bladder and good sense. He never even noticed he’d left his organizer out in broad bar light for all to see. “So, Toivo, when’s your flight?” I ask. “Oh, man. Was I lucky. The JAL flight to Tokyo from Los Angeles had mechanical trouble and had to divert here. I got a ticket on the plane for that flight, when it continues. “You mean ‘if it continues’,” I replied. “Yeah. Yeah. That’s what I meant. Hey! Was that your flight?” he asks innocently. He’s really innocent of fieldcraft. I decide to have some fun at my old friend’s expense. “Yep. Hit some CAT (Clear Air Turbulence) and the JAL pilots reported some lighting problem. No apparent ruin to any of the systems. They relay racked their brains to figure it out, but they couldn’t that’s why I here.” I said, waiting for the words to swim upstream in Toivo’s coconut and make some sort of connection. “Yeah. Double lucky. No problem with the plane and I get to go to Japan early.” Toivo crookedly grins. “So, no trouble with the plane? Then why haven’t I heard that the flight’s going to resume?” I asked as I pushed a fresh, seriously strong drink to Toivo. “Oh, must have heard it in the john.” Toivo countered and tried to cover his tracks by taking a huge gulp of his drink and damn near dying coughing. I pound on Toivo’s back. “Heimlich time?” I ask. Toivo signals ‘no’. “Jesus Christ, Rock. What was that?” he asks. “Just my usual”, I innocently replied. “Holy fuck. No wonder you have the reputation of…” Toivo realizes too late that he’s said too much. “Yeah. They can rack you out. Really ruin a person if they’re not careful.” I reply icily. “Why, Rock. Whatever do you mean?” Toivo slurred as he realized he’s been caught out. “The jig is up, you turncoat. You know Agents Rack and Ruin from the agency. Right? You keeping tabs on me for them? You Quisling! You Benedict Arnold!” I almost was on the verge of losing my cool. “It was nothing. They approached me years ago as I kept being mentioned in your reports. They asked me for some information. One thing leads to another…” Toivo was ready for an Ankylosaur tail club swat to the bean. “Oh, put your fucking hands down, you asshole.” I smiled and chuckled. “You’re not mad?” Toivo slurred badly. I had the bartender make him another special drink. “No, Toivo. Not mad. Just disappointed.” I said, smiling like a Komodo Dragon just finishing up a fortnight-old wildebeest. Toivo sat there and puzzled and puzzled until his puzzler was sore. “You’re not going to kill me or anything rude like that?” Toivo asked, half-assedly trying to inject humor into the proceedings. “Nah. The paperwork’s too ridiculous for me to do another liberation. But, Jesus Fucking Christwagons, Toivo; you could have mentioned it to me. Fuck, I thought we were friends to the end?” I said, dejectedly. I was really getting through to Toivo. I could tell he was loaded; feeling like shit and massively deplorable. Great fieldcraft, indeed. I told him things “are what they are” and that I won’t blow his cover nor his honorarium. He began to feel better. I often wonder if he was serious about the sanctioning thing. Then I delivered the strategic missile strike. “Just remember, Toivo. I wrote your dossier for the Company…” He swivels to look at me. “And one for the KGB. Olga says ‘howdy’.” I grin evilly. Toivo short-circuited at that. Russia is his company’s bread and butter. Now he has the KGB as well as his best buddy looking over his shoulder at every move. I bought him a few more drinks and continued to needle him about his ’leading a double life’. He was well and truly fuckered when the electric tap-tap driver from before came looking for me to whisk me back to the plane. Seems it was simply some knocked-out wires on the plane, or slammed bulbs that were generating a false positive, indicating something other than the system that alerts one to something haywire went haywire. Toivo was pretty much down for the count. I got him sober enough to hand them his ticket and ensure that he was really supposed to be on this flight. Thing was; h e was in Economy, and I was, as always, in Business. I spoke to Luna, and the plane was going to be even less crowded than previously because some folks could or wouldn’t wait, or didn’t want to go on with the rest of the trip on a ‘damaged’ aircraft, or were just stupid and superstitious. “Luna, could I pay for the difference between Business and Economy for my less than 100% conscious friend here? He’s had a rough day.” I asked. “Dr. Rock. Just put him into Business. No one will be the wiser. Luna says so.” As she gave us a grand smile. “Luna, I owe you. Thanks so much.” I said. “Now get on board. Your friend looks like he needs all the downtime he can get.” “Yes, ma’am!” I said and saluted here be best I could which dragging a schnozzled Toivo down the jetway. I dumped Toivo in a window seat well away from my seat. I know Toivo. He snores like a semi-load of live hogs rocketing downhill locking up the brakes at 88 MPH. Surprise! There was no one else in Business. Luna looked at me, at Toivo, and gave me a thumbs up. Whatever I can write to further her career at JAL, she’ll have it before I deplane. We finally get everyone settled, and with Captain Kangaroo at the helm, we bounced gracelessly off the tarmac, into the warm, tropical Hawaiian air, finally headed for the Land of the Rising Sun. Toivo was snoring like a chainsaw hitting rusty nails as I worked on the various letters, communiques, and dossiers which needed updating before we reached touchdown. I gave Luna a thick letter with instructions not to open it until we were on the ground and Toivo and I were well off and away into the terminal. We left Hawaii at 1300 hours, so we should arrive at Tokyo Nareda around 4:00 pm, the previous day. I was so bereft of time and time zones, I couldn’t figure out what time it really was, as judged by my biometric rhythms, so I asked Luna for a stiff drink as I was kicking off my boots and going to attempt to get some kip. She brought me another liter or so eponymous drink. I was sawing logs by the time I slurped the last swig of that nifty drink. Suddenly, or later, I have no idea really, some loudmouth drunk asshole from way-the-fuck-back in economy-land toward the ass end of the plane staggered into Business demanding free drinks. Luna was nothing but civil, and asked him to both shut up and return to his seat. His air cabin hostess, or whatever the fuck they’re calling them these days, will attend to his needs. “Naw they won’t! They want me to pay for more drinks! I’m broke but I demand more booze! You fucking owe me.” railed the asshole. “I sat at the bar in Hawaii for four hours. Them fuckers charged me an arm and a leg!” “No, they don’t owe you shit”, I said in a voice that unmistakably loud and clear. “Fuck you, old man! You stay the fuck out of this!” he bellowed. “Shut up or I’ll do ya’!” “’Old man’? ‘Do me’? Excuse me. Luna, may I have a word alone with this individual?” I asked sweetly. Luna shook her head in the affirmative, and I stood up to confront this flagrant asshole. “Now look, Scooter. You have gone way, way over the fucking line. You are loud. You are abusive. You are obnoxious. And you stink. Plus you insulted a person who is just barely containing his righteous wrath right now. So, I’m giving you one and one only chance to shut up, sit back down before your body spontaneously develops all sort of bruises, contusions, broken bones, and unconsciousness.” I said calmly, evenly, and threateningly. “What da’ fuck you think you’re going to do…old man?” he screeched, trying to inflate himself into full mammalian threat posture, all 5’ 9” of it. He didn’t notice Toivo walking up quietly behind him, as Toivo was returning from the head, quiet as a moose. “Well, Scooter, I am an Air Marshall. Duly appointed, fully trained, and properly pissed off. Right now, I can arrest you, physically detain you, turn this flight around and take you to the Hawaiian police, at your cost for the inconvenience of the entire flight. Or I could arrest you, physically detain you, and turn you over to the Japanese authorities when we land. It’s really your choice. Choose wisely.” To be continued…⇝
I work at a crooked casino. You don't gamble with money here.
Hi, everybody. My name is Sid, and I’m an addict. It took me a long time to accept that. But when you take a job in a casino just so that you can be there all the time and try to gain an edge, you’re an addict. It’s obvious even to me. More so to my family and friends, who I barely see anymore. It’s not pills or coke, booze or heroin that I’m hooked on. I’m addicted to gambling. The casino that made me so obsessed is not an ordinary one, though. It’s far from ordinary. You don’t play for money at Fantasy Casino. You play for your dreams. I hear you laughing. But have you ever had a really, really great dream? One that got so good you snapped awake the second it started to get really excellent? Well, imagine that times a thousand. Times a million. A dream so real and so perfect that all of your fantasies become reality. Time stretches out. You feel like you are there forever. A lifetime passes before your return. Infinite wealth, the ability to fly like superman, you’re surrounded by sex and beautiful people all day as you relax in a palace built to your mind’s most exacting specifications of perfection. But then you wake up, and in an instant it is gone. The power, the wealth, the endless sex and supernatural powers. Everything is suddenly NORMAL again. And so you go back to the casino. I went back to the casino. But the problem with gambling is that you don’t always win. And when you lose, suddenly the winnings are gone as well, vanished without a trace. All I knew was that I had to have that feeling again. So I went inside the giant building and then followed the secret signs which led to a door that led to a staircase going downwards. I went down the stairs and knocked on the door marked “Private” and waited for an answer. “Password.” The voice on the other side of the black door waited for my response. “Seramth Gin.” I said the unnatural words carefully and deliberately, still not knowing their meaning. A friend had told me the password, a fellow gambler who I would later find dead in his apartment. His corpse white, bloated, and maggot-infested. His eyes were black and filled with blood which streamed from his eye sockets like tears. He had bit his tongue clean off and his fingernails were found lodged in various surfaces throughout his apartment. Like he had been trying to claw his way out of a steel box that only he could see. But I’m getting ahead of myself. That was later. At this point I was still hopeful for another wonderful dream. Still thankful for his advice to seek out the place. The door opened and I walked inside. It was the same as it had been the day before, only less busy at this time – still early afternoon. I approached the table I had been sitting at the night before. Poker – Texas Hold ‘em: Ten dream limit – the sign read. The rules were simple. You got a stack of chips. If you doubled them, you received a dream. If you lost them, you lost a dream. I wasn’t concerned about losing dreams yet, I still didn’t understand exactly what that meant. When I lost my first stack of chips, I quickly bought in again. And again. And again. Pretty soon I realized I had lost eight dreams with no winnings whatsoever. I was in a slump. A losing streak. I decided to go home and count my losses. Literally, since I had no idea what that even meant. As I got up to leave the table, the dealer looked at me. His eyes were remorseless and cold. “See the cashier on your way out,” he said, handing me eight black chips. I gulped and walked over to the glass window where the cashier sat waiting. Handing him the eight chips, he raised his eyebrows and clicked his tongue. “That’s a shame. Hold out your hand please.” Two men in black suits came up behind me suddenly and stood on either side of me, intimidating in their stature and demeanour. I did as he asked and held out my hand with the palm facing up. The cashier pulled out a strange-looking device from beneath the counter. It had a vial of vermillion-coloured liquid at the top that was attached to the rest of it which resembled a gun with a hypodermic needle at the end. I screamed and tried to pull away, but the two men grabbed me and held my arm through the window. Thrashing and elbowing them, I tried to get away but it was useless. The cashier injected the stuff into my veins quickly and it felt cold and slimy going through my system. I could feel it suddenly in my heart, turning it cold and then up into my mind and my lungs and all extremities causing me to shake and violently seize. I writhed on the floor, blood pouring from my ears and my eyes. Finally the feeling settled down into a numbness that prickled the insides of my blood vessels. It wasn’t until later, once I realized what the casino really was, that I found out what they had done. I went home with the certainty that they had injected me with something. If winning had resulted in the greatest dream I had ever had – essentially an almost never-ending fantasy – what would happen after a loss? Nightmares. That was what it would be. I was sure of it. I settled into bed that night and closed my eyes, drifting off to sleep quickly after such an emotionally exhausting afternoon. As soon as my eyes closed, they opened again and it was morning. It felt as if I had not slept at all. My mind was fuzzy and it was difficult to focus. My eyes wanted to close again but my alarm was telling me that it was time to get up for work, so I hit the “dismiss” button and hopped in the shower. I threw on my clothes and went out the door. At work I noticed a few people looking at me strangely, but I didn’t realize until someone pointed it out to me that my shirt was on inside-out. At this point I was still working in an office doing commodities trading and such lapses were frowned upon. If you couldn’t focus enough to put your shirt on properly in the morning, how could you focus enough to get the work done in such a demanding environment? Millions of dollars changing hands with each transaction meant that such trivial things were put under a magnifying glass and coupled with other subsequent mistakes each following day after that, I found myself in the boss’s office by the end of the week being handed my walking papers. Desperate for rest after days of not feeling any benefit from sleep, I went back to the casino. They knew just by looking at me how to dig their claws in further. After a couple hours I had managed to win myself a dream. They handed me the complimentary cocktail as they had the time before. I hadn’t realized the significance of it and still didn’t, despite the unusual vermillion colour of the drink. I swallowed it in one gulp and went out the door practically dancing and clicking my heels, ready to go home and feel rested again. My dream that night was wonderful. Everything I had hoped for in many ways. But not as good as the first time. I wanted that feeling back again. Knowing that it was a dream the whole time and realizing that it was going to end seemed to shorten the fantasy, made it seem hollow and manufactured. If I could win again maybe it would be like that first time, I thought. The casino drew me in again and again. I found myself a zombie most days, exhausted, at my wit’s end. Ready to call it quits for good and say goodbye. But then I would win again and it would all seem to be alright for a while. My debt kept growing and growing with nearly every trip. The hypodermic needle would be plunged into my skin and every time they had to hold me down. Every time I would feel a little more empty. A little more hollow. Waking up every day began to feel the same. Nothing had definition or purpose. “You’re here all the time,” one of the goons whispered to me as they shot the needle into my vein the time after that. “Haven’t you figured it out yet? You should just get a job here and then at least you’ll be in on the secret.” I applied the next day and got an interview with the boss. I would find out later that if you got someone to apply there you got a one dream bonus. In his office, the well-dressed man was sitting behind a massive polished ebony desk. The room was adorned with paintings, sculptures, and other high-priced artwork. He had photos everywhere of himself shaking hands with world leaders, new and old, for hundreds of years. His face never changed. Never aged. “So, you want to work with us? Tired of dreamless nights without end? You want to have some relief, is that it?” “Yes. Please. Anything. I’ve been coming here for so long and it’s an endless cycle. I want back what I’ve lost but I keep finding myself more and more in debt with each visit.” “Ah, so do you understand it now, then? What the ‘injections’ are?” It finally dawned on me, sitting there. Not injections at all. They weren’t putting something in us. They were taking something out. The vermillion-coloured liquid in the vials – our dreams. “If I take a job with you, will the same rules apply? Will they still take my sleep, my rest, every time I lose?” “Yes. We can’t have the employees living by different rules than everyone else. But we will give you an alternative injection, so that you feel well-rested when you come in for your shift.” “I’ll do it. I need to rest. I need to get some meaningful sleep. My life has been miserable ever since coming here.” “Well, I can’t promise that this will help,” he said, getting up from his desk with a hypodermic gun in his hand. The vial of fluid sitting atop this one was jet-black and looked evil and poisonous. He rolled up his sleeves as he primed it and I watched a few beads of it drip oil-like out of the tip of the needle. “What the hell is that!? I don’t want that stuff in me!” “But you need to sleep, my dear worker. I can’t have you passing out at the blackjack table like a narcoleptic! You agreed to this, after all. You wanted to rest, and the only way for that to happen is for you to have SOME sort of dream. Not everyone is as lucky as you, you know. To have that wonderful vermillion fluid in your veins. Some people come to us begging to take it from them. Some of our employees for example, the ones who do the recruitment for us, are full of this black stuff.” “What?” I had gotten up from the chair and was backing away from him towards the door. But I found it was locked as he approached. “First you have to tell me the password, Sid.” “Seramth Gin.” I said the words that I had said every time to gain access to the casino, only this time I pictured the letters and rearranged them in my mind. “Nightmares.” He smiled as he injected me with the vial of black hate, and it went into my veins feeling hot and unpleasant. I began to sweat and the beads of it turned cold on my skin as I shivered. I’ll sleep tonight. I might even wake up feeling rested. But as long as I live and work at that casino, I’ll be afraid to dream again. Because now my unconscious hours are occupied by the most terrifying experiences imaginable. Nightmares beyond imagining in their awfulness. That is my fate. Unless… Just maybe, I can win one more time. JG TCC
Lost in the Sauce: Barr's DOJ shut down investigations of Trump and admin officials
Welcome to Lost in the Sauce, keeping you caught up on political and legal news that often gets buried in distractions and theater… or a global health crisis. Housekeeping:
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Post-election
On Saturday, Trump announced on Twitter that he has put his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani in charge of his campaign's long-shot post-election legal challenges. Other people on the team include Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis.
Giuliani worked with a Russian agent to smear Biden. diGenova and Toensing tried to get the Justice Department to drop charges against corrupt Ukraine oligarch Dmytro Firtash. Powell represents Michael Flynn and champions "deep state" conspiracies. Ellis said gay marriage leads to pedophilia.
NYT: Mr. Trump turned to Mr. Giuliani earlier on Friday in reaction to the latest setback he faced in court, this one relating to votes in Maricopa County, Arizona… A half-dozen other Trump advisers have described Mr. Giuliani’s efforts as counterproductive and said that he was giving the president unwarranted optimism about what could happen… In an Oval Office meeting with aides on Thursday, Mr. Trump put Mr. Giuliani on speakerphone so the others could hear him. He angrily accused the aides of not telling the president the truth
Giuliani’s conspiracy-riddled rant at Four Seasons Total Landscaping was so disastrous that it “scared off many of the lawyers” recruited to argue election-related lawsuits.Politico: “Campaign officials described the episode as disastrous...there are widespread concerns within Trumpworld and GOP circles that Giuliani’s antics are thwarting the president’s legal machinery from within.” Two major law firms have withdrawn from Trump campaign cases as his legal challenges crumble. Arizona’s largest law firm Snell & Wilmer dumped the RNC and Trump campaign effort to challenge votes in Maricopa County. Porter Wright Morris & Arthur is abandoning Trump’s attempt to block Pennsylvania's popular vote for Joe Biden.
In one day (Friday), nine cases meant to attack President-elect Joe Biden's win in key states were denied or dropped - seven in Pennsylvania, one in Arizona, and one in Michigan.
The new federal chief information security officer, Camilo Sandoval, has already taken leave from his day job to participate in a pro-Trump effort to hunt for evidence of voter fraud in the battleground states. The group, Voter Integrity Fund, is a newly formed Virginia-based group that is analyzing ballot data and cold-calling voters. Sandoval was officially appointed on Nov. 4, 2020, but lists his starting date at October on his personal LinkedIn page.
WaPo: Sandoval is part of a hastily convened team led by Matthew Braynard, a data specialist who worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign. Another participant is Thomas Baptiste, an adviser to the deputy secretary of the Interior Department who also took a leave to work on the project. Braynard said in an interview that several other government officials on leave are also assisting the effort, but he declined to identify them.
Media’s role:
Facebook Cut Traffic To Leading Liberal Pages Just Before The Election: Liberal page administrators who spoke with BuzzFeed News said that their reach declined by as much as 70%, and still hasn’t recovered.
Facebook Live Spread Election Conspiracies And Russian State-Controlled Content Despite Employee Fears: The social network’s live video tool has recommended videos featuring misinformation and the hyperpartisan views of Trump allies leading up to and following election day in the US.
In the week after the election, Trump’s postings dominated Facebook, accounting for the 10 most engaged status updates in the United States, and 22 of the top 25. “I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!” was his top post.
YouTube Is Doing Very Little to Stop Election Misinformation From Spreading
Social media app Parler receives financial backing from conservative hedge-fund investor Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, The Wall Street Journal reported. Parler turned into a kind of de facto home for conservatives’ protests against the election— including the persistent “Stop the Steal” campaign— after the race was called for former Vice President Joe Biden. Several high-profile conservative social media personalities encouraged people to abandon Twitter and Facebook because of their moderation policies, and instead follow them on Parler.
Transition
Emily Murphy, the head of the General Services Administration, still hasn’t signed the official letter that would allow the incoming Biden team to formally begin the transition. House Democrats are assessing options to force the GSA’s hand, which could include summoning Murphy to the Hill to testify or suing her. “Obviously, Congress could file suit against the GSA administrator for failing to do her duty. We could seek to get a court to, in fact, issue an order
Her ascertainment is the legally necessary precursor to the government’s assistance to the Biden-Harris Presidential Transition Team. It releases $6.3 million dollars to the team, which is funded by public and private money; a loan of expanded federal office space and equipment; access to government agencies that will begin sharing information and records about ongoing activities, plans and vulnerabilities; national security briefings for the president; and other support.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence recently confirmed that it is not providing national security briefings to the president-elect. The Defense Department has also reportedly indicated that it will not meet with the Biden-Harris transition team until Murphy formally affirms the apparent winner.
One of the officials fired in Trump’s latest purge was helping prepare for the transition to the new administration. USAID Deputy Administrator Bonnie Glick was removed abruptly to make way for a Trump loyalist after she had been supportive of transition planning, including the preparation of a 440-page manual for the next administration. The GSA’s refusal to enact the transition has locked Biden’s team out of crucial Covid-19 pandemic data and government agency contacts. The president-elect’s Covid-19 task force has been trying to work around the federal government by connecting with governors and the health community.
The head of Operation Warp Speed, Moncef Slaoui, called on the White House to allow contact with the Biden team, saying “It is a matter of life and death for thousands of people.”
White House’s Office of Management and Budget is considering 145 new regulations and other policy changes they could enact before Biden’s inauguration - rules that will be challenging to undo once they are finalized. Critics and supporters of the administration say they expect a final burst of regulations to be finalized in the weeks before Jan. 20.
The rules under development include policies that the incoming Biden administration would probably oppose, such as new caps on the length of foreign student visas; restrictions on the Environmental Protection Agency’s use of scientific research; limits on the EPA’s consideration of the benefits of regulating air pollutants; and a change that would make it easier for companies to treat workers as independent contractors, rather than employees with more robust wage protections.
Last week, both Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said they’re preparing for a second Trump term. “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” Pompeo said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon (clip). Pompeo then doubled down on Fox News (clip). “We are moving forward here at the White House under the assumption there will be a second Trump term,” Navarro said on Fox Business Friday (clip).
DOJ interference
Attorney General William Barr stopped career prosecutors in DOJ’s Public Integrity Section from investigating whether President Trump broke any laws related to his conduct with Ukraine last year. The section was initially given the green light to pursue “a potentially explosive inquiry” into Trump, but after the Senate acquitted the president during impeachment proceedings, Barr sent the case to the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn. Prosecutors in DOJ’s Public Integrity Section were also prevented from bringing charges against former interior secretary Ryan Zinke by political appointees atop the Justice Department. Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen told prosecutors that they needed to gather more evidence and refine the case against Zinke for lying to Interior investigators.
The investigation into Zinke stemmed from his decision to block two Native American tribes—the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan—from opening a casino in Connecticut. Zinke’s office had been lobbied heavily by MGM Resorts International, which had been planning to open its own casino very close to where the tribes intended to break ground.
Sixteen assistant U.S. attorneys specially assigned to monitor malfeasance in the 2020 election urged Barr on Friday to rescind his memo allowing election-fraud investigations before results are certified. "It was developed and announced without consulting non-partisan career professionals in the field and at the Department. Finally, the timing of the Memorandum's release thrusts career prosecutors into partisan politics," the prosecutors wrote. An internal Justice Department investigation found that federal prosecutors who oversaw a controversial non-prosecution deal with Jeffrey Epstein in 2008 exercised “poor judgment” but did not break the law. “They just say he used poor judgment, and that's their way of basically letting everyone off the hook while offering some sort of an olive branch to the victims that we acknowledge weren't treated perfectly,” said Brad Edwards, who sued the DOJ in 2008 on behalf of Epstein accusers.
Immigration news
Eastern District of New York Judge Nicholas Garaufis (Clinton-appointee) ruled that Chad Wolf was not legally serving as acting Homeland Security secretary when he signed rules limiting DACA program applications and renewals. Therefore, in a win for Dreamers and immigration activists, Garaufis said the changes were invalid.
The judge described an illegitimate shuffling of leadership chairs at the Department of Homeland Security, the agency responsible for immigration enforcement, for the predicament of Wolf's leadership and that of his predecessor, Kevin McAleenan. "Based on the plain text of the operative order of succession," Garaufis wrote in the Saturday ruling, "neither Mr. McAleenan nor, in turn, Mr. Wolf, possessed statutory authority to serve as Acting Secretary. Therefore the Wolf Memorandum was not an exercise of legal authority."
There's a renewed push to get Chad Wolf confirmed as Homeland Security secretary -- a position in which he's been serving in an acting capacity for a yearr -- before Inauguration Day. In the past week, Homeland Security officials spoke to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office about bringing the nomination to a floor vote in the coming weeks.
Within the last six months, as the coronavirus pandemic gripped the US, the Trump administration filed 75 lawsuits to seize private land along the US-Mexico border for the border wall." People right now are having to choose between their health and their homes," said Ricky Garza, a staff attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project, a legal advocacy group. After a series of price increases, Trump’s border project will cost taxpayers $20 million per mile of border fence. A review of federal spending data shows more than 200 contract modifications, at times awarded within just weeks or months after the original contracts, have increased the cost of the border wall project by billions of dollars since late 2017. DHS has expelled unaccompanied immigrant children from the US border more than 13,000 times since March,using the coronavirus as an excuse to deny children their right to asylum. Previously, unaccompanied children were sent to government-run shelters as they attempted to pursue their asylum cases. Migrant children from Central America are being expelled to Mexico, where they have no family connections. The expulsions not only put children in danger - the policy violates a diplomatic agreement with Mexico that only Mexican children and others who had adult supervision could be pushed back into Mexico after attempting to cross the border. The House Judiciary Committee released a report on the Trump administration’s policy of separating families at the border, revealing that the federal agency that cares for migrant children was not told about the policy. The chaos contributed to the inability to later reunite parents and children. The Trump administration is trying to deport several women who allege they were mistreated by a Georgia gynecologist at an immigration detention center. Hours after one detained woman spoke to federal investigators about forced hysterectomies at a Georgia detention center, she said ICE told her that it had lifted a hold on her deportation and she faced “imminent” removal. Six former patients who complained about Dr. Mahendra Amin had already been deported. Northern District of Illinois Judge Gary Feinerman (Obama-appointee) blocked a key Trump administration policy that allowed officials to deny green cards to immigrants who might need public assistance Advocates who had feared that the policy would harm tens of thousands of poor people, particularly those affected by widespread job loss because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Miscellaneous
Microsoft said it has detected attempts by state-backed Russian and North Korean hackers to steal valuable data from leading pharmaceutical companies and vaccine researchers. “Among the targets, the majority are vaccine makers that have COVID-19 vaccines in various stages of clinical trials.” Two census takers told The AP that their supervisors pressured them to enter false information into a computer system about homes they had not visited so they could close cases during the waning days of the once-a-decade national headcount. The Supreme Court on Tuesday signaled it’s unlikely to tear down Obamacare over a Republican-backed lawsuit challenging the landmark health care law. Chief Justice John Roberts and Trump appointee Justice Brett Kavanaugh strongly questioned whether the elimination of the mandate penalty made the rest of the law invalid. Kavanaugh appeared to signal on several occasions that he favored leaving the rest of the law intact if the mandate is struck. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) was sued last week by four whistleblowers claiming that he abused his office to benefit himself, a woman with whom he was said to have had an affair, and the wealthy donor who employs her before retaliating against the members of his staff who reported him to the FBI. The Trump administration is rushing plans to auction drilling rights in the U.S. Arctic National Wildlife Refuge before the inauguration of Biden, who has vowed to block oil exploration in the rugged Alaska wilderness. Biden’s efforts could be complicated if the Trump administration sells drilling rights first. Formally issued oil and gas leases on federal land are government contracts that can’t be easily yanked.
I'm not seeing a huge amount of knowledge on this subreddit, so I'm going to list some of the reasons why I'm hoping for some decent price increases.. If you find anything juicy that I've missed feel free to leave a top level comment or even message me and I'll add it. Perhaps we should keep updating this post and sticky it as a goto DD for SCTSCRF?
Score have the most popular sports app in Canada and second most popular in the US behind ESPN, this puts them in a somewhat unique position to integrate sports betting in to a popular sports app (though note FUBO just announced purchasing Vigotry with their intention to integrate sports betting in to their sports streaming service, they closed up 34.32% today on the news and likely caused the dips in the share prices for SCR and DKNG, even PENN's share price seemed to waiver around midday);
Score already have sports betting live in Colorado, Indiana and New Jersey;
Score recently did a share offering and raised $25,649,390 which can be used for growth and expansion of sports betting in the US - check out their careers page and click on available opportunities;
Score have a multiyear partnership with the NBA and the MLB to be an authorized sports betting operator, including access to official betting data and league marks/logos for the betting app;
Score have a strategic multi-state market access partnership with PENN, PENN have access to 11 states, further PENN have a 4.7% stake in Score with the potential for this stake to increase as additional market access fees become payable (the second link, which is from PENN, says the term of the agreement with PENN is 20 years, even DKNG only has a deal for 10 years subject to a 10 year extension);
Let's look at some user numbers. As expected they were down a bit during 2020 due to covid, but that is about to change across the industry with sports opening up properly and sports betting being legalised in many US states and hopefully Canada to help raise tax funds for covid expenses (never will sports betting have been more socially acceptable, almost encouraged!). They achieved 3 million active monthly users (4.3 million in q1 2019, should see this or higher again once sports start up properly - 62% of those users were in the US, 27% in Canada and the remaining 11% in other international markets). Users had an average of 70 sessions per month (75 the year prior), so 3*70 = 210 million users per month. 292 million video views for esports in just Q4 alone, year-over-year growth of 243%! Their esports tiktok account has over 1 million followers while their sports tiktok account has almost 2.5 million (up over 500k in the last quarter). Over 1.5 million youtube subscribers for their esports channel. Their twitter account has ~600k followers, almost double what DKNG have! Their social sports content across Twitter, FB, Instagram and TikTok achieved an average monthly reach of about 103 million;
Score already cover women's sports, doing this without having to follow the competitors or have it requested by women shows a genuine interest in supporting women's sports. Hopefully this will extend to allowing sports betting on women's sports;
Score esports has been named exclusive English language broadcast partner for League of Legends' Demacia Championship, a marquee annual event featuring 24 of China’s top esports teams. Live event coverage will run from December 20-27 and be streamed across theScore esports’ YouTube and Twitch channels. The Demacia Championship will be theScore esports’ first-ever live event broadcast, with production originating from their esports headquarters in Toronto.
Score has joined the National Council on Problem Gambling as a Platinum member - this bodes well for support of Score from politicians and people normally critical of sports betting who are mostly onside at the moment through the need of raising tax money for covid related costs.
Future catalysts I'm hoping for:
There's a live webcast to report q1 f2021 financial results Jan 13 at 5:30pm EST (details here). Hopefully good news so we 🚀 rather than ☄️ short-term, but I'm still bullish long-term regardless because sports have not really started up properly yet, nor has sports betting opened up in many places yet. With a bit of luck the income from the share offering will be included in the revenue for this quarter which might help;
If we ever get uplisted to NASDAQ/NYSE and get out of the penny stocks then I would be surprised if it doesn't get pumped in numerous places including WSB;
Legalisation of sports betting across more US states and Canada. The governor of NY has now expressed interest after previously being opposed to the idea, so too has Texas for example. Score do not yet have a partnership with a NY casino, but hopefully they will get on to that, they do have access to Texas through PENN;
Partnerships with NFL and NHL would be awesome to go along with the NBA and MLB partnerships;
Successfully competing with the big players like DKNG (and now FUBO too), hopefully with juicy earnings reports in to the future (if we do, look at the performance and current prices of DKNG and PENN, I'd be extremely happy if we ever made it to CAD$20/share, if we got to DKNG's current USD price we'll be in tendie heaven);
Huge uptake in sports betting with a rally of public support to help cover the public costs associated with Covid;
Maybe esports betting could become a huge thing? TheScore seem like they're in a good position to earn a decent market share there, possibly even be the ones to introduce it and bring it to market?
tl;dr: 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 (hopefully at least 10x) If you would prefer an ETF to have exposure to the betting market check out BETZ. position: 42.8k shares
These are the statistical top 500 movies of all time, according to 23 different websites
Hey everyone, great to be back again. Some of you might remember a similar title from a post I made back in April, where I made a list of the top 250 movies with 13 sources, or a preview of this list I made last month. I want to emphasize that this is NOT an official ranking nor my personal ranking; it is just a statistical and, personally, interesting look at 500 amazing movies. These rankings reflect the opinions of thousands of critics and millions of people around the world. And I am glad that this list is able to cover a wide range of genres, decades, and countries. So before I get bombarded with "Why isn't X on here?" or "How is X above Y?" comments, I wanted to clear that up. I sourced my data from Sight & Sound (both critic and director lists), TSPDT, iCheckMovies, 11 domestic websites (Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, IMDb, Letterboxd, TMDb, Trakt, Blu-Ray, MovieLens, RateYourMusic, Criticker, and Critics Choice), and 9 international audience sites (FilmAffinity, Douban, Naver, MUBI, Filmweb, Kinopoisk, CSFD, Moviemeter, and Senscritique). This balance of domestic/international ratings made the list more well-rounded and internationally representative (sites from Spain, China, Korea, Poland, Russia, Czech Republic, Netherlands, and France). As for my algorithm, I weighted websites according to both their Alexa ranking and their number of votes compared to other sites. For example, since The Godfather has hundreds of thousands of votes on Letterboxd but only a couple thousand on Metacritic, Letterboxd would be weighted more heavily. After obtaining the weighted averages, I then added the movie's iCheckMovies' favs/checks ratio and TSPDT ranking, if applicable. Regarding TSPDT, I included the top 2000 movies; as an example of my calculations, Rear Window's ranking of #41 would add (2000-41)/2000=0.9795 points to its weighted average. I removed movies that had <7-8K votes on IMDb, as these mostly had low ratings and numbers of votes across different sites as well. For both Sight & Sound lists, I added between 0.5 and 1 point to a movie's score based on its ranking, which I thought was an adequate reflection of how difficult it is to be included on these lists. As examples, a #21 movie would have 0.9 points added while a #63 would have 0.69 points. So without further ado, the statistical top 500 movies ever made. I separated the scores into overall, critics, domestic, and international columns to make comparisons easier. This list on Letterboxd.
Ranking
Title
Overall Score
Critics
Domestic
International
Year
Director
1
The Godfather
93.89
97.73
90.50
89.36
1972
Francis Ford Coppola
2
The Godfather: Part II
91.93
93.30
89.04
88.06
1974
Francis Ford Coppola
3
Seven Samurai
91.05
97.38
87.63
85.90
1954
Akira Kurosawa
4
12 Angry Men
90.45
95.45
88.74
88.62
1957
Sidney Lumet
5
City Lights
89.94
96.75
85.67
85.93
1931
Charlie Chaplin
6
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
89.45
91.20
87.81
86.59
1966
Sergio Leone
7
The Shawshank Redemption
89.41
82.95
89.49
89.18
1994
Frank Darabont
8
Psycho
89.29
95.23
85.70
85.01
1960
Alfred Hitchcock
9
Modern Times
89.28
95.55
85.21
85.37
1936
Charlie Chaplin
10
Schindler's List
89.08
93.80
87.22
87.29
1993
Steven Spielberg
11
Pulp Fiction
88.85
92.60
87.69
86.42
1994
Quentin Tarantino
12
Rear Window
88.63
97.65
85.40
83.33
1954
Alfred Hitchcock
13
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
88.55
87.38
86.28
86.97
1975
Miloš Forman
14
Apocalypse Now
88.54
93.85
85.24
83.48
1979
Francis Ford Coppola
15
Tokyo Story
88.49
98.30
85.16
83.76
1953
Yasujirō Ozu
16
Spirited Away
88.34
93.78
86.80
85.91
2001
Hayao Miyazaki
17
GoodFellas
88.03
91.48
87.00
84.03
1990
Martin Scorsese
18
Vertigo
88.02
95.60
84.05
82.76
1958
Alfred Hitchcock
19
Singin' in the Rain
88.01
97.65
83.95
83.13
1952
Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen
20
Sunset Boulevard
88.00
95.45
85.44
84.22
1950
Billy Wilder
21
Citizen Kane
87.83
99.03
83.06
82.22
1941
Orson Welles
22
Harakiri
87.79
85.83
88.00
86.29
1962
Masaki Kobayashi
23
Rashomon
87.74
96.55
83.52
82.73
1950
Akira Kurosawa
24
Once Upon a Time in the West
87.71
86.65
85.48
84.62
1968
Sergio Leone
25
Fanny and Alexander
87.54
97.30
83.15
83.00
1982
Ingmar Bergman
26
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
87.40
92.59
86.06
85.38
2003
Peter Jackson
27
Andrei Rublev
87.39
91.90
83.80
83.94
1966
Andrei Tarkovsky
28
The Passion of Joan of Arc
87.39
94.65
83.88
83.57
1928
Carl Theodor Dreyer
29
Sherlock Jr.
87.36
96.45
83.64
85.60
1924
Buster Keaton
30
Bicycle Thieves
87.35
94.70
83.91
83.46
1948
Vittorio De Sica
31
Casablanca
87.35
98.00
85.25
82.62
1942
Michael Curtiz
32
Some Like It Hot
87.28
95.30
82.11
83.73
1959
Billy Wilder
33
Persona
87.22
88.20
84.28
83.07
1966
Ingmar Bergman
34
Children of Paradise
87.21
95.33
84.81
83.27
1945
Marcel Carné
35
Taxi Driver
87.14
93.88
83.60
82.06
1976
Martin Scorsese
36
The Dark Knight
87.08
88.81
86.96
84.80
2008
Christopher Nolan
37
Metropolis
87.03
96.00
82.92
84.01
1927
Fritz Lang
38
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
87.02
93.95
82.23
84.02
1927
F. W. Murnau
39
Stalker
87.02
92.30
83.86
83.29
1979
Andrei Tarkovsky
40
Pather Panchali
86.96
94.35
84.40
82.80
1955
Satyajit Ray
41
Lawrence of Arabia
86.95
97.65
83.76
81.49
1962
David Lean
42
M
86.91
96.20
84.34
82.92
1931
Fritz Lang
43
Ordet
86.82
98.10
83.08
82.55
1955
Carl Theodor Dreyer
44
It's a Wonderful Life
86.77
90.45
85.17
84.90
1946
Frank Capra
45
Satantango
86.76
90.45
84.58
84.21
1994
Béla Tarr
46
Parasite
86.72
96.34
86.55
83.15
2019
Bong Joon-ho
47
The 400 Blows
86.70
96.70
83.14
82.60
1959
François Truffaut
48
Ikiru
86.56
93.80
85.48
84.29
1952
Akira Kurosawa
49
Mirror
86.50
95.60
82.75
82.34
1975
Andrei Tarkovsky
50
Come and See
86.50
90.50
85.22
83.13
1985
Elem Klimov
51
The Apartment
86.48
92.00
84.09
82.99
1960
Billy Wilder
52
The General
86.45
91.45
82.59
83.87
1926
Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman
53
Grave of the Fireflies
86.43
95.13
85.85
82.97
1988
Isao Takahata
54
Le Trou
86.41
89.95
85.46
85.14
1960
Jacques Becker
55
The Battle of Algiers
86.37
95.40
82.64
81.24
1966
Gillo Pontecorvo
56
A Man Escaped
86.34
96.50
83.67
82.03
1956
Robert Bresson
57
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
86.34
95.85
84.37
83.03
1964
Stanley Kubrick
58
Paths of Glory
86.25
92.30
84.97
84.48
1957
Stanley Kubrick
59
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
86.24
88.75
85.61
84.31
2001
Peter Jackson
60
All About Eve
86.23
96.95
83.69
83.20
1950
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
61
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
86.21
86.93
87.05
83.29
1980
Irvin Kershner
62
High and Low
86.16
86.55
86.08
84.26
1963
Akira Kurosawa
63
The Great Dictator
86.15
91.10
84.25
85.03
1940
Charlie Chaplin
64
The Silence of the Lambs
86.12
88.68
85.29
84.17
1991
Jonathan Demme
65
2001: A Space Odyssey
86.06
88.35
82.93
81.54
1968
Stanley Kubrick
66
North by Northwest
86.03
96.38
83.17
81.74
1959
Alfred Hitchcock
67
Double Indemnity
85.91
94.38
83.84
83.12
1944
Billy Wilder
68
Ugetsu
85.91
97.25
82.69
81.91
1953
Kenji Mizoguchi
69
Woman in the Dunes
85.91
93.95
84.71
83.77
1964
Hiroshi Teshigahara
70
Sansho the Bailiff
85.88
95.50
84.24
82.21
1954
Kenji Mizoguchi
71
Once Upon a Time in America
85.87
86.10
83.84
85.53
1984
Sergio Leone
72
City of God
85.86
84.08
86.39
84.00
2002
Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund
73
Late Spring
85.81
94.75
83.74
82.27
1949
Yasujirō Ozu
74
Barry Lyndon
85.80
87.95
82.44
82.30
1975
Stanley Kubrick
75
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
85.78
88.78
85.00
84.29
2002
Peter Jackson
76
Raging Bull
85.77
90.48
82.01
81.80
1980
Martin Scorsese
77
Chinatown
85.72
94.08
83.32
80.69
1974
Roman Polanski
78
Alien
85.69
91.73
84.76
82.62
1979
Ridley Scott
79
Ran
85.68
94.70
83.93
82.52
1985
Akira Kurosawa
80
The Seventh Seal
85.67
92.10
83.52
82.13
1957
Ingmar Bergman
81
The Kid
85.61
92.85
82.91
84.94
1921
Charlie Chaplin
82
Wild Strawberries
85.51
90.05
83.38
82.24
1957
Ingmar Bergman
83
A Brighter Summer Day
85.50
93.38
84.07
81.01
1991
Edward Yang
84
8½
85.48
91.20
82.59
81.09
1963
Federico Fellini
85
The Pianist
85.38
88.69
83.31
84.80
2002
Roman Polanski
86
The World of Apu
85.38
93.20
84.38
83.09
1959
Satyajit Ray
87
La Dolce Vita
85.37
94.38
81.40
80.48
1960
Federico Fellini
88
Star Wars
85.33
90.03
85.22
81.92
1977
George Lucas
89
The Best of Youth
85.31
88.78
85.31
83.64
2003
Marco Tullio Giordana
90
The Gold Rush
85.29
94.55
81.93
83.59
1925
Charlie Chaplin
91
The Third Man
85.26
96.50
82.91
80.21
1949
Carol Reed
92
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
85.20
96.68
82.77
81.81
1948
John Huston
93
I Am Cuba
85.18
93.60
82.00
83.44
1964
Mikhail Kalatozov
94
The Lives of Others
85.14
89.03
84.12
82.73
2006
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
95
Witness for the Prosecution
85.13
92.65
83.67
84.99
1957
Billy Wilder
96
Touch of Evil
85.11
95.70
81.36
79.65
1958
Orson Welles
97
WALL-E
85.10
92.09
82.82
82.64
2008
Andrew Stanton
98
Scenes from a Marriage
85.02
86.85
84.80
83.06
1974
Ingmar Bergman
99
To Be or Not to Be
84.99
89.58
82.52
83.39
1942
Ernst Lubitsch
100
A Separation
84.92
94.24
83.34
80.90
2011
Asghar Farhadi
101
The Night of the Hunter
84.91
96.93
81.17
79.06
1955
Charles Laughton
102
Three Colors: Red
84.87
96.78
83.32
80.78
1994
Krzysztof Kieślowski
103
Yojimbo
84.87
91.55
83.85
82.99
1961
Akira Kurosawa
104
Back to the Future
84.85
89.38
84.47
81.94
1985
Robert Zemeckis
105
My Neighbor Totoro
84.84
87.53
83.44
83.17
1988
Hayao Miyazaki
106
In the Mood for Love
84.84
83.87
82.55
81.20
2000
Wong Kar-wai
107
Princess Mononoke
84.83
81.18
85.02
84.24
1999
Hayao Miyazaki
108
Saving Private Ryan
84.82
90.35
83.94
82.50
1998
Steven Spielberg
109
Cinema Paradiso
84.78
82.30
84.73
83.43
1988
Giuseppe Tornatore
110
La Jetée
84.75
89.25
83.27
81.80
1962
Chris Marker
111
The Wages of Fear
84.71
94.60
82.99
82.80
1953
Henri-Georges Clouzot
112
Das Boot
84.68
90.13
83.62
82.71
1981
Wolfgang Petersen
113
Fight Club
84.65
71.18
86.39
84.95
1999
David Fincher
114
Nights of Cabiria
84.64
92.25
82.72
83.13
1957
Federico Fellini
115
La Strada
84.61
92.60
80.79
82.78
1954
Federico Fellini
116
Amadeus
84.53
89.55
82.88
82.59
1984
Miloš Forman
117
Forrest Gump
84.50
76.90
83.06
86.12
1994
Robert Zemeckis
118
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
84.49
90.41
85.03
81.69
2018
Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman, Bob Persichetti
119
The Lion King
84.45
88.28
77.22
84.09
1994
Rob Minkoff, Roger Allers
120
Inception
84.43
82.07
84.18
84.17
2010
Christopher Nolan
121
Whiplash
84.42
89.53
84.87
81.96
2014
Damien Chazelle
122
The Shop Around the Corner
84.40
94.43
80.85
82.37
1940
Ernst Lubitsch
123
Rififi
84.38
92.00
83.03
81.58
1955
Jules Dassin
124
Umberto D.
84.38
92.63
82.20
81.75
1952
Vittorio De Sica
125
Army of Shadows
84.37
95.30
82.98
80.50
1969
Jean-Pierre Melville
126
Blade Runner
84.34
85.85
82.57
80.29
1982
Ridley Scott
127
Samurai Rebellion
84.33
89.05
82.85
83.84
1967
Masaki Kobayashi
128
Close-Up
84.31
85.70
81.99
80.69
1990
Abbas Kiarostami
129
The Circus
84.29
90.35
81.69
83.14
1928
Charlie Chaplin
130
Raiders of the Lost Ark
84.19
89.33
84.31
80.57
1981
Steven Spielberg
131
Grand Illusion
84.18
95.35
81.85
79.78
1937
Jean Renoir
132
A Clockwork Orange
84.18
82.78
82.37
82.51
1971
Stanley Kubrick
133
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
84.07
89.37
83.36
80.57
2004
Michel Gondry
134
A Woman Under the Influence
84.01
87.40
82.51
80.40
1974
John Cassavetes
135
The Cranes Are Flying
84.00
89.30
82.76
82.40
1957
Mikhail Kalatozov
136
Yi Yi
83.91
91.25
82.48
79.64
2000
Edward Yang
137
To Kill a Mockingbird
83.91
89.13
81.98
82.20
1962
Robert Mulligan
138
The Matrix
83.90
77.78
84.54
83.06
1999
Wachowski Sisters
139
The Sting
83.90
85.73
82.71
83.36
1973
George Roy Hill
140
The Mother and the Whore
83.87
94.55
81.24
79.82
1973
Jean Eustache
141
Se7en
83.86
72.15
84.91
84.48
1995
David Fincher
142
Early Summer
83.85
94.45
82.19
82.01
1951
Yasujirō Ozu
143
Werckmeister Harmonies
83.80
91.73
80.89
81.93
2000
Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky
144
Coco
83.80
86.21
82.73
83.66
2017
Adrian Molina, Lee Unkrich
145
Toy Story
83.76
95.03
82.30
80.15
1995
John Lasseter
146
It Happened One Night
83.76
90.83
81.46
81.76
1934
Frank Capra
147
Reservoir Dogs
83.74
84.68
83.12
81.99
1992
Quentin Tarantino
148
Unforgiven
83.73
88.55
82.24
81.59
1992
Clint Eastwood
149
The Deer Hunter
83.73
87.68
80.57
82.06
1978
Michael Cimino
150
The Young and the Damned
83.72
87.10
82.58
80.82
1950
Luis Buñuel
151
The Best Years of Our Lives
83.68
92.63
81.19
81.20
1946
William Wyler
152
The Leopard
83.66
97.30
79.56
79.57
1963
Luchino Visconti
153
Time of the Gypsies
83.65
86.05
83.31
82.29
1988
Emir Kusturica
154
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
83.61
96.70
80.51
79.97
1974
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
155
Raise the Red Lantern
83.57
90.25
82.37
81.81
1991
Zhang Yimou
156
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
83.57
82.00
84.11
81.83
1991
James Cameron
157
The Shining
83.55
75.35
84.08
81.80
1980
Stanley Kubrick
158
Viridiana
83.54
92.95
80.68
80.81
1961
Luis Buñuel
159
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
83.52
93.59
83.08
80.02
2019
Céline Sciamma
160
Greed
83.51
97.05
80.65
80.64
1924
Erich von Stroheim
161
Gone with the Wind
83.48
92.90
80.01
81.68
1939
Victor Fleming
162
There Will Be Blood
83.48
89.65
81.91
79.02
2007
Paul Thomas Anderson
163
L.A. Confidential
83.46
91.63
82.08
80.81
1997
Curtis Hanson
164
Paris, Texas
83.46
83.95
82.89
81.66
1984
Wim Wenders
165
Throne of Blood
83.45
91.30
82.18
81.49
1957
Akira Kurosawa
166
Toy Story 3
83.43
93.55
81.61
80.32
2010
Lee Unkrich
167
Memento
83.43
85.20
83.78
80.76
2000
Christopher Nolan
168
On the Waterfront
83.37
93.00
82.23
79.52
1954
Elia Kazan
169
Trip to the Moon
83.37
94.70
79.96
82.83
1902
Georges Méliès
170
The Rules of the Game
83.33
96.55
80.45
78.02
1939
Jean Renoir
171
Red Beard
83.32
74.15
83.41
83.27
1965
Akira Kurosawa
172
The Grapes of Wrath
83.32
95.45
80.42
80.34
1940
John Ford
173
Au Hasard Balthazar
83.29
98.08
77.93
77.54
1966
Robert Bresson
174
Autumn Sonata
83.29
84.85
83.09
82.66
1978
Ingmar Bergman
175
Annie Hall
83.28
93.18
80.58
80.58
1977
Woody Allen
176
The Conformist
83.27
96.68
79.92
78.58
1970
Bernardo Bertolucci
177
Rocco and His Brothers
83.24
84.73
81.95
81.68
1960
Luchino Visconti
178
Dersu Uzala
83.23
74.75
82.35
83.37
1975
Akira Kurosawa
179
Cool Hand Luke
83.21
93.05
82.22
79.83
1967
Stuart Rosenberg
180
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
83.18
91.98
82.96
79.30
1975
Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones
181
Le Samouraï
83.18
92.35
82.45
79.40
1967
Jean-Pierre Melville
182
Aliens
83.18
88.73
83.29
79.61
1986
James Cameron
183
PlayTime
83.16
93.50
80.22
78.80
1967
Jacques Tati
184
The Bridge on the River Kwai
83.14
90.58
81.93
80.24
1957
David Lean
185
The Red Shoes
83.13
93.15
82.82
79.96
1948
Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
186
American Beauty
83.10
87.15
81.93
81.13
1999
Sam Mendes
187
To Live
83.10
84.00
82.16
82.46
1994
Zhang Yimou
188
Battleship Potemkin
83.10
95.85
77.81
80.41
1925
Sergei Eisenstein
189
Day of Wrath
83.09
93.40
81.07
81.29
1943
Carl Theodor Dreyer
190
All Quiet on the Western Front
83.07
92.85
80.05
81.48
1930
Lewis Milestone
191
It's Such a Beautiful Day
83.07
91.25
83.62
79.77
2012
Don Hertzfeldt
192
Full Metal Jacket
83.06
81.53
82.21
82.54
1987
Stanley Kubrick
193
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
83.05
96.40
79.84
81.83
1920
Robert Wiene
194
Kes
83.03
97.80
79.59
80.55
1969
Ken Loach
195
The Usual Suspects
83.02
80.23
84.08
81.48
1995
Bryan Singer
196
The Cameraman
83.00
93.90
80.77
81.57
1928
Edward Segdwick, Buster Keaton
197
Aparajito
83.00
90.90
81.81
81.20
1956
Satyajit Ray
198
The Elephant Man
83.00
83.00
82.10
81.87
1980
David Lynch
199
Rebecca
82.98
90.08
81.08
80.93
1940
Alfred Hitchcock
200
Make Way for Tomorrow
82.97
95.80
81.72
80.14
1937
Leo McCarey
201
The Great Escape
82.97
87.68
82.29
80.66
1963
John Sturges
202
Your Name
82.97
84.55
84.07
81.29
2016
Makoto Shinkai
203
Limelight
82.92
88.00
79.85
83.02
1952
Charlie Chaplin
204
Breathless
82.92
91.95
78.88
79.10
1960
Jean-Luc Godard
205
Underground
82.91
80.75
81.26
82.64
1995
Emir Kusturica
206
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
82.88
91.90
81.08
79.53
1962
John Ford
207
Aguirre: The Wrath of God
82.87
94.55
80.46
78.62
1972
Werner Herzog
208
Oldboy
82.86
78.98
84.00
81.27
2003
Park Chan-wook
209
Up
82.84
90.28
81.32
80.86
2009
Pete Docter
210
Anatomy of a Murder
82.84
94.00
80.57
80.02
1959
Otto Preminger
211
The Wild Bunch
82.84
90.35
79.45
80.12
1969
Sam Peckinpah
212
The Hunt
82.75
82.08
82.79
82.62
2012
Thomas Vinterberg
213
Il Sorpasso
82.74
95.75
82.84
79.57
1962
Dino Risi
214
The Last Laugh
82.74
95.25
79.47
81.61
1924
F. W. Murnau
215
A Streetcar Named Desire
82.73
94.60
79.89
80.26
1951
Elia Kazan
216
Life Is Beautiful
82.73
68.45
83.60
85.57
1997
Roberto Benigni
217
A Short Film About Love
82.71
87.10
81.90
81.89
1988
Krzysztof Kieślowski
218
The Shop on Main Street
82.71
94.45
82.15
80.43
1965
Ján Kadár, Elmar Klos
219
Rio Bravo
82.71
92.10
80.46
79.80
1959
Howard Hawks
220
Roman Holiday
82.70
84.55
80.74
82.42
1953
William Wyler
221
Ivan's Childhood
82.69
94.80
81.25
80.37
1962
Andrei Tarkovsky
222
The Exterminating Angel
82.68
91.10
81.66
80.17
1962
Luis Buñuel
223
Trainspotting
82.68
85.20
81.57
81.21
1996
Danny Boyle
224
The Last Picture Show
82.67
94.15
79.90
79.56
1971
Peter Bogdanovich
225
The Truman Show
82.64
89.63
79.70
82.15
1998
Peter Weir
226
Memories of Murder
82.64
82.88
82.68
80.94
2003
Bong Joon-ho
227
Faust
82.62
89.70
80.23
81.94
1926
F. W. Murnau
228
Sans Soleil
82.62
83.90
79.45
80.51
1983
Chris Marker
229
Song of the Sea
82.57
87.63
80.59
82.23
2014
Tomm Moore
230
Léon: The Professional
82.55
67.38
84.05
84.07
1994
Luc Besson
231
Fargo
82.54
87.45
82.36
79.19
1996
Coen Brothers
232
Solaris
82.54
89.95
80.91
79.69
1972
Andrei Tarkovsky
233
Sweet Smell of Success
82.52
96.53
80.81
77.62
1957
Alexander Mackendrick
234
For a Few Dollars More
82.52
79.28
82.38
83.15
1965
Sergio Leone
235
White Heat
82.51
90.65
80.77
81.24
1949
Raoul Walsh
236
Brief Encounter
82.50
88.35
80.81
81.03
1945
David Lean
237
Wings of Desire
82.49
85.70
81.30
80.42
1987
Wim Wenders
238
Diabolique
82.47
90.70
81.27
80.73
1955
Henri-Georges Clouzot
239
An Autumn Afternoon
82.45
91.95
81.68
79.85
1962
Yasujirō Ozu
240
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
82.44
90.63
81.16
80.43
2013
Isao Takahata
241
Amarcord
82.41
85.95
79.26
80.73
1973
Federico Fellini
242
Heat
82.40
79.08
82.03
81.73
1995
Michael Mann
243
L'Atalante
82.40
95.60
78.32
78.10
1934
Jean Vigo
244
Django Unchained
82.39
83.44
82.23
81.94
2012
Quentin Tarantino
245
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels
82.38
95.50
78.73
79.69
1975
Chantal Akerman
246
Kind Hearts and Coronets
82.38
95.60
80.80
79.72
1949
Robert Hamer
247
Dog Day Afternoon
82.37
88.40
81.11
79.80
1975
Sidney Lumet
248
Forbidden Games
82.37
93.75
80.36
80.99
1952
René Clément
249
The Crowd
82.35
93.35
79.21
81.23
1928
King Vidor
250
Notorious
82.35
96.78
79.96
78.21
1946
Alfred Hitchcock
251
Mary and Max
82.35
88.05
80.95
82.42
2009
Adam Elliot
252
Persepolis
82.34
88.95
80.09
80.77
2007
Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud
253
Howl's Moving Castle
82.33
78.71
82.63
83.10
2004
Hayao Miyazaki
254
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
82.33
85.10
81.54
82.03
1984
Hayao Miyazaki
255
Safety Last!
82.33
92.25
80.95
81.10
1923
Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
256
Rosemary's Baby
82.32
94.78
79.99
78.69
1968
Roman Polanski
257
L'Avventura
82.32
92.10
79.08
78.03
1960
Michelangelo Antonioni
258
The Searchers
82.32
93.90
78.16
76.66
1956
John Ford
259
La Haine
82.30
90.60
82.38
79.56
1995
Mathieu Kassovitz
260
Three Colors: Blue
82.30
88.28
81.55
79.23
1993
Krzysztof Kieślowski
261
Chungking Express
82.30
79.95
82.29
80.73
1994
Wong Kar-wai
262
Inside Out
82.29
93.66
80.27
79.85
2015
Pete Docter
263
Where is the Friend's Home?
82.28
89.25
81.22
80.21
1987
Abbas Kiarostami
264
Cries and Whispers
82.27
85.45
81.02
80.80
1972
Ingmar Bergman
265
Napoleon
82.22
93.25
81.89
78.99
1927
Abel Gance
266
Paper Moon
82.19
83.08
81.37
81.29
1973
Peter Bogdanovich
267
The Spirit of the Beehive
82.17
89.83
79.31
78.91
1973
Víctor Erice
268
A Special Day
82.16
90.20
81.11
81.25
1977
Ettore Scola
269
Nostalghia
82.15
83.00
80.91
81.23
1983
Andrei Tarkovsky
270
Network
82.13
85.45
82.36
79.08
1976
Sidney Lumet
271
L'Eclisse
82.11
84.70
79.78
78.81
1962
Michelangelo Antonioni
272
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
82.09
80.83
81.78
81.15
1939
Frank Capra
273
Sanjuro
82.09
91.90
81.67
80.85
1962
Akira Kurosawa
274
Badlands
82.06
93.38
79.77
77.21
1973
Terrence Malick
275
Vivre Sa Vie
82.06
85.20
80.12
79.83
1962
Jean-Luc Godard
276
Nobody Knows
82.06
87.18
81.12
81.15
2004
Hirokazu Koreeda
277
No Country for Old Men
82.05
90.68
80.56
78.47
2007
Coen Brothers
278
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
82.05
86.05
80.76
80.62
2003
Kim Ki-duk
279
La Notte
82.04
78.35
81.45
81.11
1961
Michelangelo Antonioni
280
The Celebration
82.04
84.23
81.34
80.08
1998
Thomas Vinterberg
281
In the Name of the Father
82.04
84.90
81.14
81.85
1993
Jim Sheridan
282
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
82.02
89.55
80.18
81.56
1932
Mervyn LeRoy
283
Shoplifters
82.01
92.39
80.60
79.31
2018
Hirokazu Koreeda
284
Finding Nemo
82.01
92.60
80.13
78.76
2003
Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich
285
Z
81.98
87.55
82.21
79.59
1969
Costa-Gavras
286
The Phantom Carriage
81.96
95.00
80.01
80.32
1921
Victor Sjöström
287
Manhattan
81.95
86.23
80.50
79.81
1979
Woody Allen
288
Rome, Open City
81.94
95.40
80.45
79.27
1945
Robert Rossellini
289
Children of Heaven
81.93
80.15
81.24
82.01
1997
Majid Majidi
290
The Green Mile
81.92
71.93
82.95
84.38
1999
Frank Darabont
291
The Iron Giant
81.91
86.61
80.88
79.95
1999
Brad Bird
292
The Sacrifice
81.90
80.30
80.47
81.37
1986
Andrei Tarkovsky
293
The Philadelphia Story
81.90
94.95
79.79
77.86
1940
George Cukor
294
The Twilight Samurai
81.90
86.10
81.07
81.13
2002
Yôji Yamada
295
Before Sunset
81.88
87.79
81.42
78.41
2004
Richard Linklater
296
Before Sunrise
81.86
84.40
82.24
79.44
1995
Richard Linklater
297
Castle in the Sky
81.85
81.63
81.49
82.06
1986
Hayao Miyazaki
298
The Departed
81.84
86.92
82.82
79.04
2006
Martin Scorsese
299
Brazil
81.83
90.23
80.61
78.37
1985
Terry Gilliam
300
Incendies
81.81
83.85
81.88
80.74
2011
Denis Villenueve
301
The Maltese Falcon
81.81
95.65
80.24
77.28
1941
John Huston
302
The Wizard of Oz
81.77
98.03
79.38
77.17
1939
Victor Fleming
303
Le Cercle Rouge
81.76
90.03
80.81
78.54
1970
Jean-Pierre Melville
304
Monsieur Verdoux
81.76
89.80
78.55
81.34
1947
Charlie Chaplin
305
The Return
81.72
84.85
80.02
80.96
2003
Andrey Zvyagintsev
306
Secrets & Lies
81.71
90.73
80.29
78.66
1996
Mike Leigh
307
The Hidden Fortress
81.70
91.25
80.79
80.72
1958
Akira Kurosawa
308
Pan's Labyrinth
81.69
92.59
81.60
76.08
2006
Guillermo del Toro
309
Amélie
81.69
79.64
81.96
80.27
2004
Jean-Pierre Jeunet
310
Ben-Hur
81.67
86.93
79.86
80.22
1959
William Wyler
311
Fitzcarraldo
81.67
75.80
81.06
81.21
1982
Werner Herzog
312
American History X
81.63
70.13
83.58
83.00
1998
Tony Kaye
313
Ace in the Hole
81.62
79.10
80.88
81.36
1951
Billy Wilder
314
Capernaum
81.62
81.83
80.52
82.18
2018
Nadine Labaki
315
Still Walking
81.61
90.30
80.92
79.48
2008
Hirokazu Koreeda
316
All About My Mother
81.61
88.77
79.56
78.80
1999
Pedro Almodóvar
317
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
81.60
92.28
78.82
78.83
1972
Luis Buñuel
318
Platoon
81.60
88.70
79.52
80.45
1986
Oliver Stone
319
Farewell My Concubine
81.60
80.50
80.49
81.04
1993
Chen Kaige
320
Letter from an Unknown Woman
81.59
93.10
79.84
79.31
1948
Max Ophüls
321
The Grand Budapest Hotel
81.58
87.64
80.72
79.19
2014
Wes Anderson
322
The Virgin Spring
81.58
82.45
80.70
80.66
1960
Ingmar Bergman
323
The Red Balloon
81.57
90.20
79.93
80.30
1956
Albert Lamorisse
324
Stagecoach
81.57
94.58
77.69
78.94
1939
John Ford
325
Mulholland Drive
81.56
80.61
79.60
77.87
2001
David Lynch
326
A Matter of Life and Death
81.49
92.60
81.91
76.27
1946
Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
327
High Noon
81.48
90.58
79.27
78.94
1952
Fred Zinnemann
328
Orpheus
81.48
96.20
79.88
78.90
1950
Jean Cocteau
329
Life of Brian
81.47
82.98
80.78
79.81
1979
Terry Jones
330
Casino
81.46
74.23
81.54
81.75
1995
Martin Scorsese
331
Kagemusha
81.44
82.93
80.01
80.43
1980
Akira Kurosawa
332
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
81.43
76.08
80.53
81.85
1969
George Roy Hill
333
In a Lonely Place
81.43
92.45
80.42
78.77
1950
Nicholas Ray
334
Scarface
81.43
71.30
81.97
82.18
1983
Brian De Palma
335
A Short Film About Killing
81.42
87.35
79.89
80.38
1988
Krzysztof Kieślowski
336
Beauty and the Beast
81.41
92.05
79.28
78.32
1946
Jean Cocteau
337
The Hustler
81.39
92.45
80.43
78.97
1961
Robert Rossen
338
Cléo from 5 to 7
81.38
91.65
80.03
79.11
1962
Agnès Varda
339
Fireworks
81.37
90.15
80.01
79.63
1997
Takeshi Kitano
340
Room
81.36
88.41
80.43
79.48
2015
Lenny Abrahamson
341
Mad Max: Fury Road
81.35
90.39
79.76
77.80
2015
George Miller
342
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
81.32
95.75
79.30
79.23
1928
Charles Reisner, Buster Keaton
343
Judgment at Nuremberg
81.31
71.58
82.24
83.03
1961
Stanley Kramer
344
The Straight Story
81.30
87.15
79.64
79.88
1999
David Lynch
345
Meshes of the Afternoon
81.29
96.25
77.91
79.99
1943
Maya Deren, Alexandr Hackenschmied
346
Alice in the Cities
81.28
86.70
79.60
80.20
1974
Wim Wenders
347
Akira
81.28
80.90
81.12
79.98
1988
Katsuhiro Otomo
348
Good Will Hunting
81.27
79.38
81.97
81.05
1997
Gus Van Sant
349
The Miracle Worker
81.25
85.15
78.88
81.55
1962
Arthur Penn
350
Talk to Her
81.25
87.48
79.33
78.71
2002
Pedro Almodóvar
351
The Graduate
81.24
85.58
78.91
79.97
1967
Mike Nichols
352
Beauty and the Beast
81.22
92.28
79.20
78.77
1991
Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
353
The Heiress
81.19
94.45
80.20
79.76
1949
William Wyler
354
Fantasia
81.18
93.03
76.76
79.95
1940
Samuel Armstrong, James Algar
355
Au Revoir les Enfants
81.18
94.25
80.14
78.92
1987
Louis Malle
356
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
81.18
88.62
79.36
79.90
2017
Martin McDonagh
357
Inglourious Basterds
81.17
79.05
81.06
80.51
2009
Quentin Tarantino
358
Elevator to the Gallows
81.16
90.45
79.31
78.56
1958
Louis Malle
359
Gladiator
81.16
75.39
81.69
81.52
2000
Ridley Scott
360
Through a Glass Darkly
81.15
93.60
81.11
78.86
1961
Ingmar Bergman
361
Million Dollar Baby
81.15
87.41
77.43
80.72
2004
Clint Eastwood
362
Days of Heaven
81.15
90.75
80.19
77.08
1978
Terrence Malick
363
Do the Right Thing
81.15
90.78
80.26
77.04
1989
Spike Lee
364
Out of the Past
81.14
91.40
80.73
77.92
1947
Jacques Tourneur
365
Strangers on a Train
81.11
93.30
80.01
78.68
1951
Alfred Hitchcock
366
Blue Velvet
81.11
83.48
78.98
77.09
1986
David Lynch
367
That Obscure Object of Desire
81.09
89.40
79.59
78.11
1977
Luis Buñuel
368
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
81.08
80.23
80.74
80.75
1962
Robert Aldrich
369
My Night at Maud's
81.07
88.15
79.51
79.42
1969
Éric Rohmer
370
The Earrings of Madame de…
81.07
92.15
80.36
77.05
1953
Max Ophüls
371
The Conversation
81.04
89.23
80.03
77.44
1974
Francis Ford Coppola
372
The Killing
81.03
91.50
79.51
79.21
1956
Stanley Kubrick
373
The Servant
81.03
87.83
79.45
78.57
1963
Joseph Losey
374
The Intouchables
81.03
67.15
82.13
84.70
2011
Olivier Nakache, Éric Toledano
375
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
81.01
94.15
81.57
75.44
1943
Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
376
Jaws
81.01
90.98
79.91
75.70
1975
Steven Spielberg
377
Winter Light
81.01
73.55
81.51
79.95
1963
Ingmar Bergman
378
Love Exposure
81.01
80.88
82.23
79.55
2008
Sion Sono
379
Hiroshima Mon Amour
81.00
92.95
80.13
77.99
1959
Alain Resnais
380
Day for Night
80.98
92.55
80.21
78.27
1973
François Truffaut
381
Ratatouille
80.97
92.73
78.72
78.68
2007
Brad Bird
382
Ghost in the Shell
80.97
81.43
79.98
81.15
1995
Mamoru Oshii
383
Germany Year Zero
80.95
92.00
77.80
80.03
1948
Roberto Rossellini
384
Spotlight
80.93
93.00
79.75
77.55
2015
Tom McCarthy
385
Die Hard
80.93
79.58
81.11
79.43
1988
John McTiernan
386
Laura
80.93
93.80
79.70
78.47
1944
Otto Preminger
387
Sleuth
80.93
89.95
79.16
80.87
1972
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
388
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
80.92
88.64
79.69
77.84
2007
Julian Schnabel
389
The Handmaiden
80.92
85.99
82.55
77.41
2016
Park Chan-wook
390
Stand by Me
80.90
80.20
81.28
79.54
1986
Rob Reiner
391
Wolf Children
80.90
80.15
80.40
81.27
2012
Mamoru Hosoda
392
Marriage Story
80.88
92.86
79.40
77.75
2019
Noam Baumbach
393
Shoeshine
80.87
93.75
79.02
79.38
1946
Vittorio De Sica
394
Freaks
80.85
84.70
77.66
80.31
1932
Tod Browning
395
Nosferatu
80.85
93.75
78.29
79.14
1922
F. W. Murnau
396
Dial M for Murder
80.84
77.60
81.17
81.31
1954
Alfred Hitchcock
397
Amour
80.81
90.90
77.74
78.19
2012
Michael Haneke
398
12 Years a Slave
80.80
94.00
79.74
76.94
2013
Steve McQueen
399
The Nightmare Before Christmas
80.77
85.38
79.26
79.69
1993
Henry Selick
400
Cabaret
80.77
84.68
77.34
80.69
1972
Bob Fosse
401
Central Station
80.77
83.28
80.91
78.52
1998
Walter Salles
402
Landscape in the Mist
80.74
71.35
80.76
80.28
1988
Theo Angelopoulos
403
1917
80.73
84.37
80.65
79.33
2019
Sam Mendes
404
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
80.71
93.98
75.69
78.01
1916
D. W. Griffith
405
Call Me by Your Name
80.71
91.25
79.43
77.87
2017
Luca Guadagnino
406
Midnight Cowboy
80.71
82.98
79.10
79.50
1969
John Schlesinger
407
Shadow of a Doubt
80.70
94.38
79.31
76.04
1943
Alfred Hitchcock
408
Interstellar
80.70
74.16
81.30
82.25
2014
Christopher Nolan
409
Hannah and Her Sisters
80.69
88.95
79.15
77.98
1986
Woody Allen
410
Monsters, Inc.
80.68
85.29
79.37
80.08
2001
Pete Docter, David Silverman
411
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
80.65
85.85
79.40
79.38
1933
Fritz Lang
412
Downfall
80.64
83.53
81.54
78.55
2004
Oliver Hirschbiegel
413
Being There
80.64
87.30
79.42
78.06
1979
Hal Ashby
414
The Killer
80.63
92.60
79.27
78.66
1989
John Woo
415
My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown
80.63
93.23
78.13
79.15
1989
Jim Sheridan
416
Jean de Florette
80.60
88.40
80.18
79.69
1986
Claude Berri
417
The Big Lebowski
80.57
74.80
82.28
78.57
1998
Coen Brothers
418
The King's Speech
80.57
90.86
78.50
78.59
2010
Tom Hooper
419
Whisper of the Heart
80.55
79.98
80.80
80.31
1995
Yoshifumi Kondō
420
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
80.54
93.08
77.22
77.82
1982
Steven Spielberg
421
Infernal Affairs
80.54
79.83
79.92
80.22
2002
Andrew Lau, Alan Mak
422
The Prestige
80.54
72.22
82.71
81.38
2006
Christopher Nolan
423
Our Hospitality
80.54
92.85
77.72
79.58
1923
Buster Keaton, John G. Blystone
424
Zootopia
80.53
85.22
78.84
80.18
2016
Byron Howard, Rich Moore
425
Toy Story 2
80.49
92.59
78.51
77.05
1999
John Lasseter, Ash Brannon, Lee Unkrich
426
Klaus
80.48
75.00
81.07
81.41
2019
Sergio Pablos
427
The Big Sleep
80.45
92.10
79.74
77.58
1946
Howard Hawks
428
Ford v Ferrari
80.45
83.94
79.37
80.01
2019
James Mangold
429
Dead Poets Society
80.44
78.70
79.43
80.75
1989
Peter Weir
430
The Terminator
80.43
89.08
78.26
78.13
1984
James Cameron
431
Naked
80.43
84.48
80.39
77.34
1993
Mike Leigh
432
Dangal
80.41
83.00
79.68
80.56
2016
Nitesh Tiwari
433
Kwaidan
80.40
81.80
79.75
79.42
1964
Masaki Kobayashi
434
The Man Who Would Be King
80.40
90.55
78.24
77.79
1975
John Huston
435
Wild Tales
80.38
82.57
80.48
79.22
2014
Damián Szifron
436
Groundhog Day
80.38
80.08
79.31
79.35
1993
Harold Ramis
437
Catch Me If You Can
80.38
83.44
78.74
80.57
2002
Steven Spielberg
438
I Vitelloni
80.36
90.28
77.64
78.06
1953
Federico Fellini
439
The Big Heat
80.35
92.90
79.27
77.87
1953
Fritz Lang
440
The Double Life of Véronique
80.35
82.63
80.19
77.87
1991
Krzysztof Kieślowski
441
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
80.35
82.58
80.19
78.43
1966
Mike Nichols
442
Requiem for a Dream
80.33
71.39
81.39
80.93
2000
Darren Aronofsky
443
Rope
80.33
79.20
80.31
79.30
1948
Alfred Hitchcock
444
Love and Death
80.33
89.83
77.55
78.50
1975
Woody Allen
445
The Remains of the Day
80.29
86.88
78.75
78.80
1993
James Ivory
446
Jules and Jim
80.28
93.70
78.30
77.94
1962
François Truffaut
447
The Gospel According to Matthew
80.28
88.30
76.50
78.52
1964
Pier Paolo Pasolini
448
How to Train Your Dragon
80.27
81.97
79.45
80.24
2010
Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois
449
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
80.27
88.50
78.81
78.53
2011
David Yates
450
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
80.26
87.05
79.46
79.79
1958
Richard Brooks
451
The French Connection
80.26
93.35
78.04
76.89
1971
William Friedkin
452
Opening Night
80.25
78.05
80.50
79.25
1977
John Cassavetes
453
Hotel Rwanda
80.24
84.54
79.34
79.40
2004
Terry George
454
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
80.22
92.51
77.76
76.22
2007
Cristian Mungiu
455
Tampopo
80.22
92.40
81.20
77.01
1985
Juzo Itami
456
Scarface
80.22
93.50
76.43
79.55
1932
Howard Hawks, Howard Hughes
457
The Face of Another
80.21
87.50
79.61
79.34
1966
Hiroshi Teshigahara
458
The Roaring Twenties
80.21
86.20
77.79
80.68
1939
Raoul Walsh
459
Pickpocket
80.20
93.80
76.41
76.47
1959
Robert Bresson
460
Kiki's Delivery Service
80.20
85.45
79.87
78.84
1989
Hayao Miyazaki
461
A Prophet
80.19
89.61
79.53
76.14
2009
Jacques Audiard
462
Zelig
80.19
90.00
76.50
80.29
1983
Woody Allen
463
Trouble in Paradise
80.18
88.20
79.35
77.62
1932
Ernst Lubitsch
464
Gran Torino
80.17
76.27
78.57
82.36
2008
Clint Eastwood
465
Last Year at Marienbad
80.16
88.25
78.29
77.37
1961
Alain Resnais
466
All the President's Men
80.15
85.95
80.48
76.46
1976
Alan J. Pakula
467
Breaking the Waves
80.15
79.85
78.46
79.55
1996
Lars von Trier
468
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
80.14
74.28
81.44
80.57
1989
Steven Spielberg
469
Divorce Italian Style
80.12
91.00
79.28
78.26
1961
Pietro Germi
470
Edward Scissorhands
80.12
78.65
78.09
80.73
1990
Tim Burton
471
The Thing
80.12
67.98
82.60
79.34
1982
John Carpenter
472
Perfect Blue
80.11
74.05
80.91
80.09
1997
Satoshi Kon
473
Down by Law
80.10
79.03
78.98
79.61
1986
Jim Jarmusch
474
Bringing Up Baby
80.10
90.75
78.25
76.45
1938
Howard Hawks
475
The Phantom of Liberty
80.09
85.10
78.89
78.66
1974
Luis Buñuel
476
Bonnie and Clyde
80.07
85.38
78.16
78.23
1967
Arthur Penn
477
The Incredibles
80.07
89.69
79.77
75.78
2004
Brad Bird
478
Rocky
80.04
79.73
79.17
79.29
1976
John G. Avildsen
479
His Girl Friday
80.03
94.15
79.24
76.72
1940
Howard Hawks
480
Mommy
80.03
80.79
80.39
79.13
2014
Xavier Dolan
481
Mon Oncle
80.03
88.00
78.03
78.76
1958
Jacques Tati
482
My Fair Lady
79.99
91.85
77.53
78.00
1964
George Cukor
483
Charade
79.98
85.55
79.37
78.72
1963
Stanley Donen
484
Stalag 17
79.95
87.13
79.62
77.79
1953
Billy Wilder
485
Boyhood
79.95
97.08
76.08
75.95
2014
Richard Linklater
486
The Secret in Their Eyes
79.95
82.49
81.27
77.67
2009
Juan José Campanella
487
Ninotchka
79.95
90.15
77.99
78.50
1939
Ernst Lubitsch
488
Pierrot le Fou
79.94
81.75
77.84
76.65
1965
Jean-Luc Godard
489
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
79.94
89.10
78.30
78.27
1974
Werner Herzog
490
Stroszek
79.94
88.40
79.50
77.77
1977
Werner Herzog
491
A Hard Day's Night
79.93
93.73
76.82
77.08
1964
Richard Lester
492
Onibaba
79.90
74.75
79.42
79.96
1964
Kaneto Shindo
493
Repulsion
79.85
92.68
77.29
76.57
1965
Roman Polanski
494
Like Stars on Earth
79.85
80.50
79.54
79.86
2007
Aamir Khan, Amole Gupte
495
Duck Soup
79.84
92.33
79.01
74.92
1933
Leo McCarey
496
Carlito's Way
79.83
70.28
79.16
82.01
1993
Brian De Palma
497
Nashville
79.82
93.23
76.89
74.92
1975
Robert Altman
498
The Triplets of Belleville
79.82
88.97
76.57
78.66
2003
Sylvain Chomet
499
Dr. Mabuse the Gambler
79.81
85.10
76.88
79.98
1922
Fritz Lang
500
Gone Girl
79.79
83.03
79.32
78.87
2014
David Fincher
If you found this list interesting, I would really appreciate it if you can give my newish Youtube channel a subscribe. It would mean a lot. As always, if you know of or use any other movie website, definitely let me know. Thanks guys.
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