Actors Love "Tootsie". And Other Discoveries
Wednesday, July 29, 2015 at 2:40PM By now you've surely seen Time Out's "100 Best Movies" list. The hook and unusual angle is that the list is comprised solely from ballots of actors. Actors are famously impressionable of course so you get embarrassing things like the barely-out-of-the-oven Whiplash (2014) as one of the 100 best movies of all time but it's still an interesting list. #1 is not your usual Citizen Kane/Vertigo type deal (only one of those two makes the list) but is awarded to the classic comedy Tootsie (1982).
(And, no, we had no intention of posting two Tootsie related articles within the same 24 hours -- don't miss this piece on The Americans since we wanna know what you think of this new series idea -- but blogging can surprise you.)
The complete Time Out 100 list and 10 discoveries after the jump...
ACCORDING TO ACTORS POLLED IN 2015
You can always tell when a list was made by what's in the ether right then (notice the very high placement of To Kill a Mockingbird which is back in heavy rotation due to "Go Set a Watchman")
1. Tootsie
2. The Godfather
3. A Woman Under the Influence
4. Cinema Paradiso
5. To Kill a Mockingbird
6. The Godfather Part 2
7. Annie Hall
10. Taxi Driver
12. Goodfellas
13. Withnail and I
14. Kes
15. The Wizard of Oz
16. On the Waterfront
17. The Shining
18. Breaking the Waves
19. Pulp Fiction
20. Gladiator
21. La Haine
22. Jaws
23. Raging Bull
24. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
25. Some Like It Hot
26. Fargo
27. Rosemary's Baby
28. The Night of the Hunter
29. Chinatown
30. The Apartment
31. La Vie en Rose
32. There Will Be Blood
33. All About Eve
34. Life is Beautiful
35. Apocalypse Now
37. The Sting
38. Waiting for Guffman
39. Citizen Kane
41. Festen
42. The Lives of Others
43. American Beauty
44. Leon (The Professional)
45. A Star is Born
46. Casablanca
47. A Matter of Life and Death
49. Mean Streets
50. The Empire Strikes Back
51. The Turin Horse
52. The Princess Bride
53. This is England
56. Midnight Cowboy
57. Nil By Mouth
59. All That Jazz
60. Truly Madly Deeply
61. Harold and Maude
62. Notorious
63. Being There
64. A Clockwork Orange
65. It's a Wonderful Life
66. The Sacrifice
67. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
68. Monster
70. Blade Runner
71. The Thin Red Line
72. The General
73. The Third Man
74. Amour
75. Tender Mercies
76. Tokyo Story
77. Star Wars
78. A Room for Romeo Brass
79. Scenes From a Marriage
80. Naked
81. The Goonies
82. Brazil
83. Caché (Hidden)
84. The Deer Hunter
85. The Piano
87. Carmen Jones
89. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
91. The Hustler
92. Sophie's Choice
93. Whiplash
94. Love Actually
95. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
96. Paris, Texas
97. Persona
98. Crimes and Misdemeanours
99. The Great Beauty
100. Schindler's List
Well Tootsie is superbly acted. And it's about acting. So why wouldn't actors love it? No matter how beloved that movie may be with actors and the public, it remains underregarded as a film. I think it's one of the best of its whole decade and should have won Best Picture in 1982 (give or take Blade Runner).
You can also look at individual ballots from the actors. Here are...
10 discoveries I made while perusing actor ballots
01 Juliette Binoche's list is exactly like what you'd expect with a series of prestige mostly foreign language films and a bit of iconoclastic protest ("all of Orson Welles movies" instead of listing a title). But she's also a HUGE fan of The War of the Roses (1989). Who knew?
02 Brie Larson has eclectic but young taste. Her movies are mostly recent American classics of disparate genres but then throw in a little Rashomon (1950) and Roy Andersson's You The Living (2007). Well, okay then!
03 We knew that Melanie Lynskey was a true movie-lover but somehow it had escaped us that she was a huge fan of the "dogme 95" movement with both Lars on Trier's Breaking the Waves (1996) and Festen (1998) on her list. Those movies are so unmissable; if you've missed them, correct yourself!
04 Bill Hader (Trainwreck, SNL) who we have heard repeatedly is a cinephile, shows it with his list which even includes Todd Hayne's [SAFE]
05 Joanne Froggatt of Downton Abbey fame is maybe one of us (i.e. an actressexual) since all but one of her choices are huge actressy spectacles like Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Monster and the like... with the lone non-weird exception of The Godfather
06 Andy Serkis of motion-capture fame actually has really well rounded taste and over a wide spread of years. He likes female-driven classics (Cabaret, The Piano), foreign language oddities (Let the Right One In, The Triplets of Belleville), auteur classics both epic and intimate (Apocalypse Now, Taxi Driver) and so on
07 Anna Chlumsky is a classics-only kind of girl. Her only recent title is Munich (2005) but she mostly loves studio era pictures... especially Gene Kelly musicals. Amen.
08 Riz Ahmed has really high end taste (A Separation and Caché... nice) except he includes The Goonies (1985) which reminds you that childhood favorites transcend all ideas of "taste" because that movie is just crap (see also: people who love Hook).
09 I need to become familiar with the work of the actress Sophia Takal (V/H/S) whose name is new to me. Why? She's got three Judy Garland movies on her list. People who worship at the shrine of Judy G are keepers.
10 Final discovery. New life goal: become friends with Mary Elizabeth Winstead. We haven't really written about her at TFE but she's pretty great in the indie drama Smashed (2012) so hopefully she'll find a breakthrough signature part soon. Look at this terrific list! You really can't go wrong here...
1. Fargo (1996)
2. The Shining (1980)
3. Tootsie (1982)
4. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
5. Broadcast News (1987)
6. The Red Shoes (1948)
7. Heavenly Creatures (1994)
8. Punch Drunk Love (2002)
9. A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
10. All That Jazz (1979)
THOUGHTS ON THE LISTS? You know you have some.
Reader Comments (49)
I freaking love this list, and it promises to derail my professional life for the next few days as I dive deep into the data.
I think Nat filled out Melanie's ballot in secret so ATJ is only tenth but we now..
Sophia Takal is in a comedy called Wild Canaries this year, written and directed by her husband Lawrence Michael Levine. The treasure that is Alia Shawkat is also in the film. Not just one of the best and funniest films of the year, Takal's performance is also a ball of fire. She's so energetic and vibrant, with perfectly timed comic deliveries.
Definitely see it!
Wow, no Sunset Blvd.
John Gallagher Jr's #1 is 1994's "The Paper"? He got out of "The Newsroom" not a moment too soon.
It is no surprise to me how much actor's love Tootsie. It features so many tour de force comic performances. Dustin Hoffman and Teri Garr alone are just brilliant.
Santy C -- actors be crazy!
Also, Winstead's list is fab. Her top 4 are likely on my list as well.
I am loving the high placement of "A Woman under the Influence"! I wish "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" had made it on, but maybe another year.
Overall: fun idea. That list of actors is almost more eclectic than the films they chose.
"Kes" and "The Turin Horse"... who would've thunk it?
Also, uh, "La Vie en Rose?" Wow. I guess they're just that infatuated with Cotillard's performance.
Hmm I'm sorry to say that I was disappointed when I recently saw Tootsie for the first time. I think it works way better in concept (man experiences what it is like to live and work as a woman, has a change of heart and becomes an outspoken feminist) than in execution (in which the women are more or less passive or unstable and need a man to speak up for them). No denying Hoffman's great work there though.
This list isn't as bad as I feared it would be. It seems like many actors have awful taste.
They really like films about other performers.
The Whiplash citation is hilariously revoliting. (That over-the-top dreck wouldn't even make my list of the 100 best movies of 2014, let alone of all time.)
Tootsie is a bona-fide classic, so I'm thrilled to see it at #1. (Teri Garr should've won an Oscar, y'all.) Also nice to see Waiting for Guffman, Truly Madly Deeply, and Empire Strikes Back *ahead of* Star Wars.
Overall, quite a respectable list, although my mind immediately evicted Gladiator, La Vie en Rose, and Life Is Beautiful. (American Beauty and Monster are awfully generous, too, but I'll let that ride.)
I am immediately distrustful of any list that doesn't include Sunset Blvd, especially out of 100. I wonder if it hits too close to home or reads as offensive to an acting crowd.
obsessed with Lesley Manville's list:
Amour (2012)
Biutiful (2010)
Boyhood (2014)
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
Fish Tank (2009)
Her (2013)
La Vie en Rose (2007)
Naked (1993)
Rust and Bone (2012)
Secretary (2002)
Fascinating list that shows what "new" classics will emerge. Still surprised Gladiator is thaaaaat high.
I think this list is terrific because it also has two of my Top Ten's--GF2 and Annie Hall.
This is all kinds of awesome and genuine. I love that almost all of them really have great taste, except for that one guilty pleasure movie, and all of us really would do that if given the chance. For example, I would be sorely tempted to put Dune in my top 10, even though I know it's highly-flawed.
I think my favorite is Freddie Fox. Die Hard/Beverly Hills Cop tie. Inspired!
So, the "actors hate Hitchcock" thing is basically proven here, right?
I've always been in love with Mary Elizabeth Winstead (even have a pic with her after a Smashed Q&A). That list just sealed the deal.
Can we have a bingeathon with that top 10???!!!
Actors are famously impressionable of course...
::ahem::
I couldn't possibly include a film less than ten years old in my Top 10 of all time...except maybe I'm Not There, but only maybe. I imagine the majority of my selections would be from the '30s, '40s and '70s, and there would definitely be a Garland, a Hitchcock, a Clift and a Welles on that list.
- Joanna Gleason is the only actor who includes A Place in the Sun
- only Sanaa Lathan, Celia Imrie, Talulah Riley and Anika Noni Rose include All About Eve
- no actor includes Sunset Boulevard
- no actor includes I'm Not There...
etc.
Nina Hoss included both A Woman Under The Influence and Opening Night!
Of course actors love Cassavetes, but A Woman Under The Influence is kind of underseen. I would never see this third position coming!
War of the Roses is great and now I love Juliette Binoche even more.
@cinejab. Boy, Lesley Manville is INTENSE. Half of these movies make me feel depressed at the very thought of them.
Tootsie is a great movie anyway but I don't think it's that surprising that it's a favorite of actors since they can probably relate to most of the situations, okay maybe not masquerading as someone of the opposite sex but the working other jobs to keep going, working with difficult directors & lecherous co-stars etc.
Love to see Judy's A Star is Born turn up. Overall a solid list.
Overall I love the list. It includes many atypicals I think. Was never a fan of Tootsie though. And some obvious great films are not included. Just goes to show you how difficult it is to compile a top 100 Best Movies list.
It's surprising that Streetcar Named Desire ranks so low. I believe that Marlon's performance changed everything.
Inclusions that got the biggest double takes from me: Kes, La Haine, La Vie en Rose, Festen, The Turin Horse (spit take), This Is England, Nil By Mouth, The Sacrifice, A Room for Romeo Brass(???????), Tender Mercies, The Goonies.
Inclusions that got the biggest fist pumps from me: Boogie Nights, The Red Shoes, Waiting for Guffman, Leon, The Royal Tenenbaums, Harold and Maude, Being There, The Thin Red Line, Brazil, Caché, The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover.
The Grand Budapest Hotel is one of the best 100 movies of all time??? Am I the only one who thinks that movie is really overrated?
Yay for #3 Gena! Gena! Gena! and #4 my go-to, favorite, comfort food movie
Interesting that for the most awarded actress, only two of her movies show up here at #84 and #92. Proves that Meryl is often the best thing about the mediocre films she's in.
Tootsie is great but it's also about actors so no wonder they love it. Glad to see Meryl shows up twice. Nothing with Tom Cruise, George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman or Jane Fonda? Interesting.
This list is an utter embarrassment, but it's nice to see that history is finally righting some wrongs that the silly Oscars handed down, like "Singin' in the Rain" pwning "An American in Paris," like it should have always been. Good going there, at least.
This list is great. Despite the wide net it cast, it still feels more singular than so many "greatest films ever" lists that not only regurgitate the same films, but usually in the same order. This throws some real curve balls and I can't wait to look through all of the individual lists.
No "Network"?!
Mary Elizabeth Winstead! ❤️ so lovely and even great in Final Destination 3.
I am in LOVE with this list, and thank you for putting your head in the game by placing A Woman Under The Influence on top 3, actors!
Here is my top 10 (for the fun of it and it may change in the future though, silly indecisive me) :
1. The Silence of the Lambs
2. Network
3. Rebecca
4. Hannah and Her Sisters
5. The Godfather
6. Tootsie
7. Amadeus
8. Terms of Endearment
9. Howards End
10. Black Narcissus
Only one vote for Love & Basketball? This list is a joke.
I swear I barely saw Tootsie mentioned throughout the individual ballots...
My big issue with this list is the total lack of animation- but I suppose that makes sense if it's generated by actor picks.
I swear i didn't see one mention of Do The Right Thing which is in my top 4. And no cool hand luke which is my #1 tied with godfather and goodfellas.
I love that Binoche loves The War of the Roses! Some of these lists are fascinating. It's nice to see such variety. Freddie Fox's is probably my favorite: The Conformist, Touch of Evil, and Dog Day Afternoon, plus The Producers and Die Hard - love it.
No It Happened One Night? I'd think if they were for The Philadelphia Story they'd also go for one of the other all-time best romantic comedies. That also reminds me of When Harry Met Sally..., which I'm not surprised it didn't make the cut but I also wouldn't have been surprised if it had. Does that make sense? Maybe it's a movie more admired for the writing than the acting, which is a shame. Both aspects are great.
And no West Side Story. Boo.
If my calculations are correct, there are only 13 movies on the list that I have yet to see. Which should I seek out first?
Waiting for Guffman
The Lives of Others
A Matter of Life and Death
The Turin Horse
This Is England
Nil by Mouth
Truly Madly Deeply
The Sacrifice
A Room for Romeo Brass
Scenes from a Marriage
Naked
Caché
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
BD Wong loves Baby Boom! I love BD Wong!
@ John T.:
Maybe start with the masterpieces:
Naked
The Lives of Others
Cache
Scenes from a Marriage
Cinema Paradiso being #4 is shocking to me, but makes me so, so happy. Every cinephile should see it.
Sounds good, Mr. Goodbar. I just remembered that I have seen A Matter of Life and Death. I was mixing it up with I Know Where I'm Going for some reason. So that makes 12 movies!
Even though I don't love Tootsie, I love that it's such a unique pick. There's such a small amount of films that always top these lists, which is concerning because there should NEVER be consensus about what is the best of all time.