Before I get into the reason for this post, a note: Pot Lunch isn’t coming back, and I’m more or less done with social media, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do what I initially loved about the internet: blog about dumb shit. So welcome to me blogging about dumb shit. Sometimes, that will be posts like today’s, and other times, that might mean recipes. I still like weed food. If you’re on the pre-order list, you know the cookbook is still coming; it’s a slow process when you only have two hands.
And now, on with the post.
I frequently have ideas for parties and social events but rarely follow through with them. 99% of the time, it’s because the idea is too big to begin with. By tempering my expectations, I also temper the desire actually to do the thing. I’m working on it. So, I was pretty pleased with myself when I came up with my monthly family movie night.
Each month in 2025, we will watch a movie from a year ending in 5, working our way consecutively from 1915 through 2025. 110 years of film! And an incredibly fun idea it is, but when it came time to compile the list I felt overwhelmed at first. This is where I might lose some of you, but I turned to ChatGPT. Some of you are probably like, “Omg, tsk tsk, it uses so much more energy than a Google search, do it yourself.” Yeah, I could have, but it probably would have ended up being 100 Google searches at the end instead of 3 questions to the computer (and about a 1/100th of the time, too). You’ll find all three lists of films and prompts at the end of this post just to save you the trouble of 100 searches or an unnecessary trip to your preferred LLM.
For January, I chose 1915’s A Fool There Was. Directed and adapted by Frank Powell, the film is about a diplomat who throws away his beautiful family for a vamp. It made a big splash at the time because of the way it was marketed, setting the tone for modern Hollywood PR for over a century. The press was fed lies about the mysterious lead actress, all to drum up interest in the new film. The film was also forward-thinking for the time, from the wife being told to divorce her husband, the vamp seemingly never facing consequences and the lack of redemption for the husband. It’s worth watching (which you can watch right here on YouTube).
I also made a coordinating drink, running with Vamp into vampire (as she was essentially a psychic vampire in the film). I drizzled a little grenadine in some Sprite, tincture, and a Luxardo cherry on top. Tequila also works in place of the tincture if alcohol is more your thing.
Side note, I started this post before we watched our February film, but it’s March now! So I’ll add that in February, we watched Charlie Chaplin’s Gold Rush. This one has been our favorite so far. It was funny and interesting. Some of the practical effects were years ahead of its time.
Now on to the lists. 🙂
I asked the machine to generate three lists with a few movies for each year ending in 5 from 1915 through 2015. I did not expect to get so many recommendations for the first few decades and figured we’d have to double or triple up for 2025. But the super-charged search engine that Ai really is did not fail me. Using it as a turbo search engine is probably the most reliable way to use it.
The first question I asked was to create a list of 3-10 movies per year. And here’s what it gave me:
January – 1915
1. The Birth of a Nation (dir. D.W. Griffith)
2. Regeneration (dir. Raoul Walsh)
3. The Cheat (dir. Cecil B. DeMille)
4. Les Vampires (dir. Louis Feuillade) – serial film, but fascinating for a marathon
5. A Fool There Was (dir. Frank Powell)
February – 1925
1. The Gold Rush (dir. Charlie Chaplin)
2. Battleship Potemkin (dir. Sergei Eisenstein)
3. The Phantom of the Opera (dir. Rupert Julian)
4. The Freshman (dir. Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor)
5. Seven Chances (dir. Buster Keaton)
6. Go West (dir. Buster Keaton)
March – 1935
1. The 39 Steps (dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
2. A Night at the Opera (dir. Sam Wood)
3. Top Hat (dir. Mark Sandrich)
4. Mutiny on the Bounty (dir. Frank Lloyd)
5. Bride of Frankenstein (dir. James Whale)
6. The Informer (dir. John Ford)
7. David Copperfield (dir. George Cukor)
April – 1945
1. Brief Encounter (dir. David Lean)
2. Children of Paradise (dir. Marcel Carné)
3. The Lost Weekend (dir. Billy Wilder)
4. Mildred Pierce (dir. Michael Curtiz)
5. Anchors Aweigh (dir. George Sidney)
6. Rome, Open City (dir. Roberto Rossellini)
7. Leave Her to Heaven (dir. John M. Stahl)
May – 1955
1. Rebel Without a Cause (dir. Nicholas Ray)
2. The Night of the Hunter (dir. Charles Laughton)
3. Marty (dir. Delbert Mann)
4. East of Eden (dir. Elia Kazan)
5. Oklahoma! (dir. Fred Zinnemann)
6. To Catch a Thief (dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
7. The Seven Year Itch (dir. Billy Wilder)
8. Kiss Me Deadly (dir. Robert Aldrich)
June – 1965
1. The Sound of Music (dir. Robert Wise)
2. Doctor Zhivago (dir. David Lean)
3. Repulsion (dir. Roman Polanski)
4. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (dir. Martin Ritt)
5. A Patch of Blue (dir. Guy Green)
6. Help! (dir. Richard Lester)
7. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (dir. Russ Meyer)
July – 1975
1. Jaws (dir. Steven Spielberg)
2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (dir. Milos Forman)
3. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (dir. Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones)
4. Barry Lyndon (dir. Stanley Kubrick)
5. Dog Day Afternoon (dir. Sidney Lumet)
6. Nashville (dir. Robert Altman)
7. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (dir. Jim Sharman)
August – 1985
1. Back to the Future (dir. Robert Zemeckis)
2. The Breakfast Club (dir. John Hughes)
3. Out of Africa (dir. Sydney Pollack)
4. The Color Purple (dir. Steven Spielberg)
5. Brazil (dir. Terry Gilliam)
6. Ran (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
7. Witness (dir. Peter Weir)
8. Clue (dir. Jonathan Lynn)
September – 1995
1. Se7en (dir. David Fincher)
2. Braveheart (dir. Mel Gibson)
3. The Usual Suspects (dir. Bryan Singer)
4. Toy Story (dir. John Lasseter)
5. Sense and Sensibility (dir. Ang Lee)
6. Heat (dir. Michael Mann)
7. Before Sunrise (dir. Richard Linklater)
8. Apollo 13 (dir. Ron Howard)
October – 2005
1. Brokeback Mountain (dir. Ang Lee)
2. Batman Begins (dir. Christopher Nolan)
3. Pride & Prejudice (dir. Joe Wright)
4. Walk the Line (dir. James Mangold)
5. Good Night, and Good Luck (dir. George Clooney)
6. Sin City (dir. Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino)
7. V for Vendetta (dir. James McTeigue)
8. Memoirs of a Geisha (dir. Rob Marshall)
November – 2015
1. Mad Max: Fury Road (dir. George Miller)
2. The Revenant (dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu)
3. Spotlight (dir. Tom McCarthy)
4. The Martian (dir. Ridley Scott)
5. Inside Out (dir. Pete Docter)
6. Brooklyn (dir. John Crowley)
7. Room (dir. Lenny Abrahamson)
8. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (dir. J.J. Abrams)
9. Ex Machina (dir. Alex Garland)
The second time, I more specifically asked for comedy films only, and here’s what the ole girl said back:
January – 1915
1. A Submarine Pirate (dir. Charles Avery, Syd Chaplin)
2. A Jitney Elopement (dir. Charlie Chaplin)
3. In the Park (dir. Charlie Chaplin)
4. Fatty and Mabel Adrift (dir. Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle)
February – 1925
1. The Freshman (dir. Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor)
2. Seven Chances (dir. Buster Keaton)
3. His Wooden Wedding (dir. Leo McCarey)
4. The Gold Rush (dir. Charlie Chaplin)
5. The Navigator (dir. Buster Keaton, Donald Crisp)
March – 1935
1. A Night at the Opera (dir. Sam Wood) – Marx Brothers classic
2. Top Hat (dir. Mark Sandrich) – screwball romance with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
3. The Bride of Frankenstein (dir. James Whale) – horror-comedy blend
4. The Ghost Goes West (dir. René Clair)
5. Ruggles of Red Gap (dir. Leo McCarey)
April – 1945
1. The Great Flamarion (dir. Anthony Mann) – dark comedy elements
2. The Three Caballeros (dir. Norman Ferguson) – Disney comedy-animation
3. Road to Utopia (dir. Hal Walker) – part of the Road to… comedy series with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope
May – 1955
1. The Seven Year Itch (dir. Billy Wilder) – classic comedy with Marilyn Monroe
2. Artists and Models (dir. Frank Tashlin) – Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedy
3. Mister Roberts (dir. John Ford, Mervyn LeRoy)
4. Guys and Dolls (dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz) – musical comedy
June – 1965
1. The Great Race (dir. Blake Edwards)
2. Help! (dir. Richard Lester) – Beatles comedy-adventure
3. How to Murder Your Wife (dir. Richard Quine)
4. Cat Ballou (dir. Elliot Silverstein) – comedy western
5. Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (dir. Ken Annakin)
July – 1975
1. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (dir. Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones)
2. The Sunshine Boys (dir. Herbert Ross)
3. Love and Death (dir. Woody Allen)
4. Shampoo (dir. Hal Ashby) – comedy-drama
August – 1985
1. Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (dir. Tim Burton)
2. Clue (dir. Jonathan Lynn)
3. The Breakfast Club (dir. John Hughes) – comedy-drama
4. Desperately Seeking Susan (dir. Susan Seidelman)
5. Real Genius (dir. Martha Coolidge)
6. Spies Like Us (dir. John Landis)
September – 1995
1. Clueless (dir. Amy Heckerling)
2. Tommy Boy (dir. Peter Segal)
3. Billy Madison (dir. Tamra Davis)
4. While You Were Sleeping (dir. Jon Turteltaub) – rom-com
5. Mallrats (dir. Kevin Smith)
6. Get Shorty (dir. Barry Sonnenfeld)
October – 2005
1. The 40-Year-Old Virgin (dir. Judd Apatow)
2. Wedding Crashers (dir. David Dobkin)
3. Hitch (dir. Andy Tennant)
4. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (dir. Shane Black) – dark comedy
5. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (dir. Garth Jennings)
6. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (dir. Steve Box, Nick Park)
November – 2015
1. Spy (dir. Paul Feig)
2. Trainwreck (dir. Judd Apatow)
3. The Intern (dir. Nancy Meyers)
4. Sisters (dir. Jason Moore)
5. The Big Short (dir. Adam McKay) – dark comedy-drama
6. Minions (dir. Kyle Balda, Pierre Coffin)
7. Daddy’s Home (dir. Sean Anders)
Finally, I asked for critically acclaimed movies, and the list was essentially a combination of the first two with a few new suggestions.
January – 1915
1. The Birth of a Nation (dir. D.W. Griffith) – widely acclaimed for its technical achievements (despite its controversial content)
2. Les Vampires (dir. Louis Feuillade) – groundbreaking crime serial
3. The Cheat (dir. Cecil B. DeMille) – notable early drama with strong critical reception
4. A Fool There Was (dir. Frank Powell) – known for popularizing the “vamp” archetype in film
February – 1925
1. The Gold Rush (dir. Charlie Chaplin) – highly acclaimed, with Chaplin receiving a special Oscar years later for his work
2. Battleship Potemkin (dir. Sergei Eisenstein) – revolutionary in film editing and widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time
3. The Big Parade (dir. King Vidor) – one of the most popular silent films of its time, critically acclaimed for its anti-war message
4. The Phantom of the Opera (dir. Rupert Julian) – a celebrated early horror film
5. The Freshman (dir. Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor) – popular and critically acclaimed comedy with Harold Lloyd
March – 1935
1. The Informer (dir. John Ford) – won multiple Oscars, including Best Director and Best Actor (Victor McLaglen)
2. Top Hat (dir. Mark Sandrich) – nominated for four Oscars and regarded as one of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers’ best musicals
3. Mutiny on the Bounty (dir. Frank Lloyd) – won Best Picture
4. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (dir. Max Reinhardt, William Dieterle) – won an Oscar for Best Cinematography
5. David Copperfield (dir. George Cukor) – received critical acclaim and Oscar nominations
April – 1945
1. The Lost Weekend (dir. Billy Wilder) – won Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Screenplay
2. Mildred Pierce (dir. Michael Curtiz) – Joan Crawford won Best Actress
3. Spellbound (dir. Alfred Hitchcock) – won Best Original Score and was nominated for five more Oscars
4. Anchors Aweigh (dir. George Sidney) – nominated for Best Picture and won for Best Music
5. Children of Paradise (dir. Marcel Carné) – critically acclaimed French film, often considered one of the best films of all time
May – 1955
1. Marty (dir. Delbert Mann) – won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay
2. East of Eden (dir. Elia Kazan) – James Dean was posthumously nominated for Best Actor
3. The Night of the Hunter (dir. Charles Laughton) – not nominated but critically acclaimed and now regarded as a masterpiece
4. Rebel Without a Cause (dir. Nicholas Ray) – nominated for three Oscars, including Best Supporting Actor
5. Picnic (dir. Joshua Logan) – won two Oscars and was nominated for four others
June – 1965
1. The Sound of Music (dir. Robert Wise) – won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Director
2. Doctor Zhivago (dir. David Lean) – won five Oscars and nominated for Best Picture
3. A Patch of Blue (dir. Guy Green) – won Best Supporting Actress for Shelley Winters
4. Cat Ballou (dir. Elliot Silverstein) – Lee Marvin won Best Actor
5. The Great Race (dir. Blake Edwards) – won an Oscar for Best Sound Effects
July – 1975
1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (dir. Milos Forman) – won five Oscars, including Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay
2. Jaws (dir. Steven Spielberg) – won three Oscars, including Best Original Score
3. Dog Day Afternoon (dir. Sidney Lumet) – won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and nominated for six more, including Best Picture
4. Nashville (dir. Robert Altman) – won an Oscar for Best Original Song, nominated for Best Picture
5. Barry Lyndon (dir. Stanley Kubrick) – won four Oscars, nominated for Best Picture
August – 1985
1. Out of Africa (dir. Sydney Pollack) – won seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Director
2. The Color Purple (dir. Steven Spielberg) – nominated for 11 Oscars, including Best Picture
3. Witness (dir. Peter Weir) – won two Oscars and was nominated for Best Picture
4. Ran (dir. Akira Kurosawa) – won Best Costume Design and nominated for four Oscars
5. Prizzi’s Honor (dir. John Huston) – won Best Supporting Actress and nominated for Best Picture
September – 1995
1. Braveheart (dir. Mel Gibson) – won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Director
2. Sense and Sensibility (dir. Ang Lee) – won Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for Best Picture
3. The Usual Suspects (dir. Bryan Singer) – won two Oscars, including Best Supporting Actor
4. Apollo 13 (dir. Ron Howard) – won two Oscars, nominated for Best Picture
5. Toy Story (dir. John Lasseter) – nominated for three Oscars and awarded a Special Achievement Oscar
October – 2005
1. Brokeback Mountain (dir. Ang Lee) – won three Oscars, including Best Director
2. Crash (dir. Paul Haggis) – won three Oscars, including Best Picture
3. Good Night, and Good Luck (dir. George Clooney) – nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture
4. Capote (dir. Bennett Miller) – Philip Seymour Hoffman won Best Actor
5. Munich (dir. Steven Spielberg) – nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture
November – 2015
1. Spotlight (dir. Tom McCarthy) – won Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay
2. The Revenant (dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu) – won three Oscars, including Best Director and Actor
3. Mad Max: Fury Road (dir. George Miller) – won six Oscars and nominated for Best Picture
4. The Big Short (dir. Adam McKay) – won Best Adapted Screenplay, nominated for Best Picture
5. Room (dir. Lenny Abrahamson) – Brie Larson won Best Actress
