Top 10 Succession Episodes

Greetings, reader!

I recently finished watching HBO's Succession (2018-2023), the vastly acclaimed and popular business drama that has been described as Shakespeare's King Lear in the modern world. It's hard to pick only 10 best episodes from a series that provided so many dramatic storylines and unforgettable moments across its brilliant 4-season run, but after some hard work, I got it done. These are the very best episodes from the series, from the first season five years ago all the way to the final season released just a few months ago.

SPOILER ALERT: I will discuss events from all seasons with spoilers, so please only read this if a) you've watched the whole thing, or b) you have no intention of watching it.

Here are my honorable mentions: Austerlitz (Season 1 Episode 7), Tern Haven (Season 2 Episode 5), DC (Season 2 Episode 9), What It Takes (Season 3 Episode 6), Tailgate Party (Season 4 Episode 7), Church and State (Season 4 Episode 9).

10. Dundee (Season 2 Episode 8)

"We got you a present - we bought the Hearts!"

"Hearts?"

"Mm-hmm!"

"Hearts Football Club?"

"Mm-hmm!"

"Why?"

"Because it's the Hearts, it's your team!"

"I'm Hibs"

"You're Hibs? Really? Are you sure? I thought you were Hearts, I'm pretty sure, Dad"

"Maybe you're right. How would I know, WHAT TEAM I'VE SUPPORTED ALL MY FUCKING LIFE"

Ah, the subplot where Roman (Kieran Culkin) buys the wrong football club. Truly iconic. While Succession is a drama first and foremost, the comedic element is stronger than in most shows, with satire and humor playing a huge role in the show's DNA from start to finish - and hardly any storyline is as downright hilarious as Roman buying the wrong football club.

This season 2 episode is also memorable for many other reasons - Logan Roy's (Brian Cox) legacy is celebrated in manners both dramatic and comical, and season 2's great plotline of the cruises scandal spiraling out control continues to escalate. Oh, and Kendall's (Jeremy Strong) rap is one for the ages.

9. Nobody Is Ever Missing (Season 1 Episode 10)

"Go to the desert, dry yourself out. You have not been yourself"

The season 1 finale may be the weakest of the four chapter-closers Succession has offered, but it's still a damn good hour of television. The rocket launch overseen by Roman goes ka-boom, the brilliantly satirical long-term storyline of Connor (Alan Ruck) running for President as a hobby gets its inception, and Kendall attempts a hostile takeover of Waystar Royco before his father utilizes a tragic coincidence to shut him down. Oh, and did I mention that this all happens on the night of Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Tom's (Matthew Macfadyen) wedding?!

Yeah, there's something about HBO and shit going down at weddings. Game of Thrones delivered many of its most dramatic character deaths in various weddings, and Succession has adopted the business world's version of this - three different episodes in this top 10 take place to the backdrop of nuptials.

8. Retired Janitors of Idaho (Season 3 Episode 5)

"You're going to sue Greenpeace? I like your style, Greg. Who do you think you are going to go after next? Save the Children?"

This chaotic episode from halfway through season 3 is a brilliant mixture of comedy and drama. We get some of the funniest shit the series has ever provided - Roman's out-of-his-depth phone call with POTUS, Karl (David Rasche) constantly having to vamp and buy the others more time, and Cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun) suing Greenpeace, the list goes on.

But at the same time, it's all very dramatic - we follow the big and consequential shareholder meeting that the show had been building towards for over a season, with the firm's fate in balance, and Logan's health takes a turn for the worse at a bad moment. With Logan rambling and not being himself, someone has to step up, and it ends up being Siobhan 'Shiv' Roy. All of Logan's children had their moments of seeming like potential 'true successors' throughout the series, and rarely did Shiv seem to have more momentum than in this episode, where she pretty much single-handedly saves the family company with some risky yet brilliant last-minute deal-making.

7. Secession (Season 3 Episode 1)

"Juice is loose, baby!"

One of my favorite tropes in modern, storytelling-oriented television is when a season finale is so eventful and game-changing, that the premiere of the following season becomes great merely by riding that high wave, dwelling in a deliciously uncertain aftermath before the plot settles into a 'new normal'. And one of the finest instances is the cleverly titled season 3 opener Secession.

The jaw-dropping ending to the show's sophomore season was so insane that it takes a whole 1-hour episode just for the characters to find their bearings again. We follow Kendall scrambling to put together a team and a base of operations while trying to figure out his next move, while his family members are still wrapping their heads around his bombshell interview, getting ready for full-scale corporate war. The feeling of panic and uncertainty makes this into a great season premiere, with both the aftermath to season 2's ending and the table-setting for the rest of season 3 working like a charm.

6. With Open Eyes (Season 4 Episode 10)

"Here's the thing - I am like a cog built to fit only one machine"

The series finale finds itself at a respectable #6 place. It's not quite up there with 24 and Person of Interest in the very highest tier of series finales, but it's pretty much the best possible ending for this series. Succession was never going to do heart-swelling redemption archs or nice endings for the characters. Succession was, deep down, a critical look at the power that reckless billionaires have on our society and how fucked-up that world can be - many even see the show as a pure satire deep down, but with the satirical elements being so fleshed-out that it shaped into a drama with complex and often humane characters, instead of mere comedy and parody.

So, a trainwreck with everything coming crashing down is pretty much the perfect ending for the show. After four full seasons of the Roy kids scheming, maneuvering and backstabbing with increasing levels of heartlessness to compete who inherits the 'top dog' position, it ends up being f**king Tom Wambsgans, the shameless kiss-ass who always cozied up to the people most likely to give him power. Series creator Jesse Armstrong said that he got the vision for Tom ending up as CEO very early on, because it reflects unfortunate real-world conventions. It gives the whole character, whose arch (not to mention Matthew Macfadyen's insanely nuanced and remarkable performance) makes him one of the show's more interesting individuals, a whole new purpose in the dramaturgy of the show. The character exists as the ultimate middle finger and last laugh to the Roy children and their claims to inherit.

Of course, the finale of a series so built on dramatic character dynamics, shifting hierarchies and Shakespearean twists had to have something to keep us guessing to the last minutes, and the whole GoJo acquisition / reverse Viking maneuver situation did just that, with so many outcomes being up in the air before a final vote decides it all.

Shiv betraying Kendall at the last moment is ultimately in character, not only for Shiv specifically but for the whole Roy family - they were too dysfunctional, too divided by the mind games played by their shitty father, to ever be able to work as a team. As much as you shouldn't care about these selfish assholes, you can't help but feel sad that after all they've been through, they had an outcome in their hands that would give them all power and keep the firm in their hands, yet they couldn't help but self-sabotage like a star collapsing in on itself.

5. Which Side Are You On? (Season 1 Episode 6)

"That was your best shot. You lost"

There's something pure about this season 1 episode. Later into the the series, you become almost numb to all the backstabbings and betrayals and power grabs - mind you, the shocking moments are shocking in every season because Jesse Armstrong's brilliant storytelling always kept one-upping itself. But still, you do come to expect them. So, the show's very first moment of true, twist-filled high-stakes drama is one of its finest, because it hit so hard when still learning what all the series is capable of.

Throughout the episode, we follow Kendall trying to round up the board votes he needs for a vote of no confidence against the evil and out-of-touch CEO (who also happens to be his father) to go through. The tension is high all the way through, and the climactic vote scene is just so damn good. Things start to go chaotically wrong, with Logan refusing to leave the room and no one standing up to this, while Kendall doesn't get to make his case in the fashion he envisioned as he's running late and has to dial in.

The show's tendency to really flesh out the supporting characters really pays off, as pretty much every board member's vote says something about that character specifically, and where their loyalties and motivations lie. It all comes down to the final and decisive vote, in the hands of the show's arguably most complex character, Roman Roy. The character psychology is so good here, as Roman had been conspiring with Kendall throughout the episode, yet when he's in the room faced with Logan's intimidating stare, the insecure kid who never got enough attention as a boy and was always left craving his father's approval shows his true colors. Kieran Culkin acts this scene brilliantly, expressing the pain and conflict and sheer discomfort that the character goes through in the moment.

4. All the Bells Say (Season 3 Episode 9)

"Do you want a deal with the devil?"

"What am I gonna do with a soul anyways?"

It must be so hard to be a writer for a critically acclaimed, plot-oriented prestige TV drama in the modern age. A few decades ago, you could just do a surprising plot twist, and the viewers were all blown away. But, with TV shows getting smarter and audiences expecting more, a mere plot twist won't be enough as viewers will have seen it coming a mile away. So, sometimes, you have do a twist that seems like the real deal, only to take things into a different direction yet, with an additional twist. Or, if you take that even further, you have the trifecta of twists seen in Succession's season 3 finale.

Naturally to the backdrop of a wedding, this time in Italy, we get the first twist - Logan is about to sell the company to Lukas Matsson's (Alexander Skarsgård) GoJo. For a good while, it seems like that is the 'big season finale event'. Then, the series one-ups itself with a double twist - Kendall, Roman and Shiv team up to take their father down, using the leverage they inherited in their father's divorce to oust Logan's power and keep the firm in the family's hands. Surely, that's the big season finale event? Nope, because then we get the TRIPLE TWIST - Logan saw this coming and is able to block their attempted betrayal - because he was tipped off - by Shiv's husband Tom. His cold-blooded entrance in the final scene is pure Shakespeare.

While Tom is generally as unlikable as the rest of them, he is a character you could often feel for, because at least his love for Shiv was genuine, while Shiv was a pretty horrible spouse to him. You get the gripping sense that this betrayal wouldn't have happened, if Shiv hadn't crossed the line by treating Tom so carelessly in the previous episode, breaking his heart to a degree that Tom wants revenge in addition to his selfish goals of rising up the ladder. I also love the subtle foreshadowing in the 'deal with the devil' conversation between Tom and Greg halfway through the episode - when it takes place, you think he's talking about teaming up with Shiv and her siblings to take down Logan. Afterwards, you realize that the big twist was spoiled to you already then without you realizing, as the devil he was talking about was Mr. Logan Roy himself. Clever writing right there.

3. Connor's Wedding (Season 4 Episode 3)

"I love you, dad. I love you, I do. Okay? And it's okay. Even though you fucking...I don't know, I can't...I can't forgive you. But uh, it's okay. And I love you"

Apparently, there's an unbroken 27-minute camera take in this episode, when Logan Roy's children get the call of their father dying. When watching the episode, I didn't notice. I'll have to re-watch it in order to pay attention to this undoubtedly spectacular feat of cinematography - but I think that the fact that I didn't initially notice just means that the stylistic choice did its job. I remember how incredibly intimate that part of the episode felt, like I was in the situation and experiencing it right there with the characters.

But, yeah, this is the big one. The moment it had all been built towards. Over three seasons of "what's going to happen when Logan dies?", and when it finally happens, no one still knows. For just a moment, the main characters manage to cool down their blood-sucking backstabbing Macchiavellian intuitions, and become actual f**king humans for a change. No matter how shitty of a father Logan Roy was, he certainly had a large impact for better or for worse, and here we see how much his children loved him (in their own, fucked-up ways). The acting by Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin and Alan Ruck is completely off the charts here, and any one of them could end up winning big at the Emmys or Golden Globes.

In addition to being a spectacularly acted and emotionally charged hour of TV drama, Connor's Wedding is also in many ways the biggest individual game-changer of the series - the nature of exactly everything in the series changes, and Succession almost feels like a different show for the last seven episodes, with the post-Logan era just hitting different. And it feels weirdly fitting that the show's biggest game-changer isn't a massively sudden, dramatically crafted and greatly shocking plot twist - the manner of the show's only real major character death is strikingly mundane and real-world, and this feels appropriate. Sometimes, people just die, things just change, and people have to adapt - a hard pill to swallow, but an important sentiment that this episode certainly drives home.

2. This It Not for Tears (Season 2 Episode 10)

"He ate my fucking chicken. So, what's next? Stick his cock into my potato salad?"

Before we get into the more serious and dramatic stuff, I would like to begin by stating that Tom eating Logan's chicken is one of the funniest moments in drama television history. Logan's "What the fuck?" is delivered with an utterly confused brilliance by Brian Cox, and I remember seeing a YouTube comment that said "I guarantee this is the only move in the show that surprised Logan".

But, yeah, that's just the tip of the iceberg. A bulk of the masterful season 2 finale is spent on a fancy boat, with the underlying tension building as it becomes clear that Waystar Royco needs a 'sacrificial lamb' to take the fall for the massive cruises scandal. The episode keeps you guessing who it will be, with brilliant dialogue between the characters who keep subtly playing their own games and trying to throw each other under the bus (or, dare I say, cruise ship). Finally, they decide on Kendall, and it seems like season 2's big dramatic climax is him taking fall, implying that the preceding events have broken him to a degree that he won't fight back any more, that Logan is right when claiming he never was 'a killer'.

As I was watching these moments unfold, as Kendall makes his long walk to the press release, I remember thinking that it would be the coolest and most epic moment ever if he showed up and instead of taking the fall for the scandal like Logan scripted, he were to go off on what a clusterfuck of lies it all has been. I quickly scrapped the thought from my mind, figuring that such a move wouldn't probably be realistic, it might be a bit too 'heroic' and payoff-y for such a cynical show. Still, I hoped. I saw that there were only 3 minutes left, so I figured that it can't possibly happen, that Kendall is going to take the fall and that's it. But still, I hoped.

Rarely have I been so proud of making the right prediction. Often times, the feeling from making the right prediction is less "yay, I'm so smart!" and more "oh man, I wanted to be surprised but now I spoiled myself". But here, when the idea I got had felt just like the tiniest long-shot hope, it felt so amazing when Kendall did indeed pull off the bombshell of going after his father and the company. Turns out he had the killer instinct after all, and Brian Cox's facial expression as Logan watched the broadcast is so perfect - he knows this will mean trouble and stress and frustration, yet there is a subtle almost-smile to be seen, as he can't help but be proud of his son in a strange, very Roy fashion. One of the best season endings in all of HBO.

1. America Decides (Season 3 Episode 8)

"We just made a good night of TV, that's what we've done. Nothing happens"

"Things do happen, Rome"

The show's best episode follows the ATN newsroom on Election Night, as acts of intimidation and political violence take place in Wisconsin, morally compromised media outlets make quid-pro-quo deals with candidates vying for favorable coverage, facts are swept under the rug for political leverage, a bunch of rich people put their values aside and endorse a literal nazi because it will be financially good for them, and in the end the election in a broken democracy is decided less by the masses and more by the influential billionaires in a broken system.

And does it feel far-fetched or even like a creative piece of fiction? Nope. In today's America, it feels real. As real as a confederate flag being carried into the Capitol, a KKK member driving a car into a group of peaceful protesters, or a deranged cult leader running for President while being indicted in the aftermath of trying to overthrow a democracy.

The events of America Decides are a razor-sharp indictment of what is wrong in American politics. While not everything that happens in the episode has happened in real life, it all feels like it easily could - much, much too easily. The episode makes viewers like myself - liberals, or just people who in general give a shit about human rights - relive the trauma of the 2016 election, in a truly haunting and frightening manner, while making it all fit within the show's milieu and larger storyline instead of feeling like a concept episode thrown into the mix.

I feel like Jesse Armstrong purposefully made the initially unlikable characters just humane enough that viewers do start to care for them despite everything throughout the seasons - and this episode's function was to remind us what kind of people they really were. And for me at least, that worked. Up until that episode, I cared about the whole lot of them - despite their unlikable moments, I wanted Kendall's envisioned destiny of becoming CEO to come to fruition, I wanted Roman to find some help for his issues, I wanted Connor to keep living his absurd pipe dream side quests and I wanted Tom to be loved after the heartbreak of his marriage with Shiv.

This episode took all of that and changed it to "let them all burn".

It was beyond heartbreaking to witness characters I had grown invested in being such an active part of phenomena I despise so deeply in real life - not just the ideals of fascism seen in the modern-day GOP, but also the collusion of media and politics in a thoroughly unethical way, and the ridiculous amount of influence that such media outlets have. Especially Kendall - he was always the closest I had to a 'favorite' character, someone you could root for despite his flaws - and in this episode, conflicted between selfish corporate greed and the fact that his immigrant-background children are in actual danger and he could do something about it, the spineless piece of shit chooses corporate greed. Let them all burn, man.

Thank you for reading! Starting next week, I'll do a four-post dive into the greatest beginnings and endings in television, with consecutive posts on the greatest pilot episodes from comedy and drama series, and the greatest series finales from comedy and drama shows. This begins next Thursday, with my ranking of the greatest comedy TV pilots.

An Updated Ranking of Christopher Nolan's Movies, Including Oppenheimer

Greetings, reader!

Sure, I posted a ranking of Nolan films a few years back when Tenet (2020) came out. But, now that there's a new Nolan flick out there, let's do it again! Last time I honored the filmmaker's tendency to tell non-linear stories by sharing the ranking from #1 to #11 instead of the usual worst-to-best - this time I'll do it with yet another twist. I'm presenting his films in order of release, from oldest to newest, and one by one revealing how each film is placed in my ranking and why it is in such a place. That way, the biggest question of the hour (where does Oppenheimer rank and what did I think of it?) is saved for last.

12. Following (1998)

Yes, Nolan's first film is also his least-good. The black-and-white 69-minute flick is still a decent debut - out of all the directors whose full filmography I've seen, I reckon only Tarantino has a better 'worst film' than Nolan. While it isn't bad by any means, it is very 'basic' by Nolan standards - the filmmaker is at his best when working with big budgets, massive visuals, blaring Hans Zimmer horn sections and Michael Caine.

Here we have a simplistic teaser of what's to come - there are some neat plot twists even if the story isn't all that cleverly told or mind-boggling like later Nolan scripts, and the directing and overall production values are solid but nothing like the large-scale blockbusters to come. A fine beginning, but it's only uphill from here.

5. Memento (2000)

Nolan's second feature film makes it all the way to fifth place, proving that he doesn't need huge budgets and grandiose action set-pieces for a movie to be one of his best, even if most of his most-beloved works do fall into that category. Sure, Memento is quite big and Hollywood if compared to his very indie debut Following, but it's still very tame when compared to the blockbusters he went on to make - still no Hans Zimmer or Michael Caine. Nolan's sophomore picture still makes it this far on my list, and that is largely thanks to the absolutely genius storytelling.

Memento follows Leonard (Guy Pearce), a man with short-term memory loss, trying to find the man who killed his wife. He uses notes and tattoos to mark his progress, and the story is told more or less in reverse, with most scenes ending just where the previous one began (although there's also a separate black-and-white narrative shedding light on the context of Leonard's condition, because of course there is). This is one of those films you need to watch multiple times in order to wrap your head around it, and I've loved each viewing experience more than the last.

10. Insomnia (2002)

I'd like to rank Insomnia higher, as I consider it an overlooked gem that people don't talk about. But, the thing is - as underrated as it is, there's still no getting around the fact that it isn't quite as good as the likes of Memento, The Prestige et cetera, so I can't put it too high.

Still, Insomnia is a thoroughly decent crime thriller from Nolan's early era. The film's strongest suit is without a doubt its cast, with the great Al Pacino being a perfectly believable insomniac, the late great Robin Williams demonstrating his range with an untypical villain performance, and Hilary Swank carrying her scenes with a solid drive.

Alas, we arrive at the point in time when Nolan began to cooperate with composer Hans Zimmer and actor Michael Caine...

11. Batman Begins (2005)

The Dark Knight trilogy re-shaped superhero cinema and our idea of comic book movies in a massively influential way. While the trilogy's first instalment is inescapably its weakest, it is still a very solid start - we've seen many versions of Batman's origin story on the big screen, but the one seen here is the definitive take. Christian Bale is an excellent Batman and an even better Bruce Wayne, and the supporting cast really shattered the limits of how good the acting in a superhero flick can be, with Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson and others providing killer roles.

The film's pacing is a bit off at times and the final act isn't as exciting as it could be, proving that the franchise still had room to improve. But, for the most part, it's a very successful Batman reboot, with Hans Zimmer's score being the icing on the cake for the signature atmosphere of Nolan's take on Gotham City. A sign of great things to come.

4. The Prestige (2006)

Twists and turns, complex non-linear narratives, mind-bending storytelling with cryptic mysteries and jaw-dropping reveals - this right here is where Nolan went full Nolan. The films that came before The Prestige were part of a growth process where a rapidly improving young filmmaker was still finding his style (while making some kick-ass movies in the process), but The Prestige is the moment where he found the perfect recipe.

Nolan's directing is solid enough, as it always is - but it's the script, by him and his brother Jonathan, that truly makes this film into one of the greats. Nolan's enigmatic brand of storytelling is at its most mind-boggling here, making for an end product that you can re-watch time and time again and always get something extra that you missed the previous time. The acting is top notch as well, between the layered lead performances by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, as well as Scarlett Johansson and Michael Caine's remarkable supporting roles.

9. The Dark Knight (2008)

Most people would put the second instalment of the Dark Knight trilogy in their top 3 Nolan flicks, or top 5 at the very least. Most people tend to see The Dark Knight as the greatest superhero film of all time. And while I consider the film a tad overrated, as my act of ranking it at #9 shows, it should be noted that I see where they're coming from as this is one hell of a film. The relatively low ranking says more about Nolan's level of high-quality films than anything else - with many other filmmakers, a film this good would be in the top tier, but Nolan has simply outdone himself multiple times.

But, yeah. There's no getting around the fact that The Dark Knight is a tight-knit, well-paced, properly dark and fantastically acted film. Heath Ledger steals the show with his tragically posthumous Oscar-winning performance as the Joker, and while we're at the topic of acting, Michael Caine's emotional performance as Alfred just doesn't get enough credit here.

Between Gary Oldman's 'watchful guardian' speech and Hans Zimmer's dramatic soundtrack, the ending scene is one of the best from a filmmaker who excels in ending scenes. The film didn't cause as big emotions or deep thoughts in me as many other Nolan films, and doesn't have quite as much re-watch value, which is why it isn't higher than this in my ranking. But it's a brilliant film nonetheless, let's remember that.

1. Inception (2010)

Yep, this one right here, it's still the one. The only Nolan flick to make into my top 10 favorite movies of all time, Inception is an imaginative thrill ride with infinite re-watch value. The definitive point in his career where he had fully upgraded from smaller-scale mysteries to the grandiose large-scale blockbusters that we now associate Nolan with is this film right here, and this shift also marks the greatest individual highlight of his career.

From Leo DiCaprio to Joseph Gordon-Levitt, from Marion Cotillard to Ken Watanabe, and from Cillian Murphy to Michael Caine, the star-studded ensemble cast brings the end product home. I don't want to over-emphatize Inception being Nolan's best, because the filmmaker does keep reinventing himself with fresh new ideas, and many later films have had some element that's done better than in any earlier work. But, as a whole, nothing quite beats this dreams-within-dreams heist flick, with its perfect pacing, creative story, earth-shattering Hans Zimmer score, and one of the all-time great movie endings.

6. Dark Knight Rises (2012)

When compared to popular opinion, I'd reckon that #6 is a controversially high ranking for the final instalment of the Dark Knight saga. Some people downright didn't like it, and even the ones who did seem to consider it one of the lesser Nolan films. For me, however, Dark Knight Rises is the very epitome of Nolan's epic Batman trilogy, with all of the franchise's best elements being at their peak, hence my hot take of it being even better than the generally more appreciated Dark Knight.

My love for Nolan films can be traced back to sitting in the movie theater in 2012, and seeing the trailer for this film. My brother had mentioned that there is a set of modern Batman films that are 0% cheesy superhero corn and 100% dark and epic and legendary, but I hadn't watched them yet - and for most of the trailer, I had no idea that I'm watching the trailer for a Batman film. I just knew that this was the best trailer I've ever seen (an opinion I hold to this day), and that this film looks amazing - and only the very ending made me realize that it's the conclusion to the Batman franchise my brother has talked about.

So, I had to watch Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, while also getting acquainted with many other Nolan films - and eventually I got to see Dark Knight Rises, and it was every bit as good as I had expected. High stakes, heart-pumping intensity, raw emotion, larger-than-life moments, and one hell of a conclusion for one of cinema's greatest trilogies.

Also, I feel like I should mention that Michael Caine plays a wonderful role in this film, and Hans Zimmer composed the majestic soundtrack.

2. Interstellar (2014)

Nolan has mastered his takes on many genres throughout the years - crime drama, thriller, war, biopic, film noir, you name it. But many would argue that sci-fi is his strongest suit, and they'd have a strong case. Take everything good I said about Inception, everything good that I will say about Tenet later, and a dash of The Prestige with its sci-fi elements - and then add the absolute majestic beauty of Interstellar to the mix. This man knows science fiction.

Nolan's directing is sublime and his writing even better, while the star-studded cast (I especially enjoyed Michael Caine as NASA scientist John Brand) and the grandiose visual effects really seal the deal. I'd still argue that amidst the wildly emotional moments and mind-boggling plot twists, the true star of the spectacle has got to be Nolan's longtime collaborator Hans Zimmer, with one of the greatest scores in modern cinema. To this day, whenever I listen to any individual piece from the Interstellar soundtrack, I remember the exact feeling that I had when sitting in the movie theater nine years ago, experiencing it all for the first time.

8. Dunkirk (2017)

Dunkirk is the only film where Nolan's directing is even more impressive than his writing. As great of a director as he is, his scripts have always had an even bigger role in his acclaim and legacy - but in this one movie, the former has the edge over the latter.

Mind you, the script is decent - not as non-linear as most Nolan films, but still a bit of a narrative split to make the storytelling even more intense, as we follow an account of the evacuation of Dunkirk from World War II in an edge-of-your-seat, race-against-time fashion. And like I said, it's Nolan's directing that seals the deal - the action sequences look grandiose yet intimate and just feel so damn real. The beach bombing sequence is one of the best examples in the war movie genre of making the viewer feel like they're in the movie, intimately feeling the panic of the soldiers who don't know whether they're about to randomly die or not. A truly gripping war film, with the #8 ranking speaking more about how many great films Nolan has in his filmography than anything else.

Fun fact: Michael Caine makes an uncredited voice cameo in the film. And the score is one of Zimmer's best.

7. Tenet (2020)

Tenet is a very specific kind of film, appealing to only certain viewers and working for only a certain state of mind. If you're watching a movie for entertainment purposes, Tenet isn't the one to go with. But if you want to give your brain a serious exercise, then this is the film for you.

I understand why quite a few people disliked Tenet - it is an intense watch, and one that requires serious attention and commitment and even a re-watch or two in order for the viewer to really get into it. But, for a specific state of mind, Tenet is quite perfect in its category. I applaud the genius premise fleshed-out by the mind-bending script (not to mention Ludwig Göransson's hectic soundtrack), and in the right mindset, it's a hellishly intriguing puzzle box. It's a challenging watch, but so what - Shakespeare plays are challenging reads, Rush songs are challenging drum tracks to learn, but I still enjoy them. In the category of 'films to wrinkle your brain', Tenet stands in a league of its own.

And no, no Zimmer in this one, and Caine only plays a small supporting role. Truly the end of an era.

3. Oppenheimer (2023)

Yep, the one you've been waiting for - Nolan's newest release Oppenheimer, at least based on my first viewing (a Nolan flick should be watched a few times in order to formulate a final opinion), makes it all the way to the prestigious filmmaker's top three.

The biopic format is at its purest - the story stays true to facts, the film doesn't tell you what to think but rather presents all viewpoints that came up in real discussions and lets each viewer decide for themselves who they agree with, and the film's lessons on our history are powerful as hell. Top notch casting, top notch visuals, an immersive Ludwig Göransson soundtrack (between Tenet and this, he has proved a worthy successor to Mr. Zimmer) - this ambitious 3-hour-film about the father of the atomic bomb proves that Nolan shows no signs of slowing down, still finding new ways to reinvent and outdo himself, twelve feature films into his career.

And oh man, that ending scene. One of the most powerful final lines in cinema, and Cillian Murphy could win an Academy Award just for his facial expression in those final moments. Haunting stuff.

Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for my ranking of the top 10 episodes of HBO's Succession, which I recently finished watching.

My 200th Post: Top 20 'Top 10 Movies with Veikko Hoffman' Posts

Greetings, reader!

Wow, I can't believe I've written 200 of these dumb things. Every damn Thursday from January 2020 to today (plus a handful or three of Sunday Specials). It truly has been a time in my life.

One hundred posts ago, I celebrated my 100-post milestone by ranking the top 10 100th episodes from television shows. This time, I'm celebrating my taking a reflective look at my own writing - my biggest fan Tiina (who also happens to be my mother) has suggested this post many times and initially I didn't like it, as it felt so narcissistic as an idea. But, now that I decided to do it, I embraced the narcissism and made this into a top 20 instead of a top 10, because it turns out I have many posts that I felt to deserve a singling-out. So, today I'm shamelessly tooting my own horn, introducing the posts from this blog of mine that I'm the proudest of!

Oh, and just click on the title of any post to read the whole thing, if you're interested :)

Here are my honorable mentions: Top 10 Movie Drinking Games, Ranking Every Netflix Original Christmas Movie, R.I.P. Fred Willard - Top 10 of his Funniest Roles, Happy Arbor Day: Top 10 Iconic Movie Trees, Sunday Special: A Tired Recap of our 24-hour 24 Marathon.

20. Top 10 summer camp movies

I wrote this in the summer of 2022, from the request of my Aunt Donna, just as I was getting done with my second summer as a camp instructor. It was fun to look at camp movies through that lens, as for each film in the top 10, I wrote one paragraph about the movie in general, and one about my perspective on that movie as a real-life camp instructor. Blending my cinematic analyses with real-life experiences like that was quite a fun writing project.

19. Boxing Day Special: Ranking the Rocky movies

On the surface, it's a 'ranking the movies of this franchise' post like any other, something I've done countless times. But this one stands out for a few reasons: It's the point where I started to add defining quotes from each film in my descriptions (which has since become quite a staple), I reasoned one of my hotter takes (the original Rocky isn't at #1), and most important, I'm ridicilously proud of the timing of releasing my Rocky ranking on BOXING DAY. Get it?

18. Ranking all Star Trek TV shows

Not many posts all the way from 2020, the year I started to write my blog, made it onto today's list, as I consider myself to have improved a great deal as a writer in the last three years. My ranking of Star Trek shows is one of the few early posts that I'm very fond of, as it really showcases how fun it is to write about something you're really passionate about. Sure, all of my posts have that passion to some degree as movies and TV in general are a big thing for me, but the phenomenon is extra strong when writing about something like Star Trek, of which I am a MASSIVE fan. I feel like my passion for Star Trek translates into this post as authentic and childlike excitement, which is quite nice.

17. Top 10 movie/TV snacks

For this post, I gave recommendations for specific snacks to go with specific movies / TV shows. Coming up with such a list was delightful, with snacks ranging from obvious (a tasty burger with Pulp Fiction, coffee and cherry pie with Twin Peaks) to instances of incredibly dumb humor (iceberg lettuce with Titanic - ha ha, get it?). Another similar post I can recommend is the Top 5 movie-pizza pairings, that I posted in honor of National Pizza Day.

16. Music Month: Top 10 bands I'd like to see live (had I a time machine at my disposal)

As I have other passions than movies and television, I occasionally like to do theme months, where I post top 10's based on some other category - as of now, I've done two theme months on music, two on literature, and one on football. These have been a fun breath of fresh air, and my favorite post from my two music months has got to be this one, where I analyze which bands I'd most like to see, if I had the ability to travel back in time like Doctor f**king Who. It's a love letter to some of my favorite music, and to the history of rock and roll.

15. R.I.P. Chadwick Boseman: 5 of his greatest performances

I always strive to make my posts topical and relevant on some level - the release of a new movie, the anniversary of a classic movie's release, a holiday or observance tied to certain movies et cetera. The most gripping instance of a post being topical is when a famous actor passes away, and I pay my respects by ranking their greatest performances.

The hardest one I've had to write in these three and a half years was, without a doubt, Chadwick Boseman. As an actor, he was an inspiring beacon of hope, and he died much younger than anyone should, ending not only a hellishly promising career but also a life that by all accounts had brought joy and love to so many around him. I definitely consider this In Memoriam -post one of my more emotional texts.

14. Football Month: Top 10 football moments of all time

Last year's football theme month was something delightfully different from my usual shtick, and out of the four posts in that collection, it was the ranking of my favorite football/soccer moments that was the most personal and special to write about. The sport's dramatic nature and the incredible narratives that come with it are a big part of why I've always been drawn to following the sport, so getting to write about the most powerful and epic football moments I've witnessed was really quite something. My descriptions of moments like Leicester City's 2015/16 cinderella story and Liverpool FC's Champions League comeback against Barcelona may be riddled with romanticizing, but that's just how I see the world.

13. Top 10 How I Met Your Mother Episodes

This is one of the few posts to make it onto today's list that don't have any super-special real-life tie-ins or unique premises to justify why they're among my favorites. HIMYM is one of the many, many shows that I like and that I've done a 'Top 10 episodes' post of. I just somehow really like the way this one turned out, as I had an especially inspired writing session when working on it, and I feel like I managed to convey clearly just why I love this particular sitcom so much.

12. Sunday Special: A completely arbitrary ranking of all Olympic sports

I'm not sure if my sports-enthusiast Mother has ever fully forgiven me for this one. I did this post for fun and for my own personal entertainment, recklessly and arbitrarily analyzing a bunch of sports events that I have zero expertise on, not even pretending to know what I'm talking about but rather going fully tongue-in-cheek with just how out of my depth I was. For better or for worse, I had a blast writing it.

11. Top 10 stranded-in-the-woods TV episodes

I consider this one of the more zany topics I've come up with: I was watching an episode of Atlanta with my Dad, when I realized that weirdly many TV shows have a 'stranded-in-the-woods' episode. As I started to work on this list, I realized that it's also a very varied selection: what other topic would put The Simpsons, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Walking Dead and The Sopranos all in the same Top 10? Writing about such an oddly specific premise felt like a nice side quest, almost like going on a nice walk in the forest...

10. Inauguration Week: Top 10 movies that define the Trump era

While I've never done a Politics theme month (I can just imagine how many people I'd piss off), I've used many of my movie/TV posts to convey my worldview and political opinions, and especially to process and reflect living through the train-wreck clusterf**k known as the Trump presidency. These posts are often among my favorites, as I get to discuss deeper and more real topics than I do in posts that are 'just' about movies.

Here, I analyze the Trump era by picking 10 movies that define that period of time for various reasons. I posted this on the week of Joe Biden's inauguration, and I don't think I've ever used a quote more appropriately than in this post, as I opened with this line by Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) in Community:

"I'm done with you. He's done with you. The world is done with you"

9. My 99th post: Top 99 episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine

One of the many times I've gone full 'silly goose' with my posts, as I really like dumb concepts and commiting to various bits. So, for my 99th post, I looked to the direction of Brooklyn Nine-Nine - and ranked its 99 best episodes. Because I didn't want the post to be an exhausting 10-hour read, I limited myself to writing exactly one sentence about each episode. Quite a challenge for me and my long-winded writing style, but a fun one at that.

8. Top 10 Arabic numerals

My Uncle Dan, one of my biggest idols in life humor-wise, suggested this topic to me recently, and I rolled with it. With such an out-of-left-field topic, I could've been all arbitrary, but instead I chose to commit to the bit and spend a lot of time coming up with my reasonings, really looking at the issue from multiple perspectives. I was quite proud of the end result myself, and the general crowd seemed to agree as this became one of my most complimented posts.

7. Five years since Twin Peaks ended: Top 10 interpretations/theories about the greatest series ever made

Much like with the Star Trek post, this is also an example of me really diving head-first into a topic that I'm very, very passionate about. I love Twin Peaks and I LOVE talking about Twin Peaks, and in this particular post, I went delightfully deep into my thoughts and interpretations about the lore, themes and mysteries in David Lynch's masterpiece. Quite proud of this one.

6. One from the archives: Top 10 dystopian movies

The lore behind this one is a bit complicated - I wrote it for the Thursday after Election Day 2020, for the event of Trump winning. I had also written an alternate post, "Top 10 Party Movies", for the scenario of a Biden victory, and a third one, "Top 10 Ambiguous Movie Endings", for a situation where the election hasn't been decided by Thursday.

I ended up publishing all three.

On that Thursday, the nightmarish counting of votes was still going on, so I posted the one about the ambigious endings. On the weekend, I celebrated Biden's victory by posting "Top 10 party movies" as a Sunday Special. And for a year, the "Top 10 dystopian movies" stayed in my archives, haunting my mind, as I was so proud of the text that a part of me wanted to post it anyway.

So, in November 2021, on the five-year anniversary of Trump being elected President in 2016, I posted it, with a preface shedding light on the post's original context. There was something about the text's morbid humor in the face of despair that was too good to not be published.

5. Getting honest: My Top 10 unpopular movie opinions

Got 'em! I always post on Thursdays, and when I noticed that April 1st 2021 was a Thursday, I absolutely had to do something with that information. So, instead of gathering my actual top 10 unpopular movie opinions, I came up with 10 fake ones that would piss the maximum amount of people off, and ranked them in an escalating matter from least to most downright shocking. I riddled the post with Easter Eggs that might give someone the feeling that something is off, and after a paragraph about Cats (2019) being a vastly misunderstood masterpiece, I pulled the April Fool's reveal. Good times.

4. Top 10 cult LGBTQ+ movies

There are some less personal posts I've done, and some more personal ones - and then there's the one where I celebrated Pride Month by discussing some cult cinema and ended the post by publicly coming out.

It felt right to do it in this blog of mine - for a variety of reasons, one of which surely is that whatever 'fears' come with coming out were calmed down by knowing the fact that not that many people read my blog. Still, quite a few read this one, and I got a ton of encouraging messages from friends and relatives. It's nice to have who I really am out there, and I'm quite content with the manner in which I shared it with the world.

3. January 6th: Top 10 pieces of media that defined that dreadful day

The idea for this one came from my Dad, and writing about January 6th one year later was quite cathartic in its own way. I clearly had a lot to say on the topic, and writing about it via the lens of TV and news media was quite an important part of processing the events and reflecting on them. Not to toot my own horn, but I really feel like I managed to hit the nail on the coffin with that #1 and its appropriately bleak description.

2. So, I read the entire Bible. No, really. Here is my ranking of its books.

Yay, back to the fun and outlandish ambition projects! Definitely my most widely complimented blog post, this one generated tons of delightful feedback, which I was glad to see. The rambling text is a ridiculously long kitchen-philosophical train of thought, mixing humor and political opinions with movie references and theological analysis, and everything in between. It's chaotic to the maximum, and for whatever reason, people seemed to like it quite a bit.

1. 75 'A Song of Ice and Fire' fan theories, ranked from conventional to obscure

Funny how this is supposed to be a movie/TV blog, and my personal top 3 posts are one about politics and news, one about a long-ass book, and one about stuff that people on the internet wrote about a book series. Go figure.

But, yeah. The Bible post walked so that this even more ridiculous and over-ambitious clusterf**k could run. Mind you, this one was much less widely received as the Bible post, because the subject matter is so obscure that I know about 3 people who gave a shit and I'm one of them. But, yeah, there's no getting around this - the ASOIAF fan theory post has got to be my favorite.

It's not just because I was inspired to deep down the rabbit hole of this subject matter due to my friend Atte's pestering, and that I wrote this post as a weird-ass birthday present to him. It's not just that I familiarized myself with the subject matter by watching a 7-hour YouTube video on 1.5x speed across two over-caffeinated train trips. It's not just my stubborn pride at having seen an enormous amount of effort for a post on such a niche topic that hardly anyone will read it. It's a combination of all that, and that I'm simply very proud of my writing in said post - my dive into the subject matter had been so deep, that I knew what I was talking about to a worrying degree, and got a lot of self-conscious humor mileage out of the sheer absurdity of it all. Say what you will, that's my magnum opus right there.

Thank you for reading! Tune in next week as I post my revised ranking of Christopher Nolan films, now with the new Oppenheimer (2023) included.

BARBENHEIMER: Top 10 Insights into the Barbie/Oppenheimer Double Feature

I am become death - so come on Barbie, let's go party!

Like so many movie buffs and general people of culture did this summer, I too went to see Oppenheimer (2023) and Barbie (2023) in the cinema, on the same day, as a double feature, just like the Lord intended. For those who don't know, the amusing nature of two such large-scale and much-hyped blockbusters of such different genres+energies being released at the same time has become a much-joked-about trend, one that people have dubbed 'Barbenheimer' and the internet just had a blast with it.

I finally saw both films with my girlfriend this Monday, so here are my top 10 insights into the Barbenheimer double feature!

10. The memes are pure gold

As I mentioned, the internet has really been having a ball with the combination of Barbie and Oppenheimer. It started already half a year ago, when someone pointed out how funny it is that the two possibly most-hyped movies of the year are hitting the theaters on the same weekend, and that they are so different from each other by nature. As the double premiere drew closer, there were all sorts of shenanigans to be found online - people posting their preferred viewing orders and plans for the day, et cetera. Of course, the studios marketing these films were happy to jump on the hype train and monetize the phenomenon with a bunch of double feature marketing, but I'd like to think that it started off with people just finding amusement in the little things.

So, yeah, a quick Google search will give you an idea on some of the funniest tweets and memes that people have come up with concerning this unlikely pairing. My favorite might be when someone posted a picture of the Barbie dream mansion that had been re-created in lifesize form to promote the film, and someone had commented: "The Oppenheimer marketing team now has the chance to do the funniest thing imaginable".

9. Addressing the controversy

In the last few weeks, there has been conversation about the Barbie+Oppenheimer pairing and people making light about it, as people in Japan haven't all been thrilled about it for understandable reasons. The controversy was especially sparked by a Warner Bros. poster that admittedly wasn't done in very good taste, as the mushroom cloud from the atomic bomb is combined with the happily pink colors of Barbie, to promote the double feature with humorous intentions that backfired. As much as I've been aboard the 'Barbenheimer' hype train, I of course understand why the Japanese people might see westerners laughingly combining imagery of a tragedy that affected their country so deeply with imagery of fun-time pink-color aesthetics as offensive.

The main reason why I'm still personally okay with enjoying and hyping up the double feature is that once you see Oppenheimer, it becomes clear that even though it's an UK/US produced film, it does not one bit romanticize Oppenheimer or his work, but rather takes its heavy subject matter extremely seriously. Also, I don't see the point of all the 'Barbenheimer' jokes to be making light of the atomic bomb, but rather taking it into account and making dark humor about such a respectably dark film being a big deal at the same time as such a colorful and fun film. Still, I wanted to address the controversy and these are obviously just my opinions - as a pacifist, I have sympathy for anyone who takes the issue so seriously that they don't find the movie pairing funny, and as an American, I'm definitely in no position to tell the Japanese people what to think about this.

8. A thankful movie theater industry

The long-term effects of Covid, combined with the rise of streaming services and the rise of movie ticket prices due to inflation, have been a major hazard for cinemas worldwide. As someone who greatly appreciates the movie theater experience, this has been a worrying phenomenon to follow, and it's been sad to see how movie theaters appear to be emptier and emptier each year.

Therefore, it felt absolutely heartwarming to see how the power of Barbie, the power of Oppenheimer, and the power of the hype around this combination got people to go to theaters in record amounts. I can only imagine how deeply grateful the movie theater industry is to the Barbenheimer phenomenon, for filling up their seats after a rough couple of years.

7. The power of both films complemented one another

Oppenheimer is a damn powerful film. As good biopic should, it focuses on showing what happened more than telling people what to think: every point-of-view in the 'bomb or not to bomb' conversation, from the most idealistic "science shouldn't be utilized to design weapons of mass destruction" viewpoints to the most militaristic "we obviously had no choice but to do this" viewpoints is introduced, so that every viewer can think for themselves who they agree with. But in the end, while I appreciate the complexities and nuances of the situation, it's hard to imagine anyone watching the film and not coming up with the takeaway "damn, this whole endless cycle of nuclear arms races is a pretty shitty thing for humanity". I was worried that the film would do the Hollywood thing of being sort-of critical-of-war but not strongly enough because of American interests, but I was thankfully proved wrong, as Oppenheimer is all grim facts and zero propaganda, and this really spoke to my pacifist soul.

Barbie, on the other hand? Also an extremely powerful film. Obviously, it's powerful in a very different way, but powerful all the same - where Oppenheimer spoke to the pacifist in me, Barbie spoke to the feminist in me. I recommend Barbie to all men, as we all have stuff we could and should learn from it - I'd also recommend it to all women because every woman I know who saw the movie has had only good things to say about it, so I'm guessing it's a no-brainer for a good movie experience. But, yeah, amidst all of the zany aesthetics and silly humor, the film has a lot of important stuff to say, regarding gender roles, the patriarchy and the expectations and pressures that women have to face.

For some viewers, viewing these films on the same day might not be ideal, as their different types of being powerful might diminish the impact for one another. This wasn't the case for me, thankfully; in some weird way, Oppenheimer's grim and serious power and Barbie's nuanced and clever yet also delightfully in-your-face power complemented each other in a wonderful fashion. Both films made me think about a great deal of deep subjects and left a lot to be processed, but that just sort of was the theme of the day. Going to sleep that night, I had about a million thoughts running through my head, regarding bombs and arms races and humanity's inherent obsession for violence, but also regarding women's rights and the subtle ways in which the patriarchy continues to influence our society and what I could try to do as a man to break the cycle and help make things better - but all of this just made the day more memorable and unique.

6. Oppenheimer first & Barbie second: a good order

The ideal viewing order for this double feature of the century has been discussed and debated online, and there's certainly an argument to be made for both. One friend of mine recommended Barbie first and Oppenheimer second, because Oppenheimer's ending is so bleak and thought-provoking that watching anything right after that would feel like a weird fever dream. I see that point, but then again: if there's one film in the world that might be even better when feeling like a weird fever dream, I reckon it's Greta Gerwig's delightfully stylized, deliriously humorous and fantastically otherworldly larger-than-life take on Mattel's iconic doll.

Another reason for me personally preferring Oppenheimer first and Barbie second is that whenever I do a double feature, I always tend to prefer to watch the darker movie first and the lighter one second (me and my brother have had some great nights of watching a gripping Oscar-winning drama followed by a ridiculously stupid comedy). Of course, both of the Barbenheimer films deal with heavy themes and hit very hard and I don't want to downplay Barbie's significance one bit - but when thinking viewing orders, I'd say that the dialogue-heavy 3-hour zero-humor biopic drama is grim in a more draining way than the semi-short film that makes its points while having loads of fun and with flying colors.

So, our viewing order was pretty ideal. My girlfriend and I drank strong shots of espresso, and went to see Oppenheimer. With just over half an hour of time between the movies, we hit a local pub and enjoyed appropriately fresh and colorful raspberry mojitos, and then saw Barbie. We then went for de-toxing post-movie drinks in one of my favorite bars, to unpack and discuss various thoughts caused by both films.

5. Which film was better? (That's not the point)

"Who is the greatest of our time, Messi or Ronaldo?" has been the biggest debate in football/soccer culture for the last one and a half decades. And while I'll always be team Messi, I do respect the often-repeated point of "comparison isn't the point, just enjoy them both", that someone always brings up whenever the debate online gets too toxic. And I think that's pretty much my answer, at least for the time being, if someone asks me if I liked Oppenheimer or Barbie more.

Of course, eventually I'll have to decide which one I liked more overall, for my 'Top 10 movies of 2023' post at the end of the year (of the ones I've seen so far, these two are a country mile ahead of any others, and will very likely end up as my top 2, in one order or another, as both are so exceptional). But even though I will end up forming such an opinion, in an "if you had to say, gun to your head" fashion, I will stand by my view that "which is better" is very much not the point, as both films are so awesome.

And yes, currently I honestly can't decide which was the better film. The critical reception to both has been mostly very positive - even more so for Oppenheimer, but sexism certainly has a large role to play in the negative side of Barbie's reception. I've also heard quite a few people say that "Barbie isn't all that good as movie despite the message being good", but I have to say that I thoroughly disagree with that, and think that the people saying that have the view that a movie has to be like a conventional and typical Oscar-winning drama in order to be "good as a movie".

Yes, Barbie is silly and zany, but that doesn't make it less of a masterpiece - Greta Gerwig's writing and directing is razor-sharp, the acting performances are perfect for what the film was going for, and the film's deeply creative, unique and revolutionary style has all the makings of a future classic - "unforgettable" is one of the best things that art can be, after all. So, while Oppenheimer might be a more conventional kind of "good movie", I see the greatness of these two as a tight, neck-to-neck race. Just enjoy them both, man.

4. The greatness of cinema as an art form

Imagine a person who has never seen a single movie in their life, and wants to know what all the fuss is about with this form of art. If tasked with showcasing the beauty of cinema to this person with just two movies, you couldn't do much better than Oppenheimer and Barbie They are two very extremes of the same phenomenon: how great cinema can be at its most powerful. Oppenheimer is great cinema in the more down-to-earth fashion: a fascinating true story is brought to the big screen through a grim script based on gripping facts and events, and viewers can experience a glimpse into our history through the lens of cinema. Barbie, on the other hand, is truths about life reflected through fiction, with the script utilizing humor and color and warmth and whimsy to make its points, with parts of the film being feel-good escapism while others are hard-hitting facts of life, and all of it is clever and unique, memorable and deeply imaginative.

And more than anything, this is thanks to the fact that Barbenheimer was brought to us by two of Hollywood's finest filmmakers. Christopher Nolan is as influential and game-changing as they come, having shaped modern Hollywood with future classics like Inception, The Dark Knight and Dunkirk - while Greta Gerwig is a major force of nature and a feminist icon, having burst onto the scene with Lady Bird and Little Women as well as various interviews that prove her to be a genius whose brains operate on a different plain than us mere mortals. Like the one where she discussed why she wanted to make a Barbie movie, and blew everyone's mind with a point of society's inherent sexism dating back to the Bible (first, there was Adam, and then Eve was created for him), and that the Barbie mythos is the closest that we have to a reverse of that (first, there was Barbie, and Ken was created afterwards around this concept).

So, yeah - Barbenheimer is as big of a deal as it is because there are two top tier masterminds of filmmaking behind these films.

3. The men offended by Barbie are just the funniest/saddest idiots out there

As I mentioned earlier, the reception to Barbie has been mostly very positive. But the film has its share of haters, and they seem to exclusively be a very specific kind of person - grown men, with such laughably fragile masculinity, that a movie about f**king Barbie and girl power got under their skin. I mean, really. Most grown men would either recognize that this isn't the film for them, or then would see the film with an open mind and hopefully get something out of it - but some men apparently paid to go see the film about the famous girl doll, and were thoroughly upset that it didn't comply with their patriarchal worldview.

Chief among these voices is Ben Shapiro, a conservative commentator who me and my friend once dubbed "Evil Veikko Hoffman", because he has videos like "My ranking of all Star Wars movies!" and "Making a tier list of all U.S. Presidents", but they're riddled with horrible political takes. Shapiro uploaded a 43-minute rant about Barbie, and I wanted to watch it out of morbid curiosity but had to stop less than 10 minutes into it because the stupidity of fragile masculinity started to hurt my brain. Men with a healthy relationship to their masculinity will see that the film isn't "anti-men" like the Ben Shapiros of the world claim, but that it is empowering for men as well as for women; the central message is for everyone to be content as their true selves, not needing to feel like they need to fit into a certain mold.

2. Jesus Christ, that ending

Endings have always been a forte for Christopher Nolan, with the final scenes of Inception, Dark Knight Rises and The Prestige all being among my all-time favorite movie endings. Yet he may have outdone all of his previous endings with Oppenheimer, as the final scene in this film left me beyond speechless. The final line of dialogue is the best, most heart-stopping note possible to leave such a film on, and Cillian Murphy could win an Oscar for his facial expression in that moment alone. Honestly, is you ask me, the final line is up there with Casablanca and Back to the Future in the category of the very greatest final lines in cinema.

1. Some final thoughts on Barbie

A good friend of mine saw Barbie before me, and I mentioned to her that I'm going to see it with my girlfriend. She gave me a great piece of advice: "Once the film is over, ask her what it was all about, and listen to what she has to say, instead of starting off with your own thoughts and trying to mansplain the film to her". I will relay this same advice to any other men going to see the film in female company.

As much as I loved the film and recommend it to my fellow dudes, I definitely reckon that we can't fully appreciate the experience on quite the same level as women - I've heard so many female friends describe how profoundly the film resonated with them, how it made them feel so seen and heard. My favorite part of the movie experience just might've been occasionally glancing at my girlfriend, seeing how she was just beaming with excitement and joy (or in tears, depending on which part of the movie we're talking about), and seeing what a special thing it was for her.

Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for a big one - my 200th post! I shall celebrate this milestone with a deeply narcissistic, patting-myself-on-the-back walk down memory lane: My top 20 favorite posts from the 'Top 10 Movies with Veikko Hoffman' blog over the years.

Top 10 Stephen King Movie Adaptations

Greetings, reader!

Literature Month II ended last week with a ranking of my favorite Stephen King books, so it felt like a fitting bridge back into my usual movie/TV themes to continue with a ranking of the best King adaptations on the big screen.

Now, there were a few different ways in which this could've been done. I could've done a simple ranking of the top 10 best overall movies that happen to be based on Stephen King books, regardless of how well they work as adaptations. Or, I could've ranked these purely based on how loyal they are to the book, regardless of how good of an overall film it is. I ended up doing neither (or both, depending on how you look at it), as this ranking is a mixture of both elements. You get points for being a good adaption, and points for being a good film, making this list a total of what I consider to be the best 'Stephen King movies'.

Oh, and I'm excluding the wonderful The Green Mile (1999), because I haven't gotten a chance to read the book yet, so I can't analyze its merits as an adaptation (it's a kick-ass film no matter what, obviously).

Here are my honorable mentions: It (1990), Pet Sematary (1989), Pet Sematary (2019).

10. It: Chapter Two (2019)

While I agree with the overwhelming popular opinion that the second instalment of Andy Muschietti's It films wasn't as good as the first, I still think that it was received a bit too negatively, as the flawed-but-decent sequel does many things right and is still loads better than the 1990 miniseries.

The flaws keeping the movie from greatness can be found from its arrogant and unsuccessful attempt to one-up the book's ending, and the over-use of humor as an element that really takes the edge off the spookier elements. But there are many strengths, chief among them the casting - from James McAvoy's Bill through Jessica Chastain's Beverly all the way to Bill Hader's Richie, they really found the perfect actors to play the adult version of the Losers Club (and it goes without saying that Bill Skarsgård continues to kill it as Pennywise).

The film also does a decent job with many cool parts from the book, such as the creepy reunion dinner and the tense under-the-bridge opening. Considering that it's adapted from a 1200-page literary behemoth containing a climax that would never quite work the same on the big screen, you can't expect this to be an absolute masterpiece. So, while It: Chapter Two was a bit of a let-down after seeing the first film, reading the book in between and going to see the conclusion in the cinema two years later, it still was far from being a failure.

9. The Shining (1980)

This one was tough to rank with my combination of factors for today's list. Is The Shining one of the greatest horror films of all time, and one of the top 3 best films that happen to be based on King's books? Yes. Is it a good adaptation of King's book? Well, not really.

As much as I love Stanley Kubrick's film, I completely understand why King himself hates it. It takes some wild-ass liberties, not just on the level of specific plot points, but on the level of themes, focal points, and overall atmosphere. The weird thing is that the film avoids the 'this film is bad because it's a bad adaptation' trope, because Kubrick just sort of happened to make a very different kind of masterpiece. His Shining is pretty much just as great as King's Shining, but for totally different and even unrelated reasons.

Jack Nicholson's Jack Torrance is one of the greatest role performances in cinema history, but he's not playing the Jack Torrance from the book. Kubrick's peculiar directing style, fleshed out by the iconic and polarizing work of the set design, music and cinematography departments, creates one of the most unique and haunting atmospheres in horror cinema, but it's not the atmosphere from the Overlook Hotel that King wrote. In a nutshell, The Shining is only at #9 because it really isn't much of an adaptation, but it still makes it into the top 10, because it is an absolute classic that is (sort of) based on a King novel.

8. The Stand (1994)

Cinematically, this 1994 miniseries amounts to an absolute fraction of The Shining. But on this list, it's ahead of it, because it is a much more loyal adaptation, and pretty much the best possible big-screen adaptation that could be made of The Stand. Mind you, the miniseries isn't all that great, but I don't believe you could adapt that particular book much better, because so much of The Stand is material that works better on the pages of a book than on the big screen. Sure, the people who said The Lord of the Rings and/or Dune can never be properly adapted into a movie were proved wrong, but I will stubbornly claim the same about The Stand until someone does prove me wrong.

This miniseries is the best-case scenario - it's nowhere near as gripping, creative and mind-blowing as the book, but for someone who read the whole thing, it feels delightful to witness its wonderful characters coming to life via well-cast acting performances (especially Gary Sinise as reluctant hero Stu Redman, and a young and absolutely dashing Rob Lowe as a pitch-perfect Nick Andros). Some parts of the miniseries were boring as this type of story is riveting to follow as literature but falls a bit flat on the big screen - but other parts were dope and memorable, particularly the chilling opening montage set to Blue Öyster Cult's (Don't Fear) The Reaper.

7. Doctor Sleep (2019)

It's funny how The Shining's sequel Doctor Sleep is a much lesser book than the original, just as the Doctor Sleep movie is nowhere near the greatness of Kubrick's The Shining - yet this is the one list where Doctor Sleep gets the edge, as this film is the better adaptation of the two. Mind you, Mike Flanagan had his hands full with this one, as he ambitiously attempted to bridge it all together by making this film an adaptation of the 2013 book, a movie sequel to the 1977 book The Shining, AND a film sequel to the 1980 film. And somehow, he succeeded!

The parts that relate directly to The Shining are handpicked to be those parts that were similar to both the book and the movie, and therefore this film does feel like it's continuing both King and Kubrick's stories, no matter how different those were from each other. Ewan McGregor is just right as the all-grown-up Dan Torrance, and while the plot doesn't follow the Doctor Sleep book with exact precision, it is a much more loyal adaptation than The Shining was. A decent job, this one.

Sidenote: we're at #7 and I'm still only at "a decent job" instead of high praise, which really underlines how difficult King's writing is to adapt, and how there's less than a handful of truly great cinematic adaptations of his books out there.

6. Carrie (1976)

In terms of loyalty to the text, Carrie is up there as one of the most faithful King adaptations - the story escalates in a very similar fashion to the book, with hardly any extra material. The film was made just two years after the book's release, and it was directed by the steady hand of Brian De Palma, with the premise feeling less "let's make a CINEMATIC MASTERPIECE" and more "let's give fans of the book the treat of getting to see all this in movie format". An antithesis to Kubrick's The Shining, if you will.

The fact that Carrie is only sixth says something about the fans who always complain about movies-based-on-books taking liberties instead of being 100% faithful. Sure, taking too many is a problem and one should remain faithful to the book's spirit, but films like Carrie showcase why there's something to be said for some well-reasoned liberties - a book-based movie that remains very, very faithful is bound to feel a tad like a typical cover song, doing the same but just without the edge of the original. A movie based on a book can do its job with perfection without being a masterpiece, and if you want it to be a masterpiece, you arguably have to take one or two major liberties in order to make the film great in its own right.

5. Christine (1983)

Not nearly as good as an overall piece of cinema as many below it on today's list, and also based on a book far from King's highest tier, Christine is nonetheless one of the better adaptations of King's works. The plot itself even isn't all that faithful to the novel - definitely more faithful than The Shining or Pet Sematary (2019), but not as faithful as Carrie, for example. But the spirit of the book is captured into the film with excellence, and watching Christine truly feels like seeing the world from the pages of the book coming to life.

Of course, a horror novel about a haunted car must be easier to adapt successfully onto the big screen than the unique psychological horror of The Shining, the large-scope epic of The Stand or the psychedelic and otherworldly fantasy elements of It. But still, kudos to John Carpenter for sticking the landing with this project.

4. Misery (1990)

Mm, here we have one of those rare and delightful adaptions where the places, characters and events look just like you imagined them when reading the book, as the filmmakers really got to the heart of the book's milieu and managed to recreate it. The biggest factor in Misery's success as an adaptation is, without a doubt, the brilliant casting - James Caan is the spitting image of protagonist Paul Sheldon, and oh man, Kathy Bates's Oscar-winning performance as antagonist Annie Wilkes is up there with Sir Ian McKellen's Gandalf and David Suchet's Hercule Poirot as some of the best-ever instances of an actor completely becoming the character from the book to a staggering degree.

3. It (2017)

Being a good adaptation isn't necessarily the same thing as following the book's events word-for-word. For example, the 1990 miniseries It follows the book much more accurately than the 2017 film, but it fails to capture the spirit and atmosphere of the book. This film by Andy Muschietti takes its share of wild-ass liberties from the source material, but man, the atmosphere it 100 per cent Stephen King. Benjamin Wallfisch's score is pitch-perfect for the fictional setting of Derry, Maine, and the casting choices from Bill Skarsgård's terrifying Pennywise to Finn Wolfhard's hilarious Richie are pulled straight from the pages of the book.

Also, this movie is somewhat responsible for my whole Stephen King phase. Sure, I had seen a few movies based on his books before 2017, but I hadn't thought of them as 'Stephen King adaptations' specifically. I went in to the cinema to watch It, not having read the book but knowing that this is based on a famous Stephen King book - and I loved the film so much, that I had to read the 1200-page book. This left me with a simmering drive to read much more King, a project that I got around to starting last winter - and the rest is history.

2. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Of course the arguably greatest film of all time is based on a Stephen King book. And even thought it is one of the three only films that I've ever given a full 10/10 rating to, I still have to say that purely in the category of King adaptations, there is one that has to go above this one, even if it isn't quite as great as a whole cinematic product.

But, yeah. Frank Darabont really pulled a rabbit out of a hat with this one. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption is a very decent novella by King, but not quite among his best works - yet Darabont saw its potential, and made an all-time legendary film out of it. Most King books are stories that work much better as literature than on the screen, which is why there will probably never be a masterpiece-level movie of Pet Sematary or The Stand, and why It and The Shining had to change a bunch of stuff in order to work. But Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption isn't typical King, and out of all his stories, it's the one that begs to be made into a movie.

Pretty much everything from the book's little-over-100-pages length is there, plus a bunch of added material that fleshed the story out. Not nearly all of the film's greatness is attributed to King, because Darabont really made the story his own (as much as I love Stephen King's writing, Shawshank is the one case where I have to reluctantly agree that the adaption is the better work, similarly to how Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' Hurt is so great that the Nails stopped playing it live because 'it belongs to Cash now'). But of course, the author has to be thanked and praised for coming up with the premise and basic storyline, that allowed the possibly greatest film of all time to be made.

But what film deserves to be called an even better King adaptation than this one? Well, that would be...

1. Stand By Me (1986)

King himself considers this to be the greatest big-screen adaptation of any of his works, and I can see why. I saw the film in high school, and saw it again this year after I had read The Body, on which the movie is based, in between. Basically, Stand By Me checks every box of a perfect book-to-film adaptation: the story is very loyal to the book and the few minor liberties it takes are well-reasoned, the atmosphere completely feels like King's writing with much of his dialogue making it into the screenplay, and all of the book's best and most memorable parts are highlighted here as well.

Oh, and the casting? Ridiculously good. I didn't remember which actor plays which character when I started my re-watch, but having just finished the book, all it took was one glance at the main characters in the tree house sequence to immediately know who is who. Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman and Jerry O'Connell all live up to their roles in some of Hollywood's all-time best child acting, as does Kiefer Sutherland as teenage dirtbag Ace Merrill. No other 'based on a story by Stephen King' flick has lived up to its source material quite as fully as Stand By Me.

Thank you for reading! Tune in next week as I analyze this summer's Barbie/Oppenheimer double feature craze with 10 insights into this odd pairing of films that swept the world away.