Cinematic canon

It's so hard to talk about my favorite movies nowadays, or even books or TV, since I've loved very little of what I've seen since high school, and almost zero if we just go since college. My tastes have changed, so it feels uncomfortable to report on my favorite movie being what it was in high school, but nothing has taken its place, and I can't even see my old favorites through the lens of my new taste, because I'm too familiar with them and they carry too much baggage. So I can't say any new stuff is my favorite, because I don't love any of it, but I'm also uncomfortable claiming any old stuff, because I can't reconcile it with my new taste. Like I can't cognitively line them up. So I just keep saying "Synecdoche, with a huge asterisk". Then my mind races through other options; finds Tarkovsky for some reason, discards it; finds LotR, but has a hard time upsetting the original canon -- the one from when my identity started crystallizing; besides, LotR is an adventure, it doesn't speak directly to my soul like my old favorites did. LotR is just a fantasy, Synecdoche was a dialogue with who I actually was. Nothing has hit me like those did in high school, so it's hard to demote them.

Old canon I have a hard time revoking:

• Synecdoche
• Magnolia
• 2001

Old canon I'm okay demoting:

• indie realism like Cianfrance
• Eternal Sunshine; it's still up there, but not in that top tier
• foreign films like Tarkovsky and Bergman; Tarkovsky as a filmmaker is up near the top, but I don't enjoy his or any old "world classics" quite enough, if I'm being honest
• most Kubrick

The only things that have even dared to breach the canon since college:

• Les Mis
• Game of Thrones (I know it's not a movie, but even including TV it's the only one; and it is cinematic)
• Harry Potter
• Dune

Coincidence that two of those were 100% driven by Hannah? And one of the only others to join the canon since high school (LotR) was driven by another romance? Am I that much more sympathetic in those scenarios? I doubt it, since lots of others in those scenarios have not breached the canon. Also notice all four are epics with some fantastical flair (for Les Mis it's the music and general theatric staging). I think the only book to give me a really powerful moment, as well, in recent memory, was Once and Future King, which is directly up the alley of epic/fantasy/historical.

Actual canon:

• Synecdoche (grandfathered in, but there's a chance I still love it and call it a great movie)
• Magnolia (grandfathered in, less beloved than Synecdoche, but more objectively classic)
• 2001 (grandfathered in, less beloved than Synecdoche, but more objectively classic)
• LotR (consumed my taste in college and for a while after; no question it suits who I am as an adult)
• GoT (fascinating and intense, I didn't love it the first time, but I also didn't love LotR the first time)
• Harry Potter (the newest and shakiest entry, but I can't deny it gave me a LotR-like experience, one of the only thrills I've had in movies since college)

Is that it? The second tier houses things like:

• Eternal Sunshine
• Les Mis
• Dune
• Tarkovsky
• Casino Royale
• The Departed
• The Godfather
• The Office (undeniably canonized, but at a lesser, sentimental level)
• Birdman
• Melancholia
• other PTA and Kaufman
• other Kubrick
• Interstellar
• Tree of Life
• Hobbit
• Persona

Notice everything in the actual canon is epic and fantastical. They're all lengthy (other than GoT, which is a series, the rest are all notably long movies). They all contain some version of fantasy: Harry Potter, LotR, and GoT are obvious, but 2001's sci fi blends with fantasy, especially toward the end (and anyway, outer space and the dawn of humanity both feel fantastical to the modern earthgoer), Magnolia features a few miracles, and Synecdoche projects a distorted psyche onto the world such that the whole thing bends the imagination. So you'll say I'm drawn to fantasy, not necessarily in a wizarding sort of way, but in a way that bends the imagination without losing its humanity. I don't watch movies for a literal window into reality, I want my mind to stretch, and you don't even have to be subtle about it!

So fantastical epics. But there's a spectrum from conventional storytelling (Harry Potter) to brutal world-building (GoT) -- with LotR in between the two -- to moody meditations on modernity (Synecdoche, Magnolia), to rock hard sci fi (2001). So within the constraints of a runtime approaching 3 hours and some stretching of the imagination, there's some wiggle room in terms of what subjects you're dealing with and what your point is. But here's the thing: you have to be stylistically bold! Artistically adventurous! And you have to think really hard about what you're doing. Don't try to underanalyze your epic. Even Rowling, the author among them that appeals easiest to the mainstream, was strategically brilliant.