10. Finish Watching all the movies on the National Film Registry Made since 1986

Did you know that there are over 900 movies on the National Film Registry? So many. SO. MANY. And while I do very much like movies, I think completing that list is a lifetime bucket list not a 40 for 40 list, so I'm just going to try and watch all those films that were made in my lifetime, since 1986, and there are only114 of those.

Starting off, I had watched only 38 of them. Which in my defense, is still a lot, and the National Film Registry has a pretty impressive number of obscure (yet amazing) titles, that you don't just accidentally happen upon. So this is where I started:

From here, I started locating where I could watch the more obscure documentaries (the answer is ALWAYS the library) and just finding where the rest were streaming, and started watching while I was working on other things at the house, or snowed in, and I'm going to include some thoughts as I watch the rest of the 76 movies on this list. These are in no particular order except in the order that I decided to watch them:

Fake Fruit Factory - Short film, and an important vignette into life for women in Central America in the 80s

Goodfellas - I hadn’t ever seen it and it was really good (if VERY violent)

Lunch Date - Another short one but a very funny story about not making assumptions based on appearances

Hoosiers - Sweet story, Gene Hackman is doing a lot of yelling at teenagers though…

She’s Gotta Have It - Spike Lee started out great and continues to be great. Interesting story line and he weaves in the black culture of New York City so well. Absolutely belongs on the list

No Country for Old Men - Well. This was horrific. I’ve been told this movie has the most diagnostically accurate portrayal of a psychopath ever filmed. I believe it. Yikes.

Precious Images - Do you want to watch the entire history of American film in 6 minutes? This is your short.

Selena - Such an amazing story and the music is phenomenal. And then the end makes your heart ache.

Luxo Jr. - Pixar short with the lamps. Adorable.

Who Killed Vincent Chin? - This should be required for every american history class. Unbelievable story about racism and a wild miscarriage of justice.

Tin Toy - I may have nightmares about the terrifying uncanny valley of the baby in this Pixar short.

The Red Book - Experimental short about…memory? I honestly don’t know. I thought I was losing my mind by the end.

Scratch and Crow - I think this short is a…metaphor? I don’t think I do well with experimental film. It just makes me feel slightly unhinged…which may be the point.

The Thin Blue Line - I don’t know if there is such a genre as horror documentary, but this is it. Amazing Errol Morris film but the entire time I was dumbfounded and horrified.

The Fog of War - Great documentary, but downright shocking at times. I am now adding it to my Vietnam/Nixon film watch order: The Post, Fog of War, All the President's Men, then Mark Felt.

20 Feet from Stardom - Lovely documentary about backup singers and it has a ton of really cool cameos from the artists that they worked with. Loved it and the music was great.

Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision - Documentary about Maya Lin, who designed the Vietnam War memorial and the Civil Rights memorial (among many other things). Really moving and you get to see the vision behind how she works and builds these extraordinary spaces.

Roger & Me - This Michael Moore film is better than Bowling for Columbine. No joke. It's so well edited and the city of Flint, Michigan is a character unto itself. The story of what happens when a company town is abandoned by the company. Really feeling that one right now...

Drums of Winter - This documentary legitimately made me cry. It's about a native Yu'pik community in Alaska that was documenting their traditions, especially their drumming and dancing traditions, along with the story of why they were forced to give up many of those traditions in the 1920s. When it was filmed (1977) many of the elders were unsure whether their culture would even survive. I started crying because when I looked up the drumming and dancing practices now, they are alive and doing well in the hands of the children and grandchildren that descended from these elders.

Platoon - Possibly the most violent movie I've ever watched in my life? Definitely deserves to be on this list for what I have to imagine is a fairly accurate portrayal of some experiences of the Vietnam War (on both sides).

One Survivor Remembers - Very intense film that I think needs to be shown to every high school student. It's a simple but very moving interview with Holocaust survivor Gerda Klein interspersed with photos from WWII of the places and people she describes.

Tongues Untied - We are back to the high art film. This is a spoken word film with associated imagery and movement. The rhythms and repetitions were definitely unsettling at times, but it's an interesting perspective to hear.

Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser - I am not a big jazz fan, but I had heard of Thelonious Monk because I knew about the song 'Round Midnight. A jazz-style documentary of a jazz legend. Which is to say that the entire thing feels a bit unstructured and fluid at times, but is still nonetheless a beautiful story.

Hoop Dreams - This is a long-form documentary that spans several years for two boys from their Freshman year of high school into their Freshmen year of college in the pursuit of a dream of playing professional basketball. It's very well made but hard to watch at times because it highlights some tragic and exploitative aspects of programs intended to help these boys reach their potential.

Buena Vista Social Club - Lovely documentary about Cuba and the rich culture of Cuban music and musicians.

Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt - I haven't cried this hard over a movie in a long time. Unbelievable storytelling about those lost to AIDS.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off - I know I know. But I hadn't watched it yet! It was a really cute movie, but I really loved the message of being there for your friends when they're having a hard time, and knowing how to help them pull out of their own darkness.

Field of Dreams - This was a really great story, and I wasn't expecting the themes of regret and memories to be woven through the story like this. It was really great.

La Bamba - So even though this came out in 1987 I watched this after watching Selena and the story was even more heartbreaking. Ritchie Valens was a really young kid and such a talented musician. I loved the movie and the music was fantastic. Lou Diamond Phillips did a great job as Ritchie.

Hairspray (1988) - Such a great film! I haven’t seen the remake, but I feel like doing this movie without Devine would lose SO MANY of the best parts of this movie.

House Party - Fun, irreverent, and makes a critical point about racial profiling by police by making it absurd to the point of a joke.

sex, lies, and videotape - This is a really psychological film, but I liked it much more than I thought I would. Really interesting concept and basically the entire story revolves around four people.

Clerks. - This was hilarious. The pacing of the dialogue was so different and I hadn't watched black and white in ages. Really enjoyed the ridiculous 90s throwbacks.

Thelma & Louise - Loved it! (and not just because young Brad Pitt) Great woman's empowerment movie and Gina Davis was amazing.

Matewan - I can almost guarantee you have never heard of this movie, much less seen it, because it is available nowhere online. I had to request this film through the library (thank you DVD player…). It’s about the push to unionize coal mines in the 1920s. It is FULL of famous actors and actresses, and the story is heartbreaking. Absolutely a must watch.

Do the Right Thing - Such a powerful movie, I could feel it in my chest. It was made in 1989 but it is just as poignant today. Another amazing Spike Lee film.

Decasia - This was a full sensory experience. Dissonant music, deteriorated film, and varied scenes spanning from whirling dervishes to every day scenes of people. After I told John how challenging I found some of the art films on this list, as someone who actually went to school for film, he told me I was probably watching them wrong. They were meant to be watched in the dark and without any other distractions. I let him know that if I watched this film in the dark, I would probably need to be committed right after. It's an hour of deteriorating film reflecting on the state of decay of the world. And...I watched it. This is now a thing I have watched. All the way through. The lights were on though, so I don't need to have a psych eval.

Unforgiven - Unforgiven is a western from the early 90s. The main difference between this one and others I've seen is that the main plot centered around how American culture (at the time and since) glorified violence, but that the reality is traumatizing and scarring for everyone involved, including the "heroes". Morgan Freeman, Clint Eastwood, and Gene Hackman were all amazing.

Sink or Swim - This is a small art film that I didn't quite understand until the end. It's made of 26 short stories told about a woman's life and her relationship with her father, played over black and white clips (some of which relate to the story, others do not). It's a really intimate reflection about complicated relationships and how difficult it is to really know one another, even your parents.

Bamboozled - This is a Spike Lee film that really must be watched, as it's hard to really explain. As with many Spike Lee films it's allegorical, but the broad discussion of African Americans in entertainment is done so well. As with Blackkklansman, Lee manages to create a modern record of forgotten historical footage by interspersing films and clips throughout the movie and in the conclusion of the film. While Bamboozled is available online, it's very clear that American entertainment has made the choice to carefully edit out the more unpleasant recent history when blackface was far more common, even for extremely big name actors and actresses (there is a shocking number). It was absolutely hard to watch, jarring, and horrifying, but this is a part of American history that I am glad is saved and highlighted in lists like the American Film Registry, so that we don't forget and fail to reflect.

The 2025 National Film Registry additions were announced on Jan. 29, 2026. There are 25 more films added to the registry, and 12 of those have been made since since 1986, so there are additions to the watch list! Of those recently added, I've already seen the six below.

Groundhog Day - I really can't believe it took me this long to watch this movie. It's very cute and has a great message about what it takes to really be happy with your life.

The Wrecking Crew - This is a documentary and it's a perfect double feature with 20 Feet from Stardom because it's the story of the studio artists that made all of the recorded music that you love from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Needless to say great music, and it's so interesting to hear the stories and riffs directly from the musicians that came up with them and played them on the albums, but you never knew about.

The Grand Budapest Hotel - So the cast in this movie is insane, the filming is (of course) gorgeous, and the story is unhinged. So, a typical Wes Anderson movie.

Malcolm X - This is another amazing Spike Lee film. It's quite long and after watching it, I would say that every scene is extremely necessary to tell this story correctly and well. Denzel Washington did a phenomenal job, and I was fully crying by the end.

Freedom Riders - I had been aware of the Freedom Riders movement in a vague way, but this documentary did an excellent job of telling the stories of many of the participants during the various phases of the movement. I hadn't been aware of the amount of pressure the rides placed on not only the federal and state governments, but the civil rights movement in general. Very well done film that I absolutely recommend for anyone.

The Loving Story - It continues to blow my mind that the United States Supreme Court only outlawed anti-miscegenation laws in 1967. This documentary uses a lot of archival footage and interviews recorded during the period before, during, and after the Loving vs. Virginia court case. I didn't know too much about the case aside from the outcome, but listening to the Supreme Court arguments was dumbfounding, but to have a three line unanimous ruling about something so fundamental as the right to choose who you want to spend your life with is profound. I didn't know what happened to the Lovings after the case, and it broke my heart to find out that Richard had been killed by a drunk driver only 8 years after they won their case. Life can be unbearably cruel.

The Watermelon Woman - After seeing this, I have to say that this movie at times felt like watching Sherman’s March. There’s clearly a substantive plot that the narrator/filmmaker is pursuing, but the actual movie is about something completely different. The subject of this movie is looking at the career of an African American actress from the 1930s who played “mammie” characters, but the film follows the filmmaker who is a queer woman in Philadelphia and highlights 1) lesbian relationships 2) lesbian film history 3) how the contributions of women of color to film history are largely unacknowledged and 4) lost video store culture from the 90s. It’s a good movie and it splices in archival footage (albeit mostly in the last 10 minutes of the film).

Frida - An amazing combination of an art film and a really well done biography. I knew next to nothing about Frida Kahlo so this was a interesting introduction to her life and art. Really enjoyed it.

The Hours - A movie about the depression of hopelessness. The acting was amazing and the way the narrative played out a day in the life of three women was interesting, but I think just the intensity of reflecting on how “stuck” women can feel in their own lives was just too intense for me personally.

Study of a River - This is a short black and white film about the Hudson River during the transition to winter. There is an abstract score played over short clips of the river at various stages of the season.

Boys Don't Cry - A very sweet love story that turns into an absolute horror movie. I'm glad this story was told, but it's hard to watch and realize that we really haven't progressed far beyond either 1993 when this happened or 1999 when this film was made.

The Big Lebowski - I genuinely don’t know why this movie is on the registry. It’s funny, the characters are definitely unique, but the plot is just a string of nonsensical accidents.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day - I watched Terminator weeks ago so that I could watch Terminator 2 (Terminator was made before 1986 but Terminator 2 was made after). It’s definitely better than the first one. It’s always impressive to see how far digital effects progressed in such a short amount of time. The plot is really poignant, especially in the current age of AI.

Slacker - Another movie where I think my brain was tired after watching it. Almost stream of consciousness series of disconnected vignettes taking place in Austin, TX that are all centered around what (I can only imagine) people outside of academia think academic conversations all sound like.

Pow Wow Highway - This is the first of several films on this list that are out of print, and the process of just getting permission to watch it was a challenge. The copy I was able to get access to was a conversion from a VHS that was converted to a DVD preservation copy under the protection of Section 108 C of the U.S. Copyright Law. The law allows libraries to create a copy of a piece of media that they already own in a different format provided there are no commercially available means of purchasing a replacement. So essentially since the last copy of this film was only available on VHS and no DVD copy was ever sold, AU was allowed to create a DVD copy for its own collection, so that AU faculty, staff, and students to check it out within the library and watch it since VHS players are very hard to come by. The movie itself is really funny. It's a buddy comedy set around reservation politics in the years following the Vietnam war. There are so many themes woven throughout and the characters were really well written. Would definitely recommend it...if it wasn't absolutely miserable to find a copy.