The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951Second wrong question: What's your favourite movie of all time?

Ask me today, ask me tomorrow. The answer will be different.

'Best' is about lists. It's about rationalising and classifying and making our own certainties. The Renaissance and the Enlightenment made us obsessive-compulsive in our need to sift and sort and rank everything according to 'objective' quality criteria.

Fads, fashions, newness, nostalgia. Those are the four horsemen of the list-making apocalypse. Read more of this post