I have a confession. I don’t care what your ranking of the MCU movies is. Or your ranking of the Disney animated features. Or even your ranking of the best movies you’ve seen so far this year. And it’s not just you. One of the many ways Roger endeared himself to me was by, toward the end of his life, simply refusing and putting his list in alphabetical order. It’s not that I don’t want to hear your thoughts or feelings on whatever we’re discussing. It’s that, in my opinion, most ranked lists are purely arbitrary, and I kind of eye you askance if yours never changes anyway.

My favourite movie has been the same since 1993. My favourite Disney animated movie has been the same as long as I can remember, come to that. But the rest of the order is subject to change without notice. To me, that only makes sense. While I believe it’s possible to have certain objective aspects to art, at its heart, it is a subjective subject, and what weight I give to any given detail will change depending on what I’m in the mood for at the moment. Do I want something with a bit of challenge to it or a movie like a warm bath? Those are different feelings, and which I will like most depends.

Oh, don’t get me wrong—I have been known to watch the odd YouTube video ranking things like “Best Oscar-Winning Songs of All Time,” if for no other reason than to rant about them. (The one I watched referred to “Jai Ho” as being “in the Indian language” and mispronounced the name—you know, that phrase that’s repeated about eight billion times?) I’ll also share my anger with friends as I watch, because that can be fun. How angry are we all when a song from Dear Evan Hansen beats, you know, anything?

Because that’s what these lists are really for. Their best purpose is to start a conversation. Do you agree? Do you disagree? Exactly how wrong-headed is the list-maker? What are they thinking, preferring Nausicaa to Kiki’s Delivery Service? (Or vice versa, if you prefer it the other way and the list-maker doesn’t.) You want the chance to have feelings, and the problem with a written list is that you don’t have the opportunity to talk back to the person who wrote it. Oh, I suppose if you’re reading it on The Solute or somewhere else the author’s going to respond in the comments, but by and large, you’re on your own.

I like a nice, comforting chat about people’s opinions. With them. Now, it’s also worth noting that for things like “best movies of the year so far,” I’m usually playing catch-up anyway and can’t have an opinion yet, because almost all the new movies I’ve seen this year have been last year’s movies. I’m not even able to have a good conversation about it without saying a lot of, “Oh, I need to get around to it,” or, “Oh, no, I’m not interested in that.” Which is an opinion of a sort, but not one worth making into a list.

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