Like many people, I spend far too much time watching YouTube - particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. And there are many media producers who crank out "best of" lists, all of whom hope you'll turn your attention to them so they can harvest the advertising revenue your views represent. I've watched many of these - in particular, I'm embarrassed by how much time I've spent watching WatchMojo lists.

About five years ago, I came across a video called "Top 10 Most Beautiful Movies of All Time" by Cinefix. It was, as it should be, dazzlingly beautiful. Just as importantly, it was incredibly well researched. And they don't name just ten movies (in any of their lists), but mention several in each of their ten categories before picking a winner. Picking through their second choices has proven amazingly rewarding: they did their homework in a way WatchMojo and Looper have never done theirs, and edited together a magnificent video I've watched a dozen times (and recommended to many friends).

As of April 2021, their lists appear infrequently and they're not always of interest to me. Not everything they do is good. But when they hit a subject I'm interested in, they usually put it out of the park. Two weeks ago, they released "Top 10 Animated Films of All Time," a subject I'm deeply interested in and consider myself fairly well versed in. But once again, they pulled out multiple movies I'd never heard of - as well as mentioning several relatively obscure but important films I knew (a prime example: the fantastic and absolutely not-for-kids "Waltz With Bashir"). At their recommendation, I've already received two movies from the library and watched them: "Tower" and "April and the Extraordinary World." They were both outstanding, and - just like the "10 Most Beautiful" - I'll continue to mine this list for weeks to come.

I watch a lot of WatchMojo and Looper lists. The problem is ... they're just trying to tell you what you want to hear, and you're watching in the hope of agreeing with them or having a self-righteous curse at the screen to tell them how poor their choices are. But CineFix's lists are wide-ranging, and they always cover stuff that's new to me. I watch their lists to be educated, and it's a very different experience. They release videos less frequently than WatchMojo, but they're constructed with so much more care and thought - they're the ones I remember and make use of.

Also worth looking at: "Top 10 Documentaries of All Time" (which - among others - introduced me to "Thin Blue Line" and its importance).