and the best" of all New York movies because it captured, "better than any film I know the atmosphere of Times Square and big-city journalism". Sweet Smell of Success holds a 98% rating based on 45 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes. At Metacritic it has a weighted average score rating of 100 out of 100 based on 5 reviews. A. O. Scott wrote in March 2002 for The New York Times: "Courtesy of Ernest Lehman and Clifford Odets, a high-toned street vernacular that no real New Yorker has ever spoken but that every real New Yorker wishes he could". Andrew Sarris in the New York Observer, again in 2002, wrote, "the main incentive to see this movie is its witty, pungent and idiomatic dialogue, such as you never hear on the screen anymore in this age of special-effects illiteracy". Legacy In 1993, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2002, Sweet Smell of Success: The Musical was created by Marvin Hamlisch, Craig Carnelia and John Guare. It was not considered a critical or commercial success. In its "100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains" list, the American Film Institute (AFI) named J. J. Hunsecker number 35 of the top 50 movie villains of all time in 2003. Filmmaker Barry Levinson paid tribute to Sweet Smell of Success in his 1982 film Diner, with one character wandering around saying nothing but lines from the film. In an early scene from Levinson's 1988 movie, Rain Man, Sweet Smell of Success is seen playing on television. The Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "Contract" is an homage to the film, with Mo Rocca playing a gossip columnist who is clearly based on J.J. (in both appearance and attitude) and other characters from the episode quoting the film's lines many times. The titles of episodes two and three from the first season of Breaking Bad — “Cat’s In The Bag … ” and “. . . And The Bag’s In The River” — are a direct quote from Sweet Smell of Success, which has been described by the show's creator, Vince Gilligan, as his all-time favorite movie. {|class="wikitable" |- ! Publication ! Country ! Accolade ! Year ! Rank |- | [[Sight & Sound|Sight and Sound]]| UK | Top 250 Films | 2012 | style="text-align:center;"| 171 |- |