Let's All Go To The Lobby, And Grab Ourselves A Snack

Josh, newly arrived in the blogosphere, has a post here that talks about movies he has seen since 1999 that do not suck. Check out the post for his list, which is a good one, at least as far as the movies on it that I have seen.

I came up with a list of my own, though it is certainly not all-inclusive. I cut it down to ten, but even that was difficult. There are five honorable mentions that I’ll go through first, and then on to the big list. With two exceptions, all the films in the big list are ones that play to that which I hold most dear when it comes to cinema - good stories that are well acted. The two exceptions are a documentary and a thoroughly original horror movie.

The honorable mentions are:
Batman Begins - The original Batman movie definitely had more of a comic book feel to it, but this one was darker, which fits more into the theme of both Bruce Wayne and the Batman. And Christian Bale was the best Batman yet.
Little Miss Sunshine - Though a bit contrived, it works because it’s brilliantly written (Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay) and just as brilliantly acted; and though the series of events that drives the story is contrived, the situations as portrayed by the characters feel very real.
Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring - I may be daft, but I think this is the best of the three. My favorite parts of the novel were the bits that told the back story of Sauron and the One Ring and the lore of the elves in Rivendell and Lothlorien, all of which were chapters in Fellowship.
Magnolia - Multiple stories working on multiple levels, with the whole thing wrapped up in allegory. Also one of the best ensembles ever put together (fuck Crash), as well as the best acting Tom Cruise ever did.
Mulholland Dr. - Having seen Lost Highway, I was better prepared to absorb this picture, which is considerably more mind-numbing and complex. It’s the kind of movie you could see a million times and still not get. And yet you sort of do. And David Lynch is either a genius or a lunatic - but I sort of lean toward genius.

The Big List
10. You Can Count On Me - Terrific acting jobs by Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo, as sister and brother who have to learn how to accept each other’s vastly different lives. Nothing especially edgy or provocative here, just fine acting based in a great screenplay.

9. The Blair Witch Project - Yes, I loved this movie, and the reason I loved it is that it scared the hell out of me. I read ’Salem’s Lot by Stephen King over and over again for the same reason - scares the hell out of me. I thought it was original and interesting and extremely well executed. A rare film.

8. Requiem For A Dream - Absolutely the most disturbing movie I have ever seen, this is the story of addicts who try to rise up out of their addictions and survive. They fail, but they try so hard that their ultimate loss, though inevitable and hardly pitiable, certainly has the air of tragedy. Also one of the best editing jobs I’ve ever seen. Ellen Burstyn was amazing in a role for which she was nominated for an Oscar she should have won, and might have if the Academy voters weren’t such prudes.

7. The Last King Of Scotland - A fictionalized account of Idi Amin’s descent into madness during his reign in Uganda. One of the great acting performances of all time turned in by Forrest Whitaker. The film is torridly paced, lurching violently toward an inevitable conclusion that is at turns revolting and oddly satisfying.

6. Shut Up And Sing - One of the best documentaries I have ever seen, this film turned me into a fan of the Dixie Chicks both as people and as a band - and not just because they opposed the war. The music is also very good. They were written off by their ignorant hilljack fans and managed to come back with their best record to date (Taking The Long Way), which sold a million copies without significant radio airplay and won every Grammy for which it was nominated.

5. Eyes Wide Shut - Nicole Kidman’s best performance ever, a haunting score, a great Chris Isaak song (“Baby Did A Bad, Bad Thing”), and a really good story about the demons that haunt us. I saw this film at a really cool art deco-style theatre in Oak Park, Illinois, when Amy and I were there for the celebration of Ernest Hemingway’s one hundredth birthday - and though the setting played into how much I liked it, that wasn’t the whole thing. This was also Stanley Kubrick at his painstaking, meticulous best. After Full Metal Jacket, this is easily Kubrick’s best film.

4. Sideways - An excellent adaptation of an equally excellent novel, featuring some fine, fine acting by Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church. Both sad and comic, the theme is redemption - and the backdrop of a week-long bachelor party in wine country is detailed to perfection. Had a fine score, too, if I recall correctly.

3. Far From Heaven - Julianne Moore is one of my favorite actresses, and this is one of her best pictures. Set in every idyllic 1950s suburbia that ever existed in the post-war era, this movie smashes a number of taboos related to who we are in the face of what society expects of us. Beautifully photographed and nearly perfectly acted.

2. Brokeback Mountain - Almost entirely because it’s an amazing film, and only a little bit because it was cheated out of its Best Picture Oscar because of ignorant, prudish Academy voters (once again, fuck Crash). Nearly perfect in every aspect, from photography to editing to the score (really good acoustic guitar work), to the acting - Heath Ledger was just brilliant, and Michelle Williams (Jen!) was really good, too. Also, it was adapted from a really good short story by Annie Proulx - it’s one of those rare instances where the screen version is actually superior to the material from which it was adapted.

1. Felicia’s Journey - Huh? A show of hands, please - who had already heard of this movie (other than Shane, whose DVD list says that he owns it - but has he watched it?) before they read the title a second ago? So, you remember Bob Hoskins, right - the detective who kicks Roger Rabbit in the cartoon rabbit nuts? Well, imagine him as...ye gods, almost a Hannibal Lecter kind of cat. This is a working-class horror story set in England, based on a novel by William Trevor. The photography, editing, set design, script, everything, are amazing - Atom Egoyan is a very fine director - but even these elements are nothing to the acting. Bob Hoskins is positively terrifying in the role of a bored catering manager who has a penchant for trying to help desperate young girls who are at their wit’s end. The pace here is not especially torrid - is, in fact, excruciatingly slow, because the devil is in the details, and none of this film’s secrets are revealed hastily. Odds are that you haven’t even heard of this one, and if that’s the case then run, don’t walk, to your local video store and check it out.