The Movies That Have Never Left My Mind
Every so-called "Greatest Movies" list has two inherent problems. 1) it's all the same movies, (Casablanca, Citizen Kane.. need I go on?) so the lists rarely give the reader an opportunity to discover new movies. And 2) any list's rankings are arbitrary and will always draw criticism. Like many cinephiles I have spent countless hours rearranging, tweaking and adding to my list of the greatest movies of all time, but recently I've found myself less interested in academic qualities of filmmaking, and more in the movies that still linger on my mind after years of rewatches. The intention of this list is to inspire the reader to rediscover a movie they've seen in a new light, or to try a movie they have never seen or even heard of. There certainly are better movies than the ones you see on this list, innumerable masterpieces in fact. However, the movies on this list are, for whatever reason, the movies that have never left my mind. Listed in the most scientific way possible; alphabetically. Thank you for reading, and I hope this list serves its purpose.
List activity
962 views
• 6 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
75 titles
- DirectorSidney LumetStarsHenry FondaLee J. CobbMartin BalsamThe jury in a New York City murder trial is frustrated by a single member whose skeptical caution forces them to more carefully consider the evidence before jumping to a hasty verdict.It is universally acknowledged that one of the greatest films ever made is Sidney Lumet's adaptation of a stage play about a lone juror who stands his ground in a seemingly open-and-shut murder trial. And this is for a good reason. 12 Angry Men sits right at the juncture between 'classic' and 'modern' cinema; it feels respectably venerable, while at the same time vibrant and vital — not a dry, cinematic relic that you feel obliged to bow before, but a hot-blooded, living God that you embrace. The modernism is felt not only in the way it tackles systematic racism and toxic masculinity, but also in the way it utilizes scalpel-sharp camerawork, dialogue made of platinum and piecemealed characterization to maintain pace and effortlessly ratchet up the tension. A 70-year-old film shot almost entirely in one room may sound laughably low-tech and anachronistic, but the incredible amount of detail and the inspirational morality anchored by Henry Fonda's Juror #8 make this one of the most watchable and satisfying movies ever created. 12 Angry Men is a masterpiece, a film so good that, even if you don't like courtroom dramas, you love this movie. You'll love it even if you don't like old movies. You'll love it even if you don't like movies full stop. It's all about the value of looking at things differently, and a reminder that nothing is more important than great dialogue.
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsTaraneh AlidoostiGolshifteh FarahaniShahab HosseiniThe mysterious disappearance of a kindergarten teacher during a picnic in the north of Iran is followed by a series of misadventures for her fellow travelers.Two years before Asgar Farhadi established Iran on the world film sector with "A Separation," he made About Elly, a film more driven, more accessible, and a more perfect exemplar of his mastery of deep characterization and layered storytelling. Seven close friends on holiday in an ocean-side villa bring along a soft-spoken kindergarten teacher (Elly) in hopes to set her up with their single friend, but when Elly suddenly and inexplicably disappears in the middle of the day, truths, lies, hidden motives and tempers are all raised. The seven friends weave a complicated web of lies to avoid scrutiny, but their bumbling efforts unravel quickly as they dodge their mistrust of each other and dance around Iran's suppressive cultural laws. Farhadi juggles the massive cast with complete control, managing to get a career performance from almost everyone, while simultaneously utilizing criticisms of his home country for the film's own narrative gains. About Elly is an achingly melancholic, riveting, understated whodunnit mystery that works as tense thriller as well as an exposé on the hurtles of an oppressive regime. The result is, nonetheless, spectacular and anchored in Asgar Farhadi's belief that restless camerawork should emphasize both what is and isn’t said. And that shock value is seldom the answer.
- DirectorBob FosseStarsRoy ScheiderJessica LangeAnn ReinkingDirector/choreographer Bob Fosse tells his own life story as he details the sordid career of Joe Gideon, a womanizing, drug-using dancer.Bob Fosse, for those who don't know, was a dance choreographer turned filmmaker who was as consumptive as has he was talented. In 1974, in the middle of editing Chicago, Fosse suffered the first in a series of severe heart-attacks that would eventually end his life. Faced with the realization his lifestyle had finally caught up with him, he reminisced on his poor life choices and transposed them in fictional dance choreographer Joe Gideon (really Fosse himself) who works and parties himself to the operating table, where he pleads for life in the form of lucid, dreamlike musical numbers. Fosse was already one of the most exciting talents in musicals, and this is none more Fosse, giddy with invention and taking liberties with the genre no one had dared. With the help of Alan Heim's fervent, Oscar-winning editing, All That Jazz thrusts you into the whirlwind lifestyle of Gideon as he steamrolls through life and literally (and I mean "literally") flirts with death. All That Jazz is two-hours of non-stop stimulation with immaculate attention to detail, revolutionary in the way it translates a bleak cautionary tale into abstract live-action - it's a technical marvel with astonishing choreography and deeply layered script ahead of its time. To the effect, All That Jazz reads less like a film and more like the frantic, unhinged philippics of a man faced with death forced to confront the error of his ways. Which is exactly what it is. But with musical numbers. Gorgeously choreographed musical numbers. Honestly, it's debatable Fosse ever made a better film. And that includes Cabaret.
- DirectorJean-Pierre JeunetStarsAudrey TautouMathieu KassovitzRufusDespite being caught in her imaginative world, Amelie, a young waitress, decides to help people find happiness. Her quest to spread joy leads her on a journey where she finds true love.There’s nothing else like Amelie. You have to provide context after, having been bowled over by it. You tell people that it follows a charming oddball who one day decides to help the lonely, lost souls around her until the unforeseen arrive of love forces her to face her own issues. It’s not a Pixar film, you have to inform them. It’s not a cartoon. It’s not for kids. Please, do not under any circumstances let your children watch Amelie. Some very, very naughty things happen! Flawlessly portrayed by Audrey Tautou, Amelie floats through a whimsical, sun-drenched Paris touching the lives of everyone around her (some of her antics verge on criminal, but let's not get into that here) while director Jean-Pierre Juenet's numerous surreal touches and absurdist humor truly gives a sense that there is always magic in the world around us if we only know how to look for it. Between Bruno Delbonnel's acid colored cinematography and Jeunet's twisted magical realism, the end result is as intended: a sweet, nostalgic, sentimental, gloriously summery comedy romance playing out amidst Jeunet’s extraordinary design aesthetic. Amelie is one for the wistful romantics, the vehement weirdos, and anyone who prefers their rom-coms unconventional. If you don't beam with childish glee at the indelible final scene then you really shouldn't call yourself a movie-lover.
- DirectorAlfonso CuarónStarsMaribel VerdúGael García BernalDaniel Giménez CachoIn Mexico, two teenage boys and an older woman embark on a road trip and learn a thing or two about life and each other.Stars Gael Bernal and Diego Luna are best friends in real life, and it shows in this delightfully shot road movie about two friends with hormones for brains who convince the attractive wife of a family friend to journey with them to a beach called "Heaven's Mouth" which, unfortunately, doesn't exist. Director Alfonso Cuaron effortlessly overcomes the obvious teen-sex-comedy implications by making the movie sing through a freewheeling approach without ever soft peddling the entirely unfiltered portrayal of adolescence. And Your Mother Too has a pure spirit that cannot be denied; newsreels, freeze frames, film stills, voiceover and tracking shots are all thrown in while the trio's mesmerizing characterization and delicate chemistry is explored and tested on a gorgeous trip to nowhere. If there are hints of darkness – sexual tension, infidelity etc. – it remains on the fringes. With the all-natural performances, surprising depth, and unbroken camera shots director Alfonso Cuaron would build his successful career off of, And Your Mother Too is a grown-up coming-of-age tale whose take on what it is to be a man will stay with you for a good long while. Some friendly advice though, the explicit sexual content is best suited to those equipped to handle it. This is the sort of movie your mother warned your about.
- DirectorGerald KarglStarsErwin LederRobert Hunger-BühlerSilvia RyderA troubled man gets released from prison and starts taking out his sadistic fantasies on an unsuspecting family living in a secluded house.If you lurk far enough down the rabbit hole of horror movies, you'll eventually stumble upon Angst. Based on the true story of a triple murder committed by German serial killer Werner Kniesek, it is not hyperbolic to say Angst would be considered one of the greatest movies of all time, had it not been an utterly disturbing portrayal of the thoughts and actions of a sadist. The genius lies in Gerald Kargle's decision to film the whole ordeal like a "road movie." The camera voyeuristically floats through increasingly unpleasant scenes in long, unbroken takes; The sound design, reminiscent of Italian Giallo's, cranks all ambient sounds up to an 11; The skin-crawling score plays near non-stop; And the narration is courtesy of the killer's unfiltered, incoherent thoughts. The result is unbelievably difficult to watch, a movie that effortlessly gets under your skin and whose vile atmosphere drains the viewer of any hope for humanity. Audiences and critics hated it, and the controversy that surrounded its release was so acrid it finished Kargl's career. Angst's startling ideas - especially its suggestion that our unfamiliarity with mental illness was the reason this maniac was allowed to roam free– were just too much for contemporary viewers to chew on. Let me be abundantly clear; even among the realm of underground horror, Angst is one of the most disturbing, provocative and poignant movies ever to exist. And time has not withered its impact one iota. Do NOT watch this movie lightly.
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsMartin SheenMarlon BrandoRobert DuvallA U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.At the end of what is most likely the most successful decade of any director who ever lived, Francis Ford Coppola hit the world with Apocalypse Now, the most terrifying, visually rich and savagely intent movie to ever come out of the conflict in Vietnam. It didn't come easy; It took three years to edit the over 200 hours of footage that was filmed, it bankrupted Francis Ford Coppola so severely that he had to work as a hired gun for a decade and there even was a documentary inspired by the behind-the-scenes roadblocks during filming. All's well that ends well, and it ends very well indeed, because Apocalypse Now is rightly lauded as one of the greatest films ever; a hallucinogenic, audacious sensory maelstrom thick with dread and dripping with a sticky, sweltering atmosphere. Effortlessly transposing Joseph Conrad's novel from occupied Congo to Vietnam, Apocalypse Now sends drunk, restless Captain Willard on a mission to terminate a Colonel who has gone completely insane and set up a murderous cult in Cambodia. Coppola takes his time building up the story, turning the screws unbearably tightly, and slowly descending us into a pit of the darkest recesses of the human soul to the point where the reveal of Marlon Brando is almost anticlimactic. Almost. Few films before or since have been so technically and stylistically daring, and even fewer had a director so willing to flagellate themselves for their craft. We will never see its like again. Avoid the bloated Redux edition at all costs.
- DirectorKinji FukasakuStarsTatsuya FujiwaraAki MaedaTarô YamamotoIn the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill one another under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.If you watched Hunger Games and thought "Well, this is an intriguing concept for a movie, but I wish it was less melodramatic and more sadistic, raw and unflinching," then boy is there a film for you. Battle Royale, this highly controversial metaphor for intergenerational distrust has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer on a drywall screw. In the near future, in order to keep teenagers obedient, a ninth-grade class is taken to an island, fitted with explosive collars and face a fight to the death until only one remains with only a randomly selected weapon and their wits to get them through. Naturally it's a gore-fest, but this is not violence for violence's sake. And for all the over-the-top violent sequences that feel visceral and distressing, the camera gives ample development to each of the 42 students. All of human life is here, every possible reaction, every relationship, every betrayal. It's all here. Think 1984 meets Lord of the Flies with a demented, dizzyingly dark Japanese twist. From moment to moment, Director Fukusaku seems hell-bent on making every single second count, deploying various bravado filmmaking techniques to take us between snatches of silent melancholy and moments that will make the most hardened viewer cringe. THIS is how the Hunger Games would've really played out. Take that how you will.
- DirectorRichard LinklaterStarsEthan HawkeJulie DelpyAndrea EckertA young man and woman meet on a train in Europe, and wind up spending one evening together in Vienna. Unfortunately, both know that this will probably be their only night together.So, you're a cinephile AND a romantic but have no tolerance for the tedious, saccharine dribble that gets pumped out on a weekly basis? Try Richard Linklater's "Before" trilogy in which each entry chronicles a critical day in the relationship of lovebirds Jesse and Celine over the course of 18 years. The second and third entries pull off the impossible, adding artistic meaning rather than stripping it away, but is in the opinion of your humble scribe that there are few cinematic experiences more rewarding than watching Jesse and Celine meet on a train, spend a day in Vienna and fall in love over 100 minutes of breathlessly intimate dialogue. Linklater uses the basic building blocks of moviemaking to maximum effect without drawing any attention to himself, creating an immensely enrapturing reverie that is more genuine than any romance movie before or after. The effortlessness of Before Sunrise is a testament to Linklater's mastery of his craft; camerawork so fluid it melts into the background, dialogue so natural it doesn't feel prepared, character development so incremental you don't even realize it's happening. Before Sunrise is that song you connect with. Maybe all of it doesn't resonate, but what does is told with such unfiltered, unjudgmental honesty that you feel embraced. Time and time again we are reminded of cinema's power to crush, horrify and inform. Before Sunrise is a reminder that movies have the power to make us fall in love.
- DirectorJoel CoenEthan CoenStarsJeff BridgesJohn GoodmanJulianne MooreJeff "The Dude" Lebowski, mistaken for a millionaire of the same name, seeks restitution for his ruined rug and enlists his bowling buddies to help get it.It might be possible to have more fun doing something other than watching The Big Lebowski, but it’s unlikely. It might be possible to find a cooler performance than Jeff Bridges' take on the eminent slacker, but that’s unlikely too. And it might be possible to meet a pair of directors who enjoys themselves as much as the Coes do here but… well, you get the picture. The Coens' colorful take on Raymond Chandler's LA noir is the shaggiest of shaggy dog stories and is perhaps the film that best demonstrates the brothers' unique style. Jeff Bridges stars as pot-smoking slacker hero Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski, who seeks restitution for his rug, urinated on by a pair of gangsters who mistook him for a different Lebowski. Along with his bowling buddies, The Dude embarks on a wild chase that's as funny, depraved, and plain unpredictable as they stumble onto kidnapping, embezzlement, nymphomaniacs and nihilists. And all he wanted was restitution for his rug. Populated by a cast of memorable weirdos, punctuated with bouts of screwball humor and boasting a dark streak a mile wide, it's a profoundly odd film and one that's nigh-on impossible to pigeonhole. Best of all, The Big Lebowski is a film that prides itself on lively detail and top-grade craftsmanship but doesn't take itself too seriously. That's a lesson that nearly every one of its legions of copycats would do well to take on board. Audiences aren't cajoled into feeling that they should be having fun; they simply are having fun because the movie is too.
- DirectorAlfonso CuarónStarsJulianne MooreClive OwenChiwetel EjioforIn 2027, in a chaotic world in which women have somehow become infertile, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea.If you only ever see one Alfonso Cuaron movie… Well, don’t. Watch as many as you can. But if you really insist on only seeing one Alfonso Cuarn movie, then make sure it’s Children of Men. The bleak future London he conjures in this dystopian sci-fi is so believable, it’s still hard to rule out that it might someday come to pass. The parallel universe feels lived-in, with futuristic technology that's worn and rusty – a tangible, visceral texture that with a level of detail bordering on insanity. Grappling with some heavy issues, while moving with serious speed and intensity, Children of Men bounds from one intricately crafted set piece to another and lets viewers peer into a world in which civilization has been upended because human women have inexplicably lost the ability to have babies. The arresting opening scene in which a coffee shop is bombed is a statement of intent for the realism, the extended takes, and the gritty world-building that Cuarón expands on for the remaining runtime. For all its social commentary, director Alfonso Cuarón wasn't shy about challenging the boundaries of single-take sequences, as well as loading his adaptation of the P.D. James novel with visual statements on man's cruelty to man and the folly of governing through fear. But he didn't linger on them. Instead, he trusts viewers to absorb the story's subtext and rewarded them with one of the best written dystopian sci-fi films ever. If nothing else, see it for the barnstorming single-take action sequences. Just, wow.
- DirectorGiuseppe TornatoreStarsPhilippe NoiretEnzo CannavaleAntonella AttiliA filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village and forms a deep friendship with the cinema's projectionist.The ultimate love letter to cinephiles, and the film that makes you wish your local multiplex was a bit less, well, 'multi', Cinema Paradiso glows with the transporting power of the movies. This sauntering chronicle of an adorable tyke named Salvatore (now a successful film director looking back on his childhood) who finds himself bewitched by the local picture-house, should quiver the lip of any true-blue movie-lover, while his blossoming friendship with grumpy projectionist Alfredo and the wonderful ending will melt anyone not won over by the cross-eyed priests and eccentric villagers. Incorporating childhood recollections from writer-director Giuseppe Tornatore, the film feels like a memory – sensory and tactile, evocative and lived-in. There’s an honesty and purity to Cinema Paradiso that never fails to stun. You watch, you get moved like you never have, you grin until your face aches. It’s all as natural as breathing, and it reminds you why you love movies in the first place. This is what Cinema Paradiso stands for. Enjoyment, excitement and a genuine fascination with movies that delivers a unique and precious viewing experience. The people who made Cinema Paradiso are the good guys. They get it. And Cinema Paradiso gets it, too. It's main concern tapping into the transportive power of movies seemingly hard-wired into our psyches since childhood. Which has a lovely ring to it, don't you think?
- DirectorFernando MeirellesKátia LundStarsAlexandre RodriguesLeandro FirminoMatheus NachtergaeleIn the slums of Rio, two kids' paths diverge as one struggles to become a photographer and the other a kingpin.Fernando Mereilles’ first film as solo director makes you wonder how anyone ever shared the camera with someone of such vision. City of God is an intense, thrilling, visceral child’s eye view of brutal gang warfare in the Brazilian favelas. The narrative shifts time and points of view, (sometimes showing the same scene from different perspectives) covering just over a decade on the ghetto deliberately socially planned to keep the poor sequestered away from Rio’s beaches and city centers. "The City" is a place where crime is practically the only option for the sprawling cast, but Mereilles never asks for sympathy and is never trite. Sure, horrible things happen to good people (and bad) as the central characters grow from childhood to troubled adolescence and adulthood, but the epic scope massive narrative undertaking isn't wasted on simplistic pictures, and even the monsters emerge as living, breathing, suffering human beings. One extraordinary sequence follows the life of an apartment from family home to drug den. In another, an escaping chicken leads the camera into a warzone. City of God is a sensory assault; almost an ordeal, especially if you've been weaned on conventional storytelling. But there isn't a more personal, more visually stunning, more moving film on this list. And the way all the tangents are tied together may be the best ending to any film ever.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsMalcolm McDowellPatrick MageeMichael BatesIn the future, a sadistic gang leader is imprisoned and volunteers for a conduct-aversion experiment, but it doesn't go as planned.He’s explored a handful of different genres, from period pieces to outright horror flicks, but along the way, Stanley Kubrick remained resolutely provocative — which made him a natural fit to adapt Anthony Burgess' indecipherable, highly controversial novel. A Clockwork Orange is a crash course in humanism featuring eye-searing ultra-violence, hedonistic sexuality and bowler-hatted psychopaths led by sadistic punk Alex who kicks, beats and rapes his way through a cartoon nightmare of the future, then is conditioned and “cured” by a broken society that looks worryingly like our own. It'd be remiss to write about A Clockwork Orange and not mention what a proverbial bucket of ice water it was in 1971 and what an eye-opener (pun intended) it remains to this day. In fact, Kubrick even toned down some of the novel's more problematic elements, but the twisted morality and appalling on-screen content still provoked a backlash so severe, Kubrick was forced to pull it from distribution until his death in 1999. As is often the case, age has slightly eroded its surface shock, but only slightly. In a demented way, this is Kubrick at his most playful; The rich color palate, the puerile slang spoken throughout, the jovial zither of Wendy Carlo's score and the overall absurdity contrast the dark subject matter to brilliant effect. It's brutal, unpalatable realism soaked in glitter and sugar – whatever it takes to make the medicine go down.
- DirectorElem KlimovStarsAleksey KravchenkoOlga MironovaLiubomiras LauceviciusAfter finding an old rifle, a young boy joins the Soviet resistance movement against ruthless German forces and experiences the horrors of World War II.Even if you've seen a few movies about the appalling actions of the Third Reich, even if think you've seen every WWII movie worth watching and even if you been conditioned on horrific subject matter, nothing can prepare you for the utterly cold, cynical and feral delivery of Come and See. This story of a teenage boy's pitch-black odyssey through war-torn Belarus is named after a verse from the book of Revelation which, while too long to quote in full, can be paraphrased in this context as, "Don't come expecting a Nora Ephron rom-com." Biplanes circle like buzzards above, corpses are piled like firewood against buildings, while Nazi death squads scour the countryside with bug-eyed glee. The nightmares just happen, and they never cease to exist once they begin. Come and See is a gonzo, color-drained descent into nightmarish depravity that utilizes tone and texture, rather than on-screen violence with lethal effectiveness. The dizzying, terrifying atmosphere Elem Klimov created is nothing short of astounding. You're consumed by the sort of discombobulating viewing experience that actually makes it hard to think. It's a masterclass in utilizing camerawork, scoring and sound editing to put the viewer in the mind of its protagonist. No movie, before or since, has captured the psychological carnage of war like the final shot of the boy's face, now hollow-eyed, lined and aged.
- DirectorKen RussellStarsVanessa RedgraveOliver ReedDudley SuttonIn 17th-century France, Father Urbain Grandier's protection of the city of Loudun from the corrupt Cardinal Richelieu is undermined by a sexually repressed nun's accusation of witchcraft.Perhaps concerned he hadn't elevated enough blood pressures with the nude male wrestling match he depicted in Women in Love, director Ken Russell kicked things up a notch with The Devils, which centers on the true story of the demented religious hysteria fomented in the 17th-century French town of Loudun where the Catholic Church is convinced demonic tomfoolery is transpiring. As it turns out, they have a few things to worry about, including a philandering head priest, nun orgies and a randy Vanessa Redgrave who brings Our Lord and Savior down from the cross so she can have her way with Him. Response was as expected. "Wholly evil" railed one critic, and that was one of the more positive reviews. Once the dust settled, however, it became clear there was a sick intelligence under all the shock value. Through the immaculate production design, the monstrous performances and the rapid tonal shifts, Russell raises some serious questions such as "What the f**k did I just watch?" Disorientation is the goal here, and the erosion of sanity immediate and unrelenting. It isn't just the melon-twisting hedonism in a picturesque Renaissance backdrop that achieves this effect, it's that all this utter absurdity is pulled off with the typical British sheen; It's acted and directed to perfection, feverishly researched and looks as if it was lifted directly from the era that sired it. The Devils really must be seen to be believed. It doesn't feel of this world.
- DirectorSpike LeeStarsDanny AielloOssie DavisRuby DeeOn the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.From the opening credits' blare of Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" rhythmically synched with an exhausting dance number from Rosie Perez, there was a sense that Spike Lee was going to deliver a film to live up to its mission-statement title. And so it proved, even if public's reaction glossed over Spike Lee's accomplishments completely and he was even accused of inciting real-world violence. Set over a single, sweltering hot summer day in Brooklyn, Do The Right Thing is a pressure cooker of racial tension with an energy all of its own, a film with serious fire in its belly. Tiptoeing between moments of scathing commentary and intimate character development with the poise of a dancer, this isn't the Molotov cocktail of a movie it's reputation suggests; It's an exemplar of its time that says more about race-relations in 80s America than a trunk full of history books. It's also a gleeful, one-fingered peace sign to conventional filmmaking, so chock-a-block full of sweeping tracking shots, fourth-wall-breaking and rat-a-tat pacing that you barely have time to place the popcorn in your mouth. That said, the almost apocalyptic finale in which tensions come to a full boil is as divisive of an ending as they come, but Lee never shortchanges the complexities or flaws of his richly drawn characters. And the final scene, controversial it may be, is one of the most profound attempts at understanding in movie history.
- DirectorRichard KellyStarsJake GyllenhaalJena MaloneMary McDonnellAfter narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.Where to begin? A falling jet engine... a dude in a bunny suit... a dash of time-travel... questioning your commitment to Sparkle Motion. From these disparate ingredients, writer-director Richard Kelly took a substantial risk and wove the ridiculous tale of Donnie Darko, an '80s-nostalgia high-school movie with Lynchian atmospherics, a psychedelic brio and a time-travel twist. A suburban teenager charged with repairing a rift in the fabric of our dimension after surviving a bizarre accident sets in motion some less-than-sane antics. Or... something like that. There's also an overweight chain-smoker in a tracksuit that's never explained. Suffice to say, the appeal of Donnie Darko is not a straightforward narrative. Donnie Darko is a film to constantly revisit because it is really quite astonishing what Richard Kelly was able to pull off; an infinitely rewatchable retro mind-fuck that wears its low-fi aesthetic like a badge of honor. It's side-splittingly funny, it's head-scratchingly philosophical, it's briskly paced, it's got a kick-ass soundtrack and it's full of ingenious camera acrobatics. It really shouldn't all work, but it does. And it has a six-foot tall bunny rabbit. Every film should have a six-foot tall bunny rabbit.
- DirectorOliver HirschbiegelStarsBruno GanzAlexandra Maria LaraUlrich MatthesTraudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII."You have to feel that Hitler was a human being; only then he is a real horror." Downfall is here because, quite simply, it's one of the best movies ever made about the second World War. And there's barely any battle scenes in it. Depicting the final days of Adolf Hitler and his cronies in their claustrophobic Berlin bunker, Downfall is a gut-wrenchingly potent depiction of a dictator in denial and the yes-men (and women) too blinded to acknowledge that defeat is a certainty. Downfall was better than anyone expected, but that's faint praise because it's not that way by accident; it's exactly what Oliver Hirschbiegel set out to achieve. His primary objective was to give Hitler and his followers a human face without stinting on their atrocious decisions. As expected, this approach garnered some controversy, with claims Downfall asked the viewer to empathize with the collapsing Reich. One only needs to witness the uncut scene where Magda Goebbels murders her children to prevent them from growing up in a world without the Reich to confirm this is utter nonsense. There is harshness and brutality, but the predominate sensations are ones of weariness and desperation. Downfall's brilliance lies not with only its honest portrayal of pure evil, but the fact that it's also a brilliant piece of filmmaking; with masterful camera work and stellar acting across the board, Hirschbiegel transcends the universally known source material to create something authentic, searing and essential.
- DirectorMichel GondryStarsJim CarreyKate WinsletTom WilkinsonWhen their relationship turns sour, a couple undergoes a medical procedure to have each other erased from their memories forever.Michael Gonrdy and Charlie Kaufman's exploration of relationships is a cinematic unicorn. It's hard to think of anything else like it. A movie that so seamlessly mixes head-scratching sci-fi elements with a piercing study of romantic relationships. A movie that portrays the spark of attraction with the tragedy of heartbreak, but also presents the subject matter from so many perspectives without hitting you over the head with morality lessons. As Jim Carrey races through his own mind to reverse a process by which all his memories of his failed relationship with Kate Winslet are to be erased, the non-linear narrative front-loads the break-up scenes, later offering a warmer look at the happy days of the relationship, which is a brilliantly weird, round-the-house way of reminding us that heartbreak should be valued as one of the things that makes us. This is screenwriter Charlie Kaufman at his most playful and intricate, but also his most disciplined. Eternal Sunshine is not a film that would work if its structure wasn't watertight, making it all the more impressive that the story, while tortuously complex in terms of its timelines, is never impenetrable. It's a tribute also to Valdis Oskarsdottir's dexterous editing and Gondry's stunning visual effects that, depending on what you want to get out of the movie, either deepen its metaphorical layers of meaning or are simply really cool to look at.
- DirectorDaniel KwanDaniel ScheinertStarsMichelle YeohStephanie HsuJamie Lee CurtisA middle-aged Chinese immigrant is swept up into an insane adventure in which she alone can save existence by exploring other universes and connecting with the lives she could have led.Let's just skip the plot summery, it makes less sense each time you read it and it's honestly perfunctory once Michelle Yeoh’s Evelyn reads a vital piece of advice: “P.S. Don’t forget to breathe.” Really, it’s a message to the audience, because once EEAAO starts, it's an all-out cinematic assault, a cacophony of creativity that dazzles, delights, and defies explanation with every passing second. But this isn't merely a brainless indulgence in WTF filmmaking; The Daniels seamlessly weave incredible depth and heart into bouts of bizarro antics and the result is simply astounding. With its tongue lodged out of a hole in its cheek, EEAAO toes the line between pulsing drama and low-brow humor with glee and precision, never once faltering under the colossal weight of its aspirations. It is thunderously cinematic, reveling in the simplicity of filmmaking’s most basic tools, while deploying them to their maximum potential. This is a radical film, about radical love and radical acceptance. It’s the biggest-hearted movie you can imagine that also features someone being beaten to death with two massive, floppy dildos. You’ll goggle at the (literal) ballsiest fight scene ever committed to film. You’ll cry at a shot of two rocks. You’ll never look at a bagel the same way. Don’t forget to breathe.
- DirectorWilliam FriedkinStarsEllen BurstynMax von SydowLinda BlairWhen a young girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two Catholic priests to save her life.There are horror movies with infamous reputations, and then there is The Exorcist. With its admittedly over-the-top-foul mouth and an endless stream of teen-appeal copycats, William Friedkin's ’70s horror masterwork has had a progressively diluted effect of the years. Lest we forget this is a film which prompted cinema exhibitors to routinely offer ‘barf bags’ for queasy patrons; which had St. John’s Ambulance on standby at screenings to aid the regular fainters; which was accused of corrupting young minds with subliminal imagery. Amid the noise and furor, William Friedkin’s achievements were almost ignored – how he deftly blended the religious and psychological with themes of unconditional faith and maternal love. The Exorcist is a horror movie in spite of itself; at its core it is a deep, pensive study of a divorced mother diligently caring for her young daughter as she begins showing signs of a peculiar mental illness. Any talk about exorcism is largely ignored while every psychological avenue is explored until the only option is the inevitable and legendary final thirty minutes. The reason The Exorcist chills so deeply is the way it sustains and builds its disquieting atmosphere so craftily and consistently throughout. No gloss, no gimmicks, no self-conscious style. The Exorcist is one of the most iconic horror films for good reason; it affirms the root of all our fears. That there is an imminence and randomness in death, and the implication that there is no certainty to existence.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsTom CruiseNicole KidmanTodd FieldA Manhattan doctor embarks on a bizarre, night-long odyssey after his wife's admission of unfulfilled longing.After Dr. Bill Hartford and his wife have a pot-addled fight, she tells him in explicit detail of a time she almost cheated on him. Dejected, Bill slinks out into a dreamlike New York City night to clear his head. What follows is the most phantasmagoric and random series of events this side of an Alejandro Jodorowsky film. There is a funny irony that Stanley Kubrick's final film is his least understood and most divisive. Granted with all his work, Eyes Wide Shut has developed a sort of cult appeal, but to this day it remains the only film in his CV not universally embraced by movie-lovers. Watched with a modern eye, two things stand out. First, no movie before or since has been this ethereal...which is also the center of Eyes Wide Shut's criticisms. Everything from the muted performances to the jilted dialogue drip with an otherworldly atmosphere, but the effect feels unfinished, a bit like a rough draft. Second, conversely, this movie feels tweaked, honed and modulated within an inch of its life; The end result may not be to all tastes, but it's impossible to behold the intricately designed sets, the stunning natural light, the haunting tonality and THAT second act and not conclude that no stone was left unturned in this film. Eyes Wide Shut is nothing short of a master in perfect control of his craft. So, what does it all mean? The great director died four days after filming wrapped, so the world will never know for sure. And the rest is history. Conspiracy. Criticism. Controversy. Genius.
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsBrad PittEdward NortonMeat LoafAn insomniac office worker and a devil-may-care soap maker form an underground fight club that evolves into much more.Now that the first two rules have been broken, let's begin. Over the years, the superlatives lavished on Fight Club have been so numerous, so gushing, that just has to be overrated. Nothing can be that good. Oh, but it can. Fight Club is an incredible, subversive slice of troubled youth and a surreal counterculture metaphor on how airbrushed advertisements and material greed is dehumanizing us to the point where all we have left is our primal instinct; To attack. Although it's based on a novel by Chuck Palahnuik, Fight Club is 100% Fincher, a blackly funny, meta meditation on modern masculinity running insanely rampant that is more head-scratching than a symposium of fleas. It's almost impossible to portray how energetic, inventive and unique Fight Club is without resorting to profanities. Sure, the cleverness if the ending is iffy, but the way Fight Club eats through its runtime is so ruthless that is sends your adrenal glands into overdrive. Subtle? No. But its startling insightfulness, in-yer-face rudeness and melon-twisting delivery coheres into truly one-of-a-kind movie with bitch-tits, soap-making and bare-knuckle violence that still to this day remains the most poignant expose on the dangers of unchecked masculinity. I'd like to string this out a bit. Really, I would. But Fight Club is so immediately impressive that it seems dishonest to start with doubts and build to an epiphany. I am Jack's undying admiration of this movie.
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsMarlon BrandoAl PacinoJames CaanThe aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.Ah, yes. The big one. Fifty years later, the Godfather is still unequivocally proclaimed as the greatest movie ever made. Pretty bold stuff, but there are many who would agree with the sentiment to this day. That's the thing about The Godfather. As time goes on it only seems more perfectly conceived and executed. The runtime is right, it has the right amount of realism with the right amount of violence, the cast is right, its pacing is right, and it has the right balance of character development and action. Cinema is currently undergoing a tectonic cultural shift, but there are some undisputed truths, and one of them is that The Godfather is just right. On every level. It's an eternal benchmark and a moment in time. The quality of the filmmaking beneath the skin of The Godfather seeps through into the art of execution in everything you see, everything that connects you to the viewing experience. It's just a beautiful thing to behold in every sense. Moreover, it does things that feel new and alien to this day, despite the more classical aesthetic. Coppola can be credited with catapulting cinema into the modern era with his commanding technical engineering and audacious, visceral and stately set-pieces. The Hayes Code, with its stodgy content restrictions and cut-and-dry morality clauses, was a thing of the past. The universal awareness of The Godfather is a testament to its everlasting impact. So, is it the greatest movie ever made? That debate is arbitrary. It is, however, the most influential, famous and charismatic movie the world has ever seen.
- DirectorLouis MalleStarsGaspard ManesseRaphael FejtöFrancine RacetteA French boarding school run by priests seems to be a haven from World War II until a new student arrives. Occupying the next bed in the dormitory to the top student in his class, the two young boys begin to form a bond.From "Rome, Open City" to "The Pianist," there's a magnetic and unmistakable sense of world weariness that lines the films made by those who experienced the appalling actions of the Third Reich firsthand. What makes Au Revoir Les Enfants especially unique is the nature of writer/director Louis Malle's connection; He was the star pupil at a prestigious French Catholic school that housed a Jewish boy, Jean Bonnet, under the guise of a new student. Malle's character and Jean promptly clash over typical boyish things, but when Malle discovers Jean's secret the film takes a whole 'nother direction entirely. Antisemitism is condemned by simple childlike inquisitiveness, and the boys' bond as they are hurtled into adolescence through circumstance. This is as shatteringly intimate as WWII movies are ever likely to get. The battlefield? Never shown. The Holocaust? Not even referenced. In fact, not a drop of blood is spilt in this film, and barely a harsh word is uttered. Au Revoir Les Enfants is a film designed to be so quiet and delicate, it'll make you lean forward in your chair, rather than blast you back into it. That is until the literal final seconds, when the film's title is spoken in context, leaving you devastated, mouth agape, and starkly reminded of the human element behind each one of 11 million people exterminated by the Third Reich.
- DirectorWes AndersonStarsRalph FiennesF. Murray AbrahamMathieu AmalricA writer encounters the owner of an aging high-class hotel, who tells him of his early years serving as a lobby boy in the hotel's glorious years under an exceptional concierge.It's all here: the doll's house layout shot; the fastidious framing and color palette; the playful narrative structure (purporting to be based on a novel that doesn't actually exist); the dry and archly humorous dialogue; the absurdist situations; the clash of seriousness and whimsy; and an extraordinary wish list of a cast. Wes Anderson, unmistakably, makes Wes Anderson films, and The Grand Budapest is pulled off with such goddamn panache it set the benchmark for the rest of his career. Ralph Fiennes’ haughty yet heartfelt M. Gustave is our guide through this heightened world of horny widows, blackshirted fascists, daring jailbreaks and super-speed slalom chases. The titular hotel, nestled in the heart of a candy box Zubrowka, offered an advent calendar’s worth of charm behind every door. And in Gustave – played with silent era-caliber comic chops by Fiennes – it had a hero for the ages. The film’s meticulous construction is the dapper auteur at the peak of his live-action craft, his growing troupe of regular actors becoming increasingly preposterous, his whimsical screenwriting more layered and nuanced. A story within a story within a story, told in layers of artifice with a different aspect ratio for each, it’s grand and delicate in equal measure. The Grand Budapest Hotel is heartfelt, funny and impeccably orchestrated. And the pinnacle of a genre only Wes Anderson himself has mastered.
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinPaulette GoddardJack OakieDictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.It is in the opinion of your humble scribe that Charlie Chaplin's greatest movie is the one where he ripped the piss out of... the other guy with similar lip foliage. So, the story goes The Great Dictator was banned in all Nazi occupied territories, the only exceptions being a private screening by Herr Fuhrer himself (his reaction was never documented) and one unintentional screening involving resistance members, swapped reels, and a surprised German audience that opened fire at the projector. The Tramp's first full-on talkie has him as a poor Jewish barber struggling for survival while Germany is under power of Adolph Hitler. Sorry, I meant "while Tomania is under power by Adenoid Hynkel." Poking fun at the most heinous military of the modern era may seem grossly insensitive, but we must remember most of the travesties were unknown to the world until the camps were liberated five years later. However, in his research for more material, Chaplin himself became more aware of the Nazi's atrocities. Unable to perform reshoots, he shifted the tone of the film to a more somber one, and the result is an astounding film with all of Charlie Chaplin's goof-ball antics that matures before your very eyes. It all adds up to two gorgeous, vibey hours, with dazzling choreography, mischievous humor and serious things to say about how we treat one another. By the third act, it attacks the twisted ideals of the Third Reich, and ends with Chaplin laying bare the sentiment of humanity in an epic 5 minute monologue.
- DirectorTodd SolondzStarsJane AdamsJon LovitzPhilip Seymour HoffmanThe lives of several individuals intertwine as they go about their lives in their own unique ways, engaging in acts which society as a whole might find disturbing in a desperate search for human connection.At what point does a film cross over from being disturbingly provocative to being irredeemably offensive? For many, Todd Solondz's second film crossed that line with depraved abandon, and it's easy to see their point. Happiness is a multi-stranded drama of the pitchest-black exploring a motley crew of interconnected characters whose methods to pursue happiness verge on, shall we say the sick, degrading, abhorrent and perverted. A disclaimer is perhaps in order; There is nothing remotely pleasurable about this movie. Sexual deviance is delt with head-on, objectively and with any consideration for the viewer's comfort level. So why in God's name would anyone watch anything this reprehensible? It answers a question that lurks deep in the recesses of our minds; "How do such repulsive people live with themselves?" Happiness taps into our voyeuristic tendencies, offering only moments of reprieve to allow the viewer to brace themselves for the coming assault on their senses. Solondz's daring script is a gripping, fiercely intelligent exposé on the risks of mindlessly pursuing pleasures that somehow manages to turn these degenerates into real, human characters without ever exploiting the subject or prettifying their behaviors. Happiness is squirm-inducing, acutely embarrassing, existentially terrifying, appallingly witty and, like a car crash, you won't be able to look away even as every fiber of your being tells you to.
- DirectorMasaki KobayashiStarsTatsuya NakadaiAkira IshihamaShima IwashitaWhen a ronin requesting seppuku at a feudal lord's palace is told of the brutal suicide of another ronin who previously visited, he reveals how their pasts are intertwined - and in doing so challenges the clan's integrity.The Samurai epics we know and love utilize brilliant characterization, deliberate pacing and scalpel sharp camerawork to seamlessly ratchet up the tension to the inevitable, thrilling climax. But across Harakiri's 133-minute runtime, Masaki Kobayashi goes one better – delivering major rug-pulls at regular intervals that turn everything you’ve just seen entirely on its head. Adapted from Yasuhiko Takiguchi's morally and narratively complex novel, Harakiri is the tale of a broke, shamed and unemployed ronin who arrives at the house of a rival requesting to die honorably by committing seppuku. There's much, much more to this tale, but it's best to go into Harakiri knowing as little as possible. Harakiri isn't so much interested in delivering an epic finale (which it still does) as much as it is utilizing the novel's flashback-heavy structure for its own narrative gains. Make no mistake, Harakiri is just as riveting, thrilling and complex as any modern movie. This is confident, no-frills filmmaking from Kobayashi who keeps the setting and cinematic flourishes to a minimum, allowing the elegant flashback structure, devastating dialogue, and outstanding performances to shine through, communicating the issues of masculinity, poverty and desperation without ever doing so at the expense of sword-swinging thrills. All due respect to Akira Kurosawa, the Godfather of the samurai movie, but Harakiri has no equal. And that includes Seven Samurai.
- CreatorCharlie BrookerStarsWunmi MosakuMonica DolanDaniel LapaineFeaturing stand-alone dramas -- sharp, suspenseful, satirical tales that explore techno-paranoia -- "Black Mirror" is a contemporary reworking of "The Twilight Zone" with stories that tap into the collective unease about the modern world.****Episode "Hated in the Nation" only****
It's Black Mirror the Movie! But seriously folks, Hated in the Nation isn't here because it's the longest episode in a remarkable anthology series. It's here because it is 89 minutes of some of the most intelligent, most gripping and most poignant filmmaking (or television, depending on your point of view) in existence. Hated in the Nation centers around two detectives investigating a series of brutal murders where the cause of death is unexplainable. It may sound like a murder/mystery on autopilot, but it's been "Black-Mirrored" out here, set in a near future, unafraid to use startling twists and shocking content to go to town on our nerves and rip our eyes open to the risks of technical over-reliance. This is the essence of Black Mirror. It always has been, but Hated in the Nation takes things to another level, adding in a ingenious ecological twist, a perfectly executed flashback structure and a magnetic contrasting dichotomy between the two detectives. Hated in the Nation is a feature-film length episode of Black Mirror with a genuine three act structure, and the result is a MOVIE that deserves to be listed among the greatest of all time. And all you need to watch it is a Netflix subscription. What a world. - DirectorSpike JonzeStarsJoaquin PhoenixAmy AdamsScarlett JohanssonIn a near future, a lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need.Channeling what seems to be a very personal pain, Spike Jonze ties his eye for style and design into a film that is quirky without ever letting that get in the way of the love story. The love story is where most views checked out before pressing play, as it's between lonely love card writer Theodore and sophisticated, self-learning operating system Samantha. But this not the cringy, heavy-handed metaphor for technology addiction that the plot implies – Jonze has a much more redemptive tale to tell here, one that leads Theodore (and us) back on an astoundingly tender path to connecting with humanity. Perhaps Her’s greatest strength is that you believe their relationship without question – with impressive sleight of hand, Spike Jonze quickly and quietly establishes how that connection has become normalized within the near-future society of the film. Through the journey, and under blanket of the sci-fi genre and Spike Jones' trademark oddness, Her presents us with a remarkably fresh and delightfully positive take on the A.I./human debate; in a world where A.I. offers easy access to our inherent desire to belong and be understood at the deepest level, what human connections we have are precious and must be cherished. Her must be experienced to be believed. Honestly, there's nothing quite like it.
- DirectorMartin McDonaghStarsColin FarrellBrendan GleesonCiarán HindsAfter a job gone wrong, hitman Ray and his partner await orders from their ruthless boss in Bruges, Belgium, the last place in the world Ray wants to be.To say that the humor in In Bruges’ is coarse is to say the center of the sun is ‘a bit hot’ – Martin McDonagh’s screenplay for his existentialist gangster movie is impressively caustic, leaving you frequently agog at the words coming out of the mouths of hiding hitmen Ray and Ken. Left to await further instructions from their boss in the quaint Belgian town of the title after a job gone wrong, the pair languor in a picturesque purgatory, sight-seeing, shit-talking and soul-searching in equal measure as the weight of their actions comes crashing down. Farrell in particular puts in a gleeful performance that you later realize is anchored in total tragedy and self-loathing. The jokes might be near-the-knuckle, or in some cases downright offensive, but it’s near-impossible not to laugh. What sets this apart, however, is the turn for the dark it takes halfway through, turning into something closer to a tragedy. That the laughs continue right down to the final minutes, amid bloodshed and heartbreak, is only a testament to just how funny writer/director Martin McDonagh's script is. Plus, any film so hilariously out of tune with modern sensibilities can't help but come across as a breath of fresh air.
- DirectorDenis VilleneuveStarsLubna AzabalMélissa Désormeaux-PoulinMaxim GaudetteTwins journey to the Middle East to discover their family history and fulfill their mother's last wishes.To fit the journey of self-discovery for two siblings into a film is no mean achievement; to do so while simultaneously flashing back to their mother's hard life, tackling the horrendousness of Christian militarism while you're at it, is just showing off. If history continues as is, Denis Villeneuve will be known as possibly the greatest science fiction director who ever lived. But before all that, Villeneuve laid the groundwork of his career with an astonishingly pensive tale about a pair of fraternal twins tasked in their deceased mother's will to find the father they never met AND the brother they never knew existed. Chronicled in perfectly executed flashbacks, rooted in excellent characterization and buckets of empathy, Incendies is a million miles away from the shameless exercise in emotional manipulation it could have been. But make no mistake; when it hits it hits hard. Incendies is an eye-rippingly potent downward spiral of human brutality with exhaustive emotive power and ominous camerawork always on the fringes of depravity. The answer to the twin's journey is enough to have you hyperventilating into a paper bag, but Villeneuve doesn't stop there; the final scene is one of the most emotionally devastating examples of forgiveness ever captured on film.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsLeonardo DiCaprioJoseph Gordon-LevittElliot PageA thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O., but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.How in the name of poorly applied makeup do you follow up a gamechanger like The Dark Knight? If you're Christopher Nolan, you use your studio clout to create a massive, imaginative, original, brain-twisting behemoth that thrills and befuddles in equal measure. Memento may be a more intellectual thriller and Dark Knight may be a more accessible blockbuster, but Inception is Nolan at the height of his powers; cherry-picking the best bits from each, adding its own unique twist on a James Bond heist and yet still managing to be more than the sum of its parts. It's astounding this is a studio movie: Warner Bros. trusting a significant budget to Christopher Nolan’s undiluted, berserk vision. That vision included using the sleeping mind of a powerful businessman as the set for corporate espionage, the dizzying conceit of dreams within dreams within dreams with each operating at different speeds, CG used in respectful subservience to jaw-dropping practical effects and expedient character development woven in to increase the heart-stopping effect when the rooms start spinning. That Inception is still clear enough follow and layered enough to reward rewatches is impressive – that it's also a non-stop piece of rollercoaster entertainment is phenomenal. And true to form, Inception ends on a note that only seems ambiguous to those who dared let their mind linger. You'll need your thinking cap for this one. And your heart pills.
- DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsBrad PittDiane KrugerEli RothIn Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner's vengeful plans for the same.After Grindhouse disappointed financially, Quentin Tarantino returned to form with results that can conservatively be called extraordinary. On paper it doesn’t sound like much - a series of loosely connected revenge-fueled vignettes set in the backdrop of WWII, many of which don't even feature its titular Nazi-hunting Jewish soldiers - but it’s the insane assemblage of filmmaking freakery and a motley crew of memorable characters that elevates Inglorious Basterds to an incredible, visceral, purely cinematic experience. True to form Inglorious Basterds is a gourmet smorgasbord of movie lore, taking notes from 70's exploitation flicks and Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy, while forging its own route and paying no attention to continuity whatsoever. This is a Tarantino fairytale, a flip-of-the-bird to the perpetrators of historical horrors that ultimately dishes out the over-the-top violence the filmmaker is known for in service of a happily ever after. It's Tarantino at his most playful, endlessly quotable, nerve-shreddingly tense, with brilliant writing even by his standards, and great performances to boot. Nothing about Inglorious Basters is mediocre – it's an unhinged piece of art, an astounding piece of absurd cinema. This is filmmaking as myth, legend and campfire tale.
- DirectorPete DocterRonnie Del CarmenStarsAmy PoehlerBill HaderLewis BlackAfter young Riley is uprooted from her Midwest life and moved to San Francisco, her emotions - Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness - conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house, and school.There’s emotionally-intelligent storytelling, and then there’s Inside Out – an intelligent story about emotions, offering remarkably perceptive insights into the human condition in an all-ages adventure. In anthropomorphizing the feelings of almost-teenager Riley – Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust – during a time of turbulence, director Pete Docter combines the poignancy of "Up" with the imaginative world-building of Monsters, Inc. and hits upon something real about the way we process memory and emotion. It’s impossible to not be affected by it – from the moment Riley is born and experiences pure joy upon seeing her parents for the very first time, to its closing argument that it’s ok, necessary even, to feel and embrace sadness. Inside Out is as psychologically-astute as a Christopher Nolan movie, dazzlingly creative even by Pixar, and destined to give generations of audiences a greater understanding of their own innermost feelings. As with all of the studio's best work, it works on a purely entertaining level for younger viewers while resonating on a deeper level for an older audience. Just, whatever you do, don’t mention Bing Bong.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiMaggie CheungSiu Ping-LamTwo neighbors form a strong bond after both suspect extramarital activities of their spouses. However, they agree to keep their bond platonic so as not to commit similar wrongs.One of cinema's greatest romances is understated and, um, unconsummated. Wong Kar-wai's achingly romantic yet somber account of star-crossed lovers has a strong claim to be the most outright beautiful film ever made. Boasting exquisite cinematography from Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping Bin, the '60s costumes, oiled hair, free-flowing cigarette smoke, and unspeakably gorgeous cast may catch the eye, but its the tale of two neighbors who become friends after it's discovered their spouses are cheating on them that tugs at the heartstrings. But friendship turns to something more, and before you can say "forbidden love" this respectful, rather staid pair are contemplating throwing it all away for love's sake. But this is more than just proof that the deepest wells of human emotion exist even under the most well-tailored suit. It's also a moving and insightful study of marriage, particularly the way it creaks like the hull of a ship under the duress of routine and temptation. Achingly sad and mesmerizingly gorgeous, In the Mood for Love somehow captures the unspeakable, the intangible essence of life, in all its sound and fury, messy people flailing against an impassive universe. You'd have to have a heart of stone, or have your head firmly rammed up your own posterior not to be caught up in the magic of it all.
- DirectorFrank CapraStarsJames StewartDonna ReedLionel BarrymoreAn angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.It flopped on release and suffered nearly 30 years of obscurity until a clerical error in 1974 turned It's a Wonderful Life over to public domain. Local stations around the country seized the opportunity, airing it dozens of times between Thanksgiving and Christmas and, the rest they say, is history. A film so iconic that it's practically law to watch it every Christmas. It's also the movie that coaxed a war-battered James Stewart back to acting. Which is a good thing, as his performance tempers any potential schmaltz with a sense of underlying world-weariness. Based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" about a man shown what would happen if he'd never been born, Frank Capra expanded the idea into a full-length film that anatomizes life's ups and downs, flipping from romantic comedy to painfully realistic despair with an incredible innateness that American films of the time simply did not have. With Capra's tender touch, a script that is a captivating assault on the heartstrings, and a cast that is as close to perfection as is possible, It's a Wonderful Life provides the kind of wondrous sensations that cinema was born for. But more than that, it's just a peach of a picture, an insightful, affectionate love letter to the moments that define youth, chasing your dreams, power of a good deed, the poignancy of leaving home and the assurance that every life is important.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobert De NiroJerry LewisDiahnne AbbottA passionate yet unsuccessful comedian stalks and kidnaps his idol to take the spotlight for himself.What a sticky, uncomfortable film The King of Comedy is. Is it psychological horror? Is it a societal warning? Yes, and yes, but also no, and no, because Robert De Niro and Scorsese found exactly what they needed in the dark, murky heart of psychopathic aspiring stand-up comedian Rupert Pupkin, fashioning him into a raging beast in tune with their own psychological concerns. A critical and commercial disaster during its theatrical run, Marty’s bleak comedy nevertheless remains startlingly prescient; Not only because of the unflinchingly honest way it deconstructs the relationship between celebrities and their fans, but because of its trenchant observations on celebrity culture in general. By explicit design, The King of Comedy is one of the most squirm-inducing cinematic experiences this side of a horror movie. A treatise on the dangers of parasocial relationships and a character study in egoic psychosis, Scorsese slips between fantasy and reality with preternatural ease as a darkly charismatic De Niro goes through the gears, moving from a pitiful walking embarrassment to a palpable, terrifying threat. Sticking the audience with such a lamentable human being was always going to be a tough sell. Rupert Pupkin represented an ever-increasing population of individuals relentlessly and obsessively pursing fame at all costs. Few people enjoy reminders of their close proximity to evil, and even fewer enjoy identifying with it.
- DirectorCurtis HansonStarsKevin SpaceyRussell CroweGuy PearceAs corruption grows in 1950s Los Angeles, three policemen - one strait-laced, one brutal, and one sleazy - investigate a series of murders with their own brand of justice.James Ellroy, author of L.A. Confidential, once admitted that if he’d had his way, the film adaptation would have been black-and-white and four hours long. Which, as intriguing as that sounds, only goes to show that sometimes it’s a good thing creators maintain a respectful distance from adaptations of their output. After all, Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland’s well-oiled retool of Ellroy’s devilishly manifold tale of police corruption in ’40s Hollywood should be held up as the very pinnacle of novel-to-script revisualization: a robust reworking with an eye on the beats that give every good drama its pulse, while still embracing the bitter core of the source material. After a brutal multiple homicide in a diner, three detectives with their own separate motives for solving the case begin investigating with their own brand of justice. Every facet of LA Confidential embodies the theme of the very noir films it takes inspiration from; it's slick and suave on the outside, with a dirty, corrupt center. Boasting the most complex script on this list and the strongest trio performance ever shown on film, LA Confidential is beautifully constructed and a nigh-on perfect interpretation of a remarkable book. As violent as it is intelligent, as moving as it is brutal, it's a must-see for anyone who has even a passing interest in film.
- DirectorMathieu KassovitzStarsVincent CasselHubert KoundéSaïd Taghmaoui24 hours in the lives of three young men in the French suburbs the day after a violent riot.Mathieu Kassovitz's astoundingly confident directorial debut is a fantastically shot tale of friendship and violence taking place on a single day in the grim, riot-scarred tenements of Paris' housing projects. Vinz, Hubert and Said are our guides through this Parisian netherworld, each played with fire-eyed intensity, particularly Vinz who windmills through the city with a stolen .44 Magnum and a vendetta against the world when a friend is beaten into a coma by police. La Haine is not an easy watch. But it is a rewarding one: a distilled sensory experience, purely cinematic despite its logistical constraint. In short, it's the apotheosis of everything that became a signature of urban filmmaking– economical characterization, inventive camerawork and a genuine disdain for anything that doesn't contribute to that uncomfortable sense of realism that puts any viewer, regardless of background, right in the world the filmmaker has created. Propelled by a ticking clock that may as well be a detonator and guided a smorgasbord of camera techniques (freeze-frames, tracking shots and dolly zooms, to name a few) La Haine has a frenetic energy that gives this gut-punching slice of social realism a power conspicuously missing in other works set in the most romantic city in the world. Kassovitz himself said it best in a 1995 BBC interview; "If you can't relate to this movie, then I envy you."
- DirectorDamien ChazelleStarsRyan GoslingEmma StoneRosemarie DeWittWhile navigating their careers in Los Angeles, a pianist and an actress fall in love while attempting to reconcile their aspirations for the future.Deep breaths, everyone — this one blindsides you. Behind the Academy Awards kerfuffle, the ridiculous accusations of white-washing and the grumblings about the ending, this is an absolute heart-smashing gem from writer-director Damien Chazelle. Chazelle, who previously made jazz school feel like Full Metal Jacket, followed up his Oscar-winning Whiplash with something less harrowing but no less unconventional. Sebastian and Mia are down-on-their-luck lovebirds who sing and dance their way to their dreams in a wonderous backdrop of retina-swelling colors, astounding choreography and an arsenal of camera trickery. The pair radiate charm, two beautiful people who fall in love against the background of L.A. in constant golden-hour mode. Reality, however, slowly sinks in and the pair slowly realizes their dreams may take them in different directions. This is no simple exercise in smile-a-mile-wide entertainment; Chazelle's powerful treatises on the disconnect between dreamers and the crushing weight of modern society take La La Land in bold directions never been tried in a musical. Still imbued with the flighty, anything-goes spirit of musicals of yesteryear, but amped up with a contemporary weariness to elicit a shattering emotional resonance, the results split audiences right down the middle. But, to put it as nicely as possible, those who aren't hopelessly wooed are a little short on soul.
- DirectorPeter BogdanovichStarsTimothy BottomsJeff BridgesCybill ShepherdIn 1951, a group of high schoolers come of age in a bleak, isolated, atrophied North Texas town that is slowly dying, both culturally and economically.One only need to look at the top ten highest grossing films of 1971 to know America's post-Vietnam counterculture movement had finally hit the mainstream. The dreamy-eyed Gods of Hollywood's Golden Age were dead and, in the case of Peter Bogandovich's Last Picture show, in their place was a a new age of disillusioned youth rejecting the morals of their ancestors, choosing to seek solace in more earthly pleasures as their hometown collapses into a dilapidated ghost town of nostalgia. In essence, it’s a soap opera, but Bogdanovich plays it as a John Ford-style ‘closing of the frontier’ Western, with ugly-beautiful images of a West that has swapped cattle for oil but failed to strike it rich, layering in evocative snatches of Hank Williams among the whistling winds and the whining locals. The Last Picture Show was universally panned upon its release, with audiences and critics appalled with the casual sexual content and unsure what point Bogandovich was trying to make. Which is strange because it may require a bit of decoding to unravel the film’s multiple subtexts, but Bogdanovich has no interest in being vague, and his true meaning is rarely far beneath the surface. Bleak and depressing, but also incredibly acted and brilliantly scripted, The Last Picture Show is unfairly judged for the controversy it caused in 1971, and thus is still criminally under-viewed.
- DirectorFlorian Henckel von DonnersmarckStarsUlrich MüheMartina GedeckSebastian KochIn 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.Communist East Berlin is the last setting you'd expect for a film to affirm/restore your faith in humanity. Then again, there are few places where an act of goodness would shine brighter. Sporting what may be the most intriguing premise on this list, The Lives of Others is an unassertive and character-driven drama that takes an affecting look at Stasi Captain Wiesler, who finds himself embroiled in the private lives of an intellectual couple suspected of espionage he has been assigned to spy on. Ethical and moral dilemmas abound as Wiesler finds himself increasingly torn over the nature of his work. Despite the implications of the story, it's nowhere near as arduous an experience as you're expecting. Director/writer Von Dommersmarck utilizes a deep focus on his characters as a catalyst to suck the viewer completely into the experience, seamlessly building tension towards the film’s immensely moving finale. It's a quiet, no-hassle sort of experience, but with an underlying steely precision to the way it gets its message across. The Lives of Others shuns binary brutalism and instead rejoices in the style, passion and dynamics of a golden age. And know this: if you feel this isn’t the subject matter for you, that you’re not the demographic, you do yourself a disservice — this is a wonderful, fully-realized, perfectly executed piece of work that gets you right in the guts. A beauty of a film in every sense of the word.
- DirectorSion SonoStarsTakahiro NishijimaHikari MitsushimaSakura AndôA bizarre love triangle forms between a young Catholic upskirt photographer, a misandric girl and a manipulative cultist.If ever there were a film that would be deemed so low-brow and so pathetically absurd that just the act of describing it would bring that person's mental faculties into question, then it would be Love Exposure. So let's get right into it. What do you get when you combine a professional pervert trying to win his father's approval, the deviant leader of a sexless cult and an ass-kicking man-hater? As it turns out, a surprisingly tender meditation on finding love in unexpected places. There's a lot to unpack here, but underneath the low-fi aesthetic and ridiculous content this is one of the most charming films you could come across. Really. Our characters are damaged, endearing, steadfast in their morals, sincerely written and genuinely naive in their search for love, all while navigating the most lurid, outrageous and downright cartoonish aspects of life. There’s a passionate mastery to Love Exposure that taps directly into the parietal lobe – it feels entirely unfiltered, completely without compromise, utterly batshit insane in its conception and execution; no idea too bonkers or unwieldy, no amount of subplots too tricky to juggle. Love Exposure will make you laugh, make you cry, make your eyes widen and your fists clench; send you shrinking into your seat with its sheer audacity. Fasten your seatbelts – it's one hell of a ride.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsPeter LorreEllen WidmannInge LandgutWhen the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.1931 saw the cinematic debut of two monsters: Dracula and Hans Beckert. While the former may have sunk it fangs into all facets of pop culture as we know it, the latter permanently changed how evil was portrayed in cinema and still remains a frightening identifiable character both on screen and off. Hans Beckert, a pudgy, average looking young man compulsively whistles Grieg’s "Hall of the Mountain King" as he approaches the children he murders. His crimes eventually effect the entire city, prompting professional criminals to track him like an animal through the streets after Beckert draws an inconvenient police presence. M is adored for many things; There is Fritz Arno Wagner's much-lauded cinematography, a chiaroscuro masterclass full of angles and shadows practically begging to be filled with villains; Lang's arsenal of filmmaking fireworks as M intercuts Hans' pathetic life with the investigations of his outrages. But at its core, M is a creepy character study of a psychopathic child murderer, a startling prophetic portrayal of a police force willing to use any means necessary to rid the country of an undesirable and a riveting portrait of a community doused in fear all too willing to give up personal freedom for the illusion of security. If it had been released yesterday it wouldn't feel out of place.
- DirectorPaul Thomas AndersonStarsTom CruiseJason RobardsJulianne MooreAn epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.Only Paul Thomas Anderson could propose a multi-stranded story about lost souls searching for love and elevate it beyond something you’d find on The Hallmark Channel. Here, the dapper auteur proved Boogie Nights was no fluke, that he had a mastery of massive casts and energetic camerawork that was simply astonishing to behold. Magnolia is PTA's opus; intricately patterned, immensely compelling, feverishly intense, deeply metaphorical and full of career-defining performances. Everything from, Paul Thomas Anderson's long continuous takes, to everyone singing Aimee Mann's "Wise Up" in an uncut montage, affirms Magnolia's powerful statements on the ripple effect our actions have on others. Central characters this flawed and raw are a rare sight in American cinema – even in the independent sector – and they're surrounded by a heck of a supporting cast. The lot benefit from PTA's fierce direction and winning partnership with cinematographer Robert Elswit and editor Dylan Tichenor. The incredible performances, the brilliant cross-cutting between stories, the deeply emotive screenplay, and the ever-moving camera all require rapid mental recalibration to make much sense of because they’re delivered with such unfiltered honesty and intensity. Magnolia is an unbelievably captivating film that builds its characters seamlessly, amasses suspense with no apparent effort and concludes with the most unpredictable and jaw-dropping finale ever. Although it may not be as unpredictable to those familiar with Exodus 8:2...
- DirectorAdam ElliotStarsToni CollettePhilip Seymour HoffmanEric BanaIn 1976 Melbourne, a lonely 8-year-old girl strikes up a correspondence with an unlikely pen pal: a severely obese 44-year-old New Yorker with Asperger's syndrome.Mary and Max begins like a fairly straightforward clay-mation outing. Two oddball characters become pen pals by circumstance. They open up to each other. They become friends. Bish bash bosh. But as you watch, small hints of the film’s true nature slowly appear. A bittersweet ennui broods like a rumbling storm cloud overhead. The child-friendly surface dissolves, taken place by some hefty themes, eyebrow-raising humor and an unusually large amount of heart. The pen-pal relationship between eight-year-old Australian girl, Mary (a social pariah with unstable parents) and forty-four-year-old American, Max (an obese outcast coping with Asperger's) may stir up some uncomfortable ideas, but their relationship is a joyous experience that stays well within the boundaries of acceptable. The terrible world around them is condemned by simple childlike inquisitiveness, they give each other sweet, albeit dubious advice to help each other cope with their respective bumps in the road, and before you know it their relationship becomes essential to their survival in every sense of the word. Your heart will be squeezed for all it's worth, but Adam Elliot's masterful grip on what makes us human – informed by his love of a round-house approach to the subject – leavens what would be a journey into misery with moments of warmth, comedy, and an unbearably beautiful ending.
- DirectorDavid LynchStarsNaomi WattsLaura HarringJustin TherouxAfter a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.David Lynch rips off the hand that feeds, messing with Hollywood itself in a mystery tale that’s as twisted as the road it’s named after, while presenting Tinseltown as both the stuff of dreams and a realm of nightmares. Using a morally murky L.A. as his blank canvas, Lynch paints a surreal, non-linear, WTF-filled foray into a tangled world of loser hitmen, gangsters with unclear motives, closeted lesbians, and the unluckiest director ever. Feel lost yet? You don't know the half of it. Christopher Nolan and Wes Craven made iconic films centered on dreams, but it's almost uniquely Lynch who seems to understand how dream logic actually works and is able to translate it to the screen. Peculiar events are presented as if they're the most normal things in the world – and while meaning is there, it feels like it's just out of reach. Strange characters drift in and out, behaving oddly and making gnomic pronouncements. Disparate, apparently unconnected scenes somehow coalesce into some sort of cohesive whole. Like a dream, Mulholland Drive is nigh-on impossible to describe with words, resists all forms of analysis and sticks with you long after the credits roll. Just watch and enjoy the surrealism, then hit the explanation forums at the end because there is clearly more than a touch of genius here.
- DirectorMike LeighStarsDavid ThewlisLesley SharpKatrin CartlidgeAn unemployed Mancunian vents his rage on unsuspecting strangers as he embarks on a nocturnal London odyssey.The ingredients of Mike Leigh's edgiest film couldn't be more evocative: nihilism, misogyny, thoroughly unlikeable characters and David Thewlis clawing his way through it all with a Cheshire cat grin, the evils of masculinity incarnate. It begins with him fleeing the family of a woman he sexually assaulted, and only gets more uncompromising from there – sticking you with his hateful, amoral, but utterly mesmeric villain for over two hours. He stays with an ex-girlfriend, sleeps with her roommate and generally expounds his caustic worldviews to anyone who listens. Naked sees Leigh getting to grips not only with a different subculture – underground London – but also with moviemaking; His ultra-naturalistic style sharpened by an urban setting and Jon Gregory's razor-precise editing while Dick Pope's cinematography, full of ingenious tracking shots and interesting lighting strategies, exudes a dank menace like a moor fog. What doesn't surprise is the strength in depth of the performances: Thewlis is terrific as Johnny - bitter, articulate, deeply unpleasant and utterly compelling. It's a performance and a film that chews you up before spitting you out with no happy resolve and no firmer grasp on the soul of humanity.
- DirectorEthan CoenJoel CoenStarsTommy Lee JonesJavier BardemJosh BrolinViolence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong and over two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande.No Country For Old Men stands as the best film made by the Coen Brothers after the turn of the millennium – which is saying something, given the career that Joel and Ethan have had over the last 24 years. Their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel is a slow-burner in every sense, and after letting it digest for a decade and a half, it's abundantly clear that it's the brothers' magnum opus: a ruthlessly efficient, unscored, sepia-drenched, piercingly intelligent, nihilistic masterpiece. It doesn't have the sick sense of humor of Fargo or the grotesque production of Blood Simple, but No Country for Old Men is full-strength, no-holds-barred, firing-on-all cylinders Coen Brothers. Their dark, violent tendencies mesh perfectly with McCarthy's bleak, existential themes. Anton Cigurh, the hitman played to literal perfection by Javier Bardem is the vehicle to translate these themes as he coldly and relentlessly hunts Josh Brolin's Llewelyn Moss who sees a way out of his trailer in a bag of bloodied bills he found at a botched drug deal. Told with Roger Deakins' coldly compelling camerawork and a trio of career-best performances from Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin (who almost never share the screen but haunt each other to varying degrees), it feels like a quiet, tense grapple for the soul of humanity. And like Sheriff Bell's dream, recalled at the end of the film, this is a dark mysterious story with a monster at the end of it.
- DirectorSergio LeoneStarsRobert De NiroJames WoodsElizabeth McGovernA former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan 35 years later, where he must once again confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.Sergio Leone pursued Once Upon a Time in America through over a decade of development, and after filming had wrapped up, nearly 10 hours of footage had been recorded. Years after the disastrous screening of the chronological two-hour "American" cut, Leone's time-shifting, epically-scaled near-as-hell four-hour long masterpiece was finally realized to immense critical acclaim. Turns out, letting one of the greatest directors of all time loose on one of the most iconic books ever really is the makings of movie magic. Who knew? Spanning decades, we follow a group of Jewish gangsters who ultimately face their demons after a life of crime. The glacial pacing and occasional extreme violence watermarks this as the work of a Spaghetti Western auteur, but Leone's tender approach to the main characters and the brilliantly segued flashbacks instill an emotional elegance unique to the genre. To the effect, Once Upon a Time in America lingers and plays on the mind; its meanings shift and change like a faded memory or a half-remembered dream. And it all adds up to four hours (it breezes by, trust me) that coalesce into something extraordinary, balancing innate aggression with finely judged dynamics, marrying raw excitement with startling precision. For an Italian who barely spoke a word of English, Leone films New York like he has its streets running though his veins. What a legacy
- DirectorPark Chan-wookStarsChoi Min-sikYoo Ji-taeKang Hye-jeongAfter being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must track down his captor in five days.A Korean businessman is captured and inexplicably imprisoned in a grimy hotel room for 15 years then released and given five days to find his capture. If that plot doesn't grab you then read no further because nothing can prepare you for the feral, perilously bleak, distinctive non-Hollywood delivery of Oldboy. This ferocious revenge thriller does extremity with a capital Eeek. Torture through 15 years of solitary? Check. Hammer-wielding violence? Check. Incest? Check. Live octopus-eating? Check, check, and up-chuck. Here, ladies and gentlemen, is a film that would've been the reserve of underground horror had it not been directed, scripted and acted to perfection. Making a movie that pushes the audience's comfort zone is one thing, integrating the vile content so seamlessly into its structure that everything feels essential is nothing short of masterful. Nothing feels crowbarred-in, it's all part of the deliciously dark and stylishly executed journey. Each scene in Oldboy delivers hammer blow after continuous hammer blow. Some of them, notably during the magnificent single-shot corridor-based fight scene, are literal. But most, as the film hurtles towards its dark, twisty climax, are metaphorical. Ferocious, fear-fueled and incredibly effed-up, be sure to see it with someone you love!
- DirectorGuillermo del ToroStarsIvana BaqueroAriadna GilSergi LópezIn the Falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.Guillermo del Toro's masterpiece is part fantasy, part historical war movie – in which the fantastical sequences are hardly a reprieve from the fascistic horrors besieging the real world. Caught in the middle of it all is young Ofelia, by day tending to her pregnant mother and avoiding the ire of her brutal stepfather, and by night taking on three otherworldly tasks in order to gain immortality and return to the fairy kingdom that creaky faun Pan believes she comes from. Read it as a fairy tale, a cry against fascism, a horror, a fantasy or a tale of a strangely beautiful mental illness. Whichever way you look at it, this twisted masterpiece still packs an emotional punch that would floor Chuck Norris. del Toro evokes the real and the unreal with equal care and vitality, creating a film full of unforgettable imagery – whether its Vidal receiving a Joker smile at the hands of a rebel, or the terrifying eye-handed Pale Man chomping the heads off fairies as he chases Ofelia through his banquet hall. The sudden bouts of extreme violence are deeply intimidating, yet the utterly mesmeric cinematography and Ivana Baquero's flawless performance retain a child-like sense of wonder and excitement. How did they do that? Pan's Labyrinth is hauntingly beautiful, the greatest example of del Toro augmenting the monstrousness of human cruelty with actual fantastical monsters, and a tragic, transcendent climax that's hard to shake.
- DirectorBong Joon HoStarsSong Kang-hoLee Sun-kyunCho Yeo-jeongGreed and class discrimination threaten the newly-formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan.Nobody but Bong Joon Ho could have made Parasite. The South Korean auteur's voice can be felt in every part of the film - from the immaculate production contrasted with dark subject matter, to its utilization of full-bodied, morally gray characters to weave societal damnations into a story that takes some startling narrative twists. The plot, which revolves around a family of four unemployed slackers who weasel their way into the servitude of the wealthy (and inept) Park family, is almost perfunctory in the face of the Bong Joon Ho's vision. This is a bigger film than the plot implies, one that tackles elitism and egalitarianism in a way that's utterly original and eye-wateringly suspenseful. There are tenses sequences here, including an adrenaline-pumping escape from the Park house in near-silence, but even its scenes of deadpan wit (smoking a cigarette on top of an exploding toilet anyone?) are moral quandaries writ large. Parasite is a miracle of a film. It feels like Bong Joon-ho’s already extraordinary career has been building to this. It’s such a powerfully concentrated, impressionistic piece of work that every moment in it contains multitudes.
- DirectorSatoshi KonStarsJunko IwaoRica MatsumotoShinpachi TsujiA pop singer gives up her career to become an actress, but she slowly goes insane when she starts being stalked by an obsessed fan and what seems to be a ghost of her past.For over 20 years, the same word has been used to describe Perfect Blue; "Underrated." It's a word so unbecoming of this piercingly intelligent, poignant and ferocious thriller that it may as well have four letters. As with much of Satoshi Kon's work, however, time has been kind and his films have a exerted a massive influence (and in some cases, blatant plagiarism) on many recent releases. For his debut, he adapted Yoshikazu Takeuchi's novel about a young pop star who gets stalked by a grotesque fan, haunted by her own doppelganger and goes properly insane after she decides to end her career. Despite its meager 82-minute runtime, Perfect Blue is a film so dense with plot, symbolism and horrific images that the way it punches towards the end credits is genuinely befuddling. It's a full-on sensory assault. One that leaves you shell-shocked as your body struggles to compute what just happened. Kon's efforts come across as a rushed effort upon first watch, but a rewatch makes it obvious this is a master in perfect control of his craft. Kon absolutely maximizes visual storytelling, giving us all the information our eyes can handle as the plot hurtles along with propulsive force. If you aren't hyperventilating into a paper bag when it's all over, then you simply didn't watch it correctly.
- DirectorCéline SciammaStarsNoémie MerlantAdèle HaenelLuàna BajramiOn an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.To call Portrait of a Lady on Fire one of the most beautiful films ever made is to demean it. Sure, it takes place 18th Century France, replete with all the windswept, gown-endowed, Y-chromosome deficient aesthetics you'd expect, but the point of the eye-pleasing surface in Celine Sciamma's opus is to heighten the haunting effect of her powerful treatises on female identity. This story of a young painter commissioned to secretly paint a wedding portrait of a young heiress is powered as much by the women behind the camera and the ones in front of it. Sciamma’s unhurried script lays an illusory rhythm that gives her plenty of time to linger on the hypnotic gazes of the actresses. Their romance builds quietly, expressed through stolen glances and tributes to the Greek tale of Eurydice; like him, they choose to look at the one they love, no matter the cost. It's an emotionally literate film about characters who find it easier not to communicate – a lot goes unspoken, but you feel it anyway thanks to the central performances of Noemie Merlant and Adele Haenel: tender, committed and truthful, much like the film itself. With a faultless screenplay, dazzling cinematography from Claire Mathon, and a final shot that leaves you gasping for air, Portrait is nothing short of a masterpiece. The message is a tale as old as time; being yourself is a beautiful thing. France's Brittany region isn't hard on the eyes either.
- DirectorDenis VilleneuveStarsHugh JackmanJake GyllenhaalViola DavisWhen Keller Dover's daughter and her friend go missing, he takes matters into his own hands as the police pursue multiple leads and the pressure mounts.Ever notice how revenge dramas, even the good ones, sacrifice the moral implication of revenge on the altar of cathartic body carnage? Screenwriter Aaron Guzikowski did, and rather than stick to form, Prisoners explores the ugliness of revenge in raw, unflinching detail, never shying away from the brutality and never once incorporating easy-to-grasp answers. Keller Dover's daughter and her best friend silently disappear one winter day leaving no clues behind. After the primary suspect is released for lack of evidence, Dover, armed with guile and an unlimited capacity to do what's necessary, decides to take the law into his own hands in the most sadistic way possible. Prisoners throws the viewer into a parent's hell; where would you stop if you identified the person responsible for abducting your child? The scoring is minimal, the camera never blinks, the script is snare-tight, the performances are monstrous and the tension is off-the-charts. The result is a film with a runaway train sensation in the way it builds suspense; nothing frantic, just a no-nonsense rush to an ending as nerve-shredding as it is unexpected. Prisoners is fueled by genuine anger, and it shows – this is a film with complete disdain for the viewer's comfort zone. If you can handle the guaranteed nightmares, this is essential viewing. You won't be the same after watching it.
- DirectorPeter WatkinsStarsPatrick BolandKent ForemanCarmen Argenziano"Punishment Park" is a pseudo-documentary purporting to be a film crews's news coverage of the team of soldiers escorting a group of hippies, draft dodgers, and anti-establishment types across the desert in a type of capture the flag game. The soldiers vow not to interfere with the rebels' progress and merely shepherd them along to their destination. At that point, having obtained their goal, they will be released. The film crew's coverage is meant to insure that the military's intentions are honorable. As the representatives of the 60's counter-culture get nearer to passing this arbitrary test, the soldiers become increasingly hostile, attempting to force the hippies out of their pacifist behavior. A lot of this film appears improvised and in several scenes real tempers seem to flare as some of the "acting" got overaggressive. This is a interesting exercise in situational ethics. The cinéma vérité style, hand-held camera, and ambiguous demands of the director - would the actors be able to maintain their roles given the hazing they were taking - pushed some to the brink. The cast's emotions are clearly on the surface. Unfortunately this film has gone completely underground and is next to impossible to find. It would offer a captivating document of the distrust that existed between soldiers willfully serving in the military and those persons who opposed the war peacefully.After he struck Oscar gold with The War Game, Peter Watkins arrived in cinemas with a documentarian's aesthetic and kicked the doors down with this deeply-rattling, criminally under-viewed masterpiece. Punishment Park has an unnamed British camera crew document a day in the titular park, a literal hell where subversives are interrogated by a tribunal and sentenced to a 50-mile trek while being hunted by a fanatical police force. Narrated by said film crew while simultaneously cross-cutting between a group undergoing interrogations, a group currently undergoing the park, and the police themselves, Peter Watkins had plenty of room to attack Vietnam-era America from all angles. And attack it he does. The sheer visceral impact of what takes place on screen leaves nothing off the table. Punishment Park revels in its realism and the fury it possesses with a deliberate feel of anger that emanates from its very being. Eccentric, bordering on full-on crazy, contradictory, occasionally infuriating and deeply compelling, this is a vision both expansive and deeply personal. Punishment Park remains a uniquely gnarly, punishing experience, from its grotesque production design to its casting of non-actors whose personal beliefs matched their character's. It's hard to believe this isn't a declassified blotch in American history.
- DirectorDarren AronofskyStarsEllen BurstynJared LetoJennifer ConnellyThe drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island people are shattered when their addictions run deep..Activities less stressful than watching Requiem for a Dream include tap-dancing in an active minefield and playing Hot Potato with a live hand grenade. Here, Darren Aronofsky took his ability to create pure cinematic anxiety to new heights with a thriller that plays more like a sustained panic attack. This desperate and depressing tale of four people whose drug addictions cause their lives to spiral out of control is delivered with the most savage, angry ferocity of any film in existence. The way Requiem for a Dream eats through its 102-minute runtime is simply astonishing; Exposition is weaved into bouts of horrific imagery while the movie lunges for its conclusion like it's been rammed by an express train. The effect, akin to the most lucid, disturbing nightmare you've ever had, is enhanced by Aronofsky's epilepsy-inducing direction, Clint Mansell's shrieking score (scariest use of violins since Psycho) and Jay Rabinowitz's spastic, hip-hip inspired editing which has not two, but THREE times as many cuts as a traditional film. You'll feel as though your brain just completed an Iron Man; Aronofsky's remarkably creative toy-box of technical tricks and that insane score help provide the film's immense power amid its gripping pessimism. This is cinema with all the dials turned to 11, almost too tense for human hearts, so unforgettable it is required viewing in some rehabilitation facilities.
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsMorgan FreemanBrad PittKevin SpaceyTwo detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his motives.There is, perhaps, no movie from the modern era more influential than Seven. It isn't the plot, which has two detectives, one experienced and weather-beaten, the other fiery and energetic, hunt down a serial killer who modus operandi is the seven deadly sins. It isn't the nerve-shredding (if universally known) twist ending, and it isn't the way Andrew Kevin Walker's magnificent screenplay ratchets up the tension to levels that snatch the breath right out of you. No, this was first movie that condemned the collective evil within our society through the twisted logic of a serial killer. In a time when cinematic serial killers were either larger-than-life sophistos (Silence of the Lambs) or masked maniacs turning horny teenagers into knife fodder (take your pick), the idea of pointing the finger at the audience was so deeply rattling, no one had any frame of reference to process the experience. Where the Saw franchise turned the concept into a gorefest, Seven twists the mind rather than the flesh, focusing on the aftermath of the atrocities and letting our imagination do the dirty work. Full of what would become David Fincher's signature perfection-obsessed rapid-fire camera work, a gnarly score from Nine Inch Nails and truly grotesque production-design from Darius Khondji, the result is the best of both worlds; a pulpy, punishing experience built by the best in the business. Every film on this list is brilliant, but few can claim to have rewritten the rule book for its respective genre, and even fewer have immortality thrust upon them at such an early age.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsJack NicholsonShelley DuvallDanny LloydA family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.Stephen King famously hates it. Contemporary critics were lukewarm. Initial box-office returns were middling. The Academy Awards flatly ignored it. Stanley Kubrick, unbelievably, was even nominated for a 'Worst Director' award at the inaugural Razzies. But what a difference a bit of hindsight makes. As with a lot of Kubrick’s work, time has been kind, and it now seems blindingly obvious that The Shining is a masterpiece without parallel; a meticulous, surreal, visually astonishing descent into nightmarish madness. Stephen King continues to grumble to this day, but that's his blind spot. His novel was too on-the-nose for Kubrick's metaphysical sensibilities. The book is slashed, cruelly but correctly, into leaner script alive with portent and symbolism, every frame brimming with Kubrick's genius for implying psychological purpose in setting. The Shining comes across as arrogant, aimless and flat out bizarre if watched without total concentration. But watch it in the right frame of mind and Kubrick's unfathomable imaginativeness, indelible imagery and grotesque atmosphere slams his message home, burning itself into your brain. The clarity of the photography, the intentional creaky pacing, the atmosphere of dread and horrible anticipation he creates, prowling the hotel's corridors with Garrett Brown's Steadicam, remains unmatched. Is it the ultimate horror movie? No, it's better than that. One of the best movies, period? Closer..
- DirectorVíctor EriceStarsFernando Fernán GómezTeresa GimperaAna TorrentIn 1940, after watching and being traumatized by the movie Frankenstein (1931), a sensitive seven year-old girl living in a small Spanish village drifts into her own fantasy world.Close your eyes and imagine a film where a young child, enchanted by the movies, retreats to their imagination to cope with the harshness of life. Oh, wait, you don't have to because they're everywhere, and we owe it all to The Spirit of the Beehive. Set during the Spanish Civil War where a young girl befriends a Republican fighter, The Spirit of the Beehive was a substantial risk, as Spain was still under the oppressive rule of General Franco. Ironically, the censors thought such "thinly plotted and ‘arty’ picture" (their words) wouldn't garner a significant audience and gave their stamp of approval. And thus, one of the most magical films in history entered the world. Six-year-old Ana (a stunning Ana Torent) is spellbound by a screening of Frankenstein in her small Castillian village and convinced that a fugitive she befriends embodies the spirit of Boris Karloff's monster. Victor Erice and cinematographer Luis Cuadrado perfectly paint the inner life of Ana with unforgettable dream-like imagery, subtle social commentary and innate sensitivity. It's a triumph of dreamlike filmmaking, as its portrayal of the innocence of childhood and the effect cinema has on our lives is explored in slow, desolate and beautiful images. Haunting and lyrical with several points to make about Franco's reign, few films have entered the world children create for themselves so beautifully.
- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsAlisa FreyndlikhAleksandr KaydanovskiyAnatoliy SolonitsynA guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes.Tarkovsky’s second take on the science fiction genre is a powerfully allegorical, hypnotically ravishing work of art, and perhaps the closet cinema has come to the profundity of sci-fi literature. The titular Stalker leads two people through the mysterious ‘Zone,’ a room in a forbidden area that grants your inner-most wish; the Writer – a bitter man who wishes to obtain genius to make up for his waning inspiration, and the Scientist, an arrogant man who wishes to use the Zone to win a Nobel prize and gain recognition. As they go deeper and deeper on their way to this area, key questions of the nature of man are constantly dissected, with no easy answers given. Is the 'Zone' the human subconscious? Is it a secret Soviet society, or is it even heaven? There isn't enough space to discuss all that here but suffice to say Stalker's treatises on the tumultuous relationship between the artist and the consumer will not leave your mind in a hurry. It's clear Stalker is an allegory, but what it's an allegory for really depends on your imagination. It's impenetrable if you're not in the right mood, but massively rewarding for those willing to go on the journey. Tarkovsky's slow and enigmatic tone, stressed by the length of his shots, allows the viewer to immerse themselves with his world, in the process possibly ruminating on their own lives.
- DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsGeorge O'BrienJanet GaynorMargaret LivingstonA sophisticated city woman seduces a farmer and convinces him to murder his wife and join her in the city, but he ends up rekindling his romance with his wife when he changes his mind at the last moment.F.W Murau's magnum opus could not begin on more contentious terms; A farmer under the spell of a visiting city enchantress is convinced to kill his wife. Lovely. But in a narrative masterstroke, the conflict is resolved almost immediately (no, he doesn't kill her) and the remainder of the film is dedicated to the incredibly beguiling tale of the couple falling back in love while in the backdrop of staggeringly pretty imagery. Like Fritz Lang after him, F.W Murnau brought the visual brilliance of German Expressionist cinema to our side of the Atlantic, but unlike Lang there are no lessons or epiphanies to be gleaned from watching Sunrise. It's a story of a husband and wife who have lost their way rediscover their love for one another, coupled with Murnau's dreamlike intensity that dares you not to grin like an idiot throughout the whole experience. Everything about Sunrise feels grand and mythic – not just its imagery, but its sweeping narrative arcs that turns disdain into love, distance into tenderness and a villain into a hero. And the result is so heartwarming and such a joy to watch, you won't care the narrative is virtually non-existent. Who would've thought the most dazzling movies of all time starts with infidelity and attempted murder?
- DirectorDario ArgentoStarsJessica HarperStefania CasiniFlavio BucciAn American newcomer to a prestigious German ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amid a series of grisly murders.An objectively awful horror film with a star rating that puts it among the greatest movies of all time? No, this isn't a test to see if you're paying attention in the back. From Mario Bava to Lucio Fulci, Italy has done a nice line in horror films that are drenched in neon-red gore and covered in lashings of ominous atmosphere, all without making the damnedest bit of sense. But it's Dario Argento's bizarre masterpiece about a young woman stumbling upon a coven of witches that stands head, shoulders and pointy nose above the rest. Suspiria is a nightmarish coloring book at 48 frames per second with such stunning visuals, contrasted with such intentional avoidance of common sense, that the brain can't make sense of what the eyes are seeing. All his hallmarks are there: dark supernatural elements at play, bravura camera acrobatics, extreme violence, themes of obsession and sexual aberration and a vibrant, hyper-real Technicolor palette. Truly terrifying, augmented by an unforgettable score by Goblin and filled with the sort of insane set-pieces for which Argento is famous, Suspiria has all of his Gothic flamboyance on display in this operatic horror, draping his bodily carnage in the gloss of art.
- DirectorSydney PollackStarsJane FondaMichael SarrazinSusannah YorkThe lives of a disparate group of contestants intertwine in an inhumanely grueling dance marathon.At the turn of the 1960's, the prevailing theme in American independent cinema was, "We blew it." A new generation of filmmakers, armed with anger and a genuine disdain for Hollywood's Golden Era looked to the past in an effort to explain how we got here. The story of The Shoot Horses, Don't They? is one of sickening degradation and rampant decadence in which director Sydney Pollack takes the grueling, inhumane dance marathons that took place during The Great Depression and spins it into a head-rush of greed, drugs, sex, desperation and an arsenal of stylistic tricks. Sweeping tracking shots, wiz-bang editing, and exhaustive performances? They’re all here, waiting to be hoofed up like so much prohibition liquor. If the film itself revels in all the madness, it’s a damning indictment on a nation all too willing to exploit other disparate constants willing to degrade themselves for seven meals a day, a roof over their head and the chance of a $1,500 purse. That these events existed is nothing short of astounding, and They Shoot Horses does little to soften how harsh and dehumanizing they were. Depressing and disturbing without being violent or exploitative, They Shoot Horses is meticulously researched and delivered with such immense dramatic power without historical fudging that it feels both thoroughly modern and directly from the era that inspired it. But that’s why They Shoot Horses works so well – it sells you a hollow nightmare so utterly horrid that you’re almost tempted to believe it isn't real.
- DirectorJohn CarpenterStarsKurt RussellWilford BrimleyKeith DavidA research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.Antarctica can be a pretty foreboding place; The intense cold, the crushing isolation, the long nights, and the parasitic, shape-shifting aliens that can take the form of whatever they infect can turn off anyone. The classic alien creature-features of yesteryear were finally met with special effects that could convey true horror in John Carpenter’s remake of a forgettable 1951 B-movie. Yes, The Thing is a remake. MINDBLOWN. Carpenter gave his adaptation an overhaul of frozen paranoia and extraordinary '80s creature design: The former courtesy of the titular 'Thing' picking off the researchers at an Antarctic research base and imitating them to cause maximum confusion. The latter courtesy of obsessive practical FX wizard Rob Bottin, who essentially lived on the set throughout the whole lengthy process. An upside-down severed human head with the spider legs? It's in the movie. Siberian Huskey's Frankensteined together into an unholy monster? It's in the movie. What is also in the movie is a slow, brooding technique that masterfully gets under your skin... until Carpenter lights the wick and things go completely off the rails. The subtleties married with the balls-to-the-wall craziness make The Thing ten, maybe twenty times the film it could have been, and legitimately allows it to stand in direct comparison with the most iconic movies ever. Funny to think it arrived in the same summer as a much more amiable extra-terrestrial...
- DirectorKrzysztof KieslowskiStarsIrène JacobJean-Louis TrintignantFrédérique FederA model discovers a retired judge is keen on invading people's privacy.Krzysztof Kieslowski's final entry in his renowned Three Colors trilogy is a film so astounding that he, then in his early 50s, retired after completing it. Perhaps he knew he'd never equal it. This color-coded trilogy nimbly worked through the colors of the French flag (each symbolizing one of France's "Trois Coulerus" or their three political ideals, liberté, égalité, fraternité,) all whilst sustaining a central mystery that genuinely keeps you guessing to the last moment. And it all led to this; Three Colors: Red takes its tale of a model's curious friendship with a retired-judge-turned-voyeur, and masks it in a hypnotically ravishing aura of aching melancholy, silky-smooth camerawork, enrapturing characterization and lots and lots of red cinematography. Despite the arthouse implication, the film fizzes an impressive narrative tapestry and looks to stop a speeding train, while maintaining a maturity, sensitivity and soulfulness over its unassuming runtime that keeps your eyes glued. This is a film about nothing and everything. If you revel in the challenge of mastering a film's dynamic traits and metaphors, peeling back the layers before finding its true nature, you will fall head over heels for this one.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobert De NiroJodie FosterCybill ShepherdA mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action.Martin Scorsese's best film to date may be one of his earliest and the least "Scorsese-like" in his filmography, but this is also due to the fact that Paul Schrader's screenplay is possibly the finest that has ever been written. To this day, without any asterisks, Taxi Driver remains the standard on how to portray societal outcast on screen. Robert Denero plays Travis Bickle, a mentally crumbling taxi driver who loathes, and in many way fears, the degeneracy he witnesses each night he drives through the city. He masks his own self-hatred by projecting the evil world around him as he is unable or unwilling to acknowledge that he too is a part of the world he loathes. He visits pornography theaters, deals with criminals and harbors violent delusions of grandeur. Taxi Driver asks whether it is we who create the repugnancy in the modern world, of if we are the receptacles for all its rancid waste. Taxi Driver is a character study; We get glimpses of Travis' perspective, but Scorsese takes the appropriate approach in never letting us romanticize Travis' worldview. Rather we see the objective truth of his decent into insanity; The camera will turn away from him when he becomes a creature to pathetic to acknowledge and will stare at him in shock at his point of no return. Taxi Driver is a frightening slow burner that remains massively influential because no movie before or since has been able capture the mind of a sociopathic anarchist with such unfiltered and unflinching honesty. It's a discomforting experience, not for its all-out violence, but how the tone and texture make you feel; violated, terrified.
- DirectorPete DocterBob PetersonStarsEdward AsnerJordan NagaiJohn Ratzenberger78-year-old Carl Fredricksen travels to Paradise Falls in his house equipped with balloons, inadvertently taking a young stowaway.The opening 10 minutes of Pixar's Up are so utterly, heartbreakingly human that it's easy to forget the multicolored madness to come – a far-out fantasy adventure that takes in talking canines, a big bug-eyed bird called Kevin, and bi-plane dogfights. On the opposite end of the scale, you have the montage that unfurls the shared lives of Carl and Ellie – a couple who meet as kids, grow up together, get married, face miscarriage, infertility, and terminal illness, never finding the time or money for the Paradise Falls expedition they long dreamed of. It's this mix of the serious and the surreal that makes Up such a marvel, proving yet again the power of Pixar in both imagination and emotion, incorporating grief, ageing, memory and the importance of letting go into a film where helium balloons carry a house over to South America. An ode to the everyday adventures that make up a lifetime - as Carl realizes Ellie has filled out their 'adventure book' with photos of their life together- ties it all together, resulting in a simple if devastating emotional epiphany: don’t take your time with loved ones for granted, and treasure what makes them unique. Is someone cutting onions in here?
- DirectorHiroshi TeshigaharaStarsEiji OkadaKyôko KishidaKôji MitsuiAn entomologist on vacation is trapped by local villagers into living with a woman whose life task is shoveling sand for them.To watch a Japanese film, especially Hiroshi Teshigahara's The Woman in the Dunes, is to understand their fascination with simple plots representing much larger ideas. Here, in what many believe is the greatest Japanese film not to be directed by someone named Kurosawa or Ozu, we have an entomologist on assignment in the desert who gets trapped by locals in a pit with a woman who is content to live there aimlessly shoveling sand. As with most Japanese new wave films, the theme of escaping society is extremely potent, but rather than using anarchically fueled observations of 1950s/60s Japan, “Woman in the Dunes” adopts a more fable-like framework. Teshigahara's dream-like direction makes this most precarious situation seem achingly beautiful, while precise uses of sound-effects and lighting to convey the many metaphors the story has to offer with the sand representing everything from the prison of routine, the suppression of culture and... um, sexual climax. Teshigahara, writer Kobo Abe and editor Fusako Shuzui constructed almost the entire film like a stream of consciousness, one scene bleeding into the next, not giving you the opportunity to stop watching, to let go, to take a breath. THAT is how you do arthouse cinema.
- DirectorEdward YangStarsNien-Jen WuElaine JinIssei OgataEach member of a middle-class Taipei family seeks to reconcile past and present relationships within their daily lives.Yes, Yi Yi is another three-hour-long drama about discontent in a middle-class family, and Lord knows we have enough of those, but Edward Yang makes this would-be-snooze-fest hypnotically moving by taking the building blocks of a great movie and intertwining them with each other; rich characterization is explored through long, stagnant shots which gives Yang plenty time to grapple with some hefty themes, which are contrasted with some lovely shots of urban Taipei, which makes the environment a character in and of itself... and so on and on. Ultimately, it's the sweetness of the story and its ability to raise some poignant moral quandaries without wearing you out that makes Yi Yi so captivating. Cinema, in all its forms, is an escape from reality. Yang subverts this expectation by filming the very life we're trying to escape with such honesty and purity, captured in some of the most beautiful, poetic intricately framed shot ever filmed. Even the smallest action is pulled into focus. An elegiac, gripping homage to the millions of minute moments that make a lifetime, Yi Yi makes peace with the randomness of life without letting the lush, arthouse setting get in the way of the story. It's an embarrassment of riches on every front, made all the more endearing for its utter lack of cynicism. It gives a hard stare to regressive attitudes around adolescence and marriage, and revels in simple acts of love and kindness.
- DirectorMakoto ShinkaiStarsRyunosuke KamikiMone KamishiraishiRyo NaritaTwo teenagers share a profound, magical connection upon discovering they are swapping bodies. Things manage to become even more complicated when the boy and girl decide to meet in person.There is no such thing as a perfect film, but Makoto Shinkai's Your Name comes closer than others. This profoundly beautiful, infinitely rewatchable Anime sees two teenagers who find themselves inexplicably waking up in each other's bodies, then back again. The mystery of their predicament is found less in the reason it’s happening than the revelation of its purpose. There is a bigger story here, one that is fed by Japanese culture’s understandable preoccupation with mass destruction, spiritualism and ancient traditions. To say more would be to deny you the joy of discovering the film’s secrets. Shinkai’s brazen narrative boldness, his dexterous handling of alternating, equally likable lead characters, and his mastery of hand-drawn visuals all weave together to form a profoundly gorgeous cinematic experience. Whether blazing with sunlight, or shadowed by storm clouds, the film glows with an inner life that the hard, plastic sheen of CG animation so rarely attains. In everything Your Name does, the way it enchants the senses way it challenges convention, there is certified perfection. It simply cannot be overstated what a wonderful movie this is. Are you watching it yet?