My Favorite Movies

The greatest film ever made. Period.

Even clocking in at just under 4 hours, it is perfectly paced. There isn't a single minute that feels extraneous. The cinematography adds an epic beauty and even the sound is mixed in a way to create tension and drama.
The acting is equal parts subdued and explosive. Toshiro Mifune is a force of nature at his best here, turning on a dime from harmless clown to sulking wannabe to merciless warrior.
Humor and sadness. Victory and defeat. War and peace. Life and death. "The Seven Samurai" embodies it all, unsurpassed as the highest achievement in film history.

The best sci-fi has always been allegorical, using fantasy to say something about our society.
And make no mistake, this is the best sci-fi ever put on film.
Completely timeless, its take on politics, religion, technology, class structure and human rights are as poignant today as they were in 1968. Add that depth to the terrific makeup and costumes, Charlton Heston at his grizzled, misanthropic best, some of the most quotable lines ever written and a Rod Serling twist... and you get one of my favorite movies of all time.

"...partly truth, partly fiction. A walking contradiction."

I can't honestly put into words why this movie is so powerful. It goes beyond words, into a primal sense of loneliness and isolation. The suffocating disconnect felt between modern man and his surroundings has never been more convincingly explored.
Ignore the idiot frat boys with posters of Travis and his guns. This film doesn't celebrate violence. It is about "God's lonely man," where the inevitable bloodbath is a sad, scary and ultimately pathetic last grasp at control of a wasted life.
A film masterpiece I never get tired of watching.

Saying that this is the most important film of my generation feels like I'm overstating it a bit. But I can't think of anything that more perfectly captures who we are as a society at the turn of the new century like "Fight Club" does.
Shocking violence, naked abs and a switcheroo twist ending distract lazy viewers from the movie's real message. Or it's just a hard pill to swallow in our self-improvement-obsessed culture, where every self-help guru and ad agency does its best to make you feel incomplete so it can sell you something to fill what's missing.
"Fight Club" spits in their face and says "never be complete. Stop being perfect. Let's evolve, let the chips fall where they may." And I say amen.

Is it possible that the funniest film ever made doesn't have a single punchline?
Don't expect big jokes or broad situations. This is a movie of the highest subtlety and the most nuanced of character. As such, it only improves the more times you view it.
Wes Anderson's eye for detail and the brilliant, true-to-life performances of the actors involved mesh to create a comedy masterpiece.

I make no apologies.
This is one of my favorite films of all time. It is a flawless monster movie, immanently quotable, with a terrific ensemble cast and a sense of humor. Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward play the bickering, reluctant heroes to perfection and Michael Gross gives a tour de force as right-wing gun nut Burt.
I watched this almost daily as a kid and still can't change the channel when I see it on. It taught me that no disagreement is so serious that it can't be solved with rock, paper, scissors and no matter what, "stay on them residual boulders!"

This movie is brilliant. There's no other word for it.
I honestly can't believe a comedy with a plot this convoluted, characters this iconoclastic and humor this subtle is beloved by so many people. I guess that speaks to its brilliance. It works on several different levels and is still funny no matter how many times you watch it or how many college kids quote it.
The Dude abides.

It's sad that this film is looked at as little more than 80s nostalgia or a punch line. As unrealistic and right wing goofy as it might be, I can't think of a better populist time capsule for the Cold War fears and patriotism felt in those years.
And let's not forget that it was written and directed by John Milius, the man who wrote "Apocalypse Now." There is a film pedigree here. Ignore the terrible movies that came later from the young cast. Here, in this film, they are something special as an ensemble.
Is it the most believable, politically correct depiction of war? No. Do I love every single RPG-firing, Geneva Convention-ignoring, bug-swallowing, father-avenging, snot-bubbling second of it? You bet. Wolverines!

The first time you see this movie, you enjoy the goofy action and laugh at its absurdities.
Watch it again. The more you experience it, the more the poison arrows fall from the sky and the pillars of Heaven shake. Without ever losing its charm, hidden depths emerge and you realize it is really a deconstruction of the Western action movie.
Jack Burton is the most clueless, helpless and completely ineffectual leading man in cinema history. Yet still he swaggers through, thinking he's entirely in control of the situation while Wang, his "sidekick," quietly saves the day. The roles of the heroic white guy and his stalwart ethnic sidekick are completely reversed, without either of them - or the typical audience - realizing it.
John Carpenter's script is full of brilliant, endlessly quotable dialog and his actors deliver it with crackerjack comic timing. Add that to such a unique spin on the genre and Kurt Russell's career-best performance as the postmodern John Wayne, and you're left with one of the most gleefully enjoyable flicks ever made.

After the world went gaga for Quentin Tarantino, I'm not sure how this film stayed so under the radar. Not only does it boast one of the best supporting casts ever assembled, it's also one of the sharpest, most engaging crime flicks ever made.
Christian Slater has never been better, playing cinema's most badass comic book store employee. As the love of his life, Patricia Arquette exudes just the right mix of ditz and vulnerability to mask a clear-thinking, strong willed woman underneath.
Some of the film's plot elements might feel familiar, but they've never been done better elsewhere. And I excuse anything too over-the-top in a film where the protagonist's primary concern during a gunfight is whether he "looked cool." Over-the-top is sort of the point, isn't it?
And to anyone who might argue that this isn't really a romantic movie, I'll quote Alabama herself: "That's the way romance is... Usually, that's the way it goes, but every once in awhile, it goes the other way too."

This is one of the most perfectly constructed, powerfully acted and criminally overlooked films you'll ever see. With 80 speaking parts and a labyrinthine plot full of crime and conspiracies, it is dense and more than a little complex. But it doesn't wander off its path for a moment, building tension and picking up speed until every loose plot thread snaps tight and the characters caught up in its corrupt web are destroyed or redeemed. For most, it's a little of both.
The film doesn't care if you can't keep up and it doesn't dumb itself down to explain it all to you. It embodies 50s detective noir with amazing authenticity, never becoming parody or imitation. It takes noir's dark cynicism, its sharp dialogue and atmosphere and gives it a brutal edge impossible for the time. Mix in career-making roles for Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe as the story's flawed heroes, amazingly cool one-liners and flawless mis-en-scene, and you end up with a timeless classic.

While certainly not for all tastes, "Barton Fink" stands as the single most important film viewing experience of my life.
It left me dumbstruck the first time I saw it and I just let the credits roll when it was over. When the tape ended and switched off, I sat there in silence, just absorbing what I had seen and pondering its meaning and "the life of the mind." Nothing has ever done that to me before or since.
As funny and bizarre as the film was, it was also a remarkable piece of art with plenty to say. And in those silent moments of introspection I understood art on a level I never had before and was instantly... compelled. Compelled to create. And compelled to seek out other art that made me feel the way "Barton Fink" did, rather than to keep ingesting the same prepackaged entertainment the world shoves down your throat.
So for good or ill, seeing this film at the right moment had the power to help shape me into who I am today. (Struggling writer and film snob, when I'm feeling cynical. Seeker of truth and beauty on my more romantic days.)
"Funny, huh? When everything that's important to a guy, everything he wants to keep from a lifetime, and he can fit it all into a little box like that."

"Entertainment Weekly" named this the best action movie ever made and I don't think I can argue.
This film single-handedly changed what an action star was, from Rambo to regular guy and created a formula that's been imitated ever since. It set the template for modern action movies by giving its lead a heart to go along with his guts.
Even apart from any historical importance, it's just a really, really good flick. Its premise is pure and its plot is simple without being shallow. The pace is fast, but with plenty of moments of character development. Sure, we thrill at whizzing bullets and leaps from the roof, but a man sitting alone in the bathroom pulling glass from his bleeding feet and agonizing over what might be his last words to his wife... that's what sets this apart. That and the dynamic performances from Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman, of course.
John McClane is a screen icon for good reason and "Die Hard" is a masterpiece of the genre.

I can't believe I'm going to call "Boogie Nights" underrated, but there it is. This film caused quite a stir when it first came out, beloved by critics and hailed for introducing new stars and resurrecting others past their prime. Yet, as time goes by, it doesn't seem to hold the same water in our pop culture as many of the other 90s hits. And that's a shame, because it is certainly better than almost all of them.
The story is compelling whether you find the subject matter distasteful or not. The acting is top notch and despite the huge cast, each gets their chance to shine. Even the smallest details in the dialogue, costuming and music pay huge dividends. And what P.T. Anderson does with his camera is nothing short of magic. I still shake my head in disbelief at some of the complex long shots he accomplishes, not only the technical mastery of them but that the scenes actually accomplish moving the plot forward, pack an emotional punch and look really, really cool.
I don't think - at 155 minutes - it is as tight as it could be. Things tend to drag a bit once the story moves into the 80s, losing some of the momentum the enormous energy of the first act generates. But whatever minor flaws it has can be forgiven, especially from a story with a scope this enormous that manages to remain as entertaining as it does for as long as it does. So I've got to give it 4 1/2 stars. Great big bright, shining stars.

This film is an inexorable part of my childhood. I have seen it - quite literally - hundreds of times. Of course any objective critique is impossible.
That said, as a cinematic experience, it remains completely awesome. Totally tubular. Gnarly and in all ways bodacious.
Nostalgia aside, it still stands up. The costumes work way better than anyone ever gave them credit for and the fight scenes are as intense as a kid's movie can get. The banter is genuinely funny and the family dynamic is realistic and heartfelt.
There is a reason I used to watch this every day as a kid and never got bored with it and there's a reason I still watch it from time to time today. (No, not my lifelong crush on Judith Hoag.) It simply gets everything right, adapting one of the most popular properties of the decade into a timeless family classic.