Sam Inglis (saminglis81)

I first saw Badlands six or seven years ago and was immediately a fan, I've returned to it time and time again and it is those repeat viewings that have led me to put it on top of My top 100 films list. It was actually Badlands that led to the creation of this list. Revising my top 10 for the first time in an age I wanted to find a place for Bandlands but, at that point, couldn't and so, in slotting it in at number 11 I decided to go the whole hog and do a top 100. Another rewatch later and here we are. That, for me, is the essential reason that Badlands is number one; every time I've seen it I've loved it more and more. The directorial debut of Terence Malick (who has made just three films since, only two of which I've seen, liking neither very much) it never feels like the work of a novice being among the most beautiful looking films ever made. Malick has a fondness for the real world and for nature and we see much of it in Badlands, the lanscape shots are breathtaking, the sequence where Kit (Sheen) burns Holly's (Spacek) house is also particularly gorgeous but Malick also finds beauty in the more mundane things. the characters Kit and Holly, their relationship and character and Kit's crimes were based on the real story of Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate. Their spree took place in 1958 when Starkweather was 19 and Fugate just 13. The film adds a couple of years to the age of each of the characters. Sissy Spacek was 23 when Badlands was made but her cute youthful looks mean that she absolutely convinces as 15 year old Holly. There's more to her performance than that though, she portrays Holly's youthful naivety with great intelligence and manages to suggest, subtly, the mixed emotions of this young girl once her boyfriend starts killing. Spacek also contributes narration from Holly's diary, not only are these beautifully written by Malick, never seeming like a screenwriter, rather than a 15 year old girl, came up with them but Spacek's reading of them is one of the most touching and memorable things in the film. Martin Sheen was also a good deal older than his character, 10 years in fact, but he too is perfectly cast as the James Dean like Kit. Kit's matter of fact way about everything is very funny and Sheen gets plenty of mileage out of that and crucially he remains interesting and charming enough to make you believe that Holly would stay with him. There are few other people in the film but it's worth noting that the man who comes to the door when Kit and Holly take over a rich man's house for an afternoon and 'borrow' things from him is Terence Malick himself stepping in for an actor who hadn't shown up. It's difficult to encapsulate the brilliance of this film as it almost sneaks up on you but it's a riveting, almost hypnotic, experience and one which repays repeat viewings as the strength of Spacek and Sheen's wonderful performances impresses more each time.

Paul Thomas Anderson's idea for Magnolia was to get out of town while his second film; Boogie Nights opened and run around and make a short, personal film on digital video. The idea evolved a bit. Magnolia is every inch the epic and an example of something too seldom seen in cinema, audacity. Three hours long, with a cast list that takes almost as long to read and plot that no blurb writer could summarise the odds are stacked against Magnolia, so why is it one of the best films of all time? This is a film about coincidence. About how our lives connect with those of people we may never meet. Anderson tells many stories in this film but draws them together into a single narrative. As he amply demonstrated with Boogie Nights Anderson has the ability to get stunning performances from all his actors and he does it again here. However two performances are worth singling out. Cruise is simply astonishing as Frank TJ Mackey and must have had real fun playing this character (coming to it from a very repressed character for over two years in Eyes Wide Shut). If you only remember one line from the movie it will be his 'Respect the cock and tame the c**t'. Cruise gets to play every emotion in the book, from his grandstanding seminar to his bedside scene with Jason Robards, he never hits a false note. It is a crime that he was not given an (overdue) Oscar for this part. Melora Walters was pretty well unknown at the time Magnolia came out, her only other work of real note being in Boogie Nights, In that film she did not have enough to do but Anderson remedies that here. Claudia is the centre of the film (Anderson says that all the stories were written branching off Claudia's story). She is utterly convincing in her role and, if her behaviour is hard to explain early in the film, you feel for her deeply when you know of the abuse the character has suffered. Walters delivers what is perhaps Magnolia%u2019s best line when, in a restaurant, she asks John C Reilly 'Now that you've met me would you object to never seeing me again?' However, her finest hour is the film's last shot and after three hours wait it is a joy to see Claudia smile. By singling these two out I am by no means trying to infer that the rest of the cast are unimpressive, quite the reverse. I think Julianne Moore should be in everything Paul Thomas Anderson ever shoots, that is the quality of the parts he writes her. She's perhaps not quite as impressive here as in Boogie Nights but the pharmacy scene alone should have netted her another Oscar nomination. John C Reilly does well as the nicest cop you'll ever meet, and this is key to the fact that we end up rooting for Jim and Claudia. All in all this film is a perfect example of why we need an Oscar for ensemble performance. Another participant well worth mentioning is Aimee Mann, her music permeates the film, leading to it's most audacious, and it%u2019s best, scene; in which the entire cast sing along to her gorgeous song 'Wise Up'. This movie made me an Aimee Mann fan and I would highly recommend that any viewer who likes the movie's music pick up all her solo albums Anderson uses his camera brilliantly, designing the film to exploit it's widescreen frame to the fullest. This is particularly evident in Claudia%u2019s apartment as she and Jim talk, each of them at one edge of the frame. Some complain that film is too long, or that it leaves loose ends. It is true that all the plot points are not neatly tied up as the film ends but this is a film about the lives of ordinary people, loose ends are to be expected.