My List!

All right, following Dan’s lead… I’ve made my list. They are in no particular order … just films I love, have affected me, or that I can watch again and again.

I’d also like to say I agree with Dan on “In Bruges”, "The Fall", "Lock, Stock" and “Sunshine” and don’t feel my writing can add anything else on top of what he said. Also, I feel that “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “The Godfather” and “Empire Strikes Back” need NO explanation and if you require one then you are an assclown and should be ashamed.

I also left off films that are by the same filmmakers that I still love.

Here we go!

Taxi Driver – My favorite Scorsese film! I think I’m drawn to flawed and dark characters. Travis Bickle’s slow slip into insanity is a thrill to watch. The idea of a man who is constantly surrounded but completely outcast and alone just draws me in. De Niro’s performance is his best in my opinion. I know everyone cites “Raging Bull” to me as the best of De Niro/Scorsese but I strongly disagree. The nuance of Travis Bickle’s decline is much more fascinating to me than the more (Warning: Pun Incoming) On-the-nose pummeling of “Bull”.

Memento – Holy Christopher Nolan! This film blew me away the first time I saw it. It completely shattered my preconceptions about storytelling and bitch-slapped me with the awesomeness that is Christopher Fucking Nolan! The man is a master filmmaker. I cannot write anymore without sinking into the literary equivalent of licking Nolan’s balls in reverence so I will stop now…

Jurassic Park – one of my favorite theater experiences ever. Nuff said…

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly – this is one of the few films where the cinematography was so crucial to the character that they become inseparable. Janusz Kaminski’s camerawork IS Jean-Dominique Bauby’s perspective and we are trapped in his body with him. It is heartbreaking and uplifting and the ultimate testament to both the human spirit and to cinematography serving the story.

Brick – Rian Johnson’s debut film is probably my favorite film-noir ever. The clever use of the high school setting and social dynamics to serve a classic film-noir conspiracy/whodunit was genius. The dialogue seemed ripped straight from a Dashieel Hammet novel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Brendan is the best example of a true hard-boiled detective in modern cinema. And the jingly-jangly score was awesome.

There Will Be Blood – Daniel Plainview drank my milkshake! I love this film because of Daniel Day-Lewis. I cannot keep my eyes off the screen when I watch this film. Acting at it’s finest!

Apocalypse Now – OK… I will be honest. I have NO CLUE why I love this movie so much. No clue! I watch it over and over and I simply cannot explain why. It draws me in. It must again be my interest in dark characters… b/c this film is truly a descent into the Heart of Darkness. Speechless… so I’m moving on.

The Royal Tenenbaums – I love everything about this movie. The characters are hilarious and tragically flawed, the dialogue simultaneously subtle but completely telling and the world in which they exist so completely immersive, quirky and unique. Wes Anderson’s best film!

Fight Club – Fincher’s best in my opinion. Yeah, “Seven” rules, but Fight Club just gets me. Brad Pitt and Ed Norton are great here. The ingenious storytelling style, the anarchy, the pure unadulterated id and manly force of Tyler Durden are for lack of a better word… the shit!

The Fountain – I was fighting myself between this and “Requiem” but alas… The Fountain won out. I love a film like this where it has a slightly different meaning depending on who you are. Dan already described a lot of what makes this great. The only thing I can add is that I remember leaving the theater and walking downstairs into my work… and someone asked we why I looked so stunned. My response was “I’m not sure what I just saw or what happened… but I know it was beautiful.”

The Man Who Knew Too Little – Bill Murray is the man. I laugh so hard at this film and have watched it a 100 billion times. I quote it endlessly and most people don’t even get it. It’s my own private in-joke. It is so well written… every misconstrued and goofy twist of it! Great comedy!

Equilibrium – OK, it is heavily influenced and draws from a million other scifi films and stories. But besides the uber-badass gun-kata scene at the end… it’s Christian Bale that makes this film for me. His character runs the entire gamut of human emotions in this film and I love the movie because of it. The scene where he hears music for the first time and cries… how many other scifi action films take the time to give you that kind of moment?

American Beauty – I was floored when I saw this film. Kevin Spacey’s best work in my opinion. The dark-twist of suburbia and the delightful freedom of Lester Burnham when he decides to break free are a delight to watch. Conrad Hall’s cinematography and Sam Mendes direction are perfect. I’ve never understood the haters of this movie, everyone that has lost themselves in what their lives are “supposed” to be as opposed to what they “want” it to be should be able to relate. I know I can… I felt like that before going to film school… working with no purpose and just going through the motions… and didn’t even realize it until I broke out of the monotony of it all.

Inglorious Basterds – Tarantino’s masterpiece in my mind. The writing and characters are so enthralling. The tension in each scene is so carefully built and crafted and each leads to a satisfying and appropriate payoff. I love the ode’s to Leone, French New Wave and classic American War Films. I love Robert Richardson’s lighting and camerawork. I love that the film is simultaneously restrained and full balls-out Tarantino. I love the music choices. I love Christoph Waltz. I love Inglorious Basterds.

The Big Lewbowski – Endlessly quotable, and some of my favorite characters the Coen’s have created. The epitome of Coen. (yes they get their own category of film)

Terminator 2: Judgment Day – this film is to me as “Dragonheart” is to Dan. I always loved Star Wars but that trilogy just made me love scifi/fantasy and made me want to write… T2 made me want to make films. My Dad snuck me into the theater to see this on opening night in 1992 and I’ve loved movies ever since.

The Salton Sea – another dark character piece, Val Kilmer’s best work and a great debut for D.J. Caruso. Part film-noir, part revenge story, part Ritchie/Tarantino-esque drug trip. One of my favorites!

L.A. Confidential – Great writing and wonderful character acting. Russell Crowe, Guy Pierce, and Kevin Spacey all had great and honestly true arcs and the intricate plot was weaved and unfolded slowly, not in your typical “BANG! here’s the mystery and then the answers!” kind of way. I think I watched this film 4 or 5 times when it came out. Beat out “Heat” as my favorite crime-ensemble film.

The Fifth Element - I love this movie so much. It’s so much fun. In all honesty I’ve watched this more than most other scifi films in my collection. Zorg, Korbin Dallas, Leeloo, and the whole shebang just make me giddy thinking about it.

Primer – Holy Mind-Fuck on a $7000 budget! Shane Carruth’s micro-budget sci-fi masterwork is a testament to how an ingenious story can be told simply and cheaply and still be enthralling. This is one of the greatest pieces of scifi writing in film history for one reason. It’s not easy. Carruth doesn’t baby the audience or spoon feed you anything and it’s up to you to pay attention and figure it out. And I want to say “Suck it, M. Night Shaymalan” because his recent contrived “twists” don’t hold a candle to the moment on the bench in the park with the tape recorder in “Primer”…lol.

Donnie Darko – not the STUPID ASS-FUCKING RETARDED DIRECTOR’S CUT PIECE OF SHIT!!!!!!!!! Sorry… I get very emotional about that fecal matter they call the director’s cut… It has single handedly ruined the viewing experience of “Donnie Darko” for millions of people. I watched “Donnie Darko” and was so amazed and dumbfounded that I immediately re-watched it after it finished. A great scifi/superhero mind-fuck of a film with lots of humor and interesting characters.

Children of Men – December 30, 2006… this is the day I knew I wanted to be a cinematographer. The car scene… I was so enthralled by how the hell that fucking camera could be floating through that car in a single take and then get out of said car and follow the actors… I was BLOWN AWAY! And the ending! I walked out of the theater and said to my friend… “I don’t know how they did that… but I WANT TO DO THAT!” I went home and ordered that month’s issue of American Cinematographer (with both CoM and Casino Royale in it) and that was it… Masterful camerawork and production design, great characters, Cuaron’s direction and one of the most original, gritty and adult science fiction films I’ve ever seen. This decade’s Blade Runner… which brings us too…

Blade Runner – the first time I saw this movie… I was kind of bored. Yeah it looked cool, but I was young and I wanted “Indiana Jones in Space” when I saw the cover… so I made it to the end… and then… Roy Batty’s death scene… and those words are some of the most beautiful lines of dialogue I’ve ever heard. The meaning of the film hit me like a freight train and I actually think I teared up a little. I felt that character, the damn BAD GUY and I wept for him… his profound sadness of his short existence and the loss of all that a person is in the this world when they die. I longed for an afterlife and wanted to see all that he’d seen and experience all the beautiful things out in the universe. Add all this to the fact that Ridley and Rutger wrote this kind of improv and they were literally on the verge of being shut down on the last day of shooting when they shot that scene… genius…

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer – I’ve been struggling for a few moments trying to find the words to describe why I love this film. The cinematography, the subtlety, the horror/fairytale-like story, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille’s journey of purpose, identity and the capture of beauty rivals almost every other film on my list when I really start thinking about it. It boils down to this… The protagonist is a monster… but I sympathize and relate to the monster. Perfume at its core is about a man with no identity who looses the most beautiful thing to him and becomes obsessed with reclaiming it. In the process, he concocts a falsehood (the perfume that gives him a “scent” or in his case a soul/identity) that can literally give him everything a man could want and at that moment when he commands the love and will of everyone… he realizes it’s all false and cannot make him happy… so he allows his false persona (i.e. the Perfume) to destroy him. I really don’t know what else to say about it…