Ask me my all-time favorite movie and you’ll get a quick answer. I can rattle off my Top 5 or Top 100 without hesitation. But for some reason, I struggled to narrow the list down to ten. That number felt too concise to be properly representative of the movies I adore and too expansive to be precise. After much consternation and second-guessing, I finally formulated a list that I feel accurately reflects my Top 10 on this particular day. Ask me tomorrow and maybe some of these choices will vary. A list like this is not permanent nor definitive — but illuminates the moment it was written.
A quick disclaimer: I took this list quite literally. I resisted the urge to include certain titles simply because they sounded like the choices of a serious cinephile. This is a list of my favorites, not necessarily the best movies I have ever seen. So while I love Casablanca, Bicycle Thieves, and The Magnificent Ambersons, they don’t necessarily qualify for my Top 10. I have also included some very elliptical thoughts and comments on my selections.
Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)
Unquestionably my favorite movie. The film which inspired me to write in the first place. Jaws defies categorization. It’s an adventure, a horror, a thriller, a character study, and a fishing movie all rolled into one. It is everything and all things. Jaws affects me emotionally as much on the billionth viewing as it did on the first. Everything I love and want from the movies exists in this masterful work of filmmaking and storytelling.
Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)
“Serious” film aficionados may sneer at this choice. But Star Wars made me fall in love with the movies at an age when I couldn’t even read the opening crawl. I still feel to this day the enormous influence that George Lucas’s imagined universe had (and has) on me. Lucas gets a lot of grief, but this movie continues to envelop and transport me with an utmost simplicity and purity that all its follow-ups never quite manage.
Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935)
Few films are as peerless, tragic, and unexpectedly kinky as the Citizen Kane of monster movies, Bride of Frankenstein. This strange alchemy of gothic horror and camp humor features not only the distinctive vision of its director, James Whale, but a truly devastating performance from its star, Boris Karloff, as the lonely creature in search of a nothing more than a friend. Enriched with shockingly progressive themes and motifs, Bride of Frankenstein lives on into the modern world.
The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)
I’m not a big fan of musicals, but The Wizard of Oz isn’t really a musical. It’s The Wizard of Oz, a genre unto itself, of which there is no other. This timeless movie still has the power to both soothe and terrify its audience.
Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 1984)
The original Ghostbusters succeeds where so many other paranormal comedies fail: it’s both outrageously funny and enormously scary. Most people talk about the film’s wonderful cast, assembled from the 80’s most talented. Also give credit to the witty and rich script by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis.
The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)
More than a splendid detective story, John Huston’s adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s novel is a gritty and atmospheric meditation on greed and avarice. Essential viewing for any fans of classic film noir, The Maltese Falcon also features one of the greatest collection of actors ever assembled on film. If you don’t know who Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, or Sydney Greenstreet were, The Maltese Falcon will teach you.
Gosford Park (Robert Altman, 2001)
If I watch Gosford Park once, I end up watching it on repeat, over and over again. This dense and layered subversion of the English murder mystery is a literate look at British social systems and class relations. Altman was known for his expansive casts and Gosford Park is no different, overflowing with some of the most outstanding actors, giving superlative performances to match.
Monkey Business (Norman Z. McLeod, 1931)
While Duck Soup may be the Marx Brothers’ greatest film, Monkey Business ranks as my favorite. Totally eschewing any semblance of character development or plot cohesion, this wonderfully amorphous comedy relentlessly machine-guns its jokes and gags at a dizzying pace. This movie makes me laugh more than any other comedy.
Superman (Richard Donner, 1978)
More than a great superhero movie, Superman is a genuinely great film. Impressively, this sprawling epic is told through three very visually and narratively distinct phases, held together by Richard Donner’s committed directorial vision and Christopher Reeve’s performance, still unrivaled all these years later.
Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
What more can be said about Martin Scorsese’s definitive and arresting portrayal of the American Dream-turned-nightmare? A haunting, inventive, and rock-n-roll experience, the film sets the bar for all crime films to succeed it, while also synthesizing the gangster movies preceding it. Goodfellas is also one of the best “food movies” out there. My mouth waters at every scene where sauce is stirred and garlic sliced.
-T.Z.
No comments:
Post a Comment