My top 10 movies
16 comments March 12th, 2008
Simone Simon pines for the love she can’t have in CAT PEOPLE.
After much needless (and frankly nerdish) deliberation, I’ve finally narrowed my list of favorite movies down to 10. And, like many of you said, it’s not easy. This list might not have been the same yesterday, and it might not be the same tomorrow, but for his moment, these are my 10 favorite movies. Not, of course, in any order. (That would be damn near impossible!)
1. Goodfellas — Scorsese’s gangster epic is simply one of the most brilliant combinations of script, performance, design, editing and, of course, direction I’ve ever seen.
2. The Apartment — It won a slew of Oscars, and it deserved them. Billy Wilder’s black comedy about love and power in the (then) modern workplace manages to be dark-hearted and heartwarming. And it features a note-perfect, chilling performance by Fred MacMurray.
3. Cat People — A smart, sophisticated horror movie from producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur that might not be a horror movie at all. It might just be the story of a frightened lonely woman (Simone Simon) with a dark secret.
4. The Manchurian Candidate — Forget that remake of a few years ago. This surreal conspiracy thriller is still startling more than 40 years after its initial release. Angela Lansbury — yes, the nice old lady from “Murder, She Wrote” is perfect as the villain.
5. A Face in the Crowd — Think you know Andy Griffith? Watch this satire of media and politics, where good ol’ Andy plays a power hungry madman, then think again.
6. Sweet Smell of Success — Every line of dialogue in this New York drama is more bitter (and tastier) than the last. The beautiful black-and-white cinematography and stark performances by Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis are just the icing on the cookie (full of arsenic).
7. Dr. Strangelove, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb — Stanley Kubrick made a lot of great movies, but this comedy about the end of the world is still the best. Who knew George C. Scott — or the death of most of the planet — could be so funny?
8. The Black Cat — Boris and Bela in a strange little dark house movie, where the dark house is a gleaming piece of Bauhaus-inspired architecture and Bela, of all people, is the hero. Full of great twisted touches and inspired character moments. As Bela says, “Superstitious? Perhaps. Baloney? Perhaps not.”
9. The Hudsucker Proxy — It doesn’t get a lot of love, but this is — bar none — my favorite movie from the Coen Brothers. Stunning production design that recreates the 1950s (or at least Hollywood’s version) and wonderfully stylized performances from Tim Robbins, Paul Newman and Jennifer Jason Leigh. I could watch the montage sequence charting the development of the Hula Hoop a thousand times and never get tired of it.
10. Slap Shot — A crude, violent, foul-mouthed sports movie, yes, but a great one, too. Speaking of Paul Newman, he does yeoman duty here, wearing tacky clothes and spouting even tackier dialogue. Like many 1970s movies, the laughs barely conceal the drama and desperation lurking just under the surface.
Runners up: Fight Club, Rushmore, Brazil, The Fountainhead, King Kong (the original), Used Cars, American Movie, Videodrome, Zelig and Night of the Hunter — any of which might have made the leap to the top 10 on another day.
Any comments? Any more lists? This topic got a great response, so I’d like to keep it going indefinitely. Feel free to add yours to this post or the previous one, and we can continue to discuss what makes a great movie.
