Somewhat hypocritically, I have attached links to the IMDB record for
each film. Just trying to be helpful...
1 - Betty Blue (French
title 37,2 le Matin) - A tragic love story, funny and involving, with excellent
performances, stylish direction, and a great soundtrack.
2 - Apartment Zero -
A tense homoerotic film noir set in Argentina that nobody really bothered
to watch. An undiscovered classic.
3 - The Third Man -
Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles in a tale of the bad side of post-war Vienna,
a tense tale of friendship gone bad done to perfection.
3.14 - Pi - Surreal
math drama kekeps it tense with the baldest psychological terror this side
of Eraserhead.
4 - Top Secret! - Elvis
impersonator helps the French resistance liberate Nazi East Germany in
the '80s. Absurd, ironic comedy, the best ever.
5 - Roadkill - "A Rock
and Roll Movie About a Girl Who Learns How To Drive." Guerilla film-making
creates the best Canadian road movie ever.
6 - Cube - Six unsympathetic
protagonists locked in a death-dealing cube. Why are they there?
Endless irony.
7 - Ring - Japanese
horror about a cursed video tape. One of the best psychological horrors
ever. Watch it at home.
8 - Casablanca - Lots
of classics don't make this list, but a list without Casablanca fails to
get the point. See it again.
9 - the Usual Suspects
- Heist-gone-wrong movie so involving and complex, you can't just watch
it once.
10 - Life is Beautiful
- A holocaust movie like none other.
11 - Lawrence of Arabia
- The classic film that just goes on and on and on... The desert
has never been made this enticing.
12 - 12 Angry Men -
Twelve men, all with intense characters and compelling histories, on a
jury to decide the life and death of one unfortunate kid.
13 - Down By Law - Three
losers interact in jail, then break out. The dialogue is tops.
Watch all of Jim Jarmush's other films as well, particularly Night
On Earth.
14 - Vertigo - A stylish
mystery of love and death and mistaken identity by the master, Alfred Hitchcock.
15 - L.A. Confidential
- Tense cop drama in '50s L.A. dealing with tense, complex characters involved
in heavy intrigues. Wow!
16 - the Matrix - A
head scratcher, but since everybody's already seen it...
17 - M - German director
Fritz Lang's first talking picture shows a lynch mob corner a child-murderer
like a rat. Nothing since has come close.
18 - THX-1138 - George
Lucas' not-so-famous movie, starring Robert Duvall and Donald Pleasance
trapped in a white underground surreality they can't escape.
19 - Fight Club - David
Fincher, finally lightening up and living up to his expectations by making
a black comedy about suicidal men who plot destruction.
20 - Wallace & Gromit:
The Wrong Trousers - Claymation done right for the first time in years,
Gromit is the best mute genius of a dog since Brain.
21 - the Wizard of Oz
- The film that everybody has seen and sung to is still beyond reproach.
22 - the Good, the Bad,
and the Ugly - epic tale of bad men searching for gold who come across
the sad waste of the American Civil War...
23 - Sunset Blvd. -
Perhaps one of the best narrated tales ever, a black comedy showing the
slight rise and fall of a faceless Hollywood hack.
24 - All About Eve -
Bette Davis is fantastic, and so is everybody else in this tense comedy
about the quest for fame in Hollywood.
25 - Apocalypse Now
- Epic film showing what we expect of war - insanity! And try to
also see Apocalypse Pooh!
if you can.
26 - Monty Python and the
Holy Grail - If you haven't seen it, you should know that this movie
is very funny and - contary to popular belief - rather quotable.
27 - the Manchurian Candidate
- Intense cold war oedipal drama about brain washed army freaks.
Out of this world. Frank Sinatra at his most penetrating.
28 - Reservoir Dogs
- Tense, tense, tense, tense. Great dialogue, fantastic situations,
it might actually really happen to a group of thieves one day.
29 - Alien - The perfect
idea, the best setting, the firat and only time it was really done right.
30 - Fargo - A compelling
story about truly horrible people, the movie that shouldn't have been great
but was. Watch the other Coen brothers films too.
31 - Leon - The tale
of the sympathetic child-man unstoppable assassin and his little friend,
stellar performances by all and just the right heavy directorial touch.
32 - the Straight Story
- A great film about an old man on the road, containing just the right
balance of tender sentiment and life angst.
33 - Mononoke Hime -
maybe not Miyazaki Hayao's best film (try to see them all), but one of
the best marriages of story, image, and animation out there.
34 - Glory - A Civil
War film about a black battalion that makes you want to join in.
35 - Full Metal Jacket
- Kubrick's Vietnam film is chock full of memorable scenes, particularly
the opening. The sound-bite film.
36 - Rebecca - Hitchcock
doing old film noir about the ghost of the dead wife.
37 - the Shining - A
great Kubrick film of a great story with a great actor and an even better
mountain-top setting.
38 - Manhattan - Woody
Allen is a fine director with good ideas. Watch either the touching
Manhattan or the hilarous, innovative Annie
Hall.
39 - Ben-Hur - If you
only watch one gladiator movie, watch this one.
40 - Gone with the Wind
- The movie that gives romance novels a good name.
41 - Metropolis - A
vision of the world as it never turned out, beautiful magic nonetheless
and a joy to watch.
42 - Cool Hand Luke
- A fine, fine film about a guy called Luke who can really eat eggs.
Paul Newman in his finest form.
43 - the Wild Bunch
- I haven't seen this film yet, but I just know it should be on
my list between Cool Hand Luke and the Sweet Hereafter.
44 - the Sweet Hereafter
- Compelling characters, great acting and directing, perfect story, bitter
irony. See this and all of Atom Egoyan's other films.
45 - Once Upon A Time In
America - Epic tale of gangster America, sweepingly beautiful, James
Woods and DeNiro at their best, and Sergio Leone's last film.
56 - Forrest Gump -
I don't care what anybody says, I like this capsule of recent American
history and I like Forrest Gump himself. Gump way better
than Garp.
47 - Witness for the Prosecution
- Court drama with Marlene Dietrich that still has the power to keep everyone
guessing.
48 - the Fugitive -
Harrison Ford finally puts in a good performance again in this justified
remake of the tense '60s TV show.
49 - Raise High The Red
Lantern - Intoxicatingly beautiful, this tale of a lowly fourth wife
is an imperialistic metaphor for modern China.
50 - Trainspotting -
Brisk pacing and an excellent style marry a novel perfectly with the medium
of images.
51 - As Good As It Gets
- Jack Nicholson puts in a performance that is as good as it gets about
the guy we love to hate.
52 - Twelve Monkeys
- Great set design, fine performances by all three leads, building dread,
deep thoughts. Expands on "la
Jetee" very nicely.
53 - Fucking Åmål
- How did this get here?
54 - X-Men - Perhaps
the best comic book adaptation yet, and a pretty good character development
exercise too.
55 - Bonnie and Clyde
- Faye Dunaway. Wow.
56 - Miller's Crossing
- A gangster movie about a mob killer trying to figure it out. Similar
films on this list, but I just love it when they do it right.
57 - Roman Holiday -
Audrey Hepburn is gorgeous, Gregory Peck is a prince, therefore everybody
should love this film.
58 - King Kong - The
original 1933 Kong has everything anybody would need in it, a surprise
considering how old it is. Still a rival tofilms like Jurassic
Park.
59 - Swingers - Crackling
dialogue and surreal/funny situations give this film a life of its own.
60 - Dog Day Afternoon
- Al Pacino in one of his best movies, a tense/wacky heist-gone-wrong film
(there are so many, but...) that will never die!
61 - Being There - Chance
the Butler is so subtle he may be one of the best movie characters of all
time.
62 - the Birds - Hitchcock's
film about the enemy around us is actually quite surreal, but we love it
for the great characters.
63 - A Charlie Brown Christmas
- groovy tunes, surreality, and Snoopy.
64 - A Fish Called Wanda
- A heist-gone-wrong film full of hilarious situations and great characters.
A very funny film.
65 - the Phantom of Liberty
- Luis Bunuel created this omnibus of visual gags and short film.
When watching, keep in mind that truth is still stranger than fiction.
66 - Bring Me The Head of
Alfredo Garcia - Sam Peckinpah tour-de-force of a hitman's mission
to stay alive in a deadly world.
67 - Twin Peaks - We
have over 20 hours of this stylish/surreal murder drama/black comedy to
enjoy, and it is all good.
68 - the Hunger - The
vampire film that everybody wrote off, Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie
do way better than Anne Rice.
69 - Midnight Express
- Another underrated film, Robert DeNiro and Charles Grodin both near their
career best.
70 - Carlito's Way -
And yet another underrated film, this bad-guy-tryingi-to-do-good
gets it all right, even if it is directed by Brian DePalma.
71 - Bitter Moon - Thank
you, Roman Polanski, for this dismal tale of true love and it's direst
consequences.
72 - Rosemary's Baby
- Thank you, Roman Polanski, for this dismal tale of motherhood and it's
direst consequences.
73 - Xiu Xiu - the Sent
Down Girl - Joan Chen directorial debut about the most beautiful teenage
girl in '60s Cultural Revolution China, lost in the wilds.
74 - Mildred Pierce
- Joan Crawford career best performance in a compelling tale of rich people
who cannot be happy.
75 - Pee Wee's Big Adventure
- One of the funniest movies around, and Tim Burton's only good movie.
Bring Pee Wee back!
76 - Kalifornia - Edgy,
tense thriller done right about four people on the road, one of them a
serial killer. Brad Pitt puts in a fine, fine performance.
77 - Buffalo 66 - Another
performance that is as good as it gets about the guy we love to hate, this
time done stylishly with Christina Ricci, Angelica Huston.
78 - the Beguiled -
An evil, manipulative Clint Eastwood Civil War drama in a convent, psychologically
fascinating.
79 - A Perfect World
- Another Clint Eastwood film, this time with Kevin Costner on the run
and bonding with a kid. Costner's career best.
80 - Wittgenstein -
Vague scenes from the life of my favorite philosopher. I love this
movie as other people hate it.
81 - Irma Vep - Beautiful,
stylistic black and white film starring Maggie Cheung in France making
a movie. Best use of a Sonic Youth song for cathartic ending.
82 - Bound - Lesbians
rip off the mob and create a dramatic situation. Sexy, smart, stylish,
compelling.
83 - Breaking the Waves
- Beautiful cinematography in rural Ireland and tense, edgy acting make
this dramatic film a great metaphor for the miracles of Christ.
84 - Canadian Bacon
- Great comedy about the natural animosity that Canadians and Americans
have for each other.
85 - Innocent Blood
- Vampire comedy/action-drama with the fabulous Anne Parrigou and the inspired
madness of Robert Loggia and Don Rickles.
86 - the Big Lebowski
- Comedy so subtle you might not notice how hilarous and ironic it is,
and just think it's stupid.
87 - Map of the Human Heart
- Sweeping, epic tale of Inuit boy who does good in World War 2, culminating
with wild sex on a huge balloon.
88 - the Blue Angel
- Early German morality play with Marlene Dietrich gets mood and drama
and wicked manipulation down just right in black and white.
89 - A Woman Under the Influence
- Peter Falk as a concerned husband fearing wife Gena Rowland's insanity,
plodding and uncertain yet full of genius.
90 - Jacob's Ladder
- Tense, scary, surreal mystery drama about a Vietnam war vet who is either
losing his mind or his soul.
91 - Let's Get Lost
- Black and white documentary on the final days in the life of Chet Baker,
beautiful and breezy.
92 - What Happened to Baby
Jane - Scary psycho-drama about two strange sisters. Surely we
all know someone just like the adult Baby Jane?
93 - Vampire's Kiss
- A film entirely centered on Nicolas Cage's most manic performance as
a yuppie who believes he is (or is he?) a vampire.
94 - the Lost Highway
- Surreal back and forth between Bill Pullman and Balthasar Getty is the
strangest film David Lynch has done since Eraserhead.
95 - Shallow Grave -
A tense film about murder between friends where money is also involved.
Actually, tense doesn't even begin to describe it...
96 - the Shawshank Redemption
- Tim Robbins is usually good, here he is great as the nerd who does good
in prison. What a bustout!
97 - Kikujiro no Natsu
- Takeshi helps a kid by taking him on the road to find his mother.
Touching and funny.
98 - Deep River - Love
and existential doubt in India. Mifune Toshiro's last performance.
Based on the fantastic novel by Endo Shosaku.
99 - Speaking Parts
- Video used effectively in film, as grieving sister mourns her dead brother
on several levels. Also sexy, surreal, cold as steel, sharp as a
knife.
100 - Jesus of Montreal
- one of the best Canadian movies ever made, and a metaphor of a modern
life of Christ, double (see also #83). Should actually be #1.
101 - Wild at Heart
- Wild indeed; disturbing too and with one memorable image after another.
These pictueres also belong on this list, but I can't really figure out where to fit them in. :
Swallowtail Butterfly
- a stylish Japanese film about foreigners living in an Interzone who get
involved in pop music and other conspiracies. Fantastic.
Any John Waters
film. They're all good, although I have a soft spot for Crybaby
and Pecker. Maybe
John directs male heart-throbs well.
Love Letter
Made it this far - good for you. Now what?