the season of lists part two - movies part one
Mood:  lazy
this ought to be fun. my official top 105* films in alphabetical order (and the cut down list of 26):

1. adaptation. - charlie kaufman's brilliant screenplay makes this one, a film about writing that's actually about writing (unlike, say, finding forrester, which was as much about writing as good will hunting was about math). of course, the acting, cage in dual roles, cooper, and streep--great stuff
2. airplane - possibly the funniest comedy film ever, and it holds up surprisingly well each time i get to see part or all of it. most comedies get old after a while, even if they do still remain quotable
3. alien - a claustrophobic horror film that i wish i'd seen before i saw the sequel, cause then i wouldn't have to force myself to see how great it is that you cannot tell who will survive to be the hero of the story
4. aliens - changing genres and upping the ante, this militaristic take on what is still in many ways a horror film, works on many levels, with great characters, great direction and and wonderful effects
5. almost famous - to be fair, i'm not sure why this one stands out for me, great writing and a huge watchability score
6. and god spoke? (the making of) - this movie should not be on this list. in some ways, it's as bad as the movie within it, but it is just so funny and watchable, it's got to be here. there are only so many comedies that can stay on the rewatch list
7. as good as it gets - great cast, great comedy, but this one won't make the cut down list, as you'll see
8. batman - dark enough to make the batman concept seem believable but over the top enough to remind us that the whole thing came from a comic book, saw this multiple times in the theater and still enjot it to this day, though, to be fair, batman returns improves on this original in some ways
9. beautiful mind, a - as far as movies about mental illness go, this one ranks at the top of the list for the very reason that it keeps us in the character's head, not even letting us realize what we're seeing is fake until he is forced to realize it.
10. being john malkovich - despite an ending that still bugs me, the setup for this one is a brilliant exercise in the bizarre
11. believer, the - watchable and a little hypnotic, plus ryan gosling is fantastic in the lead
12. big lebowski, the - a comedy that actually seems to get better each time i see it
13. birds, the - hitchcock at his best, though i still wonder why he bothered with some of his still shots posing as slow motion
14. blade runner - the narration version or not, this film defined a look for so many films since and improved on the story on which it's based (while, oddly enough, barely covering the subject matter from the original title)
15. blair witch project, the - some hate it, some love it. i'm one of the latter. if you look too much into it, it's got flaws (like how many camera batteries did they bring along, anyway? and, if they were so obsessive about making films that they would grab them first thing in the morning and film all day, shouldn't some more of that be in the characters (of course, that would require a script, and the unscriptedness was one of the great things about this, so oh well)
16. boogie nights - there are things in this that bug me, like heather graham (who, really was only good once, and that was in swingers), but the familial ties between the pornographers make for a fascinating story
17. bottle rocket - while the later films from the folks involved in this one revel a little much in the quirkiness, this one really makes it all work
18. braveheart - despite a few historical innaccuracies and some post passion of the christ looks back at mel gibsons's christ/torture fetish (south park didn't seem too far off on that count), this movie plays brilliantly and solidly
19. breaking the waves - emily watson is always great, but this is where i first saw her, in this painful-at-times film about love and sex and god and redemption, with a raw look and feel that suck you in
20. bug?s life, a - toy story was good, but this was where pixar really got it together, with great characters and caricatures and wonderfuly twists and turns
21. bulworth - how anyone cannot enjoy this political/social satire (actually, i'm not sure it qualifies for that term, technically) is beyond me. i suppose i can understand not "liking" it, but not enoying it?
22. chaplin - probably the greatest biographic film i've seen, and one of those movies i get stuck on if i see it on cable late at night
23. confessions of a dangerous mind - it's charlie kaufman so it makes the list, but it's also not charlie kaufman so it won't make the short list. an enjoyable film with a great conceit at its center
24. crumb - as far as documentaries go, this one makes my favorite film list because it's so watchable, though not necessarily as good as, say, capturing the friedmans, and robert crumb is a fascinating subject
25. cube - though some of the dialogue is a little simplistic, and the overall metaphor seems way too obvious with each viewing, this one still grabs me and makes me watch if i see it on cable
26. cujo - not as much a downer as the book, but probably about as close as you can get in a relatively mainstream film that doesn't wear its pessimism as a badge of honor a la some 90s films that tried to make the darkness cool (trainspotting for example)
27. dancer in the dark - a seriously dark film with bizarre musical interludes, a musical that refuses to be happy or trite, and bjork is brilliant in it. this one makes the i-can't-turn-it-off-if-it's-on-cable list
28. dawn of the dead - the original, though the remake is fairly good, is the one that makes my list, with the take on consumerism and the zombie masses (the latter covered quite well recently in shaun of the dead)

and that's all for today. no politics, no whining. i've got to work on clubhouse blues. more of the movie list tomorrow