the season of lists part two - movies part two
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: best of kevin & bean on kroq
something like 44,000 dead in asia cause of that tsunami, the war in iraq wages on and after 32 years, dick clark won't be doing his rockin eve this weekend...

the world is falling apart

so, on to my movie list, cause i know what's important:

29. dead poets society - a few simplistic bits, but of course it's about teenagers, so that stuff works. some real talk of creativity and some great acting
30. dead zone, the - as far as stephen king adaptations go, this was a great example, a translation to film without all the details of the original and also without any attempt to turn it into something it isn't (like many a later stephen king adaptation)
31. demon knight, tales from the crypt presents - a straightforward horror film, one of those standoff with evil films that really works. the only real flaw is the framing sequence, but without that, maybe this movie wouldn't exist
32. dogville - a danish film maker taking on american values with a set made of lines drawn on the ground to represent buildings. in no time, the story and the characters draw you past the set piece and the whole thing boils down to a skeletal exploration of modern (american) culture
33. dolores claiborne - one of the better adaptations of stephen king, about an abused wife and mother who's worked harder than she ever should have had to to survive, with wonderful performances from david strathairn, kathy bates and jennifer jason leigh
34. eternal sunshine of the spotless mind - charlie kaufman's most accessible and most convoluted (if it can actually be both at the same time) script, jim carrey and kate winslet in brilliant performances, wonderful direction, powerful visuals and a tragic love story at its core
35. ed wood - you might be sensing certain themes as to what makes my list, and here you'll see that creative spark thing that lies at the heart of chaplin and adaptation. ed wood may have made horrible films but the key is that he absolutely loved making them and johnny depp makes you feel that and be right there with him in enjoying the power of his creation
36. exotica - for plots taken out of order, i'd go with this or 21 grams (which, i just realized, is not on my list) over something like pulp fiction. tarantino's film was short stories tied together. exotica (and 21 grams as well) is a cohesive whole broken into pieces to make the emotional turns in the end that much more powerful. bruce greenwood is great and atom egoyan is a great director/writer plus this film introduced me to mia kirshner
37. fargo - a crime caper film gone completely awry, with great actors (mcdormand, buscemi, macy and stormare) at the core
38. fight club - an exploration into manhood, violence, pop/material culture and revolution, not to mention the big revelation in the end, brad pitt and ed norton at their best
39. fisher king, the - insanity, arthurian legend, comedy and tragedy, robin williams in one of his best performances, jeff bridges great as usual (occurs to me now that arlington road isn't on my list either, while it maybe could be), plus it's got to be the most accessible film from terry gilliam
40. free enterprise - a couple of nerds living the good nerd life, finding love and meeting william shatner. what's gonna be wrong with that?
41. godfather part ii, the - i've got to go with the general consensus here that this sequel, with its two pronged plot, surpasses the original, demonstrating how great al pacino and robert de niro could be
42. godfather, the - of course, the original is still good, a treatise on family and crime
43. good will hunting - though it could've used more exploration into the math, at least it wasn't the superhero codebreaker movie it could have been. the resolution breakdown still plays a little simplistically, but damon's emotionally understated performance up to that point makes it work. stellen skarsgard and robin williams both give strong performances, as does minnie driver
44. groundhog day - as repetitive as this comedy is internally, it holds up quite well on repeat viewing and is good for one scene at a time cable passbys as well
45. halloween - the one that really got the slasher subgenre going, though this one isn't too explicit (in blood or sex). it's john carpenter before he was too self indulgent (see the thing or escape from new york for two more examples of carpenter doing well)
46. heat - pacino and de niro, together again, not to mention the rest of the cast, val kilmer, ashley judd, amy brenneman, etc.). a dark, serious look at a ring of criminals and the police after them, with the deliberate direction of michael mann and the haunting score by elliot goldenthal
47. highlander - a bizarre film for its time, made a star of lambert (though that didn't last) and used sean connery wonderfully, not to mention the magic and the history in the plot
48. in the bedroom - one of those movies the mesmerizes me if i see it on cable late at night, and the confrontation between the son and his girlfriend's ex still disturbs me (for personal reasons, i'll admit). a wonderful exercise in melodrama (the kind of melodrama that gives melodrama a good name, that is)
49. iron giant, the - gotta wonder if the incredibles should have been added to this list, but i haven't added to the list lately. so, this entry from brad bird will have to do, the simple story of a gun that doesn't want to be a gun
50. life as a house - there is something so simple about this film, i'm not even sure why it grabs me so much every time i see a part on cable. it's a story about life and death without any shallow trappings that you might expect, a simple, straightforward story about a man building a house, a home and rebuilding his family before he dies
51. lone star - probably john sayles most accessible film, though it might be a little long and have one or two too many plotlines for most people. but, you gotta love how all the plotlines twist around one another and how the various connections are drawn and discovered along the way, without even an ounce of contrivance
52. lord of the rings the fellowship of the ring - a fantasy epic that has inspired so many since, put to screen in a visually stunning way. great characters, and great use of minor characters along the way, good vs evil and the power of sacrifice
53. lord of the rings the two towers - unlike the plodding book, this film plays quite well, drawing us even more into the world of middle earth and the plight of these characters, with a powerful emotional core

and, we'll end there, with the inexplicable exception of lord of the rings the return of the king. i swear it's got to just be a typo or accidental line deletion, cause it should be on the list

watchlist:

• jeopardy
• rebel billionaire
• house
• amazing race 6 (clip show)
• garden state
• code 46

reading: linked by albert-laszlo barabasi