| AFI Top 100 |
| Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) | 7 | Epic film about the repercussions of intolerance by D.W. Griffith. This film follows four plotlines; religious rivalry in ancient Babylon, the condemnation of Jesus, the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, and the modern day morality police's destruction of a young couple. This film is groundbreaking in terms of production, content, and film techniques but the winding plots can make this one a bit hard to get through. It's considered a classic and Griffith's masterpiece but at the time of its release was mostly a failure. |
| Duck Soup (1933) | 9 | Classic Marx Brothers' film about dictator Rufus T. Firefly and his declaration of war with neighboring country Sylvania. It takes a lot to make me laugh and this film got me rolling. My favorite line was when Chico was on trial and Groucho tells him "I say we give him ten years at Leavenworth or eleven years at Twelveworth." The mirror gag and battle scenes make this one great. It's basically everything you love about Bugs Bunny only on film. |
| On the Waterfront (1954) | 9 | Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint star in this film about an ex-boxer's turmoil with standing up to his corrupt union bosses. This film is amazing visually in it's sad and dreary black and white but the acting is what makes this one a necessary viewing. |
| Documentaries |
| In the Realms of the Unreal (2004) | 10 | An old reclusive janitor, Henry Darger, died quietly in his apartment in 1973. Cleaning it out, the secret world of his 15,000-page fantasy novel "The Story of the Vivian Girls" was uncovered as well as his amazing self-taught illustrations for the manuscript. He has since become one of the best known Outsider artists and this film biographs his life. I had never heard of him before seeing this and was completely captivated by the story of his life. |
| Darkon (2006) | 7 | Some nerds from DC get together every week and participate in a live-action role-playing wargame. Their battles are epic and meaningful to them even though their regular lives may be anything but. My friend Sarah and I had talked about making a documentary about this sort of thing a lot time ago as she had a co-worker into LARP. I find it fascinating as a documentary subject but I feel like this could have been done a lot better. |
| Loudquietloud: A Film About the Pixies (2006) | 8 | One of my favorite bands the Pixies reunited in 2004 after nearly ten years. This film documents this tour and shows the ups and downs of the music business, touring, and band members personal struggles. |
| The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007) | 9 | Steve Wiebe attempts to break the Donkey Kong arcade game high score of Billy Mitchell. This film documents What propels somebody to be the best at something and how hard it can be to achieve that. Sometimes its even harder to hold on to the title as "the best". |
| Horror |
| Blacula (1972) | 4 | An exploitation / comedy / horror about an African prince transformed into a vampire who finds himself in the 1970s. |
| The Return of the Living Dead (1985) | 7 | I love me some zombie movies. This film was written by John Russo of Night of the Living Dead fame but there was a disagreement with him and George Romero over how to follow it up properly so this script was Russo's attempt at it. I love the punk rocker theme and it has that great mid-80s vibe to it. |
| Habit (1997) | 6 | Indie-horror flick about a mysterious woman a man meets when he is down in the dumps. |
| P2 (2007) | 6 | A thriller about a woman professional who gets trapped in her work's parking garage by a madman. |
| Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) | 8 | Dark Tim Burton musical about a revenge-seeking English barber. This one is pretty gory but in an almost comedic over-the-top kind of way. The story itself has been around for over 150 years and made into several different films, at one point even being a hit Broadway play. |
| Misc. |
| Jamaica Inn (1939) | 5 | A Hitchcock film about a pack of smugglers that wreck ships in order to loot them. It was adapted from a book by the same author of "Rebecca" and "The Birds" and was Maureen O'Hara's first major film. This film has a lot different vibe than a lot of other Hitchcock films and isn't one of his stronger films. |
| Harvey (1950) | 7 | Iconic film with Jimmy Stewart about a man and his 6-foot tall rabbit friend. This had some funny moments in it and Jimmy Stewart is always a real treat to watch. |
| The Magician (1958) | 9 | Ingmar Bergman made this film at the height of his career but it wasn't one of his most viewed films. I was lucky enough to see this on the big screen (very few prints of this exist). Max von Sydow plays a traveling magician who scams people out of money with his supernatural abilities but faces his toughest challenge when he has to prove his skills to a group of disbelievers. |
| The Missouri Breaks (1976) | 7 | Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson together in this cattle rustling western. Both actors are in top form but this film is still lacking as its just not a very original script. |
| Ride With the Devil (1999) | 8 | This film is of local interest as it documents the Kansas Jayhawkers and Missouri Bushwhackers during the civil war. It was filmed just north of Kansas City in a small town and stars Tobey Maguire. Ang Lee directed this one and it was supposed to be a big blockbuster but flopped for marketing reasons. I read the book this was based on, "Woe to Live On" by Daniel Woodrell, and was happy to see that the film followed the book almost exactly. |
| 5 x 2 (Five Times Two) (2004) | 8 | French drama documenting the initial meeting, romance, marriage, infidelity, separation, and divorce of a married couple. The twist with this one is that it happens it reverse order. I found this film pretty touching as it hit on a lot of things that are often missed in a romance; sadness, loss, and those uncomfortable moments. |
| Lonesome Jim (2005) | 8 | Steve Buscemi directed film with Casey Affleck and Liv Tyler. Jim moves back to his parent's small town after he fails at life in New York. Drama unfolds as he adjusts to this new time in his life. |
| Southern Belles (2005) | 6 | Two girls named Bell and Belle attempt to break away from their rural southern habitat to Atlanta. This movie is pretty cheesy and overly exaggerates southern life but it has a few funny moments in it. RIYL Joe Dirt. |
| Walk the Line (2005) | 8 | The movie biographing Johnny Cash's life. I felt like they did a pretty good job of casting in this film as Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon came very close to nailing it. |
| Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) | 6 | Chinese film by the same director that did "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers". This film wasn't nearly as good as those two. Visually it was stunning but the film felt slow and uninspired and the one big battle scene wasn't even that impressive. |
| The Illusionist (2006) | 9 | I thought this film was great. Edward Norton plays a peasant whose childhood love is taken away from him because of her nobility. Years later he is a famous magician and they meet again only she is engaged to a tyrannical prince. This film was very well written and will keep you guessing the whole way. |
| SherryBaby (2006) | 7 | Maggie Gyllenhaal in a film about a young mother who gets out of jail after three years and struggles adjusting to her new life. |
| Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) | 5 | A dumb Will Ferrell movie about a racecar driver. This had a few funny parts. |
| Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters (2007) | 5 | I was so excited to see this film but it ended up being a big letdown. Aqua Teen Hunger Force has always been one of my favorite Adult Swim shows but I guess this proves that a show with eleven-minute episodes shouldn't be made into a full feature-lengthed film. |
| The Darjeeling Limited (2007) | 8 | Wes Anderson film about three brothers who go on a spiritual journey through India. I loved seeing all of the scenery in this film and the colors are great. |
| No Country For Old Men (2007) | 7 | This Coen Brothers film was actually a bit of a letdown. I was so excited to see it since it swept so many Academy Awards but I didn't feel that it really lived up to all of the hype. Javier Bardem was fantastic as he played one of the most sinister villains ever. Josh Brolin is the man caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and Tommy Lee Jones is the cop in charge of tracking them both down. |
