This is going to be a lot like the "saturday six pack" thread in the lounge except instead of six different questions I'm going to pose a topic for you to name your top five of whatever that topic might be (for example...top five films/actors) but I'll have more fun categories. I have a horrible problem with finishing things. Remember my year in film thread? Yeah me neither. I want to do a new topic every week so please remind me on thursday if I haven't put one up yet. Just fill my ****ing inbox with threats.
Anyway...here's our first topic. We'll make this an easy one.
Top Five Films - Any Order
Jaws
Easily my favorite film of all time. Is it the best film? I'd say it's up there but my fascination with it is more than that. Scheider and Shaw both give one of a kind lasting performances and Dreyfuss succeeded in bringing the comic relief. Spielberg directed it perfectly by not showing the shark until well into the film and it worked perfectly. The making of the film is just as fun as the final product. It's just one of those films that I can watch from any point over and over and over again.
Magnolia
This is one of two films by PTA that will be featured on this list. This one is just balls to the wall perfect screenwriting. For a three hour movie there isn't one single dull moment in the entire thing. Magnolia also boasts my favorite cast from any movie. Every single character is tragic and is acted out perfectly. Cruise, Baker Hall, William H. Macy, and Jason Robards were only the few in this film that gave career defining performances. It's also a cinematography nerds dream. The long takes and brilliant tracking shots in the tv studio and bar are some of the greatest shots ever filmed and of course the movie just hits me on an emotional level that no other film has. Then there's the bizarre frogs. I love every second of it.
There Will Be Blood
It's the greatest acting performance ever. You could pick any singular second of DDL on the screen and call it a masterpiece of acting. The story while being more of a slow burn was still invigorating and intense as any action movie hollywood churns out and the direction of PTA is of course genius. The dark scenes of Daniel staring at the oil fire and talking to his brother by the fire are just brooding and dark as anything I've seen. It's just a tour de force of an epic.
Blue Velvet
I could have picked a lot of things Lynch. Mulholland Drive and Eraserhead could have taken this spot but I went with Blue Velvet for two reasons. The first one is Dennis Hopper. Enough said. The second one is the fact that I feel this is his best movie from a directing geeks perspective. The story of MD and the bizarreness of Eraserhead are both huge in my eyes but I feel that Lynch crafted a masterpiece with Blue Velvet. Each shot is like a painting of dark coolness and is just candy to the eyes to watch.
Lost in Translation
I love Bill Murray. He's one of my favorite people. I know it's the cool thing to say nowadays but that doesn't make it any less true. The man is awesome. However, I'd love this movie even if Bill Murray wasn't in it. Sofia Coppola crafted a film that hit every single one of my emotional strings. The film has a great soundtrack couple with amazing shots of Tokyo and other parts of Japan. I see a lot of myself in Scarlett Johanson's character as I felt very lost in high school and some of those feelings stayed with me. I'm also a secret sucker for romance movies...only the good ones though. I get choked up every time at the end. Perfect film.
Others that I could argue top five for...
The Night of the Hunter
12 Angry Men
Children of Men
Road to Perdition
The Shining
Old Boy
Drive
Rear Window
Mulholland Drive
And yes I know there's a thread with this exact topic but I just wanted to start out simple. This could give people who haven't posted in that thread for a while to re-do their list or talk about each film more. I'm going to start the topics out broad and get more specific each week so just deal with it for now.