Dan Tepe - Top 100

My indicator of a good movie is if you would feel comfortable giving away a Friday or Saturday night watching it. Within a list of top 100 movies, at least 90% should be Friday/Saturday movies. If you want to see a list of Sunday morning movies, check out Bob's list. He also can't spell Dark Knight.

1) Goodfellas

2) Shawshank Redemption

3) Blow

4) Saving Private Ryan

5) Band of Brothers

6) Forrest Gump

7) Departed

8) Braveheart

9) Bourne Identity

10) Gladiator

11) Bourne Ultimatum

12) Dark Knight

13) Snatch

14) Lord of the Rings (trilogy)

15) Godfather

16) Inglorious Basterds

17) White Men Can’t Jump

18) Bourne Supremacy

19) No Country for Old Men

20) Die Hard

21) Gangs of New York

22) Old School

23) Tombstone

24) There Will Be Blood

25) Christmas Vacation

26) Blood Diamond

27) Silence of the Lambs

28) Wedding Crashers

29) Jurassic Park

30) Sandlot

31) Dances with Wolves

32) Godfather II

33) Robin Hood Prince of Thieves

34) Apollo 13

35) Home Alone (first two)

36) Top Gun

37) A Few Good Men

38) Last of the Mohicans


39) Legends of the Fall

40) Hangover

41) Die Hard III

42) It’s A Wonderful Life

43) Scream (the original)

44) Mighty Ducks

45) Training Day

46) Back to the Future (trilogy)

47) Halloween

48) Meet the Parents

49) The Prestige

50) Saw (first only)

51) Predator

52) Spy Game

53) Indiana Jones (trilogy)

54) Ocean’s 11

55) Major League I & II

56) Beautiful Mind

57) Pulp Fiction

58) A League of Their Own

59) Reservoir Dogs

60) To Kill a Mockingbird

61) Caddyshack

62) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

63) Schindler's List

64) The Big Lebowski

65) Seven

66) Happy Gilmore

67) Titanic

68) Cinderella Man

69) The Good Shepherd

70) October Sky

71) Terminator 2

72) Charlie Wilson’s War

73) Maverick

74) The Ten Commandments

75) Kill Bill

76) Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

77) Animal House

78) Dumb & Dumber

79) Gran Torino

80) Batman Begins

81) Philadelphia

82) Big

83) American History X

84) Rocky

85) Mighty Ducks II

86) Inception

87) Jerry Maguire

88) The Count of Monte Cristo

89) Fugitive

90) Escape from Alcatraz

91) Breakfast Club

92) Rocky IV

93) Road to Perdition

94) Kill Bill II

95) Avatar

96) Pirates of the Carribean (first only)

97) Sherlock Holmes

98) Stand By Me

99) Interview With The Vampire

100) Blue Chips

Drive

Simplicity

Drive is about a guy that is good at driving, and all the shit that being a driver can get one into. The movie starts with the driver, Gosling, laying out his rules for some dudes needing his skills. His rules are as simple as he is. "You've got five minutes. A minute longer and I am gone." We learn first that he drives the get-away car and later that he drives for movies. The two occupations are never at odds - he just drives. Jean Luc Godard movies were known for simplicity. A guy, a girl, a sketchy goal, and a gun. This was enough. Nicolas Refn has a few cult movies that Gosling liked enough for Gosling to handpick Refn to direct and re-write 'Drive'. Refn is all about that throw-back. He wants the audience to react. Here, he puts out a movie about a guy, a girl, a sketchy goal, and a gun. I appreciated it.

Characters

Ryan Gosling is possibly in that top category. From the gut wrencher, Blue Valentine to Lars and the Real Girl, and from Remember the Titans to Ides of March, and now Drive, I mean, I'm convinced. Cary Mulligan plays his neighbor whose husband is in prison and whose son the driver seems emotional about. Refn allows Gosling and Mulligan the space to sit in a scene. I think it takes some decent acting to hold a scene through long moments without dialogue. They pull it off. Ron Pearlman left the set of Sons of Anarchy to play the same role he always plays. He's obnoxious, smiles when you need a villain smile and dies when you need him to die. The long scenes and slow motion Pearlman smiles wouldn't be enough without some far-out tunes.

Soundtrack

Some tunes that make it happen, complete with titles that dominate:

Nightcall - Kavinsky and Lovefoxx,

Under Your Spell - Desire,

A Real Hero - College,

Bride of Deluxe,

Kick Your Teeth,

After the Chase,

They Broke His Pelvis,

Skull Crushing,

Hammer,

Oh My Love - Riz Ortolanie feat. Katyna Raneiri

Coolness - Eastwood - Samurai

I was raised on Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen movies. I believe without doubt that the best movies are ones that feature a dude that believes in something and doesn't talk much. You just know that he believes in it. Le Samourai and Bullit and Josey Wales are three of my favorites for this reason. I'll put this movie in that category.

Time to think for yourself

This movies gives you time to think for yourself. Which is cool, cause it doesn't take much thinking to get this movie. You just kind of 'sit in' the movie. In another way, you get a bunch of time to wait for something cool to happen. Which is good, cause something cool happens a lot and it is not full of CGI or other stupid stuff. It's just a freaking cool movie. I think minimalist is a way to describe it.

Take-away

Afterwards, I feel that Refn used Gosling as 'the driver' to make a point that other cool movies (Eastwood and Godard movies) have made before. It is about, in movies, "Knowing what you know and knowing what you want, but being cool about it."

Dogtooth / Kynodontas (* * * * *)

Disturbing, perverted, weird...greek

Directed by Giorgios Lanthimos, 2010

Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (which ended up going to Denmark's In A Better World), Dogtooth is quite a surprising pick. It deals with an authoritarian father whose son and two daughters have never left the premises of his countryside compound (which looks very much like Mon Oncle's Villa Arpel). He has kept them from doing so by telling them that stepping outside of the fence would result in immediate death. At least until the child is mature enough to venture out on its own, a state that comes with the loss of a dogtooth. The relationship between the father and his children, who have all reached an adult age yet act like infants for lack of socialisation, is so perverted that comparisons to the Fritzl case of Amstetten are far from absurd. When arrested, Fritzl claimed he wanted to shelter his children (and incestuous grandchildren) from the rotten outside world - words similar to those used by the father in Dogtooth. While the setting is far from likely, the film does raise the question to what extent parents may choose to circumwent the societal system and 'home school' (I use inverted commas so as not to discredit home schooling itself, which can work much better than compulsory school attendance). The repugant events taking place on the screen are contrasted by Lanthimos' sober camera work and the complete lack of music, making them all the more unsettling. Dogtooth will either make you guffaw or, if you accept its framework, leave you speechless - which was my reaction. Cinephiles will have noticed the remseblance of the photo above to a famous scene from The Shining - a film in which a father isolates his family from the outside world and goes apeshit.

Ides of March

Ides of March is a made for the stage movie with a really great cast. George Clooney hovers over the plot as the Democratic governor running for president. Religious but not in the formal sense of carrying an endorsement from a denomination. A loquacious throw-back to the ideals of an idealist version of the democratic ticket-manifested by side-stepping talking-points yet creating new talking points. America will be better if he wins, America can be the best again if he wins. America is doomed if he loses according to his quick wit, young media guru, number two -- Gosling. Replete with belief in a quality product, Gosling is the Shakespearen protagonist that serves to keep the movie from being too much of a commentary on the state of American politics and more about timeless human dilemmas-integrity, honor, honesty, promiscuity, loyalty. It's when his mistakes and his business becomes too closely linked with the mistakes and business of the governor's that the politics are less about ideals and more about reality, more about power.

I think that scripts that come from the theater can often suffer because the twists often seem too contrived on the screen. For some reason we, as viewers, are brought closer to the action in a theater. Movies, on the other hand, while getting us closer to the faces of an actor, can keep us at a distance from the plot. We simply, in the movie theater, are spectators, while in the 'real' theater, we are more of a role-player. The camera is less forgiving than a live audience. For instance, it doesn't make sense that Marissa Tomei, in this movie, as a the New York Times reporter, is the only reporter we see when it is time for a reporter to show up in the script. On the stage, we are ok with there only being one reporter involved in the story. Also, the interaction between opposing campaign managers, Paul Giamati and Philip Seymor Hoffman, would be easily managed on the stage, a live audience would expect the interaction to be a here-and-there type of relationship. While on a screen, we expect to be emotionally connected with each. We need to know how they arrived at a place and why their action in that place is related to how they got there. On stage, we are cool with them, all-of-a-sudden being in a place and acting as an actor should. My advice for watching this movie is to do your best to accept the movie as a traveling stage version. Expecting a full movie experience would leave one wanting more. The soundtrack helps some, the really good cast helps some, but the movie is best experienced as a stage performance.

The most fun part of the movie is realized in the truisms that Clooney, as one of the writers and actors, thrives on. Each scene seems to be built up around an absolute statement on the vague-ness of desired absolutes. Morality, integrity, loyalty, these sorts of things would be easy if they were absolute. This movie does well to make a loud statement about 'men' attempting to speak in absolutes as they seek out power. In the words of Shakespeare/Gosling, "Men, as politicians, can start wars, kill innocent people, bankrupt a nation, take part in corrupt corporate back-room deals. But they can't fuck the intern."

Robin Hood, Ghost, Polanski, Commercial vs. Independent - Ewa

Click Here for link to download a new podcast on Robin Hood, Ghost (Ghost Writer), Polanski, and commercial vs. independent films. This podcast is not random rambling.

And here is a link to a trailer for a recent film to come out of the National Film School in Łódź.

Everything Must Go

"Keep on the sunny side of life, it will help us every day it will brighten all the way if we'll keep on the sunny side of life." Will Ferrell deeps into the deep in this one. The sunny setting of Arizona suburbia seems to only enhance the depth. Ferrell does as well with pain as he does genuine humor. You root for him and shake your head at him. Which makes me think that the movie was pretty decent. You'll be thankful that Christopher Jordan Wallace (son of Notorious and Faith Evans) avoids a cliche role. He had a legit role and kept things cool. Was jacked to see Glenn Howerton (It's Always Sunny) and Michael Pena (Eastbound and Down). Well, actually, it had a really good cast, Stephen Root, Rebecca Hall, Laura Dern - all decent. I'm going to say that you should see this one, I redboxed it. Is redbox going to be for real? (My only complaint so far, it took me four days to watch Harry Potter and Deathly Hallowseve and so had to pay for it day-by-day) What's the future of netflix? They are telling me I have to choose instant or DVD only or pay more - lame.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Tim

Directed by Rupert Wyatt, 2011

In blockbuster waters, it is quite rare for the right script to meet the right director and the right technology. But, as ROTPOTA shows, it does happen. This is one of the few films, if not the first to convince me of the value of performance capture. So far I always considered it a gimmick like 3D and a cash cow for animation pioneers like Bob Zemeckis. In fact, in this case, it is the only way to go about making a film in which the protagonist is an ape (don't call them monkeys). The actors wearing masks and make-up in ye olde PlanetApe-quadrilogy and the Burton remake were ok at the time but they were not apes - they were guys wearing masks and make-up. Andy Serkis and the other motion capture actors do a fantastic job of getting up to all kinds of monkey business and - as the director pointed out - it would have been hard to sell a film about mistreating animals that uses real apes.

Some critics have lamented that ROTPOTA is another mindless action film that descends into explosions and gorilla vs policeman-on-horse showdowns. I disagree. Yes the message don't treat other creatures in a way you don't wish to be treated is simple but since when is that a problem? And does that mean it's wrong? It's the way a message is delivered that counts most, particulary in film. AVATAR, for which the same digital effects company was employed, is similar in that it is a spectacle to look at and delivers a simple message. However, it's harder to buy into as it is delivered in a corny way and holier-than-thou perspective. Director Wyatt (with no blockbuster experience) strikes the perfect balance and delivers one of the best sci-fi films of recent years - in league with MOON and INCEPTION. Unlike all those films that sell CGI as added value when really it's just a lack of creativity, the technology here is necessary and, every minute that apes are on screen - thankfully, almost the entire film- the viewer is bedazzled and yearning for the - good as certain - sequel.

Sidewalk Film Festival 2011 - Rob

Last year Jacob Simmons and I produced an arduous (45 minute long) podcast of our weekend at Birmingham, Alabama's Sidewalk Film Festival. I'm going to cut to the chase (since there was a little bit of fluff last year, and too many "uhs" and "ums") and just provide a few notes about the films I saw. Most of these are probably going to be on the festival circuit (term I learned at the festival) but I imagine all of them will eventually be findable and watchable through the magic of the internet. I should mention that I have very low expectations for independent film (sorry). I should also say, however, that I didn't see a bad film this weekend. So marry those facts however you like.

The festival opened Friday night with a film called The Innkeepers, a suspense/horror film about two employees of an old New England inn on its last weekend of business. Before the inn is shuttered for good, Claire and Luke are determined to discover if there are ghosts around. The chemistry between the characters is really nice and there are some truly funny moments in the film--which you need, because there is a lot of suspense too. I think director Ti West does a good job of building tension and releasing it. And he saves the horror for the end, so you're not too worn out when you see it. I think the pacing is off at times, and some friends complained about how dark parts of the film were (lighting-wise, not emotionally). For a second film, though, not bad. Watching a suspense movie is best with a big audience, and this one is no exception. (There is also a good twist at the end).

On Saturday morning I started with a film called Puppet, which tells the story of the recent revival of American puppet theater. That narrative piggybacks on the development and staging of a piece of puppet theater called Disfarmer. Director David Soll could not have picked a more compelling drama to talk about what puppetry means and its relationship to society as a whole (especially talking about history and the ways puppet theater was part of almost every culture in the world). It's hard to believe that a film about puppets could be this engaging, but it really is. I highly recommend this film if for nothing else than watching ideas come to life through creative means.

Next I watched a narrative feature called Bag of Hammers. It starred a couple of dudes I'd not heard of and Rebecca Hall. This movie had some really funny parts, and the arc of the story was nice. There were also a few tremendously sad moments. This is a real accomplishment in any film, in my opinion. Parts of the movie seemed a bit forced, and the writing had some weak places (pacing, mostly). But on the whole the film was enjoyable. The director said it had just been purchased by a distributor, so it should be available sometime, somewhere.

I thought about taking a break after Bag of Hammers, but went to a panel discussion instead. Frankly, film festival people wear me out, with everyone trying to be the next great auteur, working on their doc and trying to make crappy production elements into a solid movie. This panel was about the reasons to/why make a short film and some tips on how to get it done. The high points were 1)a woman from E. Europe asking a question in a delightful accent, and 2)a kid, aged 9, complaining that none of his friends will sit still longer than 10 minutes (too short to make a movie, even a short).

Tired, and thinking of taking a nap, I was talked into watching Project Nim, the newest film by director James Marsh (Man on Wire). Marsh has, through brilliance, carved out a niche in telling a story from the 1970s with archival footage and recent interviews. This one is about a chimpanzee named Nim Chimpsky who is raised by humans and taught human sign language. In the meantime you have some extensive human drama between Nim's various caretakers, and the personification of Nim himself. What a compelling story it is! You could dissect the layers of this film for an entire semester in a college classroom if you wanted. I think Marsh is top shelf and this film is a must see if you like documentaries.

I closed Saturday with an Austrian film called The Robber. It tells the story of a true life robber-runner who was released from prison and quickly began robbing banks and winning marathons. Such an odd combination, right? Everyone loves a chase movie and this one really takes advantage of the beautiful landscape of Austria (often on foot). It didn't plow any new ground as far as the genre is concerned and I wouldn't go out of my way to see it again, but it's a fun flick. It was nice to see 700 people sitting in the Alabama Theater watching a film in Austrian German.

Sunday morning started with coffee at Zaza. There were too many people--the downside of the film festival. Following that I went to director/photographer Danny Clinch's film Live at Preservation Hall: Louisiana Fairytale at the historic Carver Theater. What a film! Part documentary about the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, part concert experience, this film is a dream for a music fan. The hinge of the whole thing is on the Louisville band My Morning Jacket who are collaborating with the Preservation Hall Jazz band for a couple of shows at Jazz fest. So you have this interplay between old forms and new forms. Old jazz musicians learning from young rock musicians, and vice versa. The creative director of the Preservation Hall band, Ben Jaffe, really ties it all together. And they really pull the music off. Clinch does this kind of film so well that it's not a surprise, but it is fun to watch. Jaffe was around afterward for a Q&A, which is one of the best things about a film festival. This one is currently on the festival circuit but I'm sure it will be out eventually. Highly recommend.

My seventh and final film for the weekend was the documentary about the New York Times called Page One: Inside the New York Times. This film has gotten plenty of press and I don't think there's much I can add. It felt a bit passé, even though it's only a few months old. I just don't feel like the concerns of the film are as strong now. We (for instance, toward the end of the film we learn about the new fees for online reading that the Times is starting to charge--this was a real point of interest at the time; about a month ago we learned that those fees were generating income and not hurting readership, so that element wasn't effective in building tension). It's a good doc. I'm sure you'll see this at some point if you like docs.

Larry Crowne

Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts or Tom

Hanks and Meg Ryan? This one features

Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. A movie

about some real life situations that become

less real and more about movie situations.

Which is good, because movie situations

seem to make romantic comedies that are

also about economic realities more

enjoyable. I don't think you can really go

wrong by hanging out and watching this one.

Just as you can't go wrong with The

Terminal, You've Got Mail, Sleepless in

Seattle or Joe vs. the Volcano. However,

don't expect to be as devastated as you were

at the end of said gems. Those four are just nectar. No doubt some poofter representations of

the stereotypical community college students. Then again, I went to school with some poofter

representations that were actually real people. I wonder though, if Tom Hanks is getting older,

in a way that he is losing his grip on what's really going on? As a producer, he is making me

wonder a bit. I mean, he produced the best series ever made but he also produced Evan

Almighty and Mamma Mia!. Maybe he should just keep dominating epics cause as much as I

enjoy a movie like Larry Crowne, it might have missed the spot a bit. Still liked it, though.

Top 100 - Bob

1. Forrest Gump

2. Glory

3. A Few Good Men

4. Field of Dreams

5. Legends of the Fall

6. Shawshank Redemption

7. Gettysburg

8. Band of Brothers

9. Lord of the Rings Trilogy

10. Meet Joe Black

11. Last of the Mohicans

12. Braveheart

13. Gladiator

14. Goodfellas

15. Dark Night

16. Tombstone

17. Good Will Hunting

18. Jerry McGuire

19. Phenomenon

20. Lion King

21. American History X

22. Saving Private Ryan

23. Finding Forrester

24. Rain Man

25. Die Hard 1

26. Jurassic Park

27. Godfather 1

28. Philadelphia

29. A Time to Kill

30. Patton

31. Old School

32. Dumb and Dumber

33. Bourne Trilogy

34. Happy Gilmore

35. Aladdin

36. Breakfast Club

37. Cast Away

38. Casino

39. Black Hawk Down

40. Rambo First Blood

41. Rocky III

42. Batman Begins

43. Cool Hand Luke

44. The Fighter

45. Amadeus

46. Seven

47. The Prestige

48. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

49. Gods and Generals

50. Godfather Part II

51. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

52. The Newsies

53. Die Hard 3

54. Major League 1

55. Top Gun

56. Backdraft

57. Schindler’s List

58. Wedding Crashers

59. Hangover

60. Bridge Over the River Kwai

61. Naked Gun

62. Airplane

63. The Rainmaker

64. The Fox and the Hound

65. Billy Madison

66. Sweet Home Alabama

67. White Men Can’t Jump

68. Role Models

69. To Kill a Mockingbird

70. 300

71. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

72. A Beautiful Mind

73. Cinderella Man

74. Michael Clayton

75. Matrix

76. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

77. High Fidelity

78. Dazed and Confused

79. Gangs of New York

80. Dances with Wolves

81. Sling Blade

82. Karate Kid

83. Green Mile

84. Sleepless in Seattle

85. Major League II

86. Not Another Teen Movie

87. Mrs. Doubtfire

88. Armageddon

89. My Best Friends Wedding

90. Caddyshack

91. The Paper Chase

92. Primal Fear

93. For the Love of the Game

94. Patriot Games

95. Crimson Tide

96. Platoon

97. Clear and Present Danger

98. Bull Durham

99. Tin Cup

100. A River Runs Through It