jericsmith.com

J. Eric Smith's Favorite Films

Title Notes 2001: A Space Odyssey I still don't know what it all means. And I still don't care. Aguirre, Wrath of God Klaus Kinski: Lunatic, megalomaniac, actor. All About My Mother Probably my favorite Almodovar film, though I tend to oscillate on that opinion, between this one and Talk to Her. All that Jazz Fosse/Scheider/Lange make the best film musical ever. And I hate film musicals. American Beauty All the elements click in this one. A fine piece of writing and film-making. Bad Boys Sean Penn's greatest film moments. Badlands Ugly Americans, at home. Before the Rain Macedonian masterpiece tinged with the surreal. Being John Malkovich American masterpiece tinged with the surreal. Big Lebowski, The Another American masterpiece tinged with the surreal. Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey The sequel beats the original, like Bill and Ted beat Death. Blade Runner But the book's still better. Bliss The Australian Ray Lawrence one, not the American one: true surreal genius. Blue Velvet What's in the oxygen mask? Brazil Not recommended for the easily depressed. Bug Super-creepy psychological thriller with a tour de force performance by Ashley Judd. City Lights Chaplin at his sweetest. City of God Harrowing look at life in urban Brazil. Relentless, yet beautiful. Clockwork Orange, A Even in our current era of cinematic ultraviolence, this one shocks and awes. Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover, The Eat me. Literally. Helen Mirren, never better. Cool Hand Luke No failure to communicate here. Crash The one about car crashes, not the one about race relations. It lived up to the frightening J.G. Ballard book, which is some feat. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Thank you, Ang Lee! Daughters of Darkness Art vampires; Delphine Seyrig is a goddess. Dazed and Confused What 70's teen can't vote for this one? Dead Man The greatest western ever, bar none. And one of history's finest movies. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels The remake, Steve Martin's funniest film role. Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Peak of Modern Surrealism. Do the Right Thing Spike Lee's and Public Enemy's peak. Dogfight River Phoenix COULD act, see this one for proof. Don't Look Now Nicolas Roeg; scariest climax I've ever seen. Dr. Strangelove Oh, maybe THIS is why we love Stanley Kubrick. And Peter Sellers. Drowning by Numbers Greenaway's jolly good in-joke is most fun to watch. Drugstore Cowboy As authentic as they come. Edward Scissorhands Tim Burton before his films became insufferable. Eraserhead Most Difficult Movie for Newbies to Sit Through. Fargo Particularly hilarious since I married a Minnesotan. That would be her accomplice in the wood chipper. Fast Times at Ridgemont High Sean Penn's other greatest moments. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Damn it, Terry Gilliam caught the spirit of the book: ugly! Fight Club Icky Grand Guignol Fun Fountain, The A beautiful, moving work of art. Spectacular to look at, and Rachel Weisz and Hugh Jackman made my chin tremble throughout. Go! Ever have one of those nights? Goodfellas Blows the Godfather flicks out of the water. Graduate, The Blows most other flicks out of the water. American's greatest dark comedy. Great Dictator, The Charlie Chaplin's greatest film, with closing soliloquy to die for. Groundhog's Day Why can't there be more romantic comedies like this? Ice Storm, The Reliving my suburban childhood in the early '70s. Iron Giant, The It's not bad to die. It's bad to kill. Jesus of Montreal The ending made me feel queasy for weeks. Lady in a Cage Olivia de Havilland; prototype psychothriller. Lantana Australian masterpiece by Ray Lawrence, who also brought us "Bliss," (see above). Last Wave, The Richard Chamberlain down under . . . lots of water. Life is Sweet Mike Leigh and Jane Horrocks, amazing together. Liquid Sky Brilliant cult film with even more brilliant soundtrack. Lord of the Rings (Entire Trilogy) I'd been waiting for this my whole life. Lost Highway David Lynch's best since Eraserhead. Madness of King George, The Another wonderful stage-to-screen adaptation. Pay attention, David Mamet, this is how it's done. Manhunter The best of all possible Hannibal Lechter movies . . and no Tony Hopkins in sight. Mean Streets Keitel/DeNiro/Scorsese: The first, the best. Modern Times Another Chaplin gem. Monty Python and the Holy Grail Still funny after at least 100 viewings. Mulholland Drive David Lynch has still got it, and how. Naked Mike Leigh's nastiest film. Network Particularly frightening now, since it's all come true. Ned Beatty's soliloquy one of film's greatest moments. Once Were Warriors Beautiful family drama, set in a Maori community in New Zealand. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest There's a reason this one won all four of the big Oscars. Hint: it has something to do with being very, very good. Pan's Labyrinth In a perfect world, all films would be as beautiful, haunting and gut-wrenching as this one. Best monster ever, to boot. Party Girl Parker Posey is so incredibly good in this film. Why can't she get roles like this one anymore? And why can't she play a lead in a big Hollywood film, since she carried this one single-handedly? Petulia Julie Christie again. Divine, in a dark, dark movie. Pi Whoa nelly! Create an ooky b&w home film fest with this one, Eraserhead and Tetsuo. You'll never be the same again. Piano, The So overwhelming--and so much better than anything else Jane Campion has ever done. Piano Teacher, The Shocking, horrifying, a trainwreck that you can't stop watching. Isabelle Huppert gives one of cinema's alltime harrowing performances. Planet of the Apes (Original) As many times as I've seen it, the final scene still brings shivers. Princess Bride The perfect romance. The near-perfect comedy. The far-above-average adventure. Quiet Man, The John Wayne's great Irish flick, in which he still has his stereotypical American Western accent. Sublime. Reanimator Ultimate gross out flick. Share the hideousness. Repo Man But it still hurts. Requiem for a Dream The third Darren Aronofsky film in my list. He's real good, no kidding. Reservoir Dogs But it still hurts, only with more blood. River's Edge But it still hurts, only with more angst. Runaway Train Ultimate Action Flick! Salome's Last Dance Ken Russell's best. Seconds Most depressing movie ever made. Poor Rock Hudson deserved an Oscar for this performance. She's Gotta Have It Spike Lee's eye-opening first flick. Fight the power this way. Sherrybaby Maggie Gyllenhaal broke my heart in this haunting movie. Sleeper Woody Allen's funniest film. Stunt Man, The Creepy Peter O'Toole never creepier than here. Talk to Her See comments on All About My Mother. Who can pick? Taxi Driver You lookin' at me? Tetsuo: Iron Man The Japanese Eraserhead. Texas Chainsaw Massacre Original one, duh. Defines the genre. That Obscure Object of Desire Surrealist masterpiece by Bunuel. This is Spinal Tap This one goes to 11. Time Bandits Watch it 10 times to catch all the self-references. Titus Mayhem! Carnage! Decapitation! Cannibalism! Anthony Hopkins! Fun! Trainspotting Choose this. Walkabout Talk about erotically charged . . . yikes! Warriors, The Come out to PLAY-AY! What's Eating Gilbert Grape? Wept for an hour when it was over. When We Were Kings Riveting documentary about the Rumble in the Jungle. Ali moves me. Withnail and I Richard E. Grant's finest moments. Y Tu Mama Tambien Stunning look at the thrills and perils of boyhood. Updated June 2007 Copyright 1994-2007: J. Eric Smith.

Move it on over . . .