Chad Liffmann – Spinning Platters

Film Feature: Chad’s 100 Favorite Films of All Time (25-1)

We made it! To catch you up one last time: I’m turning forty-two today. In the spirit of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I’ve spent some time considering the existential mundanity of turning this age, and what has been the answer to the question of my life, my universe, and everything.

I have also decided to hang up my film critic hat. Over thirteen years and nearly three hundred film reviews written, numerous festivals covered, and a handful of interviews conducted, all beginning with my April 2013 review of 42 (see, it’s fate that I finish on my 42nd birthday), I’m ready for my next chapter. Of course, I’ll leave the door open for the occasional guest post or podcast appearance.

If you wish to use my 100 Favorite Films list as a watchlist, here’s a handy dandy PDF checklist. A more compact list can be found on my Letterboxd account.

Here’s Monday’s post listing films #100-76.
Here’s Tuesday’s post listing films #75-51.
Here’s yesterday’s post listing films #50-26.
And now, my Top 25 Favorite Films of All Time…

Why: The book gave me chills, and I thought it was impossible to adapt to film. Alex Garland proved me wrong and delivered a beautiful, horrifying, and haunting sci-fi drama that explores humankind’s self-destructive nature.
Favorite Scene: The nightmare bear.

Why: Buoyed by brilliant performances and a keen eye for unique visual storytelling, Lanthimos crafted a devilishly funny yet dramatic narrative portraying the misuse and misunderstanding of power. This was my #1 film last year.
Favorite Scene: The badger exchange.

Why: One of my favorite books and a decisively brilliant film adaptation. It’s tough to think of a more perfectly casted movie in the last twenty years, and each performer is firing on all cylinders.
Favorite Scene: Gas station clerk coin flip. Continue reading “Film Feature: Chad’s 100 Favorite Films of All Time (25-1)”

Film Feature: Chad’s 100 Favorite Films of All Time (50-26)

To catch you up, again, but quicker: I’m turning forty-two tomorrow. Below is an extrapolated version of my annual list of all-time favorite films. Also, I have decided to hang up my film critic hat. Ok let’s do this!

Here’s Monday’s post listing films #100-76.
Here’s yesterday’s post listing films #75-51.
And now for #50-26…

Why: I don’t think there’s an “artsier” film on this list, nor is there an actor with more interesting and impressive performances than Robert Pattinson over the last 10 years.
Favorite Scene: Thomas Wake’s guttural, bellowing sea curse… “Hark!”

Why: The funniest SNL film adaptation (sorry, Wayne’s World). This movie has an IV line of humor flowing directly into my bloodstream.
Favorite Scene: MacGruber recruits his super soldier team.

Why: There was a group of costumed fans at the advance screening. I bet they were really happy with what they saw. I know I was. Fury Road is the most “how did they do that” movie of the century.
Favorite Scene: The whole thing is basically one long chase, but the final gas truck chase sequence takes the cake. “Witness me!”
Read my full review
Continue reading “Film Feature: Chad’s 100 Favorite Films of All Time (50-26)”

Film Feature: Chad’s 100 Favorite Films of All Time (75-51)

To catch you up: I’m turning forty-two this Thursday, June 11. I feel that commemorating this meaningful/meaningless birthday with an extrapolated version of my annual list of all-time favorite films would be fun, and it turns out to be a lot of work.

I have also decided to hang up my film critic hat. Over thirteen years and nearly three hundred film reviews written, beginning with my April 2013 review of 42 (see, it’s fate that I finish on my 42nd birthday), I’m ready for my next chapter. Of course, I’ll leave the door open for the occasional guest post or podcast appearance.

Here’s yesterday’s post listing films #100-76.
And now for #75-51…

Why: If I recall correctly, this was the first R-rated movie I saw in theaters and also one of the first CDs I ever owned (it’s still one of my favorite movie scores). It was a huge movie event in the Bay Area because the film takes place and was filmed across various San Francisco locales.
Favorite Scene: The San Francisco car chase.

Why: The Grand Budapest Hotel felt like the culmination of all of Wes Anderson’s style and motifs up until that point, allowing for a large-scale character-driven story.
Favorite Scene: The “Get your hands off my lobby boy!” train stop.

Why: A brilliant send-up of Westerns, with the rare quality of containing humor that still holds up today.
Favorite Scene: Eating beans around the campfire. Continue reading “Film Feature: Chad’s 100 Favorite Films of All Time (75-51)”

Film Feature: Chad’s 100 Favorite Films of All Time (100-76)

I’m turning forty-two this Thursday, June 11. In the spirit of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I’ve spent some time considering the existential mundanity of turning this age, and what has been the answer to the question of my life, my universe, and everything. Since I turned thirty and on every birthday since, I’ve curated an annual list of my “100 Favorite Films of All Time” and posted it to Instagram (it’s a personal ‘time capsule,’ not what I consider the “best” films of all time; please note the difference). I feel that commemorating this meaningful/meaningless birthday with an extrapolated version of my annual list would be fun, and it turns out to be a lot of work.

Without further ado, here’s my current list of 100 Favorite Films (divided into four countdown posts, because 100 is a lot) with short blurbs reasoning why each title is included, what each means to me personally (if applicable), and a link to my Spinning Platters review (also if applicable)… And presented in reverse order for added suspense. Here we go…

Why: A fun (and the superior) film adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel that fits perfectly into the Coen Brother’s tonal wheelhouse.
Favorite Scene: Tom Chaney gets the jump on Mattie.

Why: A stacked cast and great performances power this western actioner to the peaks of rewatchability, even if the final few minutes are hokey.
Favorite Scene: Doc Holliday’s surprise showdown with Johnny Ringo.

Why: Such a beautiful film. Also, this is my wife’s favorite film and one which I quoted in my wedding vow. But that didn’t factor into this 😉
Favorite Scene: Black’s discovery of peanut butter. Continue reading “Film Feature: Chad’s 100 Favorite Films of All Time (100-76)”

Film Review: “The Sheep Detectives”

A cute (and woollen) murder mystery

Cloud (Regina Hall), Mopple (Chris O’Dowd) and Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) stare at a clue in ‘The Sheep Detectives.’

For a moment there, about halfway into The Sheep Detectives, things get dark. Not Babe: Pig in the City levels of dark, but not-for-small-children serious and scary, even surprisingly existential. The Sheep Detectives is a new charming murder mystery featuring a flock of computer-generated sheep and a talented cast from director Kyle Balda (The Lorax, Minions). The film is reminiscent of the live-action Disney films of the 1990s and early 2000s, when scripts were less focused on maximizing jokes-per-minute, and when movies trusted young audiences with mature material while still having tons of fun! Continue reading “Film Review: “The Sheep Detectives””

Film Review: “Hokum”

Hokum invites us to embrace being scared

Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott) is in a tight spot in ‘Hokum.’

Though the word sounds like the name of an ancient demon stalking the Pacific Northwest woodlands, “hokum” is actually a noun that refers to any media or material (like a film, for example) that is insincere, exaggerated, or manipulative for the sole purpose of pleasing audiences. In the case of the new horror film, Hokum, by Damian McCarthy (Oddity), the idea of art as “hokum” is both explored within the context of the story and in a metatextual sense. Despite a minor reliance on cheap thrills (more on that later) and vague character motivations, Hokum is a terrifying good time due to Adam Scott’s performance and McCarthy’s impressive ability to keep ratcheting the intensity. Continue reading “Film Review: “Hokum””

Film Review: “Mother Mary”

Lowery’s pop-star exploration gets bogged down by metaphors and self-importance

Mother Mary (Anne Hathaway) is dressed up for the shot in ‘Mother Mary.’

Writer/director David Lowery (Pete’s Dragon, A Ghost Story, The Green Knight) is one the finest visual directors working today. Lowery’s deliberately paced stories pack surprisingly emotional gut punches, and he doesn’t let his distinct style get in the way of the story. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for his latest film, Mother Mary, a musical surrealist drama. Inviting audiences to interpret the events of a film’s ending, or major moments, or striking visuals, is one thing, but requiring audiences to fill in the narrative gaps while interpreting the events of a story is a tall task, and a distracting one. Mother Mary has visual panache and vibing music, but lacks a complete story, instead relying on pretentious dialogue and dreamlike imagery to gloss over its shortcomings. Continue reading “Film Review: “Mother Mary””

Film Feature: 69th SFFILM Festival Preview #2

The 69th SFFILM Festival is days away, April 24 – May 4, featuring over one hundred films from more than forty countries. Please visit the SFFILM Festival website for more information about the exciting program, how to purchase tickets, and a calendar of special events and presentations.

In the meantime, here’s a second preview of the Festival, highlighting three films and six shorts: Renoir, How to Clean a House in 10 Easy Steps, Filipiñana, and shorts Corpus Christi, The Veil, Vultures, A Year of Marriage, Cardboard and First Winter.

1.) RENOIR
(Japan/France/Singapore/Philippines/Indonesia/Qatar/USA, 2025. 118 min.)

In Renoir, director Chie Hiyakawa (Plan 75) takes us deep into the emotional hardships of a Japanese family in late-’80s suburban Tokyo. Yui Suzuki is incredible as 11-year old Fuki, whose perspective we follow as she navigates coming to terms with a terminally ill father, an overwhelmed mother, and her own imagination, which often blurs the line between fantasy and reality. At times beautiful, and other times haunting and tense, Renoir is a patient meditation on grief as seen through the eyes of an adolescent.

Screenings (click here for tickets):
– Sat., Apr 25th, 11:30 am PT @ BAMPFA
– Sun., May 3rd, 6:00 pm PT @ Marina Theatre

Continue reading “Film Feature: 69th SFFILM Festival Preview #2”

Film Review: “Everyone is Lying to You for Money”

McKenzie’s impressive directorial debut aims to sort through the crypto hysteria

Ben McKenzie sits down with Sam Bankman-Fried in ‘Everyone is Lying to You for Money’.

Best known for his lead role in the early 2000s teenage soap opera The O.C., Ben McKenzie has since supplemented his acting career with a journalistic approach to economics (a subject he earned an undergraduate degree in from the University of Virginia). Based on his writing debut, 2023’s “Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud,” McKenzie has directed, produced, and starred in a documentary, Everyone is Lying to You for Money, exploring his concern and criticism of the cryptocurrency era. Maintaining a brisk pace and a high-level approach suitable for wide audience consumption, McKenzie’s documentary effectively frames the critical questions we should all, as a monetarily-driven society, be asking about crypto. Continue reading “Film Review: “Everyone is Lying to You for Money””

Film Feature: 69th SFFILM Festival Preview #1

In the meantime, here’s a preview of the festival, highlighting four films: Rose of Nevada, The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford, The Queen and the Smokehouse, and Cookie Queens.

1.) ROSE OF NEVADA
(UK, 2025. 114 min.)

Rose of Nevada’s writer/director/cinematographer/editor/composer Mark Jenkin (Bait) has delivered a visceral cinematic allegory. George MacKay (1917) and Callum Turner (Eternity) star as young men in the British seaside village of Cornwall who agree to serve as fishermen on an empty vessel that has reappeared after being lost at sea for thirty years. After hauling in a successful catch, they return to a Cornwall that has changed in very strange ways. Utilizing 16 mm film for a vivid, old photographic feel, and with a focus on textural detail, from peeling paint on a door to slimy barnacles on a boat’s hull, Rose of Nevada evokes a unique sensory experience that takes the audience deep into the narrative’s mysteries.

Screenings (click here for tickets):
– Sun., May 3rd, 8:30 pm PT @ Marina Theatre

Continue reading “Film Feature: 69th SFFILM Festival Preview #1”