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.
Why: Ridiculously charming, and kudos to its bittersweet ending, to which Notting Hill later pays obvious homage.
Favorite Scene: The Mouth of Truth.
Why: I had the privilege of acting with Tina Majorino in What We Do Is Secret, where I told her that I loved her performance as Deb. Also, the orange-throwing moment is one of the most real-life comedy bits I’ve ever seen.
Favorite Scene: Uncle Rico making his football video.
Why: My first viewing of Jurassic Park was ruined because I watched it on a small TV at a friend’s house, with them constantly shouting, “Now watch this happen!” But the power of this film won me over and still does to this day.
Favorite Scene: First encounter with the T-Rex.
Why: Sneakily, one of the best soundtracks of the ‘90s, and another one of the first CDs I ever owned. The lovable hitman finding a conscience at a high school reunion is a great story concept, and the film has the cast to pull it off.
Favorite Scene: Blank and Grocer confront each other at a diner.
Why: I was a Production Assistant on this film, and I couldn’t be prouder to be a part of it. Coherence is such a mind-bending trip that continues to gather cult indie status over time.
Favorite Scene: Em and Kevin realize things on the street.
Read my interview with writer/director James Ward Byrkit
Why: Very few dramedies have so precisely captured my existential fears and anxiety as in the scene where Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character goes into surgery. As a bonus, 50/50 has jokes about R.E.M. and otters.
Favorite Scene: The aforementioned moment before the surgery. It breaks my heart.
Why: Mann’s direction and Roth’s writing are both superb (feel free to pass along my praise, Geoff). I once had a brief phone exchange with Jeffrey Wigand that featured sex jokes and cheap workplace one-liners. Good times.
Favorite Scene: The Mississippi Deposition courtroom scene.
Why: Family dysfunction in its most endearing, colorful form, taking place in a heightened storybook version of Manhattan.
Favorite Scene: Margot’s return set to Nico’s “These Days.”
Why: Pretentious though it is, Garden State is still The Graduate for millennials and captures a preppy malaise and twee romanticism (yes, featuring a manic pixie dream girl) that I connected to in college, and probably haven’t completely outgrown.
Favorite Scene: Sam’s pet cemetery.
Why: I was first introduced to Emma Stone in Superbad, but I was really introduced to her in this comedic parable aimed at young millennials (or old Gen-Zers) with its precise humor, wit, and literary references.
Favorite Scene: The first sex fake-out at the party.
Why: Somehow, a tale of American capitalism and a stark treatise on men’s darkest inhumanities make for a really mesmerizing watch!
Favorite Scene: The oil derrick explosion and H.W.’s incident.
Why: I’m fairly sure this was my introduction to Sean Connery, before I saw any of his James Bond films. Last Crusade is the ultimate adventure film. However, my mom had to take me out of the theater when Donovan “chose poorly” because it was way too scary for me (I was five).
Favorite Scene: Horse vs. tank battle.
Why: This movie blew my mind. I had no idea a fantasy film could be so fun, dramatic, epic, and prestigious, simultaneously. I caught Hobbit fever, big time: I bought the soundtrack, then the DVD, then the extended soundtrack CD, then the extended film DVD, then the trilogy on Blu-ray, and now I own the 4k set that includes both the theatrical and extended versions.
Favorite Scene: The cave troll battle in the Mines of Moria.
Why: First came Fellowship…and then Peter Jackson did it again one year later, introducing us to Gollum and some insanely epic battles! The Return of the King didn’t make this list, but I also love it dearly.
Favorite Scene: The Battle of Helm’s Deep.
Why: Aside from Chef, no other film makes me as hungry.
Favorite Scene: Anton Ego’s voice-over review of Gusteau’s.
Read my Ratatouille Live with the SF Symphony show review
Why: I’ve listened to the Gladiator soundtrack a million times (shout out to my friend Charles, who has probably listened to it a million times plus one), and I’m so happy I was alive to experience the return of the “sandal epic” genre to theaters. (Hell, I was even a fan of the Kid Rock Super Bowl Gladiator ad. Ew.)
Favorite Scene: The chariot battle and subsequent Maximus<>Commodus exchange.
Why: If only the final psychiatrist scene didn’t exist, this would be a perfect film! Psycho, like The Birds, is the type of Hitchcock horror, shocking and terrifying, that I love most.
Favorite Scene: Private detective Milton visits the Bates residence.
Why: A modern masterpiece. Lily Gladstone’s performance is monumental, and the film’s epilogue is heartbreaking. Yet, the brutality and beauty of the film linger deep in my mind.
Favorite Scene: Lizzie’s deathbed scene.
Why: Bravura storytelling and filmmaking that was grossly overlooked at the 2007 Oscars.
Favorite Scene: The six-minute one-shot final battle, rescue, and escape sequence.
Why: Watching Moneyball is the equivalent of having a good baseball game on TV in the background while making dinner. Moneyball simply goes down smooth.
Favorite Scene: The Streak.
Why: My generation’s All the President’s Men (which narrowly missed being on this list). Though Spotlight is about an upsetting subject matter, the rigor of well-meaning journalists who can actually make a difference with their work has sadly become this film’s most nostalgic treat.
Favorite Scene: Montage of the Spotlight team speaking to victims, culminating in Sacha’s chat with Father Paquin.
Why: I fell off my brother’s Los Angeles apartment couch, crying with laughter, barely able to breathe, when I first saw Rod abruptly end a training montage by flipping over a log in the forest and endlessly tumbling and careening down a hill.
Favorite Scene: The epic John Farnham “You’re the Voice” scene.
That’s it for the second batch of the countdown. Tune in tomorrow for #50-26 of my favorite films of all time.
