cerebus
Honorary Master
Taking off from a discussion on the Movie Mini-Review Thread Part II on movies that rate a 10/10, what's your list? This is a no-judgement zone, so if you happen to think that Bollywood dramas or rainbow-vomit fests deserve a full 10, fair dues on you. Safe spaces for everyone!!!
My list from the thread:
Seven Samurai - watched this last month and I was completely engrossed. Entertaining, full of living identifiable characters, and gorgeously shot. Fully earns its 3 hour run-time.
Spirited Away - lushly hand-drawn epic that puts Western CG animated films to shame, abounding with imagination, sympathy and a naturalistic blurring of spirit and earthly realms.
The Third Man - very watchable Orson Welles classic with a roguish central performance, bold photography, killer soundtrack and some great plot twists.
Godfather 1&2 - dunno what to say, if you haven't seen them there's something really wrong with your filmic education
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf - Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton sparring drunkenly - nearly unwatchable and yet compulsive viewing, leaves you feeling profoundly shaken.
Night of the Hunter - this would be a much lesser film without the terrifying performance of Robert Mitchum as a psychotic traveling preacher who marries and then kills the mother of 2 children, and then chases them down a river. Bleak and grim masterpiece.
Life is Beautiful - probably the weakest '10' in this list, but it should still be seen because the part that works - the second act, in which Roberto Benigni plays a game with his son to hide the fact that they're in a Jewish WW2 concentration camp - is just so incredibly affecting.
Vertigo - psychological thriller in which the central crime is unresolved but it doesn't matter because it's not the point of the movie, which is the deathly obsession between James Stewart and a woman who manifests in multiple forms. Creepy and sensual and thoroughly amazing.
The Lives of Others - Stasi general spies on a couple and gradually becomes involved in their lives. Understated character study and effective transformation of a man.
Being John Malkovich - hilarious, surreal, caustic and completely unrealistic, yet full of very human dialogue that deals in unexpected ways with human identities and relationships.
The Shining - once you understand the man in the bear suit and Tony, you'll never see this film the same way.
My list from the thread:
Seven Samurai - watched this last month and I was completely engrossed. Entertaining, full of living identifiable characters, and gorgeously shot. Fully earns its 3 hour run-time.
Spirited Away - lushly hand-drawn epic that puts Western CG animated films to shame, abounding with imagination, sympathy and a naturalistic blurring of spirit and earthly realms.
The Third Man - very watchable Orson Welles classic with a roguish central performance, bold photography, killer soundtrack and some great plot twists.
Godfather 1&2 - dunno what to say, if you haven't seen them there's something really wrong with your filmic education
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf - Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton sparring drunkenly - nearly unwatchable and yet compulsive viewing, leaves you feeling profoundly shaken.
Night of the Hunter - this would be a much lesser film without the terrifying performance of Robert Mitchum as a psychotic traveling preacher who marries and then kills the mother of 2 children, and then chases them down a river. Bleak and grim masterpiece.
Life is Beautiful - probably the weakest '10' in this list, but it should still be seen because the part that works - the second act, in which Roberto Benigni plays a game with his son to hide the fact that they're in a Jewish WW2 concentration camp - is just so incredibly affecting.
Vertigo - psychological thriller in which the central crime is unresolved but it doesn't matter because it's not the point of the movie, which is the deathly obsession between James Stewart and a woman who manifests in multiple forms. Creepy and sensual and thoroughly amazing.
The Lives of Others - Stasi general spies on a couple and gradually becomes involved in their lives. Understated character study and effective transformation of a man.
Being John Malkovich - hilarious, surreal, caustic and completely unrealistic, yet full of very human dialogue that deals in unexpected ways with human identities and relationships.
The Shining - once you understand the man in the bear suit and Tony, you'll never see this film the same way.
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