luna

showgirls (1995)

okay, so here's my list. i limited myself to 1) only films that i consider to be great, 2) only films that have at least 1000 votes on criticker, and 3) one film per director. i have at least one film per decade since the 1920s. i have tried to get in as many major countries as possible, including the US, germany, france, the UK, sweden, japan, italy, denmark, iran and the soviet union. i have included something from nearly every genre i could think of, including noir, screwball, war, silent, documentary, musical, sci-fi, horror, etc. so here it is: 2001: a space odyssey (stanley kubrick, 1968, USA) aguirre: the wrath of god (werner herzog, 1972, GERMANY) all quiet on the western front (lewis milestone, 1930, USA) brazil (terry gilliam, 1985, UK) contempt (jean-luc godard, 1963, FRANCE) dancer in the dark (lars von trier, 2000, DENMARK) his girl friday (howard hawks, 1940, USA) koyaanisqatsi (godfrey reggio, 1982, USA) last year at marienbad (alain resnais, 1961, FRANCE) metropolis (fritz lang, 1927, GERMANY) mulholland drive (david lynch, 2001, USA) naked (mike leigh, 1993, UK) passion of joan of arc, the (carl theodor dreyer, 1928, DENMARK) persona (ingmar bergman, 1966, SWEDEN) raging bull (martin scorsese, 1980, USA) ran (akira kurosawa, 1985, JAPAN) rosemary's baby (roman polanski, 1968, USA) samouraï, le (jean-pierre melville, 1967, FRANCE) separation, a (asghar farhadi, 2011, IRAN) solaris (andrei tarkovsky, 1972, SOVIET UNION) strada, la (federico fellini, 1954, ITALY) there will be blood (paul thomas anderson, 2007, USA) tokyo story (yasujiro ozu, 1953, JAPAN) underground (emir kusturica, 1995, YUGOSLAVIA) vertigo (alfred hitchcock, 1958, USA)

okay, so i would like to be on the committee, and i promise i won't be an elitist dick about it and be genuine in which films i believe need to be seen. also, do movies that made only one or two lists go to round three?

33. VOLCANO 2011 RÚNAR RÚNARSSON quiet and downbeat story of mortality that has clear parallels to AMOUR. in fact, even though this sort of concept doesn't require an awful lot of imagination, it would seem enormously surprising that there wasn't some correspondence between the two filmmakers given how similar in close details at least two key scenes are. a very sad film, but i suppose some familiarity with that film, released only one year later, somewhat lessens the emotional impact. 65 points

34. CHRONICLE 2012 JOSH TRANK recent rewatch: another 2012 film that explores the alpha-beta dynamic of male socialisation. the sci-fi aspects are suitably kept in the background, the CGI is economical, and many of the main trio's conversations and mannerisms are greatly reminiscent of the nerdboy 'friends' i used to circle with. not great though: some of the 'thematic' dialogue is a bit obvious, and the found footage aesthetic will always have pros and cons. 65 points

35. BOY 2010 TAIKA WAITITI obviously the best movie about boyhood of this decade, right? 65 points

surely you'd agree that that would be better than THE ARTIST?

yeah, i like sandwiches about as much as a person who likes sandwiches, but i like CRAZY CLOWN TIME about as much as a person who prefers CRAZY CLOWN TIME to sandwiches, so i prefer CRAZY CLOWN TIME to sandwiches.

it's a very bland film, and that's its only saving grace. otherwise it would be like 300, which is terrible in part because its accomplished audiovisual design feeds directly into its fascist psyche.

it's funny, because i put some of those shorts on here out of pure enjoyment. isn't that how people rate transformers or whatever as well? entertainment? i was entertained by those shorts. if you don't like them, go eat a fucking sandwich or something.

36. DRIVE 2011 NICOLAS WINDING REFN very stylish crime drama with a great union of music and image. however, it is just a crime drama, with not much else to be said for it. in fact, considering that the film views its main character rather positively, as some sort of lone wolf who doesn't follow the rules and sacrifices his chance at love in order to be a(n anti-)hero, this is probably best described as a male revenge fantasy. entertaining and sleek but a pretty shallow masculine dream. 63 points

fine then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caWXt9lCVrc 37. CRAZY CLOWN TIME 2012 DAVID LYNCH the last of four shorts. captures the essence of a backyard party perfectly, in only a way david lynch can. quite unpleasant, but i'm not necessarily sure that's a bad thing. 63 points

38. THE MASTER 2012 PAUL WHATEVER definitely more strange than i was expecting, which is a benefit of abstaining from almost all spoilers beforehand. aside from the oh-so-subtle lampooning of religious cults, it's really all too opaque for me, especially as it comes to a close. though it certainly has some gripping sequences. probably deserves another viewing. 63 points

39. ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA 2011 NURI BILGE CEYLAN first turkish movie i've seen, and given their reputation, i wasn't exactly clamouring. the beautiful photography is very reminiscent of kiarostami, but dramatically they have little in common, and thematically this is much sparser, and as a result less interesting for me. however there is no doubt that this is very evocative and moody, and yes, very nice to look at. 63 points

can we please abolish the word 'indie' from all future film discussion? thanks.

a bit disappointing tbh. not as good as THIS IS SPINAL TAP. or probably even FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS.

it's not a question of effort, it's a question of genius. harmony korine is a genius.

i'm going to assume that you didn't find it as emotionally affecting as i did.

40. HUGO 2011 MARTIN SCORSESE a glorious, fantastical celebration of cinema that is hammed up a little by a bit of (probably intentional) overwrought schmaltz. lovely steampunk aesthetic too. 63 points

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu5Lpe8z40Y 41. CURB DANCE 2011 HARMONY KORINE third of four shorts. i actually found this a little affecting. it's kind of beautiful. 60 points

42. TABU 2012 MIGUEL GOMES i thought the decision to remove all spoken dialogue during the man's recollection, leaving only tinkling background noises, was absolutely brilliant. it's a shame then that the couple's story was really quite uninteresting, and its ideas of romance are rather windswept, if not idealistic, which become all the more questionable when set against a background of colonialism. the piano theme was beautiful; the use of song, not so much. 60 points

A 9.0 nymphomaniac B 7.3 grand budapest hotel C 5.8 hacked circuit 5.5 interstellar 5.5 what we do in the shadows 5.3 dark horse D 4.0 field punishment no 1 4.0 pride 4.0 railway man 3.8 the theory of everything 3.3 peter pan live! F 2.5 gone girl 1.5 boyhood 0.1 american sniper

i'm going to be seeing all jarmusch films anyway. uni library has his complete filmography.

i just saw LOOPER. it will not be on my list. i just saw THE ARTIST. it will not be on my list.