the lists of others

Back after a short vacation, here is a list of 10 Canadian movies reader Elana thinks you should see before you die, in no particular order. Keep reading…

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Actionman from Nick’s Pix (with a stylin’ header, by the way) sent me this lest yesterday. Nick’s Pix is a pretty awesome little blog, my favorite part of which are the ‘Best of’ series in which he lists the best movies of a given year (such as 2006). It’s a great idea, because it’s like posting a playlist; it totally takes you back to the time and reminds you of exactly what you were doing then.

So Actionman sent me this list yesterday and now I have it for you:

The Magnificent Ambersons – while people constantly praise Citizen Kane as the “greatest movie ever made”, and while I do think it’s a great film, Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons (his second feature) is his crowning achievement, a film that kicked off the “dysfunctional family” genre (see The Royal Tenenbaums for crystal-clear inspiration) and remains an under seen (it’s not yet available on DVD for some inane reason) masterwork of thematic and stylistic proportions.

Bladerunner — simply put, the best science-fiction movie ever made, and the most stolen-from genre film of the last 30+ years.

Top Gun — a distinct product of its time (the rah-rah 1980’s) and one of the most subliminally homoerotic movies ever made, this is the apex of the Tony Scott/Simpson-Bruckheimer aesthetic. Cruise’s smile could light up a flight tower and the aerial dog fights are still the best ever captured on film. This film was made back in the day before CGI made filmmakers lazy. Sure, it’s cheesy, but it’s a one-of-a-kind film (no sequel or remake necessary despite repeated attempts) and just a ton of fun to watch.

Chinatown — the best film noir ever to come out of Hollywood and a reminder of how amazing Roman Polanski can be when he has the right screenplay. Bob Towne’s tricky and beautifully constructed narrative is a thing of beauty, and Nicholson has probably never been better than he was as Jake Gittes.

The Lost Weekend — the first major Hollywood production to tackle alcoholism head-on, with a tour de force performance courtesy of Ray Milland, this is one of Billy Wilder’s best films (which says a lot) and one of the darkest looks at addiction ever captured on film.

Heat — nobody does cops and robbers better than Michael Mann (see Miami Vice and Collateral for further proof) and Heat stands at the top of the genre. It’s combustible filmmaking of the highest order; Mann’s eye for detail, nuance and complexity (both visually and spoken) is second to none, and the performances from DeNiro and Pacino are legendary. Also, it’s got the best shoot-out ever put on film.

Goodfellas — the best mafia film ever made (yes, better than The Godfather Part I and II) and Martin Scorsese’s greatest accomplishment in a career that has never yielded anything less than four-star work. It’s endlessly watchable, eternally quotable, wonderfully violent and nasty, and compulsively hysterical in a very dark way. So many scenes stand out in this film that had Scorsese not been able to pull it all together, he’d still have created one of the best movies on a scene-to-scene basis of all time.

Airplane — because it’s the funniest movie of all time. Never needing to drop any F-bombs to get its laughs (it’s a PG movie with female topless nudity!), Airplane should be studied by everyone currently making comedies in Hollywood. Smart, silly, inspired, and constantly laugh out loud.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly — no film has ever reminded me of how lucky most of us are to be able to lead an normal life. My Left Foot comes in at a close second, but the artistry that Julian Schnabel and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski brought to the table with this sad and beautiful film has haunted me ever since I saw it in the theaters in late 2007. An unforgettable movie.

Team America: World Police — because you’ve never seen anything like it and never will see anything like it ever again. One of the ballsiest films ever to come out of the Hollywood studio system. And as much as I love Michael Bay and his cinematic efforts, their ode to the master of destruction is one of the funniest things they’ve ever conjured up. Which is really saying a lot, because their work on South Park is the stuff of instant pop-culture legend.

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