10. HIGH FIDELITY (2000) (Starring: John Cusack, Jack Black) – I don’t like romantic comedies, I really don’t, but this movie was a romantic comedy told from the honest and thus sexual perspective of an adult man, trying to decide whether to give up on a girl or try to win her back. It’s also the story of a niche geek, which I am, struggling to decide whether to keep his hobby even though it makes him an outcast, or come to terms with it and profit from it. I generally don’t like Cusack, but here, he turns in a banner performance, and if you’ll recall, this is the first place that Jack Black really started shining on…good stuff.
9. BEING HUMAN (1993) (Starring: Robin Williams) This is an obscure one, I know, and a lot of people have panned it, but it used to be my favorite, for a long time. It’s a repetitious story that examines thematic elements of literature. We see one man, the any man, make the same mistakes all through history, trying to learn each time but failing, and each time getting a little closer to the sublime but being pulled back in the end. If you watch it, there are also things that are present in all of the stories, other things that are present in all but one, and elements that are nonsensical that repeat themselves. It’s a multiple viewing film. For instance, count the chickens, the cup handles, instances of water, a woman being taken away, the arrival of ships…you have to see it to get it. A fine film.
8. CATCH-22 (1970) (Starring: Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam) My favorite book of all time is Catch-22, and this is a somewhat faithful adaptation. Though it deviates, Alan Arkin steps in to fill the void well, and the ensemble cast, including Art Garfunkel, is just insanely good at what they do. The perils of war coupled with humor, coupled with great dialogue and astounding situations. It’s also got great cinematography, some priceless scenes, and catharsis. Good ole catharsis.
7. TALKING HEADS: STOP MAKING SENSE (1984) (Starring: The Talking Heads) I’ve written four books now to the tune of talking heads, and this is the Talking Heads at their popular best. A great Demme film, a quintessential rock experience, and just some darned good theatrics and music. If anyone understand the post modern better than David Byrne, give me their number, and if anyone can make songs with such nonsensical words mean so much (with the exception of TMBG) I have yet to find them. The idea of the film is brilliant, a two hour rock video with themes, costumes, dances. It rules. The only thing I regret is the fact that it ends too soon.
6. CLERKS. (1994) (Starring: Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson) Kevin Smith’s first, and arguably his best movie. Sure, the other movies might have made you laugh more, sure, Dogma might have had a great message, but when it comes down to it, nothing says indie to me than when I was a kid in some obscure store and I picked up this movie no one was touching called Clerks, took it home and watched it in my room alone (because no one wanted to watch it with me), and practically wetting myself over the dialogue and the situations and the well placed turn of a phrase. If there ever was an argument for a film that has no visual sense owning the world, this is that film. Writing can carry over visuals, even in film, and this movie is time tested proof.
5. FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS (1998) (Starring: Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro) This, however, is the most faithful adaptation of a book that I’ve ever read. Cover to cover, Gilliam creates Thompson’s world. It’s hard for me to laugh for two and a half hours, heck, hard for anyone to laugh for the full length of a movie, especially cerebral humor, so a lot of people don’t have patience for the total mind job this movie is, but if you watch it enough, and if you care for Freak Power enough, you’ll find that this is one of the better movies out there, and that Gilliam is totally underrated.
4. FIGHT CLUB (1999) (Starring: Edward Norton, Brad Pitt) I know Felix doesn’t like this one, but that’s cool by me…I’m a kid who grew up with a dad, but that dad was constantly at work, never there, I never really got a sense of identity as a man. This is a movie about all of those things we do to try and overcompensate for not knowing what our masculinity is, what our worth is in a world where we can have no emotion. There’s the real you, and there’s the Tyler Durden, and all of us want to lash out in ways that destroy society while saving the girl and getting all the money. In a microcosm, this work explores that, and is one of the most faithful adaptations of a book I have ever read.
3. THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994) (Starring: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman) This is the other movie that makes me break out in gooseflesh all through the thing. This movie is many things to many people. To me, it’s symbolic of the climb to become a writer, because I wade through a river of crap (the workforce) and come out the other side a free man. It’s a question of patience, and time, just like life, and that’s the theme of this film. It is no wonder to me that so many people identify with and understand the main theme of this movie of redemption through patience and friendship.
2. MOULIN ROUGE (2001) (Starring: Ewan McGregor, Nicole Kidman) I’m a writer, a bohemian no less, and I thought Moulin Rouge was going to be a crap romantic musical just like a bunch of other musicals I’ve seen and not liked. My girl dragged me to the film, sat me down, conned me into watching it, and there were times when the music was so well orchestrated with the visuals that I broke into tears, right in the film. Love makes me weep, music makes me passionate, and a writer I can identify with. These are the things that make my favorite kind of movie. This movie took music I abhorred and made it beautiful, it made love real again, and every time I play it I want to create something. That says something epic.
1. UNBREAKABLE (2001) (Starring: Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson) There are only two movies I’ve ever seen that even after multiple viewings make me break out in gooseflesh constantly, that make me care for the characters over and over, and this is one of them. Bruce Willis, of all people, in the ultimate con job of a movie. You think you’re watching a flick with an ordinary man driven to ordinary things, and at the end, perhaps you still are. Or maybe, just maybe, you’re watching a superhero movie. It defines a hero, the cinematography is absolutely incredible, and it’s a poignant parable about what it means to be who we are, as we are, even if we end up, well, the villain.