This is part of my continuing series looking back on films from the years before I began this blog. The ten films below are unranked and listed in no particular order. Enjoy.
The King of Comedy - My favorite Martin Scorsese film is this uncomfortable thriller about an aspiring stand-up comic. It blends different levels of reality with ease, illuminates the nasty side of fame, and gives Robert DeNiro, Jerry Lewis, and Sandra Bernhard the opportunity to deliver sensational performances. The irony is that there's nothing funny about "The King of Comedy," but it's one of the most tense, memorable looks at show business ever made. As I've said before, I never related much to Travis Bickell or Jake La Motta, but Rupert Pupkin was someone that I understood far too well.
El Norte - A heartbreaking immigrant narrative that follows a brother and sister pair from their tiny village in Guatemala to "El Norte," the unknown promised land of the United States. Partially funded by PBS and often shown in schools, the film is notable for being an unusually candid and sympathetic look at the plight of Central American refugees. Despite the tiny budget, the scope is epic, following the characters' travels through multiple countries. It's their humanity, however, that gives the story so much emotional impact. It's striking how relevant the film has remained after all this time.
Local Hero - A small, heartwarming Scottish film about getting back in touch with the simple things in life. Director Bill Forsythe charmingly evokes the small town sweetness of his previous feature, "Gregory's Girl," but on a larger scale. It's a film of earnest conversations, heartfelt personal connections, and wistful nostalgia. The performances are deft, and the filmmaking is lighthearted, but it's the magic of the little village of Ferness that really sells the story. It's terribly disappointing to learn that it's not a real place, but alas only exists on celluloid and in the daydreams of its viewers.
Trading Places - This is still one of the best outings for Eddie Murphy, as part of a stellar comedic ensemble. Both a rags-to-riches and a riches-to-rags story simultaneously, the script isn't afraid to be smart and complicated, with just the right amount of clever social commentary. It's also not afraid to be utterly ridiculous, allowing all the primary actors their chance to shine and make us laugh. And ultimately, the financial world gets gloriously sent up by John Landis and company with one of the best endings of all time. Shorting commodities markets never looked like so much fun.
WarGames - When I first heard about the film, I thought the premise was terrible. However, the execution couldn't be better. It's so much fun watching a goofy little adventure film about the nascent hacker subculture escalate into a full blown Cold War parable. The final set piece with the simulated nuclear wars is especially impressive considering that it's really just some rudimentary animation playing out on computer screens. However, the editing, the music, and the performances all help to make it feel grand and exciting. It's also nice to have an AI that doesn't fit the usual mold of amoral silicon monster.
Yentl - Barbara Streisand directed and starred in this curious musical, about an Ashkenazi Jewish woman who disguises herself as a boy to pursue an education. It was very much ahead of its time in many ways, exploring religious, gender, homosexual, and even transsexual themes. However, it works beautifully as a personal memoir too, anchored by Streisand's performance and Michel Legrand's music. I have some reservations about the ending, but the care and commitment in getting this project to the screen is very apparent in every frame. It's a passion project in the best sense, one that turned out very right.
Nostalghia - As with all Andrei Tarkovsky films, the pacing is slow and meditative, but the images are ambitious and grand scale. The story, involving a Russian traveler confronting his own spiritual emptiness, is fairly obtuse, but it's easy to become entranced by the fantastic long shots and the visual beauty. Christian iconography is especially prominent here, with several hallucinatory dream sequences playing a big role in the film. The final shot is legendary, gradually pulling back to reveal a spectacular composition with all of Tarkovsky's favorite elements - mirrors, nature, and the spiritual world.
The Right Stuff - A fantastic recounting of the early years of the American space race, told from the point of view of the competitive pilots. The film is successful as both a historical narrative and an action film, with its soaring test flights and thoughtfully grounded portraits of the various aeronautical figures involved. The systematic approach to showing the training process, and the care and the attention to detail in the testing recreations makes a huge difference here, setting the film apart from similar pictures. There's never a dull moment, and the three hour running time goes by very quickly.
Videodrome - One of David Cronenberg's most memorable, and yet most perplexing films. It's definitely one of his body horror pictures, but a very heady, psychological one, full of conspiracy theories and paranoid delusions. The way it explores the thin line between media manipulations and their real world manifestations remains disturbing and engrossing. I can't begin to explain what happens in the film, or what exactly its message is, but the sight of James Woods becoming a human VCR and being menaced by a fleshy television set are impossible to forget. Long live the new flesh indeed.
The Fourth Man - Paul Verhoeven's early Dutch films were always far more interesting than any of the flashy American ones, more outrageous and more shocking. "The Fourth Man" is a pulpy psychological thriller, gorgeous to look at, and unusually bold in its depiction of sexuality and its use of religious themes. The cinematography by Jan de Bont stands out for its vivid colors and graphic depictions of violence. At times the style and content are so outre that they straddle the line between high art and camp. This doesn't impact the entertainment value at all, fortunately, which remains high throughout.
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