The Long Good Friday - Bob Hoskins delivers a career best performance, playing an ambitious London gangster who makes a doomed attempt at going straight. Alas, respectability and real estate dealings aren't as easy as they looks. It's a wonderful character piece, full of colorful dialogue and hot-tempered altercations. The jazzy score, slick violence, and trips into the darker corners of the London underground make this one of the most memorable of the '70s UK crime films. Helen Mirren also puts in a good appearance as Hoskins' girlfriend, a far from typical gun moll.
The Falls - One of Peter Greenaway's first features, and one of his most experimental. The entire film consists of video entries for a fictional directory of the various victims of a sinister "Violent Unknown Event" or VUE that has greatly altered the world. The 92 entries consist of short biographies and a brief listing of symptoms. Each offers hints about the nature of the VUE, which causes its victims to take on certain characteristics of birds. The visuals are mostly photo stills and fanciful scientific diagrams, accompanied by the deadpan narration. It's bizarre and unforgettable.
The Blues Brothers - Any description of the film makes it sound too unlikely to exist. So, I'll just express my deepest gratitude for the musical performances of Little Richard, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and Cab Calloway, the epic car chase and resulting wreckage, Carrie Fisher, hating Illinois Nazis, Elwood Blues' appreciation of police cars, cameos by famous directors and puppeteers, getting the band back together, 116 parking tickets and 56 moving violations, Jake Blues' dining habits, everybody needing somebody to love, the great city of Chicago, and missions from God.
The Elephant Man - An odd film for David Lynch, as it's one of his most straightforward features, and almost totally lacks his usual surrealist elements. However, there's still an air of melancholy oddity to the black-and-white world of "The Elephant Man," and a directness and candidness about the deformities of John Merrick that keep it from ever feeling like a dry historical biopic or a lurid piece of exploitation. The performances of Anthony Hopkins and John Hurt are wonderfully humanizing, and Christopher Tucker's makeup work, of course, is legendary.
Berlin Alexanderplatz - Is this really a movie? I've seen enough film lovers count this fifteen-hour serial as a feature, even though it originally premiered on German television before its theatrical run. So I'm comfortable putting it on this list, especially as it is one of the greatest achievements of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. I admit I found many of the installments to be unrelenting studies in misery, and they were difficult to get through. The finale, however, with its naked catharsis and fantasy sequences made the whole strange, fascinating trek through the hero's psyche worth it.
Gloria - Like all of Cassavetes' films, at its core "Gloria" is a character study of a very imperfect woman, played by Gena Rowlands. However, I like Gloria more than I like the usual Cassavetes heroines. There's an admirable directness and toughness to her, and at the same time a very appealing vulnerable side. Watching Gloria wrangle late-blooming maternal feelings while fleeing the mob is a joy. I admit that many of Rowland's other roles in Cassavetes films have a tendency to blend together in my mind, but Gloria stands apart as a tough cookie worth rooting for.
The Shining - Kubrick's first and only horror film is a sensational sensory experience that turns the snowbound Overlook Hotel into one of the most eerie and unnerving cinematic landmarks of all time. This was my first Kubrick film, and remains my favorite for its the unparalleled menace and psychological thrills. Jack Nicholson is somehow more charming the more unhinged he gets, and all the old horror cliches, from the jump scares to the smash cuts, are all magnificently effective thanks to Kubrick's exacting execution and and obsessive attention to detail.
Kagemusha - One of Akira Kurosawa's final period epics sees Tatsuya Nakadai playing the double role of a beleaguered warlord and the lowly thief who becomes his decoy, and later his reluctant stand-in. The impressive battle sequences are clearly a prelude to the all-out carnage of "Ran" a few years later, but "Kagemusha" stands on its own as both stirring drama and often overwhelming spectacle. With a narrative as potent as any Shakespearean tragedy, and Nakadai's excellent performance, "Kagemusha" is easily one of the highlights of Kurosawa's later career.
Demon Lover Diary - A curious documentary, which chronicles the production of a '70s B-movie that goes terribly wrong. The first time filmmakers behind the "Demon Lover" feature were clearly in over the heads, and as the film shoot spirals out of their control, and more details about their finances come out, the more jawdropping the situation becomes. The documentary's filmmaking may be very mediocre stuff, with its whispered narration and many out-of-focus shots, but what the camera manages to capture is the stuff of cult movie legend.
The Empire Strikes Back - This is one of the foundational films of my childhood, and it honestly might not be here if I were able to be more objective about it. Much of my continued admiration for the film comes from viewing it in context of the original "Star Wars." "Empire" was the film that really made the series what it is today, something darker and sadder, where the heroes don't win in the end, and disillusionment and doubt plague them at every step. The effects work is still stunning, but here it's the deepening characters and ideas that make the movie special.
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