Dir - Martin Scorsese
Bible movies have been made almost since the invention of the camera and one could logically assume that Martin Scorsese taking a crack at the story of Jesus would be amazing. This indeed is the case. It also helps that Peter Gabriel's evocative score is excellent and that The Last Temptation of Christ is not based on the Bible if we are to be technical, but instead off of Nikos Kazantzakis's controversial novel of the same name that takes a humanizing look at the son of god. Willem Dafoe handles the role of a lifetime by predictably excelling, yet much of the cast,, (including Dafoe), was different when Scorsese attempted the film several years earlier. For those who still chuckle at Harvey Keitel's Judas, just think that we almost had Ray Davies from the Kinks there in his stead.
Dir - Woody Allen
A fan of Woody Allen I have remained since being introduced to his most universally applauded film Annie Hall. Though I do not qualify as an expert on his work, (he has done a movie a year since Hall and I have only seen about ten of them), to not fall for the charm of his commonly-accepted masterpiece here is impossible. Allen considered it the turning point in his career and there is probably not a romantic comedy of any kind that is any better. The self-analyzing/mocking shtick of Allen's standup is given an autobiographical-esque narrative in a story about two people who are equally fond of and often smitten with each other. Yet as couples far too commonly do, they cannot quite get over their own quirks to make it all work. Plus in typical Allen fashion, Dianne Keaton is just as ridiculously out of his league as any other leading lady that caught his fancy. That is only half of the beauty of Hall though as Allen and co-writer Marshall Brickman's script is as hilarious as Keaton's performance as the title character is lovable.
Dir - David Lynch
Eraserhead very much existing in its own universe even by David Lynch standards, Blue Velvet marks the real birth of the textbook Lynch film. Scripted over several years beforehand and backed by Dino D Laurentiis after the disastrous Dune adaptation experience, Mr. Lynch crafted his first true, suburban underbelly nightmare. Loaded with symbolism, incredibly memorable "What in the fuck?" scenes, hilarious moments that should not be hilarious, beautiful grotesqueness, white picket fences (literally), musical numbers, and of course red curtains, Blue Velvet has Lynchian hallmarks in nearly every frame. The cast, (including regulars Laura Dern and Kyle MacLachlan), is exceptional, though Dennis Hopper delivers the most legendary bad guy performance that almost any human being ever gave. It endures as David Lynch's single most lauded movie and doubles as the best introduction into everything that makes him the world's most incredible living filmmaker.
Dir - Jim Abrahams/David Zucker/Jerry Zucker
The "every shot needs a laugh" template of the Jim Abrahams, David and Jerry Zucker team was not exclusively brilliant to their disaster film parody Airplane! as Kentucky Fried Movie, Top Secret, and especially The Naked Gun can all attest to. Yet in the running for the most consistently hilarious movies ever made, Airplane! is logically the benchmark. To name your favorite moment in this movie is impossible not just because there is a countless number of them, but also because you can watch it a hundred times and catch something brand new each and every one of them. Airplane! is filthy, immature, ridiculous and constructed as such on an ingenious level. Also since you asked, yes I do like my coffee black like my men.
Dir - Federico Fellini
8 1/2 is not just Federico Fellini's most personal movie, it could easily be the most personal movie that a filmmaker can make. Conflicted as to what his next cinematic undertaking should be "about", Fellini up and decided to make something that honestly showcased what it is like to make a movie. Everything in 8 1/2 is happening at once, just as everything in anyone's life is happening at once. Real and fictitious memories, real and fictitious personal drama, and the struggle to be creative with a never ceasing slew of people demanding your every ounce of attention with a barrage of questions, it all turns the life of Fellini's on-screen counter-part Guido Anselmi, (Marcello Mastroianni), into a circus-like, surreal dance of maintaining one's sanity.
Dir - Bob Fosse
Bob Fosse's All That Jazz plays like a revved-up, slightly avant-garde biopic, only far more interestingly as it is basically Fosse making a movie about his own demise, which obviously had not happened yet. Fosse's on-screen version of himself in Joe Gideon, (a never better Roy Scheider), is only slightly glamorized as he simultaneously directs and choreographs a massive Broadway play and edits another film, all the while flirting with Death, (Jessica Lang looking anything like the Grim Reaper). It was based off of Fosse's own experience from pulling double-duty while working on Lenny and Chicago respectively. Endlessly pussy-hounding and popping pills, Fosse's own non-stop, showbiz pace that he not only kept up yet also produced near genius work in turns Jazz into an autobiographical and musical tour-de-force as well as my favorite thing that he ever did.
Dir - John McTiernan
Rated-R, 80's action movies were the stuffs me and most of my friends with a penis were raised on and we can all still watch all of these movies on repeat without any of us complaining. I have seen Predator as much as any of them, but there is an overwhelming awesome to this film that almost nothing of its kind can touch. It is the best action movie there is, with a colorful cast that each basically makes a round table discussion as to who has the most badass death scene. If the mowing of the jungle immediately following Jesse "The Body" Ventura's butchering counts as being part of his death scene, then I would go with that. Also, Arnold Schwarzenegger setting his traps and announcing that the hunted have switched rolls with a mud-covered, torch-thrusting roar could be the single most testosterone-boosting moment in all of moviedom.
Dir - Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman himself believed that with Persona, he had gone as far as he could go as a filmmaker. Of course he would continue to do much more after this, (much more good as well), but it is debatable if another movie accomplishes more to explore the human psyche in the cinematic medium than Persona does. This goes far beyond any kind of simple narrative about a shared identity, where debating whether or not Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann are playing the same person is to miss the point. Bergman uses his camera to examine the human spirit introspectively; what is natural, what is performed, what is expected, and what is and what is not on the surface. This all seamlessly overlaps with each other, with moments of the film itself literally blurring, burning, and breaking apart.
Dir - Bernardo Bertolucci
It is a testament to Marlon Brando's seemingly inhuman abilities as an actor that he can at once not be bothered to learn his lines in a script, (instead reading them off of cue-cards or simply making up his own), and in the same year that he made Vito Corleone one of the most iconic screen characters of all time, also delivered what I would call the finest acting performance on film in Last Tango In Paris. Brando was an anomaly as a performer; a man who could do finer work than anyone whether he was pouring his every effort into it or simply collecting a paycheck. With Bernardo Bertolucci's infamous, NC-17 rated Last Tango, Brando is effortlessly astounding and two films after The Conformist, Bertolucci crafted a portrait of anonymous sex and the psychological need for it in two stranger's lives that still ranks as one of the most emotionally powerful movies of all time.
Dir - Terence Malick
It would stand to reason that a Terence Malick war movie was going to come out like this. Meaning, exactly like a Terence Malick movie. Emerging from a twenty-year break with many people's expectations at an all time high, Malick had A-list actors almost literally banging down his door to work with him on his long-in-the-works adaptation of James Jones' novel. Many got cast, some got cast and did not make the final cut, (a Malick staple), and many others simply did not get cast at all. Yet what transpires in The Thin Red Line for just shy of three-hours is a examination of soldiers dealing with what war is, each in their own voice, swimming in their own contemplative dreams. Scenes of brutality are inter-cut with scenes of beauty, with nature and man co-existing as death and the lack or point of it is heavy in the air. It is easily one of the most incredible war movies on earth.
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