Dir - Fritz Lang
Monocle-speckled, German Expressionism legend Fritz Lang made his first "talkie" M before both he and star Peter Lorre hightailed it to the US in the wake of the rise of the Nazi regime in their homeland. Yes there is Metropolis from Lang and small parts in The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca from Lorre, but M probably features the best work from both of these men. For a filmmaker experimenting with sound for the first time, Lang does marvelous things, specifically picking out what we hear with no dramatic music to aid him. Moments that seem far longer than they are, (devoid of sound entirely), build up the suspense almost without the audience even noticing. Plus Lorre, (certainly one of the most unique and often caricatured actors in film history), is exceptional as the pathetic killer.
Dir - John Landis
There was a time, (lets call it the entire decade of the 1980s), where Eddie Murphy could seemingly do no wrong. Easily the best Saturday Night Live cast member of all time, two standup films in a row that I would still say represent the pinnacle of said medium, and on top of all of that, virtually every movie that he stared in was funnier than the last. His collaboration with John Landis in Coming to America is another one that I can recite limitless lines of dialog from and Murphy and Arsenio Hall, (both in multiple roles), are peaking everywhere. I will never say "no" to a viewing of America and Arsenio in drag, Randy Watson, Samuel L. Jackson's cameo, and "what does dumb fuck mean?" will never not be really, really goddamn funny.
Dir - Akira Kurosawa
Japan's most celebrated filmmaker, (and still the most wildly known and by far the most influential in the West), Akira Kurosawa had dropped Rashomon and Ikiru almost directly before his prized epic Seven Samurai and he was scarcely done making masterpieces afterwards. On the surface, this is a simple story to stretch for over three hours, but the amount of detail that Kurosawa dedicates to his tale of a helpless village of farmers, their hired rōnin protectors, and the bandits that are destined to raid them is expertly rousing. In many ways, the entire film is building up to the inevitable battle sequence which is still one of the most superb ever shot. Yet the real marvel lies in how Kurosawa paints his characters as so similarly flawed, capable of as much good as they are not so good.
Dir - Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky's fifth film The Wrestler is one of those "lightning in a bottle" moments where an actor is given the most well-suited role of their profession at the exact right time. Mickey Rourke's performance as Randy "The Ram" Robinson was rightfully hailed across the board and it is one of the most remarkable ever given I would say. Rourke's body, face, and career where all worn-down and bruised by the time that he landed The Wrestler and the route that Aronofsky took with the documentary style camera work strips all of the glamor out of not only movie making in general, but certainly the world of professional wrestling. Both of these elements, (performance and direction), humanize Randy "The Ram" and his broken, living downfall better than anything else would and I would put The Wrestler at the top of the sports drama heap, even above Ragging Bull.
Dir - Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel tackled many of the same themes throughout his long and surprisingly successful career resurgences and it is easy to site him as the overall best Spanish filmmaker there ever was. The Exterminating Angel is yet another where upper class society is given a brutal critique by way of a surreal, living nightmare. Also, it is all done at least in part for laughs. There is a surface level horror film quality to Angel where some could make an argument that it belongs in said genre instead of merely dipping it's toes into it. The film's premise is bizarre and satisfyingly unexplained, as much debate can be made by the murky conclusion as to the plight of the bourgeois dinner guests who will not/cannot leave.
Dir - Victor Flemming/Sam Wood/George Cukor
Technically directed by three people, (though the large bulk of it fell on Victor Flemming, fresh off of The Wizard of Oz), years in the making to secure/find its two leads in Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh, and written, re-written, then continually re-re-written again before becoming a record-breaking box office success, Gone with the Wind is the benchmark Technicolor film epic. At just shy of four hours long, it is highly engrossing and never dull for a solitary second. Both Gable and Leigh excel as the complex and flawed Rhett Buttler and Scarlett O'hara and despite future success, they were forever identified with their roles here. Ignore or laugh at some of the southern sympathies, historical inaccuracies, and glossed over racism and in its place you will find one of the most dazzling films ole Tinseltown ever produced.
Dir - Jean Renoir
In two years time and just on the cusp of World War II officially becoming a thing, Jean Renoir made two of the most critically lauded films of all time with The Grand Illusion and The Rules of the Game. From a technical standpoint, both were major achievements that featured long, inter-weaving takes and deep focus photography. Both also non-judgmentally examine the European class system. La Grande Illusion gets the nod from me as it seems to hit a nerve on a deeper level, Renoir making a war film devoid of war and instead optimistically showcasing the humanity of people in such a time. The fact that the Nazi party deemed Illusion dangerous to their cause and ordered all of its prints to be destroyed should be enough to get anyone on board.
Dir - Sergio Leone
This is a safe and ergo predictable pick for the best spaghetti western, as well as the best of the "Man with No Name" trilogy, the best movie Clint Eastwood was ever in, (at least that he himself did not direct), and the best film that Sergio Leone ever made. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly was the third and final pairing of Leone and Eastwood, though the former had two more masterpieces on the way in his career with Once Upon a Time In the West and Once Upon a Time In America. For almost three hours though, Leone builds up the tension to near-comical levels, with his three title characters portrayed by Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach, all of whom look like they were born to play rugged and low-down gunslingers. In addition, we also get a wildly impressive Civil War battle and the all time best Mexican stand-off in film history.
Dir - Alejandro Jodorowsky
The work of Alejandro Jodorowsky sure is something alright. I was thrust headfirst into this splendidly crazy man's world with The Holy Mountain, only being told that it was "fucking weird". Boy is it ever. Arty to could-be parody levels, Jodorowsky allegedly had his entire cast drop acid and then backed with a very hefty, John Lennon and Yoko Ono-fueled budget, proceeded to do everything in his power to make the strangest counter-culture experience perhaps of all time. Chock-full of random spiritually, Zen-like ideas, and loads of blasphemy, The Holy Mountain is fascinatingly bonkers and relentlessly avant-garde. My head fell off the first time I saw this movie and not because it changed my life or world view, but because I honestly could not believe what the hell I was seeing, nor that a movie could also be whatever the hell this is.
Dir - Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan's sixth feature-length film The Dark Knight remains without any rivals the best superhero movie ever made. Its hype as such was felt globally upon being released and the shock-waves of Knight's excellence are still being felt everywhere that you look in the genre. This may not always be a good thing, but The Dark Knight provided that moment where comic book adaptations were now game to be taken as critically serious as any movie could be. The second in Nolan's Batman trilogy, it took everything that could be plausible yet still grand about the long-establish and built-upon Bat-verse in the comics, rooting it dramatically and hard to the modern world while still indulging in larger-than-life set pieces and plot points. That matched with Heath Ledger's remarkable performance, (which instantaneously went down as the best comic-to-screen one there seemingly ever will be), make this a monumental offering.
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