11. What About Bob

Here’s a movie I can watch over and over and over again and pretty much every time I still laugh. Bill Murray is brilliant in this flick. Even though he’s hit or miss, I love this one.

Granted, this is probably at least half nostalgia because I grew up with this movie. But hey, a winner is a winner, right?

I know I might be alone in a crowd here, but I’m a sucker for a good musical. And while there’s a lot of good ones out there, Moulin Rouge also manages to appeal to my obscure side. It’s definitely weird. So much so in fact that most people don’t seem to care for it. But Ewan McGregor is awesome.

I’m a big sucker for movies that take you where you don’t expect them to go. Plus, Kevin Spacey is pretty much always a winner. The two collide in the Life of David Gale, and they manage to say something worth saying—even though I’m not sure I agree with them in the end.

I saw Seven once before I was really old enough to be into suspense thriller movies and it scared the crap out of me. Later I watched it again and realized that nearly everything about it is just brilliant. To this day one of the most haunting serial killer stories I’ve ever seen.

You probably saw this one. It won enough to awards that most people who saw it after that couldn’t possibly enjoy it after all the hype. But I however was lucky enough to catch it before I’d even heard about it. It knocked my socks off. Rarely are there movies that can wrench your emotions as effectively as this one does.

In High School my friends learned to speak with British accents from this movie.

Spinal Tap is a classic and even if you’ve never seen it, you’ve probably laughed at “ours go to eleven” at least once. It deserves every bit of credit it gets. It’s that funny.

Even though people can’t get enough of hating on M. Night Shyamalan after The Happening, I still think he’s easily one of my top 3 favorite directors and while The Sixth Sense was good, Signs is ripe with thought provoking allegory that all converges at the end to really push you over the edge. A stroke of brilliance in my opinion.

David Fincher (also happens to be the mind behind Seven) made a big impression on me with Fight Club. I remember seeing the previews and being totally uninterested. Then watching it at a friends house and being jaw dropped by the insight and the execution… not to mention an ending that, at the time, was totally unique.

It’s just great story telling—in the writing and the delivery. Between Fight Club and this one, Edward Norton is one of those actors who can do no wrong in my eyes. His delivery in American History X is, well, stunning. This is one of those movies that teaches a lesson the hard way.

In all honesty, it’s all about the photography and the methodology here. For most, Elephant is way too slow to swallow. The acting is ridged and hard to believe. But the photography is gorgeous. And, the method Gus Van Sant employed to write his dialogue and find his actors is mind blowing. It makes this the only movie poster I’ve ever hung on my wall.

Some of my friends think I’m like a broken record on this one. But the truth is, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a movie that has affected me more than this one. Emotionally I mean. The exquisite blend of editing technique, incredible film score, painfully likeable characters brilliant writing, powerful message, haunting dialogue… it seems like the list could go on and on.

Requiem for a Dream may just be the yardstick by which I measure all film dramas I see. A fact for which I have no regrets.