My 100 Favorite Movies
(Listed Chronologically)
- Title: When Harry Met Sally
Year: 1989
Director: Rob Reiner
Stars: Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan
 The basic plot of this movie goes something like this:
- Guy says men and women can't be friends, because the sex thing always gets in the way.
- Guy and gal don't get along, partially because she disagrees.
- Guy and gal eventually become friends, apparently disproving his earlier theory.
- Sex gets in the way.
I know a guy -- D. -- who hates this movie specifically for this reason: he finds that particular plot progression highly depressing. D. firmly wants to believe that men and women can be friends without sex getting in the way, but he has never actually experienced this in his own life, and therefore he takes the plot of this movie far too seriously.
Quotes:
Harry Burns: What I'm saying is -- and this is not a come-on in any way, shape or form -- is that men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.
...
Harry Burns: No man can be friends with a woman that he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her.
Sally Albright: So, you're saying that a man can be friends with a woman he finds unattractive?
Harry Burns: No. You pretty much want to nail them too.
Sally Albright: Most women at one time or another have faked it [orgasm].
Harry Burns: Well, they haven't faked it with me.
Sally Albright: How do you know?
Harry Burns: Because I know.
Sally Albright: Oh. Right. That's right. I forgot. You're a man.
Harry Burns: What was that supposed to mean?
Sally Albright: Nothing. It's just that all men are sure it never happened to them and all women at one time or other have done it so you do the math.
Harry Burns: The fact that you're not answering leads me to believe that (a) You're not home, (b) you're home but you don't want to talk to me, or (c) you're home, desperately want to talk to me, but you're trapped under something heavy. If it's either (a) or (c), please give me a call.
- Title: Cyrano de Bergerac
Year: 1990
Country: France
Star: Gerard Depardieu
This film -- a lush and surprisingly faithful adaptation of one of my favorite plays -- really captures the poetry of the play, not just in the language but also in the visuals. Not only the sets, but also the costumes are simply stunning. And the directing throughout is gorgeous.
I've heard some folks express a preference for other film adaptations of this play, but this is by far my favorite. For one thing, I love Depardieu's face, because he does have a large nose, but it's believably large. I could easily imagine this man developing an unwarranted complex that his nose makes him unlovable.
And, as a last comment, allow me to point out that this is another unrequited love story. In fact, I think this may be my favorite unrequited love story of all time.
- Title: Dances with Wolves
Year: 1990
Star: Kevin Costner
A cavalry officer heads out to the American West, because he wants to see it before it is gone. Once there, he finds himself alone and defenseless ... and ends up befriending a curious wolf as well as a nearby Indian tribe.
I like "sympathy for the enemy" stories like this one. I can see a vague similarity to Empire of the Sun, in that way, though they are very very different movies.
I'm very grateful that I first saw this on the big screen ... a television screen just doesn't do justice to the wide open spaces portrayed throughout.
Quotes:
Kicking Bird: I was just thinking that of all the trails in this life there is one that matters most. It is the trail of a true human being. I think you are on this trail and it is good to see.
Wind In His Hair: Dances With Wolves! I am Wind In His Hair! Do you see that I am your friend? Can you see that you will always be my friend?
- Title: La Femme Nikita
Year: 1990
Country: France
A young woman criminal is blackmailed into a life of working for the government as an undercover operative against her will. This impacts her life and relationships in various ways as she struggles to fulfill her obligations while keeping her life as her own. It's a gripping plot, and probably the best action movie I've ever seen. For an action movie, it is also surprisingly sensitive in its treatment of relationships and emotions. That's probably because it isn't an American action movie.
- Title: Dead Again
Year: 1991
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Stars: Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson
I first watched this film in Edinburgh, on Halloween Day 1991, and I remember that the autumn leaves were gorgeous as I walked to the theatre. I saw Derek Jarman's Edward II the same day, at a different theatre (I visited Edinburgh only once a month or so, and our local theatre in Stirling didn't get the most recent films.), but this was the one that really grabbed me.
It's a story about a woman who has lost her memory and her voice, and the man who tries to help her ... and how they begin to suspect that they may have been involved with each other in a previous life. And how someone may be trying to kill one or both of them. Some of the twists near the end started getting predictable for me, but I still found the overall plot very clever, and have enjoyed watching it several times.
 Title: Thelma and Louise
Year: 1991
Director: Ridley Scott
Stars: Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon
Three words: Brad Pitt's butt. I mean, holy moly, people!
But I must admit that the movie is not actually about Brad Pitt's butt. It's about two normal women who go off on vacation together and end up involved in a spiraling crime spree that seems to rapidly get out of their control. Much of it is surprisingly funny, but overall it's definitely a drama.
I must admit that the film's man-bashing sort of bothered me -- because there's only one decent guy among dozens of male characters -- but everything else is just fantastic ... including the ending. Wonderful soundtrack, too.
Oh, and if you care ... Ridley Scott also did Blade Runner, which is also on this list.
Quotes:
Thelma: You said you 'n' me was gonna get out of town and for once just really let our hair down. Well, darlin', look out, 'cause my hair is comin' down!
Louise Sawyer: You shoot off a guy's head with his pants down, believe me, Texas ain't the place you want to get caught.
Thelma: Are you sure we should be driving like this, I mean in broad daylight and everything?
Louise: No we shouldn't, but I want to put some distance between us and the scene of our LAST GODDAMN CRIME!  Title: Truly, Madly, Deeply
Year: 1991
Country: U.K.
Stars: Alan Rickman
A woman grieves uncontrollably for her lost lover ... and so his ghost returns to help her live her life again. It's romantic, it's sad, and it's hilarious ... all in one.
I'm a huge Alan Rickman fan, plus this is one of my favorite romance stories ever. For once, it isn't a movie about there being only one person for each of us. Instead, it's about figuring out how to move on and find a new love after you've suffered loss ... and therefore it feels more emotionally realistic than most romantic movies. Pretty ironic. A ghost story is more realistic than the average romance.
I first saw this one in Edinburgh, too, which brings back great memories. If I had to rank my favorite movies by how much I love them instead of in chronological order, this would definitely be in the top 5. It may not be the most intellectual entertainment, but I love it that much.
- Title: Like Water for Chocolate
Year: 1992
Country: Mexico
Let me start out by saying that I really like food. Shannon often marvels at how very very much I love food. I don't eat very much, but I appreciate the quality of good food. I remember especially delicious meals for years afterward.
I mention this because it affects my experience of this movie ... because this movie is largely about food. The main character is a young girl who is an excellent cook, and who uses her cooking to express her love for the young man her sister has married.
This very sensual romance also has a surprisingly quirky sense of humor, combined with a magical realist sort of world view. I can't really compare it to anything else, because it's like no other movie I've ever seen. Very sexy, though. Mmmm hmmmm.
- Title: Strictly Ballroom
Year: 1992
Country: Australia
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Another movie I first saw at the now-defunct U.C. Theatre, and so it has some nostalgic resonance for me on that score. But I've loved this movie since the first time I saw it, largely for it's quirky sense of humor, which comes -- I'm sure -- from the director, who also directed Moulin Rouge. He's wacky.
Every time I see Strictly Ballroom, it inspires me to want to learn ballroom dancing, because the dancing in the film is just so very beautiful. But the best dancing comes from the Gypsies in the film. Hurray for Gypsies! Gypsies rock.
I don't think wonderful dancing would be enough to really capture my interest long term, but the film also has a central struggle that caught my sympathies: the struggle between conformity and self-expression, the struggle between doing what you're told and behaving independently. The main character doesn't want to conform to rigid ballroom dancing rules ... he wants to "dance his own steps" in addition to the established steps. That's a struggle that caught my attention, and I love how it's done in this film.
 Title: The Nightmare Before Christmas
Year: 1993
Music: Danny Elfman
I've been a Danny Elfman fan for ... oh ... about 20 years, I guess. I first discovered his music when I was about 14 years old and became an Oingo Boingo fan. For those of you who aren't aware of such things, Oingo Boingo was Danny Elfman's band in the 1980s. They produced quirky, unusual, darkly humorous songs that cracked me up. My respect for Danny Elfman has only grown in adulthood, as I've seen him go into doing really wonderful movie scores. In The Nightmare Before Christmas, Elfman did more than just the score; he also provided the singing voice of the lead character, to fabulous effect, because he has the perfect voice for it. All of his music in this particular film is simply phenomenal.
The film posits that holidays are each controlled by one central figure, and that Halloween's head figure is Skeleton Jack the Pumpkin King, a very skinny (scarecrow-type) body, topped by a skeletal head often hidden within a jack o' lantern. But Jack discovers that other holidays exist, and decides that he wants to take over Christmas, because it's so nice and not all scary. His fellow denizens of Halloween Town help him try to run Christmas, with predictable results. But the basic plot premise is so creative that I love every minute of it. - Title: So I Married An Axe-Murderer
Year: 1993
Star: Mike Meyers
I first saw this movie when I was living with Katherine ... and it's just silly enough that it entirely entered our lexicon. We can (and do) quote large sections of the dialogue, in unison, with almost no prompting. In particular, we love to recite the bad beat poetry. We have annoyed many people by doing this. :)
The story is about Charlie, a very bad beat poet in San Francisco who is extremely unlucky in love. This time around, he falls in love with a butcher named Harriet, but then begins to suspect that she may be the murderess he's seen described in the tabloids.
What do I love about this movie? I love all the Scottish stuff, because Charlie's parents are Scottish and there is much gentle teasing about Scots. I love the setting in San Francisco, because the characters actually really do seem to inhabit the city (well, except for Harriet's gigantic apartment which no butcher could afford in SF). And I love all of Charlie's cheesy beat poetry (see two examples below). Mike Meyers can really be funny when he sets his mind to it.
Quotes:
Charlie [reciting]:Woman! Woe-man! Whooooooa MAN!
She was a thief, you gotta belief
She stole my heart and my cat
Betty, Judy, Josie and those hot Pussycats
They make me horny
Saturday morny
Girls of cartoons
won't leave me in ruins
I want to be Betty's Bar-ney.
Jane ... get me off this crazy thing ... called "love"
Charlie [reciting]:
Harriet! Harry-et! Hard-hearted harbinger of haggis
Beautiful, bemused, bellicose butcher
Un-trust ... ING! Un-know ... ING! Un-love ... ed?
"He wants you back," he screamed into the night air
like a fireman going to a window that has no fire
except the passion of his heart
I am lonely
It's really hard
This poem ... sucks
Charlie: You know, Scotland has its own martial arts. Yeah, it's called Fuk Yu. It's mostly just head butting and then kicking people when they're on the ground.
Harriet: Do you actually like haggis?
Charlie: No, I think it's repellent in every way. In fact, I think most Scottish cuisine is based on a dare.
Charlie: I'm smitten. I'm in deep smit.
- Title: Once Were Warriors
Year: 1994
Country: New Zealand
Unlike every single other movie on this list, I never want to see this one again, because it was too traumatic for me. I was -- by the way -- doing perfectly well emotionally when I saw this ... it was years before my emotional stuff started to be a problem. But I saw this movie and ended up just sobbing and sobbing and sobbing, the entire walk home. There was just too much emotional and physical abuse in the movie, and it reminded me of things that happened with my step-father when I was a kid, and it just felt like it was all happening to me, instead of just happening on a movie screen.
This wonderful, but emotionally traumatic (at least for me ... my mom did not have the same reaction), movie focuses on Maoris in modern-day New Zealand: how their culture has changed, how they have gradually lost much of their respect for themselves due to poverty and racism, how alcoholism and abusive behavior has resulted, etc. But there is a hopeful message about trying to recapture some of that lost pride, remembering where they come from. Beautiful, but dark.
Quote:
Beth Heke: Our people once were warriors. But unlike you, Jake, they were people with mana, pride ... people with spirit. If my spirit can survive living with you for eighteen years, then I can survive anything.
- Title: Pulp Fiction
Year: 1994
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Stars: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, etc.
I normally avoid really violent movies, and so I refused to go see this one for a long time. When I finally broke down -- under considerable pressure -- and went to see it, I was so very very glad. The writing is so clever that I never minded the violence. (I only closed my eyes once, near the end of a drug overdose scene.)
 I'm sure everyone has already seen it, but I guess I'll describe it briefly anyway. It's an ensemble cast, as the movie includes a large number of characters whose stories intertwine and affect each other in important ways. The two primary characters are two hit-men, and it's from their perspective that we see much of the movie.
John Travolta amazed me in this movie. He managed to make me care very deeply about his character. Samuel L. Jackson, as the other hit man, did the same thing. The thing that surprised me most about this movie, though, was the humor. I completely had not expected that it would be funny. But it is. Quelle shock!
Quotes:
Marsellus: I'm gonna get medieval on your ass.
Jules: The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.
Butch: Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead.
Jules: When you yell at me, it makes me nervous. When I get nervous, I get scared. And when motherfuckers get scared, that's when motherfuckers get accidentally shot.
- Title: Reality Bites
Year: 1994
Director: Ben Stiller
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Winona Ryder, Janeane Garofalo, Ben Stiller, etc.
I usually hate Ben Stiller's sense of humor, but it worked for me in this one. Of course, I'm least fond of all the scenes that involve his character. But how can I not love a movie in which characters sing not one but TWO Schoolhouse Rock songs?
The plot is pretty simple: twenty-somethings graduate from college, get jobs, hate their parents, lose jobs, fall in love, stay single, hurt each other and other people, smoke pot, support each other in rough times, watch the Psychic Network, and sing "Conjunction Junction".
Ethan Hawke's character -- Troy Dyer -- is greasy, pretentious, rude, insensitive ... and yet I find him strangely attractive. It's a little bit scary. But I can't get past the way he plays the character, which is sort of like a vulnerable little boy projecting lots of bluster to hide the fact that he's afraid.
The film also has a great soundtrack, and the scene when the characters dance to "My Sharona" in the gas station is priceless.
Quotes:
Michael Grates: Have I stepped over some line in the sands of coolness with you? Because excuse me if somebody doesn't know the secret handshake with you.
Troy Dyer: There's no secret handshake. There's an IQ prerequisite, but there's no secret handshake.
Vickie: "Evian" is "naive" spelled backward!
- Title: The Shawshank Redemption
Year: 1994
Stars: Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman
This is the second movie on my list that's based on a Stephen King short story. Too bad I loathed The Green Mile with a burning passion, or I could make it three. I've never seen so much pissing in any move before or since. But enough about The Green Mile ... because this is not The Green Mile.
 The Shawshank Redemption is about a guy who goes to jail for a crime he doesn't commit. Okay, yeah, that sounds pretty old and tired, I know. But what's special about this guy is that he doesn't let the prison break him. No matter how hard the prison tries to convince him that he's just a number, that he doesn't actually matter anymore, that he is a piece of property, that he has no right to self-respect ... he keeps doing things that not only show that he still thinks of himself as a person, but which remind the other prisoners to think of themselves as people, too.
I love that central message, that no one can take away your sense of self, your sense of self-respect, unless you let it happen. There's more to it that I love, but I'm trying to avoid spoilers, so I'm biting my tongue. Just watch it.
Quote:
Red: These walls are kind of funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, gets so you depend on them. That's "institutionalized". They send you here for life, that's exactly what they take. The part that counts, anyways.
- Title: Apollo 13
Year: 1995
Director: Ron Howard
Stars: Tom Hanks, Ed Harris, Gary Sinise, Kevin Bacon, etc.
Based on the historical event, of course, and so I don't have to worry about spoilers. Apollo 13 had serious mechanical problems on a trip to the moon ... but they make it home safely, folks. The film is based on a memoir written by the main character, so you might have guessed that they survive.
I love movies in which smart people and/or nerds are the heroes, so my favorite part of this movie is when the engineers get all these odd bits and pieces and say, "Okay, here's what we've got. Let's figure out how to make it work." And the nerds end up saving the day! Woo hoo!
Quotes:
Jim Lovell: Houston, we have a problem.
Gene Kranz: We've never lost an American in space, we're sure as hell not going to lose one on my watch! Failure is not an option.
- Title: Empire Records
Year: 1995
This film focuses on a bunch of complete music freaks who work in a small independent record store. These are kids for whom music is their life and the store has its own little culture with rules about who gets to play what music when and who can veto someone else's choices, etc. The plot of the film is about this store becoming threatened with buyout by a gigantic chain, and how everyone reacts.
This movie completely cracks me up. The character of Lucas, in particular, because he's very literal, very dryly funny. Some people (at least, according to stuff I've seen online) completely misunderstand his character and think he should be taken seriously ... and those people think his character is stupid. Sigh. So I guess this movie requires a particular sense of humor.
Quotes:
Mark: Damn The Man! Save the Empire!
Lucas: Joe, I think it's gonna be okay.
Joe: What makes you think that?
Lucas: Who knows where thoughts come from? They just appear!
A.J.: What's with you? Yesterday you were normal and today you're like the Chinese guy from the Karate Kid. What's with you today?
Lucas: What's with today today?
Gina: Well "Sinead O'Rebellion." Shock me shock me shock me with that deviant behavior.
Gina: Attention Rex Manning fans, to your left you will notice a shoplifter being chased by night manager Lucas. This young man will be caught, deep fried in a vat of hot oil and served to our first hundred customers. Just another tasty treat from the gang at Empire Records.
- Title: Persuasion
Year: 1995
Country: U.K.
My mom didn't like this movie, she said, because she thought the main actress was very plain ... primarily because she almost never smiled. I explained to my mom that the character had very little to smile about, but my mom didn't care. Actresses are supposed to smile in order to look pretty, and this actress didn't smile. Hrmph.
 At any rate, this film based on the Jane Austen novel of the same name is quietly intense in its emotion and romance. The main character has been disappointed in love, after allowing a mother figure to persuade her not to marry the love of her life because he had few "prospects". In the decade or so since then, she has pined for him. (Yep, here again we see my beloved unrequited love plot.) She has lost much of her younger beauty due to her prolonged sadness. And then, lucky her, her long-lost lover reappears ... and almost entirely ignores her while pursuing other women in her presence.
It's an angsty book and an angsty movie, full of longing and grief, loving and pain. And yet it isn't depressing. The main character, Anne Elliott, has a strength of character that allows her to bear her burdens with grace and charm, while she simultaneously helps those around her to find greater happiness in their lives.
I loves me some Jane Austen, just in the general case, and this is actually based on my favorite of her books. The actor playing the romantic lead is ruggedly handsome and exudes a quietly masculine romance, as if he feels deeply but cannot express himself. Damn good book, damn good acting, damn good directing, damn good costumes, damn good movie. Says me.
Quote:
Lady Russell: Captain Wentworth
Captain Wentworth: Lady Russell
Lady Russell: You have an extraordinary ability to discompose my friend, sir.
Captain Wentworth: And you, ma'am, have an extraordinary ability to influence her for which I find it hard to forgive you.
- Title: Pride and Prejudice (miniseries)
Year: 1995
Country: U.K.
Stars: Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle
Three words: Wet Colin Firth! Woo hoo! Colin Firth ... wet ... white shirt all transparent and sticking to him as he walks ... hoo boy!
Um ... where was I? Oh, yes, another Jane Austen adaptation, but this one is not confined to a single movie. Instead, the BBC produced a mini-series, which gives much greater latitude to include the various subplots of the novel. I wouldn't have minded if they'd been forced to cut out Mr. Collins ... but that's just me.
Anyway, it's the story of two very sweet, kind sisters of decent breeding ... and their terribly embarrassing family. They fall in love with people, people fall in love with them, scandals cause near disaster, proposals of marriage are made and refused, proposals of marriage are made and accepted, and jerks are put in their places.
Colin Firth was born to play Mr. Darcy, and Jennifer Ehle is a wonderful Lizzie. I've watched this whole darn thing several times, and even my mother has fallen in love with it. She once sent me a card which had pasted inside a promotional photograph of Mr. Darcy (Colin Firth in costume) with one of the ladies of the cast. Except ... my mom had pasted a photo of her own face over the face of the other woman. My mom has a huge crush on Mr. Darcy.
You see? It all comes back to Mr. Darcy. Not to mention his wet shirt. Mmmmmmmm...
Quotes:
Elizabeth Bennet: For a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife!
Mr. Darcy: She is tolerable, I suppose, but not handsome enough to tempt me.
Elizabeth Bennet: I am determined that nothing but the deepest love could ever induce me into matrimony.
- Title: The Usual Suspects
Year: 1995
Countries: U.S.A./U.K./Germany
Stars: Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, and a bunch of other guys
Five felons are arrested and put into a single room together. Somehow, they end up involved in crime together, even though one of them is extremely reluctant to get involved. It seems they are being manipulated by an unknown hand.
 What do I love about this movie? Well, first of all is Kevin Spacey's performance as "Verbal" ... he's just terrific. I also love the interactions between the crime guys; it isn't superficial as I would expect it to be in such a film. Last, I love the plot, which twists all over the place like a snake.
Quotes:
Keaton: There's no way they'd line five felons in the same room, no way.
Verbal: The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
Verbal: Keaton once said, "I don't believe in God, but I'm afraid of him." Well I believe in God, and the only thing that scares me is Keyser Soze.
Verbal: You think you can catch Keyser Soze? You think a guy like that comes this close to getting caught, and sticks his head out? If he comes up for anything it'll be to get rid of me. After that... my guess is you'll never hear from him again.
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