9. THE ADJUST MENT BUREAU – This was one the real surprises of last year for me. Two people who seem destined together are constantly thwarted for two hours by The Agents of Fate. I think this movie was so endearing because I feel we all have had encounters with people and know deep down inside there was a good chance it may have worked out in another lifetime or if certain factors had just “fallen into place.” This movie offers an interesting glimpse of why maybe those things didn’t fall into place and may make us all the more grateful they did for the one we watch this with.
8. MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1981) – My biggest problem with most horror movies (including the remake of this one) is that they take themselves too seriously! Movies like this should be over-the-top, cheesy fun to watch snuggled under a blanket while pouring Raisinets into a tub of popcorn and feeding it to your lover while you both make fun of the gruesome deaths. And in a movie where human hearts are delivered in candy boxes, the understated tongue-in-cheek tone is EXACTLY what it should be in this classic slasher film.
7. ABRE LOS OJOS – Science fiction done right in this film that inspired a bad remake in VANILLA SKY. Penelope Cruz also stars (interestingly as the same character) in this one opposite Eduardo Noriega, who was also fantastic in THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE. I won’t give too much away about the plot, but think THE MATRIX vs. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. God, that actually sounds awful. Just trust me, it’s amazing and you should see it!
6. A PATCH OF BLUE – I adore this movie. I love the characters, even the vile Rose-Ann (played so amazingly well by Shelley Winters). It’s about a blind girl named Selina. In the mid-60s she begins to develop feelings for Gordon (Sidney Poitier), completely unaware that he is black. This is a sad movie, but the ending demonstrates that no matter how much you love someone and may want them at that time, the time may not be right for the relationship to work. Of course the themes were metaphoric for everything that was taking place with the Civil Rights Movement when this film was made, but a personal account like this only magnifies its importance and legacy in everyday life.
5. PRICELESS – I think my problem with most U.S. romcoms is that the women are frequently very weak characters. Audrey Tautou plays a determined woman who knows she wants the finer things in life and is willing to force herself to sleep with old, wrinkled men for it and makes no apologies for it whatsoever. She then meets the charming Jean one night (who is of course penniless, but pretends to be rich) and the two hit it off. I think what I love most about this film is Tautou’s character never flinches about what she wants. There is never that moment you almost have to get in American films when she realizes she needs to change her ways. It’s refreshing to see a romantic comedy that refuses to give in to exhausted conventions the way they almost always normally do.
4. THE HOTTEST STATE – Before (500) DAYS OF SUMMER, this was the original boy-meets- girl-and-makes-us- hate- this- dumb- bitch- before- the- credits- roll- movie. I remember thinking that Mark Webber and Catalina Sandino Moreno had odd chemistry while watching this, but also felt that was perhaps what made it work so well simply because opposites do often attract. It’s definitely the kind of story that makes you either feel like giving up on love if you haven’t found it yet or cling tightly to the one you have now for it will surely remind you of the agony of searching for them and enduring confusing, fucked up and gut-kicking relationships along the way. Overall, a great film.
3. BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA – Gary Oldman as Count Dracula? Should I even have to write more than that? This is really an underrated film from Francis Ford Coppola . Its sexy, visceral imagery is complemented by top notch performances from Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, and Oldman as a love-tortured Dracula. The scariest part? Watching him cry.
2. BOUND – BOUND is cooler than cool. It was the film the Wachowskis (back when they were brothers) made before THE MATRIX. This film is a sleek homage to the classic Film Noir era with a titillating lesbianic twist. Gina Gershon, Jennifer Tilly and Joe Pantoliano were all amazing in this film. It’s actually impossible to envision other actors in these roles (except maybe perhaps Angelina Jolie as Corky). If you have no interest in any other film on this list, please at least check out BOUND. I promise you will be blown away!
1. NUOVO CINEMA PARADISO – This lovely coming of age story is about Toto, a young boy who is intoxicated by a love of film, and finds a reluctant father figure in Alfredo, the local theater projectionist. Toto grows up and falls for Elena, the new girl in town with a wealthy, disapproving father (of course). I saw this sweet-natured film for the first time last year and really enjoyed it. In many ways, its own themes are prevalent to the kind of cinema that was actually popular around the time the story takes place, the WWII era: class struggle, love torn apart by military servitude and returning home.
So before you run out and pop in some awful Katherine Heigl movie or try to sit through the terribly overrated and dull CASABLANCA, please consider these! I hope you and your loved one or booty call enjoy them!
5 Others:
DR. ZHIVAGO
THIRST (2009, Korea)
CRAZY STUPID LOVE
RUSHMORE
THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES (2009, Spain)
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