Saturday, August 28, 2010

East Asian Directors Marathon #6- 2046 (2004, Hong Kong, Wong Kar-wai)



"I have a secret to tell you. Will you leave with me?"

I should probably clarify what my "cinematic relationship" with Wong Kar-wai films are before I go any further (and let me say, I generally gush over this guy's work) . Yes, I didn't think his most acclaimed film, In the Mood for Love, was "all that." I just didn't click with me. So why would I continue to view his films? Well I'm a huge fan of Fallen Angels and that alone places Wong Kar-wai somewhere on my favorite 100 directors list. Every so often I hear about his films and they just sound intriguing. 2046 was the one I really wanted to see. Since I had seen In the Mood for Love twice, I wondered how I would respond to a sequel. Well this is both a sequel in continuing the story of Chow and both exploring the spirit of love that began to manifest in In the Mood for Love. Watching 2046 was an eye-opening experience that ventured more into the art-hosue (something I've rarely experienced) but it still featured an amazing performance from Tony Leung, some of the best cinematography I've ever seen (by Christopher Doyle), and it was probably the best movie dealing with the theme of love that was released in the 2000's aside from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2046 could even hold its own with some of Woody Allen's explorations of love and lust).

Unlike In the Mood for Love, I feel as if 2046 really gets us inside the head of Tony Leung's character. I feel with him, not for him. We are not placed at a distance to look at both sides of a forbidden couple but instead we get right up close to a grief-stricken man. He is the narrator of this tale after all and even when he speaks, Tony Leung's diction just has such a power to it (and keep in mind, he ain't speaking English). Now this film doesn't just deal with love, but it also deals with remembrance. The affair with Maggie Cheung's character (who returns briefly here) has left a scar in Chow's heart. He has now given into his lustful desires and it led me to an interesting comparison between In the Mood for Love and 2046. For all the sexual tension that exists in the first film, the act of sex is featured in this film.

In the Mood for Love is a typical title that could easily be analyzed but why is this called 2046? Well, with Wong Kar-wai being the master of the themes he showcases (and how he works them into his narrative), he has Chow writing about a place that I'm frankly not sure what the deal is, but it's called 2046. It's a science-fiction world where men and women go to find their memories but I also feel they can find love and grief there just as well. It is not as much of a place but a metaphor or analogy for a state of mind. What is so great about the land of 2046 is that sometimes a science-fiction angle could serve as a distraction, but here it is an addition.

Speaking of additions, Wong Kar-wai has quite a collection of femme fatales in the film. Gong Li, Faye Wong, and the amazing Zhang Ziyi. Zhang Ziyi surprised me the most as she showed more range than she showed in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero, and House of Flying Daggers. One moment she could be flirty and the next she could be emotionally devastated. Perfect for someone who is appearing alongside the amazing Tony Leung. He is phenomenal as he has been from Hard Boiled to In the Mood for Love. I truly believed a man was falling for women as he evolved and eventually completed an amazing character arc as a man who learns from his mistakes which stem from his past.

The cast is not the only selling point here, pretty much everything that you see and hear is also a huge part of it. The costumes, the set design, the cinematography, the editing, and the amazing (but repetitive) score... everything is coming together in a way that only a maestro like Wong Kar-wai can control. This is poetic meaning fully realized and that is the highest compliment I can pay a filmmaker, especially one from a culture that I'm so unfamiliar with. Where I felt like In the Mood for Love was an artistic take on a "cheating spouses" movie, 2046 is like something that someone of Ingmar Bergman's status would be making if he was around today. Funny thing is is how simple of a story this is. A man keeps trying to fall in love. There, I just summed up a two hour movie, but Wong Kar-wai does what any good filmmaker does and breathes life into an idea.

Love is just as important as life is here and secrets being whispered into holes finally means something to me.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

East Asian Directors Marathon #5- In the Mood for Love (2000, Hong Kong, Wong Kar-wai)



"You notice things if you pay attention."

Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love moves like a dream. Not that it is jumbled, it may occasionally jump a little here or there, but it seems like something where it is just a vast amount of content but with no emotional anchor. If there is an anchor, it's a small one because the film sort of just passes over me. The story follows Mr. Chow (Tony Leung) and Mrs. Chan (Maggie Cheung), two neighbors whose spouses are having an affair with each other. When Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan find out, they decide to begin spending time with each other but will only remain as friends and not commit the sins of their significant others. Shot by Christopher Doyle, the film supposedly didn't have much of a script, so I wonder if that is why the close-up shots feel wasted on the faces of Leung and Cheung. I could presume the actors had to reach into their bag of emotional tricks on the day of shooting and not to say they were ill-prepared but without a script, I'm impressed with how well they conveyed their characters' emotional experience. Still, like I said, the shot feels wasted. Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung just look like they are going through the paces. That kind of makes sense since they begin roleplaying how their spouses act with each other (up until before the sex I assume). Still, I don't feel any emotional connection with them at all. Every so often there is a unique camera angle or a beautifully framed shot of something insignificant like a cigarette. How am I supposed to relate to these characters if the camera is more obsessed with what is around them? The story is a great one but I don't want to empathize alongside these characters, I want to feel with them. There is no great emotional boundary that is pushed and that is what I like to see in movies about adultery. Perhaps I've been spoiled since I just watched two Park Chan-wook films where his characters got pushed beyond simple human emotions but then again, this movie isn't so much about the adultery. The adultery and even the spouses is/are off-screen. Yet in films like Unfaithful or Little Children or Fatal Attraction, I often feel the pain of these characters when I see their others cheating on them. Without that context, I feel like I'm in another culture (no pun intended since this is a foreign film). I don't get the roleplaying scenes and I don't even feel that much of a connection with Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan when they begin to inevitably fall for each other. Other complaints include those black screens with text on them at the beginning and end of the film. They seem to give us the meaning and theme of what we were about to and later have witnessed. I like it when those are hidden in the film and I almost have to reach a deeper understanding to search for them. Another thing is that the score is beautiful but does it have to be so repetitive? Couldn't other music be used to reach the same point or feeling? I can appreciate a lot about the film but I can't connect to it. I feel so bad because I see the rave reviews but I don't understand them. I should point out that I'm obviously complaining quite a bit but I do tend to do that when I pick up even the smallest of flaws. This is a good film and I did like a lot, it just wasn't a great film. Maybe I'm not cut out for the avant garde or maybe I'm culturally spoiled by American film. Something was lacking here, and I'm not sure what it was.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

East Asian Directors Marathon #4- Thirst (2009, South Korea, Park Chan-wook)



"He loved helping the hungry. He'd offer me his blood if he wasn't in a coma. If only you heard the sponge cake story."

Park Chan-wook's latest film certainly wins the Guinness Book of World Records award for most slurping in a movie. On a serious note, having only seen Park Chan-wook's Oldboy, if I were to base his movies off of just that film, I would assume his movies excel at going to the depths of human nature in which someone is pushed to their emotional extremes in what starts out as a genre film but quickly becomes a tragedy. Well, Thirst follows that outline very closely. The plot of the film is that a priest named Sang-hyun becomes a vampire due to a failed medical trail that ended in a blood transfusion. Sang-hyun becomes very popular as he was the only survivor of the experiment. His newfound celebrity status has him summoned by a woman whose son is sick. The priest realizes he used to know this family from when he was younger and eventually he reconnects with them as he is invited to their game night with their family friends. Sang-hyun is soon reminded of a latent attraction to the son's wife, whose name is Tae-ju.

Song Kang-ho stars as the priest and the character is perhaps more fleshed out than the vengeance-driven protagonist from Oldboy. Sang-hyun is a deeply good man who later gives into his desires but he soon finds himself tortured. There were several scenes where Tae-ju would be up to mischief but because he loves her, Sang-hyun would just stand back and watch her. In these scenes, it just takes one look at Song Kang-ho to get this sense of a truly tortured individual. I was reminded that vampires have to act evil not out of desire but out of need and the film uses that as a central theme. This theme works well by having such a religious protagonist because Sang-hyun is a man who believes in god but is powerless to help the sick. This goes back to why he entered the medical trials in the first place and how he must fight against his desires to achieve his needs. The film becomes cyclical in that sense and I consider that the making of great tragedy.

I really had no problems with the film. At times I was horrified and at other times it was enjoying to see a vampire film feel so epic and emotional. Perhaps some less romance would be better, but overall I felt that Park Chan-wook used the romance between Sang-hyun and Tae-ju to prepare us for the devastating climaxes and finale. My favorite scene had to be when Sang-hyun tries to convert Tae-ju on the floor of her apartment. Everything from the camerawork to the score was exquisite. On a final note, this may not be the best modern vampire film (I leave that honor to either Let the Right One In or Shadow of the Vampire) but it is extremely unique. So unique that I don't plan on revisiting this film so I can let the emotional impact just sit with me. That and the slurping will be remembered very well.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

East Asian Directors Marathon #3- House of Flying Daggers (2004, China, Zhang Yimou)


"Do not pull this dagger out. I'm sending you back to keep spying for us. You will be more convincing with a dagger in your back."

When compared to Hero, House of Flying Daggers is quite simple. I look at that as both a good and a bad thing for the film. It wears its themes on its sleeves and some things I at first felt like I had to take at face value, but then I realized that this was more of an opera than a film. More of an experience than a story. It asks you to sit back and enjoy the colors, the music, the romance, the action, and the suspense. It asks you to appreciate the art direction, costume design, and sound editing. Never before have I seen a more technically proficient film that works side-by-side with storytelling since perhaps The Matrix or Blade Runner.

Like those films, any CGI in this film is used as a storytelling device. We see this as the film goes from small set pieces to bigger ones. The (small) first scene that left me in awe was when police captain Leo challenges dancer Mei to an "echo game." A room is surrounded with drums and he throws a pebble as it bounces from one drum to the next. Mei is blind and yet she uses her costume of flowing silk like a whip as she replicates the drum pattern while dancing to music. The second sequence that left me in awe was this fight in the bamboo trees where Mei and Jin fend off soldiers with kill orders. The scene reminded me of the tree top sequence from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (a film that I'll eventually get to in this marathon). It was just both artistic and served to move the characters and story along.

Let me provide some context before I go any further. Set in ancient China, Jin and Leo are police captains who want to take down the fascist group known as the House of Flying Daggers. They believe Mei (a blind dancer at a brothel, or whatever kind of place it is) is the daughter of the former assassinated leader. Leo captures her and then Jin goes undercover as a lone warrior named Wind to break her out and ask to join the Flying Daggers. From there, Leo will trail Jin and Mei and then have his soldiers take out all the Flying Daggers' members including the mysterious leader of the group.

From what I know and like I said, the movie plays more like an opera than an action movie. The camera is constantly keeping close to the characters so we can see all the emotion on their faces. At first I felt like the emotion that was displayed wasn't enough to warrant a romance between Jin and Mei as they head north to the Flying Daggers' headquarters. Then I started to notice how trust strengthened their bond and despite their earlier flirtation, I truly believed these characters loved each other. Not that Zhang Ziyi is already an incredible actress, but I was totally invested in Andy Lau as Leo. He had this stone faced persona that could then believably become emotional on cue. It reminded me of Tony Leung from In the Mood for Love (once again, another film I'll revisit) who if I remember correctly starred alongside Lau in Infernal Affairs (which later was remade by William Monahan and Martin Scorsese to become The Departed).

I should once again remind everyone that this is all set alongside such motifs as daggers, blood, leaves, and silk. Zhang Yimou is a visual artist who can use the still images to create life and art. Through a very well paced story (more so than Hero, I felt), camera work that compliments choreography, and a sensual tone that works alongside the plot without overtaking it (the film's restraint is noticeable but not distractive)... you have a soap operatic, mediative film on love and war with a devastating finale.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

East Asian Directors Marathon #2- Hero (2002, China, Zhang Yimou)



"How swift thy sword."

The general consensus of Hero seems to be that it looks beautiful but the story doesn't measure up. The same has been said of Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers and some comments have gone as far to say that Zhang Yimou has sold out when comparing Hero and House of Flying Daggers to his previous works like Raise the Red Lantern and To Live. Whatever the case, the man is an extremely, critically acclaimed filmmaker and I was very excited to see his take on the martial arts genre as my first foray into his filmography. I found some problems, but I hope that when I see the rest of his work, the beauty that exists faintly behind this story comes to the forefront of others.

Hero takes place in ancient China when a man known as Nameless comes to the King of Qin's castle and seeks an audience with the King. After walking past countless soldiers, Nameless is permitted one hundred paces from the throne to tell a series of stories (if he steps closer without permission, he will be killed). The stories tell of how Nameless vanquished three famous assassins that have been trying to kill the King for years. With each story, Nameless is allowed closer to the King but the King has his own version of what happened as he refuses to believe that a man he has never heard of killed the great assassins known as Broken Sword, Flying Snow, and Long Sky. Nevertheless, while the King appears to think he has the upper hand, it is Nameless's ulterior motives that may be the King's downfall.

I enjoyed watching the martial arts sequences. I loved seeing all the interaction with water especially during the fight on the lake between Broken Sword and Nameless where the camera goes under the water. Water is also present during the fight between Nameless and Long Sky as it drips down through the ceiling of a house where chess is played both literally and figuratively. Zhang Yimou is known for his use of colors and with the help of Christopher Doyle (Wong Kar-Wai's cinematographer), the camerawork accentuates all the hues that are present. The scenes either look gray, red, blue, white, green, or black for each of the stories that Nameless or the King tells (I'm reminded of Steven Soderbergh's Traffic or of the Wachowski Brothers' The Matrix, where each segment had been color corrected). Everything is beautifully colored from the leaves to the silk costumes. I loved the staging of the scenes such as how arrows attack a school while calligraphers write and how a blind harp player plays while a battle rages on. This film exemplifies martial arts as poetry where you could defeat an opponent without even fighting them.

Like I said, the cinematography is top notch, but so is the editing. Scenes are paced very well when looked at by themselves, but I had some issues with the pace of the overall story. The story started so strong but then it felt bogged down by unnecessary character development and relationships. Especially the relationships between Broken Sword, Flying Snow, and Moon felt too shallow and over-dramatic and the acting (especially on the part of Jet Li) just didn't move me. Then again, these are stale faced warriors we are dealing with but still, I wasn't really moved by any of their tragic fates. Was the character of Moon even needed? I felt it was just a reason to get Zhang Ziyi in a cast that already included heavyweights such as Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, and Donnie Yen. I also don't know if I like how the film tries to use the Rashomon effect. Not that Akira Kurosawa wouldn't be proud, but the film doesn't really need multiple stylized accounts to get the the point and themes behind the story.

The themes themselves are, however, actually important. Should it be fighting a war to reach peace or using peace to end a war? I felt that style over substance began to trickle out toward the end where nothing too deep and meaningful was achieved. I also had trouble relating to some of the nationalistic sentiment (shown in the opening and closing texts of the movie) but the tones that surrounded such moments were ones of mourning and not patriotism. So yes I felt the tragedy, it just unfortunately didn't affect me.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

East Asian Directors Marathon #1- Oldboy (2003, South Korea, Park Chan-wook)


"Even though I'm no more than a monster- don't I, too, have the right to live?"

This is the second time I've seen the film. The first time I walked away with a bevy of emotions battling inside of me. The story of the film is both beautiful and repulsive. I was so shocked by what I just witnessed. Those final scenes of the film could only be described as the destruction of a man's humanity. A dear friend told me to watch the film a second time, now knowing the shock and just look at how well the story was told. So to start off my look at East Asian Directors, this felt like the perfect mindset to begin with. I should point out that is tough to talk about this film and not give secrets away. Don't even bother reading if you plan on sitting down for this movie one day. I wouldn't call it spoiler-worthy, but I do give up some intricate details.

For those who've never seen this film, let me explain the first fifteen minutes of the plot. Oh Dae-su probably got into some sort of a bar-fight or was arrested for lewd behavior. It doesn't really matter. All we know is that in the film's second scene, he is in a police station waiting for his friend to come bail him out. Once his friend arrives, he takes Oh Dae-su out into the rain and looks away only for a moment and when he turns around, Oh Dae-su is gone. Oh Dae-su wakes up in a hotel room with no windows and a bolted down door. Every so often a latch is opened at the bottom of the door where dumplings are delivered as Oh Dae-su's meal for the day. He has a television set in the room which he turns on to learn that his wife has been murdered and his daughter has been sent to a foster family in another country as part of an adoption program. Fingerprints and other evidence indicates that he murdered his wife making him a wanted fugitive. Days turn into months and months turn into years. Oh Dae-su then plans his vengeance. He builds up his body to peak physical strength for the one day he is let free and he remembers the taste of the dumplings so perhaps he can use that as a clue to track down who has imprisoned him for what becomes fifteen years.

Gas is periodically vented into the room that knocks Oh Dae-su out. When he wakes up, his nails are clipped, his hair his cut, and his clothes are changed. One day the gas comes into the room but instead of waking up back in the apartment, he wakes up on a rooftop. That is where the journey of this man's vengeance truly begins. Before he goes after his captors, he decides to stop at a sushi restaurant (a scene where a live animal is definitely consumed during filming) where he recognizes the female sushi chef from the TV. She is Mi-do and she develops a liking to Oh Dae-su. When he faints at the restaurant, she takes him home to care for him and the two begin a relationship of sorts.

So this is the beginning of the film, but where it ends up is somewhere else entirely. The film begins as a mystery and ends as a tragedy. Along the way Oh Dau-su fights a hallway of his jailers and pulls some teeth as he falls deeper and deeper into vengeance. Some might call this shock cinema, but it really serves to move the story along. However, come the final revelation, one might look at it as a letdown. It is not truly a momentous reason to jail a man for fifteen years but I question whether it relates to something dark and personal for Park Chan-wook and his writers or if it is a reflection on taboos in South Korean culture that haven't been addressed in their cinema yet. Either way, Oldboy is a film that doesn't stop along the way to question its logic. Instead it trusts that we can understand these human emotions that can only be realized once we've all been pushed past our breaking points. Think of the most tragic and poetic story or film you've witnessed (for me it is either Schindler's List or Requiem for a Dream) and forget them. Oldboy is much more difficult to watch. At first you'll be impressed at the fights and the thrilling aspects of the film but once Mi-do and Oh Dae-su become romantically involved right after the villain is revealed, everything changes.

As repulsive and horrific the film may appear, I think having been a part of such an experience you'll begin to question the ending and then you can find the beauty in the film. You've witnessed a man become destroyed but where does that leave him? I think it actually leaves him in a place of understanding. Could I tell you why and how? Probably not, but the concluding smile should lead me to believe that Oh Dae-su found something deep inside of him and that will leave him content. It is just a damn shame that he may forget the journey that got him there. I'll leave the rest for a more intelligence analyst to resolve. Yet I couldn't get behind the vengeance aspect during my second viewing. That is the central theme of the film (and oddly enough, so is love, whether it be allowed or not). The first time I was repulsed while the second time I felt there was no justification behind the repulsiveness. I really don't want to revisit the film a third time despite how masterfully put together everything feels. I question what mindset I have to be in to ever gain a deeper understanding of this story. What I do like about the content of the film is how far from the mainstream it is, but I don't want to ever go beyond the point that Oldboy sits at on the spectrum.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Friday, August 6, 2010

The Other Guys



First, when it comes to comedies, I love reading too much into them. I think somehow on a subconscious level, the best comedies are made with a deep intent. Second, I always get the impression from his films that Adam McKay has the ambition to put forth something really meaningful. Not necessarily always in a comedic fashion, but he somehow does deliver these comments about society in his films. His comments are just behind a lot of silliness. So to get to what is really behind The Other Guys, I first thought about the characters and the actors that portrayed them. You have Will Ferrell who in this film I felt he was surprisingly restrained. I want to see more performances like this from him. He nailed the whole, "I'm a desk cop" act perfectly that was needed to buy this character as a real human being with emotions. As we learn about his past, we realize that like Ferrell, the character he plays has to restrain himself. Yet Ferrell's character has been assigned to Mark Wahlberg's character who doesn't restrain himself and he gets closer and closer to blowing a fuse as he has to put up with his obsession of being the top cop. Now Wahlberg is a dramatic actor first and probably a comedic actor second. His intincts seemed to be telling him to play this role seriously and it just works. Both actors deliver jokes and insults with much more class than say Rob Schneider or David Spade. These characters have great distinctly divided personalities that border on obsessiveness. The Other Guys really is some sort of veiled character study on being what is wanted versus what is needed of you (and some statements on being cool and manly as hell). The performances from Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, and Steve Coogan are just part of the icing on the cake. This film reminded me of something from early Woody Allen, and who knows? Maybe McKay can start to get a little more serious because to be honest, I didn't laugh a whole lot. Some of it was just absurd but it usually takes a lot to get my jaded self to even chuckle or giggle. More amusing than hilarious but still fun to watch. However I must distinguish the golfing range scene with the helicopter... it was comedy gold. On my Good, Okay, and Bad scale…. GRADE: OKAY

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

My Top 100 (or the best I could do for this year)

So here is my top 100 for filmspotting.

This is a very personal list where I had to make some tough choices as to how to order it but after working on this for a week, I'm finally comfortable with the films and their positions. Like I said, this list is more personal than a representation of the "best filmmaking." These are films that affected me emotionally to a high degree. So I apologize for those that are questioning where Casablanca, 8 1/2, The Seventh Seal, or Raging Bull are. I just didn't quite connect with them the way I did these 100 other movies. Read on...

1. The Godfather Part II (1974, Francis Ford Coppola)


2. The Godfather (1972, Francis Ford Coppola)


3. Schindler's List (1993, Steven Spielberg)


4. Apocalypse Now (1979, Francis Ford Coppola)


5. American Beauty (1999, Sam Mendes)


6. Adaptation (2002, Spike Jonze)


7. All That Jazz (1979, Bob Fosse)


8. City of God (2002, Fernando Meirelles)


9. Bonnie and Clyde (1967, Arthur Penn)


10. Magnolia (1999, Paul Thomas Anderson)


11. Paths of Glory (1957, Stanley Kubrick)


12. Children of Men (2006, Alfonso Cuaron)


13. LA Confidential (1997, Curtis Hanson)


14. The Lives of Others (2006, Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck)


15. Pan's Labyrinth (2006, Guillermo Del Toro)


16. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, Michel Gondry)


17. Munich (2005, Steven Spielberg)


18. Oldboy (2003, Park Chan-Wook)


19. Michael Clayton (2007, Tony Gilroy)


20. The Verdict (1982, Sidney Lumet)


21. The Departed (2006, Martin Scorsese)


22. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007, Sidney Lumet)


23. 12 Angry Men (1957, Sidney Lumet)


24. Alien (1979, Ridley Scott)


25. A History of Violence (2005, David Cronenberg)


26. On the Waterfront (1954, Elia Kazan)


27. Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles)


28. No Country for Old Men (2007, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen)


29. Finding Neverland (2004, Marc Forster)


30. The Insider (1999, Michael Mann)


31. Quiz Show (1994, Robert Redford)


32. Black Hawk Down (2001, Ridley Scott)


33. Born on the Fourth of July (1989, Oliver Stone)


34. Full Metal Jacket (1987, Stanley Kubrick)


35. The Shawshank Redemption (1994, Frank Darabont)


36. Fight Club (1999, David Fincher)


37. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992, James Foley)


38. Mystic River (2003, Clint Eastwood)


39. The Constant Gardener (2005, Fernando Meirelles)


40. Awakenings (1990, Penny Marshall)


41. A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001, Steven Spielberg)


42. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982, Steven Spielberg)


43. Wall-E (2008, Andrew Stanton)


44. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977, Steven Spielberg)

45. The Shining (1980, Stanley Kubrick)


46. Night of the Living Dead (1968, George Romero)


47. The Silence of the Lambs (1991, Jonathan Demme)


48. Reservoir Dogs (1992, Quentin Tarantino)


49. Heat (1995, Michael Mann)


50. Fargo (1996, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen)


51. Reds (1981, Warren Beatty)


52. Dog Day Afternoon (1975, Sidney Lumet)


53. Missing (1982, Costa Gavras)


54. Network (1976, Sidney Lumet)


55. All the President's Men (1976, Alan J. Pakula)


56. Good Night and Good Luck (2005, George Clooney)


57. Taxi Driver (1976, Martin Scorsese)


58. Ordinary People (1980, Robert Redford)


59. Annie Hall (1977, Woody Allen)


60. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957, David Lean)


61. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, Steven Spielberg)


62. Jaws (1975, Steven Spielberg)


63. Three Kings (1999, David O. Russell)


64. Lone Star (1996, John Sayles)


65. The Long Goodbye (1973, Robert Altman)


66. The French Connection (1971, William Friedkin)


67. In the Heat of the Night (1967, Norman Jewison)

68. Serpico (1973, Sidney Lumet)


69. JFK (1991, Oliver Stone)


70. District 9 (2009, Neill Blomkamp)


71. 3:10 to Yuma (2007, James Mangold)


72. Minority Report (2002, Steven Spielberg)


73. Big Fish (2003, Tim Burton)

74. The Matrix (1999, Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski)


75. 12 Monkeys (1995, Terry Gilliam)


76. Knocked Up (2007, Judd Apatow)


77. Inglourious Basterds (2009, Quentin Tarantino)


78. The Dark Knight (2008, Christopher Nolan)


79. Casino Royale (2006, Martin Campbell)


80. The Prestige (2006, Christopher Nolan)


81. The Wild Bunch (1969, Sam Peckinpah)


82. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969, George Roy Hill)

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83. In Bruges (2008, Martin McDonaugh)


84. Collateral (2004, Michael Mann)


85. The Truman Show (1998, Peter Weir)


86. Toy Story (1995, John Lasseter)


87. Badlands (1973, Terrence Malick)


88. Walk the Line (2005, James Mangold)


89. Touch of Evil (1958, Orson Welles)


90. Rosemary's Baby (1968, Roman Polanski)


91. North by Northwest (1959, Alfred Hitchcock)


92. Superbad (2007, Greg Mottola)


93. Borat (2006, Larry Charles)


94. The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005, Judd Apatow)


95. Ocean's Eleven (2001, Steven Soderbergh)


96. The Lion King (1994, Roger Allers and Robert Minkoff)


97. Road to Perdition (2002, Sam Mendes)


98. Dead Man Walking (1995, Tim Robbins)


99. Finding Nemo (2003, Andrew Stanton)


100. Beauty and the Beast (1991, Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise)