And don’t forget to check out Andrew Brenner’s list. He’s getting prolific with this stuff.

No more ado. Here we go.

NUMBER 80 – L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (1997)

Here’s another film like The Royal Tenenbaums that is just perfectly put together. The casting is almost a dream, and the performances are fantastic (Kim Basinger in an Academy Award winning role, plus Russell Crowe, Guy Peace AND Kevin Spacey all shine.) Director Curtis Hanson must be independently wealthy—he’s only made 4 films in the decade since L.A. Confidential. Either that or he put all he had creatively into this one. Either way, this film is alive. The sets and set decoration capture a vibe of 1950’s L.A. leaping right out of stock footage and the pages of pulp magazines and tabloids (it should come as no surprise that Hanson based a ton of what he did visually on old videos, photographs, and postcards.) But seeing those scenes come to life with actual, three-dimensional characters, and one heck of a well-imagined thrilling story, is just icing on the visual cake. To me this film is a masterpiece because the story works so well you don’t even notice everything else that went into the film technically, and yet you can really appreciate it merely for the technical aspects as well if you choose to (the DVD notably has a “music only” audio track, the only such track I’ve seen on a DVD.)

The film’s “Welcome to Los Angeles” 2:45 opening sequence perfectly sums up exactly the style and tone this film succeeds at on the highest level. One of the best films of the 90’s.

NUMBER 79 – SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (2008)

which of these things does not belong...

My first impression of this film is that the narrative was perfect. Is it slightly attenuated? Sure. Is it a little over the top? Maybe. But those questions are just obliterated from your mind due to the mastery of pace and photography in this film. So many people I’ve talked to about the film remark that they can’t believe that the poverty in India is so desperate (it’s probably worse.) Others talk about the film’s wonderful fairy-tale love story. Still others have marveled at the wonderful performances of completely unknown young actors. For me, the film succeeds in all of these ways, and the sum total of these fantastic elements is a film where the strengths completely outshine the weaknesses. The story is sweeping, the locations epic, and it is the narrative structure that is both a fantastic (and somewhat unique) device and why this film works so well. The division of the story allows it to be so many things–drama, romance, action, thriller–without spending too much time becoming just one of them.

Director Danny Boyle creates consistently interesting and unique films (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Millions) that don’t rely on star power or $150 million budgets. That he does so with such skill and deft hands also speaks to why this film works so well as a culmination of his work to date. He still looks funny as hell (and completely superimposed) in this picture though…

NUMBER 78 – THE EXORCIST (1971)

Legitimately the scariest film of all time. And it makes its bones on atmosphere—lighting, songs, sound, not merely on effects (though Linda Blair’s head spinning around remains freaky to this day, and the effects are notable.) This is a masterwork of horror. It’s psychological. It’s freaky. At its time, it was something truly new in terms of the levels of disturbance it captures. Adjusted for inflation, it’s the highest-grossing R rated film of all time. It is scary because it’s at least partially believable—Warner Brothers had to hire private security for Linda Blair after she received death threats for her portrayal as the possessed 13 year old girl that is the subject of the title action. Yes, a 13 year old actress got death threats. And Billy Graham claimed there was an actual demon living in the celluloid reels of the film. Quite simply, this is a disturbing, impactful, horror flick. It wasn’t even available in the UK until 1999!

Nominated for 10 Oscars (a horror film nominated for 10 Oscars) including acting, writing, directing and others related to the fantastic production of the film. This one is just uber-disturbing. It stays with you.

NUMBER 77 – BLOWUP (1966)

Sometimes reality is the strangest fantasy of all. That’s the tagline from the original trailer for this film, and it’s a perfect summation of what this film captures so perfectly.

Director Michelangelo Antonioni is a forgotten master of the art film, the film that is free to leave open-ended questions in its narrative and mean different things to different people. Blowup is a fantastic example of such a film, centered around a London Fashion photographer who may (or may not) have captured a murder in some random still photographs he took. I saw this in a theater with three other people. Two of us were completely blown away by it, one person was completely befuddled, and the other person was angry. It’s a rare film that engenders such varied and passionate responses, responses that closely mirror individual responses to our own reality.

This is admittedly not a film for everyone. But it stands as a landmark to me for what it says about our view of reality, or, rather, what we say about it, why we say it, and how that manifests in our actions. Antonioni chose a London Mod Fashion photographer in the late 60’s because of the somewhat-warped reality that scenario already presents. Where he goes with it will either bore you to tears, or really put you in an existential mood for a week or two. Like reality, it depends on how you interpret it.

NUMBER 76 – THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY (1966)

I consider this to be one of the most all-around well made scenes in film history. This movie almost makes this list on this scene alone. Warning, this is from the end of the film. Contains spoilers.

In case you haven’t noticed by now, I am a big fan of music, sound, camera. Dialogue is way down on the list of why I appreciate films. This scene is incredible for the integration of different camera angles, the editing to the pace and build of the music, and the use of cuts to build intensity and emotional involvement.

The whole film is this way, an incredible harmonic convergence of sight, sound, song, and performance. It has been hailed as the greatest Western of all time, and several well known directors have labeled it the best directed film of all time. It deserves every ounce of praise it gets. I honest to God get chills watching that scene every single time. I don’t know if they shot it then scored it, or shot it TO the score. I like to think it’s the latter. If I made movies, this is absolutely how I would make them. So much of the Western genre is wrapped up in location, natural sounds, etc. This film does everything it should and is absolutely a top example of America’s most personal genre.

NUMBER 75 – THE LODGER: A STORY OF THE LONDON FOG (1927)

An early Hitchcock classic. And if you haven’t guessed it, there are going to be a ton of Hitchcock films on this list. That this checks in as the lowest-ranked one should not be seen as me somehow thinking it deserves less than stellar praise. It’s also the first, though it won’t be the last, silent film on the list.

Part of the reason I value this film so much is that it is silent. Hitchcock, known to all as the master of suspense, without sound or score (though most versions are scored) shows how simple camera work, lighting, and editing can build suspense. This is like listening to Beethoven create a masterpiece with just the piano and viola. You really appreciate the individual parts more when some of them are removed. Why THE LODGER is also important is while so many silent films make their bones on grandiose themes, or melodramtic acting or situations; THE LODGER is a straight suspense story told by a master.

It’s a technically instructive film, but it’s also a great one if you’re into suspense. The story is so renowned that it has been made into several films—this is the best of the bunch. And the full title should be appreciated, “A Story of the London Fog”. Hitchcock realized that this film isn’t just about the characters, or, rather, he realized that the city ITSELF is a character. That’s the sort of realization that takes his entertainment to the level of art.

You can watch all of THE LODGER on youtube, in 9 parts.

NUMBER 74 – A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951)

12 Academy Award nominations. An outstanding cast playing roles they were born to play, and first played on stage. A director in Elia Kazan who understood how to build the tension and raw emotion of the film in small ways, having directed the stage show himself prior to helming the film. A fantastic score and a film that is just filled with sensuality and natural heat. It’s fitting that the film is set in New Orleans, and fitting that the lead character, portrayed incredibly by Vivien Leigh, are so full of passion that a film can barely contain them.

There is so much in this film that is just absolutely pitch perfect with the performances of the actors. In fact it won three Academy Awards for acting alone, a near rarity in cinematic history. And, notably, this is the film that basically introduced the force of nature that was/is Marlon Brando to audiences. The performances absolutely hum because of another rarity—nearly the entire Broadway cast was used in the film. It’s a tribute to the talent of Vivian Leigh that her stellar performance was the only main role with a replacement actor from stage to screen. It can’t have been easy to step into a well-oiled machine like that.

Kazan is a master of the little things. Little things like how the set of the Kowalski apartment actually gets smaller as the film goes on to heighten the suggestion of Blanche’s increasing claustrophobia. Little things like shooting this masterpiece in under 40 days. His touch is deft, not heavy-handed, and the results are fantastic. There just aren’t too many films where the performances of the actors shine so amazingly, so legendarily. Mix in an incredible score and some of the most memorable dialogue in film history, and you have a screen classic.

NUMBER 73 – NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007)

The film is memorable for so many things—the lack of a score, the fantastically chilling performance of Javier Bardem, the film’s theme of the unstoppable nature of evil. But it’s this scene, the ending, that means the most to me. Spoiler free.

This is a film (and a wonderful book by Cormac McCarthy) that has more to do with its title than people realize. The film seems to be about drug money and the dogged pursuit of a real life cowboy in a game of finders keepers with one of the purest forms of evil in cinema history. On its surface, it’s a pure chase movie with good guy and bad guy lines fairly clearly drawn. But what it is really about is how this has always been and always will be no country for old men. The scene above, and the scene where Tommy Lee Jones meets with a retired sheriff and they wax poetic about how, even in 1900, this was no country for old men, are the sum of the film to me. That there are forces of nature like Javier Bardem’s character in the world is nothing new. That the older people in society feel time has passed them by is an eternal theme. To the Sherrif Ed’s of the world, things always used to be better.

Why I love this film, why it works so well to me, is in the face of that theme, the film does wonders to make me yearn for the world of MY childhood, that is, the world depicted in the film. The world where small towns, independent drug, furniture, and department stores existed. A world of roadside non-chain motels. A world without Wal-Mart. This is the world of No Country For Old Men. And even though it is inhabited by really, really depraved souls like Anton Chigurh, I found myself yearning for it as I watched the film. So while Tommy Lee Jones’ character yearns for the past, and Josh Brolin’s character has hopes for the future, I find myself yearning for the time in the film. This is one that has a very personal reaction for me. It may not play the same for everyone else.

NUMBER 72 – LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL (1997)

A whimsical comedy set in a concentration camp, and its interplay and meaning with the film’s title, are what makes this film a classic. The setting of the second half of the film seems unconventional for a comedy, but it is this tragic setting that allows the film to do what the very best comedies do—punch us in the gut as they tickle our ribs. Benigni spins a perfect story featuring both sides of the tragedy/comedy coin. In fact he spins this so well that what results is a something new—like the thanatropic Victorian cards with a bird on one side and a cage on the other that create a new image when spun.

The story, a father who convinces his son through fables and lies that the horrors going on around them during holocaust era World War II are part of one big game, is sweet. The father is played so well with equal parts tenderness, self-delusion, hilarity, and poignancy by Benigni himself that it’s tougher to say which deserves more renown–his acting or his direction.

This film plays like a bittersweet fable. Like a lyrical poem that flows in waves of emotion (both “good” and “bad”) and challenges the viewer to find the good in the bad. The title is not preachy, in fact it’s subtle. If a father can watch the horrors in a concentration camp and find ways to clown for his son to make him laugh, then certainly life is beautiful. Benigni will be remembered for his Oscar acceptance antics (leaping onto the tops of seats, jumping on stage and telling Sophia Loren that he wanted to be with her in no uncertain terms, crying like a baby, you know…being Italian), but he should be remembered in general for his joie de vie. He seems like a man who truly lives the belief that life is beautiful, and with this film he’s made a masterpiece that should help us feel the same way.

NUMBER 71 – JAWS (1975)

Not to spoil the rest of the list, but you aren’t going to find a Speilberg film anywhere on it other than this one.  What that means more than anything is I appreciate how well made this film really is. Considering most of his other films for me are big budget disappointments, this film shows that, at least at some point, Speilberg knew how to make movies as something other than a hack who uses the same old tricks dressed up with the newest CGI and special effects.

This is not to say I don’t appreciate the difficulty of managing a production with a huge budget. It’s more to say that Speilberg gains more of my respect as an artist with a film like Jaws.  Here he generates the suspense through camera work (including the famous p.o.v. of the shark) and legendarily memorable score. He gets the most out of every inch of his sets, namely boats, and his actors. There’s a reason Jaws is better than Deep Blue Sea, a film with better effects and a much greater budget. That’s because Speilberg, rightly, recognized that the suspense is in the filmmaking style, not in the effects.

Alfred Hitchcock legendarily opined that to make a film involving the Titanic disaster and have it have any real suspense, he would open the film with a shot of a single rivet and pull back the shot slowly to reveal the entire boat. The suspense comes from how the effects and sets are presented, not the effects or the sets themselves, and not even always the story. Speilberg knew this in Jaws. He knew he would not be able to make the shark itself convincing to the point of horror, so he made the specter of the shark the source of the terror. He made the suspense and terror psychological, not merely shocking. And he does it so well in Jaws that it is clear this child of America’s “Golden Age” of Radio/TV/Film knows how to work it, which only makes his later films that rely on devices and effects aka big budgets all the more frustrating. I’m not sure he’ll ever do better than Jaws.

NUMBER 70 – THE GENERAL (1927)

Building off of how a master can work within small spaces, or with situations to create things wholly new and fantastic, we have this true comic masterpiece from the Silent Era. It’s enjoyable both from a sheer entertainment standpoint, and it’s a completely fantastic spectacle from a cinematic and comedic standpoint.

The film centers around a chase sequence featuring two trains on the same track. You know, the kind of chase sequence where the pursuer can never overtake the pursued. But this doesn’t matter to Keaton at all, nor does the limited space in which he is able to ply his trade during that sequence. Instead, as a director, he keeps coming up with new situations for his character to make the audience laugh. As an actor he’s a true artist of found comedy—rather than creating it as other masters like Chaplin do, Keaton simpy creates low-key, reliable characters who find themselves in situations that produce laughs. He’s not better than us yet one of us like many great artists, he’s actually one of us. He’s understated. He’s subtle. And this film more than any of his show why he’s a comic genius.

There are so many notable shots and sequences in this film. Films today that are so dialogue heavy to generate laughs are funny, but few films, comedic or otherwise, contain the ingenuity of Keaton’s. It’s been noted that his films mesh perfectly and flow so well that they are like music. To have said that about a silent film speaks to Keaton’s genius as well. This film makes the list because it contains what I feel is his best story, his most daring stunts, and some of his most truly ingenious comic scenarios. In the silent film era, many scenes were written around gags—pratfalls, physical comedy, props, etc. But in this film you won’t find just that. Instead you will find situations in which an everyman finds himself and is faced with opportunities and dangers. Where Keaton finds laughs in those situations is what makes this film legendary.

Can be viewed entirely on youtube, but the quality isn’t great.

NUMBER 69 – SCARLET STREET (1945)

Another thing that will become clear in this list is how my favorite genre is film noir. Some films are on this list because of what they do to evolve that genre. Some are on the list because they take some elements of the genere and play them on the grandest stages and the most outrageous scenarios imaginable. But this film makes the list because it’s one of the single best “pure” noir films of all time. The conventions that other films use to evolve the genre or change the game are acrchtypeal in this film.

I can’t write all I want to about this film without spoiling large elements of the plot. I will cut this entry short and just say that this film is unsettling. Like other films discussed above, some films make clear distinctions between black and white moral choices, this film is cast in shades of grey. You end up feeling sorry for the main character, then being angry with and for him, then hating him, or maybe not. Film Noir typcially presents characters with choices that end up as a choice between the lessor of two evils. In this film, the choices are amplified, are far-reaching, and have terrible consequences. Even the ones that seem like “good” choices.

This one is unsettling, especially if you’d rather your films have clear outcomes and “good” results. This one is much more like life. Bad decisions spiral out of control, bad choices have continual bad results. Its value is in the perfectly visioned archtypeal characters and situations. Director Fritz Lang has three films on this list, all three very different and yet similar. This one is an outstanding genre pic that with Lang’s touch becomes a landmark one, at least for me.

NUMBER 68 – NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955)

It seems fitting that the next film is also unsettling—completely and totally unsettling. While not a pure film noir, the undeniable presence of evil is manifested by Robert Mitchum in one of screen’s all time dark performances.

The plot centers around a self-labeled preacher/convict looking for money his old cellmate has hidden for his wife and children. The preacher, played with nearly unnatural primal urgency by Mitchum, is as evil as evil gets. Check out the primal scream at 1:15 or so into this clip:

The clip, and numerous other youtube clips available from the film, should also show just how hauntingly beautiful this film is. Director Charles Laughton brought his extensive knowledge and experience from the stage to all aspects of this film. Especially notable are the lighting, framing of shots, and use of shadow. It’s a brave and bold choice for a director to make such a brooding, dark, expressionistic film. At the time of its release, this style partially hamstrung the film and led to it being a critical and commercial failure. However, in the years since, it is this very style that has earned the film constant heaps of praise, including this recent entry as one of the top 100 most beautiful films of all time.

Roger Ebert summed it up perfectly in his review : “It is risky to combine horror and humor, and foolhardy to approach them through expressionism. For his first film, Laughton made a film like no other before or since, and with such confidence it seemed to draw on a lifetime of work. Critics were baffled by it, the public rejected it, and the studio had a much more expensive Mitchum picture (“Not as a Stranger”) it wanted to promote instead. But nobody who has seen “The Night of the Hunter” has forgotten it, or Mitchum’s voice coiling down those basement stairs: “Chillll . . . dren?”

NUMBER 67 – THE CONVERSATION (1974)

This film is really a bookend to the number 77 film on my list, Blowup.  Both films are about how a closer inspection of what we think we saw/heard might reveal something different, about how our own views distort reality, and about how magnificently cinematic the struggle between whether we are a product of our reality or whether our reality is a product of us can be.

It’s no secret that Coppola borrowed heavily from Blowup in making The Conversation. Why this film ranks higher on my list than the masterpiece it owes so much to has to do with several things. The lead performance of Gene Hackman is outstandingly uncomfortable. As the lead character Harry Caul, he plays an audio surveillance expert who is at the same time hyper connected and therefore completely disconnected with reality. Hackman does a masterful job of making Caul’s paranoia palpable through the little things—pauses, eye clicks, physical shifting. The film would be completely empty without his performance.

The soundtrack of the film is also notable, especially for its minimalistic bent and often-atonal nature. It absolutely enhances the paranoia and discomfort in ways only perfectly-designed film scores can. It’s especially interesting that the score was written before the film, then tweaked and changed as the composer saw how to better enhance the visual images. This sort of “open source” collaborative effort only makes for a more impactful film.

Blowup captures a moment in time of a certain seemingly-unrealistic mod scene, The Conversation taps into a feeling, or scenario, still being played out as we press on into the information age. It appears at first glance as a comment on the Watergate-era, but notably it predates much of the scandal and coverage. It covers ground we are still experiencing, or will be experiencing. In that way it is as powerful as it is prescient.

NUMBER 66 – REBECCA (1940)

Alfred Hitchcock, master of film and he of direction of at least ten of the films on this list, only won one Best Picture Oscar. One. And it was for this fantastic film.

If you’re expecting the usual Hitchcock–taut suspense, sequences of frantic pacing, plot twists and turns–you are probably going to be let down. Instead of unfolding in typical Hitchcockian fashion, this film unfolds like a dream, and slowly turns into a nightmare.

The film finds a newly-married young woman completely over her head as wife in charge of a house that’s epically mammoth, and a staff that sees her as  poor replacement for the recently-deceased ex wife of her new husband. The husband, played by Lawrence Oliver in his brooding best, seems incapable of love. The entire film is haunted by the specter of the deceased wife, who plays a vital role in nearly every interaction, and yet is never seen on camera. But how did she die?  And what influence does she have, even from beyond the grave, of the fate of the newly married couple?

The sets are glorious, and the characters, especially the Head of Staff Mrs. Danvers whose feelings for the deceased wife simmer in ways unspeakable in 1940, are three dimensional and vibrant. The amazing house, pictured here, is a character in and of itself, so that the first line of the film is evocative and memorable. A beloved classic of literature, with a director and a legendary producer make this Best Picture winner from 1940 a memorable film.

NUMBER 65 – STALAG 17 (1953)

NUMBER 64 – LAURA (1944)

NUMBER 63 – SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950)

NUMBER 62 – YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974)

NUMBER 61 – CITY LIGHTS (1931)

Our undertakings will be different, though the goal is the same–amass a list of the 100 films that mean the most to us. I won’t speak for the criteria Andrew is using to make his list, but I can speak the criteria I’ve used.

-These are the films that mean the most to me.

-These are the films I find the most impactful-both on cinema and my life.

Good Film/Movies/Cinema is a rewarding experience for me.  I get just as much entertainment from a well-written, well-made drama as I do from laughing the entire time at Will Ferrell movie. So this list isn’t necessarily full of movies I enjoy on a sheer entertainment level. A movie is just as likely to be on this list for messing with my head for weeks after seeing it, challenging the way I view the world, or being one of the best in a genre as it is just for making me smile. Not every legendary film is going to make my list because some of them just don’t mean as much to me. This whole exercise is subjective.

All this is to say, Anchorman just missed the list. Sorry.

So without further ado, here’s numbers 100-81. The rest will be revealed, 20 at a time, in four additional posts. Don’t forget to view Andrew’s list as well. I think you’ll get a glimpse of how two people with very similar tastes can sometimes view things very differently.

The list begins after the jump…

NUMBER 100 – SNATCH (2000)

Snatch makes this list almost entirely on style. A big part of this is it’s a fantastic example of how a highly-stylized director is totally at home with his technique. And it is director Guy Ritchie’s unique style that is resplendent in this film. It’s pitch perfect, from song selection to casting, from pacing to cinematography. And it’s entirely memorable. Many films since have copped elements of Ritchie’s style, but here all the elements are on display at the top of their form. It helps that this one is all Ritchie, from screenplay to final cut, something all too rare in modern cinema. Note, this is unequivocally a “guy” film, I am hard pressed to even remember a female character in the film. But it would work just as well if all the characters were women. It isn’t about the message, it’s about the style.

NUMBER 99 – BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN (2006)

Sacha Baron Cohen is a modern Groucho Marx. This is for certain not an original observation, but I make it to say he’s truly a genius. Is this film too vulgar for many audiences? Absolutely. Is it uncomfortable? Yes. It’s also hilarious, and Cohen’s completely inhabiting the role–from his gangly walk to his mishmash malpropisms, is one of cinema’s great performances. You end up forgetting the film is largely improvised. You miss the fact that so much of the humor is what Cohen is able to generate through his interactions with everyday people. What results, besides your being entertained, is a view of the Post-9/11 America through the twisted lenses of Borat’s Kazak eyes. Borat is an improvised mockumentary that will stand as a cultural milestone. But yeah, it’s ridiculously vulgar. Like, probably will be considered too vulgar in decades vulgar.

NUMBER 98 – THE DARK KNIGHT (2008)

I had plenty to say about The Dark Knight after seeing it last summer. But in short, this is a genre-changing comic book movie. The layers – that Batman is a character with such a black and white moral code but operates as a vigilante shrouding his actions in greyscale; that in such a depraved world as director Chris Nolan’s Gotham, an amoral menace like The Joker is in some ways a moral center; that the “white knight”, moralistic District Attorney Harvey Dent, is scarred and ruined by the dark spirit of the city he seeks to protect, raise the bar in this film far above that you’d expect from a “comic book movie.” It contains a legendary screen performance in Ledger’s interpretation of The Joker. It does the difficult job of both being incredibly unsettling and a box office smash. And it does it all so well stylisticially. 10 years from now, I have a feeling we’ll look back at this film as a standard bearer of things to come.

NUMBER 97 – THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (2001)

This scene sums it up perfectly. If you haven’t seen the movie, it will mean nothing. But this offbeat comedy is Wes Anderson’s best, and perfectly captures his best skills. Excellent song choices, interesting characters, and completely quirky action. Anderson envisioned an entire world with this film, the depth of the set decoration and character histories is incredible.

NUMBER 96 – ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (2004)

Is it better to have loved and lost or never to have loved before? But what if you have loved and want the sweet bliss, the eternal sunshine, that is the spotless mind? What if you could erase all memory, good and bad, of a lost love? Are some people going to be drawn to each other, and yet wrong for each other, no matter what?

This film is wonderfully complex, incredibly confusing, and richly rewarding, much like the kind of relationships it depicts. It’s science fiction without being geeky, romance without being sappy, and escapism without being detached from reality. It hurts, but it heals. The premise is unique, but the feelings and situations it unravels are entirely real. Painfully real. It pairs Charlie Kaufman’s offbeat narrative style with Michael Gondry’s offbeat visual one, which is the kind of risk that either really goes awry or really works. This really works.

NUMBER 95 – BLAZING SADDLES (1974)

There is parody, and then there’s Mel Brooks. Westerns are our father’s (and grandfather’s) movies, the genre has evolved from one of America’s most prevalent to a dying campfire flame. And, speaking of campfires…

See, there are fart jokes, and then there’s Mel Brooks fart jokes. So gross, and unrealistic by  power of 10. But what’s more unrealistic: Westerns from the 50’s and 60’s that don’t acknowledge the reality of eating beans around a campfire, or Blazing Saddles, which does? That’s comedy–realism and absurdism at the same time. That’s what Blazing Saddles is. Our comedies don’t get enough credit for the powerful statements they can make, via humor, about our society. Mel Brooks will never get enough credit for his ability to cut even as he tickles your ribs.

NUMBER 94 – RAISING ARIZONA (1987)

Boy, you got a panty on your head…

The Coen Brothers were apparently born with the ability to take genres, throw nylons on their heads, and make something entirely new and twisted.  They find humor and laughs in places most films don’t even have places. And because they do that, they find poignancy and feeling in ways that other directors simply can’t, or can only hope to on their best day.

Raising Arizona is the epitome of a Coen Brothers comedy. They get the most out of their actors. They turn the ridiculous (see the above convenience store robbery) to the sublime. Everything in their best films is perfectly thought and realized. Every movement is calculated. Every shot is valuable. And the overall effect is the realization that you are watching something legitimately great.

NUMBER 93 – THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998)

–Take everything I just said about Mel Brooks and parody and the Coen Brothers and comedy.

–Mix with a fantastic cast.

–Sprinkle in some eminently quotable dialogue.

–Repeat screenings with the knowledge the more you do it, the better it gets.

–Add a pinch of Steve Buscemi.

–Top with a White Russian.

This is a recipe for amazing. Please make a note of it.

NUMBER 92 – THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971)

A masterpiece of technical filmmaking from an era when that was not nearly as easy to accomplish with post-production tools and tricks.

It’s notable for being a top genre film, for some great performances (Gene Hackman especially) and an incredible car-chase filmed largely without permission and with unsuspecting drivers and pedestrians in the streets of Brooklyn.

You read that right. This:

was filmed without permission and mostly void of actors and extras. It really was just a nutjob stunt driver and a cameraman wrapped in a mattress in the backseat driving insanely through the streets of New York. Pretty incredible stuff. Academy awards for picture (first R rated film to win) Actor, Director, Editing, and Screenplay. One of the stellar examples of how the 1970’s were America’s best decade for film.

NUMBER 91 – THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984)

A recurring theme throughout this list will be films that are shining stars of their respective genres. This Is Spinal Tap is one of, if not the best, mockumentaries ever made. It’s such a well-made film that on release, many thought it depicted a real band in the last throes of their popularity. It’s also such a well made film that the film’s band (featuring creators Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer) STILL tours the nation to adulation. There are many real bands from the 80’s who would love to be able to play to the crowds this fake one still does. Reality television and shows like “The Office” owe much of their success to the genre-bending glory of This Is Spinal Tap

These go to 11…

NUMBER 90 – MIRAGE (1965)

This might be the first head scratcher on the list, but then, it makes sense that it would be. Because this is a film that sticks with you, makes you scratch your head, and takes days to unravel and put together in your mind. The audience is in the shoes of the lead character, an amnesiac who “comes to” in the middle of a power outage and spends the rest of the film learning things about himself he’d rather not. There’s so much that’s notable about this film, but suffice to say it’s nearly perfectly made. Director Edward Dmytryk is criminally underrated, partially due to his being jailed and eventually naming names in the McCarthy era. Lost in the shuffle of modern directors who owe everything to people like Dmytryk are people LIKE Dmytryk who pioneered so much of the style that modern directors get undeserved credit for. Here’s a taste, this one’s not available on DVD so you will have to swing by the library for the VHS.

NUMBER 89 – APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)

Kurtz: I’ve seen horrors… horrors that you’ve seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that… but you have no right to judge me. It’s impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face… and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies. I remember when I was with Special Forces. Seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into a camp to inoculate the children. We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for Polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn’t see. We went back there and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile. A pile of little arms. And I remember… I… I… I cried. I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want to forget. And then I realized… like I was shot… like I was shot with a diamond… a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought: My God… the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we. Because they could stand that these were not monsters. These were men… trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love… but they had the strength… the strength… to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral… and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling… without passion… without judgment… without judgment. Because it’s judgment that defeats us.

NUMBER 88 – MEMENTO (2000)

The tricks films can pull with a narrative to make you identify with the main character are numerous, but Memento takes those tricks to a whole new level. If you don’t walk away from this film feeling as rattled as the main character must, then I question your humanity. This film has all the elements of a classic suspense film, but the concept is so unique that it presents something entirely rare in modern cinema–something new. It speaks to and represents the unique talents of Christopher Nolan, and announced to filmgoers that this was a man whose unique views and voice will impact cinema as long as he chooses to work. If you haven’t seen this film, go into it with and open mind and prepare to have that mind blown. I don’t want to say anything more lest I ruin the film’s numerous twists.

NUMBER 87 – STRAW DOGS (1971)

Straw Dogs, Sam Peckinpah’s study of violence, is a incredible comment on the male psyche. What happens to Dustin Hoffman’s mild mannered character in this film is meant to show that even the most meek among us has a breaking point. But what is that point? What creates it? And what do we do once we’ve reached it? And once we do reach it, can we ever go back? This film is memorable for its attempts to provide answers to those questions. This film literally erupts, like a smoldering volcano, in a stream of violent catharsis lasting nearly a half hour. But it’s not easily summarized in terms that are morally clear. Instead, Straw Dogs presents ambiguity. Is Hoffman a hero? A villain? That the film leaves these questions to the viewer is but one of its strengths. It’s notable that Peckinpah has stated that he feels if the film has a villain, it’s Hoffman’s character. This is not a film that will appeal to all audiences, and it’s not a film that says much more about society than what it says about Hoffman’s character. But for what it does say, it’s worthy of inclusion on many top 100 lists, this one included.

NUMBER 86 – LES DIABOLIQUES (1955)

I really don’t want to say much about this film, since it owes much of it’s spectacularness to it’s masterful suspense. Suffice to say this is an incredibly well made film. And it’s an incredibly influential film. Alfred Hitchcock took so much of what Les Diaboliques did and used it in Psycho. And of course both films have had immesaureable influence on modern suspense films. Thanks to the glory of the internet, you can watch this entire masterpiece on youtube, which I highly recommend you do. The film’s last 10 minutes are especially fantastic. This is how films should be made. Period. Yes, it’s in French with subtitles. If that’s an issue for you, why are you even reading this list?

Here’s part one, the rest of the film will be linked in the playlist on the right side of the youtube page.

NUMBER 85 – THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1947)

Once upon a time, filmmaking was an art. Still photography come to life. A way to impact viewers with a combination of sensory stimulii that other singluar mediums simply did not present. It’s not a knock on modern filmmakers that masters like Orson Welles had the first crack at creating conventions, it’s more that modern filmmakers have dropped the ball completely. This is a film entirely memorable for Welles’ art. The story, a murder/thriller/noir plot that seems to be populating many films on this list, is taut and well-executed, but it’s the art of Welles both in front of and behind the camera that make this film one of the top 100 of all time. Welles’ technical genius is nearly unrivaled in film history. The end sequence, taking place in a house of mirrors, is legendary and it alone makes the film a landmark in film history. If you’re a fan of film as art, or a fan of noir/suspense, this is one to watch. If you view the video below, ask yourself honestly, who is shooting films like this these days?

NUMBER 84 – JULES ET JIM (1962)

There isn’t anything I can write about this that’s better than what The Village Voice wrote about it. This is a beautiful film that means different things to different people at different points in their lives. It has meant different things to me along the way. But it’s always had meaning. It stays with you. It’s about love, and life, and the forever-intertwined nexus between the two. That Truffaut is a master is unequivocal. That this film is a technical masterpiece should be as well. But that it’s a spiritual one is something altogether different. It is a true piece of cinematic literature, one that will impact you differently depending on your mood, and your satisfaction or lack thereof with your place in life. Read The Village Voice link above. Then see the film. Then see it again. And watch it later.

NUMBER 83 – ANNIE HALL (1977)

A screwball comedy that wins best picture at the Academy Awards (beating out Star Wars) must have a lot going on for it. And, sure enough, Annie Hall does. The movie is downright hilarious, Woody Allen’s one liners are a constant steam of hilariousness, and Diane Keaton is fantastic in the title role. That Woody Allen was able to realize and write fully-developed, complex, characters marked a major evolution in his career. That he was able to do so with such expressions about relationships is something most writers can’t even attempt, let alone succeed as well as Allen does with Annie Hall. The only reason I hesitate to call this the best Romantic Comedy of all time is because another film (in my top 10 actually) takes that title. But this film, with all of it’s screwball situations and hilarious one liners, won the Best Picture award, partially for Allen’s mastery at using comedy as a window to the soul.

NUMBER 82 – DUCK SOUP (1933)

It’s odd that Duck Soup ranks one ahead of Annie Hall, because Woody Allen’s opening monologue in Annie Hall makes reference to one of the great one liners attributed to Groucho Marx (from Duck Soup) to the effect of “I wouldn’t belong to any club that would have me as a member”.

Oddly, this hilarious film didn’t do well at the time it was released, but time has proven it to be both a masterpiece and prophetic. For example, at the beginning of Kalmar and Ruby’s song “Just Wait’ll I Get Through With It,” Groucho’s first two “nonsense” laws are: “No one’s allowed to smoke/ Or tell a dirty joke.” Sound familiar?

The humor–the puns, witticisms, and memorable scenes and situations, are all top-notch examples of the Marx Brothers. When Groucho starts in at 7 minutes, and doesn’t stop, you realize you’re watching one of our all time great comedians at the top of his game. And it helps that Mussolini took the film as a personal insult and banned it in Italy. That such an insanely anarchic comedy has a lot to say about nationalism and war (and stands the test of time) only says more about why this film is a masterpiece.  Memorable scenes include the mirror scene, and the film’s war sendup in the climactic moments.

This is another one that can be viewed entirely on youtube.

NUMBER 81 – WALL-E (2008)

If you missed this, or wrote it off as a kids movie, you should make it a point to see it as soon as possible. Its first hour, almost completely void of dialogue, is full of a sense of wonder I’ve rarely experienced in a film, animated or otherwise. It’s a sweet film, a touching film, and a funny film. It has something to say with very few words, and it says it with a longing and some staying power. That it does so as a cartoon is why it’s on the list at number 81. We’ll see whether it represents where animated movies end up going, or merely where they can go. It was nominated for a writing Oscar for crying out loud.

Films 80-61 will be posted in a week or so. Until then, don’t forget to check out Andrew Brenner’s list, and feel free to make your own!