This is the next of several (seven?) posts that springs from an article,
essentially listing "the most [x] book I've read." Having worked through the list in book form (e.g. here), I've decided to do the same with movies.
The classiest movie I saw: It Happened One Night (1934)
Falling in love is impossible to explain to anyone who's not in it with you, but you know it when it happens. And so it was with It Happened One Night, a knockout film that won the Big Five Oscars, charmed my socks off, and happens to feature my Hollywood-leading-man crush: Clark Gable. Witty, smart, romantic, and rated PG, it is practically the definition of classy film.
(I've seen it a couple of times, but never reviewed)
The loneliest movie I saw: Amour (2012)
Some beautiful things are beautiful because of their newness or youth: flower buds, a car just off the concept pages, a wedding, a tattoo on skin still pink and swollen. Other beautiful things, the more rare sort of beauty that only some people care to recognize, are beautiful because they are no longer new or young or fresh. Like the film Ghost (1990), special because it recognizes death and grief. And like Amour, a movie about two elderly people approaching their end. The loneliness... well, it is integral to the story, so I'm not going to explain it. I will say that I cried, hard, through much of the film. It's not a movie for the shallow, for "entertainment". But it is beautiful.
(reviewed here)
The most devastating movie I saw: Schindler's List (1993)
I worry about the mental health of anyone who could watch this film and not be devastated. Brilliantly composed for maximum impact, it jabs the viewer in all the most tender places. It's fascinating to me that humans seek out these feelings in entertainment, as if we're not getting enough of it in our own, real lives. That's a wonderful combination of curiosity and empathy.
(reviewed here)
The most seductive movie I saw: Labor Day (2013)
Critics disliked this movie, but I thought it was pretty good—and terribly seductive. Not in an overt, sexy, sleazy way, not physically, not obviously. It is seductive because it offers an alternative to all that. The element of chance in the connections we make. The triumph of hope over experience. The fact that it's possible to do bad things but to be honorable. It seduces not on the basis of "I could have sex with Josh Brolin while making a pie," but instead "I could fall in love with someone who seems totally wrong for me." Sigh.
(reviewed here)
The most fearless movie I saw: Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Quentin Tarantino's movies really go for it; part of what makes him unique is the "all in" nature of his filmmaking. This is the best of that. From the writing to the acting to the editing and sound, no one involved with this movie held back or tried to pretty it up. I think that's very brave, and that the result is unusual and refreshing.
(reviewed here)
[based on this post; the title quotation is from Roger Ebert]
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