My Favorite Movies
My Favorite Movies 55: The Firemen’s Ball (Milos Forman, 1967)
Though the human race may be loathe to admit it, the desire to see the world burn is found within the hearts of more than just Batman villains. Who hasn’t experienced a small illicit thrill of delight at the sight of someone about to fuck up? Maybe we don’t all want to see the city…
Read MoreMy Favorite Movies 54: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956)
Horror films can be frightening for many reasons. Unstoppable stalkers, cheap jump scares, and over the top gore all have the ability to scare the viewer. However, none of that is quite as terrifying as Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ chilling idea that, not only have all one’s friends and family been turned into emotionless…
Read MoreMy Favorite Movies 53: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)
The good old fashioned “classic” style American western has taken many forms over the years, from revisionist westerns that lost sight of the true meaning of “Christmas” to “Spaghetti” westerns that took the genre down an entirely different dark path. And while revisionist westerns (with a few exceptions) don’t get a lot of love in…
Read MoreMy Favorite Movies 52: Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)
Most of Marilyn Monroe’s films rank quit high on my list of favorite movies, but if I had to pick just one, I suppose it would have to be Some Like it Hot. Sure, the leads here are basically just another Hope and Crosby “Doofus and the Dick” team–a combo that was always a bit…
Read MoreMy Favorite Movies 51: The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes, 1978)
I’ve written many times about so-called “doomed gangster” characters and their noble (and doomed) struggle to rise above a world that just wants to drag them under a sea of conformity. And while these doomed gangsters were fundamentally distinguished by their notable otherness from the rest of society, Cassavetes’ masterpiece, The Killing of a Chinese…
Read MoreMy Favorite Movies 50: Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (Danny Leiner, 2004)
I’ve talked about stoner comedies before, and I’ve talked about “one crazy night” movies before, today I’ll talk about a movie that is both. Obviously, as the perfect mixture of film genres, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle must be my favorite movie of all time, right? Well, if it’s not quite my favorite…
Read MoreMy Favorite Movies 49: The Old Dark House (James Whale, 1932)
Of the string of early 1930s Universal Studios horror films for which director James Whale is best known, my easy favorite is The Old Dark House. Not to take anything away from the brilliant Invisible Man and Frankenstein films, but for sheer expressionistic atmosphere and darkly comic horror, The Old Dark House is hard to…
Read MoreMy Favorite Movies 48: The Big Lebowski (Joel and Ethan Coen, 1998)
One possible reason the private eye film has always been so resonant with myself might be how closely it aligns with the hero cycle that is supposedly embedded in the psyche of the human condition. In the private eye’s quest into the unknown world through which he ventures in order to find his ultimate boon…
Read MoreMy Favorite Movies 47: Caddyshack (Harold Ramis, 1980)
Caddyshack is the kind of movie where a character pauses mid-conversation to let out a giant fart and then says “hey hey, did somebody step on a duck?” More specifically, Caddyshack is the kind of a movie where a line like that is one of the more celebrated lines in the film. Caddyshack is a…
Read MoreMy Favorite Movies 46: Rififi (Jules Dassin, 1955)
Heist films haven’t always been the cheery Ocean’s 11 style affairs that we know today. Once upon a time, when the world was young, heist films were brutally nihilistic affairs where, spoiler alert, EVERYONE died at the end. Not that these deaths were punishment for a life of crime, rather, they were a grim portrayal…
Read More