Aaah, movies. I'm somewhat of a film buff, so if I were to list movies I consider favorites, I'd be here all night. I'll list a few particular standouts. I like most films...the ones listed here, however, will nearly all be dramatic rather than comedic. I would say that, in general, my "mean enjoyment" of comedies would be greater than dramas. Even so, my favorites tend to be ones that give me some sort of emotional takeaway. Though I enjoy many different genres, I particularly enjoy films with a darker or more existentialist slant. Therefore, noir films always appealed to me. I enjoy well-made science fiction which, unfortunately, is all too rare. Most sci-fi movies tend to focus on action or special effects rather than a coherent storyline. I try not to constrain myself to sci-fi...only one of the three movies I picked takes place in the future. Anyway, let's get on with the show.
Blade Runner is my immediate answer when I'm asked about my all-time favorite movie. It moves slowly, but with a poetry and grace that I find lacking in much of modern cinema since. The philosophical plot questions raised by the plot (What does it mean to be human?), the long, dark shots setting an eerily ambient scene, and the ambiguity at the end gives the viewer a lot to think about and, in my opinion, all combine to make this my perfect movie.
I decided to add Сталкер (Stalker) at the last minute. Yes, I admit that I was bored the first time I tried watching it. And the second. But the movies of Andrei Tarkovsky is like whiskey--if you're not in the mood for it, you'll hate it. His long, loooong, slow cinematic style strips the film down to its' bare essentials, with no wordy dialogue or special effects getting in the way, reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman. It's certainly not a movie to watch for thrills or a happy ending. Incredibly the movie was written before the Chernobyl accident and the creation of the "Zone"-like ghost town of Pripyat.
I enjoyed all of Tarantino's films, but Reservoir Dogs, as his first, gets a mention on the list. When I was a kid, I used to look at the DVD shelves and see Boondock Saints and Reservoir Dogs sitting on the top shelf: two rated-R movies that I really, really wanted to see but were out of my reach. When I finally got the chance, I rented Reservoir Dogs and immediately fell in love with the works of Quentin Tarantino. The fast dialogue, pop culture references, brash cinematography...everything about his films make them special to me.
I knew halfway through There Will Be Blood that it would be one of my favorites. The story of how a 19th-century oilman's greed brought about his emotional downfall, Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano steal the show. This movie also has one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard. It perfectly matched the emotional and physical bleakness of the landscape portrayed on screen.
I could have gone on a bit more, but that's all I can write for now. Who knows...I might go back and add some more later.
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