I probably don't need to point this out, but this is a completely personal list, encompassing the movies that I go back to most, the movies that inspire me the most, and the movies that demonstrate my taste most accurately. I'm showing my 23 years of age, because it's heavy on the modern - much as I'd love to have this list full of obscurities and really be able to show off my film geek credentials here, but being true to myself, this is my top ten:
10.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
The word "epic" is insanely overused these days, but it should be reserved for something like this. I'll just leave it at this, so as not to go on too long (it's a slippery slope): This trilogy's are an astounding success.
9.
Batman Returns
Tim Burton is the first director I ever loved, the first director whose films I ever studied or analyzed, and this is the first Burton film that I really tried to break down and figure out what it was doing and why I loved it so much. (I hope it's needless to say that I figured those things out, because I created an entire thread to review it
one scene at a time.) This was one of the first films for which I thought, "Somebody
made this" - although, of course, hundreds of people worked together to make it - and I continue to connect to it. It's one of my favorites from my favorite director. It's one of my favorites featuring one of my favorite fictional characters. It's one of the movies that made me want to make movies.
8. Disney's
Beauty and the Beast
I try not to say that a movie has "something for everyone," but with a movie like t his, don't you have to say it has something for everyone? Try not to be moved by it. Try not to fall in love with it. Go on, I dare you. You go try, I'll wait here.
7.
Ed Wood
This is a movie of such beautiful sincerity. There's no ironic detachment or above-it-all attitude, but instead a view on the "worst director ever" that says that, even though he lacked what we humans know to be talent, his energy, comfort, and confidence in himself, and the love of movies and making movies are to be admired. Only Tim Burton (my guy, my favorite director) could have made this movie.
6.
Young Frankenstein
This was the first comedy I ever loved that was not really for me, but while I didn't get
all of the jokes (some because I hadn't seen the original 1930s Universal movies yet, some because I was too young), I did basically "get it." That I was enjoying something that wasn't for kids carried a certain cool feeling, that it was the first black and white movie I ever saw has a certain importance...but more than anything, I've probably laughed more watching
Young Frankenstein than I have at anything ever. It played a big part in shaping my sense of humor.
5. Disney's
Aladdin
I'm pretty sure just about everyone likes
Aladdin, but I still think it's kind of undeated. I think it's a terrific comedy, a great
romantic comedy, and one of the most entertaining adventures I've seen. This is Disney at the peak of its power, which means you have animators like Glen Keane and Andreas Deja bringing life to their characters in remarkable ways; there's more nuance and depth than one might expect or remember. This is one of the movies I use to exemplify why animators are actors in their own way and right. All around,
Aladdin is fantastic entertainment.
4.
Pulp Fiction
When I saw
Pulp Fiction, I felt so exhilarated, it's like I forgot what seeing a great movie felt like and was being reminded with 10,000-volt shock to the system. I don't know how to intellectualize why it works as well as it does - and goodness knows I don't need to, because there's been enough analysis of this film - but man, I love every inch of it.
3.
The Dark Knight
It might be a bit much to have two Batman movies on my top ten...but I don't care. Here's the most riveting thriller I've seen, a crime drama and superhero story of great scope and ambition that I keep finding new reasons to admire.
2.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Ask me five years ago and I don't know if this would have been so high, but it ages remarkably well. I admire the artistry of the whole film more and more with each viewing: the wonderful songs, the painstaking, rich detail of the stop-motion animation, on and on.
1. the
Star Wars saga
Star Wars Episodes IV-VI are three of the movies that come up most when a great filmmaker is asked what movies influenced or inspired them. For so many of us - whether we decide we want to make movies too or not - these are the first movies that get us asking, "How did they do that?" I can think of no greater example of the phrase "movie magic" than the
Star Wars saga, and that goes beyond the wow factor of the images and sounds.
I lump the
Star Wars and
The Lord of the Rings films together, because...well, because I want to; it's easier for me to evaluate them that way, and they are meant to act as one massive film, so it feels acceptable.