Staying Inspired :: My Top 5 Go-To Movies

Like any list I make that has anything to do with movies, this list of the top five films I put on the DVD player when I'm feeling in need of a kickstart changes almost daily, depending on any number of random factors, including fatigue, boredom, and booze intake. That said, below is a short list of the films that most often make the cut. Since I'm not trying to impress anybody with this list, it'll probably say a lot more about me than it was ever intended to, but here we go anyway...

In no particular order ::

24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE, directed by Michael Winterbottom

Call it nostalgia for a place I've never seen, but something struck me the first time I saw this film back in 2002 that stayed with me ever since. Maybe it's Steve Coogan's hapless Tony Wilson, who strives for greatness but can't get out of his own way to prevent disaster, or maybe it's the music from the period that reminds me of me as a teenager going to the Virgin Megastore on Princes Street in Edinburgh to buy the latest New Order album on vinyl, or maybe it's Michael Winterbottom's loose, improvisational directing style that creates a cinematic immediacy out of pure mythology and hearsay. Or maybe it's just a funny film with a great cast.



THE THING, directed by John Carpenter

You know this was the first film I saw Wilford Brimley in. That's how I always think of him - his hand stuck in Donald Moffat's face, or sitting in the frozen hut begging Kurt Russel to be let back into the compound. But this film, arguably Carpenter's finest hour, has a mood and a pace that's rarely seen in Hollywood cinema, and the ambiguity of the film's conclusion speaks volumes for the times this movie emerged from, a farewell to the paranoid 70s as we stood on the cusp of Spielberg's stranglehold on American cinema ("ET" was the alien movie of choice that year, "The Thing" sank without a trace). Brooding, deliberate, shocking at the time... A fantastic film. And this scene is just amazing...



GOODFELLAS, directed by Martin Scorsese

Ok, no points for originality with this selection, but holy shit what a great film. It never gets old. Scorsese squeezes every ounce of drama and tension out of this story - every performance is pitch perfect, every scene has shape and direction and purpose, and the pacing follows Henry's emotional arc in sublime ways. I mean, take a look at the economy of this scene. You've seen it a dozen times, when Billy Batts, fresh out of jail, gives Tommy shit for not being respectful. From the shot of the jukebox through to Jimmy offering Billy drinks on the house, this entire scene is three camera setups - the camera on Billy tracks back from the jukebox and holds on Billy's side of the conversation for the duration, dollying in and out for emphasis, the second camera is on Henry & Jimmy and follows Tommy's entrance and exit, again with dollying, and the third is the brief shot of Henry reacting to Tommy's rage that continues to follow Henry and Tommy to the door. That's it. Three setups. What a scene. What a genius.



OUT OF SIGHT, directed by Steven Soderbergh

I know a lot of people who just adore Steven Soderbergh, and there's nothing wrong with that. I've never really understood the loyalty his mediocre and often pretentious movies provoke - "The Limey" was a great idea smothered in the execution (but oh what a fantastic commentary track on the DVD, where the writer takes SS to task... now that's entertainment), "The Underneath" was abysmal and "Erin Brockovich" and "Kakfa" are at best forgettable. So I have no idea what the circumstances were when I first saw "Out Of Sight" - it doesn't matter, frankly, because this is the one Soderbergh movie, with the possible exception of "Ocean's Eleven," that I can watch and say in all honesty that it's a fantastic bit of cinema. And this scene in particular, with its delicate pacing and intercutting of verbal and physical foreplay, is just a gorgeously mature bit of moviemaking from Mr. Soderbergh. I'll never forgive him for that turd "Ocean's Twelve," though.



HOT FUZZ, directed by Edgar Wright

You know, I would've put "Sean of the Dead" here instead, but I'm a bit sick of zombie movies right now, so I tend to favor this, the second feature film by Edgar Wright. Certainly in the US this film was pitched as a cop buddy movie, and I guess it didn't really work for me on that level. But once I heard about how this film is more of an homage to the Italian "giallo" movies it all made much more sense to me, and I was hooked. Edgar co-writes and directs a breathless action/comedy/horror, drawing pop cultural references from all manner of places as he goes - the gunfight at the end is a bit too long, but stay for the fantastic performance from Timothy Dalton. This movie is a breath of fresh air - like hitting a reset switch when the days are just getting too long... enjoy.