#personally out of all these basterds and django are my favorite

[cigarette-room]

How would you rank the Tarantino movies you’ve seen from best to least best? (And why?)

Oh! I love ranking movies hehe

1. Inglourious Basterds

2. Django Unchained

3. Reservoir Dogs

4. Kill Bill Vol. 1

5. Pulp Fiction

6. OUATIH

7. The Hateful Eight

8. Kill Bill Vol. 2

[safarigirlsp]

Did you see the announcement that Adam is going to be in Heat 2 with Michael Mann again? What are your thoughts on that? Do you have any dream team directors you would like to see him work with? I wish he’d do the Chloe Zhao Dracula movie!

HI! Sorry it took me a while to get to this.

I did hear the Michael Mann announcement, and all AD movie announcements are definitely good news to me! I've never been super impressed with Mann as a director and I have disliked all of his movies that I've seen, which admittedly aren't all of them. I'd be very happy if he did a Last Mohicans 2 and let AD have long hair and run around shirtless for 2 hours fucking people up with a hatchet, but Heat 2 isn't really blowing my skirt up. In all fairness, I've never Heat 1 so now I need to. I'll see how he looks in it before I get too excited lol. I made that mistake with Megalopolis by getting super excited over an upcoming movie only to have my hopes crushed when the first pics leaked. Megalopolis now falls under the same category for me as White Noise - I'll watch it, but I'm going to bitch the whole time, and need a Jacques and Mills mental palette cleanser afterward!

I haven't see a Chloe Zhao movie, so I can't weigh in on her as a director. But I have heard the Dracula rumors and how it's supposed to be a Dracula Western and omfg I would love that!! That would definitely be on my dream list of AD movies. However, I personally speculate that with the new stupidly fun looking Nic Cage Dracula movie coming out, AD will not want to take a Dracula role. Which is really too bad. But I think he likes to be more original than that. I'd love to be wrong though!

Here are the directors I'd love to see him work with! The first three are my top three in order, then they're just random as they came into my head.

Chad Stahelski aka the John Wick director! AD needs to be the next John Wick! Or a bad guy in a John Wick movie! Or anything similar! Absolutely one of my dream roles for him! The John Wick movies are favorites, complete with some of the best action around, hot and well dressed men, gorgeous cinematography, and kick ass music. I love them! AD in a John Wick sort of role and all the things that are bound up in that get my #1 vote!

Quentin Tarantino. I have my fingers crossed that AD will be in his upcoming movie! That would be a dream for me! Inglorious Basterds, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, Django Unchained, and Deathproof are some favorites of mine. AD really has to get Tarantino on his punch card for the best directors out there, and I really hope he doesn't miss the opportunity to work with him.

Clint Eastwood. Preferably in a western playing a scruffy cowboy with facial scars! I love Clint Eastwood and he's so good and genuine with creating rugged manly men. I grew up watching his movies and loving them all and I still do. Unforgiven, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and Two Mules for Sister Sara are favorites of mine.

Robert Eggars. I would actually bet that AD will team up with him at some point because they’re both young and have plenty of time to do so, and they both like strong talent and making dark weird things. They’re meant for each other! I personally want another hyper masculine role like Northman. I would kill to see AD in something like that! They could even repeat the naked volcano fight and I wouldn't mind at all!

Tim Burton. Gorgeous movies with great occult vibes! AD would be perfect to play a dark disturbed Victorian dude!

Guy Richie. Great action, great characters, hilarious dialogue. His movies are all a blast!

Kenneth Branagh. HIs movies are so beautiful! I'd kill for AD to have been in Death on the Nile! That would have kept my adventurer vibes going for years! Any intelligent, beautifully filmed, period murder mystery would be great by me.

Guillermo Del Toro. Another director who does beautiful and dark so well! Weird, macabre, and a match made in heaven!

Ridley Scott. In another period movie! By making him so unbelievably hot as Jacques and letting him lean fully into his hotness, Ridley is now one of my all-time favorite directors! He was in my favorites anyway and I love so many of his movies, but that gave him an extra boost! Ridley did two awesome period movies with Russell Crowe. They actually did five movies together total - three of them were great and one was even a romantic comedy! Ridley owes the same with AD as a minimum! He's another top tier choice for me for another period piece or an epic.

After Cocaine Bear, Elizabeth Banks gets my vote for the woman director he should work with first! That was so much fun and I would love to see AD in a campy action/horror comedy where he could do dark physical comedy.

These next three would never happen, but it’d be so much fun!

Gore Verbinsky. Some first rate adventure like Pirates of the Caribbean! I love those moves so much!

Stephen Sommers. The Mummy and Van Helsing are some of my all time favorites and anything similar would be a blast with him!

Baz Lurhman. I don’t actually like a lot of his movies, but they’re all SO gorgeous and he lets his men be hot! AD needs to make more pretty movies! Baz took my second favorite, Hugh Jackman, and gave him his hottest role ever in the western Australia. It was hard to top Wolverine, but Baz did it!

I actually feel super lucky and very happy that two of my dream roles for him he’s already done, and even luckier that they’re the two where I find him the absolute hottest! A badass knight and a rugged action hero!

I'd love to know who everyone else has on their dream list of directors if anyone wants to weigh in!

[21secondsofchristoph]

Here is a full translation of the interview featured in Max Magazine.

Original text by Andreas Wrede

This was a lot of work so PLEASE don’t post this elsewhere without credit. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This story with and about Christoph Waltz is a story coming full circle. A little more than 3 decades ago, a small group of editors and photojournalists, graphic artists and authors started developing the pilot for the first German issue of MAX, made possible by Dirk Manthey, the publisher from Hamburg’s Milchstraße, who knew the magazine from Italy, France and Greece. And who made me the founding-editor in chief. Three decades later, the derivative is released, thanks to publisher Max Iannucci. In 1990, Christoph Waltz was in an episode of “Der Alte”, among other things before he played the torn schlager music star Roy Black in “Du bist nicht allein – Die Roy Black Story” – but we will get to that later.

Now Christoph Waltz is an award-winning, internationally known actor, who won two Oscars for best supporting actor. That is unique for a German-speaking actor. Born in Vienna in 1956, he now lives in Los Angeles – if you want to play a role in Hollywood, literally, you must be present in Los Angeles. And during our conversation in a red, furry saloon of the legendary hotel Sacher in Vienna, he emphasizes, “Hollywood is always the goal”.  

The place is very fitting, considering Christoph Waltz grew up in Vienna, in a family that cultivated a great affinity for the work on stage for two generations. He says laconically, “You grow into a thing, you grow up with it, and thus, you acquire a familiarity early on, which you’d otherwise have to conquer with a lot more effort.” He often went to the movies from an early age on, but he spent even more time at the opera. “When I had time and had finished my homework, I enjoyed going to the opera.” Back then, a standing room ticket cost about ten Schilling, just a few cents in today’s currency. Little Christoph loved smuggling into the fascinating, secretive opera house.

Later he attended famous acting schools like the Max Reinhardt Seminar or Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio with significantly less pleasure. “I didn’t like attending acting schools. They didn’t exactly broaden my horizon.” Christoph Waltz hardly found them inspiring. And when he received offers for movies and theater, he accepted them “instead of dealing and struggling with teachers”. He says this with few gestures and in an almost reporting tone, he has always trusted the energies inherent in him. He had his TV debut in “Der Einstand”, where he played a teenage delinquent. That was fitting, considering he continued playing roles which were different, unexpected, and specific, or roles he filled differently, unexpectedly, and specifically.

Christoph Waltz remembers his beginnings as an actor in the 70s a little wistfully. “There were still movies on TV, which were made as movies for television, as one dramatic entity.” Or when there used to be directors like the great Federico Fellini, who was “very, very specifically Italian in everything he did.” Christoph Waltz continues: “And because of this specificity he was able to reach so many people.” A phenomenon like Fellini is marked by obstinacy, nonconformity, and distinct individuality. However, some significant conditions also irritated Christoph Waltz, for instance, when he was hired for the Krzysztof-Zanussi-film “Leben für Leben” in 1991. “I wasn’t adequately informed about the conditions and backgrounds. And so, I found myself – surpsised – in front of a camera in Auschwitz.” How does one react to something like that? “Today, I would know how to react”, he stresses thoughtfully, “but today, that would be due to the self-confidence I acquired over the past years. Back then I felt: Now I’ve been hired for this film.” Alright, he adds, one grows through experience, some conflicts are worth going through. “It helps building character.”

Was the decision to play Roy Black a crystal clear one? Not at all, he responds smiling and closes his eyes for a second. “When my agent called me about it, my spontaneous reaction was: Complete humbug, and I can’t even listen to this music for three seconds.” It only became interesting for him when he learned that Roy Black originally wanted to play Rock ‘n’ Roll. Then he became interested in the tragedy of this character. And the thought that Roy Black’s wish was the desire for freedom and wildness, a wish many Germans shared, “which was inherent in the promising American machinery.” Although this freedom and wildness had always existed in Germany, lived out by people like Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, or Kandinsky.

“The film itself was great, but the marketing-weisenheimers managed to break this film. It would be a great cine film, but they advertised it as a sob story for television. Consequently, the real Roy-Black fans were disappointed, while the people who might have been interested in the movie judged: Leave me alone with this sob story twerp. Well, the weisenheimers are the weisenheimers, what can you do”, deems Christoph Waltz with a beautiful touch of Viennese sarcasm and barely noticeable risen eyebrows. One does not always have to instrumentalize the entire acting equipment with him. A few little cues are enough.

Many more films follow before someone calls from Hollywood and say he is supposed to participate in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. In our interview he calls this his “Quentin-jump”, where he is at eye level with Diane Kruger, Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender in front of the camera. “Tarantino, we mentioned this before, stands for specificity and authenticity, he has an eye for both.” Did Christoph Waltz go into this production with a lot of respect? “With great respect.” He remembers an encounter with Sylvester Groth in front of a theatre in Babelsberg. “Every Thursday, Quentin showed movies during preparation. Once, Sylvester and I stood in front of the theatre and we both said: Imagine this, now we’ve been doing this for so long and suddenly we find ourselves here.” Then we paused for a few moments and kept going: Yes, and despite everything, we’re doing what we’ve always done – what we do, because that is what we do.”

Before Tarantino’s office could call again, other international projects followed, like The Green Hornet (with Cameron Diaz, Tom Wilkinson, James Franco) or Carnage (with Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly). Then Django Unchained (with Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson). For his role in Django Unchained, Christoph Waltz wins his second Oscar for best supporting actor in 2013 and Quentin wins another one for best original screenplay. But Christoph Waltz remains humble: “The opportunities presented to someone for personal growth always come to you through other people.” Although the actor always makes a binary decision. “Yes or no. Am I going to do it or not.”

Can one also make the wrong decision? “You decide for one or the other and from that other possibilities develop, but neither is better or worse.” That was not any different for Quentin Tarantino or for his first film and its director Reinhard Schwabenitzky, who saw him in acting school. Christoph Waltz leans forward and says confidentially: “The essential chances and opportunities were those which were presented to me by another mind, by a great talent, through a vision, which came from another person.” Nothing more, nothing less.

Yes, humility is a virtue. But we do not want to conceal the fact that Christoph Waltz was the first German-speaking host on Saturday Night Live and that he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (No. 2536, 6667 Hollywood Boulevard). The quote: “And Hollywood is always the goal.” Is correct, “like others say their goal is to get into heaven.” Hollywood, heaven: “I don’t mean to compare the two goals, but the setting of these goals. Especially Hollywood has been mythologized into more than it deserves credit for.” In this respect, as a myth, it is always the goal. Please don't tell anyone Christoph Waltz is over-the-top - the opposite is the case.

During our exchange in the Sacher, I mention one of my favorite books on film. It is Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls – How the Sex-Drugs-And-Rock’n’roll Generation saved Hollywood. It says: „There is no worse career move in Hollywood than dying. Hal Ashby is now largely forgotten, because he had the misfortune to die at the end of the 80’s, but he had the most remarkable run of any ’70 director. After ‚The Landlord‘, in 1970, he made ‚Harold and Maude‘, ‚The Last Detail‘, ‚Shampoo‘, ‚Bound for Glory‘, ‚Coming Home‘ and ‚Being there‘ in 1979, before his career disappeared into the dark tunnel of post-‘70’s, Me Decade Drugs and paranoia.“

It can be assumed that this won’t happen to Christoph Waltz? “That is a good example for the mythologizing I was referring to”, he responds. “I would claim that a legend like James Dean probably wouldn’t have developed at all, had he not driven himself to death in his Porsche at such a young age. Who knows what would have become of Marilyn Monroe, had she not put an early end to her complicated life.” And parallel to Hal Ashby, there probably were thousands of directors, who would have been happy to pay their next rent – by working in their profession. It is therefor about comparativeness.

Onto another career step, the James Bond movie Spectre, in which Christoph Waltz portrays the dark Blofeld, a character, who appeared in previous Bond movies. How do we have to imagine that? One sunny day the agent comes along and says: “You’re on the list for the next Bond movie”? Christoph Waltz knows there are no rules to this, especially when it is something like James Bond. A series that has been at the peak of possibilities for more than 50 years.” The producers have a lot to lose, they have to look very closely. Not only to keep up the standard, they also want to be ahead of their time.

Was it intriguing to play this bad boy a second time? Is it about an additional nuance of expertly irony; is it about the myth that is Bond? “This was another unique opportunity for me”, says Christoph Waltz, “a unique opportunity to include myself into such an incredibly successful series.”  Now after Spectre, for the second time in No Time To Die – a title that can offer a bit of comfort in times of the world wide covid pandemic. And Christoph Waltz is in the Bond movie that will be Daniel Craig’s final Bond. “It’s his fourth Bond movie”, he counts, “the actors change but the role remains the same. Of course, the role acquires a different profile and thus, different facets.” But it remains James Bond. “And when a new actor gets the role, he has to fit into the role, not the other way around.” Once again, we will have to wait for this Bond movie. It will probably hit theatres in spring 2021.

It reminds one of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida – we’ve seen it a dozen times but keep going to see it again. Nowadays you go to see the production, in the past you went to see whosit faithless. Speaking of productions: Are the demands towards a Bond director more extensive compared to other film projects? “Surely there are more things to keep an eye on compared to a low budget movie or an independent film. In productions like that, you often have to use the tools you have. In Denmark they had demands referring to this “, Christoph Waltz comments in a slightly mocking undertone. He means the group around Lars von Trier? “Precisely, they called it Dogma for fun, and the world took them seriously.” But that is part of it, right, part of the business.

Anyway, every little detail is carefully manufactured for a Bond movie.  And that takes, apart from a lot of money, a great level of expertise and many employees, which combine into a story on film. “Legions of people work on every pixel, not to mention the light and the meaning of the music.” With all this in mind, it’s understandable how appealing it is to be in a movie like No Time To Die. Christoph Waltz has a lot of praise for the director, Cary Fukanaga: “He always knew exactly what he was doing and we knew exactly, why he did this or that”. Audiences were able to see this in previous projects, like the brilliant first season of True Detective, where he directed all eight episodes.

Christoph Waltz wouldn’t be Christoph Waltz if he didn’t show his extraordinary talents in unconventional projects as well, like the show Most Dangerous Game (with Liam Hemsworth, produced for Quibi). “What interested me there? The new dramatic form, it’s a story in 16 sections, each section only eight minutes long. We’re dealing with a new form of storytelling.” Does it remind him of the continuous comics that used to be in US-newspapers a few decades ago?

“Yes, it’s connected to that – but it also reminds me of Charles Dickens, who published many of his novels as newspaper installments. In Most Dangerous Game the great story arch is not lost, the suspense is carried from one episode into the next. “That is a sleight of hand.” And for that he received an Emmy nomination, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he was to win the prestigious award one day. But he pulled off other sleight of hands in the past. Or how the New York Times says in a headline: “Christoph Waltz directing Opera, moves from Tarantino to Verdi.” Adding his old comment to this: “The full-blooded, juicy movie experience has a lot of operatic qualities. I’m not talking about the film music, but about the rhythm and color and phrasing.” After “Der Rosenkavalier” (Music: Richard Strauss, Libretto: Hugo von Hofmannsthal), which he staged at the Antwerp Opera, came Giuseppe Verdi’s “Falstaff”, his second opera there.

“I’m not a fan of the never-seen-before concept”, says Christoph Waltz. He agrees with Susan Sontag’s essay Against Interpretation – in opera, there is a fix story, and the music is the central transmitter of this story. Over-interpretations can quickly become “dangerous sliding tackles.” Waltz wants to avoid those. “I want to show what the composers and authors meant.” He stayed true to Sontag’s principle in all three of his opera productions, the third on being Beethoven’s only opera “Fidelio”.

He is self-critical enough, “to personally take the risk of failing.” What would be the alternative?

“I’m just an actor, now what do the music critics, who take themselves so seriously say? Some foam at the mouth and brawl ‘the movie-bod is interfering in the opera’.” He prefers the critics that are capable of formulating things between the lines. “When I read elsewhere, that the very thing I was trying to convey can be seen in detail, then I’m quietly happy about it.” Sadly, the live performances of Fidelio fell victim to the covid-crisis, but there was a TV-screening on ORF, which can certainly be called presentable with 11% of the market-share.  “During ‘Fidelio’ I first realized physically that music is a spatial experience.” Here fits another Waltz-quote: “Strip away anything that us unnecessary.” Ergo: Reduce the action to the interaction between the characters. That is an art he mastered to perfection in acting.”

For once, I could surprise the cleaned up, chatty, well-tempered Christoph Waltz with a little research.

In his birthyear, 1956, his fellow countryman Walter Felsenstein, founder and artistic director of the “Komische Oper” in Berlin filmed a version of “Fidelio”. To this day, it remains the only film adaptation of the opera. Probably because – so the actor quotes Felsenstein – “this opera technically is impossible to stage”, he says with aplomb, an attitude that suits him. In ballet an aplomb describes the ability to absorb a movement, the balance.

Christoph Waltz not only shoots a lot of movies, but he also enjoys reading one particular movie critic: Anthony Lane of the New Yorker. Surely one of the most sharpened critics, who outtalks someone or rubs the reader’s nose into his alleged ignorance. We start talking about Lane via a new movie by the fabulous Agnieszka Holland, “Mr. Jones” – referring to Gareth Jones, advisor to the former British Prime Minister Lloyd George. Jones uncovers that the devastating hunger crisis in the Ukraine in 1932/33 was exclusively due to Stalin’s exploiting politics. Anthony Lane writes in inimitable fashion: „Is it conceivable that Holland’s bleak, murky, and instructive film could prompt a change of heart in the current Russian establishment, or even a confession of crimes past? Not a chance.“ Greetings from Belarus.

And of course, we also talk about COVID, what does an actor do who can’t act during these times? Is he reading Robert Musil’s novel The Man Without Qualities, which has more than 1000 pages? “Oh, I’ve already attempted to read this three times. The first time, I got to page 200, the second time I got to page 400, the third time I put it away after 100 pages.” But he doesn’t fully abandon the idea of finishing it one day. “But that would really be a true accomplishment of discipline”, he underlines, allusively smiling. Less amusing is the current stagnancy in Hollywood, where Christoph Waltz lives with his wife and daughter for the most part. “It will be illuminating once things pick up again”, he ponders “will a reforming spirit take over, or will everything fall back into the old, ignorant patterns, or even cause worse?” The temporary dysfunctionality of Hollywood is comparable to a dysfunctional family, which mechanisms become especially clear during crisis. Now he visited his mother here in Vienna. I allow myself the question, “Is Vienna your home?” “Vienna is my home, home is something you can’t choose, like your parents. Everything else can become your center of living, all that is willingly moveable – but home, home cannot be changed at will.”

[winterscaptain]

tali i have kind of a weird question? growing up my family never watched a lot of classic/common movies (we were FIRMLY a veggie tales house) so I have No Clue what like half of the movies you mention are? like I've never seen footloose or what a wonderful life or die hard? or practically... anything you've ever talked about :(

(also ive never seen mean girls but thats a oersonal failure cas I just. forget to watch it?)

do you have a fav/good movie i should start with cause I feel like I'm missing out on so much :(

hi honey!! you’re so valid, and i had LOTS of veggie tales experience growing up. i know you asked for one, but i went a lil ham on this list because you’ve unknowingly touched on one of my favorite hobbies

okay so i have a big list for you, but it’s in really manageable chunks!! i went to theatre school at the school that houses the Best Cinema School in the World (fight on, usc) and i have Opinions™!! 

if anyone has any other recs not on this list, drop em in the replies!!

i’ll put these in order of my preference/pop culture relevance, so it’s all subjective and idk what your taste is like, but if you have any questions im always here for you!! i’ve added a few notes and disclaimers along the way

this is a really good list to go off of, in general! 

okay so here are my top seven films that i never get tired of watching, in order.

skyfall

that thing you do

captain america: the first avenger/captain america: winter soldier

inglorious basterds*

the sound of music 

knives out

blazing saddles**

* inglorious basterds is a quentin tarantino movie, and tarantino isn’t for everyone. his films are always really bloody, intense, and rife with bad language. i don’t like him personally, but i love his work. this is, in my opinion, his best and funniest work

** blazing saddles is a mel brooks movie, and he’s REALLY offensive and inappropriate in his satire. it’s definitely an iconic comedy, but not to everyone’s taste. it’s one of those movies where you’re actually allowed to laugh at the really horrible jokes because it’s an equal-opportunity offense-fest lmao 

so here are some other genres and films that are a good foundation!

IN GENERAL!! i don’t like remakes. if there’s an older version of the movie, watch that one. trust me. 

i’ve also bolded a couple of key favorites on this list

romantic comedies

my best friend’s wedding

the ugly truth & 27 dresses (katherine hiegl movies ROCK)

sleepless in seattle & you’ve got mail (meg ryan and tom hanks own my ass)

when harry met sally

movies based on books/short stories

to kill a mockingbird

the book thief

the hunger games trilogy

divergent

chronicles of narnia

pride and prejudice (2005 or the bbc miniseries)

3:10 to yuma

based on a true story

ford v. ferrarri

three billboards outside of ebbing, missouri

moneyball

zero dark thirty

the king’s speech

black mass

apollo 11

documentaries*

ken burns’ civil war

ken burns’ baseball

paris is burning

blackfish

free solo

the hunting ground 

* please be advised, some of these documentaries cover some disturbing and distressing subjects. please engage responsibly!

superhero movies

iron man

the dark knight*

wonder woman

scott pilgrim vs the world (okay give me this one)

spider man 1, the amazing spider man, and spiderman: homecoming (all different spidermans, all great movies!

deadpool**

* tdk is really really dark, but the performances are immaculate.  ** deadpool is wildly inappropriate, so don’t take the R-rating lightly! it’s so funny though. so so fucking funny. 

teen favorites

10 things i hate about you

mean girls

she’s the man

easy a

heathers

70′s icons

jaws

monty python and the holy grail

butch cassidy and the sundance kid

star wars trilogy 

dirty harry

80′s classics

alien (technically in ‘79 but feels like an 80′s movie)

dirty dancing

john hughes movies!! the breakfast club, st. elmo’s fire, pretty in pink, sixteen candles, some kind of wonderful

back to the future

footloose

princess bride

90′s flicks

the matrix

three men and a baby

thelma and louise

pretty woman

notting hill

a league of their own

lgbt +

our own private idaho

brokeback mountain

moonlight

philadelphia

call me by your name

love, simon

some of these movies don’t get everything right. if you do choose to engage, engage critically and let the art make you feel something. 

tom hanks movies

yes he gets his own category

joe v the volcano 

castaway

big

saving mr banks

movies where the government saves matt damon

the martian 

saving private ryan

interstellar

jason bourne (technically he saves himself, but he’s still funded by the government)

war movies

fury

band of brothers

full metal jacket

the last full measure

war horse 

1917 

hacksaw ridge

westerns

django unchained

the magnificent seven

true grit

the good the bad and the ugly

a fistful of dollars

old hollywood

an affair to remember

breakfast at tiffany’s, roman holiday (audrey hepburn is an icon of the era)

any alfred hitchcock movie, but psycho and rear window are my faves

these movies don’t get everything right. they are a product of their time and often come with insensitive and unironically offensive cultural baggage. if you so choose, engage critically. you’re still allowed to enjoy the movies, just understand what’s not acceptable! 

christmas movies

it’s a wonderful life

white christmas

a christmas story

the holiday

die hard (some people don’t think this is a christmas movie. i disagree.)

the family stone

a year without a santa clause

halloween movies

hocus pocus

beetlejuice

anything by tim burton - the nightmare before christmas, the corpse bride

the shining

the blair witch project

get out

cult classics

the rocky horror picture show

the room

reservoir dogs

jennifer’s body 

point break

these are WAY more fun with friends - please quarantine responsibly, but it's so worth the wait to watch this with a big group of people.

[crispycrimebrulee]

Movie Monday: Quentin Tarantino’s 9 Films!

A/N: I love this mans films, I honestly don’t know why. My favorites are The Hateful 8, Kill Bill, Inglorious Basterds, and Django Unchained!

Some Light Spoilers If You Haven’t Watched the Following: Inglorious Basterds, Django: Unchained, Kill Bill, Death Proof, Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown.

Also TW: Mention of N*zi’s and S*aves

Gon: Inglorious Basterds. Inglorious Basterds is about a group of American soldiers running into N*zi occupied France to hopefully take down the Third Reich and gather information. Out of all the characters there, Gon best fits Donny Donowitz, a loveable but extremely chaotic character in the film. Gon has a short temper and very little impulse control, but he’s full to the brim with bravery, much like Donowitz! Honestly, both have some serious chaotic good vibes, absolutely unhinged but very loveable. 

Killua:  Django: Unchained. If you haven’t seen the movie, Django Unchained is about Django ( a s*ave) following a German bounty hunter named Dr. King Schultz in search of a pair of very dangerous and hard s*ave owners, including another s*ave owner further in the movie. During most of the movie they hunt down criminals all between the s*ave owning areas/states. Killua best fits Dr. King Schultz for his extremely calm, levelheaded yet witty personality/attitude throughout the whole movie. Killua and Dr. Schultz are very idealistic and rational thinkers, yet extrememly loyal and occasionally let thier emotions decide their next move!

Kurapika: Kill Bill. If you haven’t seen the movie, (which, honestly, shame on you if you haven’t.) this movie is about a woman who was...wronged [that’s as lightly as I can put it.] by members of a group that she was once a part of [as far as it’s led me to assume, since she knows all of these people, she was part of the group.] and now she’s hunting them down to kill them, hence the name Kill Bill. [Bill is the last person on her list to kill, and is the most important notion in her mind.] The character that best fits Kurapika is The Bride. To note, The Bride has no actual name in the film, most people refer to her as Kill Bill or The Bride, so that’s what we’re sticking with. Like Kurapika, their need for revenge runs deep, and their determination and skill set allows them to carry it out with scary calculation. However, they’re both extremely caring and considerate deep down when the opportunity/issue of sensitivity comes.

Leorio: Inglorious Basterds. If you haven’t seen the movie, [bear with me, I explained this already but hear me out] this is about a group of military men going into France (being occupied by N*zi’s at the time) to try to dismantle the Third Reich. The character that best fits Leorio would be Fredrick Zoller for many reasons. If you’ve seen the film and you’re thinking he is absolutely nothing like Zoller in regards to towards the end of the film, yes I agree with that. However, overall, Zoller has the same sense of valor and determination and righteousness that Leorio has, wanting to do anything at all to help those in need, or those that they care about, despite this aspect showing differently based on what they do respectively. 

Hisoka: Death Proof. If you haven’t seen the film, it is essentially absolutely unhinged. It’s about a serial killer who was once a stuntman, specifically a stuntman for cars, and the car used was said to be ‘death proof’, meaning you could do any sort of stunt in it and not die. However, this all depends on where in the car you’re sitting. This serial killer kills people using said car. As.. cliché [? cliché really isn’t the word I’m looking for...] as it may seem, Hisoka best fits Stuntman Mike, i.e as it states, the stuntman, the unhinged mad man driving the car. He kills for a reason, a purpose, much like Hisoka does. 

Illumi:  Reservoir Dogs. If you haven’t seen the movie, Reservoir Dogs is about a group of men committing a heist. The movie in general shows you the before, the planning and after the heist. The audience never sees the heist take place, and there are only snippets of things that happened within close proximity of after the heist. The character that best fits Illumi is Mr. Blonde. Mr. Blonde has a chaotic side, shown in one of the scenes, extremely sadistic yet cool during the entirety of his screen time. Fun Fact: Mr. Blonde says, “how bout a little fire, Scarecrow?” during one of the scenes, which references the song, How Bout A Little Fire, Scarecrow by Menlo and the line from Wizard of Oz, when the Wicked Witch throws fire at Scarecrow.

Chrollo: Jackie Brown. If you haven’t seen the film, this is an elevated heist film surrounding a handful of people chasing after a staggering amount of money. However, most of them secretly decide that it’s every man for himself, although the group planned to lift the money together. Chrollo [although yes, last week I said he best fit Dr. Schultz, and he does, he still does but this is also a scary good fit for him as well!] best fits the main character, Jackie Brown, a flight attendant with a ton of tricks up her sleeve. Always ahead of everyone and extremely calculating, she and Chrollo are essentially...the same. They’re both also INTJ!

[buzzdixonwriter]

Compare & Contrast: ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD Movie vs Novel

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is my favorite Quentin Tarantino film, a love letter to late 1960s Los Angeles / Hollywood, an alternate history where the wicked (or at least three of them) are punished and the virtuous are spared and rewarded.

Tarantino has since expanded his basic story into a new novel, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and it’s interesting to compare & contrast the two approaches to the material.

Movie tie-in novelizations are not unusual, of course, but it’s the rare example when the original creator (writer or director) takes a whack at it.  Ian Fleming famously turned an unsold screenplay, James Bond Of The Secret Service, (written with Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, Ivar Bryce, and Ernest Cuneo) into the novel Thunderball and a busted TV pilot, Commander Jamaica, into Dr. No, while Ed McBain (a.k.a. Evan Hunter ne Salvatore Albert Lombino) adapted a couple of original 87th Precinct movie scripts into novels.  

Here Tarantino takes his stab at it, and the results are…well, let’s cut to the chase…

Which is better, movie or book?

Good movie, okay novel.

For those who want a more detailed analysis…

[SPOILERS GALORE]

Story Structure

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood the novel is just barely a standalone story; it’s really enhanced by seeing the movie first.

The story flow is roughly the same, and it’s clear a lot of the material in the book are from early drafts of the screenplay (with a few callbacks to earlier Tarantino films).  There’s also a lot of material missing that was in the movie (the immediate aftermath of Cliff visiting George Spahn, f’r instance).

However, the main plot and many major scenes from the movie are described as almost asides, hints at things seen on screen that aren’t elaborated on in the movie.

In one sense, this works to the novel’s advantage; there’s little point in reiterating already familiar scenes.  On the other hand, scenes in the book that expand on scenes from the movie can benefit only by seeing the movie first.

While Once Upon A Time In Hollywood the movie features a pretty clear if typically erratic Tarantino timeline, the book’s timeline is less easy to track (but more on that later).

This isn’t a deal breaker in terms of enjoyment, but it occasionally does get in the way of the story telling.

Characters

What I liked most about Once Upon A Time In Hollywood the movie was that the Rick Dalton character is presented as a self-involved / over anxious / ot-nay oo-tay ight-bray actor who, despite his very apparent shortcomings, also demonstrates a truly professional dedication to his craft and an ability to listen and learn and grow.

Taking part in the big fight at the end cements his hero status in the framework of the movie.

He’s not nearly as likeable or as admirable in the book.

A big hunk of this is leaving out those crucial action beats mentioned above.  Another hunk is letting us peek too deeply into Rick’s head, and learning what happens to him after the climax of the film.

Instead of moving into the quality artsy A-list movie world as the film version intimates at the end, Rick becomes a John Wayne-like figure with similar intolerant attitudes, popular with middle American audiences.

He does come across as clear headed when it comes to his career and his place in the Hollywood pecking order, as demonstrated in his own analysis of why he would never have gotten Steve McQueen’s role in The Great Escape.

Sharon Tate is still the delightfully airy character shown in the movie, though Tarantino gives her a broader emotional palette to play with.  She comes across as more fully rounded than the movie version but is still the wonderful, life-loving character of the film.

Cliff Booth, on the other hand, suffers badly.

First off, Cliff’s character in the film is already extremely problematic.  The movie deliberately makes the circumstances around his wife’s death vague enough to be read in a variety of ways:  He could have deliberately murdered her and got away with it, it could have been justifiable homicide in self-defense, it could have been an accident, it could have been something else.

We never know and that works to give Cliff a Schrodinger’s cat-like characterization:  We can’t know until we open the box and look in.

Well, Tarantino flings open the box and boy, what’s inside is stupid.

I can absolutely believe Cliff killed his wife in a momentary fit of rage, I do not believe the speargun cut her in half and he held the two halves together so they could have a long lovey-dovey talk until the Coast Guard shows up and she literally falls apart.

If Tarantino’s intent was to hint Cliff had a psychotic fugue after he killed his wife and thought he was holding her together and talking to her, he didn’t make that clear.

Considering how often Tarantino employs the omniscient third person point of view in this story, I don’t think it’s a failure style but of plotting.

That would be bad enough, but there’s a lot of other problems with Cliff in the book.

He flat out murders four people by the time of the novel:  Two petty gangsters back east, his wife, and the guy who offered him a share of Brandy’s prize money from dog fights.

Yeah, Cliff is plugged into the dog fighting world and really enjoys it.  He shows enough affection and appreciation for Brandy the pit bull to recognize when her career is over, and he’s ruthless enough to kill Brandy’s co-owner when the guy insists on sending her to her almost certain death in one last dog fight.

[Sidebar: Elsewhere Tarantino has told aspiring writers to leave morality out of their character’s motives and despite this sounding counterintuitive, it’s actually solid advice.  Morality forces good guys to act like good guys, it never gives the characters room to think and breathe and act as real people.  Tarantino isn’t saying characters can’t make moral choices, but those moral choices must come from who they are, not from some arbitrary code or editorial fiat.  To this degree the novel Once Upon A Time In Hollywood depicts Cliff in a wholly believable light, a natural born survivor who will do whatever’s necessary to stay alive.]

Book Cliff is depicted as a far more unpleasant person than Rick, lightyears more unpleasant than movie Cliff.  Part of this is a deliberate choice on Tarantino’s part as his omniscient third person point of view frequently mediates on the meaning of likeability vs believability in movie terms; he certainly strives to makes Rick and Cliff as unlikeable as possible (Sharon, too, but she’s basically too sweet a character for any negativity to rub off on her).

Cliff also demonstrates a considerable amount of bigotry and prejudice, in particular his opinions on Bruce Lee.  The substance of those opinions re Lee’s martial arts abilities is not the problem, it’s the way in which they are expressed.

Does this sound believable coming from a near 50 year old WWII vet?  Yeah, it does.  That doesn’t mean the book benefits from it.

Which leads to the single biggest problem with Cliff, however, is his age and background.

Tarantino envisions him as a WWII vet, a survivor of the Sicily campaign reassigned to the Philippines (as with Inglorious Basterds, Tarantino really doesn’t care about what actually happened in WWII), taken prisoner by the Japanese, escaping to the jungles to lead a guerilla force against the Imperial Army, recipient of two “Medals of Valor” (who knows what Tarantino means by this as no such award exists in the US military.  Medal of Honor?  Distinguished Service Cross?  Silver Star?  Bronze Star?), and record holder for the most confirmed Japanese killed by a single individual who wasn’t a crew member of the Enola Gay.

Okay, so that makes him what, mid-20s at the youngest in 1945?  

He’d be 49 at the time of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, not an unheard of age for Hollywood stunt men but certainly pushing the edge of the envelope.

Playing Rick’s double?  That sounds quite a bit more farfetched.  Rick’s exact age is never mentioned but from the way others treat him, he’s somewhere between Cliff’s age and that of James Stacy, the real life actor who starred in the Lancer pilot Rick is filming in 1968 when Stacy would be 32 years old.

That would make Rick roughly 40 at the time, and there’s an aside in the book that reveals one of Rick’s early roles was in 1959’s  Away All Boats, the latter with Tom Laughlin (who in real life later directed and starred in Billy Jack), and since Rick and Laughlin are presented as contemporaries and Laughlin was born in 1931, this would make Rick 28 when Bounty Law started airing that same year and he and Cliff, then age 40, first started working together.

Cliff saves Rick’s life from a stunt gone wrong early in the filming of Bounty Law, so one understands how their bond formed and why Rick continues to keep Cliff around even after Cliff kills his wife.

Missing from the novel is the voice of Randy Miller, the stunt director (played by Kurt Russell in the film) who narrates much of the movie.  I can’t recall if Randy is even mentioned by name in the book, but he certainly isn’t featured prominently in it.  Sometimes the narrative voice of the novel seems to be his, sometimes it seems to be Tarantino’s (and we’ll discuss that below, too).

Not all the characters in the movie make it to the pages of the book, and likewise quite a few characters appear who never showed up in the film version of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood or any other Tarantino film.

Sharon Tate first appears in the book hitchhiking and accepting a ride from rodeo cowboy Ace Woody, originally slated to be one of the assorted baddies in Django Unchained but later melded into another character.

On the other hand, many minor and obscure real life Hollywood players and personalities and hangers on do appear in the novel.  Tarantino is careful to put dialog in the mouths of only certifiably dead personalities, however, and as we’ll go into down below, that’s a wise move.

(BTW, Tarantino works himself into his own story a couple of times, mentioning himself as the director of a remake of John Sayles’ The Lady In Red featuring a grown up Trudi Fraser a.k.a. Mirabella Lancer in the Lancer pilot Rick is starring in, and as the son of piano player Curt Zastoupil, Tarantino’s real life step-father, who asks Rick for an autographed photo for his son Quentin.)

The Hollywood Stuff

Which leads us to the real hook of the book, a glimpse behind the scenes of Hollywood circa 1969.

If, like me, you’re fascinated by this sort of stuff, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is a fun read.

Tarantino is a devourer of pop culture and dedicates his book in part to Bruce Dern, David Carradine, Burt Reynolds, Robert Blake, Michael parks, Robert Forester, and Kurt Russell, thanking them for the stories they told him about “old time” Hollywood (i.e., the 1950s and 60s from Tarantino’s reckoning).

A lot of the book rings true in attitudes and opinions expressed back in that era, and some of the stories included are jaw-dropping (the Aldo Ray one especially).

The examinations of various maneuverings and strategies in the entertainment industry are also illuminating.

However, this raises a fair question about what the intent of any given work is, and how well documented a work of fiction needs to be.

There’s a trio of actors (all dead so none can sue Tarantino for libel) labeled in derogatory terms as homosexuals in two or three places in the book.

There’s some observations on race that sound absolutely authentic coming from the mouths of those particular characters at that particular time, but one questions the need for using those exact terms today; it’s not that difficult to show the character speaking is bigoted without letting them sling all the slurs they want.

Speaking of terms, I’ve never heard “ringer” used before in the film industry in the context of this book, so if it’s fake, Tarantino did an absolutely convincing job presenting it as real.

But here’s where we start heading into some problematic areas, not problematic in undermining the enjoyment of the book, but problematic in the sense of understanding what Tarantino is trying to convey.

Cliff’s story is awfully close to Robert Blake’s story, and you’d be hard pressed to find many people in town today who don’t think he got away with murder.

And of all the TV show’s to pick for Rick to be playing the villain in the pilot episode, why Lancer?

Few people today remember the series, and Tarantino taking liberties with the actual pilot episode plot isn’t noteworthy…

…or is it?

The actual series starred Andrew Duggan as Murdoch Lancer, patriarch of the Lancer family, with Wayne Maunder played Scott Lancer, the upscale older son, and James Stacy as his half-brother, gunslinger Johnny Madrid Lancer. Elizabeth Baur played Teresa O'Brien, Murdoch Lancer's teenage ward. 

For Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Tarantino replaced the real life Elizabeth Baur / Teresa O’Brien with “8 year old” Trudi Frazer (in the book; Fraser in the movie) / Mirabella Lancer (played in the film by 10 year old Julia Butters).

Why Lancer?  Why this particular change?

Lancer’s Johnny Madrid Lancer was played by James Stacy, a brief appearance in the film, but far more substantial scenes in the book (as well as the reader getting to see what he’s thinking and feeling).  Tarantino uses these scenes in the book to explain a bit about on set etiquette.

James Stacy was an actual person, and he actually played Johnny Madrid Lancer in the series.

In September of 1973, he was maimed in a motorcycle accident, losing his left arm and leg.

He refused to let his disability sideline him, and in 1975 appeared in Posse as a newspaper man, then went on to play numerous supporting roles in films and TV shows until 1995.

That was the year he was arrested, tried, and convicted of molesting an 11 year old girl.

He didn’t show up for his sentencing hearing, choosing instead to fly to Hawaii and attempt suicide.  Arrested and returned to California, instead of probation he received a 6 year prison sentence when it was learned he’d been arrested twice after the first crime on prowling charges in which he approached two other young girls.

Quentin Tarantino, the all time grand master maven of pop culture didn’t know this?

And in the book, Trudi calls Rick for a later night conversation about their day on the set.

This is an 8 year old child calling an adult after midnight.

To their credit, Tarantino and Rick both tell Trudi up front this is not an appropriate thing to do…

…but the call continues.

It doesn’t veer off into creepy territory, and when it ends it actually puts Rick’s character back on an upward trajectory, one in which he no longer feels he’s screwed up his life.

But still…

This is a really weird context.

(The scene was filmed for the movie but didn’t make the final cut.  Look closely on the movie poster under Brad Pitt’s chin and you’ll see an image of Julia Butters holding a teddy bear and talking on the phone.)

Style

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood the movie is consistent and spot on.  It uses cinematic language to maximum effect.

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood the book is all over the map.

It manages to stay entertaining even at its most erratic, but the inconsistency works against it.

As noted before, the point of view is constantly shifting, sometimes seen through a character’s eyes, sometimes through an omniscient third person point of view, sometimes in what appears to be uncredited narration from Randy, and in several chapters exploring the Lancer story-within-a-story as mediocre pulp fiction typical of movie and TV tie-ins of the era.

Tarantino does not stay consistent with his characters, either.  This indicates adapting scenes from earlier drafts without really smoothing out the fit.

Another point of view issue is Tarantino’s own.

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood the novel reads like the work of an older, very culturally conservative writer.

Many writers will argue that the evils their characters do in their books are not reflections on the author but simply the character acting consistently with who they are.

Kinda true…but that character comes from the writer’s imagination, and the writer needs to think up all those terrible things the character thinks and does and say, so somewhere deep down inside the dungeons of that writer’s mind…those things live and breed.

Rick is depicted as out of step with the new Hollywood and the hippie era in both film and book, but the book reinforces and rewards him for being out of step, unlike the movie whree he finds an entrance to the future.

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood the novel now makes me reexamine all of Tarantino’s earlier efforts, in particular Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained and The Hateful 8 and see if his world view has changed, or if its been there all the time only he concealed it better in the past.

Presentation

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood the book is packaged to look like a mass market paperback from the late 1960s to 1980s (in fact, very specifically 1980s style mass market paperbacks).

It even closes with ads for Oliver’s Story, Serpico, and The Switch, all bona fide movie tie-ins books, as well as Ride A Wild Bronc, a fictitious title, written by Marvin H. Albert.

Albert was a bona fide popular fiction writer under his own name and several pseudonyms, as well as screenplays based on his books for Duel At Diablo, Rough Night In Jericho, Lady In Cement, and The Don Is Dead.  Tony Rome, played by Frank Sinatra in two movies, is probably his best known character.  Several of the books he wrote were movie and TV tie-ins including The Pink Panther and The Untouchables.

The last ad is for the deluxe hardcover edition of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, promising new material and previously unreleased photos.

The editing and copyediting of the book are subpar.  As noted above, tone and consistency fluctuate throughout the book.  A sharper editor would have removed redundancies, smoothed out clunky scenes.

Typographical errors abound throughout.  Early on they mention the Mannix TV show in italics (the book’s standard style for movie and TV show titles) then sloppily put the character’s name, Mannix, in italics as well and, to add further insult to injury, Mannix’ secretary Peggy also gets her name italicized.  Song titles are listed either in italics or unitalicized in quotes; pick a style and stick with it, guys…

Finally, Quentin baby, I gotta say ya missed a bet by not having a cardboard center insert ad for Red Apple cigarettes; that would have completely nailed the retro look.

  © Buzz Dixon

[ryanmeft]

Five Thoughts: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

NOTE: this piece contains spoilers. This is your only warning. 1

There’s a cottage industry of films that cater to nostalgia for an older time, and accordingly load themselves up with retro props. Tarantino does this to a degree, but he paints with it. Relatively long stretches of the film are given over to views of Hollywood streets of 1969, and you can appreciate these shots for their artistry even if, like me, you weren’t even a thought at the time. They aren’t played in the hazy, romantic way of a movie designed to trigger memories, which is often a way to cover up a screenplay’s laziness. The signs, marquees, clothes, cars and various miscellaneous accoutrements are gaudy, lavish, and just over-the-top enough without being ridiculous. The film’s look, handled by Tarantino’s regular collaborator Robert Richardson, portrays the excesses of that era as they were.

2

Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt share something in common: the older they get, the farther away from heartthrob status they move, the better they become as actors. DiCaprio’s role here is washed-up TV cowboy Rick Dalton, one of those names that was probably not his real one. His former show, Bounty Law, is fictional, but bears all the hallmarks of a western TV show of that era, from the overwrought narration to the way DiCaprio poses heroically before dramatically shooting men down; his opponents are polite enough not to fire until he’s done. Off-screen, he’s an alcoholic who rages at himself more than anyone else, at one point talking to himself in a mirror and threatening his reflection. There’s an extended scene with DiCaprio and a child actor (Julia Butters) that is obviously more Tarantino talking than the characters, but which is fascinating for the same reason the conversation about socks in Million Dollar Baby was: instead of rushing headlong through the plot, it takes time for people just to be people who talk about what they’re reading and how they feel. DiCaprio nails it perfectly, and you actually feel something for this louse.

Pitt, too, seems to have begun to embrace his age, and here uses it to the advantage of his character, Cliff Booth, a stuntman and Rick’s friend, who never got very far in the stunt business due to his cockiness and the impression (never confirmed or denied) that he murdered his wife. If Rick is our window on old Hollywood excess, Cliff is our every man, the person most of us would be---in fact, the person most of us would be lucky to be---if we had chased dewy-eyed dreams to Los Angeles. I suspect Pitt, 55, is not wearing much make-up, allowing his age to show. He has the hangdog look of a working class man who routinely shakes his head at the world he’s found himself in.

3

Tarantino’s love of trash film is on full display. Said Roger Ebert, paraphrasing Pauline Kael, “The movies are so rarely great art that if we cannot appreciate great trash, we may as well not go.” Tarantino appreciates great trash. I got much amusement simply out of the titles of the movies invented to fill out Dalton’s filmography. The Five Fists of McCluskey. Red Blood, Red Skin. Kill Me Now Ringo, Said the Gringo. Italian film is deservedly renowned for quality, but like any well-formed person, it can laugh at itself, too, and bears a dual reputation for wonderfully satisfying garbage, be it low-budget spaghetti westerns or the fantastically cheesy and exploitative Giallo films. America isn’t spared, either. Bounty Law seems to exist to poke gentle fun at how terrible those old TV shows were (sorry, dad), and Tarantino even sticks DiCaprio into The Great Escape, a classic film that, as we see, could never be made with modern acting styles. Perhaps my favorite use of this was one few will mark: DiCaprio dancing on a 60’s/70’s style variety show that will make anyone under 50 think “They really would watch anything back then.”

4

You may be going to this film simply because it is Tarantino making it, or because it’s refreshing to have something to see at the multiplex that isn’t made by Disney. You may also be aware that it is set around the events of the real-life Tate-LaBianca murders. Rick and Cliff mostly flirt with the edges of the Manson cult. One of Tarantino’s gifts as a writer here is that he reminds us that as the murders were being planned, life went on elsewhere. Manson himself shows up very briefly, Rick and Cliff pass Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate as they drive, and people such as Steve McQueen and Mama Cass show up for a few minutes or even a fleeting few seconds. Tarantino puts the events in context, even if it is in service of his obsessive need for pop culture references. There are, however, two scenes which bring us closer to the real events. In one, Tate, played by Margot Robbie as an ordinary woman and not a walking tragedy, visits a theatre to watch one of her own movies; I believe the film, The Wrecking Crew, is shown in its original form, with the actual Tate, and certainly the actual Dean Martin. In the second, Pitt’s Cliff visits the Manson ranch to check on a friend, and it is one of those scenes where Tarantino proves he is more than shock. Expertly planned in the style of Hitchcock, the tension builds unbearably, and terrible consequences are thwarted only narrowly and by good fortune.  

5

Like Inglourious Basterds, the film is revisionist history, and if you saw that one you might have some idea how this one ends. Surely, scolds and nags will wave their fingers at Tarantino over the fact that Cliff and Rick (and dog Brandy) prevent the Tate-LaBianca murders by killing the would-be assailants; it won’t improve their impressions that it happens in the most brutal way possible, with every bit of Tarantino’s penchant for over-the-top violence on display. Of course, if the director cared what his detractors thought, he wouldn’t be him. Whatever you think of the scene, there is no doubt it is perfectly and hilariously executed; the laughter of the audience comes not just from the insane nature of the violence, but from the admitted cathartic thrill. Tarantino is allowing us to see what is a major fantasy of most of us: the ability to go back in time and prevent a horrific act while visiting that same intended brutality on the perpetrators. It is the “If you could kill baby Hitler” quandary, except for Tarantino there doesn’t seem to be any moral hesitation; the Manson family is ripped to shreds in ways even the most vengeful would-be vigilante can scarcely conjure. The film then ends on a wistful note, as Tate and her friends get to go on with their night as though nothing happened. The director gave us this as well when he blew up the entire Nazi high command in Basterds, and with the satisfaction of a former slave getting to visit his wrath upon slavers in Django Unchained. If one of the roles of fiction is to explore things we want but cannot have in a flawed world, Tarantino often succeeds.

[doomonfilm]

Ranking : Quentin Tarantino (1963 - present)

When it comes to connecting ‘cool’ with cinema of the past 3 decades, the name that often skyrockets to the top of most lists is Quentin Tarantino.  With a distinct flare for mixing varied genres with the grace of a DJ, a unique tone in terms of both dialogue and humor, and more controversy than a gaggle of directors can shake a stick at often surrounding his name, Tarantino’s output never ceases to entertain or amaze.  We never quite know what he’ll bring to the table next, but we know what he’s left at the table, and now is the time to put them in a personal favorite order.

While possibly controversial in its inclusion, Four Rooms will be on this list due to Tarantino’s distinct style being present in his equally timed segment of the film.  Conversely, Sin City will not be included, as he only co-directed a scene and not an entire section of the film.  True Romance and Natural Born Killers have also been excluded, as Tarantino did not direct those films, despite his involvement in them.

10.   Four Rooms (1995) While not a full feature directed by Tarantino, his portion was the perfect way to wrap up the entire film.  His portion amped up the film’s energy, the stakes were instantly recognizable and identifiable to a viewer, putting this feeling in the pit of your stomach that rides with you until the inevitable conclusion, and it was a continuation of the wonderful working chemistry between Tarantino and Tim Roth.  It anchors this list simply because it is not a full-length feature, but it is a notable breathing point in a remarkable career.

9.   Inglorious Basterds (2009) In terms of premise alone, this movie should have done it for me.  Christoph Waltz gave a performance for the ages.  Even my friend Tina Rodriguez is in the opening frames of this film.  To put it plain and simple, the final 20 or so minutes of this film lost any and all momentum it had built, in my eyes, and became a piece of shock exploitation when it could have continued being a genre-redefining twist on a story we are all too familiar with.  Basterds was definitely a shot at something unique, but Tarantino would go on to do it better in the next film on this list.

8.   Django Unchained (2012) This could have been much higher on the list, as it does (in my opinion) what Inglorious Basterds could not in terms of taking a genre or topic we believe is well defined and putting a fresh spin on it.  Making a continuation of the Django western series with a former slave in the starring role is a bold choice, but Tarantino came within a breath of hitting the bullseye.  The only, and I mean ONLY thing that kicks this film so far down the list is the HORRIBLE choice to include the rap music cues more than two-thirds into the film’s run.  It totally took me out of the world that the film had built, and turned it into a Robert Rodriguez level ending for what was nearly a modern day masterpiece.

7.   Grindhouse - Death Proof (2007) This film oozes so much style and bravado that it’s almost disgusting.  The cars chosen for this film would fit wonderfully in my collection when I become a rich man.  The collisions captured for the film are some of the most jaw dropping and gut wrenching ever committed to celluloid.  Kurt Russell is a pure joy to watch in this film, and every woman cast in this film has something unique about them that demands your attention and tugs at your heartstrings (if not base desires).  The heavy exploitation elements, including the raucous ending, are pitch perfect.  Even the touch of the entire missing reel in the theatrical version, present in the home released full cut, divides viewers, as many are missing a huge exposition chunk not present in theaters.  Probably would not have worked as well outside of the Grindhouse context, but nevertheless a pleasant surprise of a film that emerged from that collaborative project.     

6.   Jackie Brown (1997) For a passion project, this film really finds its groove and sticks the landing.  One of a handful of Elmore Leonard novels that found its way to the big screen in the mid to late 1990′s, Jackie Brown might be the one that speaks best to an older time and sentiment being forced to find value in a changing age.  Robert Forrestor and Pam Grier’s chemistry is undeniable, Bridget Fonda brings a whimsy to the screen not present in full sincerity since the 1970′s, and seeing Samuel L. Jackson paired with Robert De Niro is cinematic gold.  The soundtrack is amazing, the story is easy to relate to, and the style used for the film was probably the last Scorcese-esque approach Tarantino used before committing fully to the flare and outlandishness of his exploitation desires.  An underappreciated gem, in all honesty.

5.   Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)

4.   Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004) Oh, what could have been... here was an idea, when pitched, that would cover three to four hours of runtime, emotional and action-based peaks and valleys unparalleled in modern day film, and revitalize the possibility of a director’s vision and execution being identical if not extremely similar.  Instead, what we were given were two halves of one film promoted and released as separate films, thoroughly confusing the majority of the viewing public and showing that, despite all that Quentin had done prior, he was still left to answer to the powers that be at Miramax.  Had this film been released in its original intended presentation, it would very like be the top film on this list.  I will hold out indefinitely for the hopes that it is re-cut as one film for the Criterion Collection one day.

3.   The Hateful Eight (2015) Another film that seems deeply personal upon repeat viewing.  This one was very specific on the technical side when it came to shooting with the Ultra Panavision 70 (for a true 70mm aspect ratio), but the result is an amazingly claustrophobic experience, as most of this wideness was used to capture strangers locked in together during a fierce snowstorm.  Casting Kurt Russell in a low-key remake of The Thing is a stroke of genius.  Casting Jennifer Jason Leigh in a scene-stealing lead actress role was another.  This film is perfectly tense when it needs to be, extremely violent (usually out of the blue), and hilarious all in equal measure.  A true example of what the film experience can (and should) be, and one that must be seen on a big screen if afforded the opportunity.

2.   Reservoir Dogs (1992) It may seem obvious, but one way to get an established and fruitful career is with a monumental and mind-blowing debut.  In the case of Quentin Tarintino, we got an exercise in minimalism, a showcase for a handful of actors that were not getting the respect they deserved at the time, and a (deceptively) straightforward genre film that you can hang your notions and comparisons on.  What is quickly revealed, however, is a demonstration of how tough guys can be cordial when they need to be, and all business when the heat is on.  This tale of a robbery gone horribly wrong shows almost none of the robbery, focusing instead on mostly fallout, and still somehow manages to ratchet the tension up so high that you find yourself constantly on the edge of your seat.  Cool aesthetic is drenched all over this film, from casting to production to wardrobe.  The radio motif presented in both the film and the soundtrack further solidify the film and sear images into the memory, making them instantly recognizable and utterly unforgettable.  

1.   Pulp Fiction (1994) Tarantino’s magnum opus.  The film where he not only truly honed in on his first great run thanks to his style, aesthetic and motifs, but the film that spawned a generation of copycats, both directly and in terms of general filmmaking style.  The film made John Travolta a star to an entirely new generation, it helped put Bruce Willis back on the map, and it made household names out of Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson and Ving Rhames.  If there were a single film that was ever symbolic of 1990′s cinema, one would be hard pressed find a film more suitable than this one to fulfill that role.  Tarantino was truly firing on all cylinders when he put this one together.  The film is so good that it made most everything he touched an instant classic for a long, long time afterwards.

If their were ever a director (or a list) made to generate debate, it would be this one.  I anticipate disagreements, and in time, I even anticipate this list to probably change.  But, as of this point in my life, and this point in Tarantino’s career, I feel strongly and confidently that this is a good representation of his work and how they stand up to one another.

[lumierebros]

Movie Buff Questions

1. Favorite action film?

Imogen: Die Hard, Terminator 2

Shakya: The Dark Knight, Terminator, Alien, Ip Man +any Tarantino

2. What movie(s) could you watch over and over and not get tired of?

I: Grease, Inception, Gone Girl, Superbad, Hot Fuzz

S: There Will Be Blood, Deathproof, Grease, Django Unchained, Birdman, Whiplash, plus again, any tarantino let’s put it at that)

3. Any old school favorites (pre-70s)?

I: Rear Window, North By Northwest, Breakfast at Tiffany’s

S: On the Waterfront, Citizen Kane, Rebel Without A Cause, Psycho, A Streetcar Named Desire, Casablanca, Singin In The Rain, Dr Strangelove, 2001, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Apartment, The Graduate, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 12 Angry Men, Ben Hur are allllllllll amazing

4. Top 5 directors?

I: David Fincher, Sofia Coppola, Christopher Nolan, Wes Anderson, Denis Villeneuve

S: Paul Thomas Anderson, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Quentin Tarantino, Coen Brothers, Damien Chazelle/Alejandro G. Iñárritu

5. Favorite dead actor/actress?

I: Grace Kelly,  Heath Ledger, Audrey Hepburn, Anton Yelchin

S: Heath Ledger had a lotttt of potential and Brando was great too

6. Favorite movie from the 90’s?

I: Clueless, Fight Club, Seven, Saving Private Ryan, American Beauty

S: Goodfellas, American Beauty, The Big Lebowski, Boogie Nights, The Usual Suspects, Good Will Hunting, Reservoir Dogs, Fargo, Dances With Wolves, Scream, Sister Act, Trainspotting. American History X, Forrest Gump, Casino, Leon, Schindler’s List, Jurassic Park I could go on and on

7. Ever been/are you such a hardcore fan of an actor actress you watched/will watch any movie they were/will be in?

I: James McAvoy

S: Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Leonardo DiCaprio

8. What movie are you looking forward to coming out the most?

I: Star Wars the Last Jedi, Blade Runner 2049

S: Alien: Covenant, Dunkirk

9. Pixar or Dreamworks?

I: Pixar

S: Pixar, but Dreamworks for Sinbad, Prince of Egypt and Spirit

10. Favorite animated movie?

I: Fantastic Mr Fox

S: Spirit, Fantasia, Ferngully

11. Favorite musical?

I: La La Land, Grease, The Lion King

S: Singin’ In The Rain, Grease, Moulin Rouge, La La Land, Oliver!, The Sound of Music, (does High School Musical count )

12. Are you against book-to-movie adaptations?

I: Nope

S: Noooo

13. Your guilty pleasure movie(s)?

I: The Narnia movies, X-Men Apocalypse, The Proposal

S: Burn After Reading, Snatch, In Bruges + Independence Day, Ace Ventura hahahaha

14. Robin Williams or Eddie Murphy?

I: Robin Williams

S: Robin Williams easily

15. Favorite chick flick?

I: Clueless, Ever After

S: When Harry Met Sally (is that a chick flick or)

16. Ever watched a movie just because you heard the effects were awesome?

I: Star Trek (ending up loving it), Avatar

S: Avatar, Gravity, District 9

17. Favorite indie film?

I: Memento, Lost in Translation, Drive

S: Reservoir Dogs, Drive, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, American History X

18. Favorite movie heroin?

I: Sarah Connor, Princess Leia, Liz Bennet, Lisbeth Salander

S: Ellen Ripley

19. Favorite movie action hero?

I: John McClane, Indiana Jones

S: Jason Bourne, The Terminator (arnie)

20. Ever read a book so you could understand the movie?

I: Gone Girl, The Life of Pi

S: A Clockwork Orange: Watched the movie to understand the book, but never got past the first 20 pages or past the rape scene in the film

21. Favorite kids movie?

I: How To Train Your Dragon, The Parent Trap

S: Space Jammmmmmmmmm

22. Favorite Disney movie?

I: The Beauty and the Beast

S: Snow White (childhood fav)

23. Favorite movie soundtrack?

I: Anything by Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore (LOTR)

S: Anything by Hans Zimmer, Justin Hurwitz and Howard Shore. PLUS Proven Lands - Jonny Greenwood, Dirty Walk and Doors and Distance - Antonio Sanchez, Revenant theme- Ryuichi Sakamoto, Nightcall- Kavinsky, The Child Pt. 1 & 2- Jed Kurzel, any classical pieces in Kubrick films.

24. Movie that makes you cry every time?

I: Atonement, Schindler’s List

S: Schindler’s List, Titanic hehe

25. VHS, DVD, or Blu-ray?

I: I watch my stuff online srry

S: VHS was amazing, we had a massive collection when I was younger. Nowadays I would say Blu-ray purely because of quality. Quality of sound is more important to me though (BOSE!!!).

26. Best experience going to the movies

I: Seeing Star Wars The Force Awakens in Gold Class

S: When my boyfriend randomly picked me up at 10pm to go see Arrival as a surprise because I’d mentioned I wanted to see it once.

27. Top 5 actors?

I: Matthew McConaughey, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Ethan Hawke, Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day Lewis, Ewan McGregor plus all the ones Shakya mentions that I don’t mention-- I LOVE EVERYONE

S: Daniel Day Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kevin Spacey, Robert DeNiro, Jack Nicholson, Gary Oldman, Christian Bale, Ed Norton, Benicio Del Toro, Christoph Waltz, Javier Bardem

28. Top 5 actresses?

I: Amy Adams, Lupita Nyong’o, Viola Davis, Naomie Harris, Felicity Jones, Natalie Portman, Kate Winslet, Brie Larson

S: Natalie Portman, Frances McDormand, Emma Stone, Ellen Page, Julianne Moore, Amy Adams, Michelle Williams, Kirsten Dunst

29. Movie you completely regret seeing?

I: X- Men The Last Stand

S: 2012, The Accountant, Pacific Rim, Nymphomaniac P1 & 2

30. Movie you wish was never made?

I: X-Men The Last Stand HAHAHA

S: Eragon

31. Movie your parent showed you?

I: The Wizard of Oz, Grease

S: Legit everything, we still have Movie Night every Friday (and we’re not allowed rewatches)

32. Last movie you watched?

I: The English Patient

S: The Apartment

33. An overrated movie?

I: Batman (1989), also agree about The Notebook

S: The Notebook, Super 8, 500 Days of Summer, Brokeback Mountain, Zoolander, Rain Man

34. An underrated movie?

I: Before Sunrise, In Bruges, The Nice Guys

S: Nocturnal Animals, Drive, Snatch, Blood Diamond, Dogma, Biutiful, Tree of Life

35. Favorite comedy movie?

I: Hot Fuzz, Superbad, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Blazing Saddles

S: Burn After Reading, Tropic Thunder, Annie Hall, The Big Lebowski, Wayne’s World, Snatch, Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, Borat

36. Movie quote you live by?

I: “I’m so much happier now that I’m dead. Technically, missing.” You know, bc fuck Nick Dunne.

S: There’s not any quote I LIVE by but I do love this scene:

‘Michelangelo? You know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations. Him and the pope. Sexual orientation. The whole works, right? I bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling. Seeing that. If I ask you about women, you'll probably give me a syllabus of your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few times. But you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy. You're a tough kid. I ask you about war, you'd probably throw Shakespeare at me, right? "Once more into the breach, dear friends." But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap and watch him gasp his last breath lookin' to you for help. If I asked you about love, you'd probably quote me a sonnet, but you've never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone that could level you with her eyes. Feelin' like God put an angel on Earth just for you, who could rescue you from the depths of hell.’

37. Movie quote that will always make you laugh?

I: “Where the white women at?”

S: ‘I eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast!’ ‘You eat pieces of shit for breakfast?’ -long pause- ‘No!’

‘Shut the fuck up fat man this ain’t none of your goddamn business’

‘I have uh..uh.. lactose reflux’ ‘You’re lactose intolerant or you have acid reflux? They’re different things’

‘A shootout is a fucking shootout!!....Like a Western’

‘You think that’s a Schwiiiiiin’

‘I eat the Canadian? I don’t know what you’re talking about’

‘I don’t read the script, the script reads me’ ‘What the hell does that even mean??’

‘oh nothing Tommy, it’s….tip-top, it’s just i’m not sure about the colour’

All the other quotes I find funny are completely random movie quotes that my family has just turned into a joke and that we can easily incorporate into conversation e.g. ‘whadaya gonna do ranger rick, shoot me?’ ‘I could do that’, ‘you sir, too sir’, ‘I don’t want Nenat’, ‘I drive’, ‘you want uhhh money or something’, ‘yeah i like dags’, ‘there is no spoon’ ETC you get the point

38. Film(s) you’ve watched on a date?

I: Any action/superhero movie that has come out recently.

S: The Conjuring 2, La La Land, Arrival, Sausage Party, The Accountant (bf loves accounting but it was shit), Fantastic Beasts, Captain America: Civil War, Shine (anniversary reshow with Geoffrey Rush doing a q&a after teehee), Nocturnal Animals, Suicide Squad, Moonlight, Sully, War Dogs, Jason Bourne, heaps more that I can’t remember

39. Favorite cult film?

I: Pulp Fiction, Fight Club

S: The Big Lebowski, Taxi Driver,  Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction

40. Directors you’d like to see work together?

I: David Fincher and Denis Villeneuve could be interesting

S: Coen brothers and Guy Ritchie would be fkn awesome OR Coens and Tarantino would be screenplay heaven

41. Actors you’d like to see work together?

I: Felicity Jones and Oscar Isaac (can you imagine the chemistry)

S: Miles Teller and Emma Watson ;---)

42. Films you wanted to watch, but never got around to watching?

I: American History X, 28 Days Later

S: Amadeus, The Deer Hunter

43. Favorite teen movie?

I: Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You, Fast Times at Ridgemont High

S: Juno, Grease, The Breakfast Club, Rebel Without A Cause

44. Top 5 favorite films?

I: American Psycho, Her, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Seven, Inception, There Will Be Blood, Inglourious Basterds, LOTR, No Country For Old Men ARGH SO MANY

S: There Will Be Blood (no. 1 fav), Good Will Hunting, No Country For Old Men, Raging Bull, Fargo, The Dark Knight, Goodfellas, LOTR, American Psycho, Deathproof, Tree of Life, The Usual Suspects, So many so many.

45. Favorite superhero film?

I: Logan, X-Men Days of Future Past, The Dark Knight

S: The Dark Knight, The Incredibles

46. Favorite cop film?

I: 21 Jump Street, Hot Fuzz, The Departed

S: Reservoir Dogs, Fargo, Seven, Mystic River, The Departed, Silence Of The Lambs

47. Favorite road trip film?

I: Fear and Loathing Las Vegas

S: Borat HHAHAHAH

48. A disappointing film from your favorite actor?

I: Pick any rom-com of Matthew McConaughey’s

S: Jack Nicholson in The Bucket List and Anger Management. So fucking bad. Good actor, shit movies.

49. A disappointing film from your favorite director?

I: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

S: The Lovely Bones, Only God Forgives

50. The first movie you ever remember watching in theaters?

I: I don’t remember any, but the first film I saw was A Bug’s Life

S: I genuinely have no idea

51. A movie that was better than the book?

I: The Shining (lmao bc Stephen King hates the movie)

S: Yeah The Shining and There Will Be Blood (based on Oil! which was beautifully written but nothing beats PTA’s adaption)

52. Vin Diesel or Bruce Willis?

I: Vin Diesel is so cute but I like Bruce better

S: it’s not a motorcycle baby it’s a chopper

53. A movie that not many have heard of that you’ve seen?

I: Hunt For the Wilderpeople

S: Vampire’s Kiss, Children of Men, Ip Man (VERY good foreign film), Dr Strangelove, Inherent Vice, Shame, Biutiful, Macbeth, Cool Hand Luke, Room In Rome, To Sir With Love

54. A movie that changed the way you view the world?

I: To Kill a Mockingbird

S: American History X

55. Favorite sci-fi movie?

I: Star Wars, Star Trek, Interstellar, Arrival, Gattaca

S: Alien, Predator, The Thing, Interstellar, Arrival, Terminator, 2001, Matrix, The Fifth Element, E.T

56. Movie you completely nerd-out over every time it’s mentioned?

I: X-Men, Star Wars, LOTR

S: LOTR obviously

57. Movie that you’ve seen all the behind-the-scenes action for?

I: Inception

S: LOTR again, hours on end of it omf

58. Movie where your favorite actor was the only good part?

I: Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor in the Star Wars prequels

S: Leonardo DiCaprio in The Basketball Diaries

59. Movie from an actor you hate that was better than you expected?

I: Kristen Stewart (Adventureland), but I don’t hate her at all, I was just surprised at her performance.

S: Mo’Nique in Precious, never hated her, she’s brilliant, it was the first performance I’ve seen of hers and it made me despise her character so much. SO GOOD but so awful.

60. Most visually stunning movie you’ve seen?

I: The Revenant

S: Tree of Life, 2001, The Revenant, Apocalypse Now, The Master, Interstellar, LOTR, Jurassic Park

61. A movie your parents introduced you to?

I: The Wizard of Oz, Life is Beautiful, Grease

S: Hahahaha basically every movie no joke, but my dad showed me lots of Chaplin

62. Favorite genre?

I: Thriller/crime/mystery/suspense

S: Drama, gangster movies, thrillers/horror/psychological thriller/horror you get the jist

63. Least favorite genre?

I: Romantic comedies

S: Romcoms or superhero movies (not including tdk)

64. Comedy movie that you didn’t find funny?

I: Sausage Party

S: How to be single, Anchorman, Sausage Party

65. Horror movie that didn’t scare you?

I: The Conjuring, Paranormal Activity

S: Insidious just so bad, The Exorcist, The Shining, Rosemary’s Baby, Let The Right One In (Swedish version NOT American Let Me In). None are terrifying, just extremely unsettling and disturbing

66. Favorite remake of an old movie?

I: The Departed, True Grit

S: True Grit, The Thing, Scarface, The Departed

67. A movie that started a passion for you?

I: Her. The first “good” movie I watched that got me into film culture.

S: Well I was brought up with hundreds of great movies from my childhood which made me love film as a child, but standout ones from my childhood I can remember especially well are LOTR, Spirit, Fantasia, all very music based films too

68. A movie that sparked an interesting conversation?

I: Interstellar (about time, paradoxes, and space)

S: Donnie Darko, No Country For Old Men, Psycho, The Usual Suspects, 2001, Whiplash -- all have brilliant final scenes, Split: my bro and I spent an hour talking about what makes a good movie and why it was so bad

69. The main movie you remember from your childhood?

I: Grease… slightly inappropriate for a kid but most of the adult stuff went over my head anyway

S: Lord Of The Rings of course, first full length film I was shown and Neverending Story is another one I remember well.

70. The first movie you saw on it’s opening night?

I: Star Wars The Force Awakens

S: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows P1 and P2, La La Land

71. A move that made you ache for love.

I: Before Sunrise

S: Blue Valentine

72. Favourite foreign film/s?

I:

S: Let The Right One In, Life Is Beautiful, Cinema Paradiso, Ip Man, City of God, Pan’s Labyrinth, REC, Biutiful

73. Favourite horror film/s?

I: 

S: The Shining, The Exorcist, Rosemary’s Baby, Carrie, Halloween, Texas Chainsaw, Psycho, REC.

[nickdelo]

A Film Discussion: Favorite Movie for Every Year of Our Lives

Full disclosure, I flat-out stole this idea from the A.V. Club.  I called upon my old pal John Iatesta to compare and discuss our lists. Enjoy.

Nick’s List

1987: The Brave Little Toaster 1988: Rain Man 1989: Do the Right Thing 1990: Goodfellas 1991: Barton Fink 1992: Wayne’s World 1993: Groundhog Day 1994: Pulp Fiction 1995: Before Sunrise 1996: A Summer’s Tale 1997: Good Will Hunting 1998: The Big Lebowski 1999: Dogma 2000: In the Mood for Love 2001: Y Tu Mama También 2002: Catch Me If You Can 2003: 21 Grams 2004: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2005: The 40-Year-Old Virgin 2006: Children of Men 2007: There Will Be Blood 2008: In Bruges 2009: Moon 2010: The Social Network 2011: The Muppets 2012: The Master 2013: Inside Llewyn Davis 2014: Boyhood 2015: Ex Machina 2016: Hell or High Water 2017: Get Out

Honorable Mentions: Before Midnight (2013), Mud (2013), Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012), Dazed and Confused (1993), Say Anything... (1989)

John’s List

1992: Wayne's World 1993: Jurassic Park 1994: Dumb and Dumber 1995: Casino 1996: Fargo 1997: Jackie Brown 1998: The Big Lebowski 1999: Big Daddy 2000: Gladiator 2001: Training Day 2002: Adaptation 2003: Old School 2004: Anchorman 2005: The Weatherman 2006: Stranger than Fiction 2007: Hot Fuzz 2008: Burn After Reading 2009: Inglorious Basterds 2010: Shutter Island 2011: Paul 2012: Django Unchained 2013: Inside Llewyn Davis 2014: Birdman 2015: Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens 2016: The Nice Guys 2017: John Wick 2

Honorable Mentions: Sicario (2015), No Country for Old Men (2007), Inside Man (2006), Billy Madison (1995), My Cousin Vinny (1992)

ND: I think what stands out most is the specific gaps in our resumes, mostly in the early years. So it's easy to latch onto sentimental favorites (The Brave Little Toaster, Wayne's World, Dogma) and "prestigious" films I haven't seen in years and probably haven’t age well (Rain Man, Good Will Hunting). My movie-watching intake has gone up considerably as I’ve gotten older, allowing me to explore some classics well after the fact to up my credibility ever so slightly.

I'm as surprised as anyone to see the Coen Brothers as the most represented on my list with three films (as well as yours with four), edging out Richard Linklater, Alfonso Cuaron and Paul Thomas Anderson with two apiece. I routinely try to knock Coens down a peg, but when they hit, they are masters. Inside Llewyn Davis is their crowning achievement if you ask me, melding the best of their darkest and lightest, with a powerhouse performance from Oscar Isaac to boot -- and the songs! I could watch that movie every day.

ND: Inside Llewyn Davis is so good that it managed to come out on top in my most contested year, 2013. Before Midnight and Mud are two of my all-time favorites. The former was easier to leave off with Before Sunrise's inclusion -- it's my least favorite of the trilogy, but 1995 had a clearer path than 2013 or 2004 (Before Sunset). Mud's exclusion was even more painful, leaving my list McConaughey-less

JI: I thank you for my Inside Llewyn Davis inclusion. You raved about that movie during our time at The Sports Network and it pushed me to watch it much sooner than I probably would have before. I agree with you to an extent about the Coens. I don't think they're overrated but when they miss its like Ryan Howard in the 2010 NLCS*, see: The Ladykillers and Hail, Caesar!.

*(Editor’s Note: I believe you mean the 2011 NLDS loss to the Cardinals, where Howard went 2-for-19 (.105) and ended the series with a blown-out Achilles tendon aka the downfall of the Philadelphia Phillies dynasty.)

ND: Our lists aren't so different. You have even more black comedies than me, with the four Coens, a handful of Tarantino, even Casino, Adaptation, Birdman and The Nice Guys would qualify with their mix of light and dark. I think it's important to bring levity to most dramas (though my selections of Children of Men, 21 Grams, and the works of PT Anderson run contrary), and you seem to agree. Enlighten me on your process, good man.

JI: I definitely agree with your first point in there being gaps in knowledge, but for me it’s more spotty than just one era. I found myself sometimes in the mid-2000s not having a real standout, but you aren't wrong about some movies having very strong sentimental value. Wayne's World still holds up though! 

JI: Like you, my "good" movie intake has gone up as I've gotten older. I’ve developed my own taste for movies and can now afford to go see what I want. I recently saw Rain Man for the first time and while it wasn't bad, I'd agree it doesn't really hold up.

Brief aside, can we talk about Jim Carrey's 1994? Ace Ventura, Dumb and Dumber and The Mask. Dude was an absolute fireball that year.

ND: Jim Carrey was as integral part of my childhood as well. My brother and I used to recite Dumb and Dumber dialogue on car rides to the shore (I was Harry more often than not). But 1994 was never not going to be Pulp Fiction. It's become a cliche at this point -- film people clinging to Pulp Fiction like gospel -- but it's no exaggeration so say that discovering it changed my cinema-going outlook forever.

JI: My process was to not just choose the best in terms of critical acclaim to trumpet myself up and say "look how well versed in film I am,” but to choose movies I could actually defend as being one of my favorites. I also excluded children's or Disney movies because they lean too heavily on sentimentality and felt like they'd be a crutch. This is why a movie like Billy Madison is on my Honorable Mention list. I can recite that movie nearly line-for-line. 

ND: So no to Billy Madison, but yes to Big Daddy?

JI: 1999 was just one of those years that had a bigger gap than 1995. I got halfway through Fight Club and was bored to tears, and I love Ed Norton (your long-lost brother) and Brad Pitt but I just didn't see what everyone else does. I've only seen The Matrix once and same with The Insider.  And probably the two biggest omissions from that year are The Sixth Sense and The Hurricane. All those factors considered, I couldn't in good faith put a movie I've only seen once above one I've seen two dozen times. Also, I'm semi acquaintances with Peter Dante now that I'm an LA hot shot (I gagged just typing that) and his "They're not scrawny, they're nice," line gets me every time.

Maybe the hardest part for me was not finding space for a PT Anderson movie, with There Will be Blood losing a close 2007 race to Hot Fuzz, or a true Philip Seymour Hoffman movie, (The Big Lebowski doesn't count). He’s likely my favorite actor of all time. I don't think I've seen a bad performance out of him and not being able to squeeze him in any year stings.

Only one Scorsese movie from you (Goodfellas) -- probably his second best behind Raging Bull -- and only two from me (Casino, Shutter Island). He’s long been considered my favorite director but most of his best came out prior to my birth. Is this a similar issue for you, or do you not hold him in such high regard?

ND: Maybe the biggest catch with this project is the year arguably plays an even bigger role than the films themselves. So yes, I would never hesitate to put Scorsese in my top 3 favorite directors of all time, but I definitely prefer his pre-Goodfellas work (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Mean Streets) to his more recent films. Although The Departed gave Children of Men a run for its money in 2006, and The Wolf of Wall Street and Hugo made my top 10 lists in their respective years. I consider Casino to be B/B- material for Marty, though De Niro's suits suit game is elite.

I'm glad you made special mention of Philip Seymour Hoffman. We've really bonded over our love for him and I was surprised to see him shut out of your list. He's the primary reason why The Master outlasted a great 2012 field. It's a tough pill to swallow, but it gets even better as the years go on and will live on in the zeitgeist for decades. If you figure a way to live without serving a master, any master, then let the rest of us know, will you? For you'd be the first person in the history of the world. 

JI: Along Came Polly was a consideration for me solely for PSH as the unforgettable Sandy Lyle.

ND: Long live PSH.

I think we both did a good job managing our sentimentality. I only have a few notable asterisks. It's been 25 years since I've watched The Brave Little Toaster, but all this time later, when I saw it listed among the 1987 films, I smiled. And in an otherwise terrible year for film (I know it's beyond your jurisdiction, youngin, but take a gander), that shit mattered the most to me. I will never apologize for 2011's The Muppets. There is preciously little in this world as important to me as the Muppets. I am forever indebted to Jason Segel for keeping their legacy alive in the spirit of Jim Henson's vision.

Can we talk about 2005, please? The consensus best pic is Brokeback Mountain, though I've regretfully never seen it. We both went with curveball selections: You with The Weatherman and me with The 40-Year-Old-Virgin. It's not my favorite Apatow production from that era (Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story stand tall above the rest), but its only real competition from 2005 was from Batman Begin and (yes, really) The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

JI: 2005 was really rough. I'm a big Nic Cage fan and The Weatherman was kind of my default favorite. Coming off of a John Wick 2 high, I recently watched Constantine for the first time and considered selecting it just because of recency bias and it wasn't even very good. Batman Begins is really good but as time goes on, I feel like the Nolan Batman trilogy has become less rewatchable for some reason, and Batman is basically the only superhero movie I like. Keaton is a personal favorite for me so I can always watch his two Batman movies.

ND: I tend to agree with you about Nolan's Batman, though I think their lack of rewatchability is in no small part due to the superhero saturation of the past decade. The tropes and cliches that are getting beat into the ground now were created in Batman Begins, so it deserves a lot of credit for that. Anyway, neither of us picked a Batman film, so back to 2005 -- I remember liking The Weatherman! No one's had a more interesting career than Nic Cage. And he's still got the goods (see David Gordon Green's Joe).

JI: Cage definitely can still bring it, the problem is he's become such a joke to most people it feels like he can't break that persona even when he does get a really good role/performance like Joe. 

ND: I'm ready for a Cage Renaissance. We can call it the CageWakening. Not as catchy as the McConaissance, I admit.

JI: I’m dying for it.

JI: Along with you, I haven't seen Brokeback Mountain, nor sadly have I seen Capote -- huge PSH gap for me -- so I was just kind of stuck on my choice. The 40-Year-Old Virgin, while good, just drags on too long, which I guess has become a common complaint against Apatow projects.

Fun note about the Muppets, when I was a little kid my mom took me to Muppet Treasure Island and we had to leave halfway through because it scared me too much. I was probably three at the time, so I feel this shouldn't be a ding against me here.

ND: Muppet Treasure Island is a trash movie anyway. Barely canon.

JI: What method did you use to find all the movies from each year? I went through Wikipedia Year in Film for each year and it led to some fun surprises along the way. It made me look at someone like Chris Evans and wonder where his career would be now without Captain America? I mean he had to the two Fantastic Four flops, The Perfect Score (Scar Jo and Darius Miles!) and Cellular, a movie I didn’t even know existed.

ND: Don't forget the other Chris Evans' classic, 2009's Push, whose biggest claim to fame is getting Liongate to actually title a film Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire to avoid confusion.

JI: I didn't know Push existed either. Man, he better be thanking Marvel every single day. 

ND: I too used good ole Wikipedia as my aid, though for my all-time favorites (Eternal Sunshine, In Bruges, Goodfellas), I plugged them in an left them there -- no use looking for anyone to dethrone them. I also looked at the lists of film critics I trust to maybe jog my memory on things I might have glossed over, which was the case for Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood For Love, one of my favorite recent discoveries that just happened to be released in a very weak year. And that got me thinking of other foreign films I love that might have been omitted on Wikipedia, like Eric Rohmer's A Summer's Tale. I’m the first to admit that these are my token pretentious picks, but they are both lovely little talky films that find relatable drama in human emotional, which is my cinematic wheelhouse (see: Linklater).

ND: I need to hear the Paul story. A Pegg/Frost movie without Edgar Wright? I saw it and remember liking it fine but forgot all about it the minute I left the theater.

JI: Paul is a mix of a connection I have due to seeing a free early screening of it at Temple with our mutual friend Jason "Ball is Life" Quint and winning a poster at said screening and that 2011 is kind of a weak year. The year of The Artist! Also, I just really liked Paul's cast, Frost and Pegg are always great together along with Jason Bateman and Bill Hader and it just hit a lot of the right notes for me in an exceptionally weak year for truly outstanding movies. 

ND: I mean, I picked The Muppets for 2011, so I can't knock an unconventional selection.

JI: Since its early into 2017, did you have any other real contenders for this year's movies or was it hands down Get Out? It was a very close race for me between Get Out and John Wick 2 but ultimately went John Wick 2 because its so rewatchable. I saw it opening weekend twice, back-to-back nights. Only other movie I've seen from this year is Kong: Skull Island, which was good but not close to the level of those two for me.

ND: I originally wasn't going to pick a 2017 movie for the same reason you mentioned: the sample size just isn't big enough yet. It's unlikely Get Out will be my favorite of the year when it's all said and done, but it definitely stands out in a typically weak January-March. Logan got some consideration; it plays more like a western than a superhero movie, and any departure from the comic book formula is welcomed. I enjoyed Kong just fine but it's still a ways off from "best." I have yet to hop aboard the John Wick bandwagon. I'm sure I'll enjoy the ride once I'm there.

You're successive screening of John Wick 2 reminded me of a similar experience from my childhood, coincidentally with another Keanu movie. I saw a matinee of Hardball with my grandfather one Saturday afternoon, only to find out afterwards that my friends were going to see it that night. I didn't even like it that much, but I didn't want to be left out either. I can't recall if I've ever gone for a rewatch on back-to-back nights, though the odds are strong it happened during one of my four theater viewings of the first Spider-Man. I was a strange teen.

JI: John Wick is a thrill ride you won't want to end. My situation with that was similar to yours with Hardball. Made plans for the Saturday showing with a friend but Friday afternoon another friend texted me wanting to go so I didn't want to flake on either and went twice. Did not regret my decision.

I got you beat! I saw the Spider-Man five times in theaters, which thinking about it now I don't know why I saw it that many times. I also saw Men in Black II five times in theaters thanks to my dad wanting to go that many times. Two very odd movies to see that many times.

ND: Who knew we had so many uber-specific things in common. I can feel our friendship growing by the minute.

JI: As we're winding down on our actual lists, what movies are you most looking forward to for the rest of the year? For me right now Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and The Last Jedi are at the top for me. Dunkirk could be interesting but its tough to get hyped over a movie with a tone like that, especially during July rather than the expected December release. The Dark Tower should be good especially with Elba and McConaughey, but I didn't read the books so I don't have a built in excitement for it like others likely will. A few other interesting ones should be the next Kingsman movie, I thought the first one was really fun and the new IT. I loved the TV miniseries as a kid and am interested to see how they can possibly top Tim Curry as Pennywise. And of course there's the usual slate of sequels coming this year. Did you know that Bad Moms is not only getting a sequel but a spin-off as well with Bad Dads, both coming out in 2017?

ND: As far as blockbusters go, Guardians and The Last Jedi shouldn't disappoint. I didn't love Rogue One but very much enjoyed The Force Awakens, and I trust Rian Johnson even more than J.J. Abrams to carry the torch. Blade Runner 2049 looks incredible -- Villeneuve can do no wrong. Dunkirk looks good, though I've been lukewarm on Nolan's recent efforts. I'm tempering my expectations for The Dark Tower, considering how rocky preproduction has been. It would be a shame to waste such a great cast. Despite Bad Moms earning me some valuable points in last summer's Fantasy Box Office League, I will not be indulging in their further money grabs.

Digging a little deeper, the trailer for Martin McDonagh's latest, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, just dropped and looks like a blast.It's been five years since our last McDonagh, and I'm hopeful this is more In Bruges than Seven Psychopaths (which I still liked). 

ND: We're getting another Alex Garland/Oscar Isaac collaboration in Annihilation, and if it's anywhere near as good as Ex Machina, I'm all-in. Destin Daneil Cretton is releasing his long-awaited follow-up to 2012's outstanding Short Term 12 with The Glass Castle, also starring Brie Larson. And don't look now, but it looks like we're getting a Paul Thomas Anderson/Daniel Day-Lewis reunion next Oscar season. Huzzah.

JI: Ahh yes PTA and DDL reuniting for a movie about 50's era London fashion. I know it won't disappoint but so oddly specific.

ND: Is there anything else we need to discuss before wrapping up? Has this inspired you to catch up on any older flicks? I've got Brokeback Mountain and You Can Count on Me (Kenneth Lonergan's debut) queued up. 

JI: It’s definitely made me want to go back and fill in a bunch of holes. Possibly starting with rounding out my PSH gaps with Magnolia and Capote.

One final note from me, Jackie Brown is criminally underrated and my favorite QT movie. He says anyone of this mindset doesn't really like his movies because he didn't write and to that I say, you don't determine my taste, Quentin.

ND: Jackie Brown was on my 1997 shortlist for sure. Under-the-radar-great.

Thanks for indulging me, John. I'm happy to get out of my head every now and then when it comes to my writing. Things like this are a ton of fun. 

JI: This was fun. Hopefully we can collaborate again for another discussion. Maybe a post summer look back at surprise hits, biggest flops and how I managed to win the box office pool two years in a row (hopefully).