The Sheila Variations

Top 50 Movies

Creating this list took 10 years off my life - but I figured I would give it a shot. My top 50 movies. Of all time. Seen by me. Ever. It was torture - and I am sure I have forgotten many worthy candidates.

I had one rule: None of the movies could be from the last year. Because time is fleeting, and many things can change.

Once upon a time I thought The Karate Kid was the best movie ever made - and that opinion changed as the years passed. (Nothing against that movie - I still love it - and still love that fancy crane move on the beach ... but it's not on my Top 50.)

Also - except for the top 10 - these movies are in no particular order. I just couldn't organize myself that much, as in: Do I like Deer Hunter BETTER than Annie Hall? Such questions are far too difficult.

The only choices which do not change (more or less) are the movies in the Top 10. Those are pretty much ever fixed. The same ones keep showing up, and have been doing so for years and years and years.

God bless the movies. What the hell would we do without them?

Top 50 Movies

1. Another Woman - my favorite Woody Allen film. It's one of his "serious" ones, which normally I find annoying. But this one haunts my dreams. It haunts my life. It stars Gena Rowlands. The woman is my idol. Too many great scenes to count. A brilliant story - like a poem, like a dream. Great acting by Sandy Dennis, Ian Holm, Gene Hackman - John Gielgud shows up for a couple of scenes and you think your heart might crack. Betty Buckley has one scene which is so painful I find it, frankly, unwatchable. And through it all, strolls Gena Rowlands - goddess of the independent film movement, one of the greatest American actresses ever. Thank God Woody Allen wrote this for her.

2. Running on Empty - God. This movie. I cry every time I see it. The actors do power-house jobs. The scene between Christine Lahti and Steven Hill (now of Law & Order fame) is perhaps the best acting I have ever seen. Beautiful movie.

3. Fearless - I love Jeff Bridges. This film is one of the reasons why. A plane crashes into a corn field. There are only a couple of survivors. He is one of them. Because he escapes death - he begins to think he is immortal. If you haven't seen it - you really must.

4. Opening Night - A John Cassavetes film. If you don't know who Cassavetes is, then shame on you. Without Cassavetes, there would be no Martin Scorsese. There would be no Independent Film Channel. Cassavetes created independent film-making, and did it before it was hip. Opening Night, while not his most famous (Woman under the Influence is his most famous - was nominated for Oscars) is his best. It stars his wife Gena Rowlands. It stars Ben Gazzara. I cannot tell you why this movie is so fantastic. I cannot defend my choice. All I know is - it grips my throat. Not a pleasant experience watching it. But DAMN. A film that is burned into my brain.

5. Witness - Harrison Ford's best performance. I love this movie. It works on multiple levels. Also, if you see it now: look for a young Viggo Mortenson, as an Amish farmer (he has no lines in the film, but he is in the
barn-raising scene, and many others.) Witness is evidence that you do not need to have one single sex scene to make an erotic movie.

6. Empire Strikes Back -My favorite of the Star Wars extravaganza. I saw it for the first time at age 11 or something like that, in a drive-in. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. A magical film.

7. Schindler's List - Not a movie I want to watch a million times, too painful - but I believe it is a work of art. The scenes between Ben Kingsley and Liam Neeson take my breath away. Ben Kingsley, with one single tear rolling down his face, but his features not moving: "I think I'd better have that drink now."

8. What's Up Doc? - One of the funniest movies ever made. Do not argue. I do not want to hear it. Peter Bogdonavich, screenplay by Buck Henry - Ryan O'Neal and Barbra Streisand - and Madeline Kahn, in her screen debut ... It is a modern-day Bringing Up Baby. I can recite the film. "So how much is it without the Bufferin?"

9. Sense & Sensibility - This movie kills me. Great acting, great story - great realization of a project. The Jane Austen book is great. The film is better.

10. On the Waterfront - Even just saying the name of this movie gives me the chills. I watch it now, and am still amazed at its relevance and at the power and timelessness of the acting.

11. Apollo 13 - This is what I call a "satisfying" movie. Every scene has its little arc, every scene accomplishes EXACTLY what Ron Howard wants it to ... and yet there is still a huge arc - the arc of the entire piece - and every scene fits into that arc. I have seen it, probably, 20 times. And it still gets me.

12. Some Like it Hot - the Billy Wilder classic. Another one of the funniest movies ever made. Jack Lemmon tangoing with the rose in his teeth, Marilyn Monroe's delicious-ness - I'll never get over being surprised by this film.

13. Fargo - In my opinion, this is one of the best movies ever made. Bravo. Bravo.

14. Diner - The movie that launched about 25 careers. Basically, it's just a bunch of guys, sitting around a table in a diner, talking about food, and cars, and sex ... and yet it is so much more. The scenes are rich, the acting is startlingly good - oh, and did I mention how funny it is?

15. The Conversation - the Gene Hackman classic. He plays a surveillance guy, who ... well, let me just say one thing about my choices, and about my taste. I like movies which are light on plot, and heavy on character. I can tell you what the movies are ABOUT but it's really about WHO these people are. Gene Hackman's character is a surveillance guy who ends up overhearing a conversation with his equipment ... an ominous conversation ... He is a man who cannot connect with other people, who has no feelings for other people - His whole life is his equipment. It is a phenomenal acting job. I love Gene Hackman. Do yourself a favor and rent this one.

16. Blow Out - Brian De Palma. The first big role for John Travolta (besides Welcome Back Kotter) It's another film like The Conversation ... same theme. Travolta plays a sound-guy for movies - and he is out one night, trying to get sounds of frogs or something for a film - and he hears what he thinks is a tire blowing out. But it ends up being much more ominous. And he's just a little sound-guy for a film, but he becomes very very important, because he has the whole thing on tape. Hard to explain why this movie is so good. It's raw. It's Brian Da Palma. It is terrifying.

17. Arizona Dream - You've probably never even heard of this film. It got no distribution here, and is out on video - but in a highly truncated version. I saw it at a little art film-house in Chicago with my friend Ted and we could not BELIEVE it. We still talk about this movie. Faye Dunaway, Lily Taylor, Johnny Depp ... it is an insane film. With flying machines, and wandering turtles, and a big house in the middle of the desert, and a crazy dinner party, and Lily Taylor plays an enraged depressed accordian-player ... it's a wacked movie ... and SO GOOD.

18. The Sting - Words fail me. Great movie. Like a big box of candy corn or something.

19. Moulin Rouge - I don't know why this film GOT to me so much but it did. I bought it, hook line and sinker. I didn't find it too much, or too garish, or too flashy - I thought that was the point. What kept it all going for me was the depth and power of Ewan McGregor's performance - In the midst of this operatic flourish, he played it all totally real. I also have fallen in love like that. To me, love has felt like what it looks like in Moulin Rouge. Tortured, passionate, hilarious, operatic ... To me, that movie felt real.

20. The Double Life of Veronique - another movie which I can't get out of my mind. A girl strolls through the streets of Prague. Suddenly, a bus drives by, and through the windows of the bus, she sees a girl who looks EXACTLY like her. She sees her twin. Her doppelganger. This movie broke my heart. Great acting. Very heartfelt. Not all the attitude you normally get in French films - where everybody stands around looking existential and tragic - This film is real. Irene Jacob stars. A painful film. Makes you think. And the mystery is never really solved.

21. The Winslow Boy - directed by David Mamet. I rented this movie, and watched it. I finished it. And then - I immediately rewound it, and watched the entire thing again.

22. Postcards from the Edge - Dammit, this movie is FUNNY. Meryl Streep's best work. She is a comedic genius. This is another movie which is like a big box of candy. I cannot count how many times I have seen this one. I own it.

23. The Producers - Uh. Do I need to say anything else? I didn't think so.

24. This is Spinal Tap - This has got to be one of the funniest movies ever made. I can't even STAND it. I love, too, the 2 second cameo by Anjelica Houston, who plays the person who designed the "Stone Henge" for their concert ... to tragic results.

25. East of Eden - I'm not sure I can even talk about why this movie is on the list. I loved James Dean so much in high school - he is one of the reasons why I decided that acting was an honorable profession, a craft. This movie is why.

26. Dogfight - I hate River Phoenix for being a drug addict and checking out of this planet, thus depriving us of his amazing gift for years to come. This film stars River and Lily Taylor. River Phoenix plays a cocky asshole Marine, just about to ship out to Vietnam, in the early 60s, before anyone really knew what they were getting themselves into. He tells Lily's character where he is off to, and she asks, "Where's that?" He and his cocky buddies are on leave for 4 days in San Francisco and they host something called a "Dogfight" - The contest is: who can invite the UGLIEST girl to a party they host? So they scour the streets for "dogs" - none of the women are in on the joke, of course - They are all excited to have been approached by hot young soldiers. Anyway, River Phoenix's character asks Lily Taylor's character to come - she has a big bouffant, she's plump, she's a goof-ball who wants to be a folk singer, a la Joan Baez. Needless to say - they spend an epic night together. Where he learns some important lessons about himself - and she learns some important lessons about herself. They are SO GOOD together. I never want this movie to end.

27. Raiders of the Lost Ark - I still have not fully recovered from the first time I saw this movie when I was in high school.

28. Contact - Science vs. God. Pure research vs. Applied science. Faith vs. Knowledge. All of this wrapped up in a gripping story - with Jodie Foster's best acting job yet. Even better than Silence of the Lambs. Let me tell you something, as an actress, having done some films: Silence of the Lambs was filmed almost entirely in close-up, with Jodie Foster looking directly into the camera. You don't have to do ANYTHING when the camera is that close to you. The camera picks up every thought you have, however fleeting. It sees things that you could never plan - it sees inside your brain. It does all the work for you. So everybody thought she was so great in that movie, and yeah, she was, but I thought to myself: Silence of the Lambs was probably the easiest job she ever had. Contacft requires more subtlety, more pain, more feeling, more work. And she is awesome. I love the IDEAS in this movie, too.

29. Reds - This movie is still unmatched, in terms of storytelling. Nobody is brave enough anymore to do what Warren Beatty did, in this movie. Scenes start in the middle, and cut off abruptly. You are suddenly thrust into an argument, and have to catch up, figuring out what they are talking about. Nothing is spelled out. It feels like a documentary (not to mention the brilliant touch of interviewing all of the real people from that time). The scene between Diane Keaton (as Louise Bryant) and Jack Nicholson (as Eugene O'Neill) in the beach house is one of the sexiest scenes I have EVER seen, and they never touch each other. Beatty knows what to keep in, what to leave out. He obviously loves actors. And dearly. They trust him implicitly. Movies are not made like this one anymore. It is gritty. It is raw. Things look like they are really happening, nothing seems simulated. I love that. I love that reality.

30. Magnolia - A movie which takes enormous risks. (Tom Cruise as a misogynistic motivational speaker?) Some of the movie doesn't work, some of it does and brilliantly (John C. Reilly has never been better) - but I love every second of this flawed and moving movie, because it takes RISKS. It takes risks with its script, it asks the actors to take risks - and it expects much from its audience. I love that. A film that demands something of its audience.

31. Taxi Driver - still one of the scariest films I have ever seen. Watch the scene again where he talks to himself in the mirror. It has been parodied so many times, that it is easy to forget how terrifying the original rendition is. It is not a joke. It is fucking scary.

32. The Full Monty - Yeah, I know, ha ha ha, a bunch of steel-workers take off their clothes for money, ha ha ... But I think there is something deeper going on in this film, and that is why it works. It has something to say about men today, it has something to say about the "plight" of men (oh, Jesus, I seem to remember a very pertinent essay by Kim DuToit on this very topic...) - It has something to say about the emasculation of men and how we cannot allow that to occur. Men can't let that happen, but women need to be invested in that struggle too. We should not want our men to be emasculated and domesticated. That, to me, is what that movie is about, and why it brings me to tears every time.

33. Breaking Away - I LOVE THIS MOVIE. I need to see it again, actually, it's been years. I still can hear Paul Dooley's horrified voice, "REE-FUND?? REFUND? REFUND!!! REFUND!!" A coming-of-age story with a great twist. I fell in love with every single one of the characters. Dennis Quaid in his break-out part.

34. The Deer Hunter - That Russian roulette scene. The absolute greatness of the acting. Reminds me of the quote from Isaac Newton about the "shoulders of giants". We must never forget (whatever our profession) that we are standing on the shoulders of giants. Robert DeNiro, Chris Walken, John Cazale, Jon Savage, Michael Cimino ... these men are giants. We owe them a huge debt.

35. The Big Easy - This may not be a great movie - it may not be on anybody else's list, but I love it. I love Dennis Quaid as the charming rakish semi-dirty cop in New Orleans, I love Ellen Barkin as the stick-up-her-ass assistant district attorney, sent to investigate police corruption. The love story is so hot that I lie in bed at night running it over in my mind. Steamy, I tell ya. But it's not like Basic Instinct steamy, or anything cheap ... Quaid and Barkin don't do sexual gymnastics. What makes the love scenes so great, and so unusual, is that the characters take their insecurities, their fears, their senses of humor into bed with them. Like most people do on the face of this earth, except for characters in films who suddenly become contortionists, with no insecurities, and no feelings about being naked for the first time with somebody else. THAT'S why this movie is so sexy, so moving.

36. Citizen Kane - All the special effects in the world cannot hold a candle to what Orson Welles was able to achieve manually. This film is a huge visual accomplishment, yes - but like with all the movies on my list - why it's a success in MY book is because you care about the characters. Or - perhaps that's too simple. Tommy Lee Jones said, when he did a seminar at my school, "I don't think I, as an actor, need to like the characters I play. But I do think that you should want to watch the character." The characters in Citizen Kane are all flawed, all interesting, all highly watch-able. And I can recite the monologue about the woman in white seen through the fog on the ferry from memory.

37. The Misfits - Clark Gable's last film. Directed by John Huston. Screenplay by Arthur Miller. He wrote it for his wife at the time, Marilyn Monroe. Montgomery Clift is in it. Eli Wallach. The stories about the nightmares of this shooting (Clark Gable died of a heart attack soon after wrap) are legendary. A book has been written about it. Regardless: this is the kind of movie I love. With complex characters, all in highly stressful situations ... We, as audience members, can see them better than they can see themselves. All of the acting is top-notch, particularly Clift.

38. The Fisher King - Jeff Bridges is one of my all-time faves. In this he plays a shock-jock who makes a terrible mistake - or, one of his casual comments on the air ends up having tragic consequences. He loses everything. Directed by Terry Gilliam - this movie is more allegory, more myth and legend than reality. And Mercedes Ruehl as Jeff Bridge's girlfriend (she won the Oscar, I think ... or at least was nominated, and rightly so) is fantastic. I loved their relationship, the two of them together. The kind of relationship that can only exist between ADULTS. Where you are scarred, you are damaged by life, you have lost much - but you don't particularly want to talk about your past ... you just want a warm body beside you in the night.

39. Three Kings - Woah, what a breakout film for David Russell. Highly prophetic, too, in the world we now live in. The world of the legacy of leaving Saddam Hussein in power. Great acting, but more than that: awesome film-making. There are scenes in this as powerful and as arresting as those in Apocalypse Now. The random insanity of war, the incongruities, flashing images you won't ever forget.

40. Traffic - I'm an actress. My interest is acting, primarily. Does a performance startle? Do they inhabit their parts? Do I completely believe that these actors ARE these people? Well, every single last person in this film, even down to the very small roles, completely inhabit their parts. Benicio Del Torro WAS that Mexican cop. Catherine Zeta Jones WAS that wife of a drug lord. Don Cheadle and Luis (what is his last name?? He is awesome..) WERE those DEA agents. There was absolutely no barrier between the characters, the story, the film-maker, and the actors. This is so rare that when it does occur it is startling.

41. Lion in Winter - This probably should be higher on the list. GodDAMN is this a great movie. "Well, what family doesn't have its problems..." muses Katherine Hepburn, as Eleanor of Aquitaine. Classic.

42. Children of Heaven - absolute gem of a film from Iran. I know I can't persuade you to see it ... but if you are ever at a loss, and see it on a shelf, please rent it. A lower-class family in Tehran, with 2 small children. The little boy inadvertently loses his little sister's shoes, her school shoes. They are afraid to tell their parents. So they set up an elaborate scheme - he goes to school in the mornings, then races home, gives her his shoes, and she galumphs to school wearing his sneakers (underneath her chador). She, of course, as any little 8 year old girl would be, is MORTIFIED at wearing her brother's sneakers. She is MAD. He sees that a running race is going to be held - and second prize is a pair of nice little shoes. So he decides: I am going to run in this race, and although I am a very good runner, the best runner in my school, I have to somehow come in second so that I can win the shoes. Oh shit, just rent it. It's absolutely exhilarating.

43. Titanic I will not apologize. This is not a guilty pleasure for me. I think that this is the most expensive art-house film ever made. Don't berate me. Make your own list. I loved this movie. Every stinking minute.

44. The Godfather - So classic it's hard to remember that it was once original and fresh and new. I see it now, and it still surprises me. I never get over being surprised by it. By that first long extended wedding scene, interspersed with the meetings with Marlon Brando, who is stroking the little kitten ... It's so brilliant. Robert Duvall?? Fuggedaboutit...

45. Nixon - Again, with the top-notched-ness of the acting. James Woods, JT Walsh, Joan Allen (God!), the guy from Frasier, not to mention Anthony Hopkins. It was not about doing an imitation of Nixon. It wasn't about that for Oliver Stone, and it wasn't about that for Anthony Hopkins. It was about getting at who this man might have been when he was alone. It is a guess at the answer to that. I love the cinematography of this movie too. And the way the story is constructed. The first shot is a direct steal from the first shot of Citizen Kane - a rainy night, peering through the bars of the gate at the big gloomy-looking house ... a sense of grandiosity, but also a sense of imprisonment ... Anyway, there are many references to Citizen Kane throughout and I think that is a very smart move. After all, Citizen Kane ends with a mystery. The mystery of Rosebud. If you haven't seen the movie, then you will just have to go and rent it, because I will not reveal the identity of Rosebud - and PLEASE - don't anybody else!! But Citizen Kane while - by the end of the movie, you know who Rosebud is ... it just leaves you with more questions. The answer answers NOTHING. Nixon is the same way. Oliver Stone uses the same documentary-newsreel setup for the film - people are trying to figure out who is this Nixon, what is the missing piece - what is Nixon's "Rosebud"? And - rightly so - by the end of the film, you have no answers. Just more questions.

46. Roman Holiday - I almost forgot to put this one on the list. Audrey Hepburn - Gregory Peck - an escaped princess, a journalist - in Rome - somehow they hook up - and ... of course ... magic happens. It is a love story but in the greatest sense. This movie is the forerunner to so many other great love stories, only it does it better, with more grace. I love Gregory Peck. And speaking of Gregory Peck...

47. To Kill a Mockingbird - No, it is not as good as the book. But dammit, it comes pretty close. Atticus Finch. A character who lives on in my imagination in the same way that Holden Caulfield does. Atticus Finch. God. What an amazing character - and Gregory Peck found exactly the right way to play him. Perhaps he just played himself, I do not know. But the second I saw the movie, I thought: Yes. He IS Atticus. He is exactly what I pictured.

48. Dead Man Walking - Never in the history of films has a movie star allowed herself to be filmed so unflatteringly (and by her "husband", no less)! She wears no makeup. The side views of her face show the lines, the slight sagging of the chin. She wears unflattering clothes. I don't mean to just talk about the superficials - but to me, her lack of adornment, and her willingness to forego vanity, was exactly the spirit of the entire project. Everybody worked for next to no money. The shooting schedule was incredibly tight. There was no room for vanity or egos. And wow - the acting in this film. I appreciated too that the last scene - where he is executed - did not take the easy way out. Yes, throughout the film, you come to see that this man has had a shit life himself, he has been abused, he is a mess, you have some feeling for him. But Tim Robbins didn't sidestep the real issue - and throughout the entire execution scene - which is pretty awful - with Sarandon praying - trying to keep it together - Robbins keeps cutting back to the night of the rape and murder. He shows Sean Penn doing exactly what it is he is now being punished for. Robbins doesn't go for the cheap way out. As in: Oooh, the murderer was abused, poor man, now look at how the prison system punishes him ... isn't life awful ... isn't man's inhumanity to man awful??? Robbins lets you the audience decide. You can cry for the criminal if you want to - but Robbins will not let you forget the horrible things that he did. I think it was a tremendously courageous film.

49. Annie Hall - Enough said. This movie is so funny I don't even know what to DO with myself. I like to watch it with my friend Mitchell who has probably seen it 579 times.

50. Pulp Fiction - This movie is so enjoyable that I almost had an anxiety attack the first time I saw it. It was in the movie theatres and it was so GOOD, and the writing was so DELICIOUS - that I immediately wanted to start rewinding scenes to watch them again, study them ... and I couldn't!! I was in the movie theatre!! Great movie. Every actor, every scene ... but it's really the writing that is the star of this film. It doesn't get any better than that.

Okay - I am going to post this now before I have second thoughts.

Please add your own thoughts.

Posted by sheila