Top 7- Best Films I Haven't Seen
A couple of years ago, I did a list very similar to this and seeing as I have a hole in my schedule to fill (I won't lie to you if you're kind enough to read my ramblings) and I've since seen every film on the first list, now felt like the right time for an update. For those who haven't worked it out, the point of this list is basically a list of the films I most want to see but out of films that have been released (so something like Infinity War wouldn't make the list for example). To be elligible, these just have to be films I haven't seen, want to see and to have come out more than a year ago. And hey, for a little bit of fun, why not go back and read the first list and compare how much more pretentious my tastes have got in the space of three years.
7. Fruitvale Station
The name of director Ryan Coogler may not mean anything to you but recently, he did this little indie film you might have heard of called Black Panther. I really enjoyed that film and thought his previous film Creed was superb so I've been dying to go back and check out his feature debut Fruitvale Station. It features his frequent collaborator Michael B Jordan in the lead role as a man visiting friends and family around Oakland, California on New Years Eve 2008. It's based on a true story and if you don't know what happens, don't look it up (I've unfortunately had it "spoiled" if the truth can be spoiled) but it promises to be an incredibly emotional film that also marks an important start for a director who is going to be a vital figure in Hollywood over the next few years.
6. The King of Comedy
You'd struggle to find any film fan who doesn't consider Martin Scorcese one of the all time greatest directors, living or dead. His works are filmic classics and Goodfellas especially is one of the most expertly crafted films of all time. There are plenty of films in his back catalogue I haven't seen and could have chosen (Hugo, The Departed and Raging Bull among them) but after seeing and loving his underappreciated After Hours, my interest has been grabbed by his other underappreciated cult favourite The King of Comedy. For a start, you can never really go wrong with De Niro and Scorcese but also, let it be said that Scorcese is very under appreciated in his talent at dark comedy. After Hours proves that for sure and there's shades of it in Wolf of Wall Street but King of Comedy seems to take it that much further. It's a level of dark satire on the scale of Network in which an aspiring comic decides to rise to the top via stalking, blackmail and other twisted methods. I love the crime epics of Scorcese but sometimes you want something really out there from him; The King of Comedy seems to be just that.
5. There Will be Blood
I've been on a bit of a Paul Thomas Anderson bender recently and while many may attribute that to Phantom Thread (a fair guess), it comes from my viewing of Boogie Nights last summer. It's hard to say what I expected but what I got was nothing short of incredible and set me off on a path down his filmography. There Will Be Blood may be Anderson's most critically beloved film but interestingly, it also marks the start of Anderson's much slower, more meditative films, a phase that keeps going with Phantom Thread, as opposed to his sprawling and energetic Boogie Nights style ones. As with Phantom Thread, Blood contains what is meant to be a career best Daniel Day-Lewis performance and a highly impressive Jonny Greenwood score, all shot precisely and beautifully. Many scenes and shots from the film have bled into pop culture and from those I've experienced, I can tell this is exactly the kind of film I am going to love.
4. Sorcerer
About a year ago, I had never heard of this film. It was released in the seventies and faded away fairly quickly, meaning that if you weren't alive then, you probably didn't know it. However, in the last year, film critic Mark Kermode has been campaigning for a critical reassessment of the film, even managing to get a theatrical re-release of it. I missed that screening when it happened but it has meant that the film is back in the public eye and it has certainly grabbed my attention. For those who don't know, Sorcerer is directed by William Friedkin (of The Exorcist and French Connection fame) and is an adaptation of the French film The Wages of Fear, in which a group of strangers must come together to drive a truck full of explosives through the jungle. Seriously, does that not just sound like an incredible set up for a thriller? One false move across that uneven jungle terrain and you are blown to pieces. Thank God for that recent remaster then, as this is one film I want to watch on the biggest screen, with the best sound possible.
3. Synecdoche, New York
There's a good chance this may be the most pretentious film on the list but it has its roots in one of the films that made me love film. See, Synecdoche is a film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, the writer of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, one of my all time favourite films. I've since seen two other Kaufman films, Adaptation and Anomalisa, and both are astonishingly original movies that manage to be unlike any other films. I've deliberately tried to avoid big plot details for this film, partly to avoid spoilers but also because it's a Kaufman film and the plot isn't the be all and end all. Still, from what I know it's about a theatre owner who decides to build a version of New York, occupied by actors pretending to be people in his life, in order to relive parts of his life. For many, that's entirely too weird but for me, this sounds incredible. It'll be bizarre, occasionally funny and probably deeply melancholic.
2. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
Like Sorcerer, I had never heard of this film over a year ago but have since been introduced to it and left with nothing less than fascination. In an early seminar I had on my film course, my tutor (the delightful Benedict, I will hear nothing bad about him) showed us a clip from The Cook etc and I was entranced. It was simply of two people in the bathroom, a glowing white one, before the camera panned left, through the wall and into the bright red hallway, as this utterly entrancing synth score played. The combination of these two things and this beautiful, unspoken hesitation carried between the two figures sold me entirely on the film and I've wanted to watch it ever since. I know little about the plot, other than that the "Lover" in the title is one of the other characters in the title and that Helen Mirren is in the film, playing "His Wife". If the rest of the film is anywhere near as visually sumptuous, enticingly scored or subtly moving, this could become a new favourite.
1. The Holy Mountain
It says a lot about how I've evolved as a film viewer that my first list like this ended on American Beauty and this one ends on a Mexican surrealist fever dream. Part of that is due to how my tastes have expanded (and become more pretentious) over the last three years, part is due to a genuine love of Mexican cinema that I've discovered, but I'm going to chalk much of it up to David Lynch. Since the last list, I've become obsessed with the work of America's greatest modern surrealist so it only makes sense that I'd eventually find myself drawn to Alejandro Jodorowsky, a man often called cinema's great surrealist. The Holy Mountain is his most iconic film and is always near the top on lists of most weird or confusing or downright mental films ever made. After all, if I've made it through the bizzaro worlds David Lynch has constructed, how could anything ever challenge me again? Joking aside, a love for Lynch has taught me that a film doesn't have to make sense for it to work. As long as there is an emotional connection, the plot is allowed to not make any sense. As such, I cannot explain what the film is about at all. I just know it's bizarre, metaphorical and deeply powerful. Plus, it's near impossible to watch here in the UK, which only makes me want to watch it more. Who knows, it may well be the Best Film I Haven't Seen (get it, that's the title).
7. Fruitvale Station
The name of director Ryan Coogler may not mean anything to you but recently, he did this little indie film you might have heard of called Black Panther. I really enjoyed that film and thought his previous film Creed was superb so I've been dying to go back and check out his feature debut Fruitvale Station. It features his frequent collaborator Michael B Jordan in the lead role as a man visiting friends and family around Oakland, California on New Years Eve 2008. It's based on a true story and if you don't know what happens, don't look it up (I've unfortunately had it "spoiled" if the truth can be spoiled) but it promises to be an incredibly emotional film that also marks an important start for a director who is going to be a vital figure in Hollywood over the next few years.
6. The King of Comedy
You'd struggle to find any film fan who doesn't consider Martin Scorcese one of the all time greatest directors, living or dead. His works are filmic classics and Goodfellas especially is one of the most expertly crafted films of all time. There are plenty of films in his back catalogue I haven't seen and could have chosen (Hugo, The Departed and Raging Bull among them) but after seeing and loving his underappreciated After Hours, my interest has been grabbed by his other underappreciated cult favourite The King of Comedy. For a start, you can never really go wrong with De Niro and Scorcese but also, let it be said that Scorcese is very under appreciated in his talent at dark comedy. After Hours proves that for sure and there's shades of it in Wolf of Wall Street but King of Comedy seems to take it that much further. It's a level of dark satire on the scale of Network in which an aspiring comic decides to rise to the top via stalking, blackmail and other twisted methods. I love the crime epics of Scorcese but sometimes you want something really out there from him; The King of Comedy seems to be just that.
5. There Will be Blood
I've been on a bit of a Paul Thomas Anderson bender recently and while many may attribute that to Phantom Thread (a fair guess), it comes from my viewing of Boogie Nights last summer. It's hard to say what I expected but what I got was nothing short of incredible and set me off on a path down his filmography. There Will Be Blood may be Anderson's most critically beloved film but interestingly, it also marks the start of Anderson's much slower, more meditative films, a phase that keeps going with Phantom Thread, as opposed to his sprawling and energetic Boogie Nights style ones. As with Phantom Thread, Blood contains what is meant to be a career best Daniel Day-Lewis performance and a highly impressive Jonny Greenwood score, all shot precisely and beautifully. Many scenes and shots from the film have bled into pop culture and from those I've experienced, I can tell this is exactly the kind of film I am going to love.
4. Sorcerer
About a year ago, I had never heard of this film. It was released in the seventies and faded away fairly quickly, meaning that if you weren't alive then, you probably didn't know it. However, in the last year, film critic Mark Kermode has been campaigning for a critical reassessment of the film, even managing to get a theatrical re-release of it. I missed that screening when it happened but it has meant that the film is back in the public eye and it has certainly grabbed my attention. For those who don't know, Sorcerer is directed by William Friedkin (of The Exorcist and French Connection fame) and is an adaptation of the French film The Wages of Fear, in which a group of strangers must come together to drive a truck full of explosives through the jungle. Seriously, does that not just sound like an incredible set up for a thriller? One false move across that uneven jungle terrain and you are blown to pieces. Thank God for that recent remaster then, as this is one film I want to watch on the biggest screen, with the best sound possible.
3. Synecdoche, New York
There's a good chance this may be the most pretentious film on the list but it has its roots in one of the films that made me love film. See, Synecdoche is a film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, the writer of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, one of my all time favourite films. I've since seen two other Kaufman films, Adaptation and Anomalisa, and both are astonishingly original movies that manage to be unlike any other films. I've deliberately tried to avoid big plot details for this film, partly to avoid spoilers but also because it's a Kaufman film and the plot isn't the be all and end all. Still, from what I know it's about a theatre owner who decides to build a version of New York, occupied by actors pretending to be people in his life, in order to relive parts of his life. For many, that's entirely too weird but for me, this sounds incredible. It'll be bizarre, occasionally funny and probably deeply melancholic.
2. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
Like Sorcerer, I had never heard of this film over a year ago but have since been introduced to it and left with nothing less than fascination. In an early seminar I had on my film course, my tutor (the delightful Benedict, I will hear nothing bad about him) showed us a clip from The Cook etc and I was entranced. It was simply of two people in the bathroom, a glowing white one, before the camera panned left, through the wall and into the bright red hallway, as this utterly entrancing synth score played. The combination of these two things and this beautiful, unspoken hesitation carried between the two figures sold me entirely on the film and I've wanted to watch it ever since. I know little about the plot, other than that the "Lover" in the title is one of the other characters in the title and that Helen Mirren is in the film, playing "His Wife". If the rest of the film is anywhere near as visually sumptuous, enticingly scored or subtly moving, this could become a new favourite.
1. The Holy Mountain
It says a lot about how I've evolved as a film viewer that my first list like this ended on American Beauty and this one ends on a Mexican surrealist fever dream. Part of that is due to how my tastes have expanded (and become more pretentious) over the last three years, part is due to a genuine love of Mexican cinema that I've discovered, but I'm going to chalk much of it up to David Lynch. Since the last list, I've become obsessed with the work of America's greatest modern surrealist so it only makes sense that I'd eventually find myself drawn to Alejandro Jodorowsky, a man often called cinema's great surrealist. The Holy Mountain is his most iconic film and is always near the top on lists of most weird or confusing or downright mental films ever made. After all, if I've made it through the bizzaro worlds David Lynch has constructed, how could anything ever challenge me again? Joking aside, a love for Lynch has taught me that a film doesn't have to make sense for it to work. As long as there is an emotional connection, the plot is allowed to not make any sense. As such, I cannot explain what the film is about at all. I just know it's bizarre, metaphorical and deeply powerful. Plus, it's near impossible to watch here in the UK, which only makes me want to watch it more. Who knows, it may well be the Best Film I Haven't Seen (get it, that's the title).
Comments
Post a Comment