Top 100 Films: 40-31

40. The Shining (1980) - Stanley Kubrick

Well for those of you who read my top 100 horror list first of all thanks, and second of all you'll probably recognize this from the top of that list.  You may have also noticed that I wrote a review of this film for this site as well as posted it in my top ten of the 80s.  All of those instances probably involved me telling you that this was my favorite horror film ever.  Not sure what I can add to the extensive commentary I've made on the film except to just remind you for the millionth time that this really is the greatest horror film ever, Stanley Kubrick really is the greatest director ever, and well this is just damn awesome.  So crack open a beer and watch it hopefully for the 5th or 6th time.  Read the book to, it's damn good in a slightly different sort of way, and remember that this is as good as it gets.

39. Before Sunrise (1995) - Richard Linklater

One of my absolute favorite films, but I guess they all are when the list gets this high right?  Richard Linklater was pretty flawless by this point in time, Slacker was great if not uneven and Dazed and Confused is compulsively re-watchable, but I think he captured something truly magical with Before Sunrise.  Written along with stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy the film was largely just improvised at the time but there is something wonderful going on here.  I suppose that it might not hit you the same way, or maybe you're one of those people who prefer the sequel Before Sunset, but I appreciate the optimism in this film.  It's a film that seems to capture that magical quality of youth where everything can and just might happen without a moment's notice.  To me Before Sunset seemed to betray that with the reality of it all, but oh what a film.

38. City of God (2002) - Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund

The best foreign film of the last decade according to me and that's the only opinion you should trust anyways.  It comes from the merry old land of Brazil where kids play soccer and apparently kill people and deal drugs before the age of 10.  Ok maybe it reinforces some bad stereotypes but it comes from a long line of gritty and politically charged films from the country.  The film is violent but not in a comically gory way that all too many films are these days but it's far from a kids movie, even if the cast are largely kids.  Fast paced and gloriously watchable I'd recommend it for anyone even those pesky "I don't like movies with subtitles because I'm illiterate" people.  I will apologize that this is the only film directed by a woman on my list.  Not that I should apologize for that but the fact that it was co-directed by a man and when the Oscar nominations were announced she wasn't even given a credit alongside the better known Meirelles, well makes me a little guilty I suppose.  Anyways a great film, watch it, and love it or watch it again if you happened not to enjoy it the first time around for some strange unexplainable reason.

37. The Manchurian Candidate (1962) - John Frankenheimer

This is by far my favorite film about Korean war brainwashed veterans set to assassinate a political figure in a huge conspiracy movie ever.  By that extremely specific sentence it would seem to ask, well what's your point?  My point is this movie is a bit unique and yes its really, really god damn awesome.  Unlike some movies with surprise or twist endings that often fall apart on a second viewing, this film just gets better.  That doesn't mean it has a shocking ending, because I'm not in the business of giving spoilers but I will say it holds up on the second, third, fourth viewing, and if I saw it a fifth time I might even like it more.  Frank Sinatra is great, probably even better than he was in Man With a Golden Arm, and this is one of three films on my list with Janet Leigh.  At the end of the day though John Frankenheimer really runs this ship and he does a great job throughout.  Then again I love deep focus photography and long uninterrupted shots, so you should have figured that out.

36. They Live by Night (1949) - Nicholas Ray

Well here's the last film featuring Cathy O'Donnell on my list, it also happens to be the first film from Nicholas Ray a god among men.  Shot in 1947 but not released for another two years it was still ahead of it's time when it finally came out.  A love on the run story about two people who just happen to be more victims of bad luck than outlaws.  This can and has been described as film noir and bares a great deal of similarities to Joseph H. Lewis' Gun Crazy.  Like many of my favorite films it involves long takes, deep focus and all kinds of great tracking shots.  The real strength of this film though to me is with Farley Granger and the aforementioned Miss O'Donnell, they are the perfect young, kinda naive, dumb couple that can't seem to catch a break.   

35. Sunset Boulevard (1950) - Billy Wilder

There are some films that you recognize as great but seem to forget about.  I've seen Sunset Boulevard several times and every time I recognize it as a masterpiece, but it wasn't until this past time that I really seemed to get it.  Not just a five star film or even a best picture contender (the debate between this or All About Eve still rages on), but one of the all time greats, and yes even the best film Billy Wilder made.  So hate to spoil the rest of the list with that admission, but good heavens this is a film that has been so consistently praised and referenced throughout that people can sometimes forget what a great movie it is on a human level.  Stylistically it has all my favorite things in it, but of course an incredibly witty script from Mr. Wilder and some of the best lines you're likely to hear in any movie.  Of all the movies about Hollywood I can't think of any with this much of an impact that are still so good today. 

34. Ashes and Diamonds (1958) - Andrzej Wajda

You may start to see a pattern, hell I didn’t notice it when I was making this list but stylistically a whole lot of films in this group are similar.  This one is remarkably different only because it happens to be in Polish.  The third part of Andrzej Wajda’s not-exactly-a-trilogy about WWII, it takes place on the last day of the war, and like several other favorites (Before Sunrise for one) this is another 24 hour movie.  If this is the first you’re hearing of this film then clearly you have not been reading my blog, but I say again this is as good as Polish cinema gets.  Now that I’ve officially ranked these films I can say this is the best that Eastern Europe gets, at least in that period anyways.  Wajda was taught via film school and was part of a new wave (yes every country had a new wave) of Polish cinema that put it on the map internationally.  He’s still active nearly 60 years later at the age of 86, but well he hit his peak here when he was just entering his 30s.  The final piece of his WWII puzzle it is the most visually arresting, contemplative, and honest of the bunch and a true masterpiece in any language.

33. Raging Bull (1980) - Martin Scorsese

This may not be the best film of the 80s but it’s certainly on the short list of them.  Scorsese one-upped himself brilliantly with this biopic of Jake LaMotta and Robert De Niro gave arguably the best screen performance anyone had ever seen.  His obsession to his craft became the stuff of instant legend but the results were so worth it.  Visually as brilliant as anything Scorsese has done, a brutal film that isn’t always pleasant to watch but always compelling.  For most people this is the best sports movie ever made, but I’ve always hesitated to call it a sports movie.  Not that boxing isn’t a sport, but this film is so much more than a film about boxing.  It’s about one self destructive man whose incomprehensible jealousy alienated him from everyone.  Not a pleasant picture of someone’s golden years and their fall from grace, it’s unflattering and unflinching throughout, and probably the best collaboration from my favorite star-director duo ever.

32. Schindler’s List (1993) - Steven Spielberg

As Lincoln makes it’s nauseating campaign to win more awards I think it’s fair to look back 19 years when people were convinced that the Academy was prejudiced to Steven Spielberg.  This was the film that silenced all the critics and firmly established him as Hollywood’s brightest and best.  A man more associated with box office than acclaim this film was his monstrously successful “art film” and man is it good.  He wasn’t afraid to get dirty here, a complaint I have with some of his recent films.  Ralph Fiennes is brilliant and inexplicably evil, and Liam Neeson proves he was a damn good actor before he became an old action star for some strange reason.  Visually it’s as good as any film of the decade, but you may have noticed from the last several entries I kinda like black and white films.  You can say what you will about his crowd pleasing ways, his sentimentality, or sometimes his juvenile mentality, but Schindler’s List is as good as it gets.

31. Blue Velvet (1986) - David Lynch

Well you had to figure David Lynch would pop up at some time on this list.  I didn’t even know how high Blue Velvet would get but it’s a damn near perfect movie.  I only say near because I can’t think of any real reason why it isn’t perfect.  It is so perfectly Lynchian the way it blends his odd obsessions with his long preoccupation with the seedier side of life hidden in suburban neighborhoods right next to white picket fences.  I’ll wager to say he’ll never make another film this good again but who will?  Dennis Hopper made one of several great comebacks as arguably the most evil man ever on a film, even more so than the briefly redeemable Nazi played by Fiennes in Schindler’s List.  Yet this is just good old fashioned odd, eerie, slightly disturbing brilliance and the reason why so many people will regularly point to David Lynch as the most interesting filmmaker working today.  Saying something is “Lynchian” is a bit misleading because no one makes movies like him and this is damn near his best.