The Top 5 List Thread

[CiG]

Michael Mann has also become a firm favourite of mine since rewatching Collateral and watching Heat and Blackhat. Not sure he's a contender for strongest top 10 films though.

 

[no country for old wainds]

same here, and same here. i've only seen eight of his tho

 

[CiG]

I have Ali and Public Enemies in my stack to rewatch, been years since. Actually I think I watched them before I really knew who Michael Mann was (more specifically before I recognized Mann was a director with his own distinct style rather than just a name behind a movie).

I actually watched The Insider last night, it was pretty good, one of the better legal dramas I've seen. Can't wait for his new one with Hugh Jackman.

 

[CiG]

David Lean's final run of films (from 1957's The Bridge on the River Kwai to 1984's A Passage to India) is probably my favourite run of films ever.

 

[challenge_everything]

I'll throw Takeshi Kitano, Takashi Miike, Seijun Suzuku, John Carpenter and Coppola in the hat too.

I need to expand my Asian cinema vocabulary.

hitch, lynch, cassavetes and altman are in the running for me. i could see ford and sono coming close too, and PTA when he reaches ten. maybe even coppola would be in the hunt, already an amazing top 5 and there are so many movies of his that tasteful people consider to be underappreciated gems.

Good call on Lynch and (eventually) PTA. Ford has a lot of humdrum stuff. I count 6 good Coppola films then end list.

I think Wilder is criminally underappreciated these days. This top 10 is amazing.
Double Indemnity/Sunset Blvd/The Apartment/Some Like It Hot/Ace in the Hole/One Two Three/The Lost Weekend/Witness for the Prosecution/Stalag 17

 

[challenge_everything]

David Lean's final run of films (from 1957's The Bridge on the River Kwai to 1984's A Passage to India) is probably my favourite run of films ever.

Agreed! Coppola's 70s run comes close.

 

[CiG]

I count 7 Coppola films I'd confidently place in a list, but there's a shitload of his earliest and latest stuff I haven't even seen.

 

[challenge_everything]

I'm not aware of any of those being "underappreciated gems" though. I've literally never heard of any of his films before The Godfather.

 

[CiG]

Before The Godfather the one I've seen is The Rain People, which would be in my Ford list btw. Try tracking it down.

Edit:

Current favourite 5 films from the 2010's:

1. Mad Max: Fury Road (I don't see much chance of this one being toppled)
2. The Raid
3. Blackhat
4. Green Room
5. Only God Forgives

Ironically, Brawl in Cell Block 99 toppled Fury Road.

 

[no country for old wainds]

Ford has a lot of humdrum stuff.

yeah but we were talking about great top 10s rather than great overall bodies of work.

TWIXT is an underappreciated coppola gem, i love that movie. the others that have got a lot of raves in my movie circles are RUMBLE FISH, ONE FROM THE HEART, THE OUTSIDERS, YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH, DRACULA, PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED, THE COTTON CLUB, TETRO, TUCKER, THE RAIN PEOPLE. i've seen none of these though.

wilder's just too obvious for me to consider him a great these days. his movies always contain hints of something more complex/ambiguous but he's usually too busy being self-consciously clever and snarky to really bring that out. i've only seen the first five you listed though, and i do still love DOUBLE INDEMNITY at least, there's a purity and economy to that one.

 

[CiG]

RUMBLE FISH, THE OUTSIDERS, DRACULA, THE COTTON CLUB, THE RAIN PEOPLE.

I've seen these ones and really dig them all, except Dracula which is cool but not in the caliber of the rest IMO. Womenz seem to absolutely love it though, all my femchums rave about it, which I do get since it's basically peak gothromantic vampire cinema along with Interview with a Vampire.

 

[challenge_everything]

wilder's just too obvious for me to consider him a great these days. his movies always contain hints of something more complex/ambiguous but he's usually too busy being self-consciously clever and snarky to really bring that out. i've only seen the first five you listed though, and i do still love DOUBLE INDEMNITY at least, there's a purity and economy to that one.

The others are worth checking out.

One Two Three is a very witty Cold War screwball political comedy which pre-empts the likes of Armando Iannucci.

The Lost Weekend is the complete other side of the spectrum, an unusually dark (for its time) depiction of alcoholism. You might criticise this for obviousness now but as a product of its era it's better than great.

Witness for the Prosecution is classic countroom whodunnit based around unreliable witnesses and Charles Laughton absolutely chews up the role of the curmudgeonly QC.

Stalag 17 is a tier down so that's for fans only.

 

[no country for old wainds]

I've seen these ones and really dig them all, except Dracula which is cool but not in the caliber of the rest IMO. Womenz seem to absolutely love it though, all my femchums rave about it, which I do get since it's basically peak gothromantic vampire cinema along with Interview with a Vampire.

you should check out TWIXT sometime. it's the complete opposite of his '70s work in that it's a really small, idiosyncratic oddity with an extremely limited target demographic - i think he's kinda lived the dream in that he had all his success early and was able to use that reputation to carry a long subsequent career of obscure personal shit that hardly anyone else would be able to get made. i mean, TWIXT is a hokey tacky stephen king-style dime store ghost story starring val kilmer, it couldn't really be further removed from the trends of today. it also rummages through all his issues, from writer's block to marital breakdown to financial difficulties to paternal grief (you may be aware his son tragically died in a boating accident IRL). objectively it's probably a shitty movie but it has a ton of personality and it's completely sincere, while also being funny and sad.

 

[CiG]

Cheers I'll keep it in mind.

Has anybody seen many movies from this year? Enough for a top 5? I haven't seen pretty much anything so I'm looking for some recs that are a bit stronger than a casual namedrop.

 

[Bloopy]

I pretty much avoid new movies like the plague, but sometimes what people say about them eventually catches my eye like a year later or so. The only one I saw in the theatre this year was Swagger of Thieves, although it's from last year. Good doco on the NZ band Head Like a Hole.

 

[The Butt]

Top five favorite Pokemon/evolution chains:
1) Larvitar/Pupitar/Tyranitar
2) Gastly/Haunter/Gengar
3) Aron/Lairon/Aggron
4) Roselia/Roserade
5) Chatot (pissed its a regional in Pokemon Go)

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Cheers I'll keep it in mind.

Has anybody seen many movies from this year? Enough for a top 5? I haven't seen pretty much anything so I'm looking for some recs that are a bit stronger than a casual namedrop.

There's no cinema where I live so I don't keep up with current movies very well, but two good ones I did see are Annihilation and Hereditary. Annihilation is a visually gorgeous Lovecraftian horror film and Hereditary is more of a modern take on 70's supernatural/occult horror.

 

[CiG]

Thx mang, those two have been passed my way a few times actually.

Edit: also been keeping an eye out for a copy of Margaret.

 

[no country for old wainds]

There's no cinema where I live so I don't keep up with current movies very well, but two good ones I did see are Annihilation and Hereditary. Annihilation is a visually gorgeous Lovecraftian horror film and Hereditary is more of a modern take on 70's supernatural/occult horror.

there's the lynne ramsay one you loved as well, i know that's a 2017 movie on IMDB but it's a 2018 movie for anyone who doesn't live in central europe, i'll be counting it toward my eventual 2018 list

 

[no country for old wainds]

4) Roselia/Roserade

um are you gay or something

most of my favs are standalones but as for chains:
1) cuborak
2) charmanleonzard
3) exeggcutor
4) vultales
5) magidos
HM: abradabrazam

only gen 1 is real