The Top Shelf.

I feel like I need to talk about the favorites. Just this weekend I’ve updated my profile to include my lists of favorite movies and music, but I was a little disappointed that the profile wanted titles only. No room for any extra baggage: 600 characters max. Scat on that. I feel like I should say a little something more. These are my favorite movies after all.

First, let’s be clear. The purpose of this project (and in connection, this blog) is to open my eyes to a whole lot of new movies and dig deeper for some new favorites. With that in mind, this list comprises only my favorites as the project begins and evolves. Don’t be surprised that all but two of the films were released in my lifetime and that a huge chunk of them were in theatres after 1980. Before starting this project, I didn’t adventure too far out of the current multiplex line-up.

Alphabetically, the top 12 or so look a little something like this. These are the movies that play for me when I shut my eyes.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – The Big One. Here’s a movie that took me a long time to love, but when the walls came down, the walls came down. The reason is so simple: Stanley Kubrick’s movie destroys me every time out. Call me a sucker for clinical cinematography and pensive pacing. In spite of the mission statement of this Monday Project, I’m not some prissy Film-School Art-House snob. I want to make it clear that including Stanley Kubrick is a gesture from the heart and that my decision to include 2001 in this list is an entirely emotional choice. And to be totally honest, on any given day I might just as easily replace 2001 with Dr. Strangelove or (now that I’ve seen and loved it) Barry Lyndon. But there’s no contesting 2001 as a crucial movie in my life. But my God, what an experience! The movie controls my breathing. It’s a movie that takes me out of my chair and into the back of my own skull. That’s gotta be worth something, right?

Amélie (2001) – Sunshine, pure sunshine. My happy place. I saw this movie under ideal circumstances – at a jammed press screening during the Toronto Film Festival. There’s no experience like watching a movie like Amélie with a group of tired and cynical movie critics who start with arms folded and finish by eating out of the filmmaker’s hand. Leaving the screening, I was flying high, walking on air. I felt like I’d been to movie nirvana. The very next morning someone flew a couple of airplanes into the World Trade Centre. And in that strange way that memory works, the two experiences are somehow tangled together. Absolute yin and yang.

Brazil (1985) – Brazil is everything I’ve always wanted in a movie.

E.T. the Extra Terrestrial (1982) – This movie is so important to me that I want to save it for its own posting. For now, let’s say that there has never been another movie to so completely overwhelm the 9-year old in me. This is the first-time fix that this poor addict is still trying to re-experience every night he’s out.

Edward Scissorhands (1990) – Tim Burton is a marvel. With the exception of the Coen Brothers (who have never disappointed me), Burton probably has the best batting average of any filmmaker out there: at the very least, I can count on him to hit a double every time he’s at bat. (Only one single Burton movie sucks ass. We won’t talk of it here. This is a happy place.) I considered putting Pee Wee’s Big Adventure on the list in this spot (let’s face it – it’s a perfect film), but opted for the movie that tugged a little deeper. I can’t explain my affection for it; however, every piece of the movie is at the top of the charts for me: most effortless score, most astonishing design, most clever performances, most marvelous snowfall. And that fairytale story which stumbles towards sad madness? Total bliss.

The Godfather Trilogy (1972-1990) – I’ve posted already on behalf of The Godfather Part III, but I’m not sure if I was entirely clear on my affection for the first (and infinitely superior) parts of Coppola’s saga. For an epic afternoon-swallowing saga, I’m completely ensnared and engrossed every time I happen upon it (damn you TNT for playing all the time! I have things to do!) The movies just get better every time.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003) – And speaking of epic time-swallowers, this list is turning out to be a little silly, isn’t it? Next thing you know, I’m going to want to include the Star Wars trilogy and Indiana Jones trilogy (um, see below). But in all seriousness, there haven’t been many movies since that golden spell in the early-80’s to encapsulate pure-cinematic-action-adventure-spectacle the way this movie does (and let’s face it – now that the films are on DVD, they’re ONE big movie, right?) If Peter Jackson had made three good movies, that would have been a thing. But instead, he made three mountains with detailing as spectacular as a Renaissance catheral. December 2004 is looking pretty disappointing without a new installment.

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) – The most recent addition to this list is also, ironically, the oldest. A good write-up on this DVD prompted me to pick it up cold and it absolutely demolished my expectations (OK, I had no expectations.) But this film put me in touch with a couple of my new favorite things: the Sergio Leone close-up and the Ennio Morricone score. The performances are remarkable, but it’s Leone’s eye that makes this movie a masterpiece. The opening sequence and the final showdown are now and forever, without question, two of my favorite pieces of celluloid. I watched the movie three times that first weekend.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) – A classic that needs no explanation whatsoever. A perfect piece of entertainment.

Raising Arizona (1987) – Dance with the girl that brought you. The Coen Brothers are in a league of their own at this point, but this is the first Coen movie I saw. Like most good Coen Brothers pictures, the first viewing was sort of un-spectacular. But on repeated viewings, I started to pick up on the rhythm of the movie and Nicholas Cage’s performance in particular. The film is like a piece of music really, meticulously metered and performed from the first frame to the last. In fact, the experience reminds me most of one of those insane Herb Alpert tunes that gets faster as they play, one note falling into the next. Once the movie cues up, I’m hooked and the spell gets worse with every scene. The supermarket robbery/chase is one of my favorite sequences of all time.

Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) – Maybe this is a guilty pleasure, but for a kid whose first impressions of high-school came from John Hughes, this movie is always the dark horse for me. I adore all of the Hughes movies between 1983 and 1987 (then came Curly Sue? What the hell happened?), but for reasons I can’t tap into, this one gets me there every time. Maybe it’s Eric Stoltz’ awkward performance. More than likely it’s Lea Thompson (there’s a bit of crush there, sorry.) And that teen melodrama! This really is the boy’s answer to Pretty In Pink. Call me silly, but I even have the audio of this movie on CD – I just love the rhythm of the scenes.

The (original and untampered) Star Wars Trilogy (1977-1983) – These movies are so integral to my movie-going lifestyle and have been watched and re-watched so many times, that I had to put them on a personal moratorium to protect myself against over-saturation. So it is that I haven’t watched a frame of these films in almost 7 years, and to my great surprise, I didn’t even pick up the DVD set in September. It goes without saying that.these movies pretty much represent the most direct route to the purest part of my movie-loving self. And somehow, they surprise me every time I see them.

Honourable mentions:

The Abyss (1989), Howard the Duck (that’s right and I'll thank you to shut up) (1986), Weird Science (1985), Unforgiven (1992), Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Donnie Darko (2001), Gremlins (1984), The Muppet Movie (1979), Apocalypse Now (1979), Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985), Superman: The Movie (1978), Flash Gordon (1980), Se7en (1995), Alien (1979), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Starman (1984), Revenge of the Nerds (1984), Teen Wolf (1985), The Princess Bride (1987), Legends of the Fall (1994), Evil Dead 2 (1987), Batman (1989), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), The Fisher King (1991), Braveheart (1995), La Cité Des Enfants Perdus (City of Lost Children) (1995), Miller's Crossing (1990), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Far and Away (1992), Heat (1995), The Secret of NIMH (1982), The Dark Crystal (1982), Jaws (1975), A Simple Plan (1998), Office Space (1999), Wonder Boys (2000), and just about all of the James Bond films, most especially The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and The Man With The Golden Gun (1974).