Of course a thread like this would get posted right as I have a few chores I don't want to do.
1. Pulp Fiction
I know this is a cliché choice. I didn't want to pick it, not at No. 1. But I kept reading your phrase, "moved your personal meter." Pulp Fiction sticks with me more than any other movie. I come back to it time and time again, and my attention never breaks. It's easy to half-ignore a movie you've seen 10 times, but I can't do that with Pulp Fiction. If it's on, it has my full and undivided attention. If I see it on TV, I break out my DVD so I can watch it with the curses. The character development is on an absurd level. You get deeper into tertiary characters such as Fabienne, Captain Koons and Winston Wolf than you do with most movies' secondary characters. It's the best movie I have ever seen, the standard by which I judge other movies.
2. Clerks
I introduced this movie to an ex-girlfriend, and when it was finished, she turned to me and said, "Of course you love this movie; you're exactly like the blond guy." She's right. The entire movie seems like it was made for me. My life is boring, and I enjoy that. I like my work, unlike them, but Clerks' depiction of the small pleasures, like playing hockey on the roof, and the clumsy social dynamic of big gatherings and all that falls right in line with my world view. Clerks is sort of an affirmation for me, which means I like it more than I probably should. But I do think it holds up as a great movie, too.
3. Taxi Driver
Robert De Niro gives the best performance I have ever seen. Travis Bickle is the perfect antihero. The themes are overt, which draws some consternation among critics. But I love this movie in part because of those themes. Bickle in front of the mirror is an image of American unrest. And the ambiguity of the final scene with Betsy getting out of the cab, uncertain if she should admire or fear Bickle, serves as a perfect capper.
4. Dumb and Dumber
This was my favorite movie as a teen. It makes me laugh more than any other movie ever will. I've seen it probably 100 times, but every second was written with the intent of humor, which provides something new or something forgotten on every viewing. (Random aside: Three of my top four movies were released in 1994.)
5. The Godfather
There are no legitimate criticisms of this movie. I have no special story to tell except that this movie is incredible. I think it's better than the sequel, which would probably land in my next 10.
6. Star Wars
I'm not a science fiction nerd by any means. I watched Firefly for the first time this month. But Star Wars is perfect. For one, it's light. That's one of the many issues with the new trilogy; the new movies don't step back and laugh at all this. That lightness is why I prefer Star Wars to The Empire Strikes Back (which falls into the top-20 realm). It also holds up much better as a single movie. I remember in a thread about classics someone said Star Wars bored them on a recent rewatch, but I think that's only familiarity talking. The characters are better fleshed out as the trilogy moves along, but the story is so real and vital that it doesn't matter than it's in a galaxy far, far away.
7. High Fidelity
The hook on this movie, the list-making aspect, really pulled me in. But the ups and downs kept me. It doesn't hurt that John Cusack is pretty ****ing dreamy. The music is great. The tone is dark. It's loose and probably about half an hour longer than it needed to be, which I always liked in a movie (see Nos. 2, 3, 8, 9, 10). I understand the anti-monlogue crowd, but I think this movie shows as well as any what a strong monologue can provide. This movie seems real to me, which is important, despite my next pick.
8. Rain Man
I think I was about 12 when I first watched this movie, years after its release, and it instantly became one of my favorites. But the incredible thing is how much more I appreciate it now. Autism fascinates me, and this movie digs into the issue without being heavy handed. Rain Man is fun but real, which sets it apart from other notable portrayals of mental disorders.
9. Superbad
I saw this movie with my best friend from high school. We'd lived about 200 miles apart for several years by this point, but I was visiting my mom that August and he then lived only about 30 minutes away. So we ended up seeing this movie, which basically described our high school lives or lack thereof. But that's not even the main reason I love this movie. I don't think I have ever laughed harder in a theater. I thought I might wet my pants. I would put this right behind Dumb and Dumber, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Caddyshack (the latter two being close omissions) among the funniest movies ever.
10. The Dark Knight
This was my first IMAX experience. And it blew me away. I left talking about it as the best movie theater experience of my life and worried it wouldn't hold up to repeated viewings on the small screen. I was wrong. The dialogue and acting beyond Heath Ledger don't get enough credit in The Dark Knight. In a way, it's a perfect superhero movie. But maybe that's because it's not a superhero movie. It's a morality play, and it offers a lot of social criticism. Some critics argued Bane was a more effective villain than The Joker because he had an agenda. But the Joker was scariest and perhaps most real because he didn't.
And this post took about an hour longer than
"You're a Dumb One, Mr. Drip."
