A top ten list of all time. And I know what you're thinking. Greg disappears from the blogging world for 3 months and thinks we want to hear what his favorite films are?
Yes. That's exactly what I think. So without further ado....
10. For Love of the Game
-Most people would leave this game off of their list. Hell, most people wouldn't even consider it a great film. But, truth be told, there was only one movie in the 1990s where every father brought their son and then had to hold back to the torrential tears that followed afterwards. This was that movie. It stays in the mind for everything from a week to a month to a decade. This is a film for a man with two loves: a woman and a game. He knows the game is perfect for him. He knows he needs a woman. So at the top of his game, after he shows the game one more time that he loves it and can play it until the day he dies, he leaves the game for the woman. A masterpiece of baseball films. A beauty amongst families. A passionate onslaught that would bring a man of any generation to his knees or want to dig up his old mitt and find his dad for one last game of catch (Field of Dreams anyone?) There is a love of something so inanimate, so meaningless, but so powerfully real that it epitomizes what baseball truly means to anyone that knows about the sport.
9. Toy Story 3
-I love this film for one scene. It's a scene that has the childhood of every person in my generation behind it. A scene so powerful that I argue that it has been crafted to be that way since the series' inception. That scene is in the garbage dump. When all the characters look at each other and stop fighting their inevitable doom and hold hands. To think that a series as treasured, as great, as family friendly even, as Toy Story even fiddled with the idea of all of their characters perishing in one fell swoop... Powerful. Sweat beads on every person in the theatre powerful. But to capture the nuances of emotion on the animated characters faces as they hold hands and accept their doom one by one as each other's best friends... yeah. Brilliant. Powerful. And I hope they had this scene rolling out since the first film.
8. Sin City
My first introduction to the gritty world of everything grindhouse. And I have not looked back yet. Plus Jessica Alba is smoking hot. Between the cinematic gore, ultra violence, and whistling coolness in it all, it allows the viewer to realize that villains can be good guys, so when they turn, get out of the way. These boys are the equivalent of a freight train. Plus when Marv gets electrocuted, that's just super awesome. This concept has been overdone so many times since its creation; the gritty comic book laced weirdness roped around heroes and Elijah Wood all cannibal style; that to properly state where it landed, I do have say that I have a soft spot for really really ridiculously violent films. While this isn't a bad thing, it certainly isn't a good thing. I consider it a neutral subject that my father and grandfather handed down to me through generations. My grandfather will remember that he introduced my to my number 1. But here I am getting ahead of myself...
7. Southland Tales
Most people wouldn't agree with this. However, I am not most people. Allow to explain. This film truly captures my concept of "Weirdly awesome" in films. It takes an idea and morphs it, and never waits for the viewer to catch up. Simply put, if you can't follow me, then don't try. That's this film in a nutshell. It's funny, cool, features Seann William Scott in a near Oscar worthy performance, and features Dwayne Johnson before anybody knew he could do anything besides wrestle. I won't ruin anything about this film, because its transcendental nature is probably too much for a blurb in someone's top 10 list. But suffice to say it follows a meditation of "If you could shake your own hand and watch the world burn, would you?" I know I would. But only because I would want to know what my hand felt like. And what it's like to speak to myself. Even if it's myself from three days in the future. Dig it.
6. Inception
Beautiful, Brilliant, and more importantly, missed for the Oscars. This film should have cleaned up at the Oscars. From Gordon Levitt's superb performance to Leo's passioned, enraged, suicidal craziness, to Nolan's brilliant portrayal of how this quirky goofy concept that sounds like the religion of Eckankar (check it out if you don't know it) to the meaning of the end of the film wherein nothing really truly matters. The final message of the film depicts a greater understanding of the idea that you need to be happy where you are. Nothing else matters. I like to think that he made it out of limbo. But truly, the film was not about "getting out" nor was it about "saving the day." It was about a man's growth into accepting his surroundings for what they are. He grew to accept that, as you can see from the first scene where he is fully willing to blow his brains out if he wasn't in reality to the end where he simply walks away from it all. Not a worry in the world. Not a care. This film allowed me to love life again and embrace it as I could, if only because each individual interaction with any individual person could be a changing point in their lives. I digress. This film was masterful. However, I moved it to 6 on my list because the next couple films are assuredly too much to handle. More to come shortly.
Any questions, comments, disagreements, feel free to comment.
The Dude Abides
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