JOEY'S PAGE - Joey's Favorite Movie Critic

Joey's Favorite Movie Critic

Here are the best films of all time according to yours truly.  

Patrick Kelly (No Kidding, Me Too!)  

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg)
2. Citizen Kane (Welles)
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)
4. Apocalypse Now (Coppola)
5. Raging Bull (Scorsese)
6. Dark City (Proyas)
7. Ikiru (Kurosawa)
8. Metropolis (Lang)
9. Requiem for a Dream (Aronofsky)
10. Mulholland Dr. (Lynch)       

     Honorable Mentions:  Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, After Hours, Dr. Strangelove, Dekalog, Casablanca, Notorious, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, Nosferatu, the Vampyre, Pulp Fiction, The Godfather, Taxi Driver, Schindler's List, The Wild Bunch, Singin' in the Rain, Floating Weeds, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Exorcist, Cries & Whispers, Fargo, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, GoodFellas, Being John Malkovich, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Platoon, Ran, House of Games, My Dinner with Andre, Santa Sangre, Exotica, The Hairdresser's Husband, Princess Mononoke, A Simple Plan, Breaking the Waves, JFK, Malcolm X, Bound.       

"Raiders of the Lost Ark" is my choice as the best film of all time simply because it has the best climax I've ever seen.  I have to say watching the Nazi bad guys get skewered and melted is rather cathartic.  The cinematography is voluptuous, especially on the big screen. The score by John Williams is dazzling poetry and the performance by the late Ronald Lacey oozes atmospheric villainy.

"Citizen Kane" has that great shot of Kane walking past parallel mirrors where you can see infinite reflections of the man.  Spike Jonze uses this technique in his video for Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice" to great effect.  I love this movie because I was a newspaper writer in high school and so the picture always makes me feel at home.  The opening shots are enigmatic and the movie is a treasure trove of visual imagery.       

"2001: A Space Odyseey" is a psychedelic and hallucinatory head trip from beginning to end.  I saw this ravishing movie with my twin brother Sean on the last night of 2001 and the most recent movie that gave me as good a light show was "The Cell."  I'm talking total immersion here.  The movie is enveloping.       

"Apocalypse Now" is Coppola's masterpiece.  The redux version is not necessary because the death and burial of one of the soldiers needs to be shrouded in mystery.       

"Raging Bull" is a touching story of two brothers, one a boxer and one who suppresses emotion, who part ways for almost a decade and meet again in a heart rending scene.  This is a biopic that is cinematic poetry.  The boxing scenes are masterful and the three performances by De Niro, Moriarty, and Pesci are tremendous.       

"Dark City" drips with eye candy.  The notion of "the Strangers" controlling everything and revising their experiment at midnight is absolutely intriguing.     

"Ikiru" is the absorbing story of a bureaucrat with stomach cancer who just wants a playground built in his town.  Look at the still of the character on the swing during winter and see how bittersweet happiness can be.       

"Metropolis" is even more bombastic with the Alloy Orchestra musical score to accompany it.       

"Requiem for a Dream" is starkly serious or darkly humorous at times.  One must figure out which because this is a tragedy of epic proportions based on the Hubert Selby Jr. novel.       

"Mulholland Dr." is a Rubix cube of a film.  David Lynch's surreal masterpiece juxtaposes a bubbly blonde's dreams of making it big against a backdrop of Hollywood decadence. During a Q & A session Gary Cogill (WFAA Dallas) conducted with star Laura Elena Harring in 2001, I asked the question "Can you elaborate on the bum in the alley?" and Harring replied "It represents something very dark."       

"Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" is a rich and satisfying experience.       

"Singin' In the Rain" is perhaps the best movie musical with some astonishing dancing by the late Donald O'Connor.  I'm a bit of a dancer too and sometimes I just try to make 'em laugh.  There is a classic line in the film when one character tells another "There's nothing between us... just air."       

Here is my twin brother's ten best list.  He was diagnosed bipolar in 2002 at age 17.  He is a film aficionado of note:  

Sean Kelly  

1. Citizen Kane (Welles)
2. Dark City (Proyas)
3. Apocalypse Now (Coppola)
4. Raging Bull (Scorsese)
5. Pulp Fiction (Tarantino)
6. Minority Report (Spielberg)
7. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)
8. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Herzog)
9. Platoon (Stone)
10. Requiem for a Dream (Aronofsky)  

Stay tuned for more reviews to come.  -- P.K. (catatonic schizophrenia 2003, age 18)