+17
Spirited Away and Mulholland Drive are two films I watched late last year. The first when it came up in the Foreign Language Countdown - at a very high position. There were quite a few Miyazaki films on that countdown, so I've now seen a few and Spirited Away is by far the best, but while I'm able to appreciate animated films they don't tend to crop up in my 'best of' lists (apart from Grave of the Fireflies - I guess there's always an exception.) I will end up watching Spirited Away again, so it passes the rewatchability test - the imagery in the film's 'spirit resort' is fantasy run wild and incredible. Mullholland Drive likewise is great - I'd seen it before watching it last year, but that viewing holds me in good stead for it's position in the countdown - and at one stage it was holding a spot on the lower rungs of my list. It's full of mystery, and doesn't go out of it's way to clarify anything - leading to a variety of interpretations that stimulate further interest in seeing it again. Dreams and strange imagery impinge on what at first seems like a regular thriller - to the point where we become sure part of the film is someone's dream - but where does the dream stop and reality begin? If there was ever a film I'd praise for not making sense, it's this one. It would have appeared around spot 26-35 if I had of been compiling a top 50.
Meanwhile, revealing another failed entry on my list, my #15 was Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, a great crime thriller directed by Sidney Lumet featuring standout performances from Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke. I felt that it deserved to show up, at the very least in the bottom 50, and likewise my #24, another film featuring Ethan Hawke - Training Day. I was so sure Training Day would feature here. It was one of those films where, when it didn't show in the bottom 50 I was thinking "Wow, people really like this movie" - but when it didn't show by the time we got to the top 15 I was thinking "Wow, people really don't care for this movie." Personally, I love Training Day.
Seen 84/97
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Remember - everything has an ending except hope, and sausages - they have two.
We miss you Takoma