My Top 250 Movies

It hasn't quite dipped into favorite territory for me yet, but it's still really good. Nights of Cabiria is currently my favorite of Fellini's films.

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IMDb
Letterboxd

#159
IN COLD BLOOD






For those who like crime dramas, this is the one to check out. Robert Blake is excellent, too. Richard Brooks is one of the most underrated directors, too.

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https://www.youtube.com/c/LoyalOpposition

I almost watched that one earlier this year, but never got around to it for some odd reason. I should check it out someday.

Hey, In Cold Blood's of my favorites!: https://letterboxd.com/stusmallz/film/in-cold-blood/

I, Daniel Blake was great, and very moving (not to mention it stirring that sense of injustice at what some people are needlessly put through in this world) - happy to see it got a Criterion release.

Paris, Texas I remember loving - it's been far too long since I last saw that.

La Dolce Vita I saw for the first time recently. If there's ever a film you need to see multiple times before having to give a final opinion on, I think it's this one. I still don't know precisely how I feel about it. Like @SpelingError I have a great fondness for Nights of Cabiria which makes that my favourite Fellini film.

In Cold Blood really married a great piece of literature to an artistically well-made film.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing The Round-Up.

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#158
THIEF





(Review from 1/27/17)

This could have been really great. I think James Caan was excellent. Too much 80s sensationalism -- crap blowing up, shootings, chases.. Some of the dialogue, his reasoning, explanations of his life was really good. I don't think the "family thing" was well established, so it didn't affect me later in the movie.

And the end song is a complete ripoff of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" which was released months before they started the movie.


(Review from 6/22/17)
James Caan in one of the best performances. The titular hero is the thief, but he does have a "code"... A movie I could watch many times.

I put this on again.. I wanted to watch one scene, but forgot, and was too tired to get up.. but... this time, I read the entire note (from Willie Nelson) and he tells Frank (Caan) that he's proud Frank is collecting his debt FROM society... He grew up in state institutions, state prisons, had it wrong from the start to no fault of his own... Some call it anti-left, anti-right, but he's his own man.

#157
LONELY ARE THE BRAVE

(Review from 12/19/15)
I was expecting more. Kirk Douglas, the man who broke the Blacklist by employing Dalton Trumbo, again. I wanted to love this more - I love the theme, but they run away from it. Lots of filler material, watching a man hide for half the movie with no dialogue and very little being communicated doesn't do much. The first few minutes of the film told more story then the rest of it combined - a man in a horse crossing a highway, and you see cars made in the 50s and 60s honking, one guy shouts "What the hell are you doing?" as if he was crazy. Kirk Douglas' character sees them as crazy, thinking "I haven't changed, you all did." Could have been a really great movie.


(Review from 11/11/17)


I think a good alternative title would have been "No Country For Free Men"

I see why this is Kirk Douglas' favorite movie. An individual trying to co-exist with modernity and all of its flaws. Gena Rowlands is great too. I thought there was too much empty time -- 20% of that movie was a horse documentary. But it could have been one of my favorite movies.

"A westerner likes open country. That means he's got to hate fences. And the more fences there are, the more he hates them."

"Have you ever noticed how many fences there're getting to be? And the signs they got on them: no hunting, no hiking, no admission, no trespassing, private property, closed area, start moving, go away, get lost, drop dead! Do you know what I mean?"

#156
WISE BLOOD


12-17-15

One of John Huston's last films. The movie definitely is engaging, but there wasn't much development of the many different little stories, or rather motivations of each character. I'm guessing the novel is better. Some the movie is absurd, but it keeps you interested.



08-28-16

Second viewing. I review every single film. I'm very curious to see what I wrote, but might check it out some other time. I saw this earlier, though I met up with someone who was late, which is why I put the movie in the first place, since I saw it before. I finished the ending, and I might put it on again in the background, which I never do.

Very intriguing, but odd. I wish there was more script of course.

#155
PAPER MOON





01-25-16

Very fun movie. I liked the script, acting, and the pairing is cute (real life father and daughter).


I've been thinking about Mort Sahl most of the day, and as I go to check what's next to list, I notice this movie.. It was the last thing I did in San Francisco before getting on a plane. It's the only movie I actually watched on a laptop, since I was staying at a chatter's bare-boned apartment, although the place is worth over a million easily, especially being IN San Francisco, the only house on that main street (rest are businesses) and was about 15 steps to the subway, and I was only three stops away from North Beach, where I spent most of my time when I wasn't going to Mill Valley on Thursdays to see Mort perform and to talk with him afterwards. It was the last time I saw him face to face - talked to him a few times via phone, twitter, facebook, but it's not the same, and even now, I still have things I want to talk to him about that I didn't have a chance to before. I guess it still hasn't fully hit me yet. Maybe because COVID closed down all the theaters, I think this is temporary.

#154
LADYBUG, LADYBUG

07-10-17
A very important movie to see... It's very good, too. Told from the perspective of the children mostly. A school gets a bomb alarm, and you see how egos and "leadership" trumps correct decisions, a silly "us vs. them" concept, which in nuclear catastrophe, everyone is a loser.

Very allegoric.. It's very difficult to find movies made by the Perry's (husband-wife writing-directing team).. I especially loved "David and Lisa" and "The Swimmer" but seemed to fade away after "Diary of a Mad Housewife" - which I thought was the first movie of theirs that wasn't only great, but not that good, either, but still worth a watch.

#153
WHAT HAPPENED WAS




01-26-15
My gosh! This was such a great film! I don't even wanna talk about it because it's so great. Very independent film I just heard about. Magnificent acting and directing, and my kind of movie.

Has anyone seen this? I'd love to start a thread just on this, it's that great of a movie. I only knew Tom Noonan for being in the movie Heat (1995), but this film is an hour and forty, and felt like it was 5 minutes. I did not want it to end.. Amazing.

#152
CARRIAGE TO VIENNA




"Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"

#151
PALE FLOWER




This was really good. Fine editing - not a minute wasted. I like taboo subjects, and I was interested in the characters. I really loved the reasoning behind the gambling (or other things), "Life is boring".

That's a great one. I'm due for a rewatch of it.

#150
CASABLANCA




Never understood why the final line became so popular, but that's not the only "classic line" that didn't mean a damn thing to me.

That was one of the first classic films I watched when I started getting into classic films, so I hardly remember it. Need to revisit it soon.

#149
TRAINSPOTTING




This is an interesting movie about how life can be mundane, so people resort to drugs. "Get a job, get the 2.5 kids", etc...


The sequel was garbage, though. The only good thing about it was the trailer..

#148
PATHS OF GLORY

Top 5 war film for me.

Fantastic film.