Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

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Welcome to the human race...
#22. Seven Samurai
(Akira Kurosawa, 1954)



"This is the nature of war: By protecting others, you save yourselves. If you only think of yourself, you'll only destroy yourself."

Much like Lawrence of Arabia, this is a lengthy epic that I don't revisit all that often but which nevertheless feels like a revelation every time I do make time for it. Its elemental high-concept plot in which a village of farmers hire masterless samurai to protect them against the looming threat of a bandit raid. The film runs well over three hours yet maintains an economical approach to narrative, making sure to texture proceedings largely through developing characters - each of the samurai (and enough of the most important villagers) is granted more than enough texture to compensate for their broad archetypes (to say nothing of the rather one-dimensional villains), all illustrating a different facet of life during wartime within the microcosm of a single farming village attempting to fend off devastation. Seven Samurai is also rightly credited with being a massive influence on the action genre - though it is initially used sparingly and escalated as close to the end as possible, this only has the effect of making its capturing of movement (running into battle, collapsing into slow-motion after losing a fight, taking a dishonourable bullet in a fight largely fought with close-range weaponry) all the more indelible. Kurosawa has more than enough masterpieces that even the three I've added to this list both manage to illustrate his status as one of cinema's true masters while also showing by omission just how much more there is to his work.

2005 ranking: N/A
2013 ranking: #52
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I really just want you all angry and confused the whole time.
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0



I'm not gonna argue over which Evil Dead is the best (my vote goes to the original, whose meanness gives it a sense of transgression missing in the others), but will instead recommend Bloody Muscle Bodybuilder from Hell, a Japanese Evil Dead fan film that finds fun riffs on moments from the original. It's on Tubi in a watchable transfer.

Despite owning two different DVDs of this, and then buying the recently released blu-ray, I still haven't watched it. Saving it for something specific in October 2024.


But I see my asking about it has paid off.



I've still not managed to see Mulholland Drive despite owning it for years. I wonder if maybe it's because it comes out just as the first signs of my love for film start to appear?

Evil Dead 2? I saw it when it came out and thought it was ok. Seen it once or twice since and it got worse with each viewing. I'm not sure if I'd enjoy it or not now.
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5-time MoFo Award winner.



Welcome to the human race...
#21. Persona
(Ingmar Bergman, 1966)



"If she won't speak or move because she decides not to, which it must be if she isn't ill, then it shows that she is mentally very strong. I might not be equal to it."

The fragmentation of the self that lies at the heart of Persona is foreshadowed by an extremely abstract opening montage defined largely by that of a child reaching for a face behind a screen before eventually launching into its minimal isolationist narrative about actress Elisabet (Liv Ullmann) recuperating at a remote villa in the aftermath of what can best be described as a severe onset of stage fright and nurse Alma (Bibi Andersson) keeping an eye on her. Bergman has always been a master of doing a lot with very little and much of this film is about as minimal as it gets - in a manner reminiscent of August Strindberg's The Stronger, the film largely consists of two women, one of whom remains silent while the other is effectively made to monologue constantly. At the same time, this allows any number of interpretations to surface, especially as the walls between the two characters (both in terms of their interpersonal relationship and the question of how different they really are) begin to break down and their own deepest secrets and fears start to bubble to the surface. The starkness of the narrative and characters is amply reflected in the technique, with regular cinematographer Sven Nykvist again composing with the strongest of shadows and the slightest of lights that emphasise every flicker of facial expression or crack in each woman's defences (to say nothing of a pointed lack of music). Bergman had many masterpieces that all play to different strengths while still reflecting his sensibilities, but this is likely to remain my favourite for the foreseeable future.

2005 ranking: N/A
2013 ranking: N/A



I basically did my Bergman dive back in my mid 20's, and found myself just not that into him comparatively (as in, he's considered one of the iconic arthouse directors), interesting, but just not really hitting things from an angle that was really drawing me in. Persona though, that one stood out. Still a favorite. It's the only Bergman currently in my collection, I think.


I gave The Seventh Seal a rewatch during the lockdown period of the pandemic and found myself appreciating the dark comedy more.
I think maybe with the tempered expectations, it gelled with me better.


I should really give some of those other Bergman classics a revisit at some point. It's not quite two decades now and maybe I'll appreciate them more now. Want to rewatch Hour of the Wolf because of horror, but the god trilogy (winter light, glass darkly, and the silence) are probably the ones I'm most curious about.


At some point I should watch Fanny & Alexander.



I basically did my Bergman dive back in my mid 20's, and found myself just not that into him comparatively (as in, he's considered one of the iconic arthouse directors), interesting, but just not really hitting things from an angle that was really drawing me in. Persona though, that one stood out. Still a favorite. It's the only Bergman currently in my collection, I think.


I gave The Seventh Seal a rewatch during the lockdown period of the pandemic and found myself appreciating the dark comedy more.
I think maybe with the tempered expectations, it gelled with me better.


I should really give some of those other Bergman classics a revisit at some point. It's not quite two decades now and maybe I'll appreciate them more now. Want to rewatch Hour of the Wolf because of horror, but the god trilogy (winter light, glass darkly, and the silence) are probably the ones I'm most curious about.


At some point I should watch Fanny & Alexander.

He's a top 5 director for me, I'd imagine, even though I actually find most of his defining movies as being a bit stodgy (Wild Strawberries, Seventh Seal). Definitely revisit Hour of the Wolf, if you can. And The Silence is one of my very favorite of everything he's done. Fanny and Alexander is also essential.


All three of these feel like Bergman flirting (or in the case of Hour, more than flirting) with the horror genre. And there is nothing more terrifying and debased than letting the completely helpless world view of Bergman loose on horror films.



Welcome to the human race...
#20. The Shining
(Stanley Kubrick, 1980)



"Heeeeeeere's Johnny!"

One of the most vivid crash courses in film-watching for me happened almost twenty years ago when a local TV station aired four different Kubrick films across four weekends - 2001, A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, and this. This was my introduction to the work of Stanley Kubrick and each film definitely left a mark on first viewing. Even after The Shining weathered some serious cultural osmosis (it did inspire the best Treehouse of Horror segment, after all), its patiently sinister approach to the story of a haunted hotel and the unlucky family who find themselves snowed in over the off season has resonated in all sorts of ways (often to absurd degrees if the densely-pondered fan theories seen in Room 237 are any indication). As it is, The Shining is able to play to horror on all levels ranging from sudden shocks to creeping dread, though it clearly favours the latter in teasing out just what kind of grotesque and unsettling secrets the Overlook Hotel has in store - even then, it still understands that sometimes all it takes to be scary is letting an actor as infamously aggressive as Nicholson off the chain as one of cinema's all-time resentful bastards (though he ultimately doesn't work without Shelley Duvall as his put-upon partner). I've seen this film on all sorts of formats ranging from blurry CRT screens to damaged Eastmancolor prints that soak the entire film in red, but the end result is still the same indisputable classic.

2005 ranking: N/A
2013 ranking: #55



Welcome to the human race...
#19. Stalker
(Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)



"A man writes because he is tormented, because he doubts. He needs to constantly prove to himself and the others that he's worth something. And if I know for sure that I'm a genius? Why write then? What the hell for? "

There are plenty of reasons to hope that theatres never stop existing, but one very good one is the possibility of seeing such an indisputable classic on a large screen (especially if it's your first time doing so). Tarkovsky's small but powerful filmography cemented his reputation as one of cinema's philosopher kings, especially when it came to his tale of a mysterious zone full of inexplicable phenomena and the people who would attempt to explore it for one reason or another. In following three such distinct characters with their own disparate outlooks on what the Zone represents at both literal and figurative levels, Tarkovsky ultimately breaks down science fiction to its core components and looks at it from a new angle that questions its place in the world as it intersects with everything from faith to desire to practicality. That he made Solaris as a riposte to what he thought was badly-made sci-fi in Kubrick's 2001 is a known fact, but Stalker takes that fascination even further as it explores this strange dystopia - the monochromatic sepia of the "real" world versus the comparatively lush palette inside the Zone itself being as potent a rendition of its otherworldly nature even as it still resembles the same bombed-out and abandoned parts of Mother Russia. The same patient capacity for drawing out movements and dialogues (what he would quite memorably and correctly refer to as "sculpting in time") makes for exactly the kind of mesmerising experience that I endeavour to catch in a theatre whenever possible - even though I still feel like I may never fully understand the extremely dense material and abstract approach to same, I think that, much like the characters' efforts to reach the centre of the Zone, having a clear goal in mind is ultimately beside the point.

2005 ranking: N/A
2013 ranking: N/A



I don't really know what to say about The Shining since I'm a Kubrick-fan, so it's my favorite horror movie. I watch it every October.


There are still a couple Tarkovsky's I haven't seen and it's been too long Mirror. But with some noticeable caveats, Stalker is the Tarkovsky that sticks with me.



Victim of The Night
I don't really know what to say about The Shining since I'm a Kubrick-fan, so it's my favorite horror movie. I watch it every October.
It's not a horror movie.



It's not a horror movie.

It is admittedly more of a family drama that only flirts with being a horror movie at the end, until it just lampoons the genre.



Victim of The Night
It is admittedly more of a family drama that only flirts with being a horror movie at the end, until it just lampoons the genre.



Well, it’s not *just* a horror movie.
It’s a hybrid, Sci Fi-Horror.

I was going to say, "that's The Thing, which is really more of a thriller and some people may not have it in mind if they're working off of a very specific idea of what's horror. Like they might be thinking of movies where scary things are always jumping out at you like The Ring. The Shining is part historical documentation on the Native American genocide," but then I remembered the one person in Room 237 who thought The Shining was Kubrick confessing he faked the moon landing.



The trick is not minding
I was going to say, "that's The Thing, which is really more of a thriller and some people may not have it in mind if they're working off of a very specific idea of what's horror. Like they might be thinking of movies where scary things are always jumping out at you like The Ring. The Shining is part historical documentation on the Native American genocide," but then I remembered the one person in Room 237 who thought The Shining was Kubrick confessing he faked the moon landing.
Ok, so Sci-Fi/Horror/Thriller. The important thing is, so we don’t annoy anyone else with it labeling of the genre, is it isn’t a comedy and won’t be showing up on this countdown.

Right? Right?!



Ok, so Sci-Fi/Horror/Thriller. The important thing is, so we don’t annoy anyone else with it labeling of the genre, is it isn’t a comedy and won’t be showing up on this countdown.

Right? Right?!
Wrong thread, Wooley is just trying to mess with me outside of the comedy countdown thread. A thread that's making me feel like either I'm on the cursed side of a mirror, or... No, that is what it's making me feel like I am. No "or".



The trick is not minding
Wrong thread, Wooley is just trying to mess with me outside of the comedy countdown thread. A thread that's making me feel like either I'm on the cursed side of a mirror, or... No, that is what it's making me feel like I am. No "or".
Oops. My bad.