The short. Skip Birdman. See Top Five. It’s the same movie with a couple of exceptions. Top Five has humor, is much more realistic, and you can relate more to it. It also isn’t the most over-hyped movie n the last five years. In fact, despite its 88% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and lots of word of mouth on the street, it still surprisingly didn’t do all that great at the box office (just $23 million domestically). I did not see this movie in the theater, though it tempted me. Perhaps the most significant thing going against the film was its release date. It opened on December 12th, right in the middle of when all of the big-time award movies were in the theaters. As a result, it got lost in the shuffle. If the studio could go back in time, they might have released this movie in August.
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Category Archives: Romance
All the Real Girls (2003)
Director David Gordon Green is quietly creeping into the upper echelon of movie directors. However, he is probably a name most people still have not heard of. Green is known for doing these smaller, independent, character-driven movies that are often set in Anytown, USA. To me, the movies are incredibly realistic because they dive so deep into raw, everyday emotions, explicitly dealing with love and lust and jealousy and anger and hurt. Keep in mind as I say this that he has also directed stupid humor comedies like Pineapple Express, The Sitter, and Your Highness, but that shows how ultra-talented the man is. The movies I am talking about are George Washington, Undertow (which I didn’t like but appreciated), and Snow Angels, a film I admire in every aspect. I’d need to go back and watch Snow Angels again (a movie I watched for the second time ever, no more than 3 or 4 months ago) before deciding if I like it or All the Real Girls better. To me, both of these movies capture the pureness of simple film-making.
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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Sure David Fincher’s (Fight Club, Se7en) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is Forrest Gump meets Legends of the Fall. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a great movie. I saw this movie opening weekend six years ago and remember being intrigued by the premise but not exactly sure how I’d react to it. The trailer was superb, and Brad Pitt is excellent in almost everything he does. This movie was screaming Academy Award Nomination for him, and this would prove to be his first Best Actor nod. I’m also very high on Fincher and Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine, Elizabeth: The Golden Age). At nearly three hours, this movie is way much too long, but, at the same time, I’m not exactly sure what I would cut it out. To me, each scene is integral to the story. And while Forrest Gump achieved more critical acclaim (6 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor and six other nominations), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button fared very well (3 wins and ten more nominations). Are the stories similar? They are. And while Brad Pitt’s character in this movie isn’t quite the same as his character in Legends of the Fall, his Benjamin Button character does follow many of the same fight versus flight battles that Tristan faced. If I had to rank these three movies, I think I would still go Forrest Gump first, Legends of the Fall second, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but that is one heck of a list. All three of these movies currently rank in my All-Time top 125, and I think each of these movies will continue to stand the test of time, meaning I don’t see these movies sliding down as I revise my list yearly.
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500 Days of Summer (2009)
500 Days of Summer was one of the most rewarding movie experiences I’ve ever had. When I first heard about this movie back in the summer of 2009, I thought there would be no way I would ever see it, let alone see it in the theater, let alone see it in the theater and enjoy it. But as word of mouth began to spread and as the movie sustained life in the theater, it became inevitable that I would eventually see it. Nevertheless, I still was convinced that I would not like it. I was wrong. I loved it. Not only was it my favorite movie of 2009, but it most likely has a permanent spot in my all-time top 25.
The Lunchbox (2014)
“Sometimes, the wrong train will get you to the right station.” These yearning words of wisdom spoken so matter-of-factly by Ila (Nimrat Kaur – One Night With the King), a lonely yet hopeful housewife in Ritesh Batra’s directorial debut, The Lunchbox, quite simply the best movie through the first eight months of 2014. I am uncertain if this movie will be nominated for a Best Foreign Language Academy Award. I hope it will be so that more people will know about it. If it is not, I am not sure I would have ever known about it, let alone see it, if not recommended by my friend David. It further reinforces my appreciation for movie recommendations.
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