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The 21st Century's 100 Greatest Films (BBC Poll, 177 worldwide critics)

P

plagiarize

Banned
Affeinvasion said:
Interesting write up, but I disagree with the last part. I understood what was happening as I'm pretty familiar with Lynch's style but I did not have any visceral reaction to the film at all. I was mostly shifting between bemused and bored and like most Lynch films other than Eraserhead I didn't care about the characters at all. It doesn't help that Lynch can never seem to get good performances out of people or worse obviously doesn't care about acting at all (Lost Highway after the cast switch, I'm looking at you).
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I mean... these things are subjective... but you're going to struggle with that one I think.

I'm really a performance first kind of guy and the only enthralling person in MD for me was the singer.
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Naomi Watts was amazing in the film.
 
V

ViewtifulJC

Banned
Every performance in Mulholland Dr. s calibrated perfectly for the effect Lynch is going for. Watts in particular is fantastic.
 
H

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
So between this and the recent movie soundtrack thread, I'm wondering when we decided as a people that Lord of the Rings didn't count for anything.
 
S

Sean C

Member
I've watched 62 of the 100, at present. My own hypothetical ballot would be (in alphabetical order):

1. Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe, 2000)
2. Atonement (Joe Wright, 2007)
3. Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004)
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
5. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009)
6. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
7. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012)
8. Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006)
9. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Gore Verbinski, 2003)
10. WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008)
 
S

Speely

Banned
ViewtifulJC said:
Its pretty clear the first two hours are a dream. The first thing we see is us falling down to sleep into a pillow on Diane's bed, and then the dream ends when she unlocks the blue box/Cowboy says "time to wake up pretty girl". She's a failed, possibly drug-addicted actress who's "girlfriend" ditches who for a big-shot movie director and another pretty blond woman. She hires an assassin to kill her, and through a combination of depression, shame, and personal demons she can't escape(personified in that thing in the back of winkies and all those smiling parents who thought she was gonna be a big star), she kills herself.

But in-between the hiring and the killing, she dreams. She dreams of a world where she's a great actress, where everything bad happens to the big-shot director, where her "girlfriend" is hot but kinda dumb and depends on her instead of the other way around, where SINISTER FORCES OF HOLLYWOOD are the reason that pretty talentless blond woman got her roles instead of her, where the assassin she hired is REALLY incompetent in a Coen Bros setpiece kinda way so he couldn't kill the woman she loves, and her entire life is kinda like a 1950s Billy Wilder noir.

Things like the blue key its uh...you seen Inception? Its kinda like a totem of her guilt, that guilt that she killed Camilla Rhodes. She hides it in a box and puts it away in the dream. The dream starts to break down partway through the movie, you got those agents like Inception, the mind fighting back telling her to wake up. You got her ugly dead body at her house. She calls "Diane Selwyn" in the dream("Its strange dialing yourself!") and its actually Naomi Watts' voice on the other side, but its kinda hard to here. It finally breaks down entirely when they go to Club Silencio and its revealed that they're living in a dream world they can't have, and they rush home to open the box.

Lynch uses the dream thing as a really cool method to actually get inside somebody's head and do an intimate character study of Naomi Watts' character of Diane Selwyn. We learn her wants, her dreams, her hopes, her fears, how she views the world and how she views the people in her life. Its also an indictment against all the happy magic bullshit Hollywood feeds you, but at the same time its also a celebration of the power of movies, how they affect our ultimately subjective view of reality, and how they impact our lives with the combination of sound design, editing, acting, lighting, etc. Every single aesthetic choice Lynch uses has been thoroughly picked over and works towards the film's beauty, complexity, and dream logic we look for in movies.

Its also just a really visceral fuckin' experience with dreamlike cinematography and amazing sound design and crazy direction so that if you didn't get it, you can just enjoy it on a sensory level.

Personally, I think its the absolute best film of the century so far.
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I love you. That's all.
 
A

Androidsleeps

Member
I've watched a lot of these and yeah it's mostly a solid list. Mulholland Drive at #1 makes sense in a way, to me at least. And yeah I liked Boyhood and I appreciate it for what it is but it's too high.

Also, what is Spotlight doing anywhere in this list? It's an entertaining movie, kinda like an HBO film with a Mark Ruffallo shout-y "Oscar Moment" to be used for the award shows, but let's be real here..
 
B

broncobuster

Banned
Glad and surprised Zodiac is in the top quarter. At the time I don't remember lots of love but it gained its following. History of Violence in there at all is cool, too. And the best of the Before trilogy.
 
F

FTF

Member
Htown said:
So between this and the recent movie soundtrack thread, I'm wondering when we decided as a people that Lord of the Rings didn't count for anything.
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Oh wow yeah, where the hell is Fellowship of the Ring??

Ceres said:
There will be blood above no country for old men as it should be.
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Unfortunately there's only been like one main time where this wasn't the case...and I'm wondering if the academy still feels bad about it.
 
Monocle

Monocle

Member
Not bad. Glad to see Mad Max and Only Lovers Left Alive on there.

Where the hell is LOTR though? I'm not buying the narrative that it doesn't matter or isn't good enough. I know a masterpiece when I see one.

Also, I don't accept Kill Bill's omission. You're lucky if you get a movie like that once in a decade.

Mulholland Drive is good but not that good, come on.

Ceres said:
There will be blood above no country for old men as it should be.
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Nah.

Htown said:
So between this and the recent movie soundtrack thread, I'm wondering when we decided as a people that Lord of the Rings didn't count for anything.
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Yeah, what the devil's going on here?
 
J

jett

D-Member
ViewtifulJC said:
Its also just a really visceral fuckin' experience with dreamlike cinematography and amazing sound design and crazy direction so that if you didn't get it, you can just enjoy it on a sensory level.

Personally, I think its the absolute best film of the century so far.
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???

I thought it was a cheap/ugly-looking piece o'chit.
 
M

MIMIC

Banned
Eh...I've always though that "There Will Be Blood" has been pretty overrated over the years. As for Boyhood, I really, really enjoyed it, but No. 5? I guess if they're throwing in the fact they they filmed it over several years (which is a really cool element).

And I've been meaning to see "A Separation" since FOREVER. I've owned the movie for about 2 or 3 years now and just haven't found the time to sit down and watch it.
 
J

jett

D-Member
MIMIC said:
Eh...I've always though that "There Will Be Blood" has been pretty overrated over the years. As for Boyhood, I really, really enjoyed it, but No. 5? I guess if they're throwing in the fact they they filmed it over several years (which is a really cool element).

And I've been meaning to see "A Separation" since FOREVER. I've owned the movie for about 2 or 3 years now and just haven't found the time to sit down and watch it.
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A Separation is easily the best family drama of the century. Boyhood is such a non-fucking entity compared to it.
 
L

legend166

Member
Yeah, no Lord of the Rings is ridiculous. Fellowship of the Ring is legitimately a fantastic film. Almost perfect. The other two have their faults but are still much better than plenty on the list.
 
A

amaretto

Member
In all honesty, if Margaret couldn't have its rightful place at #1 then Mulholland Drive is an ok compromise.

Boyhood needs to disappear.
 
N

not psycho

Member
Wow, that's frighteningly similar to my list. And even the ones I don't love, I almost love.

1. Mulholland Drive
2. Spirited Away
3. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
4. Memories of Murder
5. Inside Llewyn Davis
6. The Incredibles
7. Werckmeister Harmonies
8. Punch-Drunk Love
9. The Fellowship of the Ring
10. A Separation
11. Mad Max: Fury Road
12. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
13. Zodiac
14. Before Sunset
15. Hot Fuzz
16. No Country For Old Men
17. There Will Be Blood
18. 12 Years a Slave
19. Kill Bill
20. The Prestige


I need to see The Tree of Life, 25th Hour, and Talk to Her.
 
J

JoJoShabadoo

Member
jett said:
???

I thought it was a cheap/ugly-looking piece o'chit.
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Nah, Mulholland drive has impeccable sound design, and the visuals are representative of the mood of the characters in the scene. It's very well done. I'm not a big fan of surrealist cinema but this film just does it right.
 
X

XMonkey

lacks enthusiasm.
Not bad! I disagree with a lot of the placement for top 20, but that list has a lot of worthiness for a general best 100.
 
I

IdreamofHIME

Member
Spring breakers? That's a pretty oddball addition.

Can't believe it's been 16 years since In the mood for love. Man, I remember going & seeing that on a rainy Sunday like it was yesterday. Yikes. Getting old.
 
U

UraMallas

Member
EightBitNate said:
Not a bad list at all really. I really like pretty much every film I recognize on here.
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Agreed. I knew I couldn't think of a better movie I've seen this century than There Will Be Blood so I'm glad its the highest movie on the list I have seen. Pleasantly surprised by how high Children of Men is as well because that's my #2.
 
J

jett

D-Member
JoJoShabadoo said:
Nah, Mulholland drive has impeccable sound design, and the visuals are representative of the mood of the characters in the scene. It's very well done. I'm not a big fan of surrealist cinema but this film just does it right.
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I can understand people liking it on a narrative level (although it did nothing for me), but aesthetically I really can't see it, even less to the point where it gets elevated to some sort of feast for the senses.

Hero_of_the_Day said:
I really need to see this movie. No clue what it is, but I keep seeing it pop up in conversations.
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It's the sequel to Three Men and a Baby.
 
E

excelsiorlef

Member
What else is impressive about Mulholland Drive is that it was supposed to be a pilot for an ABC TV series, Lynch managed to take footage shot for TV, footage intended to be just the beginning of like 22 episodes and with new writing and reshoots recraft it all into an amazing film
 
T

TimeEffect

Member
A Separation is great.

If you like those kind of slow, talkative dramas, check out:

Winter Sleep,
or Tangerines (not to be confused with Tangerine)
 
Squirrel Killer

Squirrel Killer

Member
Sho_Nuff82 said:
I feel like this movie really speaks to old people who think that they understand why young people do the crazy things that they do.

Franco's performance is so over the top it's almost embarrassing.
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Wow, that put me in my place. In my defense, I think I liked Spring Breakers not for any reason like that, but rather how it descends from a narrative to an assault of emotive visuals. It feels like a reverse of Irreversible.
 
S

ShadowSwordmaster

Banned
That is a great list overall.
Htown said:
So between this and the recent movie soundtrack thread, I'm wondering when we decided as a people that Lord of the Rings didn't count for anything.
Click to expand...

Now you mention it this does seem like a trend going on. I wonder if the Hobbit movies had an impact.
 
C

Chained Prometheus

Member
Not at all surprised to see Mulholland Drive at the top spot, which I think is well-deserved.


I think the list is pretty solid for the most part, but I'll say this- Boyhood is ranked WAYYYYYYYY too high. That film shouldn't be anywhere near the Top Ten imo. The fact that it's ranked higher than Mad Max: Fury Road just feels wrong to me. lol
 
R

Ridley327

Member
Hero_of_the_Day said:
I really need to see this movie. No clue what it is, but I keep seeing it pop up in conversations.
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It's basically the Half-Life film we've always deserved. It's one of the best examples of a near-future sci-fi film that feels incredibly realistic and lived-in, while also diving into an interesting subject and punctuating it with some of the most well orchestrated action sequences in the entire genre. It's generally thought of as Cuaron's best film for damn good reason.

And it recreates the cover of Pink Floyd's Animals, which is already +1000 points on its own.
 
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