Another Top 100

[Sycophant]

My Top 100 Films
a list by Sycophant/John D. Moore/your mom

This is the part of the list where I unveil my true mission statement in compiling this list. Really, I ought to get into something about my personal history with cinema, some of my earliest memories, a rough chart of when I realized how important it was to me and how I wanted that to be my main focus of studies and creative energies, and confess that I think all other media are pretty much inferior.

I'm going to pass on that for now. If/when I finish this list anywhere from eight months to three years from now and I get all sentimental, I'll write just that kind of sap.

For now, I'll let you in on the three main purposes for making this list:

1. I'd really like to hone my skill in writing about film, so writing 100 mini-essays should help in that regard
2. I'm really quite obsessive compulsive and simply love making lists.
3. I'd like to revisit a lot of these films and this provides a swell opportunity for just that.

Here's the format this list will take: Before I get to my top 100 films, I'm going to write up a little something for ten special mentions. They're things (not always movies) that just couldn't quite make the cut. Then I'll get to the top 100, starting--weirdly enough--at number 100, then onto 99, 98, 97, and so on (to stop at number 1). They'll each be accompanied by one to ten paragraphs about the film and why it's there. I expect they'll be rambly and inconsistent in terms of quality and tone.

This is a snapshot of my tastes as of today. Or, more specifically, seven hours ago, when I last fidgeted with the ordering. Changes may be made along the way, but we'll see how that goes.

Special Mentions:
1. The Great Mouse Detective (Mattison, Michener, Musker & Clements, 1986)
2. The Calamari Wrestler (Minoru Kawasaki, 2004)
3. Tucker: The Man and His Dream (Francis Ford Coppola, 1988)
4. Paranoia Agent (Satoshi Kon, 2004)
5. Take the Money and Run (Woody Allen, 1969)
6. Address Unknown (Kim Ki-Duk, 2001)
7. The Wire (David Simon)
8. The Interconnection of Mr. Daily (Moore, 2007)
9. Harvey (Koster, 1950)
10. The Matrix (Wachowskis, 1999)

100. Infernal Affairs (Lau & Mak, 2002)

[Philosophe_rouge]

Sounds good although part of me was sad because I was planning on starting a list sometime next week. Maybe I'll just blog it for now. I love lists though, making and watching/reading so I'm too excited at the moment. Best of luck!!

[D_Davis]

Sweet!

[Spinal]

My Top 100 Films
a list by Sycophant/John D. Moore/your mom

My mom contributed? Expect a high placement for Camelot and Vegas Vacation!

[Sycophant]

Special Mention No. 1
The Great Mouse Detective


Why it's here: To represent Disney.

If I were to jump into a time machine and deliver a copy of this list to my high school self, I'd probably completely break the poor kid's psyche. Who is this long-haired, bebearded freak? And why's he watching so many vulgar movies? And where's all the Disney?

I've been sketching top film lists for as long as the concept of ranking was known to me. The vast, vast majority of what was watched in my household as we were growing up were the Disney animated "classics." There is nary a line from any films from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs through to Hercules that I probably couldn't recite for you. As a result, they're a little difficult for me to view today, as I learned many of these before I encountered long division.

This is a token mention, as I'm sad to say none of Disney's "masterpieces," "classics," "cash cows with golden udders," or whatever you want to call them were able to secure a place on my main list. I have a great deal of fondness for many of these films. I was able to view Sleeping Beauty, which nearly got this spot, with new eyes a few years ago, finally seeing it in all its Cinemascope glory and having a real appreciation of the masterstrokes of artistry that enliven every frame.

But there are few films I've had more fun with than The Great Mouse Detective. In my teen years, I actually assigned myself a once-monthly dietary regulation for this picture. No, no one really liked me. But, goshdarnit, I really liked this movie. It's a blast from start to finish, a thorough and jaunty exploration of its own genre.

Frankly, it deserves to be here if for no other reason than the scene in which Professor Rattigan, voiced deliciously by Vincent Price, ties Basil of Baker Street and Dawson to a fabulous Goldbergian death device, to be initiated when a record playing the wildly infectious "Goodbye, So Soon."

[Sycophant]

Sounds good although part of me was sad because I was planning on starting a list sometime next week. Maybe I'll just blog it for now.

Aw. I don't see any problems with you proceeding with your list in the near future. I have an insatiable appetite for lists, and certainly would love to see what graces yours.

[Philosophe_rouge]

Not my favourite Disney (it would probably be Sleeping Beauty, which just missed your list), but a more than stellar choice.

[Watashi]

This is a token mention, as I'm sad to say none of Disney's "masterpieces," "classics," "cash cows with golden udders," or whatever you want to call them were able to secure a place on my main list. I have a great deal of fondness for many of these films. I was able to view Sleeping Beauty, which nearly got this spot, with new eyes a few years ago, finally seeing it in all its Cinemascope glory and having a real appreciation of the masterstrokes of artistry that enliven every frame.

"Token" and Great Mouse Detective do not belong in the same sentence.

This list fails.

FAILS, I tell you!

[Philosophe_rouge]

Aw. I don't see any problems with you proceeding with your list in the near future. I have an insatiable appetite for lists, and certainly would love to see what graces yours.

I'll consider it, yours is off to a lovely start btw. I'm sure it'll continue as such

[Sycophant]

Special Mention No. 2
The Calamari Wrestler
Directed (and story) Minoru Kawasaki; written by Masakazu Migita.



Why it's here: For being exactly what it is.

This film would probably never come close to my true 100 greatest list. It's technically flawed, often limply acted, and sophomore director Minoru Kawasaki couldn't stave off some pacing issues.

But, dear God, do I ever love it. The film has one major saving grace. Listen, carefully, my friends. That grace is:

Silliness.

The Calamari Wrestler is ridiculously, unabashedly, giddily silly. Essentially, it's a send-up of spiritually uplifting sports movies, with a stoic hero, a bitter rival, and all the odds stacked against him. With a guy in a bad squid costume. According to the film, it's actually a squid (in case we weren't sure it was really supposed to be a squid, they do us the favor of running the actor's voice through some bubbly audio filter).

Some other anthropomorphic characters factor into the picture later. Soon, there's speculation that perhaps this wrestling calamari that's shaking up the professional wrestling world might, in fact, be a reincarnation of the reportedly dead, former champion. Gasp!

The picture wouldn't work so well if it didn't--while still being extremely silly--take itself extremely seriously. There's very little winking irony here. Everything that matters to these characters matters. Watching this movie was a minor revelation for me: It's okay to be this gol-danged silly.

If there's one scene that sold me on this movie, it's a very quiet one. The squid, now living in Japanese society, finds himself living in a friendly urban neighborhood. He goes grocery shopping at the sidewalk markets, a bag draped around one of his tentacles. As he walks down the street, children and old women wave hello to him, in the warmest, friendliest manner possible. The squid waves back. Truly, he is a hero of the people.

[Sycophant]

"Token" and Great Mouse Detective do not belong in the same sentence.

This list fails.

FAILS, I tell you!

I knew this would get your ire up. I did mention I love the film, right?

[

Show Spoiler

I do have a Pixar film in my top 100...

]

[Bosco B Thug]

Special Mention No. 2
The Calamari Wrestler
Directed (and story) Minoru Kawasaki; written by Masakazu Migita.

Hmm, I really had high hopes for this movie when I Netflixed it, but I'm sad to say it tried my patience and left me thoroughly disinterested.

The Great Mouse Detective's great, though!

[Sycophant]

Hmm, I really had high hopes for this movie when I Netflixed it, but I'm sad to say it tried my patience and left me thoroughly disinterested.

The Great Mouse Detective's great, though!

Yeah, I should probably temper my endorsement of this film with a disclaimer that, more than pretty much any movie I'm going to talk about here, this one is really not for everyone.

But isn't The Great Mouse Detective wonderful?

[Winston*]

I believe I would like to see The Calamari Wrestler.

[Sycophant]

I believe I would like to see The Calamari Wrestler.

What the hell is in your avatar, son?

[Sycophant]

Special Mention No. 3
Tucker: the Man and His Dream
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Written by Arnold Schulman & David Seidler. 1988.



Why it's here: For sticking with me so long.

Look, I'm sorry, Tucker. But, hey. You and I, we've had a good run. What, something like five years, we were inseparable? I had three different copies of you. There could be no discussion with both me and movies where I didn't bring you into the conversation, proudly flaunting your merits and boasting of our acquaintance.

You taught me a lot, helped to mold my impressionable mind. I studied you and took you in in a way only a young man of that age could. You were the one who made me begin to understand what cinema, as a medium, really was and that it had limits that had yet to be explored. Your gorgeous cinematography, elaborate stagings, and dazzling production design will always be with me.

I saw you again two years ago, my heart still very much with you, though we had long been apart. I still love you and I always will. Perhaps I've changed. You've stayed the same and I wouldn't have it any other way.

You helped me to be where I am today. Thank you.

And, like, I'll still watch you from time to time. Really, you're a pretty damn good movie. Just maybe not the movie for me.

Anymore.

[ledfloyd]

ha, tucker is my grandfather's favorite movie. but it's certainly no great mouse detective.

[Sycophant]

Special Mention No. 4
Paranoia Agent
Directed by Satoshi Kon. 2004.



Why it's here: For being Kon's best work.

There's no dearth of Satoshi Kon on my list. At the old site, in wet, hot anticipation for Paprika, I declared Kon to be one of the most important and interesting artists working today. Despite my state of feverish lust at the time, I still agree with that statement.

Kon has an impeccable visual sense and a firm understanding of the hopes, anxieties, and fears that occupy the human psyche. Yet his work does not allow us to observe as the outsider; these things are all played with a great deal of empathy.

I hope that Kon considers doing another series in the future, as the format he works with here is well suited to his storytelling and, I believe, represents his best work to date. These thirteen episodes fly by quickly and cover a lot of ground. Indeed, it is a sprawling work. In its curious structural nature, it explores its main themes of guilt, remorse, justification, and pacification, while offering case studies and ruminations on these and other related themes.

[Kurosawa Fan]

My mom contributed? Expect a high placement for Camelot and Vegas Vacation!

If it's my mom, expect Overboard to make the top 5.


Seriously, this is cool Sycophant. I'm looking forward to the list.

[Rowland]

Good luck.

[Sycophant]

Good luck.

Thanks. I worry about my stamina on this one. :P

[dreamdead]

Looking forward to the list. Though I suspect there will be too much Miike and not enough Ozu. :evil:

[Rowland]

Thanks. I worry about my stamina on this one. :P

If signs of fatigue begin to show, we'll cheer you on like the male bimbos that we are until your intestinal fortitude replenishes.

[Sycophant]

Looking forward to the list. Though I suspect there will be too much Miike and not enough Ozu. :evil:

Your suspicions are valid. Though I'm going to be seeing some Ozu in the next month or so here, and I just bumped some things off the list last night, so if something blows me away, there's a little room.

There will be a wealth of Miike, though.

[Raiders]

Speaking of Miike, I actually was going to be watching Happiness of the Katakuris soon. I have never really been sure what to do with his films since I found Audition just OK and didn't care for Ichi the Killer. His filmography is so diverse sounding it is tough to gauge where to go next.