'Ello, you lucky people!
People are always making lists of the best whatevers. I think the term "best" is misleading. Under whose authority is something better than something else? I, being a film guy, read a lot about films and the "greatest" films of all time. Every entertainment mag worth their weight has a "Best of Blahty-Blah" list every couple months. The IMDb has a "Top 250" list, which is the movies that get the highest number of high scores according to their users.
http://us.imdb.com/chart/top
The American Film Institute has its own list of 100 films of the first 100 years of film
http://www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/movies.aspx
I think both of these lists are problematic. These are all opinions whether they're internet geeks or top critics. I've decided, as a response, to compose a list of my 50 favorite films. These films are important to me in one way or another. I based my list on three basic criteria:
1) Re-watchability I've seen some films that I love that I will never watch again. Favorites must be viewed multiple times. Have you seen a movie a hundred times? Might it be your favorite?
2) Quotability If you've seen a movie a hundred times, you're gonna be able to quote lines at will and ad-nauseum
3) Bad-Assitude It could be one scene or it could be one tiny scene, but, for me, a movie has to impress me to be in my list. You can easily tell if this one is happening to you if you think or say "Awwww shit!" while chuckling.
Not all of these movies are considered "great" films in the annuls of film history, but they are important to me in my life or (hypothetical) career in film. Hopefully they will give you some insight into my warped mind. NOTE: The IMDb #1 film is The Godfather and AFI's #1 is Citizen Kane. Both are fantastic films and neither are on my list.
1) The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly (1966) dir. Sergio Leone
2) Clerks (1994) dir. Kevin Smith
3) Pulp Fiction (1994) dir. Quentin Tarantino
4) Shaun of the Dead (2004) dir. Edgar Wright
5) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) dir. Stanley Kubrick
6) The Third Man (1949) dir. Carol Reed
7) Star Wars (1977) dir. George Lucas
8) Jaws (1975) dir. Steven Spielberg
9) Dawn of the Dead (1978) dir. George A. Romero
10) The Wild Bunch (1969) dir. Sam Peckinpah
11) Reservoir Dogs (1992) dir. Quentin Tarantino
12) Die Hard (1988) dir. John McTiernan
13) The Graduate (1967) dir. Mike Nichols
14) Evil Dead 2 (1987) dir. Sam Raimi
15) Fargo (1996) dir. Joel Coen
16) Goodfellas (1990) dir. Martin Scorsese
17) The Thing (1982) dir. John Carpenter
18) From Russia With Love (1963) dir. Terrence Young
19) Memento (2000) dir. Christopher Nolan
20) Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) dir. Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones
21) Strangers on a Train (1951) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
22) The Shining (1980) dir. Stanley Kubrick
23) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) dir. Steven Spielberg
24) Once Upon a Time in the West (1969) dir. Sergio Leone
25) Snatch. (2000) dir. Guy Ritchie
26) Halloween (1978) dir. John Carpenter
27) Se7en (1995) dir. David Fincher
28) Planet of the Apes (1968) dir. Franklin J. Schaffner
29) Sin City (2005) dir. Frank Miller & Robert Rodriguez, guest dir. Quentin Tarantino
30) Back to the Future (1985) dir. Robert Zemeckis
31) Chasing Amy (1997) dir. Kevin Smith
32) Double Indemnity (1944) dir. Billy Wilder
33) Leon (1994) dir. Luc Besson
34) The Departed (2006) dir. Martin Scorsese
35) The Getaway (1972) dir. Sam Peckinpah
36) Blade Runner (1982) dir. Ridley Scott
37) Alien (1979) dir. Ridley Scott
38) The Big Lebowski (1998) dir. Joel Coen
39) The Searchers (1956) dir. John Ford
40) Night of the Living Dead (1968) dir. George A. Romero
41) Fight Club (1999) dir. David Fincher
42) The Magnificent Seven (1960) dir. John Sturges
43) The Usual Suspects (1995) dir. Bryan Singer
44) For a Few Dollars More (1965) dir. Sergio Leone
45) A Clockwork Orange (1971) dir. Stanley Kubrick
46) American Psycho (2000) dir. Mary Harron
47) Goldfinger (1964) dir. Guy Hamilton
48) Life of Brian (1979) dir. Terry Jones
49) Dogma (1998) dir. Kevin Smith
50) Grindhouse (2007) dir. Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Tarantino, guest dir. Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright, & Eli Roth
I have multiple movies on the list from certain directors. Well guess what: I have favorite directors also.
So, movie lovers, if you haven't seen any of these movies, why not give them a chance. Your old pal, Kander wouldn't steer you wrong. And feel free to weigh in with your opinions. Tell me I'm a dumb ass, see if I care.
Talk at ya later and keep circulating the tapes.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Kanderson Out
'Ello, you lucky people!
The decision to flee came suddenly. The notion had been in my head since I moved to Denver from Greeley nearly a year ago. At that time, I thought I'd be living with my mother through the summer and move in the fall. However my funds were sorely lacking due to hospital bills and a low-paying part-time job at the Ballet. Then I thought, maybe after the new year. I'd make a lot of money working during Nutcracker (the busiest time at any ballet company) and could easily move after. But, around the beginning of October, I was offered a promotion to Secondary Box Office Manager which came with a pay raise as long as I remained with the Ballet until the season was over. Spring time?
It just seemed like everything in the world was trying to keep me in Colorado. Seemingly indefinitely. I even started thinking about staying at the Ballet for another while until my mom's lease is up in July. Conditions weren't perfect. I wanted to get more scripts finished, save a little more money, sell the Nova, visit L.A. once or twice, find a place, THEN move out. Well, nothing's ever going to be perfect. People would often ask me when I was leaving and my answer would invariably fall somewhere between "Beginning of May" and "Summer sometime." The real answer was, "I'm too afraid and probably won't ever." Then, as with most things, I got a little help from my friends.
My good friend Mike moved to L.A. in October. My good friend Joey moved to L.A. just a few weeks ago. My good friend Ryan moved a week or so after Joey. And let's not forget all the friends who'd already moved out there. Even friends not going to L.A. are already in or bound for somewhere else. At the Oscar party I attended two Sundays back, my good friend Kurt mentioned that he needed to go to L.A. for the acting showcase sometime in May and if I wanted, he would ride out with me and help me move, then he wouldn't have to buy two plane tickets. A good idea, but nothing definite. A good paycheck and decent tax refunds finally replenished my savings, so maybe this wouldn't be out of the question.
Which brings us to today. Joey and Ryan are both working as extras in The City of Angels. Last week, Joey was on "Two and a Half Men" and had a small conversation with Charlie Sheen and this morning Ryan told me he did a day on "My Name Is Earl" and had a pretty long talk with Jason Lee. Two good friends rubbing elbows with celebrities. And where was I? In the fucking ballet ticket office embossing vouchers by hand. That means I was pressing the CB logo onto every hundreds of sheets of paper by hand. If I wasn't already tired of my place in life, I surely was this morning. Then I received another text message. This one from the aforementioned Kurt Larson. "So I have to be in L.A. May 5th. Think that'll work?"
The decision to flee came suddenly. That was it. It was suddenly clear. I had a goal, I had a destination, now I had a date. At 12:20 PM, a half-eaten roast beef sandwich in my right fist and my cell phone in my left, I had a moment of clarity. This waiting around does nothing. I'm never going to be 100% prepared, so let me boil it down to the bare essentials. I need a job, I need a place to live, and I need a way to get there. Everything else will fall into place. May 1st, I will be on my way to being a Californian.
So, to you, Oh my brothers, I wish you well. I thank you all for being supportive of me and my dreams. If anyone has anything they want to say to me in person, I suggest doing it in the next two months. Let me just tell everyone out there who wants more out of life to do it. Just fucking do it. Don't wait for someone or something to hand you a ticket out. I'm scared to death of failing, but failing is a thousand times better than never trying. So, that's it. Look out, Hollywood. Kyle Anderson's coming. Everyone in Colorado, I love you all and know that I'm not leaving YOU. I'm just leaving.
Talk at ya later and keep circulating the tapes.
The decision to flee came suddenly. The notion had been in my head since I moved to Denver from Greeley nearly a year ago. At that time, I thought I'd be living with my mother through the summer and move in the fall. However my funds were sorely lacking due to hospital bills and a low-paying part-time job at the Ballet. Then I thought, maybe after the new year. I'd make a lot of money working during Nutcracker (the busiest time at any ballet company) and could easily move after. But, around the beginning of October, I was offered a promotion to Secondary Box Office Manager which came with a pay raise as long as I remained with the Ballet until the season was over. Spring time?
It just seemed like everything in the world was trying to keep me in Colorado. Seemingly indefinitely. I even started thinking about staying at the Ballet for another while until my mom's lease is up in July. Conditions weren't perfect. I wanted to get more scripts finished, save a little more money, sell the Nova, visit L.A. once or twice, find a place, THEN move out. Well, nothing's ever going to be perfect. People would often ask me when I was leaving and my answer would invariably fall somewhere between "Beginning of May" and "Summer sometime." The real answer was, "I'm too afraid and probably won't ever." Then, as with most things, I got a little help from my friends.
My good friend Mike moved to L.A. in October. My good friend Joey moved to L.A. just a few weeks ago. My good friend Ryan moved a week or so after Joey. And let's not forget all the friends who'd already moved out there. Even friends not going to L.A. are already in or bound for somewhere else. At the Oscar party I attended two Sundays back, my good friend Kurt mentioned that he needed to go to L.A. for the acting showcase sometime in May and if I wanted, he would ride out with me and help me move, then he wouldn't have to buy two plane tickets. A good idea, but nothing definite. A good paycheck and decent tax refunds finally replenished my savings, so maybe this wouldn't be out of the question.
Which brings us to today. Joey and Ryan are both working as extras in The City of Angels. Last week, Joey was on "Two and a Half Men" and had a small conversation with Charlie Sheen and this morning Ryan told me he did a day on "My Name Is Earl" and had a pretty long talk with Jason Lee. Two good friends rubbing elbows with celebrities. And where was I? In the fucking ballet ticket office embossing vouchers by hand. That means I was pressing the CB logo onto every hundreds of sheets of paper by hand. If I wasn't already tired of my place in life, I surely was this morning. Then I received another text message. This one from the aforementioned Kurt Larson. "So I have to be in L.A. May 5th. Think that'll work?"
The decision to flee came suddenly. That was it. It was suddenly clear. I had a goal, I had a destination, now I had a date. At 12:20 PM, a half-eaten roast beef sandwich in my right fist and my cell phone in my left, I had a moment of clarity. This waiting around does nothing. I'm never going to be 100% prepared, so let me boil it down to the bare essentials. I need a job, I need a place to live, and I need a way to get there. Everything else will fall into place. May 1st, I will be on my way to being a Californian.
So, to you, Oh my brothers, I wish you well. I thank you all for being supportive of me and my dreams. If anyone has anything they want to say to me in person, I suggest doing it in the next two months. Let me just tell everyone out there who wants more out of life to do it. Just fucking do it. Don't wait for someone or something to hand you a ticket out. I'm scared to death of failing, but failing is a thousand times better than never trying. So, that's it. Look out, Hollywood. Kyle Anderson's coming. Everyone in Colorado, I love you all and know that I'm not leaving YOU. I'm just leaving.
Talk at ya later and keep circulating the tapes.
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