A few of my favorite.... um... films.

For those of you who don’t know, I am what the media would call a cinephile. Get your minds out of the gutter… it means I love movies. Dirty. I can tell you an actors name and at least five movies he has been in. In fact one of my favorite things to do to pass the time is play six degree’s of separation.

I’m good too… I can go from Sir Lawrence Oliver (greatest actor in history) to Haley Joel Osment (the kid from the Sixth Sense) using only two other actors. Oliver was in “Clash of the Titans” as Zeus with Maggie Smith as Hera. Maggie Smith was in both the “Sister Act” movies with Whoopie Goldberg (also known as Caren Johnson… seriously, that’s her birth name). Whoopie was in a movie called “Bogus” with Haley Joel Osment and Gerard Depardieu. See, told you I was good… They used to try to stump me in the navy, but never did.

So I have compiled a list of movies here that I would recommend to pretty much everyone. I like to think during my movies, so if you are a blow-em-up, shoot-em-dead movie lover, this probably won’t be the list for you… Dad!!

My Top 10:

1. “All About My Mother”: This movie is from acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar. While I would recommend all of his movies because he makes his actors real living people, this movie takes the cake in story line, plot, acting and script. Trust me when I say that you will never find more realistic characters than the ones in this movie. Not to mention that it won best foreign film in 2000. And by the way... that girl in the beige dress is Penelope Cruz and needless to say she absolutely can act in her own language.

2. “Contact”: This movie is long and arduous and really requires that you follow every plot point. The acting is supurb even from Matthew McConaughey. It was written by Carl Sagan who is no doubt one of the smartest rocket scientists of the last century. The plot is fantastical and completely out of this world, aliens send us a message with instructions to build a space travel machine, while still remaining truthful to the human race. With the politics and betrayal in this movie it makes it all the more realistic when I could easily see our current administration pulling some of the cover up tactics detailed in this movie.

A lot of people didn’t like the ending with the father… and I understand them, but I think you should look at the overall movie and the need to make the alien familiar and it makes sense. While watching this movie you begin to feed on the panic and tension and want to know who is out there, as does everyone on the planet. People can be disappointed if you don’t give them what they want, and what they don’t give you in this movie is an easy answer.

3. “Muriel’s Wedding”: This Australian import made me feel so good that I saw it seven times… in the theater. It was one of those movies that I had to take everyone I know to. I don’t know if it was because I saw so much of myself in Muriel or because it was such an outstanding movie. This is the first time I met two of the best actresses alive today: Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths. Toni went on to be nominated for an Oscar for playing the Jersey mother in “The Sixth Sense” and Rachel went on to star in two very successful tv shows: “Six Feet Under” and “Brothers and Sisters”. It is one of those coming to terms with the life you built yourself and changing it movies. You will laugh through tears.

4. “October Sky”: This was the first time I saw Jake Gyllenhaal. Yeah, ok… total hottie. I didn’t choose this movie, my mom did. I just went along because it had a hot guy on the poster. It is the true story of four boys from a coal mining town in West Virginia in the fifties that single handedly invented a rocket part that got the American Space program off the ground. If you ever get depressed about the state of our world today, I recommend you watch this movie. It is a testament to the everyman and what you can do with support. All in all this and the next movie are on my list because they make me feel good about the human condition. They give the one greatest thing a movie can give you: hope.

5. “Gattaca”: This movie, much like “October Sky” is a movie about the human condition. While October Sky shows us where we have been this movie serves more as a warning for where we will end up if we aren’t more careful. This movie takes place in the not so distant future. It still looks much like the Earth we know today, they have advanced space travel to include manned missions to other planets and they have mapped the entire human genome. Which leads to a question that no human has yet been able to answer properly: If we have the technology and know how to do a thing, does that mean we should do that thing?

The thing in this movie is alter human DNA to make sure that people don’t get diseases, fix bad eyes, know the date, time and cause of your death the moment you are born. It creates a new lower class of people, those with perfect DNA and those who were born “out of love” ( the love children become the new poor class). But human kindness and hope do show their heads before the end of the movie, I promise.

6. “Talk to Her”: Almodovar’s follow up to All About My Mother broke two Oscar records. Almodovar was nominated for Best Director without his movie being nominated for best picture, and for the first time in history a foreign language film won the award for best original screenplay. This is the story of two men that form a friendship while their respective ladies are in a coma together in the same hospital. Some of the things that these men go through and some of the things they put each other through defy description. You probably won’t cry in this movie, but if you are not moved or filled with some emotion at the end of it, I would be greatly surprised.

7. “Hero”: The Jet Li movie, not the Dustin Hoffman/Geena Davis movie. While that one is very good and entertaining the Jet Li movie is remarkable in a couple other ways. First it is by far the most stunningly beautiful movie I have ever seen. At points it transcends martial arts and borders on ballet. The choreography is amazing and the cinematography holds some of the most beautiful images I have ever seen. The way the director uses color to tell the story is also quite unique. The same story is told three times, the first time is a lie and everyone in the flashbacks is wearing red. The second time it is a supposition and everyone is wearing greens and blues. The final time is the truth of the story and everyone is wearing white.

But I have one rule for watching this movie. It is a very important rule. Do NOT rent the American version. That is the version you will find in Blockbuster. Find the original Chinese version, the studio that released it stateside changed the translations and almost ruined the movie. You will know you have the good version if all of the characters at one point say “How Swift Thy Sword”. If you can only find the bad version let me know, I will tell you what the most important line of the movie is. They changed it to the opposite of what it really means in the American version.

8. “V for Vendetta”: This movie surprised the hell out of me. I went into it expecting just your run of the mill comic book movie. I didn’t expect it to hit me so hard. It wasn’t just that out of nowhere there was a small gay storyline that spoke volumes, but it was how real it all seemed. How close to that the world we live in has become. It took bits of actual history and meshed it beautifully into a statement movie. Hitler is there burning down his own building so that they can declare not war, but martial law. Bush is there controlling what we need to know. There is the church telling us not only what to believe, but whom to believe and who to condemn. Cheney is there pulling all the strings. It is at once terrifying and completely unsurprising. And then there is the idea of a man that is all of us, that brings them all to justice.

9. “Reefer Madness”: No, I’m not talking about the 1936 shockumentary here. I am talking about the 2005 movie musical made by Showtime. The cast is outstanding, Alan Cumming, Christian and Neve Campbell, Steven Weber, SNL’s Ana Gasteyer and Veronica Mars herself Kristen Bell. It is a parody not only of the original film, but of the things that followed it in real life, McCarthyism, fundamentalism, racism and various other ethical pathologies. The film does not promote marijuana use, but does play up the absurdity of the arguments that make it appear to be more harmful than, for example, cigarettes, alcohol, heroin. The songs are painfully funny with titles like: Romeo & Juliet, The Stuff, Jimmy Takes a Hit, Lonely Pew, Listen to Jesus Jimmy, The Brownie Song, Little Mary Sunshine, and Tell ‘em the Truth. If you have a free night and need to laugh… rent this.

10. “Yankee Doodle Dandy”: This movie is about my hero. A man that is all but forgotten in today’s entertainment industry. It is about the life of the renowned musical composer, playwright, actor, dancer and singer George M. Cohan. He remains the only actor in history to receive the Congressional Gold Medal for singing and dancing. To this day a statue of him can still be found in Times Square, in fact the only statue of any actor in all of New York. This movie won James Cagney his only Oscar.

It is one scene that never leaves my mind from this movie. I see it every time I walk down a flight of stairs. Near the end of the movie, Cagney is leaving the white house after receiving his award from Roosevelt; he comes to the top of the stairs and starts walking down. Somewhere around halfway down he starts doing this little tap dance. His feet are like butterflies, barely skimming each stair as he descends, somehow tapping his feet somewhere in the vicinity of eight times on each stair. In the making of documentary we learn that this amazing moment was completely improvised by Cagney. It is one of the most amazing pieces of footwork I have ever seen. And some of the other most impressive dances are also in this movie.

10 Movies that didn’t make the cut…Barely:
Last of the Mohicans
Blood in Blood out
Children of Men
Courage Under Fire
Shaun of the Dead
Kung Fu Hustle
Sleepers
Love Actually
Dirty Love
In the Name of the Father

3 Movies every gay man should watch:
And the band played on
Longtime Companion
Beautiful Thing

3 Movies that consistently make me cry:
Running on Empty
Without a Trace
The Color Purple

3 Movies that gave me nightmares:
Legend
It
Grizzly Man

3 Movie Classics everyone should watch:
Captains Courageous
East of Eden
Citizen Cane