Write ups for my picks so far.
Before Sunrise (1995) Dir. Richard Licklater
Isn't everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?
-Celine
I will admit that my love for this series almost certainly exceeds their real cinematic value but I dont really care. Like your first love, they exist, perfect, and unspoiled in your mind.
There really is not much to the direction of this film, or its sequel which was my first pick in the 2000 draft, but this is not a film about direction; it's about character. Celine and Jessie feel like friends I have had my whole life. In some sick ways their relationship means as much to me as my own.
In some ways I am always hesitant to recommend them because I honestly think they cannot be loved, like I love them, unless they were experienced, like I experienced them. I saw Sunrise when I, like Jesse and Celine, was in my 20's and just learning about the world and relationships. I then saw Sunset when I, like Jessie and Celine, was in my 30's and knew much more about the world and little more about love.
Their life is my life.
The Big Lebowski (1998) dirs. The Coens
I guess that's the way the whole durned human comedy keeps perpetuatin' itself.
- The Stranger
It's hard to rank Coen films since they are all universally great (I like to pretend the Tom Hanks one does not exist), but in any ranking Lebowski would be very near the top. It's the funniest Coen film, yes funnier than
Raising Arizona!
Filmed with the odd-ball but oddly real characters the Coens are so good at creating and packed with questions about morality, politics, criminology, and society it is more than a comedy, for many it is a religion which has spawned dozens of annual Lebowski-fests since 2002.
It is rare among comedies, it can make you laugh the 20th time.
Exotica (1994) dir. Atom Egoyan
He comes in here every other night. He has his favorite drink, and his favourite table, with his favorite dancer. Sometimes he has to wait for her, and sometimes she's waiting for him, to protect him. She's his angel.
-Erin
Egoyan's other masterpiece was already chosen in this draft but I (like Dom) think this is his greatest film. It tells the interconnected story of several people all connect through a strip club. A man crippled by grief who finds solace with a stripper. A gay man who is desperate for for love. A man paralyzed by jealousy.
Egoyan created a film incredibly incisive about sexuality, jealousy, longing and grief. He would revisit the latter in the other film already drafted but with Exotica he creates a mood and longing that is rare in film and a brutally honest depiction of love and lust.