It's time for the grand finale.
If you haven't read parts one and two, you'll want to do so now.
I mentioned in the first installment that this is a fairly malleable list. What is today number 8 could be 10 the next week, off the list entirely the week after that, and up to 5 the next.
These last three don't change. They haven't in quite some time. I love these movies like a walrus loves his mustache.
3. Casablanca (1942)
Just as Bride of Frankenstein epitomized the atmosphere of the early 20th century horror film, Casablanca does likewise for whatever genre you care to chuck it in. Everyone's dressed up and drinking Scotch and smoking. This is what (in the mind of someone who never actually saw it) this time period should look like.
To go with the atmosphere, you've got Humphrey Bogart at his best. He won an Oscar for The African Queen (which I couldn't even force myself to watch all of), but this film and The Maltese Falcon are where he excels.
Bogart was best when playing someone bitter, cynical, and miserable. In movies like Sabrina where he's relatively happy sometimes, he's mediocre.
Casablanca shares another similarity with Bride of Frankenstein in that it's not as cheesy as its contemporaries and can be watched by modern audiences with less of a forced shift in mindset. The overacting that plagued this era of film is mostly absent, the humor is pleasantly subtle or at least not heavy-handed, and the plot isn't laden with contrivances.
This film nears perfection and should be at or near the top of everyone's list. The only thing stopping it from being the best movie ever is, of course, the presence of two other greats such as...
2. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
If you haven't seen this movie, you've heard of it.
If you haven't heard of this movie, you've heard it quoted.
If you haven't heard it quoted, I'd love to know how you got Internet access in that cave in which you've been living for 50 years.
It's always bugged me how comedies have to stop, sit everyone down, and have a serious moment.
The guy and girl have to get in a fight and be sad.
Someone has to die.
The baseball team has to lose the big game.
There's always that one mopey, emotional blah moment in the middle that drags on and on while you leave the room to get more popcorn.
This movie doesn't have that.
It's the first movie I recall seeing that was absolutely hilarious from start to finish. The most serious part is the intermission (which, of course, isn't serious at all).
Due to its Britishness you may need to watch it a few times to catch all of the jokes but it is without a doubt the funniest movie ever. EVER.
Watching it for the first time is a life event. An experience. I quite literally could not believe what I was seeing. It's ridiculous. It's silly. It's absurd. It's insane.
Some people may not care for the British style of humour (with added 'u' for British effect), but there's enough slapstick and silliness that absolutely every human being on this earth should love--not like--love this movie.
If you've watched it twice (just to make sure you're getting it) and you still don't like it, follow these steps:
1) Obtain a half gallon of bleach and a half gallon of ammonia-based cleaning liquid.
2) Pour one into the other.
3) Drink the mixture.
4) Sit and die quietly because you're clearly awful and have nothing but misery to contribute to the world.
AND NOW... THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR...
1. Fight Club (1999)
Let's say you're standing on the sidewalk waiting for a bus or something when the most attractive woman or man (whatever you're into) you've ever seen hops out of a taxi, walks up to you, kisses you full on the lips, squeezes your bum, hops back into the cab, and speeds off.
You don't know what the hell just happened, but you know you liked it.
That's what it's like to watch Fight Club for the first time.
Seeing it a second time is like the girl coming back, informing you that she's a deaf-mute nymphomaniac who owns a liquor store, and asking if you'd like to come live with her in her mansion in Hawaii.
Where Monty Python is constant hilarity of the silly, goofy variety, Fight Club is black humor at its best.
Chuck Pahlaniuk (the author of the book on which the movie is based) is known for this sort of humor in his writing--the kind of humor where you don't know if it's hilarious or tragic. It's a bleak, depressing sort of humor that segues back and forth into seriousness, perfectly capturing the feeling of everything being so miserable that one can't help but laugh. This comes through perfectly in Edward Norton's deadpan narration and Brad Pitt's calmly nihilistic speeches.
Speaking of which, the casting in this movie was spot on. It is now impossible for me to see Pitt or Norton in anything else because they played their roles so perfectly. They're forever marked as Fight Club characters. Helena Bonham Carter's trademark gothy-disheveled look is a great match for the character of Marla as well.
There is one scene where two bit-part actors' parts are poorly played, but apart from that and my slight dissatisfaction with the ending, there isn't a minute of this movie I don't love.
The Dust Brothers' soundtrack is also (for lack of a better adjective) perfect, as is its use. The hyperactive techno music starts and stops abruptly, giving the movie a feeling of disjointed pacing that illustrates the narrator's disorientation and insomnia.
Many critics dismissed this as a testosterone trip fueled only by violence, but the fighting isn't even the important part. It's a movie about being fed up with following the herd and fitting the mold and living a life that's as cliche as those cliches I just used.
I get that this movie isn't for everyone. If you're easily shocked or offended--if you're really comfortable with your life--if you're OK with living exactly the way your parents planned out for you--if you can't stand the idea of people doing things that are socially unacceptable...
Maybe you won't like this film.
But then again, maybe those are all reasons that you really need to see it.
