La Femme's Top Five...In Defense Of

As a self proclaimed cinephile (read: movie snob), I am definitely aware of the canon of films that are acceptable to like and films that aren't.  You better like Citizen Kane and Breathless and you had better hate Crash, The Blind Side and Transformers with every fiber of your being.  Well, today in La Femme's top five, I am going to praise five movies that I think deserve some respect!

I'm as mad as hell that no one respects these movies!

There are three kinds of movies I am going to defend for this list.  I have two modern films that are unfairly maligned by the movie geek community, two that didn't get the attention they deserved when they came out, and one that has fallen into obscurity but is an absolute gem.

The Hated:

1. Shakespeare in Love (1998, John Madden):  Yes movie geeks, I know it beat Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture (maybe because it is a better movie.  Please read William Goldman's excellent and hilarious essay here on why Saving Private Ryan isn't as great as people think it is).  But I think it is important to judge a movie on its own merits and not the Oscars it did or didn't win.  First of all the script is by Tom mother*%@#ing Stoppard, one of the most respected living playwrights.  The art direction and costumes are divine.  All of the performances (ok maybe not Ben Affleck, what is he doing there?) are wonderful, especially Gwyneth Paltrow (I am a staunch Gwyneth defender.  Remember, that leave Britney alone guy?  Well that is me except with Gwyneth).  She is really the heart of the film, she gives a heartbreaking, human, beautiful performance.  The romance is totally believable and Joseph Fiennes is totally dreamy.  Plus, it's funny.  I mean maybe it is more funny to English majors and Shakespeare nerds, but still I find it utterly charming and delightful and perfectly constructed.

Rufus has to leave the room when this is on.
Too many quick cuts!

2. Moulin Rouge (2001, Baz Luhrmann):  My name is Julie and I love Moulin Rouge.  There, I said it!  I like it for all its unabashed pageantry, and although it may give my epileptic dog Rufus a seizure, I am no longer afraid to profess my love for this piece of fluff.  Baz Luhrmann is certainly a flashy director with his manic cuts and over the top style.  The use of modern pop songs in the soundtrack is clever and the performances of those same songs are the film's best moments.  I also find that there are moments of real emotion and they help infuse this traditional love story with an unexpected pathos.  For example, when Nicole Kidman's voice breaks at the end when singing to Ewan McGregor, it is a poignant and authentic moment.  Those are the kind of moments that keep me coming back to this kinetic, sometimes ridiculous film. Plus, I love a good musical and I think I may or may not have listened to the soundtrack so much, I wore out the CD.

The Ignored:

3. Me and Orson Welles (2008, Richard Linklater):  I am actually not a complete Richard Linklater lover despite my unending love for Before Sunrise / Before Sunset (again, see them!).  But this little gem that came out a few years ago deserves a lot more respect than it ever got.  Yes, it stars Zac Efron, but he  gives a surprisingly competent performance as a young man who lucks into a role in Orson Welles' Broadway production of Julius Cesar.  The real reason to watch the movie really isn't the script or the production design or the solid performances by Efron, Claire Danes and Ben Chaplin.  No, the reason to watch it is Orson, (or Uncle Orson as we call him in our house :)) or more specifically the performance of Christian McKay as Orson Welles.  Welles is a figure that has been portrayed onscreen many times and I imagine will be forever but McKay captures this ambitious, young, genius perfectly.  He is at once pompous, arrogant and stubborn but also caring, generous and loyal.  Every time McKay is in a scene you can't keep your eyes of off him.  He hasn't really been seen since, but, please, someone give this man a role!

4. Warrior (2011, Gavin O'Connor):  Warrior only came out last year and should have been a big hit.  Remember that movie The Fighter?  Well, Warrior is everything that movie wanted to be but wasn't.  This is a story about UFC fighting, which I admit is totally dumb.  But really, it is a universal and timeless story of a broken family, two brothers and their father, trying to make things right between them.  There are great performances by all three male leads (Nick Nolte, Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy (who deserves his own sentence!), but the movie also takes all the sports movie tropes and although it certainly follows a formula it infuses it with meaning and relevance.   Now, for Tom Hardy.  I actually think I would watch this man read the phone book.  He may be the most exciting actor out there right now, what I love about him is his utter commitment to each character and his willingness to transform before your eyes (and I don't mean just physically because he is terrifyingly muscular in this film).  I don't know if I can think of a more magnetic screen presence than him at the moment (see Bronson!).

The Forgotten:

5. Ball of Fire (1941, Howard Hawkes):  So, K and I like to do movie marathons (right now we are in the midst of a never-ending Spencer Tracey marathon) and last year we watched a bunch of Howard Hawkes movies.  I like to think of myself as a bit of a movie expert but the biggest surprise of our Hawkes marathon was Ball of Fire.  It stars one of the baddest bitches of all time, Barbara Stanwyck.  She is everything I want to be:  smart, funny, sexy and warm.  Like many of the screwball comedies of the era, the plot is a bit convoluted.  Gary Cooper is a scientist and Babs is a gangster's moll who ends up hiding out with his group of adorable but bumbling scientist friends (spoiler: they totally fall in love).  When people talk about Howard Hawkes I never hear this movie mentioned and I think that is a shame, it really is one of the most charming and funny screwball comedies I have ever seen.  I love old movies but I am the first to admit that old comedies can be completely un-funny.  Ball of Fire is one of the great and rare ones that stands the test of time.  It is relevant and funny and completely winning.  This is the kind of movie that people who say they don't like old movies would love.

I hope that at least one of these tickles your fancy.  As always they are all available on Netflix.

Julie