#192: Big Fish

Big Fish (2003)
Directed by Tim Burton
Written by John August
Based on the book by Daniel Wallace
Starring Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Alison Lohman, Jessica Lange, Helena Bonham Carter, Danny DeVito, Steve Buscemi.



I should start by saying that yes I notice that only one movie on the list so far came out before 1980, and only three before 1990. There will be a greater diversity in aged films. Those like a fine wine. So do not fret elitists, Casablanca may follow!

Tim Burton is so inconsistent for me. Lately he has more misses than hits. A lot of people I know liked Sweeny Todd, but I was really let down. I thought Depp had one face and went with it. Somehow, Sacha Baron Cohen was the best part.

But I digress.

Big Fish was so far away from Burton's typical gothic atmosphere. It was bright, lavish and uplifting. As much as I like his partnership with Depp, it's nice to see Burton work with other people.

He proved that he could use fanciful imagery in a wild fantasy that wasn't cloaked in smoke and shadows. It was the most brilliant use of colour of every movie he's made.

I remember seeing it in the cinema when it finally came to Fredericton and just soaking it all in. It unfolds like one of Ed Bloom's tall tales, because that's what it is...only it's Bloom's whole tall tale of a life.

Big Fish works as a series of vignettes building to a whole. This is a film where not only are flashbacks well done, they are necessary to the story. It's about a son discovering the truth about his father, piece by piece. The audience has to figure it out along with him.

As the relationship develops, and Will Bloom (Crudup) fights the fantastical and eventually forgives his father for his faults, it's a touching but not overly pandering emotional climax. Big Fish may be about tall tales, but it's emotion is genuine.

Burton needs to do more...well not exactly like this but to break his norm once in a while proves he has more in him than the dark, brooding melodrama. This and Ed Wood do it proper.

#193: Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Written by Robert Rodat
Starring Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg, Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Jeremy Davies.

Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest American filmmakers of all time, no doubt about it. Every time he releases a stinker it still usually looks good and is put together in a professional manner. So when he releases one that is good, it sometimes feels great just from the sheer mastery he brings to a production.

Then he will make a great film almost superhuman. Saving Private Ryan is one of them, but certainly not the only one.

Think back to when you first saw the opening sequence. If your jaw wasn't on the floor then I question your expectations or what more you could have wanted. It's raw and gritty, more in your face than any scene of warfare ever shown in a film. Yes, some war movies did a better job of putting faces to the characters and showcasing theme but none of them have the adrenaline of Saving Private Ryan.

It's an adventure movie set in World War 2. Spielberg straps you in, gives you a moment or two to catch your breath while the soldiers pontificate about their lives back home and then it's back into the shit.

It's like a well written pop song. There are verses and choruses and it's very straightforward but because it has the hooks (in this case the entertainment value) it's a wonderful achievement.

It's also the first movie where I thought Matt Damon was anything more than a pretty boy. I liked Good Will Hunting fine enough, but as he's gone through his career he keeps proving to me that he is not a one-trick pony and this is where all that started.

This is the first Spielberg flick on the countdown, but I assure you it's not the last.

#194: Into the Wild

Into the Wild (2007)
Directed by Sean Penn
Screenplay by Sean Penn
Based on the book by Jon Krakauer
Starring Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn, Jena Malone, Hal Holbrook

Anyone with an inherent desire to leave home, to just get up and leave will love Into the Wild.

Despite the tragic circumstances to which the film is based, it represents hope and longing to belong to a different code than capitalist North America. It's about self discovery, understanding of the universe or at least the attempt. It's about freedom, and the fallout of achieving your dreams.

And it's beautiful to boot.

Everything works. The soundtrack by Eddie Vedder (of Pearl Jam), the performances and especially the cinematography. Penn did with this movie what Chris McCandless (Hirsch) would likely have wanted. He stripped it away from society went into the wild to understand where McCandless was coming from.

Into the Wild could not have been filmed on a soundstage. For it to be worth its salt, it needed to feel real. And the best way to accomplish that is to be real.


AAfter reading Krakauer's book, the film is still just as breathtaking as it was the first time I saw it, but the book was superior as is often the case. It's worth picking up for anyone who wants a great story or is thinking of going off the grid.

I was bumbling through Halifax when it was released. Without anything to do for a few hours I popped into the Spring Garden movie theatre to see what was playing. I walked in five minutes before it started and figured it was meant to be.

I was the only person in the theatre, I think it was a Saturday afternoon late in its run, and it felt even more intimate because I was in a cavernous theatre all by myself watching a very personal film.

It was a powerful two hours.

While I'm not the biggest fan of Penn as an actor (though Spicoli does rule) he really hit this out of the park.

#195: Punch-Drunk Love

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Written and Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzman.


I'm not the biggest fan of Adam Sandler. He's been in some funny movies but even Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison have lost some of their appeal as I've gotten older. Don't get me wrong, I'd take them over anything Andy Dick or Rob Schneider does any day but it just doesn't make me laugh any more.

So imagine how I felt when I first heard about his invovlement with Paul Thomas Anderson. The director of Boogie Nights and Magnolia teaming up with a guy who usually plays rage-filled man-children. In a sense he does so here as well but with Anderson at the helm it is less cartoonish, humbler and even beautiful.

This is a well shot film. The transitions and the simple music help create a different kind of love story and Sandler excels with the material. His showdown with the phone sex kingpin is the highlight of his performance. He goes all the way to Utah from Los Angeles in the same suit he's had on for days and telephone receiver in his hand to get out from under this guy's extortion racket.

It's a fun bit part for Philip Seymour Hoffman who is one of my favourite actors in Hollywood. He had been in every Paul Thomas Anderson movie until There Will Be Blood, hopefully he returns in the next project.

Emily Watson is so adorable in this. Her wide eyes, curious about the brother of her best friend. She helps him discover that he isn't the only one in the world with problems or screwed up thoughts. They complement one another and not in the conventional way.

It's a short and sweet romantic film with a sense of surreality floating over it. While Magnolia likely proved Anderson was a filmmaker with some resilience, Punch-Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood have shown he is not going to repeat himself.

#196: Caddyshack

Caddyshack (1980)
Directed by Harold Ramis
Written by Brian Doyle-Murray, Harold Ramis & Douglas Kenney
Starring Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, Michael O'Keefe, Bill Murray

"Rat farts!"

Caddyshack is one of those movies you see as a kid and while you laugh you're not quite sure why. Cue a few years down the road and it all makes sense.

Contrary to popular belief, Chevy Chase was actually funny once upon a time. This is the best film he was ever involved in, with Fletch being a close second. He had the deadpan delivery that very few can match and it was only one style present in a melting pot of comedy.

Rodney Dangerfield is thankfully not the center of attention save for his few scenes so he doesn't overstay his welcome. In fact when he's playing the foil to stuck up crumb bumb Judge Smalls, he is a riot. "Hey everybody! We're all gonna get laid!"

You get a before he was a huge star Bill Murray in one of his iconic roles as Carl Spackler, the stoned, half-retarded groundskeeper tracking down a troublesome gopher. His scene in his shack where he discusses life with Ty Webb (Chase) is gold.

Caddyshack makes golf interesting and I think it's the only movie to ever accomplish that. Sure, Tin Cup wasn't terrible but Costner has better sports-themed films.

Caddyshack is a fun time, and sometimes that's all that's needed for a movie to be good. Yes being deep and thoughtful has its place but if that was the only kind of movie someone loved then I imagine they'd be a pretty big asshole. Is it perfect? No. Is it groundbreaking? No. Is it hilarious? Every time I watch it.

#197: An American Werewolf in London

An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Directed by John Landis
Written by John Landis
Starring David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne


Horror is probably the trickiest genre to get right. It's usually panned by critics universally because they judge horror films on the same meter as the hoity toity classics and art films they masturbate furiously to.

Horror fans will forgive faults of a horror movie if it's at least entertaining, or fun in a "so bad it's good" kind of way.

An American Werewolf in London appealed to both sensibilities. It's well written, has a sharp story and great characters.

Notice a theme yet? Regardless of the genre, a film will not work if the characters are completely unsympathetic or portrayed in a way that they aren't relatable. Someone can be a total scumbag on screen, but if he or she is given depth and understanding it will come off much better.

The real star of London is the makeup. Before SFX went digital, makeup was king especially in horror films. As unrealistic as it looks from time to time, it beats the hell out of a CGI monster any day of the week.

The transformation sequences may look a little hokey at first, but it doesn't remove the human aspect, the terror David Kessler (Naughton) goes through when he discovers that "holy crap, I'm a werewolf".

Landis, who directed Animal House, sprinkles in humour to balance it out, but it's never awkward. Jack Goodman's ghost, the friend hiking through the Moors with Kessler, haunts him as he slowly decomposes in the afterlife.

Sprinkle a little love story and voila! A well rounded horror-comedy hybrid that will entertain critics and horror buffs alike.

Harmony is nice.

#198: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Directed by George Roy Hill
Written by William Goldman
Starring Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross

The buddy movie owes a lot to Butch and Sundance.

Maybe it's not the first of its kind, but it had a joy absent from most westerns, even with the inevitable finale. It's fun above all else. It's also an example of how to write a screenplay.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is one of the most well written movies ever made. The narrative is simple, direct and linear. It's exactly what it says it is, this isn't a David Lynch film. It's the perfect portrait of a couple of friends made for each other. One couldn't exist without the other.

I would even suggest that people who don't particularly like westerns should give this a shot. It's better than watching buddy crap like Nothing to Lose or Another 48 Hours. Hackneyed garbage like that can make you forget about the gold. Everything now is a fish out of water scenario with two wacky ass hats - complete opposites - are thrust into some unlikely series of events with a few "awww hell naw"s and "I'm getting too old for this shit"s. Take some lessons from the master, it can be simple and smart. Simplicity does not automatically correspond with Rob Schneider.

So what are you waiting for, go watch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and think of the great Paul Newman on his death bed.