My Favorite Films

I thought about doing an actual “best films ever” list, but what’s the point anymore? The same list of “Godfather I & II”, “Citizen Kane”, “On the Waterfront”, “Schindler’s List”, etc., etc. gets real boring real quick. Besides, all this info is supposed to help you see what makes me tick, right?

I also found it near impossible to actually rank the best films against each other. So some great films will not be seen below, like “Fight Club”, “Donnie Darko”, “Jaws”, and so on and so on.

But here are my favorites, I hope you find an unknown gem or revisit an old favorite of yours after seeing this list of my favorite (and well made) films:

1. Good Will Hunting
2. Garden State
3. Leaving Las Vegas
4. My Life Without Me
5. Junebug
6. All the Real Girls
7. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
8. Open Hearts (Elsker Dig For Evigt)
9. Laurel Canyon
10. Dr. Zhivago

This list is constantly changing. The first four are about the only solid locks. I included “Dr. Zhivago” as a nod to films made before 1977. I think it’s an amazing film and just about the only film older than I am that I hope all wannabe film buffs have seen.

And upon personal inspection, I find an obvious theme to the films above … what can I say, I like depressing cinema. While there are some “happy” endings to some of them, I like to think each of the films actually end in tragedy. At the end of “Good Will Hunting”, Damon’s character is only headed to reunite with Minnie Driver. We don’t know it worked out. Same with “Garden State”, they have a four day relationship … how many of those last? And “Junebug” and “Laurel Canyon” have ambiguous endings, in the sense that you don’t know the happiness will last.

So I guess you could infer that I’m a big downer. One of the two real mysteries of life … the other being how Celine Dion is so damn popular.