My Favorite Movies

This is inarguably the best of Barbara Stanwyck's films, and it's role reversal at its best, with Stanwyck being dominant and Fonda being shy and passive (which is the way it really should be). The best scene in this film? The one with Barbara teasing Fonda, fondling with his ear and hair and with her face so close to his, and Fonda feeling almost orgasmic, tee-hee. This is also the film that made me realize how charming and cute Henry Fonda was.

Young Jennifer Connelly is charming and lovable as an outcast with amazing powers over insects. My most favorite scene is the one where she says "I love to you; I love you all" to her insects as she shows her powers to her classmates and the teachers who thinks she's insane and won't seem to believe her. I don't care if the film has a lot of flaws; this is probably my most favorite Dario Argento film. Inga the kickass monkey gets her revenge in the end too.

Oh, what a wonderful world this would be if musicals were being made all over the world and were more accessible to average moviegoers. Tsai Ming-Liang depicts loneliness with humane characters, a grim setting and a little bit of humor into it. The ending where the heroine's upstairs neighbor finally reaches out and gives a helping hand out to her, carrying her to his unit is one of the most heartfelt moments in cinema, without the director trying so hard to make it sentimental or sappy.

Isn't it everyone's fantasy to have a menage-a-trois with gorgeous Gary Cooper and sexy Fredric March? I know it's mine. Of course, their relationship isn't really about the sex but more about them doing well and being successful in their own careers. But you can't deny that this pre-Code film is a sophisticated and sexy comedy film with some double entendres. And in the end, they go back to living their non-conventional lifestyle. This is truly the only Ernst Lubitsch film that has actually gotten the Lubitsch touch.

This reminds me a lot of the film Freaks, possibly because of its empathies and sensibilities towards outcasts. Too bad, Forough Farrokhzad hasn't directed more films as they probably would have been as amazing and moving as this one. The highlight of the film is when the teacher asks one of the children suffering from leprosy to mention some ugly things in life, and the child says "Hand, foot, head", making the other children laugh. It's a grim and depressing look at reality and a film essential to Iranian cinema, heck, even to cinema in general.

After watching this, I have become more critical of B-movies, monster movies and sci-fi movies and I don't think any other of them can surpass the greatness that this film has. I'd like to believe that Howard Hawks had a major contribution to this movie since the lead heroine seems to be the typical Hawksian woman and the dialogue is quite witty enough. And I don't believe that watching John Carpenter's remake of this will make me think less of this movie.

What? This wasn't released in 2007; it was released in 1976. I demand someone to correct it right now as I don't know how to. I think I have a bizaare affection for revenge films, and revenge is even better when mixed with melodrama and set in the slums of the Philippines. Revenge hasn't tasted this so sweet especially you ruin your mother's life and kill her manipulative and gold-digging boyfriend at the same time. Lino Brocka, look at what has happened to the Philippine film industry today; it's mostly loads of Hollywood-like crap. Help us.

The best word to describe this film: badass. John Carpenter calls it a modern version of Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo, and both films are brilliant in their own ways. The music theme is just fucking awesome, all of the main characters, at least the ones who survive in the end, kick ass, and there's nothing more interesting than a bunch of people trapped and isolated in a desolated place and being targeted by convicts who don't care if they die or not as long. Carpenter is now one of my most favorite Hollywood directors.

For me, this is Hayao Miyazaki's most endearing film as well as his most magical film even though it has less fantasy elements than his other works. A young witch-in-training determined to be independent and better in witchcraft? A talking cat who finds his soulmate and suddenly leaves his master? A nerdy boy fascinated with flying and amazed by Kiki's flying abilities? Just plain adorable. One of the most depressing moments in cinema is when Kiki finds out that she has lost her ability to fly.

None of you all can appreciate a great B-movie when you see one. This is definitely my most favorite among the Val Lewton-produced films with a stronger heroine, a more pleasant ending and less pretensions. It's a little bit outdated because mental hospitals' conditions aren't as worse as this anymore but I don't care because this is melodrama at its finest and Boris Karloff at his meanest and vilest. Look out for the most satisfying and most unapologetic ending ever where the mental patients have their revenge.

This is possibly the only Gene Tierney film that I actually love. Rex Harrison as a grumpy yet likeable pirate ghost is charming, and despite the farfetched plot of a woman falling in love with a ghost, this film will capture the hearts of almost everyone. The ending where Gene Tierney's character is reunited with the pirate at her timely death brought me to tears. Too bad, Rex Harrison is such a pompous ass in My Fair Lady.

I think it's only available in VHS, and I am really glad that I got to watch this. It's more revolutionary and more rebellious than Paris Is Burning; it is a poetic and insightful semi-documentary about how it is to be gay and black. Sure, I can somehow relate to what they go through because I am also gay and belong to a visible minority. We as gay non-white men have not much images of ourselves in the media, movies, literature, etc. It's mostly representations of gay white men. My most favorite scene is when the gay black men give us lessons in the different ways to snap our fingers. Oh snap, girlfriend.

It's pure cheesy camp; I love it. Sure, it has a lot of annoying cliches: the weak hero who becomes stronger and saves the world by the end of the movie, the wimpy sidekick, the sacrificial woman, etc. but you can't deny the entertainment value of this film. From a war among different groups, the setting suddenly is shifted to another world and the story suddenly turns to saving the whole universe. Silly, but still fun to watch. Tsui Hark creates a whole different world of his own.

Buster Keaton is dreamy. It's amazing to see comedy acts that have been done frequently by other comedians over the past being done for the very first time in early films like the swimming pool scene where the guy loses his underwear. This film has one of my most favorite endings ever: the monkey saving the footage of the war and filming the rescue and the other man's cowardice and failure to save the woman, and Buster Keaton getting a big reception from the crowd, or so he thinks. It's just so plain hilarious and heartwarming at the same time that I almost cried.

Personally, I hate sports more than anything and watching sports live or in TV is excruciating for me but I can't help but understand these young women's plight. These women are passionate towards sports, more than anything else, and why should being able to watch men's sports games be forbidden to them? And the young men in the film can't seem to answer them when they ask why they're not allowed to watch, using excuses and petty reasons. This is definitely Jafar Panahi's most heartwarming and most universal work.

If your middle school days were the worst days of your life, this is the movie for you; finally there's a film that depicts middle school as comically/painfully realistic as it is. I would be so angry and hot-tempered if I had such a spoiled manipulative little sister who pretends to be so nice yet is really a little devil in disguise. Maybe, I treasure this film so much because I could really relate to the heroine and I did have very sad and isolating days during middle school.

The best of Bruce LaBruce's films, this is everything that revolutionary films, as well as queer films, tried so hard to be: rebellious, disruptive and against the norms of society. Anything really non-conformist and revolutionary is a fave of mine. And it doesn't hurt that the cast consists of gay porn actors and all of them are hotties. Never mind the amateur acting which is to expected from porn actors; this is the closest to revolution that this century will ever have.

This is the film that introduced me to the potential greatness of Indian arthouse cinema; I must watch more. It is a commentary on how some great poets get all the acclaim, glory and recognition only when they're dead, how people worship the dead. And boy, those brothers of the hero are sure greedy and selfish jackasses. And you can never deny the goodness of the musical numbers in this film.

Many seem to consider Max Ophuls a man with feminist sensibilities but I can't really see that in his other works even in The Earrings of Madame de or Lola Montes so I can say that The Reckless Moment is the closest Max Ophuls got to being feminist at all. A houswife whose husband is always away and never there to depend on deals with this problem on her own, trying her best to protect her daughter, and soon finds herself having some feelings for the one who blackmails her. It's Hollywood romanticized film noir at its best.

Brad Davis, you're so dreamy. This is Fassbinder's most watchable film for me, possibly because of all its homoeroticism, sexually repressed gay men, the hot actors playing sailors with well-built bodies oozing with sweat, and it being a unique tale of murder, lust and amorality. And the set is just so artificially and beautifully gloomy and desolate. I must now get my hands on a copy of the novel Querelle.

This campy, melodramatic and stylish western film is one of the few movies that I have kept close to my heart. Joan Crawford in drag, two strong women as the dominant authority figures in town, feminist themes (even before the women's movement), Technicolor at its most colorful, and campy fun are only half of the reasons why I love this film so much. Too bad, there's no any other western film similar to this rare gem.

What happens when Claire Denis directs a film about granny killers? No, she doesn't sensationalize the story, putting in thrills, twist endings and blood and gore. She makes it to a more realistic, more compassionate story, and she starts it with an unrelated scene where some men in a helicopter keep laughing for no apparent reason. The granny killer is not psychotic; he just needs the money in order to live properly in Paris and still leads an ordinary life. And when an immigrant finds out about it, she isn't shocked and just follows him at one point where they say no words directly to each other.

Definitely my most favorite of her short films, it's a beautiful and eye-pleasing film with magical scenes such as the one where the heroine seems to be flying while they're dancing; there's really no need analyzing Maya Deren's films. Maybe I like this more than At Land and Meshes of the Afternoon because it's less surreal and more focused on what Maya Deren is really passionate about: dancing.

An inspiration to most aspiring ballet dancers, this is also a favorite of people who don't even like ballet. Of course, only Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger could make a film about ballet seem wonderful and terribly exciting. At first, I wasn't pleased with the ending but after thinking about it, it made much more sense since our lovely heroine didn't want to choose only one of her two passions: dancing and her loved one. The ending has almost brought me to tears.

Being an out-of-this-world and almost indescribable experience, this is more or less the film that showed me that there is much more to what movies have to offer and begun my obsession in all kinds of movies. Most of the nostalgic scenes just make me cry, especially that Row row row your boat scene. Ugh, too bad Kaufman's latest creation is a pile of crap compared to this one.

It's about three women of three different generations living in a matriarchal and liberal community where everyone seems to live peacefully and equally, everyone is close to one another, a lesbian relationship is treated normally, and where outcasts have a home. Now that's what I call a great idea of utopia, and it's feminist fun. This is how I always imagined an exceptional feminist film: sensible, compassionate, and just inexplicably beautiful. I just love it. Uh, I need to watch A Question of Silence so badly.

Nope, despite what it seems like, it's not your typical gay romance film. It doesn't try so hard to be overly sentimental or overly preachy about it but it's still a in-your-face kind of thing. It also doesn't try so much to comfort both its homosexual and heterosexual audience, with its graphic sex scenes (i.e. Frank Ripploh's sex partner drinking his piss) and its depiction of its protagonist who is very unfaithful and promiscuous. It also depicts the gay lifestyle in a more realistic way.