Top 10 Movies

My love for movies really stems from my teenage years. I loved movies as a kid but it was when I was 15 that I truly began to  enjoy movies unlike anything I had experienced before. In 2002, I built my first computer with an internet connection and downloaded Kazaa, Limewire and many other P2P programs to download movies that I was not allowed to watch up to this point. I would stay up late and watch Pulp Fiction, Magnolia, Gangs of New York, Goodfellas, Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous, Donnie Darko and so many other cult classics that really shaped me into the movie lover I am today.

I’ve always know there have been three movies that changed my life instantly after watching them. Almost Famous, Fight Club and Garden State. Each of these three movies had a profound impact on me as a young person. I still love Fight Club and Garden State and they will always have a place in my heart, but Almost Famous has really stood the test of time in my mind. As you’ll see below this list is dominated by Cameron Crowe (writer/director) of Almost Famous and so many other amazing films.

I spent about 15 years being hyper critical of movies and dissecting every good/bad detail of a film. In some ways this was good but I would argue that in many ways it was not so good. It’s only been in the last year or two that I no longer analyze every detail, instead I ask myself the question “did I enjoy it?” This does not mean I avoid criticizing movies but I’ve dethroned my movie ego and am not ashamed to write down a top 10 movie list full of “flawed” movies. By this I mean that the movies below are not necessarily Academy Award Winners but they mean a lot to me.

All movie posters are rare alternatives cause that makes it cooler 😉

Desert Island Top 10 Movies.

1. Elizabethtown (Cameron Crowe)

“I say make time to dance alone with one hand waving free.”

I was 17 and I had just recently seen and become obsessed with all things Cameron Crowe. It started with Almost Famous, then Jerry Maguire, Say Anything, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Vanilla Sky. His way of blending music and movies was unlike anything I had ever seen. So I went to the theater with my sister Brittany to see the newly release Elizabethtown and if the universe ever paired a young hungry teen with a movie it was this night. I was in a searching place of life and this movie hit HOME like no other. Everything from the long phone conversations played out on screen (very common at my age at that time), the longing for adventure and the very birth of my love for Road Trips came out of this movie. The sense of family, feeling like an outsider and totally loved at the same time, quirks and all. This movie just slam dunks my soul into a riveting spiral of joy driven tears, future wisdom I knew I needed, rockstar cousins, rock show at a funeral (FREE BIRD JAM AND A BIRD PROP CATCHES FIRE!) I could write pages and page about my love for this film. I saw this 4 times in the theater and I’ve never seen any movie more than once in the theater except maybe one or two others. Bottom line, nothing makes my heart and soul scream Home like this movie. I feel like every moment, every script of dialog was taken out of my 17 year old brain and heart and poured out on screen. I would be buried with this movie if that was such a thing.
Side note: I have spent the last 13 years (as of the time of writing this blog) always on the hunt for all memorabilia and things related to E-town and I’ve never seen this poster until tonight. For 13 years I’ve had a wordpress avatar from this exact scene where Bloom’s character is told to “dance like no one’s watching” and I’ve always loved this 5 second clip within the movie. I thought I was the only one in the world who appreciated this particular cut away but who knew there was an alternative movie poster with this exact scene?! Seeking out a real print of this poster is now at the top of my memorabilia list.

2.  Jerry Maguire (Cameron Crowe)

“You want this jacket? Cause right now.. I’m cloaked in failure!”

As stated in my E-town review, Jerry Maguire was one of introductory films to Mr. Crowe. What struck my heart here was it started with success and immediate failure. Maybe I’m giving myself way too much credit but at 16 years old I felt like I was destined for greatness within the filmmaking world and had embarked on the creation of my own short film only to be met with a brick wall of failure. As a kid coming off his greatest failure at that stage of my life and then watching a movie about a person going from success to failure-back to success-mixed in with a love story… man it had all the things I wanted in a film for that moment in my life (and oh yeah kick ass soundtrack!) I longed for the intimacy Jerry doesn’t know he is missing until the end and yet I could also identify with the lack of knowledge when it came to the subject of intimacy. Today I watch this movie once a year and it’s become this euphoric blend of drama and comedy for me. I can now watch the movie and be serious and enjoy every nuance or I can watch with a smile and laugh at so many little moments “I am out here for you, it is an up at dawn pride swallowing siege I will never fully tell you about!” Man I cannot tell you how many times I’ve used that quote and so many other JM quotes in real life LOL.

3. Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe)

“What kind of beer?”

As a kid I was always pursuing music any way I could. I remember building legos at 8 years old and listening to the radio 10+ hours a day. I had somehow managed to steel/borrow my parent’s small tape player (with white paint drops all over it) to play music in my room. I would put a cassette in the tape player and hit record anytime a good song came on. I would then play these tapes back for hours and hours, day after day. I remember one Christmas my Nana and Grandpa got my brother and I a full on Boombox. I mean dang, this thing was a beast compared to what I had been using. So one night in 2004 we were at Morningstar church listening to this speaker talk about the impact of music and movies on our culture. He played clips from several movies and said Almost Famous gave us insight into how powerful music was. I went home and immediately downloaded this movie to see what it was about. See, I grew up in a neighborhood with a ton of kids and we played sports all the time. It was great but music was seldom the topic of choice and yet it was this passion of mine begging for the opportunity to peck its little head out. As silly as it sounds, I had no idea that there was this entire subculture of people who loved music just as much as I did. I watched Almost Famous and I remember the thought crossing my mind “you mean there is more people out there like me that love music as much as I do?!” It was a revolutionary thought and Crowe was the first person to introduce me to this subculture. So then you mix in excellent writing, compelling story and great music and you have yourself a Ben-Hendrix-Beloved masterpiece. Thus began my 10 year classic rock obsession (and still going today but it was insanely strong then)… and the rest they say, is history.

4. Breakfast Club (John Hughes)

“So it’s sorta social, demented and sad, but social. Right?”

One of my favorite humans on planet earth is Bill Vanderbush. At 16 years old I hated everything to do with church and he was a Pastor. He could probably sense how much I hated church and was very kind to me nevertheless. To my surprise, he never once confronted my anger or glowing teen angst. He became one of my friends through our shared passion of film. Bill would invite me to hang with him on occasion and talk about films and once we shot a wedding film together (he had a side business at the time). So one night he picked me up to hang out and I had just finished my first script for my short film entitled Just Like That. I’ll never forget I was sitting in the backseat of his car while he and his wife sat up front. I had emailed him my script a few days before and I asked him eagerly “hey what did you think of my script?” he very kindly responded “It made me think of Breakfast Club” and I had no idea what he was talking about! He then told me about how he watched that movie over and over the day he got it on VHS and it was a movie that shook him generously as a teen. So whenever your idol tells you something shook him, you immediately rush out to see if it’ll shake you too. And it did. I watched the film within a matter of days and I knew immediately how important this film was to teenagers just like me. It was hilarious, weird, fun, sad, original and just down right raw. This is another one of those movies where I probably know every single line and love to watch this film any day, any night.. alone or with a group of people. No matter the environment, I can find myself at ease watching this cult classic. ”

5. Into The Wild (Sean Penn)

“Society, society!!”

In 2007 I had just returned home from my grandest adventure, living in New Zealand. I was really searching for truth at the time and my heart longed for another adventure. I remember watching the trailer for this movie and building really high hopes for what it might be. The night the movie was released I sat alone in a movie theater thinking/praying “please, be everything I want you to be.” When the credits rolled my eyes were filled with nearby tears and I remember thinking “wow, that was everything and more. That filled my spirit more than I asked for.” I drove home driving my brother’s topless jeep as it rained down. I was blasting music on his crackled speakers and laughing with pure joy as I drove away from the theater. I probably looked like a crazy person but it was a magical night. One of the parting gifts I received from the movie was the adoration for poetry. At this point in my life poetry was a high school homework assignment I pushed off, not an art form to be pursued. Let us not forget the incredible and perfect soundtrack written by Eddie Vedder on a ukulele.

6. Princess Bride (Rob Reiner)

“I am not the Dread Pirate Roberts’ he said. ‘My name is Ryan…”

This movie defined movie nights in our house in the 90’s. We owned very few movies on VHS but this was my Dad’s favorite movie and consequently, one of the family’s favorites. There were so many jokes as a kid that went right over my head and watching it 20 years later in my twenty’s I started to understand more of the humor. This is one of the films I grew up with and my heart has grown to love the film more and more as time goes on. It’s funny how when you’re a kid you can know you like something but not fully understand it. Then as time goes on and you grow up, you start to understand why you loved that thing and then love it more. Watching this movie ignites my imagination, romantic heart and youthful spirit for adventure.

 

7. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino)

“Would you give a guy a foot massage?”

I’ll never forget the first time I watched Pulp Fiction I think I was in so much shock that I had a hard time appreciating the movie when it was over. I knew there was something amazing in front of my eyes but I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it until the second viewing. Quentin Tarantino rocked my understanding of movies. His dialog writing is possibly the best of all time and the man knows how to write some of the best characters in film history. To me, this is one of the most fun movies to watch because of the humor, pointless and intriguing banter, story line and just awesome acting. Who WOULDN’T want this as one of their desert island films? Its re-watchable for a lifetime!

 

8. Vanilla Sky (Cameron Crowe)

“Look at us, I’m frozen and you’re dead.. And I love you. I will see you again in another life when we are both cats.”

Back to good ole Cameron Crowe for my 8th pick in my favorite list of films. This was the first film I cried in and I still cry nearly every time I watch this film. At the time of my first viewing I was heart broken over a girl and felt like I had lost her by pursuing other things that didn’t matter in life. I guess that is still one of my fears, that I’ll miss out on what is real and important chasing entertainment or ridiculous things that hold no long term value. This film can be highly critiqued or praised depending on who you’re talking to, but at the end of the day this film is more about the human heart than trying to be a trippy story if ask you me. I think Crowe does a great job placing you inside Tom Cruise’s head and makes you feel successful, makes you feel the ego, makes you feel the love (oh man, he creates such a great scene when Tom and Penelope’s character’s fall in love, who wouldn’t want a love story to start with a night like that?!). He then takes you through the emotion of trying to break it off with the ex-casual lover (Diaz) and how his careless choices come back to haunt him when it really matters. There are so many angles, characters, pop-culture salutes drenched with a high dose of nostalgia that this film just sweeps me into another universe without fail on every viewing. Oh yeah and let’s not forget the life altering soundtrack. I ADORED this soundtrack at 17 years old and listened to it on repeat for many years (still play it often now!). This is the soundtrack that introduced me to Sun Kil Moon, Sigur Rose, Josh Rouse, Radiohead, JEFF BUCKLEY, Chemical Brothers and Red House Painters…. I MEAN GEEZE MAN. These are all artists that have become go-to favorites on any day that ends with a Y and it’s all thanks to this film. Side note, I actively searched for 5 years before grabbing this beautiful soundtrack on vinyl and it was the best $115 I’ve ever spent on a record.

 

9. Hook (Steven Spielburg)

“Daddy, let’s go home, please? He’s just a mean old man without a mommy.”

This movie might be the only movie that I can say defines both my childhood and my adulthood simultaneously and seamlessly. I’ll try to explain. Watching this movie growing up it was always one of my favorites, it provoked imagination, food fights, flying (my favorite wish-I-had-superpower), adventure of leaving home, longing for home, father-son troubled-then-redeemed relationship and of course, just the great story that Peter Pan is. Watching this movie in my late teens it really began to take on all new meaning as I realized I was starting to trade in my childlike innocence for adult-like qualities in business and relationships. It instilled a deep longing for keeping a young spirit and never allowing myself to grow into the un-relatable adult I fear of becoming. I also spent about 12 distinct years from 15-27 feeling very disconnected from my own father. My father longs for deep relationships with all of his kids and I felt that tug for many years but was unable to respond even though I wanted it as well. I think there was a deep level of shame I felt towards myself and the way I treated him through my teen angst stage. When I would watch this movie and Jack would choose Captain Hook over his father (Peter Pan) it would break me every time, still does. I also think there is something divine about how Peter must find joy in is mind to excel in the physical world (i.e. happy thought = flying). This is so true in relationships and just life in general. For the most part, people forget that they can choose to be happy and it’s conscious mental choices that propel a domino effect into the physical world. Call me crazy, but I believe all things are connected and our minds a much more powerful than science could ever give us credit for. Long story short, this movie fuels my pursuit of a childlike joy and a constant reminder not to take life too seriously. Let’s have fun, family is the most important and after all, we’re only here for a short time.

 

10. Back To the Future (I and III) (Robert Zemeckis)

“He’s an idiot. Comes from upbringing. Parents are probably idiots too. Lorraine, if you ever have a kid who acts that way I’ll disown you.”

As a young kid this movie defined the word Cool. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be Marty McFly?! If there was ever a movie on this Top 10 list that didn’t need explaining, it would be this film. It was a staple in my childhood movie nights with the family. We would all laugh, cheer and watch in awe several times a year. My dad forbid us watching number 2 (because of language) and after watching number 2 years later, I consented that number 2 just wasn’t as good as the others (though not because of language). Number 3 had a special place in my Dad’s heart as his childhood dream was to become a cowboy like his Grandfather. I too share the love for this idea but not on the level that he carries it.

 

 

11. Rocketman (1997, Stuart Gillard) (Bonus Pick #11)

“It’s just coming out of the oven, Bill”

Bonus film #11! Making this list I thought “how can I possibly leave out one of the most quoted movies in our household?!” I am quite sure that this film has not aged well outside of those who saw it back in 1997 but who cares, its one of my favorites. I remember going to see this in the movie theater as a 9 year old with my friend Ben Hatch and I laughed incredibly hard the entire time. A few months later my family was browsing through Blockbuster and I was beggggging my dad to let us rent and watch this movie for our movie night. He looked at the VHS cover and I could tell he was NOT impressed or enthused. Being a great Dad he reluctantly said yes, and rented the film. We all squeezed onto our oversized green movie pillows and gathered around the small 20″ TV in my brother and I’s bedroom. My dad had my brother and I under each arm and my sisters were closer nearby as well. Watching my family laugh (especially my Dad) at the film that I had selected that night was incredibly rewarding to a 9 year old kid. I mean, how many times do we swear something is funny and then you finally get everyone’s attention and its not funny?! All too often, but this was not that kind of night. The entire family laughed the entire way through the film and it became one of the family favorites instantly. I’ll never forget asking my dad a few months later what movie he thought was the funniest of all time and he replied “I used to think it was Back To the Future but now I think its Rocketman!” I mean, wow, what a compliment to a 9 year old. I showed my dad the funniest film he had ever seen, that was a huge compliment to me as a kid. To this day, my brother, Stevie and Ryan still quote this film on a very regular level. There is something special about finding a film that has zero commercial, cult or otherwise success but it means something to you and a few tight knit friends. If you’re lucky enough to have one of these types of films in your friend circle, considered yourself blessed.

Notable Mentions:

1. Finding Neverland (Marc Forster)
2. Toy Story (I and III) (John Lasseter)
3. Pirate Radio (Richard Curtis)
4. Pirates of the Caribbean I and II) (Gore Verbinski)
5. Eternal Sunshine Of a Spotless Mind (Michael Gondry)
6. Warrior (Gavin O’Conner)
7. Mystery Men (Kinka Usher)
8. Truman Show (Peter Weir)
9. We Bought A Zoo (Cameron Crowe)
10. Baby Driver (Edgar Wright)