David Fincher was surely shot into prominence right out the gun with his feature directorial debut as the third installment in the ultra successful Alien franchise. Three years later he sealed his fate in the directors hall of fame by not only sidestepping the sophomore slump, but progressing leaps and bounds to experienced veteran status. Fifteen years later, Seven is still pointed to as one of the go-to gritty neo-noir stories for anyone interested in the crime genre.
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Tags: 1001 Movie Club, Crime, Dark, Detectives, Drama, Mystery, Neo Noir, Serial Killer, Suspense, Thriller, Violent
Articles | this guy over here March 4, 2010 | 
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Horror films, at their best, can present very effective mirrors to some of society’s biggest problems. Through the history of the genre, film after film has presented an outlet for anger, sadness, or even parody of pointless wars, consumerism, greed, and a slew of other attributes. In a way, horror films make the perfect allegory in presenting challenging ideas in an entertaining way. Some are schlocky fun, others have transcended into a beautiful art form.
Compiled here are This Guy’s picks for the top ten horror films of the 2000s (2000-2009.) The list is based upon theatrical distribution as well as loyalty to the genre, (as there are many films that might be considered horror, though they fit more applicably into another category, i.e. Shaun of the Dead.) *Note: this list is subject to change and if it does it shall promptly be reposted with the appropriate information.
#10. The Mist is Frank Darabont’s venture into B-movie fun proves itself as an entertaining and often jolting film. While the whole film doesn’t work, what does work is such a delight. A couple of great performances and numerous religious/anti-religious themes elevate this from schlock to lock stock and two smoking barrels… or at least just the smoke… okay okay, ‘mist.’ It’s part sci-fi, part horror, and part human psychology experiment. If nothing else, this film shows that in the right hands Stephen King’s work can still deliver theater worthy experiences and shouldn’t be entirely banished to the small screen.
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Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley
Director: Martin Scorsese
Country: USA
Genre: Thriller-ish.
At Shutter Island nothing is as it seems.
In his fourth collaboration with DiCaprio, Scorsese has pulled out one of his best performance, and crafted perhaps one of his most interesting films. Sure to infuriate some and delight others, Shutter Island is all about evoking a response out of the audience – participation. It’s a detective story about a detective, but the investigation isn’t the investigation that the detective is investigating. Or is it? It raises a lot of questions, and doesn’t take the audience for granted in finding the answers for themselves. Also, in a departure from his usual visual style, Scorsese has created one of his more luscious looking, albeit foreign feeling, films to date.
Tags: Adaptation, Crime, Detectives, Drama, Dysfunction, Ensemble, Horror, Mystery, Neo Noir, Period Piece, Suspense, Thriller, Violent, War
2010 Films | this guy over here February 25, 2010 | Comments (2)
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Country: USA
Genre: Independent, Drama
“I’m a professional wrestler.”
“That’s probably not a good idea.”
Darren Aronofsky has taken a step away from his usual high stylized films to have an affair with cinema verite in The Wrestler. It’s hyper realistic, all down to the last emotion of which it has plenty. Rourke blazes like a phoenix out of the ashes of his old career in what is certainly going to be the performance of his lifetime, and of most people’s lifetimes, (matched only by maybe De Niro’s LaMotta.) To say the experience of watching this film is ‘tough’ is selling it short, both in that it can get excruciating and that the ‘toughness’ isn’t without merit. It all pays off, even if it’s not in the ways we’d wish it to. The Wrestler can stand with the best of tragedies in all of drama. It’s almost hard to believe that there was a screenwriter behind it. The only non-realistic thing is, and excuse my chauvinism for a moment, that anyone wouldn’t find Marisa Tomei attractive. I’ll save you the George Costanza monologue, but come on.
Starring: Ivana Baquero, Sergi Lopez, Maribel Verdu
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Country: Mexico
Genre: Foreign, Fantasy
The Grimm Bros have nothing on this dark fantasy.
Fairy tales have always been pretty dark at their core. Somewhere along the timeline of passing stories from generation to generation they have become sugar coated to shield children from the horrors of life, (does the current version of Hansel and Gretel have them pushing her into the oven, or do they all sit down and have a democratic discussion about their hardships? I’ve lost track.) With Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo Del Toro brings us all back to the reasons fairy tales exist… escapism, metaphors to understand our surroundings, pure hellish childhood delight. It’s as complex as Del Toro’s previous foray into his personal projects, (The Devil’s Backbone,) as it reflects the harsh reality of war with the mysterious curiosity of fantasy. The real star of the film is Del Toro’s imagination and the creations in which it manifests. Not since Jim Henson’s heyday has there been such enchanting creatures.
Starring: Rudy Youngblood, Raoul Trujillo
Director: Mel Gibson
Country: USA
Genre: Foreign, Epic
Not sure if this one was on the Mayan calendar… but it should be.
I’ll just come out and say it. Apocalypto is kind of badass. I was completely taken by surprise anticipating some sort of laborious experience, which probably stems from the endurance needed to get through Passion of the Christ. Gibson has crafted one hell of a fight-for-your-life chase movie. There’s something incredibly appealing about the savagery and primality of survival that I’m sure most meat eaters will respond to. One disconcerting thing was traveling to IMDb afterwards and coming to the obvious realization that some of the cast were actors, but that’s a compliment to the realism of the film, though Gerardo Taracena’s Klaus Kinski-eqsue performance should have been an indicator. Like most of Gibson’s films, it is not for the squeamish. There’s something extra nerve wracking when you’re dealing with near-naked characters fighting each other with sharp objects.
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson
Director: Martin Scorsese
Country: USA
Genre: Crime
X marks the spot.
And down the rabbit hole we go. The Departed is one of the bleakest films I can remember, even counting Taxi Driver. Scorsese’s lament on personal descent is practically maddening and completely immersive. Even upon multiple viewings it’s as potent as it ever was. The complex story follows parallel lives of a criminal posing as a cop and a cop undercover as a criminal, both making choices that they cannot turn back from. Scorsese is above all else a lover of films and keeps it entertaining (in a car wreck on-looker sort of way.) The pacing is brisk, it speeds by despite its running time and never feels slow. Top it off with an ensemble of amazing actors, (yes even Walberg,) and you’ve got yourself one hell of a film.
