"Must See" Films

What films should be seen by every film critic and film buff?

Any film critic can point out there are certain movies that demand to be seen; the list is exhaustive. Movies that come to mind, you know, Citizen Kane, The Bicycle Thief, Battleship Potemkin, The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca, Silence of the Lambs I think is an amazing movie, I think it subverts the genre. There's so many movies, Goodfellas, Mean Streets, Raging Bull, those are three films by the same director, Martin Scorcese but that's just how it is, they are great movies. There are so many movies, there's a daunting list of movies that people should see. I think the best way to approach the canon of great movies is really to approach it by director, because the list, you could go on forever, listing the movies that you should see.

What influential directors of the past do I need to know about?

There are so many directors whose movies need to be seen. In early cinema it's DW Griffith, it's Sergei Eisenstein, it's the films of Charlie Chaplin and the films of Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton. Other directors that should be seen: Ernst Lubitsch, Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, Preston Sturges, and Frank Capra, who polarises some people; some people find his movies as somewhat sentimental and other people find they're incredible, populous movies. I mean 'Capraesque' is a term that everyone talks about when you're talking about a movie that has a lot of sentiment and a lot of feel for the common man. I'm back tracking again, but the westerns certainly of John Ford. Orson Wells, who really was ahead of his time, really made movies that he wanted to see, and made movies with a touring company of actors that he used on the stage as well and didn't see a gap between doing something artistic and doing something commercial. Citizen Kane is arguably the greatest film ever made. World cinema wise, there are the Indian movies of Satyajit Ray, there are the Italian films of Fellini, there's the French new wave; the movies of Jean-Luc Godard, the movies of Louis Malle and Francois Truffaut. There are German expressionist filmmakers like Fritz Lang, who did studio movies and also did movies that reflected the turmoil that Germany was going through. There are just so many, and then of course what's currently in vogue (and I think always will be actually) are the film makers of the 70's who have a lot of influence on contemporary film makers, and they would be Scorcese and Coppola. I love the movies of Hal Ashby who did these kind of leisurely, weird serial comic movies like "Being There" that are wonderful. The films of Paul Mazursky that were about relationships and about people getting divorced and having second chapters of their lives in their 40's and their 50's, and we hadn't seen that before. Robert Benton's movies, and Robert Altman's movies certainly, with the overlapping dialogue and the mosaic of characters and unresolved story lines; he took so many different genres and subverted them in his movies. Then there are Lucas and Spielberg coming up in the 70's and the 80's who made big blockbusters but also made movies that had a real sensibility, and they're arguably the most famous filmmakers of our time.

What contemporary influential directors do I need to know about?

A lot of contemporary directors get their influences from seventies filmmakers. In the case of someone like Sofia Coppola, she is a direct descendant of Francis Ford Coppola. Her movies have pissed some people off, they're like these strange visual tone poems, but she has a really unique sensibility. Some other people who have that seventies influence, that Hal Ashby sensibility, or that seventies Woody Allen sensibility certainly, are people like Alexander Payne, who has done some wonderful Picaresque comedies about ideosyncratic, loser types and underdogs. David O. Russell has done some really interesting things, he's worked in the studios sometimes with movies like Three Kings that was critical of the Gulf War, and was a big George Clooney vehicle at the same time. It was a really interesting film. There are some directors out there that are really shocking in the way they push the envelope, the salon types, they really tackle taboo subjects. There are female directors. We have already mentioned Sofia Coppola, but there's Allison Anders who has done really interesting work. Jane Campion's The Piano. Nicole Holofcener's movies are about women and deal with them in a very unique way. She gets into the subjects of class and and things that real women face. We didn't mention Spike Lee, but Spike Lee ushered in a whole wave of black filmmakers, and while there haven't been as many filmmakers to have had the same success as he has, maybe John Singleton has in a mainstream way. Spike Lee is constantly challenging himself. He'll do genre movies. He'll do big studio movies. He'll do documentaries. You never know what you're going to get from him and he does wonderful work. I also think Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry take romantic comedies and take them to dizzying heights. They both do strange and wonderful things with movies. They make funny, sad movies like no one's seen before. They cut their teeth in music videos. There are a lot of interesting filmmakers out there.

Is Citizen Kane really the best film ever made?

You know, is anything ever the best film ever made? I mean, look, my favorite movie of all time is "Tootsie." I can't get enough of it; I know every line from that movie. But what Citizen Kane does, what makes Citizen Kane so great is that you watch it today and it isn't dated. It has like a dark wit. It's such an economical movie. You know, one of the best examples of why that movie is so great is when Citizen Kane marries his first wife. You see their entire marriage in a montage sequence with them at the kitchen table. And it begins with them chatting at the kitchen table having a great time, and it ends with them both buried in newspapers. He's reading his own paper (because his character is based on William Randolph Hearst, who was a newspaper magnate), and she's reading the rival newspaper. So in a remarkably short amount of time, you see the disillusion of a marriage in a witty, perceptive way. I mean, the movie is just so economical. It uses so many movie devices to tell a movie that's sort of rich in satire and a really good critique of contemporary media. And it stands the test of time. It's not dated. It isn't corny. It's a smart, wonderful movie. Is it the best film of all time? It's totally subjective. But it's a great example of American storytelling with intelligence and wit and, you know, over 50 years later the movie is still a classic.

What are some of the most underrated films?

I think comedy is underrated as a genre. I think the year 'Tootsie' was nominated for best picture, Gandhi won, and personally I wouldn't want to watch 'Gandhi' again but I'd be thrilled to watch 'Tootsie'. I think comedies are movies that you want to watch over and over again because they're funny; the good ones are funny and surprising. I'm not talking about 'Saturday Night Live' vehicles, I'm talking about character driven, unique situations with funny outcomes: surprising, funny movies. I'd rather watch a Marx Brothers comedy any day than some of the great films that I'm supposed to love. Comedy doesn't get enough credit. Occasionally somebody'll get a supporting actor award, but all too frequently comedies don't get the Oscars.

What are some films that critics love to hate?

Critics love to hate star vehicles. They love to hate star vehicles where stars are essentially repeating themselves. A great example of that is Eddie Murphy. I think people felt that he really hasn't challenged himself in a long time. I think that it actually hurt him with 'Dream Girls', in terms of winning the Oscar, because 'Norbit' came out, and while it made a kazillion dollars, people were like, "We've seen him in a fat suit, we've seen him do this movie". People and critics don't like it when stars get too comfortable and coast along in a certain kind of movie. For example, they only do romantic comedies, or they only do the knucklehead, slapstick comedies. They want to see actors diversify and do something different. I think a movie based on a video game is setting itself up for failure. More than a comic book, a video game adaptation is a bad way to go. Critics are already going to be a little defensive about that.