On My Tenth Birthday: The Best 100 of My Life

Ten years? That's how long Mo-View's been around. Me myself ... been available for almost half a century. So maybe this is a good time for the best of the best I've ever seen: a list of films that shouldn't disappoint - or at least considered a comprehensive profile of the person I am.

The main selection criterion here, like always, is entertainment value - and for me, that's dictated by the craving for multiple viewings. I've watched almost all the movies here more than once; except for a few like Million Dollar Baby or A Beautiful Mind, where the ending or a sudden mid-movie revelation, while powerful, hindered the drive for a second attempt. The earliest movie on the list is a 1939 classic about a certain bogus wizard from Oz, and the most recent, a very relevant sci-fi horror from 2017.

And alas, after 10 years of blogging, this may be my last entry. I've posted reviews on nearly 1,600 films, and finally, it may be time to move on. When you sometimes don't even remember whether you've seen a movie, and you have to use your blog's search feature to check if you have ... maybe you've watched way too many.

Any crazy omissions? Fill me in. Maybe it'll be the first (and likely last) time you'll comment on Mo-View.


THE LIST:


Paul Thomas Anderson
Boogie Nights (1997), There Will Be Blood (2007)

Luc Besson
Léon: The Professional (1994)

Joon-ho Bong
Snowpiercer (2013)

Tim Burton
Edward Scissorhands (1990)

James Cameron
Aliens (1986), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Titanic (1997), Avatar (2009)

Frank Capra
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Francis Ford Coppola 
The Godfather (1972), The Godfather: Part II (1974)

David Cronenberg 
Scanners (1981), A History of Violence (2005)

Alfonso Cuarón
Gravity (2013)

Frank Darabont
The Shawshank Redemption (1994), The Green Mile (1999)

Brian De Palma
Scarface (1983), The Untouchables (1987)

Richard Donner
The Omen (1976), Superman (1978)

Clint Eastwood
Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Asghar Farhadi
About Elly (2009), A Separation (2011)

David Fincher
Se7en (1995)

Victor Fleming
The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Milos Forman
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Amadeus (1984), Man on the Moon (1999)

William Friedkin
The Exorcist (1973)

Mel Gibson
Braveheart (1995)

Guy Hamilton
Goldfinger (1964)

Alfred Hitchcock
Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963)

Ron Howard
A Beautiful Mind (2001), Willow (1988)

Peter Jackson
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Irvin Kirshner
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Stanley Kubrick 
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), The Shining (1980), Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Akira Kurosawa
The Seven Samurai (1954), Rashomon (1950)

John Landis 
An American Werewolf in London (1981)

John Lasseter
Toy Story (1995)

David Lean
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Sergio Leone
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Richard Linklater 
Before Sunset (2004), Before Midnight (2013)

George Lucas
Star Wars (1977), Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Sidney Lumet
12 Angry Men (1957), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

David Lynch
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), Mulholland Drive (2001)

Richard Marquand
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983)

John McTiernan
Predator (1987), Die Hard (1988)

Nicholas Meyer
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Christopher Nolan
The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014), Dunkirk (2017)

Jordan Peele
Get Out (2017)

Sam Raimi
Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Rob Reiner
Misery (1990), A Few Good Men (1992)

Martin Scorsese
Taxi Driver (1976), Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), Gangs of New York (2002)

Ridley Scott
Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), Prometheus (2012)

M. Night Shyamalan
The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (2000)

Steven Spielberg
Jaws  (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981),  E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Jurassic Park (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Minority Report (2002).

Oliver Stone
JFK (1991)

Quentin Tarantino
Pulp Fiction (1994), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003),  Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Giuseppe Tornatore
Cinema Paradiso (1988)

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
The Lives of Others (2006)

Lars von Trier
Breaking the Waves (1996), Melancholia (2011)

Robert Zemeckis
Back to the Future (1985), Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988), The Walk (2015)

My Top 10 Films: The 2010 Decade

We're almost at the end of another decade, so here goes my top 10 of 2010-2019, in order of release:

1. Inception (2010)

2. A Separation (2011) (جدايي نادر از سيمين)

3. Prometheus (2012)

4. Her (2013)

5. Gravity (2013)

6. Snowpiercer (2013)

7. Interstellar (2014)

8. Dunkirk (2017)

9. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

10. Annihilation (2018)

Of course, like always, the Force is strong in my lists with sci-fi, and 2013 must've been a great year in a long time - but man, did Chris Nolan run the show these past years ...

The Farewell (2019)

Director: Lulu Wang. Cast: Stars: Awkwafina, Tzi Ma, Diana Lin. 100 min. Rated PG. Drama/Comedy.

The trailer prepares you for a "West-meets-East" situation: young Asian-American travels to China to visit her dying grandmother, whose cancer diagnosis is kept hidden from. The film barely gets past that notion: in a modernizing China, your life still belongs not to you but to your family, and people decide what's best for you till the very end. The film successfully avoids the slippery pitfall of judging the culture, and shows it as it is. But there isn't enough material here for a feature length film - even though real-life subtitle at the end knocks you off your feet.

Mo says:

Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood (2019)

Director: Quentin Tarantino. Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Timothy Olyphant, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern, Al Pacino, Lena Dunham, Kurt Russell, Zoë Bell, Michael Madsen. 161 min. Rated R. UK/USA/China. Comedy/Drama.

Tarantino continues his downward trend. He's now boasting the unwelcome confidence of writing an overlong story-less atmospheric movie, reviving Steve McQueen and Bruce Lee, reminiscent of Boogie Nights but lacking that film's charm, devoid of his trademark engaging dialogue or colorful characters, full of scenes that have no role in moving the plot forward (the Brad Pitt-Bruce Dern exchange?) - with an ending to repeat his Inglorious Basterds' twisting of historical facts. No doubt: a Tarantino film is always "cool" - but the auteur's magic is gone. Nevertheless, the uncompromising foot fetish is still there.

Mo says:

Midsommar (2019)

Director: Ari Aster. Cast: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Will Poulter. 147 min. Rated R. Horror/Mystery.

Similar in structure to Hereditary, but a beast on its own. A group of youngsters join a rural commune in Sweden, and from the get-go you're trying to guess who'll still be alive by the end. The major actor is DP Pawel Pogorzelski, who by eerie lighting, mystifying angles on mind-boggling violence, and tracking shots delivering surprise after surprise, creates a slow-burn climaxing in flaming heights (no pun intended), reminiscent of an iconic 1973 horror movie - so expect a cinematography Oscar nomination (or win). After Hereditary and this, Ari Aster is confirming his position as a titan of horror film-making.

PS: For the first time: three MoMagics in a row.

Mo says:

MoMagic!

Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)

Director: Jon Watts. Cast: Tom Holland, Jake Gyllenhaal, Samuel L. Jackson, Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Zendaya, Cobie Smulders. 129 min. Rated PG-13. Action/Sci-fi.

Marvel movies keep trying something new, and every once in a while, they hit the jackpot. Mysterio, the Master of Illusions, is not only a cool Spider-Man adversary, his concept of creating illusions to control the masses rings so close to the idea of fake news, and being suspicious of what you see. We're in Nolan territory here - juxtaposing superhero stories onto the political climate of the day. To round it up, the movie even hands youngsters a guiding light on how to defeat illusions: literally diving deep into their core, and pulling out the truth. Well done, all around.

Mo says:

MoMagic!

Yesterday (2019)

Director: Danny Boyle. Cast: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Ed Sheeran. 116 min. Rated PG-13. Drama/Musical. UK/USA.

Boy ... this movie works on so many levels. Whether you should live a lie, or stay the course for the common good. Whether stick with the logic, or throw everything away and follow your heart. Whether we could’ve lived without the music of a certain band from Liverpool, or we already lack the genius of a person or people in a parallel world. But all aside, there’s a moment towards the end (you’ll know which one), that I was suddenly disconnected from this world, thinking: what if ... that long lost friend was still alive. The wonders of cinema.

Mo says:

MoMagic!

Toy Story 4 (2019)

Director: Josh Cooley. Voices: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Keegan-Michael Key, Christina Hendricks, Jordan Peele, Keanu Reeves, Joan Cusack, Bonnie Hunt, John Ratzenberger, Carl Weathers, Don Rickles, Laurie Metcalf, Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, Betty White, Carl Reiner, Bill Hader, Patricia Arquette, Timothy Dalton. 100 min. Rated G. Animation.

Another Pixar animation, almost entirely targeting adults. The whole story of an old band of toys getting together to save another toy made of trash who feels like trash, may have a subliminal message of "you are worthy of love and respect" for kids, but the real message hits you at the end, where our hero must choose between staying and taking care of those who depend on him ... or setting his guilt aside and moving on to do what is best for himself. Must've been the creators' own first-hand dilemma. Not as powerful as Toy Story 3, but powerful.

Mo says:

Pink (2016)

Director: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury. Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Amitabh Bachchan, Kirti Kulhari. 136 min. India. Drama.

In modern day India, a young women may or may not have been assaulted, and the legal proceedings put the country's attitude towards woman to light. But then you think ... is the attitude really just limited to India? Isn't a man's drunkenness by alcohol considered pitiful, but a woman's a sign of her "availability" ... even by U.S. norms? This courtroom drama, boasting some seriously engaging acting headed by the legendary Amitabh Bachchan, will make you think, and doubt your own stance towards the story's social dilemmas. Great discussion-maker.

PS: This movie has one of the best post-credits scenes - putting any Marvel movie to shame.

Mo says:

Men in Black: International (2019)

Director: F. Gary Gray. Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Kumail Nanjiani, Rafe Spall, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Rebeca Ferguson. 114 min. Rated PG-13. Fantasy/Action/Comedy.

You'd think with a somewhat well-established franchise such as Men in Black, producers (Spielberg at the helm) wouldn't add another episode - unless they had a strong or engaging concept to add (as they did in MIB3). Here, you wait for 2 hours, and other than pairing up Hemsworth and Thompson for a second time around after Thor: Ragnarok (with a cool Mjolnir joke in-between), and the following note-worthy line, there's not much else to see.

- "The universe has a way of leading you to where you are supposed to be at the moment you are supposed to be there."

Mo says:

The Dead Don't Die (2019)

Director: Jim Jarmusch. Cast: Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tom Waits, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, RZA. 104 min. Rated R. Sweden/USA. Comedy/Fantasy.

Excessive polar fracking tilts the Earth on its axis, and as result, the dead rise from their graves. I know ... makes no sense. But that's exactly the point. Bill Murray and Adam Driver deliver this deadpan comedy with such a self-assured aura, the most outrageous moments become entirely plausible - and ever more so funny. And Tilda Swinton's sword-wielding Scotswoman adds to her career collection unforgettable characters. The events here are so unexpected, I defy you to predict what comes up, even in the next scene. One of Jarmusch's best.

Mo says:

Border (Gräns) (2018)

Director: Ali Abbasi. Cast: Eva Melander, Eero Milonoff, Jörgen Thorsson. 110 min. Rated R. Sweden/Denmark. Fantasy/Drama.

In this Cannes award winner, a female customs officer who senses, and, ahem, looks like an animal, meets another male of "her kind" - and embarks on a quest to discover why she's able to perceive the world as no other. The story (including the weirdest pedophilia bust subplot) has major sociological implications; mainly, which comes first: ethics, or your tribe? While some moments will make you cringe, this is a movie you'll never forget - even if only for its bizarre but unique makeup (recently nominated for an Oscar).

PS: Watching this, curious how similar the script structure was to Let the Right One In, the child vampire love story. Of course, now I realize were both written by the same writer. 

PPS: Thanks again, Ali S.! Nice surprise.

Mo says: