2nd: And the Ship Sails On – Federico Fellini (1983)
Someone interviewed Fellini and asked him what the Rhinoceros that appears in this film was supposed to mean and he replied, “a symbol is a symbol inasmuch as one cannot explain it,” which, one is the coolest thing I’ve ever heard, and two feels like the perfect summation of this film and Fellini’s post 8 1/2 filmography.
Grade: B+
3rd: The Mummy Returns – Stephen Sommers (2001)
Say what you will about some of the plot devices in this movie, your son being kidnapped because you were too distracted by Rachel Weisz… Who couldn’t relate to that?
Grade: C+
7th: Intervista – Federico Fellini (1987)
This immediately goes on the list of best films about filmmaking. Late career or not, I’d also rank this with Fellini’s very best films. The sequence in which he revisits La Dolce Vita is as powerful as anything he’s ever done (which is to say as powerful as anything in the history of cinema).
To this day, most of my favorite filmmakers are the ones with which I feel most aligned from an artistic POV. I could never make even a terrible version of a Mike Leigh, Edward Yang, or Richard Linklater film, but those films move me and make sense to me on an instinctive level. I get them!
Fellini is different! I couldn’t tell you how or why or sometimes even what his films are doing. And yet, I couldn’t love a filmmaker more. There’s something so utterly alive and deeply human in Fellini’s films that is all the more rich precisely because of the singular way in which he expresses it.
Fellini is often described in terms of spectacle and carnival. That’s absolutely true and I think the best framework to describe his work. Zeroing in on this idea, the part of it that connects most to me is the dichotomy of what’s real and imagined in these films.
Fellini’s movies are full not just of spectacle, but also of the very real, not-so-spectacular people who make the spectacle. Does that mean the magic of it all is hollow? Absolutely not! In actuality, the fact that all of these spectacles are the work of very real, very silly, and inextricably flawed characters is what makes it great.
One could say that Fellini’s cinema (especially the latter half) is the cinema of dreams. They would be half correct in that sentiment. What they’d miss is what truly makes Fellini Fellini. He understood that all of these dreams, visions, and carnivals are only truly meaningful if you understand the person and the reason behind their conjuring. Fellini’s cinema is not merely the cinema of dreams, but of dreamers.
Grade: A-
9th: Interstellar – Christopher Nolan (2014)
For the first half of this movie, I was ready to eat my words about Mr. Christopher Nolan (a director whose movies I actually like for the most part, but still). All of the dichotomies that I had built up in my mind about his work (plot over story, twist over resolution, style over substance) were being erased before my very eyes. Here was finally the movie in which the style and scale of the filmmaking not only suited the story but were necessary to its telling. The only recent comparison I could come to was Arrival, and I was starting to think that Interstellar was not only bigger and more ambitious than that film but possibly better.
And then…well, the second half happens, I guess. Without exaggerating, I legitimately think every storytelling decision Nolan makes here is actively bad. If you want me to go into it scene by scene, I’d be happy to, just grab me for a drink.
For the purposes of this review, all I’d ask is how does one assess a movie like this? For now, I’m willing to give some credit where credit is due and concede that the ambition and execution of the first half should outweigh even a very bad latter half. On the whole, it’s probably not Nolan’s best film (is that actually Dunkirk?), but it is the one I enjoyed and will likely revisit the most.
Grade: B+
11th: Mission: Impossible – Brian De Palma (1996)
As someone who has only seen some of the sequels, Mission: Impossible is a really fascinating film to watch. It’d be a stretch to call this one realistic, but it is more grounded and plausible at the very least than what I’ve seen in the rest of the franchise. I can’t say if that’s for better or worse, but in any case, it holds up as a spy/action movie tremendously well. My favorite 1996ism of the movie is that despite all of the gadgets at his disposal (exploding chewing gum?), Ethan still has to manually translate his message by writing dozens of identical emails in different languages. Alas, sometimes our imaginations can only get us so far.
Grade: B+
16th: Mission: Impossible II – John Woo (2000)
This movie, with all of its ridiculousness included, rules. I know it was somewhat poorly received at the time, but whoever tapped John Woo to direct, should get a lot of credit (as should John Woo himself). Without knowing any of the background behind making these sequels, I wonder if the last act of MI:2 paved a new path forward for these sequels. One in which viewers knew that despite whatever difference each sequel had in store, they would always be promised an explosive finale.
Grade: B
16th: Mission: Impossible III – J.J. Abrams (2006)
I have the fewest words for the greatest installment. This is an all-time great action movie.
Grade: A-
20th: Barbie – Greta Gerwig (2023)
There is a small .01% of me that wonders if this movie will lose a fraction of its impact in the future because of the pop culture specificity of its jokes. And then I realized I’m only wondering this because it’s obvious that Greta Gerwig will be taught, studied, and thought of as one of the great filmmakers of our time. In any case, it feels very special to live in the same time that she’s making movies which is now 🙂 Tl;dr There’s a Proust joke!
Grade: A
30th: Oppenheimer – Christopher Nolan (2023)
So, to be clear, I am aware that I’m about to sound like someone who wants to ban books or something. And yes, I did just come out of this movie and am feeling hot. That all being said, this movie and its portrayal of historical events ranges from inconsistent and ill-conceived to downright irresponsible. I don’t know if I’ve ever hated a movie more which is kind of amazing considering that I thought the first 90 minutes of this movie were the best thing Nolan’s ever done and genuinely phenomenal. But then I realized that he had no idea what he was doing with the tone of it and so here we are. I’m sure I’ll have more to say somewhere, but until then, you can at least enjoy this scathing review 🙂
Grade: F
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