The Best Films of 2013 - By Ray Manukay

 

 This Article first appeared on our legacy site PassMeThePopcorn (Now Defunct)

 

This year was a fantastic year for quality films. Especially near the end of the year when a high number of critically acclaimed films were released…at the same time. I held off posting this list until I could see at least a majority of them. But we are well into 2014 and it seems inappropriate to hold off the list any longer. So I just want to divulge that I have not seen the award season favorites Nebraska, Saving Mr. Banks, August Osage County and Blue is the Warmest Color. I have no doubt that I’ll see them eventually and it may affect this list. In any event, I’ll keep the reader posted through our social media channels if I do decide to re-evaluate my picks.

 

Honorable Mention: (In no particular Order:)

 

American Hustle

Lone Survivor

Dallas Buyers Club

Captain Phillips

All is Lost

Blue Jasmine

Out of the Furnace

Inside Llewyn Davis

The Great Gatsby

The Lone Ranger

Fruitvale Station

 

 

Here are my Favorite Films of 2013!

 

#10: Stoker

 

directed by CHAN-WOOK PARK

 

The film Stoker is not for everyone. In fact, for traditional audiences it is often almost unbearable to watch.

 

Almost.

 

The truth is as unsavory and disturbing as the events in Stoker appear to be, the film is absolutely riveting and mesmerizing. It’s this conflict that drives the enjoyment of Stoker. Often times film critics almost tripped over themselves trying to describe the film, calling Stoker “disturbingly good” or a film of “savage beauty“. I prefer a more straight forward description: One of the year’s best.

 

 

 

# 9: Mud

 

directed by JEFF NICHOLS

 

Mud

 

This humble coming-of-age drama benefits from impressive performances from Tye Sheridan, Matthew McConaughy and an outstanding ensemble cast. But the real strength of Mud is the steady hand of writer and director Jeff Nichols. In lesser hands, the film could have easily turned formulaic. But Jeff Nichols manages to keep the proceedings truthful and earnest. Mud brilliantly captures the complexities, disappointments and optimism of romantic relationships. What’s unique about the film is that Mud covers this ground without being a traditional romance. In fact several genres are used to explore the core theme of true love. It is an impressive feat and solidifies Jeff Nichols place as one of the most exciting, emerging voices in film today.

 

 

#8: Gravity

 

directed by ALFONSO CUARON

 

 

There is not much more praise I can add to the kudos that Gravity has already received. At its heart the movie is a simple survival film. But Gravity is much more when one factors in the technical achievements and visual effects of the film. Some of the effects are almost mind boggling and defy description. When it is all said and done Gravity is simply the best action film of the year.

 

 

#7:The Place Beyond the Pines

 

directed by DEREK CIANFRANCE

 

 

Exploring the relationships between fathers and sons was a popular theme this year, and as the reader will soon see, is well represented on this list. The Place Beyond the Pines explores the age old story of when the sins of the father trickles down to the son. At the center of the film is the outstanding performances by Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper. It’s unfortunate that the film was released early in the year. It’s clear that short-sighted awards season voters overlooked the film. The Place Beyond the Pines is unapologetically dramatic bordering on operatic and will be recognized in the future for being one of the Underrated gems of 2013.

 

 

#6: Her

 

directed by SPIKE JONZE

 

 

Putting aside the selling point for the film Her of a man falling in love with his computer’s operating system, the theme of the film is really quite simple.

 

Relationships and love are complicated.

 

Not to mention challenging, absurd, selfish, romantic, comforting, disconcerting …even insane.

 

Spike Jonze’s Her touches on all those points and does so brilliantly. After initially almost mocking the idea of a man falling in love with an inanimate object Her forces the audience to look at themselves and examine their own relationships. Her explores the absurdities, the benefits, the pain and joys of being in love. After awhile the idea of falling in love with a computer, doesn’t seem so crazy after all. In fact it might be even more sane and less complicated than falling in love with an actual person.

 

 

#5: 12 Years a Slave

 

directed by STEVE MCQUEEN

 

 

To call 12 Years a Slave a difficult film is an understatement. As much as I agree with all the kudos that the film has received for being important, powerful, educational, dramatic and ultimately inspiring, I also have to give merit to the criticisms towards the film for being exploitative, morbid, inappropriately beautiful and desensitizing.

 

In short, my feelings for 12 Years a Slave are complex.

 

On the one hand 12 Years a Slave is a powerful piece of cinema, featuring amazing performances from Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong’o, but on the other hand it’s not a movie that I would want to watch as entertainment multiple times.

 

It’s painful and disturbing to watch.

 

Which… is the point of 12 Years a Slave. As much as we wish that it did, the wounds caused by slavery, have not completely healed. Its effects are still felt today. As painful as it is to endure, 12 Years a Slave is a film that needs to be seen. (Much like Schindler’s List or another strong social commentary drama from this year Fruitvale Station). 12 Years a Slave creates conversation and provokes thought. Which is what a great film aspires to.

 

 

#4: The Spectacular Now

 

directed by JAMES PONSOLDT

 

 

It wasn’t too long ago that coming-of-age films were considered a cheap off-shoot of the raunchy sex comedy genre. The cynical idea of youth being wasted on the youth no doubt contributed to Hollywood’s lack of genuine and accurate coming of age films. But as we all know, there is so much more than the discovery of sex that goes into our formative years and The Spectacular Now is an example of a perfect coming of age film. Despite some of the heavy themes such as alcoholism, responsibility, death and yes…sex, none of it comes off as preachy or exploitative. In fact, there is so much that is great in The Spectacular Now that I find it difficult to string together worthy enough adjectives to describe the movie.

 

The best thing that I can come up with is the idea of catching lightning in a bottle.

 

The film is full of little moments that do this. Some of the moments left me breathless with how accurate and sincere they came across. One of the themes in the film is the idea of the effects on a young man living in a home without a father figure. That is just one of the subtle themes in the film. There are tons of them. The ideas almost creep up on the viewer as they watch. The moments are so truthful that we never feel preached to or force fed. They just happen and are absorbed just like in real life. A confrontation near the end of the movie between a mother, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh and his son played by Miles Teller is arguably one of the most moving, painful and ultimately inspiring moments in the year of film. It is the result of the perfect blend of strong acting, excellent writing and honest direction. A brilliant captured moment for everyone to see.

 

The Spectacular Now is simply put… spectacular.

 

 

#3: About Time

 

directed by RICHARD CURTIS

 

 

I know this is not a traditional best-of-the-year pick by many. But this under-rated gem was one of the most enjoyable and touching films I’ve seen in recent memory. About Time was marketed as a romantic comedy, but that’s only one aspect of the film, and a minor one at that. Comparisons have been made to the cult classic Groundhog Day which is slightly accurate, but not really fair. About Time is not as cynical or comedic.

 

In fact, it’s not even as romantic.

 

About Time is more of an unabashedly life affirming film. A humble call to cherish our loved ones and to not sweat the small stuff in life. Without creeping too much into spoiler territory, the time travel aspect featured in the film is not so much a gimmick or device, but more of an analogy on how to deal with life’s unavoidable bumps.

 

About time also shares some themes with The Place Beyond the Pines and The Spectacular Now which were also featured on this list.

 

The exploration of the father and son relationship.

 

If The Place Beyond the Pines is about the sins of the father, and The Spectacular Now is about the challenges of a young man growing up without a father figure, About Time explores the strengths and benefits of having a loving and ideal father.

 

I admit, the father/son relationship in this film is a bit too perfect. There is a bit of a fairy tale aspect at play here. One glance at this list and the reader will see that cynicism, and harsh reality is well represented. So forgive me if I crave a bit of fairy tale in my entertainment now and then. Don’t we need a little of that in our life and in our entertainment? God knows I do. That is what About Time provides.

 

Above all, About Time is an enjoyable, breezy and inspiring film and worthy of being called one of the year’s best.

 

 

#2: The Act of Killing

 

directed by JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER

 

There are plenty of jaw dropping and shocking truth bombs in this unique and groundbreaking documentary. But it would be inaccurate to characterize this film as a simple shock-fest or history exploration documentary. The Act of Killing is also about the power of film and art. Both positively and negatively.

 

Director Joshua Oppenheimer and the makers of this film use the subject’s love of entertainment and media to subtly both shed a light on the little known mass political murders which occurred in 1965 in North Sumatra and also slowly uncover the vulnerabilities and humanity of the film’s main subject, a gangster named Anwar Congo. A man that one can justifiably be called a monster.

 

It is an awe-inspiring balancing act.

 

On the surface, we are seeing how crime films and the media possibly influenced and inspired these “gangsters” to commit some of these atrocities. On the other hand, we see the effects on the subjects when they re-enact the monstrous events of their past. The performances acts as a sense memory for Anwar Congo and it unexpectedly awakens feelings of pain, loss and regret. That’s just one small sample of one of the levels in this amazing film.

 

The Act of Killing also works as a traditional documentary, subtly inspiring a call for action against a corrupt government and system. It also touches on how we as a society are all in some ways responsible for creating and encouraging an environment like this.

 

 

 

And my favorite film of 2013 is…

 

 

#1: The Wolf of Wall Street

 

directed by MARTIN SCORSESE

 

the_wolf_of_wall_street_movie

 

Let’s just get this out of the way. I don’t condone the type of wild and outrageous behavior depicted in The Wolf of Wall Street.

 

In fact, I find it deeply disgusting and infuriating.

 

Just like I find the killings in a film like Goodfellas disturbing or the excessive, reckless drug use in Fear in Loathing in Las Vegas reckless and irresponsible.

 

My admiration of The Wolf of Wall Street and those previously mentioned films is not an endorsement of those kinds of life choices.

But that kind of consumer driven mentality exists and The Wolf of Wall Street powerfully illustrates the practice of that. The fact that it has provoked such a strong reaction from some people speaks to the power of this film.

I don’t think The Wolf of Wall Street glorify’s the greed is good lifestyle.

Yes. The film is wrapped in the guise of a comedy. But who says comedies can’t be thought provoking, painfully truthful or disturbing? In fact, that is the best kind of comedy.

Critics of The Wolf of Wall Street also point to the so-called happy ending. But is it really a happy ending or a painfully truthful indictment on how our American society rewards people like this?

To me it illustrates how we are all in some way responsible for creating and supporting people like this. That’s at least my interpretation. I’m not definitively proclaiming another artist theme for for their piece. That’s not for me to say. But if this is indeed the case, which I suspect it is, isn’t that a worthy message to send to audiences in these financially driven times?

Again, I don’t want to speak for the filmmakers. But let’s give arguably the greatest story teller and dramatic visionary of our time, some credit and agree there may be some truth to this argument. Especially when the alternative viewpoint is greed at all costs is good.

Sure. This opens up another can of worms to consider. Is it really an effective message if it may be confusing to some of the audience. That argument can be made. But personally I find the best kind of art is the one that isn’t so overt with it’s intentions, but more subtle, and thought provoking. But that’s a personal preference. I have no problem with people who prefer the opposite. This is debatable, and I don’t wish to engage in that discussion here.

But putting aside the moral complications of The Wolf of Wall Street, the film itself is a fantastic piece of entertainment. It is filled with exciting performances, riveting story, drama, suspense, and laugh-out-loud comedic moments.

The Wolf of Wall Street is an enjoyable showcase of skills from arguably the greatest director and one of our most talented performers living today.

That is why the film is my favorite of 2013.

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The Worst Films of 2013 - By Lon Harris

 This article first appeared on our legacy site PassMeThePopcorn (Now Defunct)

 

By Lon Harris

 
Lon Harris shares his list of the low points in the year of film in 2013.
 

#10: WORLD WAR Z

 
I have not read the novel that inspired this troubled Marc Forster production (is there any other kind?), but I can only assume that it has some kind of narrative structure. Things happen that cause other things to happen, and thus a story progresses in some kind of logical fashion. Beginnings, middles and ends and all that. Maybe a few characters who seem like they almost resemble actual living people are introduced, they make decisions that impact their eventual fates, maybe we learn a little something about them and even, by extension, ourselves in the process. That sort of stuff.
 
Woirld War Z has no time for any of that, though I’m not sure what else it was doing, either. Brad Pitt sort of rambles around the world getting into scrapes that all end the same way (zombies!), and then things just sort of work themselves out.
Also, the notion of a mass of zombies moving in unison, in the style of a single organism, is a good one, and could have looked pretty spectacular, I should think. But, save for that iconic one-sheet image of zombies piling up a wall like ants, which doesn’t even make a huge impact in the film, “World War Z” does nothing with it.
 

 
If it hadn’t made half a billion dollars worldwide, I’d almost hope it might do something to slow the glut of lame zombie movies with which we’ve been stuck for years now.
 

#9: OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL

 
My issues with Oz The Great and Powerful don’t really center around the story, which is forgettable but not atrocious, and does manage to cleverly tie up everything and set the stage of “Wizard of Oz” neatly.
 

 
The problem here is that, at no point did I believe any of the human beings were actually standing in the merry old land of Oz. “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” came out in 1988, and I had an easier time believing Bob Hoskins was really tooling down the main Toontown drag than I did thinking James Franco was actually skipping down the Yellow Brick Road.
So tragic that Sam Raimi – one of the greats of contemporary inventive DIY guerrilla-style filmmaking – retreated behind a bank of monitors, putting together a formulaic, bubble-gum theme park attraction that couldn’t feel further away from the quirky, charmingly hand-made Oz of the classic film.
 

#8: AFTER EARTH

 
I know Will Smith was involved, and that automatically got projects fast-tracked in 2013 Hollywood, but it’s hard to imagine anyone thought “After Earth” was conceptually sound. There are SO MANY problems with this just as a pitch!
– There are only two main characters, and no antagonist, and no one is ever on screen together
– The film is structured as an action film but there’s almost no action
– A feature-length film will be entirely dependent on the acting chops and charisma of Jaden Smith
 

 
– Despite being called “After Earth” and being set on an abandoned Earth, the fact that the characters are on Earth doesn’t matter and never comes up
– The plot requires the main character to eliminate all emotional response, which not only is impossible to do but makes him a totally unsympathetic blank figure.
– At one point, there is a dramatic scene between our hero and a computer-generated hawk.
 

 

#7: THE LORDS OF SALEM

 
I love Zombie’s odes to ’70s grindhouse – “House of 1000 Corpses” and “The Devil’s Rejects” – but when he aims for more mainstream-style horror, say with his “Halloween” reboot, it typically misses the mark. But “Lords of Salem” is his weakest outing yet, an incoherent, plodding and surprisingly sloppy attempt to re-imagine “Rosemary’s Baby” but without any of the symbolic heft or mounting terror.
 
Zombie’s wife, Sheri Moon Zombie, plays a totally uninteresting DJ who is possessed by a coven of witches harkening back to the infamous Salem Witch Trial era. That’s not a quick summary of the film’s main action – it’s a complete list of everything that happens. (“Possession” itself in the film largely consists of Ms. Zombie writhing around on the floor, moaning, and having odd, frequently sexual visions of witch rituals.
 

 
Zombie struggled to find distribution for the movie, and at the screening I attended at SXSW, said to the audience beforehand “Some of you will like this, and others are going to hate it.” He seemed oddly ambivalent about the whole thing, maybe realizing the idea was not fully baked only after the project was completed?
 
[I should also note, the film implies that Salem really was overrun with witches a few hundred years ago, thus making the Puritans disgraceful, cruel, inhuman behavior correct and called for. That’s some truly vile revisionist history there… Why not make a movie in which the grown men who tortured and murdered innocent young girls are the bad guys?]
 

#6: THE SWEENEY

 
This update of the 1970s British TV cop drama compiles every known cop movie cliche into one blisteringly insipid mess. I never need to see another film in which the brash, impulsive but also always-correct-when-it-counts cop/unit breaking all the rules and getting chewed out by The Chief. The presence of respected actors like Ray Winstone and Damian Lewis, trying their best with hopeless material, only highlights how tired these old routines really are.
 
Let’s also talk about the woeful action sequences. We have a bank heist turned shootout in London’s Trafalgar Square so obviously inspired by Michael Mann’s “Heat,” it’s practically Sweded. Unlike Mann’s original, the action mechanics of the shootout make no sense here – the good guys are able to block incoming gunfire with absolutely any physical piece of matter. At one point, portly Ray Winstone is able to dodge an onslaught of bullets behind a tiny metal ladder. Surely ONE of those bad boys would have managed to get through! Come on! There’s even a car chase on a very thin, narrow road that’s only the width of a single car. Where’s the drama in that? What are you even going to do if you catch up to that other car? Bump it?
 
[I’d also add that there’s a sub-plot in which the fetching Hayley Atwell’s character (age 31) is having an extra-martial affair with Ray Winstone’s character (age 56) which is not just unrealistic, but downright distasteful.]
 

 

#5: GI JOE: RETALIATION

 

Hard to believe that, out of the two contemporary “GI Joe” movies, the lame Stephen Sommers entry comes out ahead, but here we are. Jon Chu’s follow-up gives us all the bored, phoned-in performances, offensively inane anti-humor and bloated, ugly spectacle we’ve come to expect from toy brand tie-in movies, but with the added benefit of being totally incomprehensible.
 
It felt at times that I was watching two different “GI Joe” movies that had no intention of ever really coming together – sort of like the “Godfather II” of the series, I suppose. I’m not sure if the ninjas ever got around to influencing the more traditional soldier plot line; I’d pretty much checked out by then.
 

 
[Final note: Why does Bruce Willis continue to make movies when he clearly hates them so much? I know they pay him a lot of money to star in action movies, but he could make a lot of money with his own brand of applesauce, too, or by opening a Hollywood weed dispensary. I feel like he’d rather do absolutely anything else than star in an action movie, at this point, based on his performances in films like this one.]
 

#4: THE CANYONS

 
OK, so the hilariously awful disaster zone that is “The Canyons” is largely going to be blamed on Lindsey Lohan, and she definitely deserves some of the blame. She’s so wooden and distant here, it’s like she’s getting a Viking funeral. I kept waiting for someone in a horned helmet to shoot a flaming arrow into her. The character’s so zonked out and vacant, it took me like 45 minutes before I realized she’s the protagonist.
 

 
The plot – such as it is – concerns Lohan’s Tara, who is dating Christian (porn star James Deen), a trust fund scumbag using his family’s money to make terrible no-budget horror movies. Tara has been secretly having an affair with Ryan, an old flame who also happens to be the star of Christian’s latest bad movie. Christian finds out about the affair and sort of messes with everyone, but not in a way that is compelling.
 
There’s just no sense of why writer Bret Easton Ellis or director Paul Schrader (who used Kickstarter to raise funds for “The Canyons”) wanted to tell this meandering, dull story about these assholes. The film opens with a montage of condemned, abandoned former movie theaters throughout Los Angeles, so I thought – even if it didn’t work – the movie would be some kind of commentary on the end of the film business, or the end of movies as a communal, social activity. But then the film itself is barely about the film industry.
 
Also, from just a technical/professionalism standpoint, the movie reminds me of something you’d expect students to submit to a 24-hour film festival. It looks like Schrader shot it on an iPhone, the dialogue is both highly theatrical and bland, and the story has no momentum.
 

 

#3: UPSIDE DOWN

 
The set-up for this remarkably stupid sci-fi romance is that there are two planets orbiting directly side-by-side, facing one another. One is made up of poor, exploited workers and the other their wealthy capitalist masters. (They keep saying “up there” or “down here,” even though “up” and “down” don’t have a lot of meaning when you’re talking about planets. Everyone would feel like the other planet was “up there.”)
 
Anyway, it’s forbidden and physically impossible to go to the other planet from your planet, because everyone’s tied by their own gravity field to their own planet. Nonetheless, two very dull, uninteresting people – a poor orphan from “down here” (Jim Sturgess) and a rich girl from “up there” (Kirsten Dunst) – fall in love, and he becomes determined to use any means necessary to sneak to the upper planet to romance her.
 

 
The “up there/down there” stuff never stops seeming counter-intuitive and silly. (In particular, it has a really irksome tendency to assume that all the characters in this fantasy world would find the whole “double gravity” concept really weird and fascinating, just like we the viewers do, even though they have lived in this reality all their lives. Would people really drink anti-gravity cocktails from upside-down martini glasses? That seems inconvenient.)
 
But the film’s biggest problem is that it spends so much time establishing the double gravity rules and physics, it forgets to make the actual couple that’s in love compelling or relatable in any way. At heart, the movie’s a romance, but I didn’t give two shits about this couple. (Plus Kirsten Dunst’s character also has amnesia, so she’s impossible to invest in because she’s not even 100% sure who she is!)
 

#2: Movie 43

 
A surprising number of celebrities take part in this atrocious bathroom comedy anthology from Peter Farrelly. The stories are supposedly part of an insane pitch a desperate screenwriter (Dennis Quaid) makes to studio executive Greg Kinnear, but the film even gives up on this bookend conceit about halfway through, largely out of embarrassment. (For real!)
 
I think part of the reason these sketches seem SO awkward and painful is that they’re over-relying on the shock value of seeing these celebrities doing/saying stupid, “edgy” things (except for the scene where it’s supposed to be funny because they’re celebrities playing superheroes.) In some cases, such as the Halle Berry/Stephen Merchant “Truth or Dare” sketch, there actually AREN’T jokes other than the humiliation they put Halle Berry through.
 

 

There’s no real theme or coherent idea aside from “dick and poop jokes.” (The bookend thing is insane and adds nothing.) And nothing is relevant. The superhero parody ignores the last 50 years of actual superhero shows and films. The Apple parody focuses on a stupid product with no real-world relevance that’s based on the iPod, not even the iPhone. Also, inherent in the notion of a film anthology with multiple directors is that the individual segments will have a unique style or sensibility. These all feel like anonymously made Internet sketches.
 

#1: BAD MILO

 

Sadly, the final SXSW film I saw was not only “worst of the fest,” but one of the lamest and least funny comedies I have ever seen. It was just called “Milo” then but it’s being released as “Bad Milo.” The basic premise is that a regular guy (played by Ken Marino) starts having horrible digestive problems brought about by stress. (Lots of pooping and farting.)
He later discovers that he has a demon he calls Milo living in his colon andMilo occasionally escapes his bowels and goes to seek vengeance on people who are causing our hero (whose name I forget) stress.
 
It’s literally an entire movie of shit and fart jokes. I would say “it’s 100 minutes of shit and fart jokes,” but I walked out after about an hour.
 
But check out the CAST!
– Ken Marino
– Gillian Jacobs (from “Community”)
– Stephen Root
– Peter Stormare
– Patrick Warburton
– Toby Huss

 

 
It’s unfathomable to me that all of these people would sign on to a movie whose sole joke is “a guy has to shit and fart a lot.” Seriously, there are no jokes other than “ha ha that guy is covered in shit” or “now he has to shit again” or “oh my god the monster is now covered in his shit” or “the monster is going up his ass! lolololololol!” Even at 13, I didn’t find shit and farting this funny, and after about 15 minutes, I hit poop joke fatigue.

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An Appreciation of 1990’s films by Ari Dassa

 

An Appreciation of 1990’s films

By Ari Dassa

 
I still think of the 1990’s in film as contemporary even though it’s not anymore.
 
I definitely spend more time with 90s movies than I do with stuff from the last 10 or 15 years. There’s been a ton of great work, but it’s never really reached the same level or had the same influence or effect on me.
 
I always like recommending films from this era to people.
 
So here’s some film that I feel are defining moments of the 1990’s in film for me.
 

The Thin Red Line

 
Directed by Terrence Malick
 

First up is this piece from Terrence Malick’s groundbreaking WWII stunner The Thin Red Line. This 9 minutes is pretty much a masterclass in filmmaking, especially from an editing standpoint. The way it builds, the perspective it gives on each side, the moments of quick-cut brutality and the lingering shots of the malnourished Japanese soldiers.
 
It’s incredible.
 
This is one of the few WWII films that refuses to have “bad guys”. The Japanese soldiers are portrayed as human, just as the Americans are, and this sequence shows the absurdity, confusion and ugliness of war in such a visceral, emotional way.
 
It’s also, for me, Hans Zimmer’s greatest moment as film composer. The voice-over throughout the film is poignant and powerful, like this ensemble internal monologue from all the characters. Scorsese said it best when discussing the film. “They are not many voices, they are one voice”. “The Thin Red Line” (1998) dir: Terrence Malick.

 

 

Clockers

 
Directed by Spike Lee
 

This is Spike Lee’s mastery all summed up in one scene.
 
Relevant commentary, personal storytelling, and brilliant cinematic technique to express it.
 
So so good.
 
Not sure why this film gets left out when discussing Spike’s best work.
 
It’s easily one of his best.

 

 

 

 

Casino

 
Directed by Martin Scorsese
 

 

 

A beast of a movie. A BEAST.
 
One could say it’s the 3rd installment of Martin Scorsese’s thematic gangster trilogy of Mean Streets, Goodfellas and this. And it’s as epic a conclusion as it gets. It often gets overlooked because Goodfellas came first and has a similar style, but make no mistake, it’s just as masterful and ambitious, not to mention bigger and darker.
 
It’s hard to choose one moment from this film. There’s the introduction to the Tangiers and how it operates, there’s the “Cheater’s Justice” scene, there’s the infamous “vice” scene that serves as the extreme of all extremes in showing the ugly violence of the mafia lifestyle….but I’m choosing this exchange between Pesci and De Niro because I love the back and forth dialogue and how vicious and funny it is (the film is darkly comic all the way through).
 
Pesci is a monster in this film and gives a monster performance.
 
Scorsese just has to make these awful people so damn likable though. Not because he’s glorifying them, but because he insists on portraying them as people with the same ups and downs as everyone else, but with a different moral outlook.
 

 

 

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

 
Directed by Jim Jarmusch
 

One of the most original films of the decade.
 

 

Forest Whitaker plays the title character, a quiet assassin who lives by the code of the Samurai. The East Coast vibe mixed with RZA’s soundtrack and use of rap music makes this a unique entry in the gangster film genre.
 
It’s written and directed by the always fascinating Jim Jarmusch. Nothing is ordinary in his films.
 
This film is extraordinary.

 

 

Naked

 
Directed by Mike Leigh
 

LISTEN to this movie a couple times to fully get it because there are so many ideas unleashed from beginning to end that it’s kinda overwhelming on the first viewing.
 
David Thewlis gives a performance here that goes down as one of my all time favorites. And it’s weird, because if a more famous actor did this role I’m pretty sure EVERYONE would recognize it as being a monumental moment in screen acting. His character doesn’t shut up, constantly spewing out thoughts and reflections about himself and the world in sometimes bleak, sometimes comical, often times incendiary fashion.
 
The film is darkly brilliant and impossible to shake. You have to watch it if you haven’t seen it. And just listen to it.

 

The Matrix

 
Directed by Lana & Andy Wachowski
 

 
This movie is my comfort food.
 
I’ve said this before…there is no other movie that mixes together my favorite escapist genres and ideas the way this one does. One has to have a twisted sci-fi premise, The film has martial arts sequences, It has the cyber-punk influence, the anime influence, the philosophical element that allows one to sit and think about it, the use of mythological references, AND the single best CGI action-effect ever.
 
It’s just awesome.
 
What’s original about the film is the way the blend of ideas turned out. All this stuff has been done before, but not like this. The Wachowskis call the film “fusion art”, and that’s probably the most accurate way to describe it.
 
It’s also the best action film of the ’90s, and still, to this day, has not been topped.
 
Fury Road gets close, but there’s still nothing quite as jaw-dropping as the first time we got a look at this sequence. Basically everything from the lobby shootout to when Neo saves Trinity in the helicopter crash is on another level of action spectacle and VFX.
 
Also worth pointing out…this film won an Oscar for Best Film Editing. And it is so so well earned. Because seriously….this:
 

The Player

 
Directed by Robert Altman

 

 

Can we talk about something other than Hollywood for a change? We’re educated people.

 

I’m posting the trailer for the film since there aren’t a lot of individual scenes in high quality on youtube. But this is one of the best dark comedies there is, and one of my favorite Altman films. It’s so sharp, funny, dark, well acted. The cast is enormous, but Tim Robbins really shines in the lead role as a Hollywood executive who kills a writer he thinks is threatening him, but of course it’s the wrong guy.
 
As far as Hollywood satires go, this is one of the best. There are a ton of fun cameos, but it’s not a gimmicky movie. Altman was such a smart filmmaker.
 
I’m trying to think if we have someone like him today…hmmm…coming up with…nope, no one.
 

 Magnolia

 
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
 

 
This sequence gets a lot of attention because of how out there it is, and even though it’s not my favorite moment in the film, it’s still a defining moment, a memorable one, a sequence you never forget from one of the most ambitious films of the ’90s.
 
What I still love about Magnolia is the energy of PTA’s writing and direction. We know it’s the work of a young film prodigy (he was 29, I believe, when he made this) and it bursts with creativity, emotion, amazing camerawork and a genuine love of the medium. The performances are excellent, the characters are people you identify with, the music is used so effectively. This is when PTA was still at that stage of mixing together his influences of Altman and Scorsese (and various others from the 70s), and interestingly enough, I feel like it’s because of this film that he went in a completely different direction with the rest of his career.
 
It’s like he got it out of his system with this film.
 
People debate whether they prefer young PTA vs who he is today. I just love his progression and how he continues to evolve. For me he became a complete original with his next film, Punch Drunk Love (2002), and then took his level to insane heights with his masterpiece, There Will Be Blood. The Master is also uniquely his own (though not my favorite), and Inherent Vice is a terrific blend of his and Pynchon’s sensibilities.
 
But back to “Magnolia”…this scene is kinda his version of the Earthquake scene in Altman’s Short Cuts, it’s just weirder.
 
Cause…frogs. There are frogs falling from the sky.
 
But it’s still wonderfully cinematic. Some directors like to announce their presence in every scene of their work as opposed to just letting the story unfold and being invisible to the audience. PTA’s name is stamped in BOLD in every scene of this film. But that’s what I like about it. In many ways it’s the culminating point of that group of 20-something filmmakers who emerged in the ’90s.
 

Saving Private Ryan

 
Directed by Steven Spielberg

 

 

As a standalone sequence, the opening 21 minutes is a masterpiece of filmmaking.
 
It’s probably the most intense depiction of WWII brutality as ever staged on film. It’s just a scary sequence. It’s hard for our generation to comprehend how horrifying it must have been to be a part of this war.
 
I can’t even imagine.
 
Spielberg doesn’t glorify or polish the violence. It’s just ugly. The rest of the film is very good, and it’s directed with amazing skill, but I can’t say it’s the best script he’s ever had. His direction is masterful though. Compared to The Thin Red Line, which was unfairly overshadowed in ’98 by the success of this film, it’s not as psychologically or philosophically deep as that film, but it’s definitely more of a visceral, nerve-shaking experience.

 

Eyes Wide Shut

 
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
 

 

This is THE scene from this strange and mesmerizing final masterpiece by Stanley Kubrick. It’s funny how the hype for this movie was about how sexy it would be because it’s got Tom Cruise! Nicole Kidman! There’s an orgy!
 
And then when you finally get to the orgy scene it’s actually one of the spookiest, craziest, WTF moments in film history. The theatricality of it is incredible.
 
The entire sequence feels like something out of a gothic opera, especially when Cruise is finally confronted and forced to remove his mask. It’s just eerie.
 
Eyes Wide Shut is my #1 film of the ’90s, and I’ve often told people it’s quite possibly my favorite movie of all time.
 
I’ve watched it more times than any other movie, and it’s not because it has my favorite plot or favorite characters. It’s not because of the dialogue or writing, although it is superb. It’s not even because of the acting, which is also masterful by everyone involved. It’s just the way the movie is made. The FEEL of it, the pace, the visual storytelling.
 
It’s one of, if the not the most atmospheric movie I’ve ever seen. It’s dreamy, it’s nightmarish, it’s surreal, it’s operatic, it’s noir-ish, it’s just…ORIGINAL. It’s so damn original.
 
This is why Kubrick is Kubrick.
 
There’s no other film like this one. Nobody else in their right mind would EVER approach the subject matter of this story or shoot this script the way Kubrick did. I love the use of color. I love the framing. I love the zoom shots. The detail and level of control and mastery of filmmaking is from another planet. The viewer can watch this film on mute and it’s going to still be a captivating cinematic experience.
 
And also, something that isn’t talked about enough with EWS. It’s hilarious.
 
I’ve never agreed with the “cold” label he gets. This film certainly isn’t cold at all. There’s a devilish sense of humor that runs through the entire film right down to the final line. Cruise and Kidman are extraordinary here. The film is simply as cinematic as cinema gets.

 

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Seeing the finish line...

One of the many questions I've asked myself during this trying time was "Why did this happen?"

Of course the simple answer would be "Why not?"

But to put things a little more in perspective. Testicular cancer is considered to be a very rare form of cancer. Only 1% of cancers in males. Even more rare for Asian-americans. Overall 1 in 270 males have a chance to acquire the disease and almost half of all cases happen to men between the ages of 20 and 34.

So...lucky me?

After being diagnosed, my thoughts and memories often turned to all the loved ones that passed away from cancer.  I mourned their loss again. I longed for their counsel. I shared in their fear.  I'm sure there were moments in their diagnosis where they felt similar to me.

Feelings of fear, turning to sheer terror,  alternating with hope, then eventual acceptance.

How did they feel and what did they think as they reached the finish line of life?

I admit I still have fears and worries, but I'm finding them increasingly manageable as the days go by.

I guess if people were on the outside looking in at my situation,  if there is a  kind of cancer to get, the preferable one would be the one with an over 90% survival rate.

I'm still a bit worried that because of the kind of insurance coverage that I have. I won't have access to premium services. Short cuts might be made in my case when in other situations they wouldn't. Just getting my tumor removed required a bit of jerry rigging of the system. The specifics I rather not disclose. But I have to trust my doctors. They have covered for me this far.

At this point. I'm feeling positive about my prognosis. My tests all came back clean. CT scan showed no abnormalities. X-rays were clear. Blood tests were negative. The mass is now removed and no longer in my body. I'm hoping that it stayed isolated. I have a follow up with my urologist in a couple of weeks to discuss my treatment options.

My next step is possibly one dose of chemotherapy and or a radiation treatment, then I will have to observe and have periodic checkups every three months.

The drawback is that this will be for the next 5 to 10 years.

The most prominent issue I'm dealing with now is dealing with the loss of a testicle. Some occasional nausea. I spent so much time focusing on survival, I didn't really stop to consider the idea of losing a physical part of me. An important part of me.

Men spend their lives protecting that area. It's ingrained in us since we are little. Even wearing a cup in little league and a jock strap in sports to support that area. It's comical to think about the idea but it's true.

That area represents a man's virility, health and sexuality.

Does losing a testicle make me less of a man? Will my testosterone be too low? Will my sexual performance suffer? Will my peers view me differently knowing that I only have one testicle?

It's funny when you consider these things out loud. Of course the answer to all these concerns are probably no.

At least I hope they are.

But these are my honest fleeting thoughts. They were especially prominent before my surgery.

Post surgery, physically I feel fine.  I admit that there exists a strange feeling now. To have an empty space where there used to be something. Nerve endings that weren't previously exposed are now touching each other. I find myself adjusting often. Hopefully I won't do this too much unconsciously in public.

It's also clear I'm also gonna have to transition from boxers to boxer briefs. I'm acutely more conscious about what is going on down there now. I'm promising myself to not procrastinate about physical ailments.

Which brings us back to HOW did I get this disease? The traditional causes of cancer are not part of my lifestyle.  Cancer is not in my immediate family. I don't smoke. I rarely drink alcohol anymore. Don't experiment with drugs. It's been years since I've even had a hit of Marijuana. I like to think I live a relatively stress free lifestyle, although the idea of having four kids under the age of 7 may seem stressful to others.

I was able to come up with three possibilities. As far fetched as it sounds.

My first theory is my fondness for junk food. Erin is a supporter of this theory. And she is using this as an opportunity to change my diet and lifestyle. She's been after me for years to be more conscious of my diet and often has encouraged me to exercise more.

It's time to take up her flag. I can't fight her on this anymore. The truth is getting cancer has given her all the ammunition she needs.

Theory 2:  Radiation from Japan's Nuclear disaster.

Yeah... I know it's absurd. But I'm clutching at straws here.

And my final theory... radiation from my cellphone.

I keep my cellphone in my right front pocket. I've been doing it for years. I've observed  my phone overheating in the past while in my pocket and I've often wondered what harmful effects that the overheating and low level radiation may cause. Maybe whatever causes cancer was in me already and the overheating and radiation just triggered it?

I know it sounds ridiculous. As I said, it's a theory.

Whatever the cause of my my testicular mass. The truth is it doesn't matter.

I have had it in me, it's been removed and I will continue to fight the effects from it. My life will never be the same again.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

If there is a positive to take away from all this it's that this has made me more conscious of how precious life is.

It's made me see the finish line.

At the risk of sounding overly sentimental. It's made me appreciate my life more. My friendships. My family. I hug my kids a little tighter now. Made me more appreciative of Erin and our relationship.  I'm trying to not sweat the little things as much.  I'd like to think that it's given me a sharper perspective on what's important.

I know that this is just the beginning of this cancer challenge. But I can see the finish of this chapter. I'm confident I will beat this.

I'm also hoping it makes me a better person at the end. And lead to an overall better life for me and my family

I admit... I'm still scared. But I can see the finish line.

Not the scary kind of finish line though. The kind that features a victory celebration at the finish with all my friends and family.

Here are a couple of Testicular cancer facts I want to share. Hopefully it will inspire someone to take action. Maybe save someone some anxiety.


Most lumps or bumps down there are relatively harmless and tend not to be cancer. Some of the more common causes for testicular pain or swelling are infections, hernias, hydroceles and varicoceles.

The symptoms for testicular cancer also don't appear to be alarming at first. Many times there is no pain. The most common symptom is a painless lump. Sometimes it can be accompanied by a heavy or aching feeling in the lower belly or scrotum.

I can confirm that the feeling that I experienced was not alarming. In fact if it wasn't for straining my back moving a kiddie pool of water, I probably wouldn't have suspected anything. I actually  thought that my symptoms pointed to my condition being a hernia.

Some of the risk factors which contribute to testicular cancer are an undescended testicle, family history of testicular cancer,  HIV infection and carcinoma in situ. But since testicular cancer is so rare there isn't really an effective study which reveals notable risk factors.

Remember according to citations from Wikipedia:

Testicular cancer has one of the highest cure rates of all cancers: in excess of 90 percent overall; almost 100 percent if it has not spread (metastasized). Even for the relatively few cases in which malignant cancer has spread widely, modern chemotherapy offers a cure rate of at least 80%.

Don't wait! The sooner you deal with it the better! 

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