"Top five favorite movies . . . GO!"

I've been challenged twice this week --- first, to update this blog more frequently or abandon it, and second, to name my top five favorite films. So I will now address both challenges (except that I'll go one furhter and name 10 films).

Click back on the links and you'll find that on June 11, I listed my top 10 favorite dramas with some short commentary. I'll use that same format today, and hopefully soon revisit this theme with favorite comedies, foreign films, horror films, etc.

10. "Taxi Driver" --- Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro are at the top of their game in this gritty, amazing study of urban decay, which hasn't lost any of its impact over the years.

9. "Red" --- As I stated in my previous posting, this film reminds me of why I love movies.

8. "Bitter Moon" --- This comes cautiously but zealously recommended, if that's possible. Perverse, pessimistic, and powerful.

7. "Stranger Than Paradise" --- Jim Jarmusch's first feature-length film is a slow-paced, black-and-white comedy that you will probably either love, or be frustrated by because of its pacing. It is one of my two or three favorite comedies and stands up to repeated viewings --- at least on my part.

6. "Manhattan" --- My favorite Woody Allen film. We all should have one, whatever your political position is on the man himself. If it makes it easier for you, this was very much pre-Soon Yi . . . although the artistic groundwork is laid for life imitating art. But if you can get past that, you'll be rewarded with a rich comedy about relationships and Allen's usual love for New York City.

5. "The Fourth Man" --- Surreal, mysterious, and erotic --- a winning combination. Bordering on being a horror movie, definitely an art-house film, this Dutch production shows how good a filmmaker Paul Verhoeven was before coming to Hollywood.

4. "Exotica" --- At this point in Atom Egoyan's career, I considered him to be Canada's version of David Lynch (meant in a complimentary way). This film is a multilayered, enigmatic marvel, plus you get to see Mia Kirshner dance in a Catholic schoolgirl outfit to a Leonard Cohen song at a strip club. High art and base titillation all in one!

3. "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover" --- Peter Greenaway's audacious modern twist on Jacobean revenge tragedies is as beautiful as it is brutal. The color of characters' clothes change as they move from room to room, and Greenaway treats the set pieces as masterful paintings come to life. Characters are also smeared with feces and killed slowly in novel manners. You may want to pass on a heavy dinner before, or popcorn during, this film.

2. "Blue Velvet" --- Similar in tone to "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover," the setting here is the dark underbelly of small-town America. This is strong stuff that polarizes viewers. David Lynch's finest hour?

1. "Withnail and I" --- Two starving actors from London go "on holiday by mistake" in this great comedy. Richard E. Grant turns in a bravura performance as the self-absorbed, obscenity-spewing Withnail.