The Film I like Most by ________ _______ and Why!

[soixante]

I liked Vanilla Sky.  It was cool to see Crowe try something different.  It reminded me of Waking Life.

[SiliasRuby]

Paul Thomas Anderson: Magnolia-for the great honest writing, the entanged stories and for the sheer wonderful performances of the whole cast especially Tom, William H. Macy, and Julianne

Wes Anderson: The Royal tenenbaums-Ben Stiller and Gyweneth Paltrow never fit better and New york never looked cooler

Coen's-The Big Lebowski-The petty argruments. "It's like Lenin said-" "I am the walrus"

Crowe-Tie between Almost Famous and Elizabethtown, for it's poitancy

David Fincher-Fight Club- The experience of being inside of a skitzo Multiple Personality Disorder

Kubrick-Eyes Wide Shut-Nicole and Tom's Pot smoking Scene and the beautiful compositions done by Kubrick

David Lynch-Blue Velvet-First Film I saw by lynch and it grabs me every time.

Martin Scorsese-After Hours-One of best, most crazy black comedy's I've ever seen.

Soderbergh-Traffic-My second Fav. movie about drugs. The other being requiem for a dream.

Spielburg-1941 For Akyroyd, Belushi, the rest of the great comedic cast and the madness about it.

Tarantino-Pulp Fiction-The one movie I wasn't able to see until I was 15

Oliver Stone-JFK Director's Cut-The Cast, the obsession of Garrison, and the way oliver presents it as a strait up murder mystery.

Godard-Band of Outsiders

Truffaut-Shoot the piano player

Fellini-La Dolce Vita

Solondz-Happiness

[soixante]

Woody Allen -- Annie Hall, because it is funny and serious and romantic.

Alan Pakula -- All The President's Men, because Nixon only appears in archive footage.  No cross-cuting to the Oval Office.  No love interests for either Woodward or Bernstein.  These guys are just too busy for that.  Also, 30 years on, it is interesting to note how difficult it was to obtain information in the pre-internet age.  There's a scene in which Woodward has to look through shelves of phone books from across the U.S. to ascertain whether a particular name has a listing somewhere.    Plus, they use typewriters and smoke in the office (and in the elevator -- Woodward to Bernstein:  "Is there any place you don't smoke?")  What makes the film great is what it didn't do as much as what it did do -- there is no scene with reporters cheering and drinking champagne while watching Nixon resign.  No big Bruckheimer-esque high-fivin' scene with Aerosmith on the soundtrack.

Mike Nichols -- Carnal Knowledge.  Before La Bute, before Closer, there was this (very) dark look at relationships.  Like All The President's Men, the style is very low key (especially the end).  Nichols takes a very clinical distance from all the emotional upheaval going on.

Sam Peckinpah -- Straw Dogs.  I love The Wild Bunch, but the claustrophobic feeling of this film is highly effective.  Dustin Hoffman is brilliant as an academic type who has to get in touch with his animal instincts in order to survive.  (This is similar to Deliverance, in which genteel upper middle class men find themselves in a life or death situation and must rise to the occasion or die).  I love how the suspense ratchets up slowly but surely in this film, until it becomes almost unbearable.  In addition, people have widely varying interpretations about this movie.  I watched it with one guy who felt that Hoffman's inability to get fit in to the insular culture of the village caused all the problems.  There are some who sees parallels to Vietnam, with an American with supposedly good intentions interposing himself in a local dispute and causing more damage than would have occurred otherwise.

[SiliasRuby]

Sydney Pollack-The Firm-The music alone for this film, makes you want to anticipate what is going to happen next.

[©brad]

talk about random.

[godardian]

Robert Altman - 3 Women TIED w/ Thieves Like Us.

Speaking of which, WHERE is the Thieves Like Us DVD?? Criterion???

[samsong]

Paul Thomas Anderson - Punch-Drunk Love
unlikely chemistry between adam sandler and emily watson, tati influenced, kubrick-esque cinematography, doesn't miss a beat... his most perfect film

Wes Anderson - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
watching an artist challenge (or indulge) himself is always a joy.  great ensemble work.  looks really good.  i like stop motion.

The Coen Brothers - Barton Fink
the best movie about writing ever.  one of the strangest films as well. 

Cameron Crowe - Almost Famous
because nothing else he's made is good. when they sing "tiny dancer" in the bus?  fantastic.

David Fincher - Fight Club
dark and funny as hell, if a little blatant.  really abrasive, and sometimes i like that.  hopefully i outgrow it.  or maybe i already have.

Stanley Kubrick - The Shining
it's scary.

David Lynch - Mulholland Dr.
tits!

Martin Scorsese - Taxi Driver
after living in new york for a year, this film takes on a whole new resonance for me.

Steven Soderbergh - Traffic
it steals a lot from Battle of Algiers (according to soderbergh), and that's cool.  a tough film that doesn't assault the audience... beautifully crafted.

Steven Spielberg - War of the Worlds
for now... i really liked it, despite its obvious flaws/plot holes/etc. etc.  his darkest film to date.

Quentin Tarantino - Jackie Brown
because it's the only tarantino film that's still really good when i'm away from it.


some others...

Robert Bresson - Au hasard balthazar
because it's the greatest movie ever made.

Howard Hawks - To Have and Have Not
sharp sharp sharp, impressively modern, love bogie and bacall... an absolute joy to watch them collide for the first time--sexy.  prefer this to Casablanca.

Robert Altman - McCabe & Mrs. Miller
poetic and painterly, and the last shot confuses me, thus leading me to assume that it's profound. 

Yasujiro Ozu - An Autumn Afternoon
it's the last one i saw.

Terrence Malick - ... picking a favorite would make my head explode.