With all the rewrites, test screenings, and last-minute edits, it's amazing that any film
gets made at all.
But every so often, everything lines up just perfectly.
Bring together the right screenplay with the right director, cast, and crew, and you just
might get a perfect film.
These movies are few and far between, but when they come along, you know right away
you've found a flawless film.
Mulholland Drive
Explaining the plot of Mulholland Drive is like trying to describe a deep and disturbing
dream; it leaves you emotional and confused in equal measure.
Director David Lynch uses the film to explore the darker aspects of Hollywood and how often
our grand goals give way to despair.
While you're sifting through all this dream logic, Lynch keeps you glued to the screen
with mesmerizing sequences like Naomi Watts' Betty turning standard movie audition dialogue
into something genuinely chilling:
"You're playing a dangerous game here.
If you're trying to blackmail me, it's not going to work.
It's no wonder that in 2016, the BBC named this surrealist masterpiece the greatest film
of the 21st century.
"Il n'est pas d'orchestra.
It.
Is.
An illusion.
Manchester by the Sea
Written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea tells the story of Lee
Chandler, an irritable janitor forced to return to his hometown to look after his nephew following
the loss of his brother.
We don't want to give away too much of the plot, but there's a reason that going home
is the last thing Lee wants to do.
Every sight and sound reminds him of something truly tragic that happened years ago, an event
so horrible that he might never recover.
Casey Affleck won an Oscar for his performance as Lee, as did Lonergan for Best Original
Screenplay, and the two truly deserved their accolades.
Every gesture Affleck makes, every line he doesn't say, aches with pain.
And while the film is full of uncomfortably comic moments, Manchester by the Sea grapples
with grief in a way that most movies wouldn't dare.
It's a beautifully brutal film about living with pain forever.
The Witch
One of the most disturbing horror movies in recent memory, The Witch tells the story of
a Puritan family fighting for their lives when a supernatural force attacks their isolated
farmhouse.
Director Robert Eggers spent four years studying the Puritan lifestyle and reading firsthand
accounts of demonic possession in order to write the script as accurately as possible.
He also got super involved when it came to sets and props: the costumes were hand-sewn,
and the furniture was built just like the Puritans used to do it.
Eggers wanted everything perfect, and it certainly shows in the actual movie; by paying so much
attention to the little details in every scene, the film fully immerses viewers in the nightmarish
setting.
Even besides all the props and research, Eggers managed to get incredible performances from
the child actors, and somehow found the scariest goat to ever put on film.
"Black Phillip, antlers on his head! Black Phillip, Black Phillip..."
And if a movie can make livestock scary, you know you've got an instant horror classic
on your hands.
The Grand Budapest Hotel
In retrospect, it seems like Wes Anderson's entire career was building up to The Grand
Budapest Hotel.
It's the perfect blend of all things Anderson, from his meticulous world-building and witty
dialogue to the melancholy air that hovers over all of his films.
The plot involves a lobby boy named Zero, played by Tony Revolori, who comes to work
for the flamboyant and foul-mouthed Monsieur Gustave at the Grand Budapest Hotel.
As with most Anderson movies, a plot summary doesn't capture the unique wit and unmistakable
cinematography that makes Grand Budapest so appealing.
"What else?"
"Zero.
Confused."
"Zero.
Confused, indeed.
The plot thickens, as they say.
Why, by the way, is it a soup metaphor?"
With a brilliant lead performance from Ralph Fiennes as Gustave, The Grand Budapest Hotel
is a fanciful breath of fresh air.
It's proof that style and substance can go hand-in-hand.
Creed
Ryan Coogler's Creed isn't just a great Rocky sequel, it's a great movie all on its own.
Michael B. Jordan puts in a jaw-dropping performance as Adonis Creed, the son of the late great
champ Apollo Creed.
Adonis is eager to fight and desperate to prove himself, and he turns to the legendary
Rocky Balboa for help.
As Adonis boxes his way to a title shot, director Ryan Coogler builds on the franchise mythology
in exciting ways.
And then there's the moment when Adonis goes to battle the champ, and the famous Rocky
theme starts playing in the greatest nostalgia-fueled moment of the last 20 years.
Jordan is on his A-game here, giving us a hero who's not a Rocky Balboa clone but a
young man with his own issues and dreams.
Creed was an underdog movie that defied everyone's expectations, and it can hold its own as one
of the greatest sequels of all time.
Silence
In 1988, Martin Scorsese took a new look at the Gospels with The Last Temptation of Christ,
and nearly 30 years later, Scorsese returned to religion with Silence, a movie about a
man's crisis of faith when it seems he's been forsaken by God.
The plot involves two Jesuit priests played by Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver, who sneak
into Japan to find a missing mentor who has supposedly abandoned his faith.
When Garfield's priest is captured, he finds himself confronted with a difficult decision:
Recant his faith and risk damnation, or watch as his fellow Christians are tortured to death.
"Think of the suffering you have inflicted on these people, all because of your selfish
dream of a Christian Japan."
Silence is beautifully shot by Rodrigo Prieto, who contrasts the beauty of Japan with the
brutality of crucified men drowning in the sea.
Ultimately, Silence explores the nature of faith: how it can inspire both hope and cruelty,
how it can rip apart lives and give others the strength to soldier on.
Get Out
As Jordan Peele famously said on Colbert Report The Late Show, Get Out is a documentary.
"You've submitted this to the Golden Globes as a comedy."
"I submitted it as a documentary."
It's a fictional version of the horrors black people experience every day in America.
The story follows a young black photographer named Chris, played wonderfully by Daniel
Kaluuya who goes to meet his white girlfriend's family.
From the moment he shows up at their estate, everything seems off, and it's hard to tell
if it's casual racism or something more overtly sinister.
This is Peele's directorial debut, but he shows himself to be a master at drawing out
the tension until everything explodes in a bloody mess of jiu-jitsu, tea cups, and deer
antlers.
Although Peele is best-known for his comedic work on Key and Peele, Get Out shows that
he's even better at terrifying an audience than he was at making people laugh.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Michel Gondry is a director known for his whimsical imagination.
Charlie Kaufman is a screenwriter known for his witty pessimism.
When the two combined their cinematic powers for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,
they created an all-time great romance that took a long, hard look at the ugly side of
love and how relationships actually work.
"I've been thinking lately of how I was before and how I am now and it's like he changed
me.
I feel like I'm always pissy now.
I don't like myself when I'm with him, I don't like myself anymore."
This inventive romance skips through time and memories, as Jim Carrey's Joel re-experiences
the memories of his failed relationship.
The film doesn't ignore the pain and pitfalls of making a relationship work, and by examining
the different stages of romance, this is a movie that changes and grows with each and
every viewing.
"This is it Joel.
It's going to be gone soon."
"I know."