These may not be the 100 “best” films I’ve ever seen … though most of them are. However, if I’m going to be alone somewhere with only 100 films, these are the ones that will either put a smile on my face or give me lots to think about. It’s a combination of the highest cinematic art and the most delicious cinematic junk food. Of course, I reserve the option to revisit / revise this list in another year.
| Aliens |
| Almost Famous |
| American Psycho |
| At Close Range |
| Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession |
| Badlands |
| Bamboozled |
| Being John Malkovich |
| Beyond the Valley of the Dolls |
| Big Lebowski, The |
| Blue Velvet |
| Boogie Nights |
| Boyhood |
| Brazil |
| Breaking the Waves |
| Bully (2001) dir. Larry Clark |
| Capturing the Friedmans |
| Carrie |
| Casino |
| Clockwork Orange, A |
| Coal Miner’s Daughter |
| Crimes and Misdemeanors |
| Crumb |
| Dazed and Confused |
| Deer Hunter, The |
| E.T. The Extra Terrestrial |
| Ed Wood |
| Escape from New York |
| Face in the Crowd, A |
| Falcon and the Snowman, The |
| Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas |
| Female Trouble |
| Fight Club |
| Fourth Man, The |
| Ghost World |
| Godfather, The |
| Goodfellas |
| Great Santini, The |
| Happiness |
| Hard Boiled |
| Hardcore |
| High Fidelity |
| Hollywood Knights, The |
| Hopscotch |
| Hot Tub Time Machine |
| Husbands and Wives |
| Inglourious Basterds |
| Inside Out |
| Irreversible |
| King of Comedy |
| L.A. Confidential |
| Love Actually |
| M*A*S*H |
| Mad Max |
| Mad Max Fury Road |
| Magnolia |
| Malcolm X |
| Miller’s Crossing |
| Mulholland Dr. |
| Nashville |
| Nobody’s Fool (1994) dir. Robert Benton |
| North Dallas Forty |
| Out of Sight |
| Out of the Blue (1980) dir. Dennis Hopper |
| Over the Edge |
| Performance |
| Pink Floyd The Wall |
| Pulp Fiction |
| Putney Swope |
| Quadrophenia |
| Raiders of the Lost Ark |
| Repo Man |
| Reservoir Dogs |
| Robocop |
| Royal Tenenbaums, The |
| Salvador |
| Scarface |
| Searchers, The |
| Serious Man, A |
| Seven Beauties |
| Short Cuts |
| Slap Shot |
| Sorcerer |
| Straw Dogs |
| Stuntman, The |
| Summer of Sam |
| Talk Radio |
| Taxi Driver |
| Thief |
| This is 40 |
| This is Spinal Tap |
| True Romance |
| Usual Suspects, The |
| Velvet Goldmine |
| Videodrome |
| Wanderers, The |
| Wolf of Wall Street |
| Wonderland (2003) dir. James Cox |
| Z |
| Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession |
Dave's Strange World 
Never one to shy away from the obvious I’ll begin with the faux outrage any list sets itself up for. What ! No “Amarcord”, no “Cutter’s Way”. You could strike “Love Actually” for “Kes” or “Dead Men’s Shoes”.
I caught Paul Schrader’s “Dying of the Light” recently. Taken out of his hands by the producers, disowned by everyone involved, I still enjoyed the movie & there’s probably a really good version somewhere that we will never see. If I ever meet Irene Jacob (Three Colours:Red”…another one !) I really should ask her about it but I’d more likely lose the power of speech !
Great list.
You got me! That’s why I’ll soon be publishing a list of 100 films that I’m sneaking onto the desert island in a couple of jump drives no one knows about.
In retrospect, as much as I like Schrader’s “Hardcore,” I wish I would’ve substituted “Autofocus” which epitomizes Schrader’s obsessions, but with the cynical, and darkly satirical perspective of a survivor who has “been there, done that.” It’s a film that seems better each time I see it: darkly depressing, but also hysterically funny. I’ll need to check out “Dying of the Light,” but I want to see “The Canyons” first, because I’m a huge fan of Schrader and Bret Easton Ellis. By the way, I highly recommend Ellis’s podcast. It’s a love it or hate it affair and the haters have dogpiled on it in a way that’s almost comical. But I’m a huge fan.
“The Canyons” has taken such a critical battering that I have had second thoughts about recommending it to even devotees of Schrader. Maybe I’m wrong about it. It’s such a wilfully strange movie but I remember, as, from your list, so do you, when this was not regarded as a bad thing. More proof that the evil Lohan twin got rid of nice Lindsay sometime after the wrap of “The Parent Trap” (There were two of them in that).
I would put you on to “Maps to the Stars” (again). A director on top of his game, chilling & throwing you the way only Cronenberg can. I’ll check out the Ellis podcast.
On the list…did you miss the 2 from the end of “Hot Tub Time Machine” ? Probably not !