“Cinema is an old whore, like circus and variety, who knows how to give many kinds of pleasure.”

-Federico Fellini.

And here we continue with part three of our films that we love, and perhaps even adore, that we feel should make the jump over to the Criterion Collection, if, for no other reason, just to make ourselves a little happier. But here we stay closer to home with some more of our domestic picks…

August Bravo: Cool Hand Luke, 1967, directed by Stuart Rosenberg.

I don’t really expect much controversy on why I chose this. Rewind back to my teen years: I would wander around Blockbuster ineccessantly looking for movies. Movies I’ve never heard of. I don’t know why I did this, I just don’t anymore. After a while, I could literally do this at work. This movie struck my eye though in my life up until this point the only mention of Paul Newman I’d heard of was the salad dressing.

But after watching this movie the first time I didn’t know what to think. Luke was the first character I’d ever seen written so cool. Not a car in the world. What a way to go to prison to bust the heads off parking meters. I couldn’t think of a better way. Whether it was eating eggs, having a cool hand, or getting your ass beat without giving up, Luke lived the way others did not. In a house of prisoners, he had no regrets. A shame the only Oscar this movie won was for the supporting actor, Dragline. A great performance, yes, but Luke owned this movie. You couldn’t take your eyes off of him. Spawning one of AFI’s most famous quotes, “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” The most notable scenes, or my favorites anyway, were the ones in the prison themselves, with the most banter and best dialogue. The movie was re-released last year, shortly before Newman’s death, but it was in fact not a Criterion. I don’t ever see it becoming one, probably due to it’s popularity and lack of special footage, but that’s fine. The film will still go down as one of Newman’s best performances.

Marco Sparks: Network, 1976, directed by Sidney Lumet.

Do I even need to explain this?

I hate to use the word satire more than once (and I do use it again in this post) but this movie is a perfect example of satire done right, perfecting showing you a world very much like ours, and very much like ours will become. In fact, the only detriment to this entering the Criterion collection to me is that it still feels a little too fresh. Maybe in another ten years it’d be more than perfect.

I’d like to tell you that this is in my top 5 films of all time, but more than that, it’s probably in my top 3. Easily. I could probably go on forever here if prodded.

August: American Psycho, 2000, directed by Mary Harron and based on the novel of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis.

You’re crazy if you didn’t think I was going to go with this one. While some out there think this is my favorite movie, it’s not. It is neither the most quotable. No, this is the movie that makes me feel the best about myself. Why? I can’t tell you that. I’m sure you can probably assume though. I got a certain affirmation for this film after I read the novel.  While the book has it’s moments, the movie is chalk full of them and Christian Bale was perfectly cast as Patrick Bateman. I’m almost curious to see how Leonardo DiCaprio would have fared, having almost nabbed the role himself. It starts the same way it ends, which is something I enjoy in movies. Just because you sit down and watch something for an hour and a half doesn’t mean something should be learned or should change. Change is hard to deal with and hard to accept. While many people refuse to believe that the things happening in this movie are real, I most certainly do. The constant confusion with who’s who leads me to believe that Patrick Bateman isn’t suffering from amnesia or schizophrenia. What he’s doing is actually real. I’m sure Bret Easton Ellis wanted this to be debated, as well as Mary Harron, the director.

That is by far one of the most fascinating things about the film right there, that a woman directed it. Not that a woman can’t direct, but that one made such a foul and emotional film towards women.

Marco: Mary Harron does an amazing job with the direction here, as done the screenwriter, Guinevere Turner (who’s hot, btw)(not that it matters, but still)(and has a cameo in the film), with the translating of the book to the screen. But I think you could make the argument that had this movie been done in the hands of a man, it’d be much more likely seen as celebrating the misogynistic violence that some felt the story was entirely about, but in these two very capable ladies’ hands, it comes out nicely as really adept satire.

August: I find something new and interesting about this film every time I watch it. The supporting actors and actresses are also amazing. It’s hard for me to comprehend how they got such a stellar cast to do this movie. Everything seems like it’s done with such restraint. And restraint, especially in movies, is a difficult thing to achieve. I know this will never make it to Criterion status, but it sure is nice to dream.

Marco: August and I probably have one more of these left in us, so we’ll see you in the next few days. Catch you then.