5-Star Movies: The finale!

Ta da! I have passed the 1500 mark on my Netflix ratings! I wonder if I will ever make the 2000 mark while a member of Netflix. Things to look forward to!

Are we ready for the rest of the 5-star list?


Moulin Rouge! (Luhrmann, 2001)
Satine is a turn-of-the-20th-century parisian showgirl. She doesn't think love is for her until dreamer, Christian, comes along.
Music and excess. Beautiful, bold excess. The colors alone are spectacular. First musical in a long time to incorporate contemporary music as well.

My Fair Lady (Cukor, 1964)
Pompous Henry Higgins thinks he can transform a gutter girl into a princess without any ramifications. "Just you wait 'enry 'iggins! Just you wait!"
Another great musical. Audrey Hepburn is one of most magical people to ever have been captured by celluloid. Too bad they overdubbed her voice on the songs. There is some authenticity lost there.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Coen, 2000)
In this take on Homer's Odyssey, three goofy, escaped cons are on a quest. They bumble and fumble along through some oddly mythical landscape.
Absolutely delightful. Wonderful, creative, and expressive use of color. The writing is terrific.

Pleasantville (Ross, 1998)
Two modern-day kids get sucked into a 50s TV show and begin to colorize the B&W world.
Also very expressive use of color. The film uses racism and integration as a metaphor for the coming of knowledge into a culture; how that can be met with resistence, and how it also spreads. Clever.

Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954)
A wheelchair-bound man begins to do a little neighbor-watching. His voyeurism becomes an obsession when he imagines that one neighbor has killed his wife. Thank goodness it is just imagination, or is it?
One of Hitch's best. To me this really talks about our (spectators) own voyeuristic obsession. Brilliant.

Run Lola Run (Tykwer, 1998)
A girl must find money for her boyfriend before he is killed by loan sharks. But she only has a limited amount of time. If she's going to save him, she's gotto book!
Another one that really plays with alternative structures. The story is hacked up and retold and retold, and it really works!

The Seventh Seal (Bergman, 1957)
Heavy swedish film that deals with questions of life and mortality. Replete with symbolic imagery
Deep and fantastic. How can you not love a film that has its lead playing chess with Death himself. (Yes this is the basis of the Death character in Bill & Ted.)

Shakespeare in Love (Madden, 1998)
An ironic look at what Shakespeare's life might have been like. (Especially if all of his plays were actually extrapolated from his real life.)
I am a Shakespeare nerd. Every play I have ever read of his is referenced in this movie. And yet it remains an accessible and fun film.

The Sixth Sense (Shyamalan, 1999)
A psychiatrist tries to help a child who has a terrifying secret: (whisper) he sees dead people!
OK it's all cliché now, but it blew our minds when it first came out. The ultimate king of cop-out twist endings, but one that is really good.

Tarnation (Caouette, 2003)
A memoir told through the memorabilia of one man's life (video, answering machine messages, photos.)
One of the very most creative and intensely honest films ever made. Absolutely, painfully astonishing.

Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)
An obsessed man sees a woman's death. Later, he can't shake his memories of her.
Without a doubt this is Hitch at his absolute, most nuanced finest. If you don't love this movie, you're nuts.

Whale Rider (Caro, 2002)
A girl struggles for acceptance in an extremely patriarchal society.
I was avoiding this one for a long time because I was afraid it was going to be an independent Free Willy. I am glad someone finally made me see it, because it was so astonishing I almost gave up any dreams of making a film myself. (Why bother, someone has already achieved perfection!)

There ya go!
That's my list for now. I am sure I will have more additions when I hit the 2000 mark.

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