Part 1: 50 Films You Should See, Maybe, If You Want To

Jesse Balzer and I took up two hours of our lives compiling a list of films you must see. The original title was “50 Films You Must See Before You Die” but that’s a little too morbid for my liking. We’ll be posting all fifty in groups of ten and hopefully it won’t resemble the lists you’ve seen a billion times before. [You can view the rest of this list by choosing a section at the bottom of this page.]

50. Eraserhead
It is so rare to find a film which matches so well you’re current interests and studies, and supplements them perfectly, maybe even encapsulates them and makes them clearer than before. So it was with me. I was very interested in the artwork and writings of surrealism at the time. I loved the fact that I often times had no clear way to explain what I had seen or read. Too often in art we are guided so completely as to make us a completely passive audience, and we become nothing more than a pair of eyes in a darkened hall, taking in everything we see with a minimal amount of resistance. Then I read about Eraserhead, and I started a Netflix account immediately so I could watch it.

Like many effective works of art, it begins simply, it draws you in and plants you in a real or semi-real setting, and from there it is an easy task to manipulate and confuse a theater. My opinion of David Lynch’s work has only gone down from here, as I feel that he is far too full of himself to make another strong and influential film like this one (not to mention his increasing hatred for modern technology), but I admire Eraserhead for its strength in both confounding understanding and producing images as they are intended to be.
- Jesse Balzer

49. Grizzly Man
This is the only documentary that ended up making this list of 50 films. Besides my undying hatred for lists that don’t feature a single documentary, I felt this deserved a spot just for Werner Herzog’s extreme attention to detail. He not only tells the story of Timothy Treadwell, he examines Treadwell just like a scientist studies how leaves turn carbon dioxide into oxygen.

You learn that people have mixed feelings on what Treadwell has done for a good portion of his life. Was his work really helping Grizzly Bears or was it harming them more than he knew? One of the key elements to any documentary is a good subject topic and Grizzly Man delivers in spades. There’s also an immense amount of beautiful photography from both Herzog and Treadwell (even though, as the film points out, Treadwell’s is more by accident.) It’s an appropriate placement for a film that is bound to illuminate your mind.
- Daniel Frohlich

48. American Psycho
I love American Psycho because I think as a film it clearly polarizes audiences into two distinct groups: those who get it, and those who don’t. That may sound naïve, but I’ll take that risk. Clearly, from my own personal experience, not everyone will watch this movie the same way. Many people (people who I think “get” the film’s meaning and purpose) find the movie at the very least satirical, usually hilarious, and at times disturbing in the same way A Clockwork Orange or Fight Club may be all three at the same time. The people who don’t “get” it will just be offended and appalled, and rightly so. I love films like this that do not conform to genre specifications or well-structured, time-tested humor. It implores you to laugh at something horrible, and I think by doing so it could perhaps give you insight into what is truly upsetting and reasons why this is.

Christian Bale is amazing here, at times overly-comical and psychotic, a self-indulgent violent criminal. Also, director Mary Harron seems to try to expand on a theme Stanley Kubrick touched on in A Clockwork Orange: the idea of art – classical music, painting, popular culture, etc. – being a function or a creation of so-called civilized people. Here is a character who enjoys popular 80s culture, and he does so while reveling in a violent ecstasy.
- Jesse Balzer

47. The Shining
The Shining is one of the best contemporary horror movies we have, while at the same time it is a movie beyond the simple classification of the horror genre. It’s a Stanley Kubrick horror film, and to say that is almost to say it is not much of a horror film at all. But because this is a Kubrick film, it has come to define that genre to which it is superficially attached. Kubrick, on most of his later films, creates his own genre. For example, 2001: A Space Odyssey has become the science-fiction film, and The Shining has become the horror film. It is at different times classically terrifying and at other times deeply psychological and penetrating in ways which at that point had never been explored. It is now the archetype, and that is the mark of a truly mesmerizing film.
- Jesse Balzer

I first saw the Shining through one of the most unlikely of places, another movie. Yes, I saw my first view of The Shining in 1996’s Twister. All I really got to see was the shot of the twin girls but it stuck with me until I properly viewed the film a few years ago. When you watch the Shining you aren’t immediately scared, or at least after watching it as many times as I have I don’t get scared instantly. It’s only in reflection that I find myself turning on the lights and looking over my shoulder. Thanks to Stanley Kubrick’s patented cinematography the images refuse to leave your head. Plus, if it wasn’t for him the adaptation would’ve featured a walking set of topiary animals, now that’s scary!
- Daniel Frohlich

46. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
This the youngest film to make the list and I assume Jesse’s reasons for pushing the film to make it in the top 50 have something to do with the film’s cinematography. I was lucky enough to see The Diving Bell and the Butterfly on the big screen and I can attest to the films pure beauty. Janusz Kaminski used a hand cranked camera to produce the film’s layered appearance; I’m guessing this is also the reason it won the technical grand prize at the 2007 Canne’s Film Festival.

Early in his life Jean-Do (Mathieu Almalric) suffers a nearly fatal stroke, he jokes that it was punishment for wanting to rewrite The Count of Monte Cristo. This story isn’t about how he suffered and died, it’s the tale of a paraplegic man who finds freedom through imagination which he calls his “butterfly.” It’s an inspiring way to find the good inside a terrible situation. Mathieu Almalric’s improvisational voiceovers, standing in as Jean-Do’s thoughts, provide a refreshing comedic relief. Looking back on this past year’s Oscar winners, I think Julian Schnabel’s Diving Bell and the Butterfly should’ve been among them.
- Daniel Frohlich

45. Goodfellas
Virtually everyone on MTV’s Cribs says that we must own Scarface and/or the Godfather collection but surprisingly Goodfellas is always absent. I don’t think it has to do with any single reason since comparably Goodfellas is just as good as Scarface. Despite the film not winning a Best Picture Oscar (that award went to Dances with Wolves) the film still has many things to brag about.

Goodfellas is loosely based on a true story but it’s not directed like one. Normally when I hear “true story” I start to think of a horribly acted, overly emotional sports film or maybe just a dull biopic. Instead Scorcese, with the assistance of Nicholas Pileggi, has written a script romanticizing the mob. These people have literally everything but most importantly they have respect. This is what drives our narrator Henry Hill (portrayed by Ray Liotta) to become involved with the mob. “One day some of the kids from the neighborhood carried my mother’s groceries all the way home. You know why? It was outta respect.”

It’s ironic that Joe Pesci is best known for getting his ass kicked by a little kid in Home Alone when he certainly wouldn’t take that sort of punishment here. It’s clearly illustrated when he is driven to shoot a kid multiple times after being told to “go fuck himself.” By that point you know Pesci’s character well enough that it pains you to hear those words and it’s no surprise when the kid catches a few bullets for it. That’s what puts Goodfellas over the edge, an extreme set of circumstances with great character development throughout.
- Daniel Frohlich

44. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
I have no patience for movies dealing with romance in any typical, classical, Victorian way. To be fair, I find them just as boring as your average action film. Technical competence may be great, but it doesn’t interest or excite me to watch your movie more than once, if that. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is very basically a movie about love and loss, regret, remorse, and memory. However, it is a Charlie Kaufman film. The idea of love, which has been explored in thousands of movies from the very earliest attempts at cinema, is once again made original. It is well-written in addition to being a technological wonder. I think it is Kaufman’s best work, as well as Michel Gondry’s. It has given proof and validation to Jim Carrey’s later attempts at serious dramatic work, and it had only solidified my admiration for Kate Winslet.
- Jesse Balzer

It’s a struggle for an actor to overcome the charade of being that “dick and fart joke guy” as Kevin Smith so aptly labeled himself. For Jim Carey this has been both a struggle (The Number 23) and a success (The Truman Show). Still, Eternal Sunshine is his most notable role so far and much of the success should be given credit to the direction of Michel Gondry and writing of Charlie Kaufman. It’s no mistake that the combination of all three (make that four if you count Kate Winslet) created a whimsical, unconventional romance.
- Daniel Frohlich

43. Fargo
As someone who has grown up in North Dakota my entire life I’ve always felt an odd attraction to Fargo. Most of my relatives hate the film’s interpretation of the upper Midwest but I find it true in a humorous way (we don’t drag our vowels out like that, yeaaaah.) After I first watched the film a few years ago I fell in love with the Coen Brother’s brand of dark humor. This combined with Marge’s perverse brand of investigating is downright hilarious on too many levels. With the addition of Steve Buscemi (who just looks like a total fuck up to begin with), Peter Stormare, and William H. Macy, Fargo continually surprises the audience with no discontent. The Coens film a man being spit out of a wood chipper just like they’d film a guy spraying his grass with pesticide.
- Daniel Frohlich

I was about to call Fargo something like, “Another morbid offering from the Coen brothers,” but I was immediately reminded of Oscar Wilde’s contention of the artist is in fact never morbid; the artist is capable, he says, of expressing anything he wishes. The Coen brothers have been known to be especially morbid in what they create, but they couple this morbid nature with humor. Fargo is a very funny movie, and likewise dark in content. I live in North Dakota, and up here many people don’t find the humor in the movie. My mother cannot watch it; she says the accents are unrealistic. I bought the movie at department store recently, and the woman who was working there told me how much she hated it and would never watch it again. Well. Whatever.
- Jesse Balzer

42. The Shawshank Redemption
The Shawshank Redemption is a film redeemed by television. It was a bit a of cult classic, a failed but critically lauded film before television stations and movie channels played it repeatedly, until the dumb masses realized what they had missed (I’m hoping this will happen with There Will Be Blood, but that is neither here nor there for now) and DVD sales inched up approvingly. What they missed, and later found, is a movie of exceptional quality, a beautiful script performed by actors who were perfectly cast and fully capable of giving the film its emotional weight. It’s a simple case of everything being well-done and organized. It is a classic in form and style.
- Jesse Balzer

As of September 24, 2008 the internet is proclaiming this to be the number one film ever made. That suggestion is funnier than a person farting, coughing, and sneezing all at the same time. I do agree that it’s an exceptionally dark and at times, lighthearted story but it’s nothing that could be confused for the best film ever (it being your favorite film is something completely different.) We are often confronted with movies that just disappoint us; the ending just isn’t what we dreamed it should be. In Shawshank’s case, you couldn’t imagine a better reward for these characters. On the way there you’re confronted with many other disheartening events that only make you cheer harder for the protagonist and his comrades.
- Daniel Frohlich

41. Elephant
Elephant, in my opinion, is Gus Van Sant’s best film to date (that includes Good Will Hunting.) For being an “art” film it’s completely accessible without jeopardizing what’s central to its success. Van Sant doesn’t hope that after you watch Elephant you’ll understand the inner workings of a murder or be able to pinpoint what causes them to commit these violent acts. He’d rather just show you that “shit happens” and that the blame can’t be put on music, movies, or any other form of media. Even though he shows that the eventual murders are being picked on, Van Sant also shows that this type of adversity can be overcome.
- Daniel Frohlich

Gus Van Sant is a perplexing director. He directs Hollywood-approved, Academy-pleasing, high-budgeted dramas like Good Will Hunting, and conversely does strange, improvised, independent, experimental films like Last Days or Elephant. Elephant is probably his finest work, although it is a difficult film to understand, even on many subsequent viewings. It is shot in an unusual way. The camera follows characters for significant periods of time who may or may not have anything to do with the main action of the film. Shots are held for too long. The point, I feel, is to capture the seemingly random appropriations of the violence the film is documenting. Most controversially, the film does not place responsibility on anyone. It does not attempt to explain the reasons why two young men would behave in such a way. It can’t, and more hauntingly it just shows us what happens. It documents, and shifts the blame onto the audience.
- Jesse Balzer

Further reading: 50 - 41 | 40 - 31 | 30 - 21 | 20 - 11 | 10 - 01