Top 50-41, 40-31, 30-21, 20-11. Whoah. And now, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome my top 10 all-time favourite films….

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10. Finding Nemo (2003)

Genre: Comedy
Director: Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich
Starring: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould
Plot: 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. That’s a lot of space to find one fish.
Top Critics’ Average Mark: 100% — WOW!!!

“I shall call him Squishy. And he shall be mine. And he shall be my Squishy.”

The only animated movie in my list, Finding Nemo is one movie that I really, really enjoyed. I was alone when I watched it in a theatre. (I know, what a loser.) But I still couldn’t help laughing. After the film, I stayed inside and watched it again. Hahaha. My favourite character is Dory and Crush, the turtle. Had I extended this list to Top 100, you’d find a number of animated films including Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, and Monsters, Inc.
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9. (tied) Chicago (2002)

Genre: Musical
Director: Rob Marshall
Starring: Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere
Plot: Murderesses Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart find themselves on death row together and fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows in 1920s Chicago.
Top Critics’ Average Mark: 92%

“With the right song and dance, you can get away with murder.”

From its well choreographed dance sequences, entertaining songs, impressive acting performances, excellent direction, and all that jazz, Chicago deserves a slot in my Top 10. However, until now, I still don’t think that it deserves the Oscar Best Picture award. Although Renee Zellweger did a fantastic job giving life to Roxie Hart, Catherine Zeta Jones steals the movie with her Velma Kelly character.

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9. (tied) Moulin Rouge (2001)

Genre: Musical
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor
Plot: A poet falls for a beautiful courtesan whom a jealous duke covets in this stylish musical, with music drawn from familiar 20th century sources.
Top Critics’ Average Mark: 65% Aaaw

“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.”

This is the fourth in my list and the first of three Nicole Kidman-starrers in my Top 10. Moulin Rouge is filled with so much elements that only this movie can pull off. As what Bebs might call it, this is a “pastiche.” But what I like most, aside from MY Nicole Kidman, is how they used familiar songs like Roxanne, Like a Virgin, and Smells Like Teen Spirit. I cried twice — the part when they are singing Come What May, and the part when Satine dies. The production design is fantabulous. And every scene is spectacular, spectacular! This should have won the Oscar Best Picture that year, and not A Beautiful Mind. Nicole should have received the Best Actress nod and not Halle Berry. (Nicole Kidman is love, love, love. I loooooooove her.)

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8. Ordinary People (1980)

Genre: Drama
Director: Robert Redford
Starring: Mary Tyler Moore, Donald Sutherland, Timothy Hutton
Plot: The accidental death of the older son of an affluent family deeply strains the relationships among the bitter mother, the good-natured father, and the guilt-ridden younger son.
Top Critics’ Mark: 88%

“A little advice about feelings: don’t expect it always to tickle.”

1980 Oscar Best Picture, Ordinary People is a deeply emotional and moving film. It was introduced to us by the great Nick Tiongson for our Semiotics class. And damn, true enough, the film is filled with symbols. Everything in it, no matter how little, has a meaning. The props, the places, the spaces (especially the distance between characters), the colors, the shots, the angles — EVERYTHING. At syempre, naiyak na naman ako. Simple narrative but very, very rich and heavy.

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7. The Godfather (1972), The Godfather (1974)

Genre: Drama
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Al Pacino, Marlon Brando
Plot: The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.
Top Critics’ Mark: 99%

“Do you spend time with your family? Good. Because a man that doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man.”

The first thing I noticed when I was watching this was that Al Pacino was so damn hot when he was young. Really. When his character appeared, I thought, “So this is why it’s such a great film.” Hihihi. Anyway, lust aside, The Godfather I and II are two amazing movies technically and creatively. (No, I haven’t seen the third movie, and I have no plans of seeing that.) I’ve only seen each film once because I don’t have a copy but I really, really liked them. I even remember texting Ayn about how much I liked it. I’m not sure which one of the two is better, but anyway, they’re both great movies. They have to share one spot in this list….

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6. Dogville (2003)

Genre: Drama
Director: Lars Von Trier
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Paul Bettany
Plot: A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado town. In exchange, she agrees to work for them. As a search visits town, she finds out that their support has a price.
Top Critics’ Mark: 74%

“All I see is a beautiful little town in the midst of magnificent mountains. A place where people have hopes and dreams even under the hardest conditions.”

Like 21 Grams, it took me countless attempts before finally enduring to watch Dogville up to the very end. You know, play, after five minutes, okay, boring, change movie. Or play, doze off, wakes up just to see the closing credits. I mean come on, the whole film was shot in a studio with most locations chalk-drawn, it was interesting but a little too weird. But when I finally gathered all my strength and energy to endure this lengthy film, waaaaah, I regretted not seeing it earlier. GENIUS!!! Since then, I’ve seen this film more than five times already. Oh, this is the fifth Nicole-starrer in this list and the second in my Top 10.

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5. Ladri di Biciclette | The Bicycle Thief (1948)

Genre: Drama
Director: Vittorio di Sica
Starring: Luigi Bartolini, Cesare Zavattini
Plot: Together with his son, a man searches for his bicycle vital to his job.
Top Critics’ Mark: 100%

“Why should I kill myself worrying when I’ll end up just as dead?”

Saw this in my Film 100 class and this is the first old black-and-white film that I really appreciated. Hehehe. This film is one of the important films of the Italian Neo-realism movement more than half a century ago. You know how much I love stories about male relationships like father-and-son. But more than that, the film depicts social realities in that era. I’ve only seen this film once but after I watched it, surrounded by my sleeping classmates, I stayed in awe. I even mumbled, “Shit! I better start watching more old movies!”

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4. Les Quatre Cents Coups | The 400 Blows (1959)

Genre: Drama
Director: Francois Truffaut
Starring: Jean-Pierre Leaud
Plot: Angel faces hell-bent for violence.
Top Critics’ Mark: 100%

“Oh, I lie now and then, I suppose. Sometimes I’d tell them the truth and they still wouldn’t believe me, so I prefer to lie.”

Wooooooh. This is the first film directed by my super Film god Francois Truffaut. This is a very moving film about a delinquent but very lovable young guy, Antoine Doinel. The BEST thing about this film is that it is ALMOST autobiographical. Most scenes in this film are based on real-life events. I know that because I sort of studied Francois Truffaut’s glorious life. Hehe. But even when you’re not aware of the legendary French filmmaker, you will still be touched by this film. Don’t just trust me on this one, see for yourself. WATCH IT!!!

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Okay. Enough. Enough. Since I have so much to say about my Top 3 films, I chose not to include them in this batch. Hehehe.

Guess what films are in my top 3! If you guessed it right, well, you guessed it right. Haha. I don’t have a prize or anything to give away. Hihihi.

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Credits:
Plot: imdb.com, Ayn
Posters: moceanworker.com, answers.com, suffolk.lib.ny.us, celebrityscreenshots.com, abusemagazine.com, themanitoban.com, msn.com, blockbuster.com, starrystarry.com
Screencaps: filmfestivaltoday.com, playbill.com, webwombat.com.au, movies.yahoo.com, reellifewisdom.com, rottentomatoes.com, chubut.org.ar, homedir-b.libsyn.com, seasite.niu.edu, filmfresh.com
Marks: Rotten Tomatoes Cream of the Crop Critics
*as of and originally posed on 14 September 2007

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