Burning Questions: What Is Your Stand Alone Film?
Thursday, June 21, 2012 at 10:01AM Michael C. here to do his part to shake up the conventional wisdom.
It’s a big step for any budding cinephile when one learns to value one’s own opinion over the established consensus. If you were like me, when you were an adolescent film lover, you tended to take certain movie’s masterpiece status as gospel. If, for example, TV Guide said that Cecil B DeMille’s The Ten Commandments was a four star movie than that's the way it was. After all, you could see how great it was just by counting the extras.
Hopefully one grows out of this and learns to approach pre-certified classics with healthy skepticism. As a college student working his way through the greats of cinema, I clearly remember concluding that Dr. Zhivago’s 200 minute running time was roughly 195 minutes longer than necessary, give or take a few beautifully framed shots of snow.
But it is not much of a challenge to poke sticks at the bloated reputations of certain “classics”. More daunting is defending work that has the majority of scholarly opinion aligned against it. Just as we learn to be wary of movies that come bearing the stamp of approval, at some point we all end up falling madly in love with a title that is greeted by the rest of the world with at best polite acknowledgment, or at worst outright hostility. So on this subject I am curious to know: What movie do you stand alone in considering a masterpiece?
Any true film lover has at least one minority opinion...
which cannot be shaken by any amount of counter-argument or mockery. A film for which they proselytize at every opportunity, because they know a movie’s critical stature is not a fixed, quantifiable thing. It is an idea continually forged on the battlefield of opinions, and in my book you’re not a real movie lover unless you are willing to wade into the arena like Spartacus wielding a trident and fight for your darlings.
As for my Stand Alone Film, I was tempted to make my case for Peter Weir’s Master and Commander, but I feel that majority opinion is already creeping in the right direction on that one. No, if I could take this opportunity to champion one title that has been unjustly tagged with “minor film” status it would be a different period adventure overdue for reevaluation: Michael Caton Jones’ Rob Roy.
Rob Roy is still regarded highly for its legendary climactic sword fight and Tim Roth’s delicious Oscar-nominated villainy, both for good reason. Rob Roy deserves prominent placement on any all time lists of action scenes or bad guys, but neither element would be half so effective were the film around them not so skillfully executed.
Reasonably well received upon release, Rob Roy was quickly lost amid the thundering charges and blood-curdling screams of another Scottish legend, Braveheart. Without getting too deep into it I think its clear that time has been much kinder to the tale of Liam Neeson’s hero. Braveheart remains thrilling in parts but the sloppiness of its writing and the overindulgence of Gibson’s direction become more apparent with each passing year. The tight, novelistic plotting of Rob Roy, on the other hand, still holds together beautifully with its half dozen rich, complex characters plotting at cross purposes, including a fiery, shoulda-been-nominated Jessica Lange as Neeson's wife. When Braveheart is getting stuck in the mud in its slack third act, Rob Roy’s is moving the final chess pieces into place, pulling the characters with inexorable logic toward that sword fight.
Also detracting from Rob Roy’s standing is the fact that Michael Caton Jones' subsequent career has been undistinguished to put it mildly, culminating in a recent Razzie nod for Basic Instict 2. Critical consensus often does not know how to handle a workhorse director who inexplicably turns out a great film. If the director were Michael Mann and not Michael Caton Jones we would undoubtedly hear about this title’s virtues more often.
Filmographies definitely affect the critical status of individual films
So there you have a brief defense of my pet cinematic cause. Now you take it away. I’m granting everybody the immunity idol to fly in the face of conventional wisdom without fear. Bring the passion for your criminally underappreciated titles in the comments.
You can follow Michael C. on Twitter at @SeriousFilm or read his blog Serious Film. If you want more about Rob Roy I’ve already written at length about the brilliance of that climactic sword fight right here at The Film Experince.
Braveheart, Burning Questions, Doctor Zhivago, Rob Roy, film critics
Reader Comments (87)
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie-everyone always talks about the sensational Maggie Smith, but I consider this to be one of the greatest films of all-time. The strong dynamic between Smith and the delicious Pamela Franklin and Celia Johnson (both of whom should have gotten Oscar nods for their performances), as well as the complete devestation of this woman as she falls out of her prime, is a triumph on every level.
Off the top of my head I'd say Peter Bogdanovich's At Long Last Love.
I believe most people missed the extent to which it was tongue-in-cheek. The live singing and hoofing is a reflection of what musical numbers would really look and sound like if people went about life breaking into song.
Some of the performances were absolutely brilliant: Madeline Kahn, as usual; Eileen Brennan (the best thing in a kitchen since Thelma Ritter in All About Eve or The Mating Season) and a very caustic John Hillerman. The plot and the concept were good and cinematography and art direction were wonderful.
I don't consider it to be a "masterpiece", but the film was destroyed by the press and I loved it!
It's gotta be Reds, which I think is very much a "prestige" film but it doesn't have the reputation of other cinematic epics like Gone with the Wind or Lawrence of Arabia, and I definitely think it's in the same league as those films.
I think Somewhere in Time is an exquisite romance and people need to stop saying it's "sappy" or a "guilty pleasure."
Furthermore, I think Meet Joe Black is a beautiful film.
DEAD MAN WALKING....
I think its utterly beautiful on every level - writing, acting, directing.
Tore me up emotionally and left me devastated by it.
Why does Dog Day Afternoon always seems to be missing from the lists I see of the greatest movies of the seventies? No-one ever seems to talk about it. But from the opening strains of Amoreena to the flashing lights in the dark I think it's just perfect. Pacino's deterioration over the whole movie is astounding; it's his best performance surely. And oh, the Cazale of it all!
I would probably say Milos Forman's "Valmont", based on "Les liaisons dangereuses" (the same book that inspired Stephen Frears' "Dangerous Liaisons"). I consider this film a masterpiece on every level (direction, writing, acting and technical aspects), with an ironic and very modern approach to Laclos' characters. The performance by Colin Firth and especially Annette Bening are simply amazing... it's a masterful film that needs to be revaluted!
My Neighbor Totoro jumps to mind, buts its universally loved by people willing to accept animated films the equals of human starring ones, thus I won't count it.
I suppose The Squid and the Whale may be my choice. Its got a strong fanbase but I always think it deserves mention alongside the best films of the 21st century with its well drawn characters, memorable dialoge and refusal to believe a drama needs to be long to be of import.
Actually I redact my nomination of Dog Day Afternoon, which people at least seem to have heard of, and put forward The Black Stallion, which is stunning in every frame, always unexpected in its visual and aural compositions. Half the film has no dialogue at all! I love Kelly Reno's awkward grace and his soft mumbles; the bestiality and transcendent beauty of the Black; Rooney's casual crotchetiness. It's not just a great kid's movie, or animal movie, it's a masterpiece.
I've never seen Rob Roy, but now I want to.
Two words: Chungking Express -- In the Mood for Love gets all the glory, but Chungking is flashy, fun, economical, heartfelt, and wholly original. I just love it.
The Pang Brothers' The Eye. Not the Jessica Alba film. The beautifully shot, brightly lit, amazingly acted Hong Kong/Thailand ghost story about a young blind violinist gaining a sixth sense after her corneal transplant. When people say horror can't be scary in bright light, I want to smack them with this movie.
The special effects also really hold up for a horror film that came out 10 years ago. Why? Practical special effects.
The Eye also has probably my favorite scene in any movie. The young woman, so tormented by the presence of ghosts, refuses to open her eyes anymore. She stumbles to an orchestra practice and performs a dizzying violin solo. The camera starts spinning around her, cross cutting her frenzy with a desperate exorcism at her apartment complex to free the spirit of a young boy who committed suicide early on in the film. It's shocking and beautiful and executed to perfection. I get chills just thinking about it.
I seem to be extremely normal. If I were to hazard a guess (and these might be a little more normal than you're expecting), I'd say A Very Long Engagement and The Secret of Kells would be my picks.
The Pawnbroker is a pretty perfect combination of Lumet's gritty New York thing and Rod Steiger's over-the-top thing in the best way. I never see it cited as a great.
Also John Huston's The Misfits never seems to make any lists but I'm sorry it's a friggin' masterpiece.
As for a more recent film, everyone seems to agree that The Station Agent is a pleasant little movie, but I think it's absolutely beyond perfect.
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. It's reputation has improved over the last decade, but it's still pretty commonly considered bottom-level (or at least minor) Spielberg (or Kubrick). But even after my first viewing in 2001, I thought it was utterly phenomenal. One of my favorites and one that I'm always recommending to people.....and often they never trust my recommendations again.
Bright Star
A Very Long Engagement: Jeunet and Tautou are an amazing matched pair of director and muse and, though it doesn't quite get to Amelie's heights, it's still a very well told romantic mystery.
The Secret of Kells: An extremely light coming of age tale bolstered by some fantastic animation and pretty good V/O work, including Brendan Gleeson as the main character's dad. (However, due to a difference in view point from the Academy (I view the category as Best Animation in a Feature, they view it as Best Feature that Happens to be Animated), I pick Coraline for Animated Feature and Kells for Best Picture.)
Everyone else considers it the low point of Wes Anderson's career and a turning point for when people stopped liking him, but I consider The Life Aquatic to be Anderson's best film and pretty close to a comedic masterpiece. People complain that Bill Murray is an asshole in the movie, which is true, but in a marvelous way. The jokes hit, there are multiple unique characters, Portugese David Bowie songs, and, once again, Bill Murray.
Robert: I thought of The Misfits, but it's so old as to be at least a little obvious. Haven't seen The Pawnbroker, though.
Margot at the Wedding.
can i say BRING IT ON? yes, i can. yes. Just did.
Although it already is a respected movie, The Sweet Hereafter attained in 1997 the status of instant cult classic, reinforced by a completely unexpected Best Director Oscar nomination for Atom Egoyan (along with a more expected nomination for the screenplay), only to become quickly forgotten.
And yet, it is a masterpiece, driven by a powerful yet intimate direction, two stellar performances, courtesy of Ian Hom and a then-unknown Sarah Polley, and a gem of a screenplay, which I rank among the best works of adaptation for the screen ever. Rarely the themes of death, survival, grief and guilt have been explored in such a deep and convincing way, turning the movie into a very moving film without ever being exploitative of the delicate topics it touches.
I truly think Godfather 1 & 2 are our true American classics ... but too obvious.
For me the acting, directing, cinematography, writing and music all hit a perfect storm in "Splendor in the Grass"... I seldom watch movies a second time unless there might be a specific reason, but Splendor... I can watch over and over again.
I debated about this. I have a few. I can't pick one that has the biggest disparity between general consensus and my opinions, so I'll just sum up the differences below.
Wild Things - mostly shrugged off as just another exploitation picutre, this time with a scandalous three-way, I think this is probably the best film noir since the genre's heyday, and boasts a far-better-than-you-remember comic supporting role from Bill Murray among a stellar supporting cast.
Noises Off - people rag on Bogdanovich's adaptation of the hit play for being unfunny and too stage-y. Those people are, quite simply, WRONG. Carol Burnett leads one of the funniest ensembles ever filmed.
Pocketful of Miracles - generally derided as not as good as Capra's original take on the material, Lady For a Day, this is one of my favorite Christmas movies, partially for Bette Davis's heartbreaking Apple Annie.
The Fifth Element - Luc Besson IS an auteur, and this weird comedy/action/sci-fi hybrid has probably influenced more films than any other sci-fi film since Star Wars (with the obvious exception of The Matrix). It's also hilarious as all get-out (thank you, Chris Tucker), far stranger than you might think, and has one of Bruce Willis's best performances. It's mostly remembered for its stunning production design and Milla Jovovich's barely-there costume, but it deserves much more.
Honorable mention (AKA great films that I am tired of defending to their few but highly vocal detractors): Shakespeare In Love, Australia, Lust Caution
I was going to make a case for Master and Commander as well until I saw what you wrote about it. So I'll bring up Shattered Glass, a great film where the hero slowly morphs into the villain and the villain into the hero. Fantastic performances all around. I once told a screenplay class that this is one of my top 20 films and they all stared at me as if I were crazy.
The Fountain rarely gets the raves it deserves.
John Sayles's Lone Star has one or two clunky bits in exposition, but it's a great picture. The ending line is classic.
The best thing about a post like this is realizing how many movies you *think* you're alone in loving (The Life Aquatic, The Fifth Element, Meet Joe Black and Bring it On for me) but really aren't. That's a lovely thing to learn. That said, aren't some of you kind of cheating? Taking obviously great, widely beloved movies (Chungking Express? The Misfts? DOG DAY FRICKIN' AFTERNOON?!) and acting like they're not widely beloved.
That said, mine is The Lost World. Yes, the sequel to Jurassic Park. Complaints about the script are certainly valid, but also kind of irrelevant - it's not a "story" movie. The Lost World is a pure ID-run-amuck directorial showcase for Steven Spielberg, and outside of 1941 and Temple of Doom he's never allowed himself to come so completely unhinged. The result is the best directed blockbuster film of the past 15 years, pure cinema at its finest. It's not quite as perfect as the original, but it's also more bizarre and out of its gourd and therefore enjoyable in a very different, though no less valid way.
Francis Ford Coppola's "Youth Without Youth" was so scathingly received that I didn't even see it until a few years later. But I found it fascinating. Coppola assembled a team of creative, enthusiastic, original craftspeople and gave them the freedom to collaborate. Everyone was doing intensely personal work on an ensemble and the result is rich, evocative, and compelling and odd. Tim Roth and Bruno Ganz are wonderful.
Kenneth Branagh's "Love's Labour's Lost" is the first filming of a minor Shakespearean comedy. It's an imaginative and fun reworking as a 1930s musical in a kind of Midsummer Night's Dream setting. Clever Branagh gives himself the most luscious romantic partner, the delightful Natascha McElhone, and Adrian Lester is also singing and dancing. Sweet, bright, and romantic.
Blast from the Past.
Yes- the nineties romcom with Brendan Fraser and Alicia Silverstone. I've never met anyone who shared my deep and abiding love for it. And maybe it's too good-natured and light to be considered a masterpiece but I don't care cause it's my Stand-Alone Film. (Though I don't think if Sissy Spacek and Christopher Walken had a son that they raised in a bunker he would look anything like Brendan Fraser so minus points for realism there.)
Another one I love but I think I'm a little less alone on is Bowfinger. Christine Baranski will forever be "Alien Love!" in my house.
Another, just because: What Planet Are You From, the Mike Nichols directed bomb starring Gary Shandling as an alien with a humming penis. It's kind of brilliant, and I don't know a single person who will even admit to having seen it, let alone loving it.
Jurassic Park will always be a standard that I set set sci-fi thrillers against. It suffiently makes the implausible plausible and turns the fantastical into terrifying. Not to mention that the effects still hold up after over 15 years.
Did someone say The Lost World?
'Foreign Correspondent' - Hitchcock's best kept secret. In fact, a lot of supposedly second and third tier Hitchcock ('Secret Agent', 'Lifeboat', 'I Confess', the remake of 'The Man Who Knew Too Much', 'Family Plot').
'Storytelling' - Todd Solondz's best film (yeah - I said it!), but I remember it getting horrible reviews at the time. 'Consuela, I spilled the grape juice!'
I like Shyamalan's 'The Village' too.
It's All About Love. I was convinced I saw a masterpiece when I first saw it and was devastated to learn about the bad reviews it got. I recently re-watched it, and it stunned me yet again.
Roark - Wow. What Planet and Lost World. You get points for bravery, sir.
Adri - Still haven't seen Youth Without Youth. I should stop putting it off.
Nathaniel - We all knew the whole time how you really felt. The whole time.
Jasmine - See, as I suspected Master and Commander is one of those that people only think is a personal choice. Lots of love out there for that one. Good choice with Shattered Glass.
Dom - I almost picked The Fountain but decided it was a better example of a polarizing film than a Stand Alone choice. Tomato, Tom-ah-to
Josh - How anybody could consider Bill Murray playing an asshole a fault and not a strength is beyond me
Last year's Sleeping Beauty
Love this topic, love a lot of movies that I'm seeing here and have already added a few I don't know to my Netflix list (Love's Labours Lost- hello, you had me at Adrian Lester singing and dancing). At Long Last Love is a great choice although I'm also not sure it's a masterpiece. It is hard to differentiate between that which everyone loves, that which we assume everyone loves, and that which we assume no one else loves. I would have thought Sweet Hereafter, Dog Day Afternoon, Bring It On all are firmly ensconced in the pantheon.
That said, my choice is going to be Face/Off which is clever, fun, and insane. Travolta and Cage were terrific. I think the movie got some good notices when it opened but it's been forgotten as time goes on. Which is a shame when you think about how boring and lifeless action flicks generally are nowadays.
Shoot, I was going to say The Fountain because I was certain I was the only one on the planet who even liked it. Didn't it get an F in Entertainment Weekly? Even as I watched it I knew it was a polarizing film, but somewhere around the time that a shaved headed Hugh Jackman was blowing snot out of his nose and french kissing a tree, I knew I was seeing real cinematic vision.
Oh, and I also like Woman on Top and realize I'm the only one on earth who does. It's not a masterpiece, just a "fun" movie but I'm pretty sure I stand alone (and I even hated Harold Perrineau in it and still liked it).
I wanted to say Match Point but I don't think really ANY Woody Allen would fit the spirit of this post.
I would have to say my stand alone movies are the Hughes brothers' From Hell (still watch it about once a year - and it's been all but forgotten by most people) and Frank Oz's Bowfinger (Fake Purse Ninja's! .... damn, Christine Baranski is awesome).
The Good Shepard was a sprawling, almost novelistic, piece of filmmaking that virtually nobody saw when it came out. People like to complain about Matt Damon's character being a little too stoic and not having much to say, but that was pretty much the whole point.
And yes, The Fountain is chock full of really provocative ideas. Aronofsky was on Howard Stern and Robin Quivers started making fun of him, so he abruptly cut her off and said he believes it's the best film he'll ever make.
Amen to BRIGHT STAR. Also ATONEMENT for me.
CRANK and CRANK 2 by Neveldine/Taylor with Jason statham
crazy movies,crazy energy,crazy humor
STRIP TEASE with Demi Moore:it's a great comedy and its very faithful to the spirit of the book
ARACNOPHOBIA:scary ,scary,scary,scary and very PG-13 in same time
OMG @adri, Youth Without Youth is F A N T A S T I C. I have to second you.
Tough decision. I'd go with either Dune or Das Experiment.
A Serious Man....a serious masterpiece.
Rob Marshall's NINE. I'm still convinced that this movie was made solely for me. I have never met anyone else who shares my love of it. It's gorgeous, fun, and it breaks my heart every time.
SOUTHLAND TALES for me.
It's really hard to choose, particularly something which hasn't already been mentioned, but I'll go with "The Illusionist"...the 2006 film with Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti, not the more-recent animated, though I liked that one, too.
How about reversing the situation...a film which "everybody loves" but which we hate? I've seen a few of them above (e.g. "The Fountain"), but I'll start off with one of my personal worst-of-the-decade choices, "Wall-E."
Quantum of Solace. I adore it. I've been a Bond fan my entire life, and I swear this is the best one of the series since The Spy Who Loved Me and one of the best films of the past 10 years.
I have to say Never Let Me Go, a film that was pretty much dismissed by critics, but I loved. When I saw it on my birthday, my friend and I were so embarrassed because we were both sobbing by the end. The performances by the main trio, not to mention some of the supporting actors are just brilliant, the cinematography, the score, it's all perfect in my opinion.
And one of the few cases where I read the book before the movie and found myself unmoved by it, but I loved the movie.
The problem in today's age of cinephelia is that often our secret films loves are becoming more and more common. You can find handfuls of people who love "AI" or "Southland Tales" or really anything. To have a stand alone film is to dig hard beyond the canon of film history, into films that few have ever heard of, much less seen. And even those films are often then revered by a select group of individuals, often really just the people who have seen it.
Given that, here's a quick list of some of mine:
-New York, New York (Possibly better than "Taxi Driver," one of his most emotional, and the only one where he truly combined his love of musicals/Powell/Pressburger with a very New Wave esque story)
-Jungle Fever (a film just as intense as "Do the Right Thing." A friend of mine just described Lee as a "white elephant filmmaker who makes his films out of termites." This film rings particularly true)
-Khrustalyov, My Car! (a film that only a handful have seen: a scathing comedy of Russian politics that plays out often like a Looney Tunes sketch, that ends, quite strangely, with rape and an intense death)
-Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (Frank Tashlin, an actual Looney Tunes artist, and Hollywood's most self conscious filmmaker, makes his own version of "The Apartment")
-Farewell, my Lovely (The "other" 70s Philip Marlowe, very slow and finds beauty in the spaces and passing of the character, played by an aged Robert Mitchum)
-The Long Run (another "last hurrah of Hollywood" film, about an aged driver doing one last run through the European coast. With George C Scott and a BMW)
-The Outside Man (A down and dirty version of "Drive," with Jean Louis Trigtinant and Roy Schieder as dueling hit men in LA. Intense fun.)
My last choice, which is more on the odd side, is going to sound strange, but "Pulp Fiction." Of course, in certain circles, Fiction is still an acclaimed film, but for what often seems like the wrong reasons (aka the violence and dialogue are cool). In more critical circles, Fiction's film receives less acclaim because it's essentially hollow--a wondrously crafted but meaningless work of fiction). However, I'd argue there's a essential depth to PF and all of Tarantino's films, about how in our pop culture influenced world, everything becomes part of myth and myth culture. Fiction often seems centered on how characters tell stories, and grandize themselves and others, only to be dissapointed at the real thing. Pulp Fiction is cool but the cool is a facade, a defense. I'd love to see Fiction redeemed as a masterpiece in this way.