Modern Classic Movies Everyone Needs To Watch In Their Lifetime

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jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
26,260
30,258
Carmel Valley, CA
I'll throw Ex Machina out there. Dark, thought provoking, beautiful effects, and a very sinister performance by Oscar Isaac.
Thank you for that! I realize I want to rewatch that, and not just for Alicia Vikander...

 

blueeyedogre

Lifer
Oct 17, 2013
1,555
50
A few "classics" for me and by my standard only would include.....

"The Usual Suspects"(1995), "Black Hawk Down" (2001), "Gladiator" (2000)..... These movies would qualify as "classics" as I believe they will continue to be enjoyed for a very long time.

 

oldreddog

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 4, 2014
921
7
I would regard some on the list as good films not particularly classics.

Some great choices blueeyed.
Ex Machina was overall disappointing to me,it seemed to present itself as art but fell far short.

I would put The White Ribbon, Le Belleville Rendezvous,13 Assassins,Gods and Men,The Proposition and Meserine,Killer Instinct on my list.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,610
Film and video buffs should all take a break and read through, or if necessary plod through, T.S. Eliots two major poems, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Proofrock" and "The Wasteland." Why? Because this is at least one of the original sources of the collage and pastiche presentation of drama, with snatches of scenes and especially dialogue that propels virtually (or nearly) all film and video, and has become all-pervasive even (and extensively) in advertising. Decades later, these techniques were picked up by film makers like Fellini and Antonioni and eventually nearly everyone else in film/video/advertising. Eliot was a bottled up, sickly guy, who emigrated from his native St. Louis to become a derby wearing banker in London, where he acquired a sort of English accent. His first wife was mentally ill, and his second wife later in life was essentially his caretaker, but his talent is towering, really dominating. Hemingway hated him, for obvious reasons, Ernie being a man of action, big game hunter, etc. (Ernie was an acolyte of Theodore Roosevelt, though this is seldom mentioned, certainly not by him.) But for cinematography Eliot is the father of the modern era, never having made or been in a film. After he won the Nobel Prize -- gave one of the most insightful acceptance speeches in the history of the award -- he visited his manuscripts in a rare book room where they were delivered from under glass by someone wearing white gloves. He whipped out a pen and did revisions! The curator quietly gasped, but didn't intercede with the poet himself.

 

perdurabo

Lifer
Jun 3, 2015
3,305
1,581
Hee Hee Hee....This was obviously a journalism class joke played on the Independent, wait, not so Independent in thought. Yes, Donnie Darko, should be number one on this list, no doubt. But Bowling for Columbine, Wall-e, Supersize Me, and There Will Be Blood reveals what's really going on here. I'll let the imagination carry you away....
Modern Classic? No Interstellar? No Zero Theorem? Just to name two that should have gone on the list. But that's just it, wasn't my list, it was someone else with a slant towards....well....you figure it out. Thanks for the share Nate....Inglorious Bastards, Inception, and Donnie Dario are indeed modern classics. ............where was the great Django Unchained on the list......or......Repo Man.....,hmmm.......oh well...

 

simong

Lifer
Oct 13, 2015
2,748
16,592
UK
Goodfellas! Standout film, full of 'standup guys'. Others off the top of my head, Trainspotting/pans labyrinth/there's something about Mary. Yes really, that scene with Cameron Diaz & the hair.

Classic!

 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
26,260
30,258
Carmel Valley, CA
Inglorious Basterds, really?? Can someone say why that is classic, or why it's even good? (Admitting I may have overlooked something essential)

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,610
Fellini's "8 1/2" was a turning point. Today it looks familiar, maybe too familiar, but that is because it has been imitated in so many different regards. When I saw it at age 17, it was a whole new world of movie going.

 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
26,260
30,258
Carmel Valley, CA
Goodfellas- a classic in my book, watch it every few years. It's right on the cusp of falling in or out of the quarter C. Mark.- So is it a modern classic, or merely classic?

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,610
"The Graduate" was a turning point in the self-awareness of the rising American (U.S.) middle class. The acting and directing was stellar, and the casting was pure genius; no one played themselves, but all of the principals had complete mastery of the character. Superb through time.

 

kanaia

Part of the Furniture Now
Feb 3, 2013
676
639
On that list the only one that I really enjoy is Bridesmaids.. Man card provided upon request.

 
Jun 4, 2014
1,134
2
Some interesting movies on the list, and some good suggestions on others that should have been include. My list of modern classics would include "The Road to Perdition" and "The Dark Knight".

 

dochudson

Lifer
May 11, 2012
1,635
12
Bowling for Columbine... but, no Fight Club, no Shawshank, no G'Torino and the biggest insult of all no mention of 'The Dude'!!

 

fnord

Lifer
Dec 28, 2011
2,746
8
Topeka, KS
Nate:
What a great conversation starter from a truly questionable list of "Modern Classic" films.
I'll give "Donnie Darko" a go because Jake Gyllenhaal, like his sister, Sad Turtle Face, is hit or miss with their endeavors.
My two favorite takeaways this evening:
1. Warren wrote: "It stared Rosemary Clooney's nephew." Seriously? Could a comment be any more grizzled?
2. The exchange between Pagan and my rabbi, Mr. Bradley, concerning a previous version of "Man on Fire" I'd never heard of. Scott Glenn as John Creasey? WTF? ("Man of Fire" was a Ridley Scott production showcasing Denzel Washington.) Thanks, guys. Here's a movie from 1987 I've got to find.
Fnord

 

mackeson

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 29, 2016
758
2
If we're dipping down into the 90's, you have to include "Fargo"

"..and I guess that was your accomplice there in the chipper..."

Marge Gunderson has to be an all time classic movie character

 
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