Modern great movies: Your list
 

I've held the belief for many years that modern cinema has as much quality as a pile of dog poop. However, after discussing it with a friend of mine, I've developed a new belief.

There are very high quality movies being made today, we just never hear about them over the noise of the crap/crap sequel generators of the major studios.

I'm looking for the kind of movies made in the past few years that you never hear about, most likely won't see running at your local cinema, and you'd be lucky to even find it at Blockbuster or Wal-Mart. Independants, foreign, even major studio releases that were surprisingly made by them.

Here's my quick list.

PI
Y Tu Mamá También
Cube
Donnie Darko
Fight Club (yes, major release, but still great)
Amelie
Cecil B Demented
Bringing Out The Dead
Super Troopers

i think in order for a movie to be great it has to be timeless or else it is only great at that time. good ones i can think of would be almost famous, and glitter.

I'd second Almost Famous, and add Magnolia (don't flame me, I think it's brilliant!), Pulp Fiction, Seven, Mulholland Drive. Will they survive the test of time? I think so...these movies inhabit their own world and are more relevant to themselves than modern time. If you know what I mean. I also have no complaints.<br>
I'm not sure I'd put Glitter on that list though. Though it reaches for greatness, I'm going to have to put it on the runner up list for Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, a classic that seems to be forgotten by many.

Bottle Rocket
Rushmore
The Royal Tenenbaums

Almost Famous
Rushmore
Seven
Magnolia
Boogie Nights
Any Given Sunday
Donnie Darko
Fight Club
American Beauty
American History X

Just take away the films that are old on this list... :)

Brilliant Films

Take these away from that list while you're at it:

PAY IT FORWARD (2000)
SHREK (2001)
AMISTAD (1997)
CHOCOLAT (2000)

Meh.




I'll take modern as in past 15 years. I think these will survive the test of time:


Amélie
Eyes Wide Shut
Fight Club
The Iron Giant
L.A. Confidential
Memento
Swingers
The Usual Suspects

Now, some of these are more deserving than other movies, and there's movies that I love that I would hope would be on this list (You Can Count on Me, Big Kahuna), but I'm being realistic and listing what I think will survive as opposed to what's a truly good movie or which ones are my favorites or strong likes (I really doubt Rounders or Ninth Gate or Y Tu Mamá También will be classics, despites my wishes otherwise).

Glory
Amadeus
Rudy
Gattaca
Almost Famous
Mulholland Drive
Breaking Away
and maybe Cabin Boy.

Don't we have a thread like this every week?

Anyway,

Mulholland Dr.
The Pianist

Werckmeister Harmonies, directed by Bela Tarr, and Rosetta, directed by the Dardenne brothers, are two films which taken together encapsulate pretty much everything I want from the cinema. They are heartfelt, socially conscious, beautiful, and awe-inspiring. To see them is to understand what the medium of moving images is capable.

There are so many other great films of recent vintage that to even attempt to list them all is something only a fool would attempt. So, being only partially a fool, I'll only list a few. Everything I've seen by Abbas Kiarostami is brilliant, from Where Is The Friends House? to Ten, I am constantly amazed at his ability to create art. Likewise, the films of two Taiwanese directors, Hou Hsaio-Hsien (The Puppetmaster, Good Men, Good Women, Goodbye South, Goodbye, and Flowers of Shanghai) and Tsai Ming-Liang (The Hole, What Time Is It There?, and Vive L'amour) are consistently brilliant. Closer to home, Jim Jarmusch's films are great, especially, in my opinion, Mystery Train and Dead Man. Any of Danish director Lars von Trier's films are worth a viewing, as are Michael Haneke's and Oliver Assayas'. I'm only scratching the surface here, but anyone who thinks current cinema has little to offer, from David Thomson on down, is either close minded or isn't looking hard enough.

Signs
Gattaca
Dark City
Donnie Darko
Forrest Gump
A.I.

Election

wes anderson fan? :) and when are we getting the br:cc?

The Commitments
Pulp Fiction
Trainspotting
Lock Stock & 2 smoking Barrels
Forest Gump
The Sixth Sense