Ten Good movies to show a film class

   Last week I did Ten bad movies to show a film class, this week it's ten good movies to show a film class. Like the last list this movie isn't in a specific order nor are they all movies I like but when I watch them they are all good examples of filmmaking in my opinion. This is all opinion so please do not get angry if a movie you thought should have been up here didn't make it. This list was harder to make because it's easier to talk about bad movies than it is about good movies so this took a while.






 10.)Noah
   People have their different opinions on Noah some like it, some hate it or some are just plainly confused by it. The reason I put it in the category of 'good movies' because while their are a lot of things in the movie that doesn't make too much sense it does show the merit of making a risky movie rather than a safe movie. Noah could have easily have been a self-righteous about believing in god and all that but Darren Aaronofsky did take a lot of chances with the movie and the movie is more about whether or not it's good to follow god unquestioningly. It's better to do a risky movie than it is to do a safe movie because while with a safe movie you'll get the praise and the box office with a risky movie you have the opportunity to explore your creative range and try something new. Making a risky movie is much more applaudable especially when you see what Hollywood has become nowadays with all the remakes, sequels, and reboots. A risky movie is also way more interesting than a safe movie that probably has been done a million times.
  Noah is also an interesting (I don't mean best) example of how to do a bible movie because a lot of that crazy shit in Noah was in the bible and is in the category of things Hollywood tends to shy away from when doing a bible movie. Noah is more interesting to watch than anything else and while I myself am on the fence of whether or not it's a "good" movie itself but when you want to show it to a film class it is interesting.




9.) The conjuring
   In the Ten bad movies list I put Paranormal activity the marked ones on it mostly due to the jump scares over suspense, this one however does the exact opposite. The conjuring is a really good example of horror movie because it puts suspense and atmosphere two really essential things if you want to do a horror movie well at the fore front. It also has very strong characters that you actually like which is rare in a horror movie because for the most part you expect the characters to be chopped liver by the end of it.
  This seems hypocritical because I just talked about how a risky movie is much better than a safe movie. The Conjuring is a mix of a typical haunted house/exorcist movie but if you do a safe movie well and actually add something too it (strong characters, abandonment of clichés etc.) you can have a really good movie on your hands.




8.) E.T the Extra-Terrestrial
   E.T is a classic by ever sense of the word. E.T is not only a great coming of age film about a boy who feels as if he is truly alone even with his friends and family around him. I think most people, including myself can vouche for a time when they felt as if they were the only human beings left on earth and felt as though no one could understand how he or she felt. It's also a great example of a simple Science Fiction film, I choose this over Star wars (which you should also show to a film class) because of how simple you can go with the genre and not everything has to be this big, dark saga because their are genuinely a joyful moments in this movie even near the end. It is also a great example of showing what real kids especially know a days are like that a lot of directors don't get or don't want to show, the kids swear, they are a bit mischievous just like everyone when they were kids.




7.) X-men: First Class
  X-men: First class is my favorite superhero movie and my favorite X-men movie, just getting it out of the way now. Yet that is not why I am putting this on the list, to me X-men first class is the best example of a prequel in my opinion. The problem with prequels is that they often bend over backwards to accommodate the original movies forgoing a story of it's own. It's usually 60% Easter eggs and 40% original story.  X-men: first class is the other way around and more, it's about 70% original story and 30 % Easter eggs. While a prequel by definition is "a story or movie containing events that precede those of an existing work", a prequel still has to stand on it's own if it is to be considered a good movie. If you watch X-men: First class and never watched the original X-men movies or saw the new ones you will be fine you'll follow it very well.


6.) The Lego movie
   Fred: The movie, is a movie that did not need to be made and nothing was done with it. The Lego movie is a movie that did not need to be made, looked as though it would be the worlds longest toy commercial yet they did something with it. The Lego movie is a phenomenal movie that proves that you can make a good movie out of anything.  The Lego movie shows great use of Meta-humor, animation (it's 3-D animation but it looks like stop-motion), joy and heart while at the same thing still be very smart and doesn't treat the kids like babies something that is missing from a lot of kids movies.


5.) Hope Springs
  I put The conjuring as a counter to Paranormal activity the marked ones and now I need to put a counter to Endless love for romance movies. The reason I put Hope Springs on my list because when we look at most romance movies it's usually about young beautiful lovers or young adults, their aren't really many romance movies where the main plot is an old couple who have been married for a number of years and it's not a comedy it's taken seriously. I would show this to a film class because it does forgo the typical cliché's of a typical romance movie- the sappy dialogue, misunderstandings etc. Instead it focuses on the two leads (Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones) and they feel like people, real people. Which is important in a romance film that the people feel like people not archetypes of people (i.e Bad boy, goody-two shoes girl.) Other films do that well such as Lost in Translation, for example but I put this on the list rather than Lost in Translation is for the fact how they discuss marriage into old age, they show how men and women deal with rekindling a marriage. I know people who go through this were they hit a rut and don't know how to recapture the magic and this film shows what it's like for those people.




4.) What's eating Gilbert Grape
  Back when Johnny Depp was still an actor and not a cartoon character he made a little indie film called What's eating Gilbert Grape. Gilbert Grape is a great example of a character piece, the film in it's entirety hinges on the character of Gilbert and it's just to Depp as an actor and Lasse Hallstorm as a director to make his story compelling. Gilbert Grape is an excellent example of taking a very simple concept and making a very meaningful film out of it. It takes a lot of silent moments, it has moments of great happiness and sadness. If you want to teach a class how to do a film that is subtitle in it's message and displays it through the actor and the directing then you might want to show them What's eating Gilbert Grape.




3.) How to kill a mockingbird
   I hate to be clichéd in putting one of the greatest book-to-film adaptations ever on this list but goddammit to "How to kill a Mocking bird" is way too good not to include on my list. The thing that makes book-to-film adaptations typically bad is either they take too much from the book ( stuff that worked in the book but won't work in a movie) or take too little from the book (they don't take the core essentials from the book.) It's always either/or never in between, with How to kill a Mockingbird however you have that in between, they take the core essentials of the book while cutting anything that is unnecessary at the same time adding it's own stuff into the movie to flesh out undeveloped parts or characters. You don't have to choose a side when you can just make a compromise.




2.)Scarface
   If you go on a lot of movies you'll find a lot of people in the movie industry hate the recent influx of reboots, remakes and sequels while I can see where they are coming from I actually like reboots, remakes and sequels if they are good movies. For example, a movie that a lot of people do not know is a remake is the Al Pacino Scarface. Scarface is one of the best examples of a brilliant remake and shows that remakes can sometimes make movie history. Scarface is also one of those films that shows the whole drug king pin situation pretty well and provides an interesting piece on a man who rises to the top so fast that he's the one in the end that causes his own destruction. It also has one of the most badass endings ever in movie history.


1.) Pulp Fiction
  When people ask what makes a good movie my answer is the script- not the director or the actors but the script. Pulp fiction's greatest strength is it's script how the characters are written, the dialogue, the plot everything in this movie rides on the script. Pulp fiction shows how important a script is to the movie making process, if you don't have a good script you don't have a good movie.


Well that took a long time to write and now my fingers hurt. Hope you enjoyed that and see you next time!


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