My Rewatchable Hall of Fame
#133: "The Third Man," "Inside Llewyn Davis," "Almost Famous," "The Big Lebowski," "Swingers," "Frances Ha," "Moneyball," "Casablanca," "500 Days of Summer," "A Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou"
Edition 133:
Hey movie lovers!
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In this week’s newsletter: We introduce the inaugural class of the No Content For Old Men (NCFOM) Hall of Fame. These are the movies I find myself craving a rewatch of time after time after time. But first, a dispatch from the newsletter’s official Bad Movie Correspondent…
The Inaugural NCFOM Hall of Fame Class
Hanging on one wall of my Los Angeles apartment is my answer to the question that inevitably comes any time someone finds out I watch 200 movies a year — what’s your favorite movie of all time Matt?
There you’ll find a silhouetted Orson Welles, staring down the police in a Vienna sewer; Gene Kelly stomping through puddles with a giant grin frozen on his face; a portrait of Alexander Hamilton with Lin Manuel-Miranda’s face photoshopped on it; The Dude, Walter and Donny forever drinking in exasperation; a promotional poster for Seb’s Jazz Club; a Rolling Stone magazine cover featuring up-and-coming band Stillwater; an impressionist painting of Bill Murray in iconic blue jumpsuit and orange beanie; and a cheap hotel painting offering respite to John Tuturro’s writer’s block.
(can you guess the movies referenced above? answers below)
The movies represented there form my own personal Wall of Fame, a pseudo-shrine to my cinephilia and an inescapable conversation starter.
I’ve always been careful in conversations with others to differentiate between the BEST movies of all time, those objective masterpieces representing the highest achievements of the art form, and my FAVORITE movies of all time.
The following are my personal favorites, the movies I treat myself to a rewatch of at least once per year and love more and more each time.
My wall mosaic is an incomplete and ever-changing property, so for posterity sake I thought it would make sense to inaugurate the first official hall of fame class in this newsletter’s history.
Without further ado, here are your inductees (in no particular order):
The Third Man (The Criterion Channel):
Not just my favorite movie of all time, but a legitimate contender for greatest movie ever made. As I’ve said dozens of times in this newsletter, anyone willing to overcome the 1951 release date will be treated to a noir thriller paced to hold up to modern audiences. Story, production and acting form a perfect alchemy in post-World War II Vienna.
Almost Famous (Paramount+):
Definitely the movie that hits closest to home, about a teenage journalist in the 1970s who follows a rock band on the road for Rolling Stone magazine, an auto-biographical story about the young life of writer/director Cameron Crowe. So many moments from this movie are burned in my permanent memory.
Swingers (HBO Max, Hulu):
Probably the movie I’ve seen the most amount of times, existing at the absolute pinnacle of entertaining easy watching and sentimental life experience. A young Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau tell semi-auto-biographic stories of struggling young actors chasing women and their own identities in grimy, ultra-cool 90s Los Angeles.
Frances Ha (Showtime, The Criterion Channel):
And this movie is the one that speaks to my soul more than any other. Greta Gerwig stars and contributes her keen emotional insights to Noah Baumbach’s razor-sharp storytelling, following a young woman in New York City going through a quarter life crisis. The bittersweet journey through personal and professional triumph and trial will make you laugh, cry and take all the breath out of your lungs.
The Big Lebowski (Netflix):
The Coen brothers are my favorite filmmakers, and it was torture picking just one of their movies for this list. Inside Llewyn Davis is probably my favorite of their movies but in the nature of rewatchability, nothing beats this Jeff Bridges-led stoner comedy that gets exponentially better each time you revisit it.
Moneyball (Showtime):
The best sports movie of all time by a mile. Aaron Sorkin and Steve Zaillian tag team an incredible script that maximizes the drama and emotion around the real life story of baseball’s analytics revolution. Brad Pitt playing jock-turned-GM Billy Beane is one of the greatest casting choices in movie history.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ($VOD):
It was really difficult to pick my favorite romantic comedy for this list, but ultimately I had to leave behind Casablanca and 500 Days of Summer in order to reward what I think is the greatest screenplay ever written. Jim Carey and Kate Winslet are the avatars of the reality-bending adventure from the one-of-a-kind mind of Charlie Kaufman.
A Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou ($VOD):
Again, honorable mention to Wes Anderson’s other gems like The Grand Budapest Hotel or Moonrise Kingdom. But the one I really crave rewatching has always been the delightfully odd character study of Bill Murray’s aquatic documentarian. The production is exquisitely kitsch, in Wes Anderson fashion, and the writing is super clever coming from the mouths of a stacked supporting cast.
And now, a dispatch from Bad Movie Correspondent Justin Birnbaum…
Just as one of the great philosophers of our generation asked -– Cher –- what if we could turn back time? I’ve thought long about that question, which is the subject of this adaptation from the classic H.G. Wells novel into the 2002 sci-fi thriller The Time Machine.
After the death of his fiancé, Guy Pearce’s Dr. Alexander Hartdegen becomes hell-bent on rewriting the hands of fate and invents time travel. It just goes to show you that anything can be accomplished with a little elbow grease and a can-do attitude.
What ensues is a painful lesson in quantum dynamics that can be simplified to the idea that you can’t fight fate. The highlights: holographic librarians, an exploding moon and an uninhabitable earth.
My favorite part, after Pearce inadvertently travels roughly a million years into the future, is that humanity has completely started over and split down two evolutionary paths. One lives in cliff-based habitats attached to the sides of what used to be Manhattan (I imagine the rents declined in price over the years). The other descended from those who fled underground when the moon exploded and eventually became mindless barbarians ruled but a telepathic alpha male (this “Uber Morlock” as Wikipedia calls it helps the Morlocks balance breeding and eating other humans).
So, if you're in the mood for an apocalyptic sci-fi drama, you should probably look elsewhere. But if you're one of the four people on planet earth that claim Guy Pearce as their favorite actor, or you've lost access to every other option, this one’s for you.