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#45 - American History X, 1998.
Director Tony Kaye hasn't done much before or since American History X, but this modern Nazi-themed tragedy is Ed Norton's best performance and pulls no punches exploring racism, injustice, and emotional angst. A dark, but worthy entry on the list.
#44 - Rear Window, 1954.
Jimmy Stewart and Alfred Hitchcock. What's not to love? This film gives voyeurism a cautionary tale and gives us a peek at some great camerawork. The tension is in the unknown and unseen, as with much of Hitchcock's work, and this is definitely one of the better ones.
#43 - Pulp Fiction, 1994.
Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs was a great and underrated film, but Pulp Fiction revolutionized cool. Taking influences from all over the map and just about every genre imaginable, Tarantino uses his love of film to create some of the most captivating use of banal dialogue imaginable. Pulp Fiction resurrected John Travolta's career and was just an original movie in a time that needed it.
#42 - The Usual Suspects, 1995.
Kaiser Soze. His name evokes one of the most brilliantly written movie endings in recent memory. All else equal, the first time you see the climax, and the pieces fall into place, it is shocking and you only want to talk about it, and then see it again. Too bad Christopher McQuarrie couldn't sustain the hype as a writer. The good news is that he has at least 4 films in development right now, and one of them is Top Gun 2 (no joke). Maybe his name will rise like Maverick. Too much?
#41 - Psycho, 1960.
Another of Hitchcock's greats, Psycho was just plain creepy. There is the comfort and safety of "mother" living in the house behind the Bates Motel for the whole film, and then you find out the truth, and there is a collapse of isolation that is chilling and frightening. Again, Hitchcock was a true master of suspense; not by what he showed, but by what he let the viewer's imagination conceive.
Stay tuned for the 30's...
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