Recently, I read Patton Oswalt’s Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film, which is a memoir detailing the comedian’s cinematic obsession between the years of 1995 and 1999. For four years, Oswalt would make nightly visits to the historic New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles, and devour everything from Billy Wilder classics to the cult films of the Roger Corman era. He was utterly absorbed by the medium, probably seeing more movies than critics. Now, take a wild guess at what 1999 mega-franchise blockbuster helped break his addiction (hint: it centers around trade negotiations and Gungans).
The book is a must-read for any film buff, comedy nerd, or writer, and is still pretty entertaining for the more casual moviegoers. At the end of it, Oswalt includes some of his earlier film writings, as well as a list of his top 100 movie moments. This includes everything from “Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dennis Rodman, Mickey Rourke, and a tiger fighting in a minefield inside the Roman Coliseum at the end of Double Team” to “Don Cheadle’s interrogation technique in Devil in a Blue Dress.” It’s a true screen junkie’s list which you can also find here.
Now that the new Joy of Geek site has launched, I thought I’d get our film page going with a rundown of my top 10 movie moments. I’m breaking this into two articles, so I can provide commentary on each of my picks; stay tuned later this week for part two. Also, aside from the top three, these aren’t in any particular order, as it’s hard to put any of these moments above the others.
10) Gene Wilder’s “I’m in pain…” line in The Producers (Mel Brooks, 1967)
Like many people, the first thing that springs to mind when I hear Gene Wilder’s name is his iconic portrayal of Willy Wonka in 1971, long before Tim Burton and Johnny Depp gave the character a Michael Jackson-ized rendition in 2005. Yet as quintessential an element Wilder’s Wonka was to my childhood, it’s his performance in a daring, unabashedly irreverent Mel Brooks comedy that to me is a reflection of the actor’s true genius.
Playing the nervous accountant Leo Bloom, who teams up with struggling Broadway producer Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) to make the worst play ever, the musical “Springtime For Hitler”, and make a profit off of it, Wilder breathes life into this overtly eccentric character in a way I can’t see any other actor doing. The pinnacle of his performance comes in this scene, after Max takes away his beloved blue blanket, pours water on his face and slaps him. His hysteria is on overload, and Wilder’s delivery of this line is so passionate and brilliantly paced, making this one of the funniest moments in an already hilarious film.
9) Nicolas Cage argues with Nicolas Cage about screenwriting in Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002)
While I’m still disappointed that we’ll never get to see Cage play Superman (can we at least get Kevin Smith to write another DC movie?), we do have this Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman gem which features what is arguably the king of the internet meme’s best performance. How this movie ever got made as a studio feature is beyond me, but whatever the reason, it’s one of the cleverest films of the 21st Century.
When Kaufman was asked to adapt a book about flowers, which I have no doubt he’s capable of, he instead wrote a movie about himself trying to write that script. It provided him with a means to comment on the nature of being a professional screenwriter and working within the studio system in a way that hadn’t been done since Sunset Blvd. Cage plays both Kaufman and his fictionalized twin brother Donald. Their looks are the only thing they have in common, as Donald is a happy-go-lucky guy looking to write the next great Hollywood thriller, while Charlie is a reserved, cynical, screw-the-system kind of writer who contemplates his place in the universe.
The manner in which Cage executes this dichotomy is pure gold, and it’s exhibited brilliantly in this scene. Everything from corky mannerisms to vocal tones to physical choices are distinctive to each character, which is as much a testament to Cage’s performance as it is to Kaufman’s writing and Jonze’s meticulous direction. It’s rare that those three elements come together so perfectly in a film.
8) Ofelia recounts a fairy tale to her unborn brother in Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006):
If I could put every last frame of this del Toro masterpiece on a wall, I would. That said, it’s hard to pick out a single moment from it which encapsulates its sheer brilliance. The writing, cinematography, editing, music, costuming, visual effects and performances are all so intoxicating that to sum up Pan’s Labyrinth in just one scene seems impossible.
Yet if I had to pick a favorite moment, it’s this one here. As Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) gently touches her mother’s womb and recounts a fairy tale to her not yet born brother, del Toro takes us inside the womb and visualizes the story which she’s telling. It’s a moment which simultaneously captures Ofelia’s childlike imagination and the film’s surrealist material. And while del Toro is no stranger to blockbuster action movies like Hellboy and Pacific Rim, here the camera moves much slower than it does in those movies. The precision with which he executes each shot is a true mark of artistic genius, as is the writing.
7) Max Fischer petitions for the Latin program to continue in Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 1998)
1998 was a pretty remarkable year for movies. In addition to cult classics like The Big Lebowski and Dark City, the Oscar winners that year included Saving Private Ryan and Shakespeare in Love. Heck, even Adam Sandler scored plenty of laughs with The Waterboy and The Wedding Singer. This year also featured one of Wes Anderson’s best films to date, the lovably corky comedy Rushmore.
It has everything you want in an Anderson movie: eccentric characters, an absurd plot, symmetrically composed images, and Bill Murray. Not to mention it was Jason Schwartzman’s feature film debut. This scene captures the movie’s spirit in every way. As Schwartzman’s Max Fischer, a student involved in every extracurricular activity imaginable at Rushmore Academy, learns that the school is doing away with its Latin program, he becomes perturbed and fights to keep it, despite the fact that he himself doesn’t speak Latin. His unusual fetish for student clubs and organizations serves as a substitute for his poor academics, and it’s that kind of bizarre trait which can be found in every Anderson character. They live in worlds of their own, unique worlds that are somewhere between reality and the fantastical.
6) Bruce Campbell’s cameo in Darkman (Sam Raimi, 1990)
I selected this one because it’s the best cameo in a film that I can think of. Instead of a forced, plot-stopping moment (sorry, but even I’m getting tired of Stan Lee’s obligatory appearances in the Marvel movies), Sam Raimi finds the perfect way to give his Evil Dead star a moment to shine in his first major studio feature. At the end of the film, when the titular avenger Darkman (Liam Neeson) leaves his girlfriend and old life behind and disappears into the city crowds, he quickly puts on a disguise, just as he’s been doing for most of the movie to hide his monstrous appearance. Frances McDormand tries to follow him, he turns around, and we see none other than Bruce freaking Campbell!
It offers a nice Easter egg which Evil Dead fans can appreciate, and at the same time it doesn’t distract from the story or puzzle viewers unfamiliar with Raimi’s previous work or who don’t know who Campbell is. Without this movie, Raimi might not have gotten a chance to direct the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies, which aside from the third installment remain some of the greatest superhero films of all time. If you’re an avid consumer of comics and geek culture and have never seen Darkman, you owe it to yourself to give it a watch.