When the Motion Picture Academy looked back at 1967, it gave its Best Picture award to In the Heat of the Night, a police procedural with a civil rights message. It's an enjoyable movie, but I can think of 10 that are better:
1. The President's Analyst Written and directed by Theodore J. Flicker
For fans of Richard Condon and Robert Anton Wilson, and for anyone who has ever cast a suspicious eye at his phone.
2. Bedazzled Directed by Stanley Donen Written by Peter Cook, from a story by Cook and Dudley Moore
No, not the awful remake with Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth Hurley. This cult comedy stars the young Cook and Moore, and it feels like a medieval folktale dropped into Swinging London.
3. Le Samouraï Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville Written by Melville and Georges Pellegrin, from a novel by Joan McLeod
The most essential film noir of the '60s.
4. Titicut Follies Directed by Frederick Wiseman with John Marshall
A grotesque glimpse at life inside a total institution.
5. In Cold Blood Directed by Richard Brooks Written by Brooks, from a book by Truman Capote
"I thought Mr. Clutter was a very nice gentleman. I thought so right up to the time I cut his throat."
6. Bonnie and Clyde Directed by Arthur Penn Written by David Newman and Robert Benton
Four decades later, it's hard to tell what all the fuss was about. But it's still a kinetic, engaging picture filled with clever touches that elevate it above its imitators. It also announced the arrival of the New Hollywood, kicking off the most creative decade of American filmmaking since the '40s.
7. The Shooting Directed by Monte Hellman Written by Carole Eastman
The Zapruder film of westerns.
8. Belle de Jour Directed by Luis Buñuel Written by Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière, from a novel by Joseph Kessel
The world's most famous fetish film.
9. Point Blank Directed by John Boorman Written by Alexander Jacobs, David Newhouse, and Rafe Newhouse, from a novel by Richard Stark
The French took our film noir and turned it into New Wave, and then movies like this one took their New Wave and made it something American again. Starring the great Lee Marvin as a thief apparently returned from the dead.
When the Motion Picture Academy looked back at 1977, it gave its Best Picture award to the Woody Allen comedy Annie Hall. Once in a blue moon, the Academy gets it right:
1. Annie Hall Directed by Woody Allen Written by Allen and Marshall Brickman
"Why don't you get William F. Buckley to kill the spider?"
2. Equus Directed by Sidney Lumet Written by Peter Shaffer, from his play
Sex, faith, madness, and horses.
3. Martin Written and directed by George Romero
The Equus of vampire movies.
4. The Last Wave Directed by Peter Weir Written by Weir, Tony Morphett, and Petru Popescu
One of Weir's early apocalyptic tales, as dreamlike as Picnic at Hanging Rock or Fearless but contained -- barely -- by a pulpy science-fiction plot.
5. Three Women Written and directed by Robert Altman
An American Persona.
6. That Obscure Object of Desire Directed by Luis Buñuel Written by Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière, from a novel by Pierre Louys
Buñuel's final film returns to some of his favorite themes: obsession, humiliation, and the strange power one person can hold over another.
7. Slap Shot Directed by George Roy Hill Written by Nancy Dowd
Something strange must have been bubbling beneath the surface of the mid-'70s. Just look at this list: It starts with a respectable, sophisticated story about relationships, and then a horde of dreams and demons bursts loose. Even this fun little hockey movie -- the standard by which all sports comedies should be judged -- has violent chaos at its core.
8. God Told Me To Written and directed by Larry Cohen
Cohen is one of the great B-movie writer-directors, and this Phildickian detective story might be his best film. (It's either this or Bone.) It's filled with low-budget glitches, but they only add to its eerie charm.
9. Take the 5:10 to Dreamland Directed by Bruce Conner
The Joseph Cornell of the Beat generation.
10. Perfumed Nightmare Written and directed by Kidlat Tahimik
As a boy in the Philippines, the protagonist wants to westernize himself; when he actually comes to the West, he tries to return to his premodern roots. The movie is often called a critique of globalization, but it's too clearly a product of globalization to be taken on that level alone. Both when he attempts to be American in the east and when he tries to be Philippine in the west, the protagonist is really a hybrid -- just like this elusive, semi-improvised yarn.
When the Motion Picture Academy looked back at '87, it gave its Best Picture award to The Last Emperor, an opulent but bland biography with a moderately Maoist message. You won't see that one here:
1. Full Metal Jacket Directed by Stanley Kubrick Written by Kubrick, Gustav Hasford, and Michael Herr, from a novel by Hasford
I was watching one of those Siskel and Ebert ripoffs -- I think it was the one with Michael Medved, but maybe it was the one with Rex Reed -- when they preceded their reviews of this terrific black comedy with the movie's funniest clip: the one where the sergeant brags that Charles Whitman and Lee Harvey Oswald learned to shoot in the Marines. I was still laughing uncontrollably as one of the hosts gazed gravely from the screen and announced that the scene had sent a chill down his spine. Not for the last time, I realized that many critics are full of shit.
2. Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story Directed by Todd Haynes Written by Haynes and Cynthia Schneider
A 16mm biopic performed by Barbie dolls. A deeply disturbing movie, it ran into trouble with both Mattel and the Karen Carpenter estate -- and it's still under a legal cloud today. But it's not much trouble to find it online.
3. House of Games Directed by David Mamet Written by Mamet, from a story by Mamet and Jonathan Katz
Unlike many stories that rely on plot twists, this paranoid tale's sudden shifts are unpredictable without being unbelievable.
4. Hope and Glory Written and directed by John Boorman
From the screenplay: "he is astonished to see hundreds of children in a state of delirious celebration. Boys fling their caps in the air. They cheer. They whoop. They run amok. Behind them lie the smouldering ruins of the school."
5. Raising Arizona Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
I was watching one of those Siskel and Ebert ripoffs -- I think it was the one with Rex Reed, but maybe it was the one with Michael Medved -- when one of the hosts announced that he couldn't understand why this comedy about kidnapping had gotten such a positive reaction. After all, he explained, kidnapping is a felony. Not for the last time, I realized that many critics are full of shit.
6. Tin Men Written and directed by Barry Levinson
It's the best of Levinson's Baltimore movies, which is another way of saying it's the best Levinson movie, period. I'm a big fan of formstone, by the way. I don't understand why all those yuppies insist on peeling it off their houses.
7. RoboCop Directed by Paul Verhoeven Written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner
A satire posing as an action movie. The fake ads alone earn it a place on this list.
8. Barfly Directed by Barbet Schroeder Written by Charles Bukowski
"Sometimes I just get tired of thinking of all the things that I don't wanna do. All the things that I don't wanna be. Places I don't wanna go, like India, like getting my teeth cleaned."
9. Withnail & I Written and directed by Bruce Robinson
If you want to impress the nerds, call it The Two Doctors.
10. Roxanne Directed by Fred Schipisi Written by Steve Martin, from a play by Edmond Rostand
"People ski topless here while smoking dope, so irony's not really a high priority. We haven't had any irony here since about, uh, '83, when I was the only practitioner of it. And I stopped because I was tired of being stared at."