Couldn't End it there. Just couldn't

Brodie Fanns!

Well, I loved doing my Top 100 of all time so much, that I asked around to various people I know what their top 10's were. Because I know the burning questions on all of your minds is "What kinds of films do the people Brodie associates with like?"

Well, until I run out of lists, I'll let you know.

I asked family and friends to send me their lists with optional commentary, and I would provide YouTube videos for them. If the film appeared on my list somewhere, and a YouTube video was already posted, there won't be one on their list, just for practicality's sake.

But the first list is my esteemed cousin, Elizabeth Fredericks. She and I share similar tastes, which is always fun. We can compare notes, and inform each other on classics, current releases and upcoming flicks. She introduced me to Brick, which became one of my favourite movies of the past few years.

So here's her list, in no particular order-

Top 10 Movies EVAR

Casablanca -
It's a bit trite to have Casablanca on a top 10 list, and even worse to lead off with it, but in truth, I do watch this movie at least two or three times a year, making it the cinematic equivalent of a favorite sweater: I am unashamed of how comfortable I feel when all wrapped up in it. I know the pacing feels incredibly slow to a modern audience at times, but this is a movie that you can inhabit, not just watch, and the writing is crisp and precise. **NOTE: Video has been posted on this film at least twice before. So there.**

The Third Man -
I really like Orson Welles and I really like Graham Greene and so naturally I adored this movie. The setting is post-WWII Vienna, and Joseph Cotten plays the American naif who ventures into the morass of post-war devastation only to discover a mystery surrounding the apparent death of the friend who invited him. The cinematography is simply gorgeous, and Welles' famous "cuckoo clock" speech evocatively and unnervingly sums up the uneasy grey morality of the place and time.



Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind -
Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is undeniably brilliant, but this was the first film of his that seemed to have an emotional core underneath the narrative acrobatics. Kate Winslet was her typical brilliant self, and Jim Carrey surprised me for how much he disappeared into his role. Add in the very fine supporting cast and there's not much to dislike. **NOTE: Video has been posted on this film.***

Bon Voyage -
Obligatory foreign film? Maaaaybe...but it is a favorite of mine. I saw this the day after seeing the visually stunning but utterly depressing Korean film Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring, and it was the perfect antidote. It's a bit of a melodrama, a bit of a farce, a bit of a thriller, all taking place in France during World War II. Put a lovelorn writer and the self-absorbed actress he's mooning over in with a professor and his lab assistant trying to smuggle heavy water to England and a charming thief and let the magic unfold. It's just a deeply pleasing film.



Hot Fuzz -
This should be fresh enough in everyone's mind to require little explanation. A roommate of mine rhetorically asked, "Who wouldn't like Hot Fuzz?" We agreed the only answer was "people with no joy in their souls." Whereas the climactic shoot-out in Mr and Mrs Smith caused the whole film to go off the rails, the climactic shoot-out in Hot Fuzz fits seamlessly with all that comes before it and, furthermore, contains some of the most giggle-worthy moments in the whole film. It's wickedly funny, and you only feel a little bad for laughing so hard at an old lady getting kicked in the face.



Robin Hood (Disney Animated) -
Personally, I think every top 10 list needs to contain a childhood favorite, and this was one of mine. My brother and I practically wore out our videotape of this film when we were children, and really, this stuff is the golden age of Disney animation, with fantastic voice talent like Andy Devine and Phil Harris. I can't ever stop loving this movie.



Brick -
Not nearly enough people saw this film during its very brief theatrical release in 2006, but it earned that Sundance award for Originality of Vision fairly. I've got a soft spot for film noir and hardboiled detective stories, and Rian Johnson's transfer of those tropes, archetypes, and distinctive lingo to a modern Southern California high school was daring and captivating. It's not so perfect that you can't see the seams, but it's quite polished for a $500,000 production.



Serenity -
I didn't jump on to the Browncoat bandwagon until more than a year after the original series was canceled, but it was soon enough to breathlessly anticipate the movie and drag my family along to it. My dad went in with zero expectations and came out musing that he preferred it to Revenge of the Sith. (Controversy, ignite!) As with Brick, Serenity contained its own unique reimagining of a largely-abandoned genre, this time the western, and also had its own very special brand of dialogue and vocabulary. It's one of the best ensemble casts I've ever had the pleasure of watching, and the film fairly earns all the laughter and heartstring-tugging that it aims for. And oh, such quotable lines.



It's a Wonderful Life -
A professor of mine once said that to brand Frank Capra's films as sentimental is to do them something of an injustice, for Capra almost unfailingly acknowledges the misery that life can contain before unleashing his feel-good sentiment upon you. The time he invests in making you both love and pity George Bailey deserves the film's happy ending. It's charming but never precious, and captures Donna Reed and Jimmy Stewart at their prettiest and most engaging. **NOTE: Video has previously been posted.**

Wait Until Dark -
I know I'm not the only person who mistakenly thought at one point this was a Hitchcock film, which should indicate something about the tense, claustrophobic setting that director Terence Young creates in this thriller. It's tough to go wrong with Audrey Hepburn starring, and the final confrontation between her blind character and Alan Arkin's creepy villain is pure suspense movie perfection.



Runners-up: Lord of the Rings, North by Northwest, The Big Sleep, Singin' in the Rain, The Bourne Trilogy, Chinatown, The Incredibles, Infernal Affairs, Beauty and the Beast (Disney), You Can't Take It With You.