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The Wednesday 10 : The Top 10 Cult Movies of the Decade
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Exactly what qualifies as a cult classic is a point of contention to many. Urban Dictionary describes it in a variety of ways. Including the concise, “A movie that is weird as f*ck.” Oddly, that source of love and mistakes Wikipedia may have the finest definition, claiming a cult movie to be “a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans.” Adding pointedly, “(They) have limited but very special, noted appeal.” A movie can gain success and be a cult movie, it just has to be a certain kind of picture, one that breeds ravenous individuals to view them again and again, forming instant friendships with strangers who share that passion. Basically, a cult movie is like an obscenity, you know it when you see it. In continuation of the retrospective of the decade that was in cinema, these are the Top 10 Cult Movies of the Decade, not to be confused with the most popular.
10. Battle Royale (2000): In an alternate Japan, the nation’s youth causes chaos as unemployment spirals out of control. With kids assaulting teachers, the Battle Royale Act is put into place, enforcing one randomly chosen class to be sent to a remote island. Once there, they soon learn that only one will ever come back alive and to be that sole survivor, all of your fellow classmates must die. Based on Koushun Takami’s highly successful novel, which has also been translated into a manga series, Battle Royale is bloody and then some, with teenagers hacking off each other’s limbs and the occasional exploding head. It is Lord of the Flies given a push and a handgun, as 42 students team-up and fight in this ungodly experiment. The story’s metaphors are clear and numerous, which only slightly makes one feel better about watching the carnage.
9. Brick (2006): Some concepts are so bizarre that there are people who will never like them, no matter how well executed. That is the response you often find with Rian Johnson’s first feature Brick, which takes the classic trappings of film noir (Down-and-out detective, femme fatale, rat-a-tate dialogue) and sets in a high school. However, unlike the ridiculous Bugsy Malone, Johnson’s characters don’t feel like kids playing dress up. He downplays the elements to a teenage level, reconfiguring them with noir building blocks. The dialogue runs in circles, Nathan Johnson (Rian’s brother) creates an engrossing score out of glass bottles and Steve Yedlin’s cinematography, moody and oh so Californian, gives the movie a unique grit. None of this would work though without Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s lead performance as Brendan, a clever, soft interior with an easily pummeled exterior, but one driven to find out how the love of his life died. Along with Mysterious Skin, this will be looked back as the time a truly talented new actor began to make his name.
8. Donnie Darko (2001): Assuredly the cult film of the decade based purely on its evolution from barely seen sci-fi/mystery/horror movie to having its own section at Hot Topic, Donnie Darko is a different movie now than it was eight years ago, and not merely because of the director’s cut. It is now a film with expectations versus the “Hey, did you see this movie with the weird bunny dude and Drew Barrymore?”Still, Donnie’s tale is a fascinating one, with just the right amount of oddities and atmosphere from Richard Kelly, who has yet to write or direct anything remotely this engaging again. Jake Gyllenhaal’s confused angst as Donnie still resonates and good old Frank the Bunny remains a fantastic visual. Perhaps not the heady masterpiece some claim it to be, Donnie Darko is nonetheless still a wonderful two hours to be stuck in.
7. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001): John Cameron Mitchell. Actor. Writer. Director. Hedwig. He is all these things wrapped into one star package, a go for broke artist whose cinematic debut was an adaptation of his own successful musical. In depicting the turbulent times of Hedwig, Mitchell is a transfixing presence, a transexual punk rocker from East Berlin who belts out lyrics like, “Six inches forward/five inches back/I’ve got an/I’ve got an angry inch!” with gusto. Hedwig is a harnessed ball of energy, with one sensational song after another that runs between outrageous and heartbreaking with an ease few films ever come close to achieving.
6. In Bruges (2008): It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that In Bruges failed to ignite the box-office upon its release. The debut feature film by an unknown but acclaimed director of shorts (Martin McDonagh), starring an actor who was unable to take the next step into true stardom (Colin Farrell) and an amazing but rarely thought of Irish character actor (Brendan Gleeson) that takes place in a old time-y European city. Add to that a weak trailer that seemed to depict that the movie was just another round of guns and gangsters, In Bruges was never going to find its audience in theaters. Thankfully, people have realized what a sharply written, hilarious and gorgeously shot picture there is to be found. Endlessly quotable (“I don’t want to run out there, come back in ten minutes, and find you f*cking hiding in a cupboard,”) and full of a genuine melancholy, it is only a matter of time until McDonagh’s movie is looked back upon as one of the gems of the latter part of the oughts, with countless 2-Disc Special Editions and 10th Anniversary “Not a Sh*thole” Editions to come.
5. Punch Drunk Love (2002): Adam Sandler movies typically don’t lend themselves to cult status. His comedies are huge mainstream hits, rarely with a shelf life past their initial DVD release, and his dramas tend to be saccharine melodramatic affairs. In the hands of master filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson though, Sandler was something different. Channeling the comedian’s knack for laughs grown out of frothing at the mouth rage, Anderson revamped Sandler into Barry, an unlikely romantic foil who pummels bathroom sinks at high-class restaurants while on a date. I can still remember the first time seeing this movie with a packed audience, the majority of which turned on the movie when Sandler’s character becomes obsessed with fixing a harmonium, squirming like Barry when surrounded by his over-bearing sisters. Most hated it. The rest of us found a favorite new comedy.
4. Oldboy (2003): Park Chan-wook creates films for cinematic nerds like no one else around. There are plenty of others more interested in concocting elaborate, have-to-see-twice pictures, but only Park conceives of movies so emphatically potent with the mind’s id. In Oldboy, the most notable of Park’s “Vengeance Trilogy,” he molds a terrific thriller, following a man who is imprisoned for 15 years out to destroy his captors. The classic conspiracy and confusion builds the structure of Oldboy, but where it excels is in Park’s willing to push a crowd’s buttons, most notably in the gruesome “tongue scene” towards the finale. This is a film that doesn’t revel in excess; rather it simply makes it home, enticing viewers to look around for awhile, if they can handle it.
3. Mulholland Dr. (2001): There is no director making films today more prone to cult status than David Lynch. Since Eraserhead in 1977, Lynch has specialized in twisting narratives with even more complicated emotions layered beneath. If Michael Bay makes popcorn movies, Lynch cooks up 5-course meals consisting entirely of offal. Mulholland Dr. may be his crowning achievement, a bluesy mood-piece that has its home in a city littered with desperation and deception, where the idea of truth - physically or metaphorically - rarely exists. Patrick Fischler’s terrifying nightmare come to life, Angelo Badalementi’s swirling score and, of course, the performance by Naomi Watts (easily one of 00s finest) are but a handful of the delights in Lynch’s masterfully constructed work. Impenetrable, sure. Unforgettable, absolutely.
2. A History of Violence (2005): Despite the fact that A History of Violence was called David Cronenberg’s most mainstream film, it sure is a subversive, divisive picture. In adapting John Wagner and Vince Locker’s graphic novel to the big screen, screenwriter Josh Olson and Cronenberg delved deep into the psyche of what a man will do to protect those around him as well as the difficulty in suppressing humanity’s inner-monster. With frank, often horrific, depictions of brutality, Cronenberg uses the audience’s expectations of a revenge movie against them, showing that taking another person’s life isn’t as easy as the pull of a trigger. It is despicable stuff, sure to change a person forever. Violence was the first collaboration of Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen and it is arguably career-best work from both of them. William Hurt and Ed Harris are each atrocious depictions of evil and Maria Bello proves again why she is one of the most under-appreciated actresses working today. The pair of sex scenes between Bello and Mortensen are two of the finest ever filmed, ranging from the sweetly playful to the frightening, the latter of which has turned countless numbers of viewers against the film.
1. Moulin Rouge (2001): Nothing in Moulin Rouge should work. You’d have to measure the glam by the metric ton, the story is paper-thin and its romantic hero is praised as a genius for belting out a tune from The Sound of Music. Somehow, Baz Luhrmann’s glitzy venture into dawn of the 20th century Paris comes up aces, an all-singing, all-dancing bout of madness that is equal parts joyous and tragic. Ewan McGregor gives the performance of his life, Nicole Kidman radiates off the screen and the supporting players - especially Jim Broadbent’s bizarro Zidler - are to die for. Moulin Rouge is a smorgasbord of cinematic treasures, reinventing the musical for a new era with its blend of pop songs and hyper-kinetic edits that knows just the moment to take a breath. A movie that demands to be watched on repeat by some, a call for ibuprofen for the rest.
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