31-27

31. Waltz with Bashir
Right. Down to business now. The top 31 is definitely my favourite 31. No rubbish from now on. Starting with Waltz with Bashir, which I suppose should be classed as an animated documentary, dealing with a former Israeli soldier's attempts to piece together his memories of his part in the war with Lebanon. It looks cool as anything, featuring a lurid yellow monochrome that makes the exciting bits more exciting and the trippy bits trippier. It strings together abstract images with action scenes while having a right good think about war and the unpredictability of memory. Genuinely moving at the end too.


30. The Devil and Daniel Johnston
Documentary makers must have an advantage when they pick a musician as a subject - they seldom have to worry about finding a soundtrack. In this case, Daniel Johnston's music fits his life-story perfectly: inspired, maybe even inspirational, but with a deep vein of sadness running through it. Daniel's story is helluva moving, helluva strange, helluva dangerous, helluva improbable. An extraordinary guy and a story well told.




29. Oldboy
Another revenge film then, eh? There seems to be rather a few of them around. Not really my favourite genre, what with me being a peace, love and forgiveness kind of guy. This one's a bit special though. Man gets locked in a room for fifteen years for no apparent reason. No doubt he's going to be thirsty for a bit of vengeance and pretty eager to find out why his young adulthood has been taken away from him. But sometimes, you know, you're really better off not knowing. I don't mean to give the impression that Oldboy is some sort of philosophical meditation on justice and desert. Look at that picture yonder: it's far far far too violent to suggest that. Why don't we agree that it's the kind of film that wants it two ways: warily warning that revenge might not be the best course of action, while simultaneously revelling in hammer swinging mayhem.


28. The Lives of Others
I don't mean to start on a negative. I mean, this is obviously a really good film, it's number 28 on the list for fuck's sake. But, you know, I don't really buy it. At the beginning of the film the main man is hard ass Stasi veteran - he was really quite tough at the start, right? And this silly boho couple manage to melt his heart? Nah. I don't buy it. Nevertheless, this is still quality stuff. Gorgeous communist colours, soulful acting, thoughtful pacing. Very involving too. I cried at the end of the third act when one of the central characters had a nasty accident, but most people seem to think that the real emotional Chinese burn comes at the end of the very last scene.


27. Downfall
Oof, a heavy duty film, this one. When was the last time that you sat through an entire film without coming close to smiling? (No, Along Came Polly doesn't count. You turned that off half way through, remember?) The last days in Hitler's bunker (whoosh, what a juxtaposition of sentences.) This is oppressive stuff, you can really feel the walls closing in. It's exciting and extremely unpleasant. The genius of this film is in achieving the perfect balancing act: the horror and the claustrophobia of that bunker are felt intensely, but you never come close to sympathising with the protagonists.