Flamingo’s top 20 movie choices

by The Flamingo

The holidays are drawing near and that means a little more free time for family and friends, but also for ourselves. I always loved cinema, I love spending time watching something good, whether “commercial” movies or not so much. 

So, 20 top movie choices. Yes, dear reader, not top 5, not top 10 and not even top 15…it isn’t from lack of trying though. It was simply impossible for me to be satisfied with a shorter list of movies. I’ve been watching movies since I was a 4 year old girl and my parents forgot I was in the room with them. So this list needed to be complete and symbolize all my history of watching movies, as well as my favorite directors: Woody Allen, Tim Burton, Sofia Coppola, Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese. Believe me it was hard just picking one movie representing each of them. The list contains a great deal of musicals, maybe more than a regular person would have included. Not many appreciate music in a film and find it boring. Well, I don’t, I think it adds another layer of depth to the story.

So this is the list of movies The Flamingo most enthusiastically recommends, not Christmassy necessarily, mind you: 

1. American Beauty (1999, director Sam Mendes)

I saw this movie the summer after it was released. I was 15. It was my first window towards adulthood. I changed that summer after seeing it and looked at the world differently. “American Beauty” is a satire of average family behavior starring Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening. Its subject and the feelings that it’s drawing from the viewer are really complex. I watched the movie multiple times trying to better understand it, figure out what was I missing, why are human beings so fragile and break that easily. This is one of my favorites, I guess, because it brought change within me. I don’t know if seeing it as an adult has the same impact or raises the same feelings. You tell me after you see it!

2. Some like it hot (1959, director Billy Wilder)

This is my favorite comedy of all time. It helps of course that Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and John Lemon are the main characters. It really is a genuine comedy, without all the American cliches that make all the comedies from the last years unwatchable. The movie is based on the humor in every situation and on the expressiveness of the actors. The plot is really simple and hilarious, two guys on the run from the mob, disguise themselves as women and enter an all girls musician band. I don’t need to say more, but I guarantee you will laugh yourself silly until the last very notorious scene: “You don’t understand, Osgood, I am a man!” “Well, nobody’s perfect!”. 

3. Midnight in Paris (2011, director Woody Allen)

All of Woody Allen’s films are really amazing, but I chose this one because of Paris, of course, my favorite place in the world, and the references to the Post-Impressionist  works of art of the grand Van Gogh. The illusion of “The Starry Night” is felt throughout the movie, where reality combines with fantasy in a charming way. Of course, being a Woody Allen film you won’t get the American feel to it, although the male lead, Owen Wilson, is as American as it gets. It is romantic and full of the director’s characteristic black humor, definitely worth seeing. 

4. The end of the affair (1999, director Neil Jordan)

This movie is a heartbreaking drama, adapted after the famous novel by Graham Greene. I fell in love with Ralph Fiennes as he mastered the role of a passionate and obsessed lover of a married woman, played by Julianne Moore. The movie explores the drama of every character in this love triangle in a very tumultuous background of World War II. This is one movie which leaves an aftertaste. 

5. Les Misérables (2012, director Tom Hooper)

This is the first musical on my list. First of all, Victor Hugo’s novel is one of my favorite books, one of the first I ever read in primary school. This movie does it justice and it adds a whole new level of tragedy just through the amazing and heartbreaking music of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg. The act play is something to behold as you watch each and every one of the characters strip their souls bare in front of the audience. I think I watched it a dozen times and I was also very lucky to see the live musical in a theater in London. My favorite song is Fantine’s (Anne Hathaway) theme, “I dreamed a dream”, which is, I think, the saddest thing I have ever heard. So…when watching or listening to this musical, you must be in good mental health, otherwise it will bring you down to the darkest pit. 

6. Analyze this (1999, director Harold Ramis)

Starring Robert de Niro and Billy Crystal, this is a comedy I love watching time and time again, without ever getting bored. I’m a fan of comedies, I enjoy watching them the most, but a good one is hard to come by. Both actors are really hilarious, especially Robert de Niro, who plays a mobster hit by depression. His psychiatrist is forced to help him get through it so he can be able to kill again. This is a must watch movie on a Saturday night with popcorn surrounded by family and friends. 

7. Rashōmon,(1950, director Akira Kurosawa)

The Japanese cinema is not an easy one to digest or to understand its symbolism to the fullest, “Rashōmon” is a perfect example of that. But it impressed me so much and kept me on my toes through the whole story. It’s about a murder of a samurai and the rape of his wife…this story is told from four different perspectives of the witnesses, under the Rashōmon gate. The setting of the movie is very similar to the scene of a theater and the four witnesses are dramatic and prone to weakness, with all the faults of human nature. The music is in sync with the plot and every story of each witness. I strongly recommend this masterpiece to you, especially if you are bored of Hollywood.

8. The sound of music (1965, director Robert Wise)

The second musical on my list  is here mostly because of nostalgia. I was raised with this film and the music in it. I sing Julie Andrews’s “My favorite things” to my son all day long. The musical and the historical value of this film is a reason for which you should see it, although I think most of you have watched it and have a soft spot for it. The Von Trapps make a delightful family ideal of education and love. 

9. Goodfellas (1990, director Martin Scorsese)

This is a classic crime mob film, my favorite from this gender. It was a hard pick, because I like all of Robert de Niro’s mobster roles. But Joe Pesci made up my mind with his fantastic acting. I’ve watched this movie lots of times, my first time being just a child (remember how I mentioned my parents forgot that I was in the room with them). I remember the violence really shocked me. This is a really great Academy Award winning movie, worth seeing along with other great crime films like “The Untouchables” (my next favorite on the mob list), “The Godfather”, “Gangs of New York”, “Once Upon a Time in America”, “Public Enemies”, “The black Dahlia”  and newly “Gangster Squad”. 

10. Lost in translation (2003, director Sofia Coppola)

This movie contains a special blend for me personally: one of my favorite actors, Bill Murray, one of my favorite actresses, Scarlett Johansson, and one of my favorite and close to my heart subjects, Japan. This brief romance between the two conflicted characters, each lost in his way, has a humorous touch to it. It combines different hilarious typically Japanese situations with the relatable despondent reality of the character’s personal life. 

11. Gone with the Wind (1939, director Victor Fleming)

Because I loved the novel so much, this movie was a given. It’s such a good adaptation after the original story, mainly because the author Margaret Mitchell contributed to the screenplay. Both characters, Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler, played by the remarkable Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, remain famous for their unique personalities both in universal literature as well as in cinema. The historical background of the American Civil War and the time before and after it offers an interesting glance into The South, even if it’s a little idealised. 

12. “Le gendarme” series (1964, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1979, 1982, director Jean Girault)

This six movie French comedy series is a delicious example of the brilliance of the “cinéma français”. The main character, Ludovic Cruchot, played by the amazing Louis de Funès, is the sergeant of the gendarmerie of the beautiful French village, Saint-Tropez. I hold Louis de Funès in such high regard, for me he’s there with Charlie Chaplin. His expressiveness and energy are really overwhelming and he reminds me of a human Donald Duck. The first three movies in the series I liked the most, but I recommend all of them full heartedly.

13. The hateful eight (2015, director Quentin Tarantino)

A lot of women don’t understand why I like and appreciate Quentin Tarantino, especially this movie. Well, here is a chance to explain myself. The violence in Quentin Tarantino’s movies doesn’t affect me at all, in comparison to the violence in other movies like “The Passion of Christ” for example or “The silence of the lambs”. Tarantino succeeded in making me see past the violence, his stories are so well put together with unique characters, dialogue and music. I like the most the suspense and the humor in his movies and “The hateful eight” is perfect to represent his work. With great actors like Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell he succeeded in recreating the atmosphere of a play, with all the characters in the same room at all times. Give it a chance, it’s really worth it! 

14. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007, director Tim Burton)

Tim Burton always makes a great pair with Johnny Depp, their creepiness is mesmerizing. Add Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman and it’s a success for sure. But of course, the creepiness of this penny dreadful is not the only one keeping me hypnotized. The music is really beautiful and touching, it succeeds in passing to the viewer all the tortured feelings of the psychopathic barber, who wants revenge on the man who raped his wife and took her from him. If you are squeamish about cannibalism and meat pies, then I don’t recommend this movie.   

15. My fair lady (1964, director George Cukor)

What can be better after writing about cannibalism, than writing about beautiful hats and horse races. Named “the perfect musical”, this Audrey Hepburn movie is really a masterpiece. I’m sure most of you are familiar with the story of the poor and illiterate girl, who works hard under the guidance of a very strict professor to become a lady. The famous song “The Rain in Spain” is hilarious and both actors perform it beautifully. This is a must watch movie for all ages. 

16. La Belle et la Bête (2014, director Christophe Gans)

This is my favorite fairy tale of all time, written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. Who better to adapt this French fairy tale then the French. No offense to the newly Disney movie, but this was the one I liked the most. It features one of my favorite actors, Vincent Cassel, whose charme isn’t easy to top, even as a beast. Léa Seydoux is also the perfect actress to play Belle, both beautiful and charming, with the touch of coldness to seem unreachable, but enough warmness to prove otherwise. Not only the beautiful story is captured perfectly, but is also set in a poetic background with amazing visual effects that capture the feeling of a work of art. 

17. Chicago (2002, director Rob Marshall)

Yet another musical on my list and this one ended up here for “all that jazz”. I mean…who doesn’t like jazz? Well, of course there are some very odd people walking this earth, so I ask them to give jazz a chance and also to the wonderful performances of Richard Gere, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renée Zellweger. This is a spectacular crime musical, which leaves you “razzle dazzled”. If I failed to convince you, maybe the many Academy Awards it received will do otherwise.

18. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008, director David Fincher)

This fantasy drama based on Scott Fitzgerald’s  short story, starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett is sweet and touching. The story of Benjamin being born old and getting younger and younger with the years passing by is unusual….a life lived backwards. Although I’ve seen it just that one time it launched in the theaters, it impressed me very much. 

19. La La Land (2016, director Damien Chazelle) 

What? Jazz again? Well, yes. Ryan Gosling said it best in a Saturday Night Live sketch: he “saved jazz”. This is the perfect movie, with the perfect actors (Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone), the perfect heart warming story, perfect music and perfect dancing. It’s not Singing in the Rain, but the reason it is on my list, is because before it came out, I had lost hope in the resurrection of old fashioned musicals. With La La Land I got my hope back, although it is a drama and not a comical musical.

20. The Harry Potter series (2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, directors Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell, David Yates)

This movie series I treasure very much, because I grew up with it and also because I love J.K. Rowling’s writing. The movies are very well made, the visuals are wonderful and they manage to transport the viewer to the fantastic world of wizards and wizardry. I don’t consider the series to be enjoyable only for children, but for adults with an active imagination as well. My favorite movie is the first one, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone”, which is just an introduction to this amazing world and also the most innocent one of all seven. I can tell you this, there’s no Christmas in my home without a Harry Potter movie. 

After writing all these reviews, all I can hope is that I stirred some of your curiosity, dear reader, for maybe a couple of them. Enjoy and I hope I can count on some nice movie recommendations from you as well.

Later edit: 

One movie I left out of my list…because 21 is an odd number to have on a list. But I couldn’t bring myself to publish this article without this particular movie in it. It’s a very commercial and American movie, with cliches and the likes, I can’t even contest that. All the same, it has been my favorite my whole childhood and I watched it hundreds of times, still stirring the same awe like I am 7 again. The movie I’m referring to is Top Gun (1986, director Tony Scott), featuring the amazing Tom Cruise. Yes, he has been on the posters in my teen room for a lot of years…still would be, but, you know, married life and all… The fact is, this is a very entertaining action movie, old style, with guys in uniforms and aviator sunglasses, jet planes, motorcycles and some sweaty skin from time to time. It’s awesome for all the right reasons, I mean, who doesn’t love pilots and flying? 

Photos from Flamingo‘s archive and Google.