slug: films
translates: films
lang: en
title: "My favourite films"
pageCreated: "2023-10-29"
pageUpdated: "2025-08-27"
extends ../../views/layout.pug
append head
link(rel="stylesheet" href="/films/films.css")
mixin director
span.icon(title="Director") 🎬︎
mixin writer
span.icon(title="Writer") ✍︎
mixin cinematographer
span.icon(title="Cinematographer") 🎥︎
mixin music
span.icon(title="Composer") 🎼︎
mixin effects
span.icon(title="Special effects by") 💄︎
mixin starring
span.icon(title="Starring") 👥︎
block content
ol.no-list.films
li
video(src="/films/synecdoche-clip.webm" poster="/films/synecdoche.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 1.] Synecdoche, New York
ul.no-list.details
li 2008
li: +flag('us')
li #[+director]#[+writer] Charlie Kaufman
li #[+starring] Philip Seymour Hoffman
blockquote.epigram “This is everyone’s experience. Every single one. The specifics hardly matter.”
p This is a pretentious film and i feel pretentious putting it up here, but it is, genuinely, #[em just that good]. It’s ridiculously ambitious and, despite its high concept and pathetic main character, it taps into that universal fear of mis-spending the only time one has on earth — i was bawling my eyes out by the end, after two hours that felt like four.
details
summary In which i get the conspiracy pinboard out…
p I’m obligated to provide my own theory here, and i’m not sure it makes much sense, but here goes.
p #[i Synecdoche, New York] takes place in layers within layers. Caden Cotard, in Warehouse 1, casts Sammy Barnathan to play himself in Warehouse 2 — who himself casts someone as Sammy-as-Caden in Warehouse 3, and so on, and so on. The invisible hand at the top of the chain of warehouses is of course Charlie Kaufman, in the real world, what we might call Warehouse -1. But the real story takes place only in implication, in a layer we’re not privy to.
p Caden Cotard is a fictional character, the creation of “Warehouse 0”’s Ellen Bascomb, evidently a cleaner of some sort. (I would note that the name #[i Ellen] is suspiciously similar to #[i El], the Hebrew term for God — that might be a stretch, but you never know with these things.) He serves as a coping mechanism through which she can consider her own broken home life. He has all of her problems — a continuing sickness, a fraught relationship with his child, and a profound mopiness — but equally has achieved all her ambitions: not just a mere cleaner, he is a celebrated artist, and a ladies’ man, to boot.
p Caden himself is perpetually stuck as a model of Ellen at the time of his creation. He never gets any worse or better, always being about as sick as he ever was, and no amount of joy or pain can stop him from snapping back to his depressive equilibrium. Back in Warehouse 0, though, the story of Caden works, and Ellen slowly begins to turn her life around. She needs the concept of Caden Cotard less and less, a process that is reflected in the slow demise of Caden’s world. Sammy — from the Biblical Samuel, who heard voices from God — takes his own life; he falls out of the world much as Caden is falling out of Ellen’s. Ellen herself eventually shows up, much as Caden might oversee the plays inside his own, to tell him he is no longer needed. They have swapped places. Ellen is now the artist she always wanted to be, but Caden remains the lowly cleaner from all those years ago.
p The last time we see Caden, in an emptied out grey world, he meets with Ellen’s mother. Perhaps it’s her funeral, and her daughter brings out the idea of Caden one last time, in the same realm of imagination that the memory of her mother has now been consigned to, to put them both to rest. He knows how to do the play know — and she knows how to do her life.
li
video(src="/films/eternal-sunshine-clip.webm" poster="/films/eternal-sunshine.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 2.] Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
ul.no-list.details
li 2004
li: +flag('us')
li #[+director] Michel Gondry
li #[+writer] Charlie Kaufman
li #[+starring] Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet
blockquote.epigram “What do we do now?” “Enjoy it.”
p I dearly wish Jim Carrey was in more dramatic works. His comedy doesn’t appeal to me at all (too American), and yet, every time he shows up on a drama, he fits into the role like a glove.
li
video(src="/films/bttf-clip.webm" poster="/films/bttf.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 3.] Back to the Future
ul.no-list.details
li 1985
li: +flag('us')
li #[+director]#[+writer] Robert Zemeckis
li #[+writer] Bob Gale
li #[+starring] Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd
blockquote.epigram “When this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour… you’re gonna see some serious shit.”
p There is not an ounce of fat on this thing — they don’t make ’em (’em being blockbusters) like they used to!
li
video(src="/films/truman-clip.webm" poster="/films/truman.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 4.] The Truman Show
ul.no-list.details
li 1998
li #[+flag('au')] #[+flag('us')]
li #[+director] Peter Weir
li #[+starring] Jim Carrey, Ed Harris
blockquote.epigram “We accept the reality of the world with which we’re presented.”
li
video(src="/films/gremlins-clip.webm" poster="/films/gremlins.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 5.] Gremlins 2: The New Batch
ul.no-list.details
li 1990
li #[+flag('us')]
li #[+director] Joe Dante
li #[+effects] Rick Baker
blockquote.epigram “Fire! The untamed element. Oldest of man’s mysteries, giver of warmth, destroyer of forests — right now, this building is on fire!”
p This and #[i The Fifth Element] are on here for similar reasons — it is so terribly rare to see within the Hollywood system such an unabashed, unfiltered expression of pure creativity. I broke down laughing too many times to count.
li
video(src="/films/angry-clip.webm" poster="/films/angry.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 6.] Twelve Angry Men
ul.no-list.details
li 1957
li: +flag('us')
li #[+director] Sidney Lumet
li #[+writer] Reginald Rose
li #[+starring] Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb
blockquote.epigram “You think he’s not guilty, huh?” “I don’t know. It’s possible.”
p The surest way to completely destroy any stereotype one may have about black-and-white films being “boring”. This is a film about twelve increasingly sweaty white men arguing in a room and it’s the most captivating thing you’ll ever watch.
li
video(src="/films/element-clip.webm" poster="/films/element.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 7.] The Fifth Element
ul.no-list.details
li 1997
li #[+flag('fr')]
li #[+director] Luc Besson
li #[+starring] Bruce Willis, Mila Jovovich
blockquote.epigram “Yes, she #[em knows] it’s a multipass! Anyway, we’re in love.”
li
video(src="/films/interstellar-clip.webm" poster="/films/interstellar.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 8.] Interstellar
ul.no-list.details
li 2014
li #[+flag('us')] #[+flag('gb')]
li #[+director] Christopher Nolan
li #[+cinematographer] Hoyte van Hoytema
li #[+music] Hans Zimmer
blockquote.epigram “Do not go gentle into that good night.”
p #[a(href="/garden/2023/interstellar") This was the first film i ever loved enough to call my favourite.]
li
video(src="/films/budapest-clip.webm" poster="/films/budapest.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 9.] The Grand Budapest Hotel
ul.no-list.details
li 2014
li #[+flag('us')] #[+flag('gb')]
li #[+director] Wes Anderson
li #[+starring] Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori
blockquote.epigram “You see, there are still faint glimmers of civilisation left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity. Indeed, that's what we provide in our own modest, humble, insignificant… oh, fuck it.”
li
video(src="/films/northman-clip.webm" poster="/films/northman.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 10.] The Northman
ul.no-list.details
li 2022
li #[+flag('us')] #[+flag('gb')]
li #[+director] Robert Eggers
li #[+starring] Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman
blockquote.epigram “I will avenge you, Father! I will save you, Mother! I will kill you, Fjölnir!”
li
video(src="/films/cloud-atlas-clip.webm" poster="/films/cloud-atlas.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 11.] Cloud Atlas
ul.no-list.details
li 2012
li #[+flag('us')] #[+flag('de')]
li #[+director] Lilly and Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer
blockquote.epigram “Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others, past and present.”
p This is #[a(href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGkywL8MNHo") one of those] marmite movies that everyone either loves or hates. Me personally, i loved it — give it a shot!
li
video(src="/films/lola-clip.webm" poster="/films/lola.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 12.] #[span(lang="de-DE") Lola rennt] #[i.translation Run Lola Run]
ul.no-list.details
li 1998
li #[+flag('de')]
li #[+director] Tom Tykwer
li #[+starring] Franka Potente
blockquote.epigram “The ball is round; the game lasts ninety minutes — that’s a fact. The rest is theory.”
li
video(src="/films/shaun-clip.webm" poster="/films/shaun.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 13.] Shaun of the Dead
ul.no-list.details
li 2004
li #[+flag('gb')]
li #[+director] Edgar Wright
li #[+starring] Simon Pegg, Nick Frost
blockquote.epigram “We are not using the #[+sc('Z')]-word!”
p I hmm’ed and hawed for ages trying to figure out which of the Cornetto trilogy to include. What cinched it for #[i Shaun of the Dead] is the scene where Shaun’s mum reveals she’s infected and that she just didn’t want to bother him — a perfect nugget of emotion in the middle of all the rom-zom-com.
li
video(src="/films/thing-clip.webm" poster="/films/thing.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 14.] The Thing
ul.no-list.details
li 1982
li #[+flag('us')]
li #[+director] John Carpenter
li #[+effects] Rob Bottin
li #[+starring] Kurtjeff Russelbridges #[small (They’re the same person, let’s be honest)]
blockquote.epigram “Nobody trusts anybody now, and we’re all very tired.”
li
video(src="/films/slih-clip.webm" poster="/films/slih.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 15.] Some Like It Hot
ul.no-list.details
li 1959
li #[+flag('us')]
li #[+director] Billy Wilder
li #[+starring] Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe
blockquote.epigram “Water polo? Isn’t that terribly dangerous?” “I’ll say. I had two ponies drowned under me.”
p It’s a genuine miracle that this has aged as well as it has.
li
video(src="/films/annihilation-clip.webm" poster="/films/annihilation.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 16.] Annihilation
ul.no-list.details
li 2018
li #[+flag('gb')]
li #[+director]#[+writer] Alex Garland
li #[+starring] Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh
blockquote.epigram “We’re disintegrating — our bodies as fast as our minds. Can’t you feel it?”
p The best way i can describe this is “if #[i 2001] were made by botanists”.
li
video(src="/films/titanic-clip.webm" poster="/films/titanic.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 17.] Titanic
ul.no-list.details
li 1997
li #[+flag('ca')] #[+flag('us')]
li #[+director] James Cameron
li #[+starring] Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet
blockquote.epigram “And so they lived happily together for three hundred years, in the land of Tír na nÓg — land of eternal youth and beauty…”
p I’m man enough to admit i cried like six times in a row. It’s a great film and you’re all just going to have to deal with it.
li
video(src="/films/hudsucker-clip.webm" poster="/films/hudsucker.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 18.] The Hudsucker Proxy
ul.no-list.details
li 1994
li #[+flag('us')]
li #[+director] Joel and Ethan Coen
li #[+starring] Tim Robbins
blockquote.epigram “Mr Levin, 37!” “36.” “Walk. Down.”
p A splendidly good-natured and criminally underseen comedy that everyone should watch at least once in their life. It’s like Willy Wonka for grown-ups!
li
video(src="/films/itmom.webm" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 19.] In the Mouth of Madness
ul.no-list.details
li 1994
li #[+flag('us')]
li #[+director] John Carpenter
li #[+starring] Sam Neill, Jürgen Prochnow
blockquote.epigram “Every species can smell its own extinction. The last ones left won't have a pretty time with it. In ten years, maybe less, the human race will just be a bedtime story for their children. A myth, nothing more.”
p In today’s era of deepfakes and dripped-out Popes, it can feel as if the distinction between reality and fiction is collapsing out from under us. What happens when noöne can agree on what truth is anymore? If you believe this prescient John Carpenter flick… it’s not going to be pretty.
li
video(src="/films/prisoners-clip.webm" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 20.] Prisoners
ul.no-list.details
li 2013
li #[+flag('us')] #[+flag('ca')]
li #[+director] Denis Villeneuve
li #[+starring] Jake Gyllenhaal, Hugh Jackman, Paul Dano, Viola Davis, David Dastmalchian
li #[+cinematographer] Roger Deakins
blockquote.epigram “They only cried when i left them…”
p Look at that cast list. #[em Look at it!] That’s all you need to know. Go in as blind as possible and steel yourself for a punishing watch.
li
video(src="/films/malkovich-clip.webm" poster="/films/malkovich.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 21.] Being John Malkovich
ul.no-list.details
li 1999
li #[+flag('us')]
li #[+director] Spike Jonze
li #[+writer] Charlie Kaufman
li #[+starring] John Cusack
blockquote.epigram “You see the world through John Malkovich’s eyes and then, after about fifteen minutes, you're spit out into a ditch on the side of the New Jersey Turnpike.”
li
video(src="/films/reloaded-clip.webm" poster="/films/reloaded.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 22.] The Matrix Reloaded
ul.no-list.details
li 2003
li #[+flag('us')]
li #[+director] Lilly and Lana Wachowski
li #[+starring] Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss
blockquote.epigram “Where is he now?” “He’s doing his Superman thing.”
p I will, one day, be impaled on a pike for speaking the truth — the truth that #[i The Matrix Reloaded] is better than the original. My argument is quite simple: where #[i The Matrix] is just a plain good movie, #[i Reloaded] is both a good #[i good] movie and a good #[i bad] movie: it works just as well sincerely as it does ironically. Keanu Reeves fights a hundred #[+sc('PS2')]-looking Hugos Weaving — what more could you want‽
li
video(src="/films/little-shop-clip.webm" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 23.] Little Shop of Horrors
ul.no-list.details
li 1986
li #[+flag('us')]
li #[+director] Frank Oz
li #[+starring] Rick Moranis
blockquote.epigram 𝅘𝅥𝅮 “Son, be a dentist! People will pay you to be inhumane…” 𝅘𝅥𝅮
li
video(src="/films/true-stories-clip.webm" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[span.marker 24.] True Stories
ul.no-list.details
li 1986
li #[+flag('us')]
li #[+director]#[+starring] David Byrne
blockquote.epigram “I personally believe… i can see Fort Worth from here!”
p The word that comes to mind when i think of #[i True Stories] is “gentle”. People have called it a satire, but so far as i can tell, Mr Byrne came to this project with nothing but the most genuine and sincere love for the mild quirks of suburban American life.
li
video(src="/films/sunshine-clip.webm" poster="/films/sunshine.jpg" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[abbr.marker.all-sc(title="Honourable mention") HM.] Sunshine
ul.no-list.details
li 2007
li #[+flag('gb')]
li #[+director] Danny Boyle
li #[+starring] Cillian Murphy, Cliff Curtis
blockquote.epigram “It’s like… taking a shower in light.”
p An honourable mention — not quite good enough for the main list, but it does feature my favourite #[i depiction] of outer space in a film. Space is beautiful (intoxicatingly so, even), and vast, and so, so cold, and so, so hot, and so, so dangerous, and it wants to kill you, and you still can’t look away.
li
video(src="/films/felidae-clip.webm" autoplay loop muted)
article
h1 #[abbr.marker.all-sc(title="Honourable mention") HM.] Felidæ
ul.no-list.details
li 1994
li #[+flag('de')]
li #[+director] Michael Schaack
blockquote.epigram “Experiments on plant hybrids!”
p So… Okay, i’m not even saying this is #[em good], necessarily, but i haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since i watched it. Because it’s a film about a cat detective, with cat eugenics, cat sex, a cat electroshock cult, a cat psychopomp, and cat evisceration, and that’s not something that can ever leave your brain. Strongly recommended to furries, sicko Europeans, and nobody else.