John Dule's 100 Favorite Films Thread

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This thread makes me want to do my own 100 favorites list. But that would be a pain! I can’t even remember the last 100 movies I watched.

Overall however, a lot of these movies listed on here would easily make my top 100/200/etc.

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Continuing to go out-of-order:

#19: Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)



Searching for Bobby Fischer could have been a fairly standard feel-good drama, but in the capable hands of Steven Zaillian (who wrote the scripts for Schindler's List and Moneyball, among others), this material is elevated to a much higher artistic level. Sure, there's plenty of schmaltz and heart-tugging, but when you look past the veneer of early 90s sentimentality, you'll find a film that examines some of the darker aspects of human nature-- talent, power, greatness, fame, and hierarchy. Because its main character is a prodigy, the film must confront several controversial and deeply unsettling questions about how we organize ourselves. Is it right that those with natural gifts should dominate the weaker among us? How should those at the top of the hierarchy conduct themselves? Should someone with natural talent be compelled to use that talent, even if they would prefer not to?

Like many of my favorite films, Searching for Bobby Fischer asks questions that have left me thinking ever since. One's responses to these questions can reveal-- and even inform-- one's core values. A prodigy is a raw, unique example of the natural inequalities that are essential to the human experience. What is your reflexive reaction when confronted with such a person? In this film, the prodigy's father tearfully states that his son "Is better at [chess] than I've ever been at anything in my life." This cathartic statement encompasses a range of emotions-- pride in his son, jealousy at his talent, guilt that he is feeling jealous of his own child, shock at the amount of talent he displays, and anger with himself for not having the same gift. It is a whirlwind of emotional baggage rolled into a single line of dialogue, and it remains one of my favorite scenes in movie history.

While Searching for Bobby Fischer isn't the all-encompassing cinematic tour de force that some of these other films are, its quiet genius is endlessly fascinating. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to take some time thinking about the questions posed by natural inequality. The movie might be about chess, but it speaks to far more universal themes-- the mark of a truly great film.

Is this the one with the black guy from The Matrix in it? If so, I think I remember seeing this when I was in like sixth grade (?) and being inspired to play chess in the middle school team because of it.

I never re-watched it, but I’m surprised that it is apparently considered to be more than a generic feel good movie. It certainly seems like it’d be one!

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Come and See is the greatest World War Two movie ever, and one of my favorites.

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I recently saw Memories of Murder for the first time. I need to watch Come and See yet, but I'd like to do it quite soon.

Come and See is a A+ film. The greatest war movie of them all.

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Dule, you have an interesting perspective on American Beauty, and one I have never taken. Perhaps it is worth a rewatch.

I want to ask you how you place it alongside Fight Club, Office Space, and American Psycho in what I view as a turn-of-the-century masculine rejection of white-collar work and frustration with having been civilized and subordinated to norms and bureaucracy.

This list is mostly unranked, but if I had to rank them I'd probably go:

1) Fight Club
2) American Beauty
3) Office Space
4) American Psycho

I've honestly been postponing my Fight Club entry in this list until I can rewatch it again. Every time I see it, I take a different interpretation of it. People have called it everything from ascetic alt-right MGTOW propaganda to a leftist screed against capitalism. I mostly think it's a commentary on the numbing effect of modern consumer culture, but I'd be lying if I said most of my enjoyment of it is unrelated to Brad Pitt being cool.

Office Space will likely make an appearance on this list at some point. As for American Psycho, I do like it, but I always thought that it took its parody to such gratuitous extremes that it unintentionally became a sexploitation film. Perhaps I'm just biased these days because of the law students I've met who "identify with" Patrick Bateman, but it often reminds me of an ostensibly "antiwar" movie that-- through its "cool" set pieces and dialogue-- ends up glorifying war. Overall I think it's a brilliant movie on its own, but its pop culture impact has soured me against it.

I never got into American Beauty whatsoever (even before Spacey was outed as an actual pedo), but I love the other three.

It’s funny how Office Space/Fight Club/American Pyscho are all vastly different movies about the same thing as well. All masterpieces of cinema.