Seeing as my blog mainly focuses on film I thought I may as well make a post giving an insight into what films I love the most. Before I begin listing and explaining my choices I want to make a few things clear. First of all these are my personal choices, I am not saying that these are the best films in cinematic history. I am simply saying that these are my favourite and that I can watch these anytime without question. There are many movies that I love just as much as these but they aren’t movies that I can watch at anytime I need to be in a certain mood or it to be a certain time of year for me to want to watch those. I know its weird but it’s simply how I am as a person. Deal with it. Anyways with all of that rambling out of the way I’m gonna kick this off with my number ten pick.

***THIS LIST HAS BEEN UPDATED ON 01/12/2017*** 

 

Number Ten: Drive

When I tell people that I love this movie I either have someone who is equally passionate about it as I am or someone who absolutely hates it and calls me a hipster who only likes artsy fartsy films. Which as you can tell by my previous two picks isn’t true. Anyways this film is so deeply layered and the underlining means of every line of dialogue and every shot is truly amazing. Everything in the film is so meticulous and specific that if you change one thing an entire scene could just fall apart. Ryan Gosling gives his best performance of his career in this film. The music in the film is also impeccable whether it’s the original score or the soundtrack.  It’s one of those films that needs your undivided attention to truly understand it. While I may love it for all of the tiny details and the underlined messages I can totally understand why someone else may hate it.

Number Nine: Jurassic Park

One of Stephen Speilbergs most revered films has a very special place in my heart as it gives me a sense of nostalgia and brings out my inner child. Theres something special about an animatronic dinosaur scaring the living say lights out of not only myself but the characters on screen. The world that Speilberg created is one that is memorable like non-other. It is always a joy to be able to watch this film and just an the mention of it makes me feel nostalgic.

Number Eight: Inception

Inception like Drive is a film that requires full attention to detail otherwise you lose part of what makes this film so damn special. It features brilliant writing and craftsmen ship by director Christopher Nolan who does an absolutely masterful job creating this unique world. The attention to detail is so specific in different layers of the dream sequences. This film also introduced me to several of my favourite actors currently working today like Joseph Gordon Levitt and Tom Hardy. Overall this film is just an absolutely mesmerizing heart pumping thrill ride that had me on edge until the final frame.

Number Seven: La La Land

Where do I even begin with La La Land? I absolutely adore this movie. It makes me smile from ear to ear at one point and has me on the verge of tears at another. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are perfect together in this movie. Their chemistry is unbelievable, which is important because their relationship is the anchor of this film. Damien Chazelle directs this beautiful film and only his films have had the effect on me to go see it again immediately the next day. Chazelle did a wonderful job of combining his visual style along with the style of old Hollywood musicals. The music in this film is so terrific as well. My toe was tapping for a large majority of this movie. My favourite song by far is City of Stars. This movie desperately makes me wish I was capable of singing and dancing. I know I only just saw this movie recently but I already know that this has a place in my top ten movies of all time. It is that good. I can’t wait to see this movie again and again. It’s simply magic.

Number Six: The Wolf of Wall Street

If you ever have a day where you just feel exhausted and need to be woken up watch this film. It’ll hit you like quaaludes hit Jordan Belfort not only in this film but like they did to him in real life. Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio do an excellent job of bringing the life of Jordan Belfort to the big screen. The creative duo do an excellent job of making someone who had so many horrible things a likeable protagonist for the audience to follow. It also introduces audiences to the wonderfully talented Margot Robbie who absolutely kills it in the film and manages to steal every scene she is in. I truly love this movie for all of the insanity in brings to the screen and I can’t recommend it high enough.

Number Five: Arrival

Arrival is for me exactly what I want from a movie that is meant to be pure sci-fi. While being a beautiful slow burn this movie had me enthralled from beginning to end. Director Denis Villeneuve proved to me in this film what an undeniable talent he is. There is not a single frame in this movie wasted. Every moment has its purpose. Amy Adams gives in my honest opinion her best performance to date. Seeing this film for the first time was such an incredible experience because of the big twist that happens. Seeing it subsequent times gives a different experience to the audience because you can see all of the seeds planted throughout the entire film. Since seeing this movie I still find myself thinking about it every now and again.

Number Four: Return of the Jedi

For anyone who knows me this may come as a shock that this is only in my number four spot because of how big of a Star Wars fan I am. Don’t let that undersell how much I love this movie considering it is my personal fourth favourite of all movies made ever. While Return of the Jedi to a large sum of Star Wars fans is the weakest of the Original Trilogy I would disagree. The reasons being it gives a sense of finality to a truly larger than life story, I love seeing a Luke Skywalker whom has come into his own as a Jedi without the tutelage of Yoda, and in my opinion has the best lightsaber battle between Luke and Vader on the second death star. That fight had so many great physical elements and also emotional elements. It is breathtaking to not only watch but just to think about.

Number Three: Mad Max Fury Road

High octane action, beautiful cinematography and larger than life stunts are just a few of the things that come to mind when I think of Mad Max Fury Road. This movie is a thrill ride from beginning to end but is also filled with many small intimate moments mainly with Charlize Theron’s Furiosa that reminds audiences that in the middle all of this crazy insane action there are people. Dr. George Miller is a at the helm once again of this franchise he started all the way back in the 1970’s and in my opinions delivers the strongest instalment in the series. Tom Hardy takes over for Mel Gibson in the title role and blends right into the franchise not sticking out as something different. The thing that I love most about this film is how it wasn’t afraid to use practical effects as much as possible. Rather than taking the simple approach of doing everything digitally. It gives the film a sense of realism because these crazy larger than life stunts aren’t fake they’re real. REAL PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY JUMPING FROM CAR TO CAR! I can’t stress how amazing that is to me. The stunts alone earn it a spot in my top ten but combined with everything else I mentioned makes it my number three.

Number Two: Interstellar

Interstellar is my number two at the time or writing this list but just as recent as March I considered it to be my number one I go back and forward with this and my current number one about which one is truly my favourite movie of all time. With that being said this movie is a beautiful look at life and shows the imperfections of humanity. It shows that not every decision is better off made with a logical mind set but rather sometimes incorporating love into the decision is important. These themes are prominent throughout the entire film and it pulls on my heart strings like no other film ever has. As “unmanly” as it is to admit I cried multiple times through out this film especially in the scene where Coop (Matthew McConaughey) says good bye to his daughter and then leaves for this journey to try and save humanity. Christopher Nolan proves once again how great he is as a film maker by taking on such a project that is so versatile and making a near 3 hour run time feel like nothing at all. I understand that there are flaws with this film but what film doesn’t? Most flaws people have I would agree with but to the degree that they affect my experience with the film is significantly smaller than most. Like all of the films on this list I have to say if you haven’t seen it you really should and if you like it I’d love to talk to you about it but if you didn’t even better! Let’s have a debate!

Number One: The Dark Knight

Not surprising in the least my favourite film of all time is Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. In my eyes this film is flawless. I don’t even have slightly one nitpick about it. Everything about this film is perfect. Especially Heath Ledger’s Joker who encapsulates everything that I love about the character from the comics but adds something new and unique while not feeling out of place for the character. The film does a superb job of continuing the story of Bruce Wayne and highlighting a lot of the challenges that comes with being the Batman. One of the best things about this movie and I can’t say this for any other comic book movie is that if you remove that this is a Batman movie it still works as a film. It doesn’t use the comic book lore as a crutch not saying that others do but this is something that is distinctly unique about The Dark Knight. This film is my favourite of all time, it holds my favourite performance of all time and it also holds my favourite scene in all of cinema: The Interrogation scene. This scene is written so well that I chomp at the bit anytime any piece of dialogue is spoken. Not to mention the amazing acting by Ledger and Bale in their respective roles. This film as I’ve mentioned in a previous post is the film that made me realize movies are more than just entertainment. They’re an art form. Ever since I saw it for the first time in 2008 my life as been changed and for the better!

WOW! What a ride. I hope you all enjoyed reading about my top ten favourite films of all time, let me know what yours are so let me know by commenting or start a conversation with me on twitter or instagram @nerdycasual

Also if you’re keen I’m linking two of my YouTube videos about films, one is from a channel I do with other people talking about all kinds of media so if you’d like you can check out their videos as well. Also I’ll link one from my personal channel on a topic that is very important to me and want to continue to highlight the importance of it. Thanks for reading everyone, take care.

Live Breathe Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaQFs-4Jtrg

nerdycasual: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gCXJ5_iMvI