The Usual Suspects (1995)

Check it out a movie that's actually from the lifetime of people who use social media - I'm so proud of myself. More important than it's relative newness, however is the fact that this movie meets my two primary criteria for inclusion on this list, 1) it is a brilliant movie and 2) not enough people have seen it. It has a cast of people who have, for the most part only become more popular and in demand than when they did the movie, but most importantly it has Bryan Singer as director. If you love the X-Men movies you owe it to yourself to see what Singer did with a more terrestrial script.

Synopsis:

The action of this movie is told almost entirely in flashback. The only exception is the very stylized, very brutal murder of one man by another. They clearly know each other, but it is not clear, how or how well. Immediately after the murder the boat is lit on fire and explodes. We are immediately transported to the interview of Roger 'Verbal' Kint (Kevin Spacey) who says the story began six weeks prior when a hijacking of a truck in New York caused the police to round up several criminals with connections to hijacking and to put them in the line up. In other words, they rounded up the usual suspects. (For those who don't know the title is taken from Casablanca in which the hapless police of Vichy France were told on more than one occasion to round up the usual suspects) We then see, in flashback the lineup these guys were put in and through that scene (which is very funny) we meet our other main characters including the man who was shot in scene on on that boat, Dean Keaton, played by Gabriel Byrne, a former cop who went REALLY bad. Michael McMannus played by Stephen Baldwin, is the regular crime partner of Fred Fenster, played by Benicio del Toro before he became really famous. Finally we meet Todd Hockney played by Kevin Pollack a loaner with a very colorful vocabulary. We see that Verbal has a bad limp and no use of one hand and it isn't clear what he's doing there with these more serious criminals.

As this group of criminals are cooing their heels in a holding cell after the line up, McMannus and Fenster decide that now might be a good time to recruit partners for a score they have in the works.  Dean Keaton wants nothing of the plan insisting that the whole line up was a set up and that he is going straight. The others are interested however and Verbal comes up with a plan but it requires 5 guys so he talks Keaton into joining them.

Soon we cut away to the blown up boat. We are told there are 15 or so fatalities and the only survivors are a cripple being talked to by the D.A. whom we recognize as Kint, and a man in a coma at the hospital. We are introduced to two investigators Dave Kujan of US Customs (played by Chazz Palminteri) and FBI agent Jack Baer (Giancarlo Esposito). Kujan is primarily interested in the involvement and death of Dean Keaton - they have history and he's not sure about the story he's heard Kint told the authorityes. (There are simply too many unanswered questions - why did so many people die for dope that wasn't there? It's all very confused but it is clear that  cares about Dean Keaton and him only, at least at first. He manages to gain access to Verbel Kint and question him one on one.  And Kint tells him the whole story - interspersed with parts of his own personal history the he throws in to apparently obfuscate his primary story. The rest of the film unfolds as Kint tells Kujon the story.

Review:

This really is one of those serendipitous movies in which everyone is at the top of their game and it all comes together in a taut. terrifying, fascinating thriller that you will talk about long after you see it. Because it is one of those stick to your ribs movies you will find that friends who have seen it reference the movie often. That is one of the reasons I would put movies on this list if they are conversation producers. But this is so much more. This is one serious tour-de force by Kevin Spacey. The plot is so complicated there is a very good chance that two viewings will be needed. I heard a story shortly after it's release indicating that even Gabriel Byrne was confused about a major plot point until he saw the final cut.  In addition to bringing many of these actors, and the wonderful director, to the fore for the first time, the screenwriter is engaged in his first big hit as well. It's a modern movie (ok absent cell phones and social media) with a real old fashioned film noir feel to it. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Chinatown (1974)

I recently had a friend tell me that they did not really think that Jack Nicholson was that great an actor, then she admitted that she had never seen Chinatown. That is unacceptable. I don't think Nicholson has ever been better (even though he didn't win an Oscar until One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest the next year) or better looking. Faye Dunaway had not yet started chewing the scenery as she has in most, if not all, of her post Mommie Dearest roles. Roman Polanski was still living in the United States, and Robert Towne, still one of the best writers in Hollywood, when he feels like it (we won't count Mission Impossible II) wrote one of the best scripts ever.

The basic idea behind the movie was to do a crime drama about the really big crimes perpetrated by men who don't go to jail, instead they get their names on buildings. Towne took the basic narrative of the men who created Los Angeles by solving it's water problem and added some VERY dramatic fictions, then drops a Sam Spade-esque private investigator in the middle of it and in a position where he feels he must unravel it all. It's the 1930s, the depths of the depression and J.J. 'Jake' Gittes (Jack Nicholson), former cop and PI is making a living specializes in sleazy matrimonial work - meaning spying on cheating husbands. Hired for what appears to be just another job catching a cheating spouse by Mrs. Mulwray he instead finds himself in the headlines, threatened with lawsuits, attacked with a knife, attacked by a crazy family of farmers trying to guard their water, falling in love, and threatened by one of the most powerful men in town. It's a fascinating and complicated plot.

Every time I watch this movie (and that's a lot of times) I notice something I never noticed before. A couple of years ago I noticed a song that was playing in a restaurant scene between Nicholson and  Dunaway and in the next scene, which was undoubtedly shot weeks later or earlier, Nicholson is humming that song as if it got stuck in his mind when he was in the restaurant. That's the kind of touch that tells you this is a really special movie. The performances are hard to beat and Polanski's direction is probably why people in Hollywood have been unable to condemn him for his personal faults. The powerful man that Gittes comes up against is played by John Huston, legendary director and father of Nicholson's real-life long term lover Angelica Huston. This adds an interesting dimension to the scene they play together. I cannot stress enough that if you haven't seen this movie you must see it soon.

Raising Arizona (1987)

The Coen brothers (Ethan and Joel) are two of the most creative and most demented people working in hollywood today. For anyone who doesn't know they are a writing and directing team that is responsible for a series of mostly hilarious movies with the occasional horror tinged movie thrown in.  Their most popular movie with younger viewers is probably The Big Lebowski with the iconic character Dave the dude. But it was Raising Arizona that got it all started. Actually, Blood Simple pre-dates Raising Arizona but that is a serious movie with fewer of the well known Coen brothers quirks than Raising Arizona has so I stand by my characterization.

Synopsis (spoiler free)

Before the opening credits ever run in the movie we are treated to the meeting and courtship of H.I. McDunnough and his future wife Edwina - the fact that the courtship takes place as H.I. is having his mugshots taken by Edwina is classic Coen brothers. They are filled with hope for the future until they find out that Edwina cannot have children. Coincidentally, the wife of local businessman Nathan Arizona has quints  and is quoted in the newspaper as saying that she basically too many. H.I. and Ed decide to even things out a bit for both families and that is when the action really begins. Believe it or not all of this information and exposition doesn't spoil the movie - so much happens after they decide to get one of the babies it would be nearly impossible to summarize here.

This movie is quite simply hilarious. Funny lines, funny images, funny accents, funny characters, memorable lines .... all are part of a Coen brothers movie in general and Raising Arizona in particular. I'm not usually a big Nicolas Cage fan but he is genuinely hilarious in this movie as is Holly Hunter. This is John Goodman's first appearance as a Coen brother's staple. Academy award winner Frances McDormand (Mrs. Joel Coen) is also present here as the quirkiest and most hilarious supporting character. I wholeheartedly recommend this for the first time or the fifteenth - it just seems to get funnier every time I see it.