Greatest Film Ensembles of All Time Part V: Adam and Orrin count down Their Top 10

This is the final installment of a series in which Adam Spector of Adam's Rib and I count down out top 50 film ensembles of all time. Part I is here and Part II is here and here you will find Parts III and IV. Thanks for reading everyone, it was a labor of love (Note: This post will be updated and edited as we go)

ORRIN'S TOP TEN:

Murder on the Orient Express

Finally, we arrive at  . . . THE TOP TEN.  First your list Orrin.  You have some staples here, half of which are on my list, while others made me rethink old assumptions.  Unfortunately, I can’t make a strong case against any of them.     

10. Chicago (2002) – Much of the media attention with Chicago focused on how it was bringing back the musical. But it didn’t take too long for the actors to garner the recognition they deserved.  Catherine Zeta-Jones won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, while Renee Zellweger, Queen Latifah and John C. Reilly all garnered nominations. Zeta-Jones’s extensive background in musical theater shines through in her numbers.  Zellweger does not have the same chops as Zeta-Jones, but holds attention by subverting her good girl persona.  Latifah, although she appears sparingly, makes the most of her brassy singing voice.  Reilly, as he often does, plays the everyman to perfection.  You will see him in my top ten.  Richard Gere was a disappointment, especially because the sleazy lawyer part was originally offered to John Travolta.  Not only would Travolta have fit the part to a tee, but few actors in the last 40 years could dance onscreen as thrillingly as he did.  Gere nailed the shifty charm of the lawyer, but you could see the director, Rob Marshall having to work around his limited dancing ability.       

Orrin’s response: An interesting alternative take with Travolta substituting for Gere, but the part wasn’t about natural ability but rather razzle-dazzling your way around it. To some degree, my favorite ensembles are coinciding with my favorite films of all time, and Chicago certainly wouldn’t rank that high (though it is a great film), but I do believe lightning really struck with this ensemble all the way down to all the cell block tango girls (more Lucy Liu please!) and Taye Diggs as the announcer. I also think it was no accident that this film was credited with bringing the ensemble back because Zellweger really conjures that kind of classic era leading lady spunk (albeit a little darker) as do Zeta-Jones and Queen Latifah.

9. A Prairie Home Companion -- #39 on my list.  As we have noted earlier, Robert Altman defined his work with wide and deep ensembles.  You will see another film of his on my top

 How fitting that Altman’s swan song, which hit theaters only a few months before his death, had such a strong cast even by his high standards:  Meryl Streep, Kevin Kilne, Tommy Lee Jones, (Altman regular) Lily Tomlin, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly (back-to-back on your list), and Virginia Madsen.  And of course Garrison Keillor playing himself.  The ensemble succeeds not through its star power but in the effortless way they all gel, as if they had been a stock company working together for years.  The radio series succeeded through wit and warmth, but also through familiarity.  Lake Wobegon was a place we all felt we knew.  Keillor’s screenplay, Altman’s steady hand, and the immense group of actors carried over that familiarity on screen.

Orrin’s Response: Honestly, Meryl Streep here was my favorite performances of the entire year in any category, and it wasn’t even among her 20+ nominations. The Streep-Tomlin-Lohan clan felt very authentically Minnesotan which went a long way towards mixing in with the Garrison Keillor vibe.  When we discussed our first Robert Altman entry on the list (The Player), we discussed how he had a stock company of players that served him well, but looking at how Prairie Home Companion and Nashville only have one actor in common and how he’s made ensemble films work with entirely different cast lists, it says a lot about how Altman can manage great ensembles regardless of who’s in them.  I wrote about Robert Altman and the film as his last on ScreenPrism

8. From Here to Eternity – Not on my list but it certainly could have been.  A very eclectic mix including actors with classical training such as Deborah Kerr, largely self-taught actors such as Burt Lancaster and Frank Sinatra, and Method-trained Montgomery Clift.  Ernest Borgnine steals every scene he’s in as the brutal Sgt. “Fatso.” Donna Reed played against her wholesome image by portraying a “hostess” (a prostitute in the book).  One of a small number of films to get a nomination in all four acting categories, with Sinatra and Reed winning for Supporting Actor and Actress.

Orrin’s response: Like Grand Hotel, it certainly helps that From Here to Eternity is among my dozen favorite films of all-time or so.  Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift are among the most magnetic stars of their generation, so this is a great introduction on these two. Similarly, there’s a younger generation who probably only knows Frank Sinatra as a singer or Deborah Kerr as the stuffy lady from The King and I. They would do well to see this film as well.

7.  Star Wars – When I saw this on your list, I had to pause for a second.  Star Wars is part of my DNA, having been my favorite film since I was four years old.  I have written about it extensively:  (http://www.dcfilmsociety.org/adamstarwars.htm,  http://www.dcfilmsociety.org/adam0705.htm,http://www.dcfilmsociety.org/adam1212.htm,  http://www.dcfilmsociety.org/adam1601.htm,http://www.dcfilmsociety.org/adam1701.htm).  Yet I never considered it an ensemble piece, perhaps in part because I focused on the story and the special effects.  Perhaps it’s also because the cast discussions would range from disdaining the film (Alec Guinness) to playfully joking about the film (everyone else).  When I did think about the actors, it was often on one performance, such as Carrie Fisher.   You including Star Wars made me take a different look at a film I know so well.  Guinness gave Obi Wan Kenobi the gravitas needed to make you believe in the Force and the Jedi.  The interplay among Fisher, Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill propel the film’s second act.   James Earl Jones’s deep, threatening voice fills the screen as Darth Vader, complementing Peter Cushing as the more traditional villain.  You never see Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Peter Mayhew (Chewie) or Kenny Baker, but their physical performances should not be overlooked.   So, yes, this most certainly belongs on the list.

Orrin’s Response:

I’ve had many debates with friends over whether Kenny Baker is an actor or more of an earlier version of a motion capture stand-in, and I’m not well-acquainted on Anthony Daniels’ involvement to know if it was just a human with robot paint or a man in a costume, but those two do make a cute pair. But I was really thinking about the actual live actors in the film here. I would count Billy Dee Williams in this entry as well, but the main five or six actors- Fisher, Guinness, Hamill, Ford, Cushing, and James Earl Jones-really combine a great mix of old and new enthusiasm. The formula for the Star Wars prequels and the JJ Abrams-led sequels copied the same formula-- combining unknown and known, procuring talent on both sides of the pond—with varying degrees of success.

   

6. Grand Hotel -- #34 on my list.  We noted this film earlier, which is arguably the signature ensemble film of the classic studio era.  Maybe someday we’ll get a prequel to “Feud” about how Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford clashed on set.   

Part of the idea of a great ensemble is the idea of balancing out the parts with a deft touch. I think Grand Hotel is the epitome of such an effort. The storylines are all beautifully told in their own way (whether tragic, tragicomic, or dramatic in a life-affirming sense). It is a bit disorienting watching Joan Crawford in Feud as a diva while watching her here as the counter-diva to Greta Garbo.

5. Singin’ in the Rain – Another film that I had to reconsider, as I immediately think of Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor.  But then I realized I was falling into an easy trap: just thinking of the film as a musical, when it’s also a brilliant comedy.  Many of the laughs come from Jean Hagen as the tin-voiced diva Lina Lamont. Not only was she very funny, but she actually dubbed her singing voice for Reynolds who was playing the actress dubbing Lamont.  Add in Cyd Charisse and Rita Moreno (nine years before West Side Story), and you have a strong ensemble.  Maybe higher than I would rank it in this category, but good choice.

Orrin’s Response: A good sign of your higher level of devotion to Star Wars than me is your online post mourning Carrie Fisher’s passing whereas I felt the loss of Debbie Reynolds significantly more. Going through her filmography or watching her in interviews or just looking at backstage photos, Reynolds struck me as someone who was specifically made for the MGM musical era.  She struck me as a compulsive performer and I couldn’t think of anything more fitting for her outsize personality than seeing Singin' in the Rain become appreciated as the greatest American film musical in history. It’s not just Reynolds but it’s a tribute to O’Connor, Kelly, and Hagan as the archetypical sidekick, leading man, and villainess respectively. Of course Cyd Charisse is just an added bonus.

4. Doubt (2008) – We debated earlier about how many actors it takes to qualify as an ensemble.  If a film garners four acting nominations, it qualifies.  The best part is that many of the scenes are simple two character dialogue. When Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn square off, you can feel Meryl Streep and the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman playing off each other, making each other better.  The same goes for the brilliant, understated scene between Streep and Viola Davis.  The latter got one of the Oscar noms despite only ten minutes of screen time, because she made those minutes count.  There’s not much you know on paper about Davis’s character.  Davis fills in the backstory of a woman who has had to make sacrifices and tough choices living in a segregated world. 

3. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) -- #18 on my list.  This film had to have a brilliant ensemble, or it would have failed miserably.    David Mamet’s script is like red meat for actors, and boy do they chew on it.   As with Doubt, the actors’ performances build off each other.  Al Pacino had the showier role, doing monologues in a way only he could.  Alec Baldwin’s cool contempt embodying capitalism at its cruelest, made the “Always be closing” scene into an iconic film moment.  However, its Jack Lemmon’s haunting work, as the has-been who doesn’t realize his time is up, that has the most staying power.  James Foley’s claustrophobic direction echoes Lumet’s work in 12 Angry Men, a film from earlier in your list, and squeezes the most out of one of the most talented cats ever assembled.  

Orrin’s Response: With Jack Lemmon and Alan Arkin on one side and Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey and Al Pacino on the other, this film feels like the best of two generations meeting in the middle. Also worth noting, a poll on best ensembles I did reveals 12 Angry Men as the second best ensemble film of all time.

2.   Murder on the Orient Express (1974) -- #36 on my list.  Very timely choice with the remake on the way.  As we have discussed earlier, this is one of the times where the “all-star” cast succeeded.  The stars fit their parts, not the other way around.  Sidney Lumet offered Ingrid Bergman the bigger part of Princess Dragomiroff, but Bergman wisely insisted that she play the nanny, even though she has little screen time.   History proved Bergman right as she won Best Supporting Actress.  Bergman’s decision exemplifies the focus on character among the whole cast.  Kenneth Branagh’s team has some massive shoes to fill.    

Orrin’s Response: I honestly have no idea why Ingrid Bergman won an Oscar over Wendy Hiller, Rachel Roberts or Lauren Bacall, but that’s part of what makes this film a great ensemble. It’s full of scene stealers. On top of the very solid reasoning you provide about how the cast fits their parts to a T, it’s a great film to introduce anyone wanting to be introduced to the classics as so many great actors of note come here.  The other thing I want to note here is that the ensemble isn’t just about fitting a lot of actors under a single marquee and having them live up to their performances. It’s also about a capable lead. We can talk about Hiller, Roberts, Bacall, Sean Connery, Michael York, Vanessa Redgrave and all the other stars BUT this film wouldn’t be considered a classic if Albert Finney didn’t make the lead such an engaging character to follow. When Kenneth Branagh chewed the scenery on the extremely recent release in some parts, you had more appreciation of the way Finney did this literary character such justice.

1. Network -- #5 on my list.  Sidney Lumet again.  Maybe he never received enough credit as an actor’s director. William Holden, who we have discussed earlier, keeps the film grounded no matter how fantastical it gets by the end.   He and Faye Dunaway have very different styles, but this works perfectly, as their characters come from opposite vantage points.  Their scenes together manage to be romantic, funny, and in the end sad.    We all remember Peter Finch as the “mad prophet of the airwaves” Howard Beale, but Beale’s post breakdown mania works because Finch was also convincing as the pre-breakdown Beale, a beaten-down shell of a once principled newsman.    Ned Beatty and Beatrice Straight only have one scene apiece, but their riveting work completely commands the screen.  Straight won an Oscar despite appearing for just five minutes.  Like any great ensemble, the lesser known actors also distinguish themselves, particularly Marlene Whitfield as the underground revolutionary Lauren Hobbs, and Arthur Burghardt as the terrorist leader “the Great” Ahmad Kahn.  My #1 also happens to be a 70s film starring Robert Duvall.

Beatrice Straight, Network

Orrin's Response: No disagreements here. You perfectly summarized everything I love about this film and it's cast. As I previously said, William Holden was arguably the most exciting actor of his era and this is his swan song. 

ADAM'S TOP TEN:

1. The Godfather (1972)-I was kind of hoping for a bold, original, and surprising choice from you but I always had a feeling you might pick a classic and it’s hard to debate this film. Marlon Brando’s role here has been caricatured quite a bit (several characters from Analyze This, Dom Pigeon from Animaniacs’ Goodfeathers sketch and the DomBot from Futurama all come to mind) so it’s hard to even remember the original from the copycats. I don’t know which of the three sons struck you the most, but watching James Caan in that film, you wished he had a better career. Sure, he was great in Misery but it seems Kathy Bates got all the credit. I’ll write a bit more in your sequel entry.

2. Pulp Fiction (1994)-Pulp Fiction is quite possibly the definitive film of the 1990s and I’ve never seen a poll of that decade in film that has Pulp Fiction lower than three. 

However, I did a poll on best film ensembles that did rank Reservoir Dogs ahead of Pulp Fiction (as you recall, my only Tarantino film in the top 50 is Django Unchained for the way the characters and actors fit so perfectly)  and that makes a lot more sense to me. Pulp Fiction has pairings and concurrent stories whereas Reservoir Dogs really casts the scrappiest of character actors while also having a tighter more theatrical series of interactions between the same group of people throughout.

In a recent Hollywood Roundtable interview, Quentin Tarantino talked about directing a theatrical version of The Hateful Eight when he retires from directing, and that makes a lot of sense, because Tarantino’s stories are highly theatrical and moving his narratives away from an arena that are defined by special effects, would really do service to his dialogue. I feel like films like Diner (ironically, Tarantino got early comparisons to Levinson when he was starting out) or Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff with group scenes can really thrive in an ensemble sense and that’s what Reservoir Dogs is.

I suppose it also makes a difference for me that I’ve never particularly been attached to any of the actors in the film.  Uma Thurman seems cold and off-putting across several genres (although to be fair, I hear she takes the badass babe trope to a new level in Kill Bill).

John Travolta seems a little weird and has significantly watered down his brand by being in nearly every bad action film I saw in the late 90s and early 00s. This is significant because by I first watched Pulp Fiction in a film class in 2002 after enduring some bad Travolta films so “Travolta in an action film again” was not a great tagline.

Samuel L. Jackson is widely respected as a great character and I like him but I don’t love him the way I would, say Philip Seymour Hoffman or Paul Giamatti or Lawrence Fishburne.

Lastly, I have tons of appreciation for Bruce Willis for his taste in directors. When it was easy for him to just act in action films, he took risks to work under Terry Gilliam and M. Night Shyamalan. However, I think it’s only with Wes Anderson and Moonrise Kingdom did I feel like he was really doing something different and that was nearly two decades after Pulp Fiction

As I debated with you in Big Lebowski/Fargo and Citizen Kane/Magnificent Ambersons, I wonder if you’re conflating the better film with the better ensemble.


3. Airplane (1980)- You’re number one choice was disappointingly unoriginal but I have to give you credit for surprising me quite a bit with your fondness for comedy and Richard Linklater films in particular (I never hear you discussing that director)

This is ironic since I had extremely high placement for Airport which this film as a parody of. When watching the recent John Lithgow television comedy Trial and Error, there was a woman with a minor role (a psychic jury member) who I instantly recognized because she had such a distinctive flalr: Apparently her name was Julie Hagerty and I remember her well because she made a strong impression with Airplane. She was appealing enough to make the love story work, but she also sold the absurdity like a straight man (or woman in this case).

Honestly, I can’t remember anyone else in the film (except Leslie Nielsen and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) but I invite you to educate me on all the other stand outs.

4, Nashville (1975)-Considering no other director is as synonymous with the ensemble film, I think it’s fitting to include an Altman film in the top 5, and this film is as rich as Murder on the Orient Express (the film I consider the gold standard)  with great character  actors which. I could see a good argument for people calling it the greatest ensemble film ever. Is there a single unheralded actor from that decade who isn’t in the film in a meaningful way? A few people on my poll said this was the greatest ensemble film of all time and I’m not surprised.

5, Network (1976)-I had it as my #1 and you articulated the film’s brilliance so well I didn’t even feel a need to elaborate on it.

6, The Usual Suspects (1995)-This is my favorite surprise of yours in the top 10. While this film currently ranks #27 all-time on IMDB, I still feel like it’s often forgotten in the shuffle.

Like a great ensemble film, it has a lot of group scenes and group interplay between a number of actors who are all on relatively equal footing.

I was too young to watch Kevin Spacey’s films in 1995 but Damien Bona’s essential book Inside Oscar 2 talked about Spacey being rewarded for the Oscar this year because he was breaking out with four pretty high-profile roles in a single year. He was either the lead or the one with the showiest role in Usual Suspects, The Ref, Seven, and Swimming with the Sharks (similar to how Patricia Clarkson got the National Board of Review award in 2003 not just for Pieces of April, but Dogville and the Station Agent as well). Having watched all these films in retrospect, I can only imagine the cumulative effect.  Even a relatively unambitious film like The Ref-in which Dennis Leary kidnaps a family and gets caught up in their melodrama-seems like high theater in Kevin Spacey’s hands.

Still, I think Spacey isn’t just part of  part of a whole in what gives “Usual Suspects” it’s status as a great ensemble film and not. The late great Pete Postlethwaite does some great work here but I think it’s the criminals- Kevin Pollack, Gabriel Bryne, Benicio Del Toro, one of the other Baldwin brothers, and Spacey in flashbacks -- who does the heavy lifting.

7. The Godfather, Part II (1974) Godfather Part II stands defiantly on many Best of Lists as the only sequel. It was the only sequel to be included on AFI’s top 100 list despite the fact that Empire Strikes Back is often considered one of the 4 or 5 best films of the 1980’s and the one that really took the franchise to a deeper level. Perhaps, inclusion of The Godfather II is a way of sending a message that sequels aren’t always derivative. I’ve only seen the first and about half of the third, so I’m not in a position to comment (and bring on the “You’ve Never Seen _____! How Dare you” comments) but perhaps the best way to compare the two is to talk about the differences in cast lists.

The original has Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as the main characters with John Cazale and James Caan as the two other sons with Talia Shire, Robert Duvall and Diane Keaton in big roles. Other sizable parts go to Gianni Russo, Al Lettieri, Tony Giorgio, and Abe Vigoda.

The sequel’s biggest subtraction is Marlon Brando and greatest addition is Robert De Niro as the biggest editions. Michael V Gazzo (no idea who he is) and Lee Strasberg (perhaps the best acting instructor of all time) also garnered academy award nominations. Going down further on the list, we see the great Danny Aiello (who had an extensive theater career and had scene-stealing performances in The Professional and Do The Right Thing) and Bruno Kirby who is best known for comedic rules in the 80s including a lighter take on the mob drama in The Freshman, which was ironically one of Marlon Brando’s last roles.

8. Boogie Nights (1997)-Never saw this one. But I’m about as familiar with it as one can be for not having seen the film because the characters and lines have been referenced so often. The scene in which Philip Seymour Hoffman tries to seduce Mark Wahlberg’s character (and I even know his name: Dirk Diggler) because it was played on a VH1 special and parodied by the CollegeHumor YouTube series. So as someone who’s familiar with the film in one sense and not the more important sense (having actually watched it), I can completely see the reasoning behind it. Besides, all you have to do is look at the list of cast names. The two greatest character actors of the 2000s, John C Reilly (whose comedic talents were not really known to the public until 2006 with Talladega Nights) and Philip Seymour Hoffman along with Don Cheadle and William H. Macy (who would probably land in most people’s top ten). Julianne Moore is among the singularly most talented actresses of her generation and Mark Wahlberg seems like what must have been quite a risk at the time and it worked.

I have little familiarity with Burt Reynolds movies from the 80s like Smokey and the Bandit but I’m aware he had a sizeable niche in moviedom during that time period and it must also have been a nice moment for his fans to see him get nominated for Oscar and BAFTA that year and win a Golden Globe.

9. Casablanca (1942)-Since word space is at a premium, let’s skip this one since we know it’s a classic.

10. Almost Famous (2000)-My favorite thing about this film’s ensemble is all of the hidden gems you might not have realized on first viewing. Zooey Deschannel is underpromoted here as the protagonist’s sister and, considering her reputation as the reigning queen of quirkiness, it’s kind of odd seeing a film where the Manic Pixie Dream Girl role goes to someone other than her in Kate Hudson. While Hudson does very well with the part, I often wonder if Deschannel could have run with it even more if she had the career clout to command a bigger role when this film was cast. But if I was ever convinced that a director went back into a time machine and snagged a bunch of actors who he wanted to work with before their asking prices were too high, check out all the smaller parts: We have Noah Taylor, Rain Wilson, and Jay Baruchel, Michael Angarano (The Knick), Jimmy Fallon, Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family), and even podcaster Marc Maron.My favorite performance, however, is Frances McDormand and I would even argue that, more than anyone else, she makes this film great in a way that Cameron Crowe’s later works (I wrote an essay for this at ScreenPrism here) were bogged down from accomplishing because he tends to write the same kinds of characters over and over and that includes overly flighty female characters (see Susan Sarandon’s bizarre yet forgettable performance in Elizabethtown for evidence of how he writes mother  characters). As the film is semi-autobiographical, Crowe modelled the role after her mother and when Crowe’s mother visited the set, Cameron  tried to keep McDormand and Mrs. Crowe from interacting so his actress wouldn’t be tainted by the real-life subject. He was unsuccessful in preventing the two from lunching together, but I have a feeling it didn’t matter, because McDormand had a pretty firm viewpoint of how she wanted to play the character in a way that seems more McDormandesque than Cameron Crowe

Lastly, it’s worth noting that good ensembles often (but not always) are anchored by a solid center. Patrick Fugit felt like much more than a child actor here and while he didn’t follow any trajectoty from child actor to star, he’s still a working actor. We could make a pun here and say he’s alrost famous, but I believe that Fugit is doing what he wants to do.

ADAM'S BIG RESPONSE:

_{The Godfather at #1 might not be the most original choice, but I stand by it.  Like Network, your #1 pick and my #5, The Godfather is a classic that’s remained in the public discourse since its release.  The Godfather remains a master class of casting in both the larger and the smaller roles.  Brando’s performance has been parodied, even by himself in The Freshman, but never equaled.  Look past the mannerisms and see how, as Don Corleone, Brando listens to the other actors.  The Don is constantly evaluating and sizing up who is talking to him.} 

_{The other leads became stars from this movie, almost as a group.  Coppola believed in rehearsal and had the actors get to know each other and eat dinners together before and during shooting.  The cast has an ease and naturalness with each other, particularly James Caan, John Cazale, Al Pacino and Talia Shire as the Corleone sons and daughter.   Pacino gives Michael Corleone a consistent steeliness, while also evolving his character from the outsider to the ruthless heir apparent.  His performance in the restaurant before Michael shoots Sollozzo and McCluskey is a textbook example of conveying everything while saying nothing.} 

_{What sets this film apart, is that every single actor who isn’t an extra makes an impression.  In the opening scene Salvatore Corsitto as Bonasera grabs the audience just through him telling a story to the Don.  The hurt, anger and frustration illustrate why people came to the Don in the first place.  And Corsitto is only in one more scene.  But he’s not alone.  Whether it’s Al Lettieri as the scheming Sollozzo, John Marley as the crass Jack Woltz, or Alex Rocco as the doomed Moe Greene, they all stand out.  I could name ten other examples easily.   Maybe it’s not the most original choice, but it’s the only choice for me.}

_{I could say many of the same things about The Godfather, Part II.  Michael V. Gazzo, G.D. Spradlin, and Lee Strasberg all create vivid characters that add to the tapestry.  Robert De Niro, as the younger Don Corleone, somehow manages to echo Brando while also making the character his own.  John Cazale builds off what he started in the first film.  Cazale, who died young and only made five films, was so well respected by his fellow actors largely because he was unafraid to play weak men.   Poor Fredo is not any stronger here, but Cazale explodes with impotent rage.  His “cards on the table scene” and attempted reconciliation Michael becomes so heartbreaking mostly because Cazale finds the humanity and even the sweetness in this pathetic character.}

_{Your initial criticism of Pulp Fiction was that it did not have the same dynamic as Reservoir Dogs, or The Hateful Eight for that matter, where you have a large group in a small space.  I have nothing against Reservoir Dogs, which could have easily been on my list.  Yes, having the same group of people interact with each other most of the movie can certainly demonstrate an effective ensemble, but it’s far from the only way.  Pulp Fiction has many different pairings, and while the whole cast may not be in the room at the same time, you can say that about may other films on both our lists.  Travolta may not have had a great career for the past 15 years, but so what?   He has brilliant chemistry with both Samuel L.  Jackson and Uma Thurman, and the fact that he can dance plays dividends in the iconic Jack Rabbit Slims scene.  Christopher Walken has one scene, which is just him telling a story into the camera, but you can’t take your eyes off him.  Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer are so much fun as Pumpkin and Honey Bunny that you almost wish they had their own movie.  Harvey Keitel is the epitome of cool as the wolf, and you already addressed Willis.} 

_{Still, when my friends and I saw the film for the first time, we could not stop talking about Jackson.  He commands every scene he is in, with an unrivaled power and intensity.  As Jules, Jackson can be funny in a conversational way.  But when he has to “get in character” you can see how Jules can dominate and intimidate through sheer personality.}  

_{If you do want to look at Pulp Fiction through an ensemble lens, rewatch the Mexican standoff in the diner.  The characters played by Jackson, Travolta, Roth and Plummer are all in different places.  Yet the four actors gel perfectly, playing off each other and effortlessly guiding the scene to where it needs to go while revealing something about each person.} 

Source: DeathandTaxesMag.com

_{We are on more common ground with  Airplane!, and thankfully so.   The film remains one of the most relevant examples for how fine ensemble work is not relegated to “serious” movies.   You noted Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Leslie Nielsen.  The latter completely reinvented his career, paving the way for The Naked Gun.  Many others also played off their personas to great laughs.  Robert Stack and Lloyd Bridges played their roles completely straight, with Bridges laying the groundwork for his work in the Hot Shots! movies.  But the capper is Barbara Billingsley, the mom from “Leave it to Beaver,” the picture of white bread wholesomeness, announcing “I speak jive” and then doing just that.}

_{For the sake of time and sanity, I’m not going to cover the films where we essentially agree, although it’s interesting you focus on Deschanel in Almost Famous.  Reportedly she auditioned for the Penny Lane role.  It’s hard to argue with Crowe’s decision, given the fine work that Kate Hudson turned in.  And we could be thankful that Crowe still saw something in Deschanel, who turned what could have been a stock big sister character into a vibrant force.  I just saw Frances McDormand in Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri.  The maternal ferocity she brought to her character there was as if she had taken what she had done in Almost Famous and cranked it up to 11.} 

_{Orrin, please see Boogie Nights.  Right now.   Paul Thomas Anderson is a great admirer of Altman, which is evident in the casting and performances here.    You touched on Reilly and Hoffman.  I’ll add four other of our best character actors, Don Cheadle, Luis Guzman, Melora Walters and Alfred Molina.  Anderson got Reynolds to go to depths he hasn’t been to either before or since.    I had hoped it would be the start of a second act for Reynolds.  While that wasn’t to be, it does not take away from his work in this film.  Wahlberg was a risk as you noted, still known more for his underwear ads and “Marky Mark” than his acting, but he had a strange innocence that lent itself to Dirk Diggler.  You’re right about Moore, who makes average films better and good films phenomenal.   You can’t be an authority on ensembles and not see this film.} 

ADAM LEARNED SOMETHING. WHAT WAS IT? FIND OUT HERE!

_{You asked me what I learned Orrin.  Compiling my list, reviewing yours, and our discussion helped me better understand that there’s no one formula for a great film ensemble.  Movies with a big sprawling cast certainly lend themselves to being viewed through an ensemble lens.  That’s even truer with directors such as Robert Altman or Wes Anderson, for whom ensembles are a calling card.  Some of your picks in particular illustrated that even a smaller group, if talented enough and in the right hands, can be just as memorable.  Together we also showed how ensembles in genre pictures, including comedy sci-fi and fantasy should not be overlooked.  For example, you helped me reexamine two of my favorites, Star Wars and Back to the Future, and realize that, in addition to the storytelling and special effects, both featured a fine cast of actors.} 

_{As we have covered, an all-star cast does not always lead to fine ensemble work. The determining factor is not how famous the actors are, but how they serve the story and the characters and how they work with each other. So many directors have said that casting is the toughest part about making movies, that if you have the right actors for the right parts, the other work becomes so much easier.  Working on this project with you has given me a small glimpse of how fragile the casting process is, how one wrong selection can derail a movie.  But when done with care and bravery casting can reap untold dividends.  Thank you Orrin.  Until the next time.} 

The Quintessential Hawaii film

The Quintessential Hawaii film: Blue Hawaii

Hawaii is widely seen as America's slice of exotic paradise. It's one of the nine states I haven't been to but my image of it is well-formed by the friends I have who take their once-in-a-lifetime vacations there and by all the sitcom specials (Saved by the Bell, My Wife and Kids, Step by Step, Full House) where the family or gang takes a trip to Hawaii.

A popular choice is Fred Zinnemann's From Here to Eternity.

The 1953 Best Picture Oscar winner, set in a military barracks on the eve of Pearl Harbor, is famous for that makeout scene on the Beach, Montgomery Clift's broody performance, and Frank Sinatra winning an Oscar for a character dressed in tacky Hawaiian shirts. 

From Here to Eternity did lead to an increased resurgence in Hawaiian aloha shirts but the problem with the film is that Pearl Harbor doesn't define Hawaii. It's one of the two most disastrous homeland attacks ever to occur on American soil, but that's more of an anomaly and that anomaly is far overshadowed by the ensuing years of Polynesian-tinted sunniness.

Courtesy: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Another option is Alexander Payne's 2011 film The Descendants (an Oscar nominee and winner in the screenplay category) which (like Sunshine State) seeks to crack the facade of a tourism mecca and show struggling ordinary people underneath. The film delves into the social hierarchy between Hawaiian land owners, natives, and new blood in the real estate market, but this all falls into the B-story that's overshadowed by an A-plot about a disheveled middle-aged man struggling to cope with the pending loss of his unfaithful wife. In short, it's largely a film about a disheveled George Clooney in tacky Hawaiian wear. 

Descendants is a worthy runner-up, but my pick is going to be the 1961 film Blue Hawaii because it's pure kitschy, fun escapism. 

Elvis Presley stars as the quintessential all-American looking to have a good time after getting out of the Army. His father wants him to work at the Great Southern Hawaiian Fruit Company but Chad decides to work at his girlfriend's tourist agency instead as a guide. 

It's not really about any sort of grand socio-economic conflict. The film's tag line was:
"Ecstatic romance...exotic dances...exciting music in the world's lushest paradise of song!"

Also of note: A lot of the glamour of Hawaii was first spread through military men stationed in Hawaii during the war reporting back to the homeland on how glamorous the islands were, so it's fitting that Presley plays an ex-GI, although his journey is in reverse. 

In short, the film features Elvis (an honorary Hawaiian) wearing an aloha shirt and playing a uke. What better image could Hawaii want than that?

Best Supporting Actress Grades (Pt I)

A list of every Oscar-winning performance I've seen for Best Supporting Actress with my grades and assessments.

[Edit: Since originally posting this list, I have now seen:

Jo Van Fleet, East of Eden, 1955; Ruth Gordon, Rosemary's Baby, 1968; Meryl Streep, Kramer vs Kramer. I might to add them in a bit]

1939 Hattie McDaniel, Gone with the Wind C+
Character: Mammie, the house servant

Analysis: Imagine that you know nothing about the Oscars but are armed with a relatively good knowledge of the Civil Rights movement and have seen your share of old-timey films. Now someone asks you when do you think an African-American first won an Oscar. Your guess would probably be way later than 1939.

It’s a pretty remarkable, forward-thinking achievement that the Academy honored someone like McDaniel this early in history. At the same time, McDaniel’s character is controversial because it was very much a stock stereotype (known in cultural studies textbooks as “the Mammy“ which I believe was named after her) that contributed to the negative perceptions of blacks as joyfully subservient to white overlords. The debate when discussing McDaniel has always been centered on whether she transcended the mammy stereotype. I’d say only marginally.


1947 Celeste Holm, Gentleman’s Agreement A


Character: Magazine fashion editor Anne Dettrey who befriends and takes up the cause of the crusading journalist protagonist (Gregory Peck)

Analysis: It’s a testament to Holm’s staying power that most comments I’ve read about this film come from people who are baffled as to why Peck’s crusading journalist character ended up with Dorothy McGuire’s weak-willed heiress rather the outgoing fashion editor. Holme’s Anne Dettrey is spunky and outgoing and I might have considered her a little over the top until I came to the conclusion that her profession basically required her to be a socialite. I could have easily seen Holm's character cut out of this film and pasted into a screwball comedy in place of Barbara Stanwyck or Rosalind Russell. At the same time, it never feels like Holm is in the wrong movie here.




1948 Claire Trevor, Key Largo B+
Character: Gaye Dawn, a washed-up floozy hanging out with a  band of mobsters as they seek refuge a hotel in Key Largo, Florida amid a storm

Analysis: I like to see a film like Key Largo rewarded here because while it's not quite a classic, it's a solid film that’s overshadowed by other entries of a legendary director's filmography. The film might very well contain John Huston's best set piece and could be arguably counted as his most suspenseful and tightly scripted piece of drama.

What's interesting to note here is that Dawn was mostly  superfluous to the plot. For most of the film, she's neither vital towards Rocco's plans nor the protagonist's development. When she does finally impact the plot, it's not a particularly well-thought-out plot point (she took one gangster's gun but what about the other 3 on the boat?). 

I only mention that as a curious side note because it really has no bearing to how I viewed the character. Trevor's portrayal of Dawn was a little deeper and a little sadder than your average floozy helped out by a couple of stand-out scenes. Dawn's sad tolerance of her gangster cronies insulting her and her begging her  boyfriend not to leave her are both stand-out scenes. What likely clinched her the Oscar, however, was her a capella rendition of "Moanin' Low" sung as a last-ditch effort to get one more drop of alcohol. Trevor has the hard job of singing well but not too well as she's supposed to be playing a has-been.

The backstage story here is interesting:  When Trevor learned that she had to sing, she asked Huston if she could take singing lessons. Although Huston granted her request, the director wanted her to sound unrehearsed so he surprised her by shooting that scene before her first singing lesson and the rest is history.
 

1950: Josephine Hull, Harvey B
Character: A middle-aged woman, Veta Louise Simmons, mistakenly incarcerated in a mental institution when she tries to seek mental help for her brother (Elwood, played by James Stewart)

Analysis: Josephine Hull reminds me a lot of Aunt Bee from “The Andy Griffith Show” or Margaret Dumont from the Marx Brothers movies. The stuffy quasi-motherly old lady upon who (in the case of the latter) makes a perfect foil to the chaos and comedy that engulfs the scene.



I'm going to make it a rule to avoid comparing the Oscar winners to their competition in that given year, but that doesn't mean I can or should avoid comparing these actresses to past versions of themselves. If Hull, for example, is being rewarded for adding a dark twist to the prissy aunt character (trying to lock up her brother so that she’ll once again fit in with her society friends and attract a proper suitor for her daughter isn’t really the most honorable of intentions), then this role pails in comparison to her performance in "Arsenic and Old Lace." As Aunt Abby, Josephine Hull seems like the sweetest old lady until we learn 20 minutes in, that she and her sister lured old men to her basement to poison them. Her past self is the ultimate in dark humor and it's hard to ignore the comparison here.

The clincher in Hull's performance is the film's resolution which centers around her understanding and empathizing with her brother. It's an emotional moment pulled off by Hull that justifies the film's status as something more than a simple popcorn comedy.

1953: Donna Reed, From Here to Eternity A
Character: Alma Burke, a sophisticated call girl (aka prostitute) in Hawaii as the bombing of Pearl Harbor nears, who gets romantically entangled with a rebellious young private (Montgomery Clift).

Analysis: “Analysis” might not be a fitting term here because I just loved this character and there’s not much more to it that. Montgomery Clift’s antihero character is so enigmatic and Alma’s slow crawl to his heart is just about the only thing that makes us empathize with him.

1961: Rita Moreno, West Side Story A
Character: The fiery Puerto Rican Anita is the proprietor of a dress shop and confidante to Natalie Wood’s Maria

Analysis: There's a personal authenticity to this role as Rita Moreno herself was one of the few Latin American actors in Hollywood at the time who didn't whitewash her name (although it should be pointed out that Moreno isn't her real last name but you get the point) or ethnicity (see Rita Hayworth, Martin Sheen, etc). It's also a well-known fact that Moreno was also raped as a child and channeled those repressed emotions during the scene where she's roughed up by the Jets in Doc's general store.

My praise isn't just reserved for Moreno, however. The demanding nature of the song and dance numbers leaves me impressed with the entire ensemble. Each of the three secondary leads (Moreno, Russ Tamblyn as Riff and George Chikaris as Bernardo) brought their own talents to the mix and it's just as sweet that Chikaris also won an Oscar for that film.

1966: Sandy Dennis, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf  B
Character: Honey, an invitee to a small dinner party that descends into a night of hostility and chaos

Analysis: For any fans of the Office out there, the fourth season episode "Dinner Party" was modelled after this film.

This performance topped the list by Movieline.com of the 10 most histrionic Oscar-winning performances for a supporting actress ("She sells a performance that should be shown at Alcoholics Anonymous Meetings"). It also topped an internet poll for best in show.



It is certainly a performance that's out there. The play as a whole is just a bizarre piece of drama in which four people (two couples) are constantly changing from being offensive to being offended to being giddy and carefree, to being devastated, to everything in between. The screenplay alone requires all four actors to clear massive hurdles before the storyline begins to make sense to the audience. I think Sandy and the others completed it. My only issue is that I felt like the other three actors were leading the race (to continue the hurdling analogy) while Sandy Dennis was struggling to stay in the field.

1970: Helen Hayes, Airport D+
Character: Ada Quonsett, a scheming senior citizen who cheerily scams her way aboard several flights and racks up frequent flier miles at the expenses of the airlines.

Analysis: Jacqueline Bisset as a flight attendant who is coping with her newfound pregnancy at the hands of her lead pilot; Jean Seberg as the whipsmart right-hand man of the workohaulic airport manager; and Maureen Stapleton (an eventual Oscar winner 11 years later) as the preoccupied wife of a potential suicide bomber are all better choices than Helen Hayes here. Hayes' character provides some welcome comic relief and there's a certain delight in discovering that Ada Quonsett is not all that she seems, but there's a difference between how a character might bring a lot to the story verse an actor bringing a lot to the character.

The only silver lining here is that the film that served as the inspiration for the now-more-famous Jerry Zucker comedy "Airplane!" is an unexpectedly rich and entertaining film with characters that go very deep. With great performances by Bisset, Seberg, Stapleton, as well as Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, George Kennedy and Van Heflin, Airport has a very underrated ensemble for a disaster film and I'm glad that at least someone won an acting Oscar for this film.



1974: Ingird Bergman, Murder on the Orient Express C-
Character: Greta, a Swedish missionary on board a train car the night someone is murdered


Analysis: There are few standards by which I can universally measure all of these performances but a cold and hard rule should be that you shouldn't expect an Academy Award if you can't even outact the other supporting actresses within your own ensemble. Granted, the film boasts one of the best ensembles of the decade and the equal share of screen time between Bergman and three or four other ladies might lead to a splintering of opinions on who stands out the most. Still, I have trouble even seeing the argument that Bergman is the ensemble's stand-out character. In my opinion, Bergman has nothing on the flamboyant performances of Lauren Bacall or Jacqueline Bisset in terms of dramatic impact. Although there's something to be said for the power of a quiet performance, Bergman is  practically invisible in this large ensemble piece. Besides, it's not that much of a stretch playing Swedish when you consider that's Bergman's home country.

1975: Lee Grant, Shampoo C-
Character: Felicia Karpf, the wife of a Los Angeles businessman who introduces her on-the-side lover and hairdresser to her husband so that he may invest in his hair salon

Analysis: If I fail to touch on any prevalent attitudes about what Shampoo is really about in this analysis, bear in mind I'm writing about this performance and film in somewhat of a vacuum, as I know nothing about the film except what's on the back of the DVD cover. With that being said, Grant also commits the cardinal sin "Thou Shall Not be Overshadowed by your Costars and Expect to Win an Academy Award."

To be fair, the story demands that she be a forgettable character: The thematic thrust of the film is that the protagonist has lost his moral compass in his sex life and, as a result, the three women he's screwing are all interchangeable to him. Goldie Hawn plays the woman he begins the film with, Julie Christie plays the woman he hopes to end with, and Lee Grant's character is just a conduit in the middle. So to be fair to Grant, her character's not supposed to be remarkable because the story's told from the point of view of a person to whom Grant's character is insignificant. Of the Oscar races I'd like to see unfold in real time, Lee Grant's would be an interesting one because I have no idea what Oscar voters saw in her.


1976 Beatrice Straight, Network B
Character: Louise, the estranged wife of a television executive engaged in an extramarital affair

Analysis: Straight was on-screen for five minutes and forty seconds, making her performance the shortest of any Oscar winner to date. It seems a little unfair that for just six minutes of on-screen work, someone should be granted what now amounts to the greatest honor an actor can have. At the same time, if you took the highlight reel of some of these other performances, you'd probably get about six really good minutes.




That being said, this is a film that will make drama teachers' mouths water. There are several scenes that should be watched a minimum of fifty times by aspiring drama students. Beatrice Straight's one big scene (she's in another scene that lasts about 10 seconds) where she confronts her cheating husband fits that bill. She descends into all kinds of different emotional levels and it's a very convincing transition through each of them. When she goes from yelling at her husband to facing the fact that neither of them knows what to do, her delivery of the line "I'm not gonna give you up that easily Max" is just so perfect in the moment.


1980 Mary Steenburgen, Melvin and Howard B
Character: Lynda Dummar, a go-go dancer married to a perennially unlucky drifter of a husband

Analysis: Well, the feminist movement can be relieved that this award didn't start a "Show your boobs and get an Oscar" trend. For those who are curious, Steenburgen shows significantly more skin here than Auntie Clara in Back to the Future III. I was not expecting that.

Moving on...., Steenburgen's character has a little bit of ditziness to her which adds color to the character. Underneath that, however, she's not only a forward-thinking woman, but she is more mature than her down-on-his-luck husband and can see that he has no place in her future. It's a performance to which there's quite a bit underneath the surface.

1982 Jessica Lange, Tootsie B
Character: Julie Nichols, Soap opera actress and single mom who's the object of the cross-dressing protagonist's (Dustin Hoffman's) affections

Analysis: The question I'd like to pose here is: Does it take more acting effort to fall in love with someone than to be the person that someone is falling for? In the case of the latter, you have to sell the audience that you're the kind of girl who's worth all the trouble. Lange also has to make the character innocent (or at least naive enough to be fooled by Dorsey/Dorothy's ruse) but not entirely stupid. With her trademark Southern charm, Lange sells those qualities-innocent, virginal, charming- in every film she's in. Nothing new here, but it's a role that highlights her pretty well.

1983 Linda Hunt, Year of Living Dangerously A
Character: Billy, a half-Chinese photographer who gives professional and personal guidance to an Australian foreign correspondent (Mel Gibson) covering the Indonesian civil war.


Analysis: When I wrote "Billy" in the synopsis, I was not misspelling "Billie." The character in the source novel is male and director Peter Weir opted to cast a female. Supposedly, it's not some commentary on gender roles but rather Weir just felt Hunt was best for the part. This would make sense in a high school play where your star drama student is a female and maybe there aren't enough guys trying out. But this is Hollywood where there should be more than enough capable males showing up to audition for any speaking part in any movie you are casting for.

In the end, I have absolutely zero complaints because even if I'm not reading the film as any commentary on gender and don't award Hunt any "degree of difficulty" points for switching sexes, it is a terrific performance. Billy's eager smile when he meets Guy fills the mood with a childlike enthusiasm. It later resonates in a haunting way as he/she bears that grin with his/her last words. It's also a testament of just how seamlessly Hunt fit into the role that the interplay between Billy and his unrequited love (played by Sigourney Weaver) comes even halfway close to working. The sight of Sigourney Weaver dancing with a woman nearly two feet shorter than her who has romantic longings for her is highly jarring (and must have been even more so in 1984 when lesbian pairings were less common on screen) but it halfway works here (to be fair, it probably wouldn't work with anyone), but it would be a complete disaster if Hunt hadn't played it so well.

1984: Peggy Ashcroft, Passage to India B-
Character: Mrs. Moore, a liberal-minded woman in England traveling to visit her son in India. She does not share his racist views and wishes to see the "real India"



Analysis: Ashcroft had been acting as early as 1935 (she was in the Hitchcock movie "39 Steps") so it's been a long time coming for the lady. I'm a softie for awards that are given to someone at the end of their career if it doesn't come off as a lifetime achievement award. In this case, it didn't. Mrs. Moore displays a certain amount of youthful exuberance and she's enigmatic enough to make the deep levels of symbolism work.

My favorite film for each letter of the alphabet: Alphabet Meme

This was started by a guy who runs the website blogcabins.blogspot.com/ and it's made it's way around the internet like chain mail. I was tagged by Dan Johnson at filmbabble.blogspot.com:

A is for Apollo 13 (1995), my favorite film from my childhood. It's an amazingly tight and exciting docudrama that even made me want to go to space camp and be an astronaut. Ron Howard has rarely ever been so good. There are a lot of good As, however: American Graffiti, the best coming-of-age film ever, in my opinion, as well as

B has a lot of good sci-fi flicks: Blade Runner, Brazil....but I'm going to go with Back to the Future (1985), another classic film that I grew up on and I find unforgettable.

C is for Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1973), neo-noir film and one of the greatest classics of all time. A great story of such emotional resonance and poetry. The dialogue and performances by John Huston and Faye Dunaway are to die for. Charade, Citizen Kane, City Lights, City of God, City Confidential, and a family film I really like called Cheaper by the Dozen were all ones I considered

Although, I was thinking of drawing attention to the old-school sci-film The Day the Earth Stood Still which is being remade, D is for Double Indemnity (1944). When we talk of good dialogue, the way Billy Wilder was superhuman in his ability to write sharp stylized dialogue, and there's no better example of this than the interplay between Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck's characters as they attempt to plan a perfect murder.

For E, I couldn't really think of too much, except the musical Evita (1996), which made a splash in the 90's but had a rather short shelf-life and only people who followed Madonna's career incessantly would even remember this. Perhaps, Alan Parker's dismal rep or the timing (musicals didn't really regain their steam until Moulan Rouge or Chicago, let alone operettas) sunk the film, but it was an interesting piece of work. The score was great, Antonio Banderas did his best work here, and the subtext is almost as detailed as a textbook on Latin American history.

F is for From Here to Eternity (1953) which stands as my favorite war film. Montgomery Clift plays a tragic antihero in an army private in Hawaii during World War II who refuses to play the bugle or box for his company, out of principle and Frank Sinatra won an Oscar as the man who befriends him and lives to tell the tale. Also famous for the make-out scene between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr.

G is for Grand Hotel a Best Picture Oscar winner that doesn't get much credit for anything these days. It starred five of the biggest stars of the 1930's and was set in a hotel where the lives of five guests intertwine, it’s breezy, lively and light-hearted enough to rival an art deco musical in escapist value. At the same time, it is a very telling story of class conflict that resonates with a lot of weight when the five stories come together so serendipitously

H is for High Noon, socially powerful, tightly coiled, notable for its score, cinematography, social climate in which the film was made, the gun battle at the end, and its real-time gimmick that was the precursor to the TV show 24. I can't really think of too many other H's but House of Sand and Fog comes to mind, or from the same year (2003) Hollywood Homicide. In the latter, Harrison Ford sort of mails it in as a cop who doesn't care about his job and wants to sell real estate while on duty. Not many people got the joke but I did.

I could be for It's a Wonderful Life or another Frank Capra classic It Happened One Night, but I'll go with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

J is for Junebug (2005), the North Carolina-set family melodramedy (new word I just coined) that launched Amy Adams' career. The other ones that come to mind are the historic picture Jazz Singer, Sam Mendes' docudrama of an uneventful war Jarhead, and the recent It film Juno. However, Juno tried just a little too hard to be hip, and Junebug just let it all flow naturally.

K could easily be for King Kong, but I wasn't crazy about the old King Kong and have yet to see the new one, so I now have a choice between two older films, neither of which is regarded as a great classic but which I'm personally fond of. There's Vincente Minelli's musical Kismet which came at a later point in his career and he denounced as a failure in his autobiography. Don't be so hard on yourself, Mr. Minelli, I personally loved the musical take on the Arabian Nights tale with the enchanting songs including "Stranger in Paradise." However, in honor of my grandmother's birthday, I will go with the John Huston film Key Largo (1948) where the bar where much of the film was shot at, still stands on Key Largo. Modern-day gangster films need to show a lot of carnage to illustrate just how bad the gangster is, but Edward G. Robinson showed that all you need is some flair and style and a muggy facial expression.

L is for Last Samurai (2003). The art direction is superb and it stands out quite a bit from all the recent historical epics because of its sincerity. Ken Wattanabe gives a great performance that's deserving of that Oscar nomination and as an interesting footnote, it was Tom Cruise's last big successful role before Oprahgate derailed his career.

M is for Manchurian Candidate (1962), an amazing story, political thriller, mystery, and showcase of great acting. This movie had people worrying about ammending the constitution to include foreign-born citizens as eligible for the President and had me worrying about John McCain, a former P.O.W., as being President as well.

N was originally for Network, before I remembered that North by Northwest (1959) also begins with this letter. Thrilling, romantic, endearing, shot in great locations, everything a good film should be, and it's the epitome of Hitchcockian style

O is for On Golden Pond (1981), the story of a somewhat dysfunctional father-daughter relationship that a daughter attempts to fix in her father's last days, starring real-life father and daughter Jane and Henry Fonda. Katherine Hepburn was also in the film. To show that I don't completely dislike the Coen Brothers, I would have included their Mississippi-set epic Oh Brother Where Art Thou, and truth be told, it was pretty much a tie between these two great films.

P was one that I had the most difficult time with, I could think of three that I really liked: Prairie Home Companion, Pirates of the Carribean and Paths to Glory, but I chose Prairie Home Companion (2006) largely because I already have enough from the action/blockbuster genre on my list. PHC was Altman's swan song and was an eerie foreshadowing of his imminent death within a few months of the film being released. The movie is highly entertaining, quietly profound, and has all the strengths of an Altman film.

Q is for Quiz Show (1994), Rob Redford's gripping docudrama about the Game Show scandal of the 1950's with performances by John Turturro and Ralph Feinnes that make for two very interesting portrayals of real-life figures who everyone knew so little about beneath the surface (i.e. they are basically remembered as two guys who cheated on a game show but no one even knew why)

For R, I'm going to go a little foreign with Jean Renoir's Rules of the Game (1939), rated consistently near the top of the best films of all time by Sight and Sound's decennial poll.

S, like P, has a lot of options I consider of equal merit: Star Wars, Singing in the Rain, Swing Time, Stagecoach, Searchers, etc. To break this tie between musicals and Westerns, I'm going to go with a biopic, Billy Wilder's Spirit of St. Louis (1957), which I saw in 9th grade and absolutely loved. It was quite an achievement to be able to make us engaged to what was essentially a one-man show.

People will always remember Citizen Kane, but for me Orson Welles is a genius because of his last film (in America, at least) Touch of Evil (1958) which is my T.

The letter that took me the longest to think up a film is Undeclared (2006) for the U. Starring Justin Long, Jonah Hill, Lewis Black and Maria Thayer, the film is a spot-on comedy that brought me back to the days in high school where I was scared to death over not getting into my top choice college.

V is for Vertigo (1958). Just the story alone makes it a winner. Tell a three-line summary of this film to anyone and see if they're not intrigued. I imagine that there was the most consistency on this letter among the other lists without actually looking.

For W, I'll go with the culturally delicate and serene cop drama Witness (1985) in which Harrison Ford must hide an Amish boy from corrupt cops in an Amish community where he is a fish out of water. I was also strongly considering Wild Strawberries, just to prove that I've seen more than one foreign film, but no need.

X is for X-Men 2 (2003), the best in the trilogy although I will take a bold stand in saying that X-Men 3 is almost as good.

Y is for You Can Count on Me (2000), the brother-sister relationship piece which launched Laura Linney and Mark Ruffallo's careers. It almost won Kenneth Longorean an Oscar for screen-writing as well.

Z is for Zoolander (2001). To be clear I don't really like this movie and only find it mildly tolerable, but Z is a letter which gives me very little manuevering room