A bit of light hearted Christmasness - My top 10 movies

As it's coming to the end of the year, and notwithstanding that my previous topics have been a bit on the serious side, I thought I'd go completely 180 degrees and do something different; maybe a little of the light side instead. So, below are my top 10 movies in no particular order and the reasons for why I like them

(I have an interesting time when I was doing this. Some of those movies that I thought would stand the test of time after making a huge impact on me in Uni for example fizzled out after reviewing them much later on )

I guess this goes to show that nothing stays constant, except change

1. WHEN HARRY MET SALLY

The quintessential rom-com. Smart and sassy in a way that preceded all New York relationship dramas with a mixture of big city angst, loneliness and ultimately redemption. The jazz tracks meld perfectly with the mood of the picture

2. BLADE RUNNER

My first noir sci-fi movie post Star Wars. Before that, I thought it was all lasers and medals all around from a cute princess. The religious themes and questions about what humanity is still bugs me to today two decades after i watched the movie. Even with Harrison's Ford wooden voiceover

3. DOLORES CLAIRBORNE

A real surprise. What turns out to be a simple crime movie turns out to be a cry in the night for salvation from brutality and evil. It's almost faustian, straddling the region between black and white while untimately giving that rarest of commodities; hope. And all this on a claustrophobically small island

4. PRINCESS BRIDE

The quotes. Over and over again. Never play death games with a Sicilian and never understimate this movie It's a classic

5. WALL STREET

My friend once said that the movie was weak because they looked like characitures. After working in the industry for over 10 years, I can honestly say that he was wrong. The chillingly accurate representation of power, the lure of it and the bitter way it smashes you once you worship it too much should make this requisite viewing for every aspiring Donald Trump wannabe

6. THE BIG LEBOWSKI

The Coen brothers are geniuses for giving us the hero that is not quite a hero: the Dude. It's a journey into a labyrinth of weirdness and fun that ultimately resolves nothing save for the fact that we should be much better off if we stuck to bowling all day instead.

7. LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE

I will bet that very few have actually seen this vastly superior Thai version of 'Lost in Translation'. Forget the latter's weak attempt at minimalism. This is the real deal in dislocation and separation of the human condition via language, culture, background and human instincts. Don't believe me? Then imagine how a japanese speaking yakuza gangster and a thai speaking bar girl communicate across vastly different universes. It's a classic

8. THE FOUNTAIN

Darren Aronofsky's visual tome of three separate time lines and parallel universes will blow your mind and emotions away while retaining the essence of what it's all about in even in all this vastness and incomprehensibility: Love

9. THE CHRISTMAS STORY

No sweetness and light here. A dark yet hilariously funny tale of a young kid craving for a Red-Ryder BB gun has become a holiday classic; which makes me wonder why because the themes it explores are a lot darker than the normal sugar-and-sweet christmas candy that is shown on TV over the period. I guess this is why it works

10. PULP FICTION

Film Noir at it's most accessible (that is, if anyone could actually call Tarentino mainstream). It's violence was not operatic or balletic in what was homage to John Woo. It was cruel without an ounce of remorse or guilt; functional and utilatarian. An incredible portrayal of a tired society and even more weary participants in it. This is a real claasic