My Top 200

#177

"The major obstacle for amateur filmmakers is their own sense of inferiority vis-a-vis professional productions. The very classification “amateur” has an apologetic ring. But that very word–from the Latin “amateur”–“lover” means one who does something for the love of the thing rather than for economic reasons or necessity. And this is the meaning from which the amateur filmmaker should take his clue. Instead of envying the script and dialogue writers, the trained actors, the elaborate staffs…

This is a lengthy one, but I’ve never really gone over what I feel about Wiseau and The Room, Franco and The Disaster Artist, or Sestero and Best F(r)iends: Volume One. Rating subject to change - for better or worse - when I see the second volume in June.

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I wasn’t a fan of The Disaster Artist. It’d probably crack a list of my least favorites of last year (if I were to ever do…

While not my personal favorite in the Disney canon, I feel kind of like a dunce that it took me this long to realize that Bambi just might be Disney’s best. I’ve seen quite a few critics feel this way about the movie, but it still kind of sits somewhere near, but not at, the top of the canon. A lot of the subtle facets of the film were lost on me as a kid, and thanks to Letterboxd’s own…

So, I’ve finally caved in, and I’ve finally decided to talk extensively about Showgirls. It only took a decade, but I’m here, I’m going to try to piece this all together in a way that is, at the very least, processable even if it isn’t entirely worthy of reader’s agreement. It's not an easy film to defend. It’s not an easy film to write about. Paul Verhoeven’s 1995 drama has a 19% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of…