Wick's NOD Candidates (Private) (11)





Created Aug 24, 2012 09:09PM PST • Updated Aug 24, 2012 09:09PM PST

Title Released Trust Weighted Summary Viewable
1st The Man Who Shot...
1962 Perfect 66 Points

Greatest Western? The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence is certainly in the running, given how it plays with Wild West myth-making, features three iconic stars along with a passel of great costars and wields a humdinger of an ending. "Nothing's too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance," the last line portentously declares. The same could be said of the praise that can be heaped on this John Ford classic.

The story unfolds in flashback after a grey-haired Jimmy Stewart returns with his wife to the little town where they met decades earlier. Reflecting back, he tells the tale of a vi…

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Added Nov 16, 2012 07:02PM PST • Updated Nov 16, 2012 07:02PM PST
2nd Mulholland Drive
2001 None Yet 0 Points
Added Nov 16, 2012 07:02PM PST • Updated Nov 16, 2012 07:02PM PST
3rd Barton Fink
1991 Great 66 Points

The Coen Brothers are writers as much as directors, making Barton Fink – a satiric tribute to tortured writers and the demonic pull of Hollywood – more than a little self-reverential. Oops, did I say reverential? Referential, self-referential.

Either way, it's one of their best movies, notwithstanding being clankingly arch at times. It is after all a career thriller. A writer goes to Hollywood and is forced to … go Hollywood. With the Coen's trademark ironic humor applied, the whole schmear ends up as a Borscht Belt Day of the Locust, if you catch my drift. "That's showbiz"…

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Added Nov 16, 2012 07:02PM PST • Updated Nov 16, 2012 07:02PM PST
4th Machine Gun Prea...
2011 Very Good 83 Points

Two movies in one – the demented story of a badass junkie and the inspiring story of an avenging angel. Both are about the same guy, Sam Childers, an American biker who has saved and continues to save hundreds of otherwise doomed Sudanese kids. As a kickass movie about a real guy trying to stop a current wave of genocide, Machine Gun Preacher succeeds as action-adventure and as call-to-action. Wow.

The call-to-action is the same one the "Kony 2012":http://invisiblechildren.com/movedc/ phenomenon raised earlier this year, the need for the world to stop Joseph Kony's "Lord's Resistanc…

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Added Nov 16, 2012 07:02PM PST • Updated Nov 16, 2012 07:02PM PST
5th Giant
1956 Great 66 Points

A deserved classic, this aptly titled movie features giant stars, a ginormous mansion incongruously stuck in the heart of the giant state of Texas, a running time that exceeds three hours and giant story elements. It all works amazingly well, never seeming drawn-out or boring, notwithstanding a rather stately pace.

Chronicling the amplification of 20th Century Texas society from cattle wealth to oil megawealth, Giant also stoops to conquer racism towards Mexicans. It does all this by following three generations of Texas gentry, their feudal underlings, rivals and assorted functionari…

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Added Nov 16, 2012 07:02PM PST • Updated Nov 16, 2012 07:02PM PST
6th Safety Not Guara...
2012 Great 83 Points

Safety not guaranteed, but viewing pleasure is assured from this endearing romcom. It features a smart story about a Miss Lonelyheart falling in love with an apparently crazy time-traveler she's researching for an exposé. His crazy but real (crazy-real?) scenario meshes well with today's über-ironic audiences.

Unfortunately, Safety Not Guaranteed is not easy for audiences to find. It was in a couple theaters in June, then went missing. This week "CineArts at Santana Row":http://www.cinemark.com/theatre-detail.aspx?node_id=1679 has it at 5:30 and 10:15. I caught the late show last ni…

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Added Nov 16, 2012 07:09PM PST • Updated Nov 16, 2012 07:09PM PST
7th Bernie
2012 Really Great 83 Points

Bernie – the most genuinely funny movie of the year and the most pleasant surprise – mixes amateur townsfolk with big name stars to create an only-in-America story, and a true one at that. Well, truthy.

Assistant funeral home director Bernie Tiede really did murder the richest widow in his small town, only to have the town rally to his defense, a story documented in Texas Monthly as "Midnight in the Garden of East Texas":http://www.texasmonthly.com/1998-01-01/feature4.php. The author of that piece went on to write Bernie with Texan director Richard Linklater, who recruited two of h…

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Added Dec 20, 2012 10:35PM PST • Updated Dec 20, 2012 10:35PM PST
8th Frost/Nixon
2008 Great 66 Points

Funny and sad in equal measures, this brilliant movie brings to life the media event that put a postscript on one of the saddest chapters in American history.

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Added Dec 21, 2012 10:18PM PST • Updated Dec 21, 2012 10:18PM PST
9th Young Adult
2011 Perfect 83 Points

Deadly funny, Young Adult expertly skewers shallow Americana, especially the self-absorbed who drift through the sports bars, Hampton Inns and chain stores that delineate it. Nearly every scene tickles. Many are provocatively LOL, especially effective on those of us with a taste for really smart black humor.

Three superior talents make the movie. Golden star Charlize Theron plays a "Prom Queen Bitch from Hell" with perfect pitch. Writer Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman prove that the sensibility behind "Juno":http://www.viewguide.com/movie_reviews/634-juno, their whip-smart …

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Added Dec 24, 2012 04:48PM PST • Updated Dec 24, 2012 04:48PM PST
10th Nowhere Boy
2010 Great 75 Points

Nowhere Boy is a portrait of the artist as a very young man. Which artist? John of Nowhere Man fame, of John, Paul, George and Ringo fame. That makes it essential viewing for Beatle fans; optional for squares.

Raised by an aunt who took him in, tempted and betrayed by the mother who gave him his rock-n-roll spirit, John Lennon's traumatic childhood instilled a deep-seated alienation. No wonder he became an angry young man, naturally anti-authoritarian.

Nowhere Boy hits its stride as John discovers the power that comes to a rockstar. First a pretty Liverpool lass readily…

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Added Jan 12, 2013 10:03PM PST • Updated Jan 12, 2013 10:03PM PST
11th The Player
1992 None Yet 0 Points
Added May 07, 2013 01:25AM PST • Updated May 07, 2013 01:25AM PST

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