Chris Csont

5. The Rules of the Game

Gamekeeper Schumacher holds several men inside the house at gun point.

On the eve of World War II, a group of the wealthy French elite gather together for a weekend of hunting, romantic misunderstandings, and murder.

I checked this one out for the first time after hearing it was a touchpoint for Gosford Park, which I had seen shortly before. I keep coming back to it. When I did a write up about villains and evil in movies, when I think about character motivations in general, and when I think about the way people will blind themselves to the dumpster fire igniting next to them if they’re distracted by their own selfish ambitions or appetites.

Like Jean Renoir’s Octave says in the film:

The awful thing about life is this: Everyone has their reasons.

It’s funny. It’s disturbing. And it feels just as potent and relatable now as it must’ve felt when it was first exhibited.

4. The Wizard of Oz

GIF from The Wizard of Oz with Dorothy opening the door of her home to reveal the Technicolor splendor of the Land of Oz.

This movie always amazed me on a technical level, even before I understood how a lot of it was done. That shock of seeing the colorful world revealed behind a sepia-toned door is one of the purest moments of movie magic I can think of.

In one shot, an impossible thing happens. A door opens up, but instead of seeing Kansas, the other side has shifted.

It’s a perfect metaphor for going to the movies. You begin in darkness, but then a familiar, recognizable space fades away as a new world opens up in front of you and invites you in. But just like Dorothy, we return home at the end of the journey.

But for a little while, we get to make new friends, see things from another perspective, and step outside of ourselves.

3. Bringing Up Baby

Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn stare at each other, in close, while Grant clutches a box.

Sometimes it’s just fun to watch performers bounce off each other. Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn could make reciting dictionary definitions entertaining and combative, but when they have this script to work from?

I wonder what kind of influence seeing so much screwball comedy at a young age had on my ideas about romantic love. Bantering isn’t the same as bickering, and animosity doesn’t mean affection. Opposites can attract, but we never get to see how long their differences balance each other out once the external conflict resolves.

Then again, it also gave me expectations for a partnership of equals. Power dynamics where someone’s love wasn’t a prize to be won, but something that builds upon your time together and the complications you work through together.

2. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Still from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Claude Raines watches an incredulous James Stewart pulling letters from baskets on the Senate floor.

If I hadn’t seen this many, many times as a child, I never would’ve tuned in for The West Wing.

It presents an ideal instead of reality: Even in the best of conditions, corruption will take root, but honesty will triumph.

Imagining this story now, I can see the competing clickbait headlines: “Senator Smith OBLITERATES Taylor Machine on the Senate Floor” vs. “UNHINGED Smith Dams up Senate with Filibuster”

But Jimmy Stewart can almost make you believe. A powerful performance.

1. Frankenstein

We had plenty of black & white films in our VHS collection when I was younger. I was introduced to Frankenstein and the other Universal Monsters early on. It may be why I like my horror more atmospheric and creepy than violent and gory.

Sure, these can seem cheap and hokey (especially when you get into the sequels, and moments where Abbott and Costello get involved), but there’s genuine menace and emotion in the originals. While Dr. Frankenstein acts as a shorthand for the feared overreach of science, Frankenstein’s monster offers a point of identification for anyone who feels mistreated for simply being who they are when who they are seems different.