Where The Buffalo Roam (Art Linson, 1980)

The first film to feature the life and deeds of the great and unforgettable author and journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Before Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas by Terry Gilliam, Where The Buffalo Roam would show the flamboyant character of Hunter and Bill Murray would make a truly amazing and terrific job in portraying him. Where The Buffalo Roam is a movie that clearly shows love for the man Hunter and for his "holy" and unorthodox way of living. In the movie we see Hunter in all sorts of occasions where that crazy character of his transforms an ordinary situation into a lunatic circus of laughter and chaos. Hunter was a great man and the film knows and understands that by giving to the audience a totally authentic side of him, a side that we all came and loved that continuous parody of everything where the political and social comment is being blend with the endless and bottomless humour, a humour that many people never understood and they thought that this man was clearly insane, but truth says that Hunter was a man who understood the irrational of life, the futile of life, the pretentious of life and so he behaved like there was no other day for him to live except the one he was living. Where The Buffalo Roam stays to this day one of the most brilliant comedies of the 80s and a film that no matter how good it is, it never got the attention it needed. All people know Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, a masterpiece by all means, but much fewer know of that gem over here, a film that clearly takes out the deeper character of Hunter and a movie that loves his attitude and his craziness presenting it as another, different way of living out of the ordinary, the banal and the boring. Hunter S. Thompson is one of the greatest personalities of America, an author and a journalist that has written miraculous history and the film understands that, understands the greatness of that man and with leader the fantastic Bill Murray it gives to the audience a real and deeply authentic view of the man Hunter. A comedy to break all the conventions in the world. A true cult classic and a movie that screams for bigger recognition.

Interview With The Vampire (Neil Jordan, 1994)

Interview With The Vampire presents a different approach to the vampire mythos. That of the curse. The curse of being a vampire and have to feed yourself with blood daily. A highly alluring movie that looks inside the heart of a kind vampire, a martyr, who has to put up with that incredible thirst while he has swore not to drink from a human being. Interview With A Vampire is a movie that presses reset to vampire stories and begins again by giving to the audience a story of torment, sorrow and grief. The highly atmospheric gothic set and the darkly tone give a sense to the movie like you are watching a tearful drama. And that is truth, Interview With A Vampire apart from being a horror movie, is mostly a drama film about the misfortunes of one man. A hero who is dressed in black, but not his clothes, but his heart. A hero who is struggling every day to find the strength to go through this nightmare. A hero who is opening his heart to us and lets in to his life, a life that is full of pain and remorse. Louis is a character for whom many poems can be written, is a character that shatters our fragile heart, is a character that wins us and makes us his. Louis stands a human being more than real human beings stand. Louis is a hero, a anonymous man who fights every single day of his life. Louis is one of the greatest characters that we have seen in a movie and Interview With The Vampire is definitely and without a doubt a memorable vampire film filled with eerie atmosphere, pure and unspoiled emotion and a kind heart that makes us all bow to its greatness and to its wondrous class and ethos. A movie that gives human characteristics and human fragility to the undead. A real classic, a triumph of love and power of will. 

Clueless (Amy Heckerling, 1995)

When we are talking about naivete and silliness then there is no better example than Clueless. A coming-of-age comedy that satirizes the rich girls who are totally cool and unbelievably snobbish. Clueless is a movie that has a most distinctive style, there are numerous lines that you can use when you are talking as a reference to the movie and there is also that campiness that it is so damn powerful in that film that leaves you totally speechless. Clueless can be seen also as a great farce of the privileged, the movie clearly has a venomous humour for these kind of people. The stupidity, the pretentiousness and the false image that they are trying to sell are some of the elements that you can find in the movie. Clueless is a movie that clearly loves satire, it has build its whole story upon the idiotic image of a rich girl who as a clueless performs life in a most irritating way that is intolerable for the eyes of the spectator. A film that balances between the absolute trashing and forgiveness, you can't be sure if it pictures all these terrible, idiotic things to make fun of that girl or it tries to come to terms with her stupidity. She is the hero of the film but at the same time she is a really pathetic character who if she was build for a drama movie she would be really someone to cry for. Clueless is the yogurt thrown upon a character, is the instant cry that speaks about how stupid people are sometimes and it is most of all the "finger of death" that touches the ones that have no clue of how irritating, boring and utterly phony they are. A poisonous satire that worships its campy character and gives to the spectator a story where he can laugh out loud with things that are far from funny. They are in reality the sad truth of a whole generation of rich and privileged kids. Laugh out loud, it will do you good.   

Showgirls (Paul Verhoeven, 1995)

One of the most famous NC-17 films written by Joe Eszterhas and directed by the Dutch director who gave us Basic Instinct among others, Paul Verhoeven, Showgirls is one of the films that made really poor career in the box office, but there were  big hit on video rentals. The only question that remains is whether Showgirls is the awful movie that so many said it is. Well the answer apparently is no. No, Showgirls is not a bad movie. There is that ludicrous, bitter, venomous style that the film has and many people were misguided by it, trying to take Showgirls as a serious movie when in reality is a bitter satire of the industry that it depicts. Showgirls shows a world filled with immoral assholes. People who take advantage of you in any way they can. It shows extreme antagonism, backstabbing and other highly unattractive virtues that you can find in this particular branch of showbiz. The fact that it has that campy style, that style that is like is mocking you the whole time, makes the movie even more effective, creating a highly crappy environment, glossy and fake polished, that feels like you are watching an adult soap opera. Showgirls is a movie that is hated for the wrong reasons, I think the fact that it has a lot of nudity really worked against the movie, as it happens very often with films containing nudity they meet with great hostility by a big part of the audience and critics, but truth says that Showgirls is a very vivid fantasy that is plastic and phony and the thing that you get finally from the film is a highly bitter taste in your mouth, understanding that what you saw had nothing to do with a serious and dramatic movie. Showgirls is cynical cup of tee drunk by a comedian.

True Lies (James Cameron, 1994)

Don't you always wanted a film that will satirize the unbelievable things that happen in action movies? Well you got it. True Lies might be an action movie, but most importantly is a comedy. If you want to see Arnie jumping from a roof with a fucking horse, then you are in the right place. True Lies is a movie that doesn't take itself serious not even a second. Everything that happens is balancing between the usual action-spy movie and the absolute ridiculousness. And because the action part is so brilliantly crafted, the comedy works perfectly in the movie. Everything seems to be going according to the rules and then again not quite. That's the idea, that's the flavour of the movie. True Lies is a highly entertaining movie that understands greatly the stupidity that action films many times carry, it features one of Jamie Lee Curtis' most brilliant performances along with the famous dance scene and it is a movie that appreciates the fact that the audience has digested enough bullshit from action movies and now its time to take its revenge. True Lies is funny, hilarious, fast, wild, naïve, childish and it is all these things knowingly, it is all these things deliberately, making the movie a true bliss for action movie lovers who at last find their way to laugh out loud with the real mission impossible things that are happening. Take True Lies on a day that you are feeling down, there is no doubt that it will make you cheerful, it's so preposterous that can make a dead man laugh and remember that the best things in life are the ones that have understood their futility, have understood their stupidity and they laugh with them.  

The Bonfire Of The Vanities (Brian De Palma, 1990)

Poor and notorious The Bonfire Of The Vanities was a huge box office bomb and it was relentlessly panned by critics. Yes this is a movie that was given the finger, big time. But truth says that this is not a bad movie at all. As a matter of fact is one of the greatest satires that you can find out there. With a cynical manner and a blacker than black, humour, The Bonfire Of The Vanities is satirizing, brilliantly, the pretentiousness of people. Evilness and cruelty coming from all directions, in a film that clearly wishes to vilify the human race for its unforgivable sins. Self-absorbed and self-righteous people are marching through the screen in a film parade that drips poison. The Bonfire Of The Vanities is a movie that sees the human race as degenerates who are willing, for success and personal gain, to do anything, who are totally unable to feel the pain of the human being next to them and who are always ready to throw mud to anyone if that suits their personal interest. Directed by the great master of thriller movies Brian De Palma who is proving here that is a director who can make any type of movie he wants, The Bonfire Of The Vanities is a film that is truly a shame that has gone down as one of the greatest failures and it is, more than that, a shame that people didn't get the great comment that the film has, that bitter truth about the human being, being always a heinous opportunist and a great liar, who out of everything is trying to get the best for him, leaving the others around him in pain and agony. The Bonfire Of The Vanities is a down-to-earth and in-your-face at the same time movie, a cleverly put, didactic film that teaches us that humans will never change and that history will repeat itself, giving us stories were people are used as victims for the personal gain of others.  

American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999)

Presented as a dark and cynical satire of the American middle-class, American Beauty is a film that touches themes as life, career, sexuality, redemption, family and freedom. Our protagonist is having a midlife crisis and he is trying to transform his life from the absolute pretentious lie that it was, to something true and valuable. American Beauty is one of the greatest American films that the 90s gave to us. Its satirical character along with the bleak images of a life that is totally unfulfilling and wasted are the vehicles upon which a story of personal re-evaluation and thorough self-criticism is been build. American Beauty is the story of people who are unable to live their lives as happy individuals. The protagonist is unhappy, his wife is unhappy and his daughter is unhappy. The whole family is a miserable image of a kind of bond that exists between them that now there is only materialistic value in it. The film dives deep into some type of nihilism only to come up on the surface again with a somehow cleverly put and down-to-earth didactic comment about living and loving. American Beauty seems to shatter only, but in reality is building a new life from the ashes of the old one. It's like you need to go down to hell in order to see paradise. American Beauty is a film that clearly provokes the "settled" of this world, you know the ones who think that they have solved any kind of problem in their life and the only thing that stays for them is a monotonous, odourless routine. The day to day life is presented as an opportunity to fix things, to change things, to reconsider things, instead of standing there and observing you life going by before your eyes. In a weird and highly idiosyncratic way, American Beauty is a very optimistic movie, it shows that there is hope even for the ones that seem doomed to walk in absolute failure. It shows that inside every "dead man" there is a spark of life that with the right kind of triggering event can wake up and stand proudly against the true needs of his life. American Beauty is a movie that uncovers the lie behind the happy façade, is a movie that looks inside of a man with a goal to look inside his soul and not simply at his face. American Beauty is insolent, dark, bleak and takes its power from the fact that humans tend to secure their place and live a secure life no matter how shitty, fake and pretentious that is.

Used Cars (Robert Zemeckis, 1980)

This is back from the time when Robert Zemeckis was using groundbreaking black humour in his movies. Not that his recent movies are not good, but they ceased to have that satirical touch, that great irony and comment about people that you can find in Used Cars. Marking one of Kurt Russel's greatest performances as the self-absorbed car salesman with a wet dream to run for Senator, Used Cars is a lunatic movie that continuously fires darts of irony and satire upon the people and the people's behaviour. A film that clearly has much to do with greed and power, it states the fight between two brothers, the one kind-hearted and the other devious and opportunist. What could be made as a dramatical comment, here it is presented as a freak comedy, a comedy that provokes the very foundations of art by presenting to the viewer a cynical, lawless world where backstabbing and deceit is the day to day procedure. The film is filled with comments about human unattractive characteristics and you can easily say that it is a dance of the unworthy, the ones that have very little to give and instead present themselves as being the greatest of all. Used Cars is caustic and relentless to the evils of this world and it has a straightforward wild and uncompromising character. This is one of the least remembered Zemeckis movies, a thing that is truly a shame, Used Cars is a fabulous movie, clearly one of the directors' best moments and above all Used Cars shows a time in films, where truth and comment where a thing that was most needed in a movie, which reminds me to say that today's mainstream cinema is pathetically empty of substance, many times. 

Angel Heart (Alan Parker, 1987)

One of the greatest horror movies and one of the most atmospheric neo-noir films, Angel Heart is certainly and without a doubt, a lesson in cinematic form. Following a private investigator who goes deeper and deeper to his personal hell, Angel Heart is a story that is both gripping and utterly nightmarish. With memorable scenes and the always gloomy atmosphere of sealed houses and ventilators that are running and then they stop, the movie is a wonderful descent to the very existence of the human being, to the very essence of humanity. With a Robert Den Niro clearly in one of his most memorable performances playing the enigmatic Louis Cyphre and a Mickey Rourke who is giving a visceral performance of the troubled private eye, the movie was met with hostility when it came out, but afterwards it was regarded as underrated and highly influential. The filming of the whole story is what really matters here, we see the emotions of the protagonist become vivid frames in front of us in a movie that really appreciates the cinematic art, giving to the audience a really suffocating atmosphere stuffed into a highly intriguing story. Angel Heart is from the movies that have written their own history in the 80s decade, a horror film that doesn't rely on gore scenes, but it has that great and memorable element of the psychological discomfort, making the film a true revelation of feelings and disturbing thoughts. Angel Heart is crucially liveable, it has that mystery running that makes you really fix your eyes on the screen and above that along with the mystery goes the torment of the protagonist who sees hell wherever he goes and the one shitty situation is following the other. A real domino of disaster, Angel Heart is a stupendous movie that clearly needs to be talked more often and it is a moment in cinema where the talent of a director can be seen from miles away.

Cutthroat Island (Renny Harlin, 1995)

One of the very few swashbuckler films that were produced during the 90s, Cutthroat Island is a movie that gives to the viewer efficient excitement. Made in the old and always winning recipe of the hidden treasure the movie has some really catchy action scenes and a story that mixes humour with adventure. Pirates are a theme that cinema loves, they are beyond words charming, their manners, their clothes and their lust for gold. Here we have for protagonist a female pirate that makes the movie even more fulfilling and exciting, because we are so much used in pirate movies that are male dominated, that a woman and especially the always alluring Geena Davis was an element most needed. Yes folks there is enough thrill in that movie to fill a whole deserted island, from crazy and dangerous escapes till baroque ship battles, the film is clearly enjoying itself and it gives to the audience one of the very best adventure movies of the 90s. A film hugely underrated, panned by most critics, for reasons that no one understands, the film has a clearly playful pace that makes it a movie that can be digested with great pleasure, Cutthroat Island is a moment that the virtues of entertainment cinema are having a blast and a feast and they come to the spectator as an elixir of good energy. The cast of Matthew Modine, Geena Davis and the always incredible, here as villain, Frank Langella, who we all remember for his memorable performance as Skeletor in Masters Of The Universe, are fully prepared for an adventure movie and give their best to make the characters vivid and charming and the only thing that stays after all this is why this movie is so notoriously forgotten and nobody speaks about it anymore. Critics have some kind of allergy for straightforward entertainment movies, they seem to find them shallow and pointless, but truth says that Cutthroat Island is a very imaginative production that holds all the virtues of a great old-school swashbuckler movie that makes us all remember with nostalgia Errol Flynn's movies.