'Cape Fear': 20 reasons this is one of my all-time favorites

Robert De Niro in Cape Fear

I've always loved Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear (1991) and will defend it to the bitter end.

I know film snobs perceive it as a lesser Scorsese because it is so overtly commercial but they're nuts.

This film is genius with a capital G and here's why:

1) I find it endlessly quotable and not just the De Niro one liners, Jessica Lange's dialogue has a poetic intensity and Joe Don Baker gives a beautiful speech about the "fear" inherent in the American South's psyche that is one of my all-time favorites.

2) As in most Scorsese movies, you are never bored. He makes even the most seemingly banal moments like, the closing of a door, seem riveting thanks to the director's placement of the camera and invaluable editing from my favorite non-fiction Thelma.

3) Nick Nolte and Robert De Niro are so young and virile in this movie. I miss bad ass head-to-heads like this or The Fugitive (where a formidable Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones faced off). I love mano-a-mano clashes in movies, they're always so compelling. Again, the 1989 Batman is my favorite movie ever, so go figure. But back to my original point -- neither Nolte and De Niro both rarely been this electric in years.

4) Speaking of electric, Jessica Lange is so sensual and brilliant throughout. It's sad to think that no one under the age of 25 knows that she used to be such a great beauty.

5) Just realized this is one my top 25 favorite movies. Something is going to have to be cut from the list.

6) I love Juliette Lewis in this! She is playing a real teenager. We are so used to teens being written as just as thoughtful and witty as adults when they're just not. Most teens aren't articulate and quite a few are plenty dumb. People didn't get what Lewis was going for her at the time but she was an 18-year-old playing a 15-year-old.

7) Nobody will ever forget the scene where De Niro (spoiler alert) bites Illeana Douglas' cheek off. The scene leading up to is scored to the thoughts in the head of De Niro (Max Cady). It's a brutal moment and a rare portrayal of a woman actually being battered. The sheer bizarreness of it lingers in your subconscious and make you feel like Cady is capable of anything.

8) Illeana Douglas is just heartbreaking in a small but pivotal role.

9) There is a quick cut in this which is one of my all time favorite. Lange and Nolte get into a fight and he gives her a very movie-ish speech about how they should work together "as a team," quick close-in on Lange's disgusted face. Then smash cut to Nolte stuck frustrated, sleeping on the couch.

10) The film, like most of Scorsese's, can be enjoyed with the sound off, he is working at the top of his visual, rhetorical skills. Hitchcock films always work with the sound off too.

11) You are forced to have sympathy for someone who is horribly flawed. The hallmark of all Scorsese films -- even The Last Temptation of Christ.

12) I'd rather see an entertaining bad movie than a boring "good" one. I think the legendary film critic Pauline Kael said that or at least something similar. Not that this movie is bad, but it risks being ridiculous which I admire. This is part of why adore De Palma (and this film is kind of like if Scorsese made a De Palma film) he always aims for the rafters. Sometimes he misses, but I love that he's going to try to create real movie moments.

13) I love how out-of-control Nick Nolte is in this movie. Leading men rarely get ruffled anymore. They are always sleek and sophisticated. I love that he becomes a wild animal by the end -- and who doesn't enjoy a good Nolte meltdown.

14) The scariest villain has nothing to lose and isn't afraid of death. The Joker. Hannibal Lector and Max Cady. These guys are not afraid to die, they almost welcome coming to the precipice of death. In Cady's final scenes he definitely sings as he drowns and then stares intensely forward unblinking as he descends to hell. This is a creature who will haunt your dreams.

15) This is not "just another" De Niro psycho role. Travis Bickle (from my other favorite Scorsese movie) could not be more different from Cady. Bickle is an introvert, can't talk to women, doesn't understand them. Cady is charming in a reptilian sort of way and he is the biggest, loudest showman in the room.

Jessica Lange, Nick Nolte and Juliette Lewis

16) I prefer actors that go big. My favorites, Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, they all do this -- it's just more fun to watch, they seem to be enjoying themselves. I don't want to watch someone who seems to be performing out of a place of misery. Kind of how I felt about Joaquin Phoenix until he discovered he could be light and funny in Her.

17) I have to get the soundtrack.

18) Cameo from my girlfriend: "The thug ascends into an intellectual and the intellectual descends into being a thug."

19) I've been on a real Gregory Peck kick lately. I just love his voice and his bearing.

20) The image of someone creeping at the end of my bed has always been one of my most consistent nightmares thanks to this movie and Twin Peaks. Nothing probably scares me in the world more than home invasion (well, maybe a random deranged gunman) but other than that I definitely tend to freak out that someone is hiding at the foot of my bed.

So there you have it. Cape Fear is a fresh, frightening and fierce fever dream and I love it death.