'The Beach Bum' is the most 'McConaughey' movie ever

How much audiences are charmed by the flaky off-screen persona of actor Matthew McConaughey will go a long way to determining how much they may enjoy the wild new stoner comedy, The Beach Bum from writer-director Harmony Korine. It's definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but I was unabashedly entertained by it.

I am embarrassed to admit I'm not that well-versed in Korine's oeuvre, but I will say that this film, coupled with his similar candy-colored acid trip, Spring Breakers, have solidified a real dynamic aesthetic that at least appeals to me in a very transgressive way.

The Beach Bum has even less story than Spring Breakers and probably a lot of more gratuitous T&A, but it also somehow feels more authentically Korine, since it is not constrained by anything resembling a traditional narrative and seems to hum and lurch along in its own languid vibe.

McConaughey plays an apparently wildly successful writer-poet who goes by the name MoonDog. Like a more chipper Hunter S. Thompson, he spends his life careening from encounter to encounter, always with a beer in hand (including his own daughter's wedding, where he goes out of his way to insult the groom) and always with a joint on the way.

His performance is incredibly committed. He appears to be truly on drugs throughout the film -- and if none of this was for real and/or improvised, than some could argue it was a tour de force. In films like Interstellar and on True Detective, McConaughey proved he could summon dramatic gravitas when he wants to, but with this film he has decided to let it all hang out -- his gut, his junk and his whole scuzzy aura.

For much of the film's running time he bounces around an oddball cast of actors delivering some hilarious performance: there's Martin Lawrence as a ersatz captain of a boat that takes people on dolphin tours that often go horribly wrong, a whacked out Zac Efron as a kind of bizarro Christian revivalist, Snoop Dogg as a variation of himself, Isla Fisher as a randy muse and finally Jonah Hill as his agent, who delivers his line's a homeboy meets New Orleans drawl that had me howling.

Much of what transpires here may try the patience of audiences either seeking a poignant character study or a balls to the wall comedy. Some pretty outrageous, even shocking events transpire, but the movie isn't interested in plot or cohesiveness, per se, Korine is out to set a mood and he does so brilliantly with gorgeous, sun-dripped cinematography, a fantastic soundtrack and a cast that seems entire game to let their freak flags fly.

It may take place in some kind of alternative universe, but it's a pretty undeniably fun one, if you can look past Korine's more indulgent tendencies.

I'm kind of shocked that this film has received such a tepid reaction from critics -- if nothing else, it's a wonderful piece of craftsmanship. And at least for me, this MoonDog earns a little bit of begrudging respect and love by the end of the movie.

I would like to see McConaughey so something different at this point, he can really play a partyboy stoner in his sleep -- and I also think he will never make a film that so effectively cashes in on his public persona than this one.

'Children of Men' and more classics that bombed at the box office

I am eminently grateful that it appears most audiences and critics are appreciating Jordan Peele's brilliant new film Us, but there are so many examples of critically acclaimed, solid films with relatively big budgets that somehow were not a commercial success, and some of these films are later remembered as or become cult classics.

Think of a movie like The Big Lebowski, a movie that has a devoted following and fanbase, perhaps more than any other Coen Brothers movie, but it flopped hard, tapping out at $28 million back in 1998.

Last night, I revisited Alfonso Cuaron's riveting and gorgeous dystopian thriller Children of Men, and I still am completely shocked that it wasn't more of commercial hit. It may simply been too bleak for 2006 audiences, but its vision of a proto-fascist future, feels more on target than may of the genre films that have come in its wake. And Cuaron's immerse, single-take style would finally enjoy a commercial home run with Gravity seven years later.

Speaking of George Clooney vehicles, why did no one go see Out of Sight? It's a funny, sexy, smarty and stylish action comedy of the first order, with a very attractive cast (Clooney and Lopez at peak hotness) and a charming-as-hell screenplay. I am just mystified by why this Elmore Leonard adaptation, coming on the heels of Get Shorty and another underperforming classic, Jackie Brown, but history will remember it as one of director Steven Soderbergh's best commercial offerings.

Both films wouldn't crack $40 million in 1997 and 1998.

And then there's The Shawshank Redemption, probably one of the best known, most beloved movies of the 1990s and it did terrible business when it came out in 1994. It's title, a mouthful that meant nothing to anyone unfamiliar with its source material, was probably the reason this enduring film failed (and it did get Oscar nom love later) but it's probably watched far more often than that year's big blockbuster (and Best Picture winner) Forrest Gump.

Here are a few other surprisingly unpopular movies:

Boogie Nights - Although it made Mark Wahlberg a leading man and introduced 'Rollergirl' into the popular consciousness, this masterpiece from P.T. Anderson made only $26 million. The fact is, pretty much all of Anderson's films haven't been hits per se. His highest grossing film is There Will Be Blood, which tapped out at $40 million.

It Follows - One of the best horror movies of the past decade, with an elegantly simple but killer premise (a relentless entity that is transferred sexually and then never stops stalking you until you pass it on). I don't know anyone who doesn't like it, it got great reviews -- I simply don't understand why this one didn't connect with paying audiences.

A History of Violence - A sexy, violent and pretty fast-paced thriller from David Cronenberg. I don't think this one ever got the distribution it should have, because I find it hard to believe that audiences wouldn't be intrigued by a movie about a gangster who has gone straight in a small town who gets flushed out into the open by a moment of chance. I feel like if it came out today it'd get a much better reception.

Green Room - The late Anton Yelchin gave a breakthrough performance in this gritty thriller which felt like the second coming of Pulp Fiction -- to me. Ironically, it's take on the budding white supremacist movements around the country feels very prescient now.

Annihilation - It had a wonderful, intense trailer -- Natalie Portman in peak movie star mode -- and it was based on a popular book, so the underwhelming commercial performance of this movie is a mystery to me. Perhaps audiences wan't a little less mystery. It's clearly ripe for reappraisal.

Blade Runner - Although this is one of my favorites -- I can actually kind of understand why it didn't connect with audiences back in 1982. It's bleak, eerie and very heady. But still, it's kind of crazy that a film that was a big failure at the time of its release has endured as one of the most influential sci-fi movies of all time.

Steve Jobs - It's not a perfect movie, but coming on the heels of the Apple CEO's death and boasting a dream team of Aaron Sorkin, director Danny Boyle and star Michael Fassbender, I expected another Social Network-sized smash. Instead, this unconventional biopic was dead on arrival, at least commercially.

The Thing and most John Carpenter's best movies - Here's the thing, Carpenter is really enjoying a renaissance right now, but the fact is that with the exception of Halloween most of his most beloved movies were big flops: They Live, Big Trouble in Little China, Escape From New York and especially The Thing, which is now seen as a horror classic but it was hardly appreciated when it came out over 35 years ago. Shows what audiences knew then.

Why 'Us' needs to be viewed (at least) a second time

SPOILER ALERT - Do not read this if you haven't seen and/or plan to eventually see Jordan Peele's new film Us.

I am going to be doing a deep dive (but by no means definitive) here which will likely only be valuable for people familiar with the film.

Jordan Peele's Us has rapidly become one of my favorite movies I've seen in recent memory. I'm convinced that critics who have griped about it being messy and simply refusing to appropriately engage with its heady themes. It not a movie to just be enjoyed and appreciated once in one sitting.

Like The Shining, which believe is its closest cinematic corollary, it raises a lot of narrative questions, some of which may simply be plot holes or anachronisms or they could be yet another thematic flight of fancy from Peele, who has proven to be one of the most exciting filmmakers working today.

I loved this movie so much I immediately wanted to see it again, which I did today after catching it on opening day this past Friday. Once I got past the initial jump scares and bravura shots during my first viewing, the second time around I was able to really delve into the movie's mysteries.

So here are a few burning questions/thoughts I have...

How did the 'tethered' pull off their grand scheme - In a pivotal scene during the film's denouement, Lupita Nyong'o's hoarse-voiced doppelganger Red meticulously describes how her kind coordinated the violent uprising which is the driving force behind the film. But it's still unclear to me how they executed their escape from the abandoned tunnels and passageways throughout the world they inhabit. Was it simply Red's actualization that they didn't have to be tethered anymore that set everything in motion? Also, a less crucial detail -- but is the single glove an homage to Michael Jackson?

Is there deeper meaning to the scissors and rabbits - There is plenty of symbolism (not to mention) numerology in this movie. But two of the biggest remain mercurial to me: the scissors and rabbits. I know the scissors were literally used by Red to cut her little paper dolls, but is there anything more there? Why are scissors the weapon of choice.

Also, I get that the tethered survive on a diet of raw rabbits, but is there any other symbolic significance? And what about the color red -- it's sprinkled prominently throughout this movie (and happens to be my favorite color) and clearly with purpose.

Besides the tethered's costume of choice -- Lupita is munching on strawberries early on, and the child version of her is first seen with a giant candy apple. I know it all means 'something' -- but what it means is unclear to me

What is up with the Tim Heidecker/Elizabeth Moss tethereds? - So they immediately kill their above ground doubles, and brutally I might add, but when Lupita and family show up seeking safe harbor they are almost playful. Heidecker's pursuit of Winston Duke is coming at first, while their teen girls instantly become ravenous killers. And strangest of all is Moss, who seems like she wants to kill Lupita but can't.

My theory is she knows that this is Red's double and may be under orders to leave her alive so Red can revel in her death, but this is never made fully clear. And sidebar: Moss is brilliant in what could have been a throwaway part.

Finally, how much personality transference is there? - The movie suggests pretty overtly that some of the tethered take on elements of the personalities of the people they're linked to. What's unclear is how far that 'bond' goes? For instance, Winston Duke's double is much dumber than he is, while his kids' doubles are closer to the real thing, while Heidecker and Moss's are almost direct parodies of themselves. It's all very curious to me.

I think this film is unfairly getting labeled as disappointing, frustrating and confusing following the more mainstream Get Out. But you could make the case that this film explores what would happen if the Sunken Place people managed to somehow escape their prison of the mind and took revenge out on the bodies that entrapped them. Makes plenty of sense to me.

Ambitious and scary 'Us' is this generation's 'The Shining'

Don't pay any mind to critics who have unfairly compared Us to Get Out, by calling it messier and more inscrutable -- it's just more ambitious. It's both a crowd pleasing, thrilling, genuinely scary genre movie and a complex, unsettling and artistic treatise on identity.

It's simply put -- an early frontrunner for my favorite movie of the year until something else comes along to knock it off its perch.

It's one of those films where I was white knuckled throughout, hanging on every scene and bit of dialogue (this movie has a lot of funny lines to go along with the scares), and when it was over I immediately wanted to see it again.

Now that it's plot twists and the fear factor have subsided, there's a lot to unpack.

I love that there is no apparent single explanation for what transpires here -- there are plenty of interpretations -- from the film's title and premise intended to be a shoutout to the U.S.A. and a cloning type conspiracy operated by unseen unknown puppet masters.

There's all the symbolism if you want it here but I never felt beat of the head by it. This is a movie that moves -- I was on the edge of my seat for the whole two hours and was even thirsty for more.

The cast is great -- but the greatest asset this film has is Lupita Nyong'o who gives a riveting lead performance that should be in the running for an Academy Award for her startling dual role here. After years of being overlooked or sidelined by Hollywood, she has really come to her own with star turns in Black Panther and now here.

More than any role she's had before -- this one capitalizes on her remarkable physicality (she has the grace of a dancer), her vocal chops (she produces an eerie whisper of a voice for her terrifying doppelganger) and her emotional range -- she gets the whole gamut here -- she's funny, haunted, frightened, determined and ultimately a bit of a wild card. What a tour de force for her.

But also Jordan Peele's genius is on display here. And I don't throw around that word lightly, but he has now demonstrated that he is a provocative and profound director of the first order. It's true that Us is not as accessible as Get Out, it's more of a true horror film -- harder, gorier and more relentless than Get Out -- but it's really rewarding if you pay attention to all its little clues and Easter eggs.

I spontaneously clapped at a bravura scene in this movie, and I also found myself oddly moved in other moments. It's a wild and unsettling ride, and perhaps a timely one, since it's arriving at the moment the Mueller report has been completely and we appear to be poised to plunge into a period of uncertainty and recrimination.

Us doesn't have the hopeful finale that Get Out had -- and fans of that film may recall that Peele's original ending was much bleaker. Here he is using the capital he earned from that unconventional Oscar blockbuster, to make a Shining for a new generation.

People will be be mulling this one over for years. And that's a good thing..

Julianne Moore's greatness powers new dramedy 'Gloria Bell'

The most striking thing about Julianne Moore as an actress -- to me -- is her consistent lack of vanity. Even though she was and is one of the most stunning women to grace the big screen over the last 25 years or so, she never leans on her glamour and more often than not, she subverts it.

In Gloria Bell, a somewhat messy, episodic affair about a lonely middle-aged woman looking for love and a better sense of self, Moore adds another indelible performance to her gallery of quirky, flawed but fascinating people.

I'm not sure how I feel about the movie. Some sequences work like gangbusters, others meander and can feel a little indulgent. I love what the film is trying to do and it largely succeeds in celebrating middle aged sexuality and ultimately it's an ode to self-love, but it's really Moore's performance is far better than the film she is in.

That being said, I am pretty much always sold on any Moore performance. She started out stealing scenes in mainstream fare like The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. Later, she caused a stir with an unforgettable bottomless performance in Robert Altman's acclaimed Short Cuts.

Arguably her breakthrough role, and possible her greatest performance, came in 1995's Safe, a masterpiece that I must admit I only saw recently, but instantly loved.

She has a number of phenomenal roles that followed: Boogie Nights, Magnolia (in which she gives an infamous histrionic monologue), Far From Heaven, The Big Lebowski and Children of Men -- just to name a few. I never saw Still Alice, the film that finally won her the Academy Award, but I have no reason to doubt she knocked it out of the park there.

The consistent thread of all these roles -- besides the lack of vanity I mentioned earlier -- is the jarring vulnerability she allows to show of herself on screen.

No one cries or smiles quite like her in movies, it just feels so achingly authentic. Gloria Bell requires her to run a wild gamut of emotions and I believe she appears in every single scene and if anything you wish the movie had more of her and less of her sad sack love interest (played by John Turturro)

Like so many performers, she's only gotten better with age and I'm so excited to see the choices she makes as her career continues. Like all of my favorite movie stars of all time, she's impossible to pin down as any one thing and be put in a box. She can do blockbusters and indie films, lead and supporting -- she is pliable and unpredictable.

And Gloria Bell -- for all its bumpy parts -- is a great showcase for what she does best.

Eddie Murphy's 'Harlem Nights' has value 30 years later

Harlem Nights was a regular cable and syndication staple in my household, and I suspect a lot of other African-Americans have a similar appreciation for it as do. It's a profane, mean, crude little gangster movie, with great production values and surprisingly low keys laughs.

It has a horrendous reputation, and if it's remembered at all in mainstream circles it's almost always viewed as an embarrassing vanity project (Eddie Murphy both directed, co-wrote and stars in the film) although it was a solid hit at the box office. It did mark the beginning of what seemed like a backlash to its star that he's never 100% recovered from.

Watching it 30 years later, it's a fascinating look into Murphy's psyche at the time. Even if it is ostensibly a throwback caper movie (at times it plays like a black rip-off of The Sting, with Pryor in the Paul Newman role and Murphy replacing Redford), there is a lot more bubbling up beneath the surface here.

Now, I will agree with the quibbles. It is a horrendously misogynist movie not to mention an occasionally slow, strangely quiet film considering the fact that it's meant to be a broad comedy.

Still, there is something irresistible about finally seeing Murphy and Pryor share the screen (with Redd Foxx) too. The relationship is more father-son than a comedic pairing. And it's possible Murphy was trying to earnestly shift at the time to slightly more dramatic flair.

Following the largely forgotten (but also quite profitable) Another 48 Hours, Murphy would make his bid for mainstream romantic comedy credibility with Boomerang just a couple years after this. In some ways this is his trial run.

The difference is in that movie he is at least allowed to eventually be vulnerable where here he is abrasively egotistical throughout. Murphy seems to be perpetually pissed and it seems as though he was in real life too.

That year he famously gave a fairly bitter speech at the Academy Awards calling out their lack of diversity decades before it was cool. Here he was the biggest movie star in the world in front of an academy that didn't recognize his work (and wouldn't for another 20 years) and who probably took him and his talent for granted.

The bitterness -- especially racially motivated frustration -- is all over Harlem Nights. In the film Murphy and his surrogate father (played by Pryor, is a quiet, restrained role) run a profitable speakeasy that is encroaching on the business of a big mafia chief (played by Michael Lerner). The mobsters, who are nearly all portrayed as virulently racist (which in fairness, may not have been inaccurate for the period), seek to push them out of town because, well, why share in the success with black people?

Pryor, Murphy and their cadre of hoods accept that they will have to relocate to another city or they'll forever be under the thumb of the white mob and their political allies plus police muscle. But instead of simply turning tail and running, they conspire to take revenge on Lerner and his crew before they skip town.

As these plot wheels turn, sometimes awkwardly, there are a lot of scenes which really revel on white jealously of black success. Danny Aiello, who would be Oscar nominated that year for his stellar turn as a suppressed racist in Do the Right Thing, is similarly compelling here as a more unabashed bigot, who can barely disguise his disdain for wealthy black people. The thing is there's nothing comedic about him, he almost seems like a villain from a very different, more serious movie -- but that doesn't make his imposing presence here any less interesting.

On the funny tip, there is a hilarious (at least to me) bit with Arsenio Hall playing a distraught gangster who is having a sustained meltdown over the murder of his brother (he mistakenly think's Murphy is responsible). He is crazed, screaming, crying -- all comedically -- it's a delightfully silly little bit which also seems to come from another movie. He accidentally shoots someone in his crew and balls out another for firing a tiny pistol while the rest use machine guns.

There's quite a bit here that I see as cultural humor -- Della Reese getting shot in the toe just plays differently with a black audience, don't ask me why.

Eddie Murphy has always been a mercurial one. He never directed again and as I point our frequently he pretty much has prematurely retired from Hollywood. There is his long-awaited biopic of Rudy Ray Moore, which if the production team is any indication -- it may be awards fare, but he has basically evaporated. This movie. as flawed as it may be, is a glimpse of what it was like when he was still firmly on top and like I said, it's fascinating.

Don't sleep on the warm and winning 'Support the Girls'

I never saw a single trailer or read a single review of Support the Girls when it came out last year, it was totally not on my radar. In fact, it was only when Regina Hall, an actress best known for great performances in broad comedies, started picking up critics awards that I sought it out.

On the surface, it's an amiable, slice-of-life workplace the comedy, the kind that you don't see much anymore, certainly not on the big screen. It is funny, warm-hearted and occasionally bittersweet, but it also has a lot more going on in it.

The plot -- which covers a whirlwind 48 hours in and around a Hooters-like bar -- manages to be about nothing and everything. It's a terrific showcase for Hall to be sure, she plays the put-upon manager of the place who is also something of a den mother and confidant for the women who work for her. But the film also features a dynamite support cast, with the two biggest standouts being Shayna McHale and Haley Lu Richardson as two loyal servers at the aptly named establishment -- Double Whammies.

It's a feminist mission statement without ever feeling preachy or sentimental. It all feels incredible real and poignant -- the sniveling self important owner, the more corporate competition ('Mancave') fronted by a gloriously un-self-aware Brooklyn Decker, the occasionally irate and almost always disrespectful customers -- this is a world and a hard ass life that just never gets the full cinematic treatment it deserves.

Sure, terrific movies like Office Space hint at the casual humiliation heaped on working stiffs, but that comedy is more broad and silly, so its easier for audiences to swallow. But Support the Girls is striving for something far more realistic and gut wrenching.

Hall is not just the character trying to hold everything together, she's also an audience surrogate of the first order, she's just as bewildered and bemused as we are by the chaos that surrounds her. It's a strange little journey she goes on in the film -- outrageous things happen -- but in such a naturalistic and believable way that I never questioned their authenticity.

And although it may all seem low stakes -- Hall is basically altruistic to a fault -- it's everything to these characters, and again, these are people who are usually on the margins of mainstream films, not at the center of them.

This little gem deserved a wider audience than it received last year, I myself didn't have enough time to see it before awards season and top 10 lists, but it's a special little movie that really moved me in surprising ways.

'Captain Marvel' is a bit of a cheesy mess with great bits

Captain Marvel had some big shoes to fill. Last year gave us the superhero genre's first Best Picture nominee -- the game-changing Black Panther -- and it also delivered one of the more memorable and surprisingly resonant Marvel films -- Avengers: Infinity War. Both films became all-time grossers at the box office.

Because it's an intermittently fun but also frequently disjointed followup, Captain Marvel is almost sure to be a disappointment.

Of course, the fault is not in having a strong female lead at its center (the first for this Marvel universe), in fact that's probably it's best strength, since Brie Larson's plucky optimism is a nice departure from the usual quippy or stoic leading men that usually populate these types of films.

The movie simply doesn't have a consistent or engrossing tone. The best Marvel movies have a strong aesthetic, some legit world-building and character development -- this film doesn't have much of any of these, save for some very amusing spoofs of mid-90s culture.

However, the storytelling here is very muddled, with time jumps, alternative timelines and universes and a tacked on ending linking it to the extended universe. It doesn't feel as self assured as many Marvel movies. For instance, I think of Iron Man as the quintessential origin story -- it never lost your interest and it by and large had a story and script which connected the dots.

Captain Marvel far too often feels like a movie you walked into halfway through at the beginning -- I couldn't begin to explain Annette Bening's character and Jude Law's would be a close second in terms of coherence for me (he seems to be here to mansplain his way into a punchline).

Far better here is Samuel L. Jackson who appears decades younger thanks to state-of-the-art de-aging technology, although it's weird to see the usually badass Nick Fury played as more of a lovable lug. There's a gag with him and a cuddly cat that's wonderful at first and then very tiresome, but he's a humanizing presence throughout.

And Ben Mendelsohn practically steals the movie doing some great deadpan comedy acting under what looks like pounds of make-up -- he feels like he deserves a better movie, although I was frequently entertained throughout this one.

Brie Larson is a very appealing presence but I don't think the movie does a great job of defining her character as much more than a slightly sassier version of Captain America. But, all of that aside, the audience I saw it with seemed to really enjoy it and I think her character will be a delight for women especially who have been hungry to see more blockbusters centered on them.

And, the film refreshingly doesn't saddle her with a love interest, even though there seems to be some chemistry there between her and her fellow pilot Maria Rambeau.

It's not reinventing anything, it probably won't win any awards (even the visual effects are pretty routine looking) but it's diverting enough to justify its existence. We'll see if like Thor, who had a similarly just ok debut, Captain Marvel will have more time to win our hearts.

Flashback 1999: My favorite movies from 20 years ago

When I look back on it now 1999 was a big formative year for me as a moviegoer. I was 16-17 years old and just starting to develop real distinctive taste in movies. I still inexplicably liked the occasional stinker (Gone In 60 Seconds probably doesn't hold up well now) and I definitely was capable of being swayed by the status quo (hence my appreciation for American Beauty at the time).

Still, the year sticks out for me as a particularly memorable one. It was a breakthrough year for Tom Cruise of all people, and a number of auteurs made some of their splashiest films yet.

Here are my favorite ten movies released that year of Y2K panic.

10) Bowfinger - No one would have predicted this at the time but this may be the last great mainstream comedy Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy ever made. They'd have hits after this, and some strong dramatic work too, but this hilarious Hollywood satire is such a great showcase for their comedic skill sets. Murphy gets to play two wildly different characters while Martin, who also wrote the film, does a great riff on the hopeless industry dreamer who somehow makes good.

9) The Hurricane - This biopic about a legendary boxer (Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter) falsely accused of murder was dinged for getting its facts wrong and for elevating its white Canadian savior characters, but there is no denying the power and emotion in Denzel Washington's should-have-won Best Actor lead performance. His physical transformation here is something to behold as his compelling gravitas throughout.

8) The Talented Mr. Ripley - Matt Damon proved he wouldn't just be a pretty boy leading man with his truly creepy performance in this gorgeous period thriller, which also introduced most audiences to Jude Law who nearly steals the show along with the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman. I haven't watched it in years, but I remember it being well paced, stylish and surprisingly raw.

The Straight Story

7) The Straight Story - One of the least well-known entries in David Lynch's filmography is unjustly overlooked. It's a surprisingly sincere, genteel and as the title suggests -- straightforward -- drama (based on true story) about an elderly man who drives a tractor across the country to reunite with his ailing brother. The lead performance from the late Richard Farnsworth is deeply moving and authentic, so is the movie.

6) Office Space - A quintessential cult comedy that did very little business at the time but has evolved into the best take I've seen to date on being a drone in a cubicle-centric workplace. Writer-director Mike Judge has just enough absurdity (a character named Michael Bolton) mixed with relatable eccentricity to be incredibly watchable and funny as hell.

5) Magnolia - An eccentric and rough around the edges opus from Paul Thomas Anderson which plays like Robert Altman movie on speed. There a lot of unforgettable moments (think Julianne Moore's drugstore meltdown) and incredible acting (Tom Cruise may have never given a better performance than he does here), but the real star here is Anderson, who demonstrated what a virtuoso talent he was following the triumph of Boogie Nights.

4) Being John Malkovich - One of the most creative and satisfying mind-benders of a decade that sometimes produced films that thought they are more clever than they actually were. Spike Jonze made this material not just funny but strangely moving with John Cusack, Cameron Diaz and especially Catherine Keener all playing amazing and in some cases, against type weirdos. Oh, and lest we forget Malkovich himself who proves to have a great sense of humor about himself amid all the crazy.

3) The Matrix - Don't let the soggy sequels detract from the utter awesomeness that this movie introduced to the world. It has been oft-imitated but never duplicated. The Wachowskis created a really vivid cinematic world, established a premise that is still referenced to this day and managed to totally revitalize Keanu Reeves' career in the process.  Although it's been parodied but trust me, it still holds up. Now would you take the red pill or the blue pill?

2) Three Kings - Just four years before we went to war in Iraq this fantastic sleeper hit exposed the folly that was the first Gulf War in the service of an unconventional heist-meets-war comedy. George Clooney's charisma is dialed up to 10, Mark Wahlberg is similarly in fine form, and even Ice Cube gets to show more range than he usually does. It's a kinetic and experimental project that speaks to the best strengths of director David O. Russell.

1) Eyes Wide Shut - The late Stanley Kubrick's final film has only grown in its reputation since its release. It was a troubled production that went way overlong, required a ton of re-shoots and was controversially censored (at first) by the studio that released it. But what is on screen is an assured and darkly funny treatise on love and marriage, one of his most sensual, sophisticated films and one that suggests he had a lot more to say cinematically should he have lived a little longer. And yet, he went out with a bang -- it's a masterpiece.

PAST TOP 10 FAVORITE LISTS
1974 #1 movie - The Godfather Part II
1975 #1 movie - Nashville
1976 #1 movie - Taxi Driver
1977 #1 movie - Star Wars
1978 #1 movie - The Deer Hunter
1984 #1 movie - Ghostbusters
1985 #1 movie - Fletch
1986 #1 movie - Blue Velvet
1987 #1 movie - The Untouchables
1988 #1 movie - Coming to America
1994 #1 movie - Pulp Fiction
1995 #1 movie - Heat
1996:#1 movie - Fargo
1997 #1 movie - Boogie Nights
1998 #1 movie - The Big Lebowski
2004 #1 movie - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2005 #1 movie - A History of Violence
2006 #1 movie - Casino Royale
2007 #1 movie - There Will Be Blood
2008 #1 movie - The Wrestler
2009 #1 movie - Inglourious Basterds

Wild and unwieldy 'Climax' gets 2019 cinema going with a bang

Last year Annihilation and Black Panther both laid down markers as early as February as two of the most important, compelling movies of the year. This year -- Climax -- which may be simply an exercise in style over substance, but what an exercise! -- has burst onto the scene as a movie to reckoned with. It's provocative, exhausting, exhilarating, scary and funny all at the same time.

It's not for the faint of heart, and if movies like Mother! and Suspiria aren't your cup of tea than steer clear, but if you go into this one looking for a purely visceral, sensory experience, you will not be disappointed.

It's the work of director Gasper Noe, a filmmaker best known for the infamous film Irreversible, which is a similarly experimental, button-pushing work that employs all sorts of wild, weaving single takes that immerse you in a world whether you like it or not.

The world of Climax is far less grimy and off-putting then the atmosphere of that world. It opens with one of the most electrifying dance sequences I've ever seen, choreographed to seem both organic and theatrical at the same time. It's all captured in a virtuoso single take, and the cast, which are all dancers first, actors second going so hard you will want to take a breather just watching them.

Abruptly the film changes styles and becomes an almost Altman-esque comedy about a multiracial, sexually fluid and very horny collection of performers -- and yet this is another fakeout because the last third is something more akin to a horror, albeit one that has no supernatural component whatsoever.

What does it all mean? It's hard to say. Noe clearly gets off on making the viewer extremely uncomfortable and that he does with everything from impish false endings to some truly macabre moments involving self mutilation and child abuse.

And lest you think this movie is a totally dreary affair -- it isn't -- it's a propulsive, exciting and eye-popping film. There were sequences here where I literally don't know how the camera captured what I was seeing.

And when it was all over, I felt as spent as the characters on-screen, stunned to see that it all took place in just over 90 minutes. There's a lot of movie here, and it's definitely more complicated than it appears on the surface.

I have no idea how 2019 is going to shape up as a year in film -- Climax is technically a 2018 production just getting its stateside sea legs now -- but this is certainly the first truly marvelous film I've seen since this year's start and it's going to be a touch act to follow.