Stacey's top ten

Blog reader and film nut Stacey Arnold has responded to Muzzlehatch's list of his top ten movies. Personally, I can't think who has the dodgier taste...

I don't know how to put this up on your site, so I'm e mailing it to you. Please help me help Muzzlenatch develop some taste. I pity him, you know...

In no particular order:

1. Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)
I love Edward Norton's nameless character as he drones on about the nature of his (non) existence. I am Jack's wasted life.

2. American Psycho (Mary Harron, 2000)
I haven't read the book so I can't compare the two, but I adored this movie. Christian Bale (a favourite actor of mine) executes a marvellously understated performance as the titular psychopath. Favourite scene: The business card comparisons. Oh Yes.

3. Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971)
A wonderfully comic and beautiful movie about a macabre adolescent who discovers life, excitement and sex with a soon to be octogenarian.

4. Romance X (Catherine Breillat, 1999)
I have read many reviews of this movie by men who criticise it as being completely unrealistic. I defy all of them as being completely ignorant of the female sexual psyche.

5. Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier, 1996)
I could choose any of Lars von Trier's Golden Hearts trilogy, but Breaking the Waves was the first and most heartbreaking that I saw. The suffering that the human soul can both withstand and inflict leaves me breathless. To a lesser extent this theme is expressed competently in my opinion by Roman Polanski's much criticised Bitter Moon.
6. This is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 1984)
"In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, an ancient race of people... the Druids. No one knows who they were or what they were doing... "
This mockumentary has never really aged. It is still as hilarious as when it was released 22 years ago. I cant think about the Stonehenge argument without tears coming to my eyes.

7. Oldboy (Park Chan-Wook, 2003)
An outstanding tale of love and revenge you've *never* seen before.

8. Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)
P T Anderson was inspired to make this movie from listening to Aimee Mann's music, an enlisted her to do the score. I think this partnership is one of the main reasons this movie is so right. The cast is excellent (even Tom Cruise) and the interwoven stories are compelling and never tedious. Philip Seymour Hoffman is a God.

9. Howl's Moving Castle (Hayao Miyazaki, 2004)
This was a hard choice to make from the Miyazaki films I've seen, but the animation is exquisite and the story touching... an enchanting experience.

10. Gilda (Charles Vidor, 1946)
I'm not the only one to fall in love with Rita Hayworth while watching this movie. The actress herself said, "Men go to bed with Gilda, but wake up with me". She makes me feel...funny.