The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)

Director: Stephan Elliott

Starring: Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce
Why It's On The List: "Joyous and poignant, Priscilla gives us a rare glimpse behind the drag queen guise to see the real people within." - 1001 Movies

Member Ratings

The Movie Mistress - 9/10 "There’s not much to this movie that you can’t like, although the first time I watched it, I think I was a bit too young to look at ping-pong balls ever again." READ MORE

Alfindeol - 7/10 "We all knew that Agent Smith had a g-string on under the suit." READ MORE

Fey - 7/10 "Even though the total run time was only 104 minutes, the movie felt really loooooong to me. After a while, the plot just seemed to drag (pun totally intended!)." READ MORE

The Mad Hatter - 7/10 "If I hadn't seen this movie before, its opening - featuring a drag queen doing a lip synch performance - might lead me to believe I'd cued up another David Lynch movie..." READ MORE

Univarn - 6/10 "While it's outlandish persona will inspire love from many, it only managed to inspire indifference from me, someone who was looking for a little less pizazz, and a little more heart." READ MORE

Overall Score
7.2/10 


If you are a Club member and have reviewed this film submit your review in the SUBMIT REVIEW section.

Deliverance (1972)

Director: John Boorman

Starring: Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty
Why It's On The List: "Among the highlights: the unforgettable 'feudin banjos' scene as Drew plays a duet with a withered, porch-sitting manchild who turns out to be an amazing musician, and an oft-imitated last-minute horror twist, as Ed's sleep is troubled by dreams of a hand emerging from the waters of the new lake." - 1001 Movies

MemberRatings

Castor - 8/10 "A minimalistic but superbly crafted movie that succeeds thanks to its intense atmosphere and tension. Deliverance plays on the fear that many people have of going to unknown and untamed places where the unimaginable might happen." READ MORE

Tom Clift - 8/10 "A tale of violence, cowardice and compromise, Deliverance is almost impossible to summarize; the best I can do is to call it a brutally human story about evil and mans reaction when faced with it." READ MORE

Darwin - 7/10 "Deliverance had the momentum for a more riveting conclusion. I am sure the story could have splashed more suspense or raised the stakes a little higher." READ MORE

Fey - 7/10 "Burt Reynolds is a man amongst boys. Now that I have discussed that, we can get on with business." READ MORE

Heather - 7/10  "In essence Deliverance felt like an exploration of violence, it’s nature, and how it influences and plays into humanity. What could make one regular man turn into something just as dismal and morally compromised as some of the characters go through?" READ MORE

Alfindeol - 6/10 "See it for it's lasting impact on visual style and it's world renowned hillbilly rape scene." READ MORE

johnlgilpatrick - 6/10 "Deliverance” is one part rousing adventure, one part cautionary tale, one part criminal cover-up, one part fish-out-of-water story, all mixed together with a little violence and some humor. And that’s the film’s problem; it doesn’t have an identity." READ MORE

Nathan - 5/10 "It has not aged well. It has certain points of effectiveness, and a couple of scenes that work, but overall, it just falls flat. If the testament of a great film is that it can feel important, relevant, or even simply entertaining, no matter when it’s seen, then Deliverance isn’t a great film. And I’m not even sure it’s even a very good one." READ MORE

Overall Score
6.8/10 

If you are a Club member and have reviewed this film submit your review in the SUBMIT REVIEW section.

February's Picks

Below are February's picks, (also shown in the sidebar on the left).  As you can see we've changed the system a little.  This time genres were assigned to give the selections a little more variety.  And you'll notice the post dates are every Saturday instead of the last week of the month, so we'll see how this works.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) 

Feb. 6th

 

 Once Upon A Time In The West (1968) 

Feb. 13th

 

 Top Gun (1986) 

Feb. 20th 

 

Naked Lunch (1991) 

Feb. 27th

The Last Picture Show (1971)

 Director: Peter Bogdanovich

Starring: Timothy Buttoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman
Why It's On The List: "Bogdanovich's vision is bleak but honest, and he captures (in stark but striking black and white) the awkward moments when innocence lurches into experience, without judgment and without pat nostalgia." - 1001 Movies

MemberRatings

Thomas Gatto - 10/10 "This is a sprawling, depressing and bleak look into the passing of a generation, of a town so barren, stark, and empty with emotion. Lushly detailed in traditional black and white composition, The Last Picture Show is a stunning portrait of teen angst and middle age regrets." READ MORE

The Movie Mistress - 9/10 "This is one of the most realistic movies I've seen in a long time. It's artfully done without beating you over the head with cinematic techniques, and I can imagine everything that happens in the film actually happening in real life." READ MORE

veggiepianist - 9/10 "The film is focused on potentially cliche subjects (teenage sexual confusion, midlife crises, small town America) but instead of falling into the traps that these subjects present, overcomes them all masterfully and sparks unforgettable life into them." READ MORE

Alfindeol - 8/10 "Textbook hickin' and awkward sex." READ MORE

The Mad Hatter - 8/10 " Growing up in a big city has afforded me too much opportunity, entertainment, and anonymity. The moments I have spent visiting people in small towns has proved to me how little of that is possible in a such places. If anyone wants proof of this theory, I'd have to point them towards THE LAST PICTURE SHOW and rest my case...." READ MORE

Univarn - 8/10 "If you can get caught up in the characters, and there are a lot, you can find yourself whisked away for a couple of hours into this world. Sure it rambles on, and has long periods where very little happens, but such is life for these individuals."  READ MORE

Branden - 7/10 "These people are stuck in a different time and place. When you are bored, you would do stupid, dangerous things. Have some sort of excitement in their ho-hum little lives." READ MORE

Fey - 7/10 "There were definitely some central themes and, you know, universal truths and things but for the most part, the movie was either jumbled or predictable." READ MORE

johnlgilpatrick - 7/10 "The Last Picture Show” is a very interesting film about, among other things, boredom. I know that sounds like an oxymoron. In fact, there are some long, drawn-out, boring passages in this film about boredom. But it’s what these people do as a result that is interesting." READ MORE

Squish - 6/10 "I knew immediately that the theme of this film would be the retrospective of a year. This would be the kind of film that would attempt a Killer Of Sheep honesty with an American Graffiti slickness to it. Sadly, The Last Picture Show is the sort of film, that although I got into well enough, I found … lacking somehow." READ MORE

TheAnswerMVP2001 - 2/10 "The Last Picture Show is one of the few times I actually disliked a film to the point I didn't even want to write a review." READ MORE

Overall Score
7.3/10 

If you are a Club member and have reviewed this film submit your review in the SUBMIT REVIEW section.

Mulholland Dr. (2001)

Director: David Lynch

Starring: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring
Why It's On The List: "...the confusion, surrealness, and blurred lines between dreams and reality are part of what makes Mulholland Drive so addictive. Some viewers may get impatient that the end doesn't resolve what has gone before, but the beauty of Lynch's luscious visuals, Angelo Badadlementi's haunting score, and the superb performances more than make up for any such frustration...A superb, engrossing, annoying, and dazzling film that is Lynch's best work since Blue Velvet." - 1001 Movies

Member Ratings

Castor - 10/10 "It is impossible to talk in-depth about Mulholland Dr. without fully spoiling the movie..." READ MORE

Squish - 10/10 ""Mulholland Drive is just as one would expect from Lynchian Cinema, a surreal mind-bender, but David Lynch has done something superb with Mulholland Drive: he made it mainstream enough to appeal to lesbian-loving jocks while still drawing the French, moustachioed, beret-wearing crowd away from their Chateau Lafite and Truffaut for two and a half hours." READ MORE

Thomas Gatto - 10/10 "Near the ending moments Mulholland Drive showcases the directorial artistry of David Lynch. Scenes shatter, scatter, and break to gather, accumulate, and reshape into darker, more edgier persona’s. The script drops hints and foreshadows of the Lynch map while connecting the first half with the second half in very subtle and brilliant ways. Never does Mulholland Drive seem simple and formulaic." READ MORE

The Mad Hatter - 9/10 "How many times have you woken from a dream, only to find you can only remember fragments? The faces are familiar, and the places are real...but things don't makes sense and seconds after you've awoken, you find that details of the dream are already becoming hazy. That sensation, my friends, is akin to watching MULHOLLAND DRIVE." READ MORE

Alfindeol - 8/10 "Reinforcing the average man's unrealistic image of lesbians since 2001." READ MORE 

Fey - 8/10 "I will forgo giving any of my half hearted theories about what really happened and which dream sequence took place during which fantasy in an alternate reality and all of that. Honestly I kind of feel like thinking about it too hard is missing the point." READ MORE

veggiepianist - 8/10 "Though none of it makes sense, never once was I confused...I was completely absorbed the entire time. When the movie began to make sense is when I began to lose interest in it. All of this is a testament to Lynch's great achievement with this film: his ability to make a 140 minute, surreal, almost nonsensical film completely absorbing - to make a movie that's foundation lies solely upon the tone it creates. " READ MORE

TheAnswerMVP2001 - 4/10 "Mulholland Dr. is once again a "classic" film with certifiably un-classic characters and plot." READ MORE

The Movie Mistress - 4/10 "Within the first ten minutes, I felt like I had turned on the Lifetime Channel because of how terrible the acting was... As I kept watching, though, I realized that it wasn’t really the acting... It was the script." READ MORE

Overall Score
7.9/10 

If you are a Club member and have reviewed this film submit your review in the SUBMIT REVIEW section.

Manhattan (1979)

Director: Woody Allen

Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Michael Murphy, Mariel Hemingway, Meryl Streep
Why It's On The List: "Manhattan is the rapturous high point of Woody Allen's on-screen love affair with New York City and even opens like an expressive Valentine, with an affectionate montage of city images." - 1001 Movies

Member Ratings

Darwin - 9/10 "How stimulating was it to hear chatter about art, of ideas, of grandiose philosophies, of life and love. It’s like fireworks inside my head (to the tunes of Gershwin, of course)." READ MORE

Johnlgilpatrick - 9/10 "Manhattan is Woody Allen’s love letter to New York. It’s also a complex and realistic love story that’s beautifully filmed, well-acted, and wonderfully written." READ MORE

The Mad Hatter - 9/10 "New York was different animal in the days of the film. Tougher, dirtier, more dangerous, and more passionate. Nowadays, tourists rule the roost in Times Square and the crowd at Yankee Stadium doesn't cheer quite so loud. It might be more appealing for the population on the whole, but the cost in character would easily leave people like Isaac and Mary waxing poetic on the loss of their city's soul.  New York might still be around, but MANHATTAN is gone." READ MORE

Julian Stark - 8/10 "Woody Allen is a quite fascinating director. He never strays too far from a general way of doing things, but each of his films is unique and distinct. Manhattan is no different." READ MORE

Alfindeol - 7/10 "Manhattan may be Allen's least annoying work." READ MORE 

Fey - 7/10 "Generally watching a Woody Allen film makes me want to drop kick a toddler. This one however, was not half bad." READ MORE 

The Movie Mistress - 7/10 "I guess I'm not a purist, but I really prefer Woody Allen's darker side. I have a weird obsession with Match Point, and while I appreciate movies like Annie Hall and Manhattan, they just don't do it for me."  READ MORE 

Univarn - 7/10 "Yet Manhattan is by no means a comedy. There's a few good laughs, but for the most part it's an analysis. Here is where we get into some rocky regions." READ MORE

TheAnswerMVP2001 - 3/10 "...I have never liked Woody Allen, as a person, as a director, as a writer, and especially as an actor. In my opinon he's an incredibly ornate acquired taste, and it's a taste that my palate just cannot digest." READ MORE

Overall Score
7.3/10  

If you are a Club member and have reviewed this film submit your review in the SUBMIT REVIEW section.

New Format

Okay as I mentioned to everyone in a recent email we're going to try something a little different. Instead of posting all the films at the end of the month starting in February we will be posting one film at the end of each week.  So to give everyone enough time to obtain, watch a review the films the selections will be chosen during the current month and I will post the new selection at the end of every week, after the posting of that weeks review.  So I will reveal one February pick at the end of each week this month so that everyone has enough time to get those since the first review for February will be a week after all of January's picks.

Also from now on those who are chosen to select a film will have to select a film from a certain genre, this way we can get a little more variety in what we're watching instead of just drama.

Also I'm only allowing people who have actually been submitting reviews to choose the films, so if your new or haven't submitted a review yet you'll need to start doing that before I choose you to select a film.