Snobbin: Beautiful Trash in the Pop Culture Gutter

10. River's Edge (1986) Few coming-of-age films are as tragic or engaging as Tim Hunter's River's Edge,  which steadily raises the stakes for its characters throughout its 100-minute running time, illustrating how trauma and peer pressure can be as horrific as any movie monster. Fine performances from Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye, and Crispin Glover temper Neil Jiminez's dark script with humanity and realism. Reeves, in particular, stands out as a compassionate teen caught between protecting his friends and doing what is right. He shows depth that does not surface as often in his later films, allowing him a range that many critics ignore. If you like Kids (1995) or other transgressive teen dramas, you should watch this one as soon as possible.  9. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) Martin Scorsese's comedic drama is possibly my favorite of all his films because it presents realistic human relationships through understated performances. Straying from the crime th...

15. Wild At Heart (1990)  It's definitely not my favorite David Lynch film, but Wild at Heart has grown on me. Although the film includes a fairly straightforward plot because Lynch is adapting Barry Gifford's novel, the casting and over-the-top performances add those Lynchian elements that keep the viewer guessing. His addition of  audacious characters like Mr. Reindeer (W. Morgan Sheppard) and focus on the darker aspects of  popular culture as exemplified by Elvis and Marilyn Monroe fixations filtered through a near Joe Coleman level of morbidity make this a unique study on American obsession. However, the film still finds space to be funny, particularly in how Laura Dern and Nicolas Cage portray those obsessions. Think Lynch with a side of John Waters, a dash of the Coens, and a dessert that recalls the fantastical elements of  The Wizard of Oz (1939) updated for the consumer-obsessed 1990s.  14. Winter Kills ( 1979) I weighed including The Parallax View ...

 20. Little Murders (1971) Alan Arkin's directorial debut amplifies Jules Feiffer's comic surrealism with neurotic characters and seemingly random outcomes. It's basis in Feiffer's stage play seems evident in its apartment settings, but Arkin also readily channels much of Feiffer's typical manias that appear throughout the cartoonist's body of work. Patsy Newquist (Marcia Rodd) and her boyfriend, Alfred Chamberlain (Elliott Gould), live in the darkest 1970s embodiment of New York City that accentuates how its residents might have felt as crime seemed eternally rampant and law enforcement could never cope. The film's stark commentary does not provide answers, but speaks to collective neuroses, while the actors' choices singularly mirror how we might react to pure chaos. I highly recommend this one for its ability to question existing power structures in novel and unexpected ways.  19.  The Loveless (1981) Kathryn Bigelow and Monty Montgomery's rockabi...

26. Joint Security Area (2000) Park Chan-Wook builds suspense masterfully in this taught, propulsive thriller that draws on the real-life tensions between North and South Korea. When soldiers from both countries form a secret friendship, other circumstances quickly test their loyalty, resulting in several murders in the Joint Security Area, the only zone where the two countries can talk face-to-face. The countries contact Major Sophie E. Jean (Lee Young-ae) to conduct an investigation as tensions heat up. The film kept me at the edge of my seat as its flashbacks finally revealed what really happened. If you like simmering thrillers that keep you guessing, Joint Security Area delivers with multiple surprises.  25. Flipside (2023) As an obsessive record collector and popular culture historian, Chris Wilcha's record store documentary spoke to me. As much a visit to the failing record store of his youth as a travelogue into past selves, the film uses interviews, reflections, and footag...

I watched more movies in 2025 than I have in a few years, ending up at 386 with an original goal of 365. I kept track of anything new to me, or I had not watched in at least five years. I hope to write about my top ten once I can narrow it down to a representative list.  1 On Dangerous Ground (1951) 2 The Big Clock (1948) 3 Anything Goes (1936) 4 The Killer That Stalked New York (1950) 5 I Saw the TV Glow (2024) 6 Frenzy (1972) 7 Psychomania (1973) 8 Cry of the Hunted (1953) 9 Absurd (1981) 10 Baba Yaga (1973) 11 Yours for the Asking (1936) 12 The Man I Love (1947) 13 Ladies in Retirement (1941) 14 Nightfall (1956) 15 Lifeboat (1944) 16 Romance & Cigarettes (2005) 17 Skinner (1993) 18 Pump Up The Volume (1990) 19 Delirious (2006) 20 The Paperboy (2012) 21 Wild at Heart (1990) 22 The Boston Strangler (1968) 23 Experiment in Terror (1962) 24 Count Dracula (1970) 25 Moontide (1942) 26 Brighton Rock (1948) 27 The Sea Wolf (1941) 28 Beau Travail (1999) 29 Peter Ibbetson (1935) 30 Ap...