Snobbin: Beautiful Trash in the Pop Culture Gutter

5. Ms. 45 (1981), Abel Ferrara, Image For some reason, I have watched too many of this sort of film recently. Revenge fantasy movies are a dime a dozen, but Abel Ferrara's film is better than most. It follows Thana, a mute seamstress, who takes revenge on her rapists. The film is highly stylized and the cinematography is spectacular for a low-budget grindhouse feature. Ferrara respects Thana for the most part and allows her to get her revenge in fairly unexpected ways. The film starts off with cascading violence (Thana is raped twice in the first ten minutes), and I expected a much sleazier picture, but Ferrara's attention to detail and the great performance by Zoe Tamerlis Lund, without any dialogue no less, redeems a picture that on paper could read like an eighty-minute exercise in sadism. The brisk pacing and running time no doubt help. 4. The Thin Man (1934), W.S. Van Dyke, MGM The Thin Man is not a faithful adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's novel, but it...

9. Pather Panchali (1955), Satyajit Ray, Aurora Satyajit Ray's film is the first part in his Apu trilogy depicting the life of Apurba Roy (Subir Banerjee). This installment covers his childhood growing up in a poor family alongside his sister, Durga (Uma Dasqupta), who is accused of stealing, and his ever-suffering mother, Sarbajaya (Karuna Banerjee). His father, Harihar (Kanu Banerjee), works as a priest but desperately wants to be a poet and a playwright, so he travels to make better money and leaves his family for long periods of time. Ray captures the poverty and reality of life in a small, Bengali community. Shot on location with inexperienced actors and crew, the film is beautifully shot and maintains veracity through techniques similar to Italian neorealism. Its reputation as one of the greatest films ever made is well deserved as it captures a very specific time and place while stressing the importance of family. 8. Solaris (1972), Andrei Tarkovsky, Mosfilm While it...

13. Marty (1955), Delbert Mann, United Artists    Delbert Mann's award-winning Marty is a painful exploration of human nature, in part, due to Ernest Borgnine's acting range. Borgnine is good at playing the heavy or the slapstick character, but here he plays the sensitive and misunderstood title lead. His family and friends are hassling him for not settling down and having a family. He succumbs to their pressure but on his own terms. The film won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor, as well as the Palme d'Or. 12. The Other Side of the Wind (2018), Orson Welles, Netflix  This will probably be an unpopular and polarizing choice, but I really enjoyed Orson Welles' lost film. While not anywhere near the level of his famous pictures, the experimental film holds together despite the cobbled nature of its production. The film's film-within-a-film structure complicates the viewing experience, but does an impressive ...

20. All Through the Night (1942), Vincent Sherman, Warner Bros. A fun Humphrey Bogart romp with a plot that often seems to be coming apart at the seams. It is held together by great performances from Peter Lorre and Kaaren Verne. Humphrey plays a gambler that becomes a detective. 19. The Square (2017), Ruben Ostlund, TriArt The Square is difficult to describe, and beneath the oddness there is an interesting satirical film. A curator with many personal and professional issues struggles to clean up the damage that has been done to his museum after a controversial video for one of the installations almost ruins his reputation. The cinematography and color palette, as well as a few disturbing performances, lend the film a vibe that is at times humorous and at other times shocking. I recommend this one if you like art films that also provoke discussion. 18. Black Girl (1966), Ousmane Sembene, New Yorker Black Girl , one of the first sub-Saharan African films, add...

I've been reading the Beastie Boys Book , and Luc Sante's introductory, "Beastie Revolution," gave me chills. He describes New York City in the 1980s in terms that bring the city to life. He explores the intersections of different cultures, and how each defined the city, as background to The Beastie Boys' journey. His essay is a loving exploration of hip hop and the city that recalls Ed Piskor's graphic history,  Hip Hop Family Tree. This passage resonates strongly; particularly because it captures the impact of music on many of our lives:      "Even if music isn't your gift or your strong suit you are obsessed with music, and even if you are      completely incapable of making music yourself, you want to live inside it. It's the primary      language of your time, the major medium of exchange, the principal commodity . . . it rules and      shapes every moment of your life . . . and all the music around you is in the...