Picked Flicks: Polls, Alternates, and a Parallel Universe

With that out of my system.... except, wait, I forgot to add: when did national affairs start being run by people named, on Team A, Scooter Libby, and on Team B, Sheldon Snook? Have they officially replaced "Oh say, can you see" with Oh, Say Can You Say? Because it is getting pretty Seussical up in this joint.

Anyway.

Having already announced the opening decalogue of the Picked Flicks, it's time for my first-ever Poll! What you're doing is voting for your favorite film among those listed between #91-#100...and for gosh sakes, don't be skeered to include a sentence or two about why you love it. I sure didn't balk at talking your ear off about why I loved all of them! And I'd love to know who's reading these entries and which of the films excite you. The e-mail addy for this poll is poll@nicksflickpicks.com. You can submit your answer and your reasons any time between now and midnight on Sunday, and I'll post the winner shortly afterward, along with your passionate prose. (So don't post your response in my Comments—that would be like leaving the gifts unwrapped under the tree.) Remember, you are choosing amongst #91 Hyenas, #92 Alice Adams, #93 I ♥ Huckabees, #94 Cemetery Man, #95 Possessed, #96 Masked and Anonymous, #97 George Washington, #98 Brother's Keeper, #99a The Breakfast Club, #99b Pretty in Pink, and #100 The Piano Teacher.


Meanwhile, I thought it would be fun (hey, it's fun for me!) to give a quick decade-by-decade rundown of the films that almost made the list but didn't quite, all of which you should absolutely rent, and all of which were anguishing to leave off:

1910s The Immigrant (1917), dir. Charlie Chaplin

1920s The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929), dir. Arnold Fanck & G.W. Pabst
1920s The Wind (1928), dir. Victor Sjöström

1930s Freaks (1932), dir. Tod Browning
1930s Honor Among Lovers (1931), dir. Dorothy Arzner
1930s The Thin Man (1934), dir. W.S. Van Dyke – swiped from my Top 100

1940s Rebecca (1940), dir. Alfred Hitchcock

1950s The Night of the Hunter (1955), dir. Charles Laughton
1950s A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958), dir. Douglas Sirk
1950s Written on the Wind (1956), dir. Douglas Sirk – blown off the Top 100

1960s Last Summer (1969), dir. Frank Perry
1960s Reptilicus (1962), dir. Sidney Pink
1960s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), dir. Robert Aldrich

1970s The Devils (1971), dir. Ken Russell
1970s The Exorcist (1973), dir. William Friedkin
1970s Gates of Heaven (1978), dir. Errol Morris
1990s Jaws (1975), dir. Steven Spielberg – sunk from the Top 100
1970s Pink Flamingos (1972), dir. John Waters

1980s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1984), dir. Jack Hofsiss
1980s The Elephant Man (1980), dir. David Lynch
1980s L'Homme blessé (1985), dir. Patrice Chéreau

1990s Alien³ (1992), dir. David Fincher
1990s Bound (1996), dirs. the Wachowski Brothers
1990s Face/Off (1997), dir. John Woo
1990s Gummo (1997), dir. Harmony Korine
1990s L.A. Confidential (1997), dir. Curtis Hanson - fired off the Top 100
1990s Six Degrees of Separation (1993), dir. Fred Schepisi
1990s Threesome (1994), dir. Andrew Fleming
1990s What's Love Got To Do With It (1993), dir. Brian Gibson

2000s Donnie Darko (2001), dir. Richard Kelly
2000s Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), dir. John Cameron Mitchell
2000s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), dir. Peter Jackson
2000s Love & Diane (2002), dir. Jennifer Dworkin
2000s Searching for Debra Winger (2002), dir. Rosanna Arquette
2000s The Yards (2000), dir. James Gray

So, let's see: that's 35 more titles that almost almost made it, plus the Top 100 I actually wound up with, which includes 15 "tie" entries. Adds up nicely to 150 rental suggestions, a sort of buy-2-get-1-free deal as these Top 100 countdowns go!

Finally, before you all lose total patience with this entry, this obsession, this blog, this person, I really have to encourage you to pore over Tim R's own Top 100 list, unfolding simultaneously with this one over at his enormously addictive blog. His pictures are prettier than mine, his tastes are incredibly provocative, he's lighting a fire under my butt to see things I've missed like The Iron Giant and The Draughtsman's Contract and the original Gaslight—and, bless his heart, The Piano clocked in at #89.