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My Top Ten Criterions
Matt Dentler
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Matt Dentler is the producer of the South by Southwest Film Conference & Festival, in Austin, Texas (sxsw.com), as well as a curator for American distributor Film Movement and Canadian distributor Films We Like. He also hosts the weekly local PBS series SXSW Presents. In its summer 2006 issue, MovieMaker named him one of the 25 Coolest People to Know in Indie Film, an honor with which his girlfriend disagrees. "Looking over my list, I see a theme of cross-generational conflict," says Dentler. "A lot of these films are about the young and the old at odds with each other. Or they deal with the young making amends with the fact that time flies and that it’s time to grow up. I guess that’s fitting, since I’m such a young guy working in an industry full of classics." |
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1. Do the Right Thing Spike Lee It’s one of the most important American films of all time and a powerful, wonderful breakthrough for Spike Lee. All the pieces fit, and it feels effortless. The climactic riot scene is already a landmark in cinematic storytelling. Spike Lee essentially crafted a war film, except the battles are set in inner-city America. |
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2. Grey Gardens Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer & Susan Froemke This film actually frightens me, and that’s saying something for a documentary made some thirty years ago. The Maysles brothers and their team crafted a glimpse into the dark and dysfunctional world of the American family and a failing American dream. |
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3. High and Low Akira Kurosawa This is such a fiery and entertaining crime film. It's epic yet completely domestic and simple. While it's somewhat of a departure from his canon, Kurosawa's stamp is everywhere. He manages to expertly adapt American source material and place it in Japan (the irony, of course, being that America would adapt his stories for years to follow). |
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4. Hoop Dreams Steve James, Frederick Marx & Peter Gilbert Passionate, personal, and uplifting documentary filmmaking. This is a true example of the power of the art form, and a terrific movie too. Rarely do you find filmmakers with such an insight to the world of sports, and the ability to examine the personal politics that run underneath it. This should be required viewing for any sports or film fan. |
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5. Rushmore Wes Anderson I cannot stop watching this film. I’ve tried. Yet Wes Anderson has created a fairy-tale world that is so timeless and awkwardly comfortable. Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman portray one of the most endearing duos in years, with an ensemble of memorable characters surrounding them. Full of hilarious dialogue, a pristine song score, and Anderson’s imaginative eye—this will restore anyone’s faith in American independent filmmaking. |
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6. John Cassavetes: Five Films |
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7. Tokyo Story Yasujiro Ozu Ozu was a master, and this is his masterpiece. This beautiful family drama is a textured poem about changing family ties and misunderstandings between generations. A portrait of postwar Tokyo and the changes that can come to different generations. |
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8. Wild Strawberries Ingmar Bergman There’s a reason this is one of Ingmar Bergman’s most cited works: it’s one of his best. A beautiful and unusually brisk road movie, this may be Bergman’s most accessible film, but what’s wrong with that? This is the kind of film artists spend their entire careers striving for. Bergman achieved it early on, and made many more classics as a result. |
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9. Slacker Richard Linklater A society on the brink of defiance and revolution, and a generation that’s sick and tired of being sick and tired. In some years and some countries, they riot. In 1990 America, they talk it out. Easily one of the most influential American films of the last twenty-five years, Richard Linklater’s exploration of bored youth is mesmerizing. This film would help its titular term become a phenomenon, as well as put Austin, Texas, on the cultural map. |
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10. The Rules of the Game Jean Renoir Jean Renoir’s almost-lost piece of essential filmmaking is a tour de force of social debate, comedy, violence, and overindulgence. And that’s just how the characters behave. The filmmaking is crisp, smart, and quickly paced. Many films have come close, but, in my opinion, Renoir’s masterpiece is the finest cinematic example of class satire. |