For years I have said that Dreams, one of Akira Kurosawa's last and more obscure films, is my favorite. Now, however, I think it has moved down the list a little bit. The thing is, there isn't necessarily anything that has risen to take its place. It's a list of merit, and sometimes the top slots go unfilled. Dreams touched me when I was a kid, and influenced my thinking for years. Kurosawa's reverence of nature in particular affected me, even as I rebuffed his anti-technology messages. But, mostly, I loved it so much because it was strange and fantastical to everything I knew. I was completely unfamiliar with Japanese culture back then, so this film provided me with a glimpse into a whole new world. My favorite episodes in the film are “The Tunnel” and “Village of the Watermills.” If you ever see this film, keep your eyes peeled on Kurosawa's legendary cinematography. The image of the soldier first emerging from the tunnel is profound!
The Miyazaki Cycle in general would rank near the top of my list of favorite movies, if you could count them all as different expressions of the same idea (which they largely are). His imagination and power of fantasy resonates strongly with my own vivid imagination and passion for the fantastical. His sense of drama is also very compelling. This was perhaps best-realized in Laputa and Spirited Away.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is my favorite adventure film, the perfect Spielbergian melange of highbrow wit, preposterous action, Sean Connery, and Nazis. The Little Mermaid is my favorite Disney film, primarily for the music. I was long a sucker for the inspirations of Braveheart, but I haven't seen that film in years so I can't be sure that it would still rank well on my list. However, Milo and Otis definitely would. It may not have the same impact on me today, but it was a seminal film in my childhood. “Gonna take a walk outside today...!”
In general I am very critical of films and do not rank them highly. The ones that stay with me through the years are the ones that leave a lot to the imagination, have plenty of unspoken substance, tell a good tale, and have some respect for high imagination and high intelligence.
As for the bottom of my list: The Most overrated, overhyped, and bogus movie on my list: That would be Fight Club. I'm not even gonna talk about Fight Club.
