“The Close Encounters of the Third Kind” to “The Collector”
The Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Steven Spielberg’s huge, epic, humanist evocation of mankind’s first contact with extra terrestrial life. If any movie could be said to justify the term iconic, this is it. A template for every SF movie made since (those that look nothing like it are a reaction to it). Watch the skies, we are not alone. (KT)
The Club (1980) Hilarious, pointedly personal Bruce Beresford movie about the behind the scenes politics and personal strife affecting an Australian Rules football club. Stars nobody you’d have ever heard of but the cast are quite brilliant in this naturalistic and absorbing social drama. Plenty of laughs too. (KT)
The Cocoanuts (1929) The Marx Brothers first film is remarkable for many reasons. Most importantly, it remains as one of the few examples of a musical comedy film from the 1920s. But beyond its historical significance, its also extremely funny almost 90 years later. Often impersonated and emulated, this film provides a clear example that no one can deliver a one-liner like Groucho. (GS)
Coffy (1973) Coffy is Foxy Brown without the cream. If you want true dark goodness, check out Pam Grier, the queen of the genre, playing a nurse whose younger sister is severely injured by contaminated heroin. Offended and appalled at the condition of a degenerating society smothered in drugs, she goes on a violent crusade of vengeance and vigilante justice, killing drug dealers, pimps, and mobsters who cross her path. (CK)
The Collector (1965) This was a terrific book (by John Fowles) and an even better movie, and Terence Stamp positively owns every damned frame of it. At a glance, it seems like a relatively early serial killer movie but mild-mannered, soft-spoken Freddie Clegg isn’t really a killer, per se he just likes to surround himself with beautiful things. But he’ll go to any length to acquire “pieces” for his collection, be they butterflies or people, and if he has to… well, you get the idea. I saw the ending coming, at the last moment, and it was still a chilling surprise. (KCL)
Originally published in Raspberry World – Volume 2, Issue 1 (June/July 2007)