Unstoppable (2010) dir. Tony Scott
Tony Scott’s fifth collaboration with Denzel Washington was also unfortunately his last film. The Top Gun director committed suicide in 2012 after a long, unpublicized battle with cancer. Loosely based on the real life events of a runaway train and the two men trying to stop it, this non-stop popcorn muncher perfectly represents Scott’s oeuvre. Style and substance whipped together into an adrenaline-fueled sensory overload. “I love Pittsburgh,” Scott said of the production. “It reminds me of where I grew up (in North England)... If you saw the movie, I embrace the landscape. I felt I was back home in my youth." Quentin Tarantino called Unstoppable one of the best films of the decade, and Christoper Nolan cited the film as an inspiration for building suspense.
Wonder Boys (2000) dir. Curtis Hanson
Unless you're talking about Wonder Boys as one of the greatest movies of the last 50 years, you’re underrating it. Michael Douglas' Grady Tripp is one of the deepest, most interesting characters presented on screen. The characters are fallible people, stumbling through life, held back by their delusions or narcotics or bourgeois malaise or fear… Curtis Hanson's follow up to L.A. Confidential further displays his deft touch at creating likable characters out of unlikeable people. No small part of that is Michael Chabon’s novel and Steve Kloves' adapted script. The movie easily bests the fine book. It's leaner, more focused, and Grady Tripp’s pathos comes through more clearly. It's the answer to that timeless question about movies that improve upon the novel. I happen to love both so much that I named my recently adopted dog Grady.
Dawn of the Dead (1978) dir. George Romero
Night of the Living Dead (1968) made George Romero an indie filmmaking icon. Dawn of the Dead made him a legend. Bloodier, meaner, funnier, the second installment of Romero’s zombie series takes full advantage of the changing cinematic decorum to create a ghoulish, entrail-spilling satire on consumerism. Fans from all over the world make pilgrimages to the Monroeville Mall to pay their respects to the creator of the modern zombie film.
Bob Roberts (1992) dir. Tim Robbins
This dark political satire might now land too close to reality to be considered laugh-out-loud funny, but its prescience has only magnified the travesty of actor/writer/director Robbins’ grossly overlooked 1992 film about an entertainer that jumps into the Pennsylvania senate race. He succeeds by exploiting the fears of the most gullible through folk songs about immigrants and welfare queens.
Adventureland (2009) dir. Greg Mottola
Filmed at Kennywood, this film waxes comedic, dramatic, and nostalgic about those lousy jobs that populate our misspent teenage summers. It’s 1987. Recent college graduate Jesse Eisenberg has a trip to Europe put on hold after his parents’ finances go up in flames. After taking a job working the games at the local amusement park, he befriends Kristen Stewart, who makes his ordinary life tumultuous. Far more thoughtful than the genre normally allows, Mottola’s film is honest and observant about the anxiety and innocence of youth.
Jay Patrick is a Mt. Lebanon-based syndicated writer of film and fiction and the host of the Cinema Shame Podcast (formerly produced by DVD Netflix and available wherever you get your podcasts) where guests watch, for the first time, a movie they really should have seen by now.
