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Last week, Movie FanFare ran a poll asking readers to vote for their favorite “cult classic” film. Not surprisingly, The Rocky Horror Picture Show came out of the gate strong and has a comfortable lead on such worthies as George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, the ’30s shocker Freaks, Ed Wood’s magnum opus Plan 9 from Outer Space, and other fondly-recalled relics from the days of rep cinema and midnight movie shows. Dawn, made in 1978, is the newest title on the list, and while several films from the early home video era of the 1980s and ’90s–The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, The Big Lebowski, Office Space, and the works of Kevin Smith and Quentin Tarantino, for example–have managed to achieve cult status, one has to wonder if the technology of the 21st century will be a help or a hindrance to today’s movies. While the sense of shared experience that used to be found at late-night screenings of Rocky Horror, Pink Flamingos or Eraserhead may be lacking, the popularity of Internet film review and blog sites–like this one, hint hint–can help spread the word about a particular cinematic curiosity and build an online community of devotees.
So, which movies from the last decade have the best chance of standing the test of time and becoming part of the newest generation of cult classics? I’d like to suggest the following 10 candidates and take a brief look at how they stack up:
Donnie Darko – A lot of viewers of this oddball 2001 fantasy/dramedy seemed to identify with Jake Gyllenhaal’s title character, a brilliant but troubled high schooler plagued by visits from a giant rabbit named Frank who offers him less-than-cheery visions of the future. Along the way Gyllenhaal must also deal with therapy and family problems, his attraction to a new classmate (Jena Malone), a creepy self-help guru (Patrick Swayze), and a jet engine crashing into his bedroom. Writer/director Richard Kelly’s time-hopping tale was never a particular favorite of mine (If I want to see a movie about ominous, over-sized bunnies, I’ll watch Night of the Lepus), but it did manage to find success in the home video market, enough to lead to a follow-up film about Donnie’s sister, S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale, eight years later.
Ghost World – Based on Daniel Clowes’ alternative comic book series, this 2001 seriocomedy from director Terry Zwigoff starred Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson as best friends Enid and Rebecca, who graduate from high school into an uncertain future where their shared cynicism and knack for mocking others leads to adult-sized complications, particularly when Enid tries to befriend nebbishy vintage record collector Seymour (Steve Buscemi), the object of one of their pranks. It’s a wonderful look at loneliness and cross-generational connections, and features one of the most rousing opening musical numbers in film history, courtesy of the ’60s Bollywood thriller Gumnaam (and why isn’t that film available on DVD?) .
American Splendor – Another graphic novel-based feature that doesn’t involve spandex-clad crimefighters, this 2003 adaptation of cantankerous Cleveland hospital clerk-turned-comic book diarist Harvey Pekar expertly captured the late Pekar’s life of “quiet” desperation, from his interactions with his VA hospital co-workers (including Judah Friedlander as “quintessential nerd” Toby Radloff) and underground artist Robert Crumb (James Urbaniak) to his tempestuous courtship of and marriage to Delaware writer and fellow neurotic Joyce Brabner (Hope Davis).
Oldboy – This time it’s a Japanese manga that got a big-screen treatment, courtesy of South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook. A married businessman (Choi Min-sik) awakens from a drunken stupor to find himself locked inside a tiny room by person or persons unknown. Abruptly released after 15 years, Choi sets out on a brutally violent quest for answers and revenge…but what he discovers may be more than even he can take. This intense, mind-bending Asian actioner has been rumored to be in the Hollywood remake mill for years, with everyone from Steven Spielberg to Danny Boyle directing and Will Smith in the title role. Do yourself a favor and catch the original first.
The Room – Perhaps the closest entry here–at least in terms of audience participation during theatrical showings–to The Rocky Horror Picture Show is this ham-handed 2003 attempt at adult-themed romantic melodrama. Neophyte writer/director/star Tommy Wiseau plays Johnny, a long-tressed San Francisco banker who can’t see that his manipulative fiancée Lisa (Juliette Danielle) has fallen out of love with him and has begun an affair with Johnny’s best friend, Mark (Greg Sestero), leading to a fateful discovery at Johnny’s surprise birthday party and a fatal climax. This is all done with wooden acting, pretentious dialogue (“Thank you honey, this is a beautiful party. You invited all my friends. Good thinking!”), love scenes shot like a softcore Cinemax feature, and more shots of San Francisco landmarks than a Travel Channel documentary. A true “word-of-Internet-mouth” phenomenon, The Room has fans who show up at screenings dressed as their favorite character and ready to toss around a football (don’t ask), and has earned Wiseau the distinction of being dubbed in some circles the second coming of Ed Wood.
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy – “You are a smelly pirate hooker.” “I’m in a glass case of emotion.” And, of course, “You stay classy, San Diego.” A whole half-hour news program woudn’t have enough time to list all the great quotes–especially the ones with words I can’t use here–in this hilarious send-up starring Will Ferrell as a dimwitted yet immensely popular TV anchor in 1970s San Diego and Christina Applegate as his bright and ambitious new co-host. Produced by comedy giant Judd Apatow (who seems to involved with 72% of the movies out today) and boasting a supporting cast that includes Steve Carell, David Koechner, Paul Rudd and Fred Willard, Anchorman is perhaps Ferrell’s best film to date, and the fact that plans for a sequel have proved problematic–thanks to many of its players going on to greater success, thus jacking up their salaries–should only increase its reputation in the years to come.
Shaun of the Dead – Once upon a time, movie zombies and laughs did not mix. After Bob Hope’s The Ghost Breakers and King of the Zombies with Mantan Moreland in the ’40s, the closest one got for decades were the likes of Dead Heat and My Boyfriend’s Back. That changed when actor Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright, two of the talents behind the cult fave British TV series Spaced and this year’s sci-fi send-up Paul, came up with this 2004 comedy that marvelously spoofed the conventions of the post-Romero “living dead” shocker and was packed with fanboy genre references. It’s also a movie with a wonderfully touching romantic sub-plot; No, not the one between would-be hero Shaun (Pegg) and his put-upon girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield). I mean the true-blue bromance between Shaun and roommate Ed (Nick Frost) which, not to give too much away, lasts longer than one might expect.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan – The people of Kazakhstan (Yes, it’s a real country. Look at an atlas once in a while, people!) may not have been thrilled with how star/co-writer Sasha Baron Cohen and company depicted their homeland, but audiences loved this 2006 mockumentary in which aspiring international journalist Borat Sagdiyev (Cohen) leaves his central Asian squalor and–accompanied by obese producer Azamat (Ken Daivitian)–travels across the United States for some eye-opening interviews with unsuspecting subjects. Borat’s less-than-enlightened attitudes towards feminism, Jews and kidnapping Pamela Anderson make for some hilariously uncomfortable encounters as the line between reality and fiction is brutally obliterated. If rep theaters were still in vogue, I’d love to see audience members re-create the wrestling scene between Borat and Azamat. High five!
Birdemic: Shock and Terror – I commented last year on this 2008 turkey (sorry!) from computer software salesman-turned-writer/director James Nguyen, the self-described “Master of the Romantic Thriller” who tried to update Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and shoehorn in an environmentalist message. Much like The Room’s Tommy Wiseau, however, Nguyen wound up crafting an unintentional laughfest thanks to his lack of editing and scriptwriting skills and “special effects” that make the term an oxymoron. None of this stopped fans of the film from packing theaters during its 2010 late-night theatrical run. Did Nguyen actually set out to make a “so-bad-it’s good” cult item? You be the judge.
The Human Centipede – Okay, so the odds are it’s not, as writer/director Tom Six claims in his publicity materials, “100% medically accurate.” There’s no denying, however, that his 2010 tale of a demented German surgeon (Dieter Laser) who takes two female American tourists and a Japanese traveller captive and uses them for his “dream experiment” is 100% unsettling and unforgettable. Oh, and by the by, that dream experiment consists of joining his unwilling subjects together via a “single gastric system” (yes, that’s anus-to-mouth in the case of victims two and three) to create, as Laser puts it, “a new organism.” Just imagine the costume possibilities for midnight screenings…although concession stand sales might suffer.
Well, those are the 10 favorites from where I’m sitting. Care to write and suggest a more-deserving movie? Napoleon Dynamite, say? Burlesque? Mega Shark versus Giant Octopus?