when i first heard of the show "hannibal", i wanted it to fail for two reasons. for one thing, it sounded like such a dumb concept to me, "an fbi agent and his buddy, hannibal lector solve crimes together! woo!" the other reason was that the creator of "hannibal" had created another show i loved that was cancelled after two seasons ("pushing daisies") and i had read that he was interested in doing a third but was too busy with "hannibal". then, i actually watched it. wow.
the show follows everyone's favorite cannibal as he begins treating an fbi criminal profiler, will graham. will graham. will has a unique empathy disorder which allows him to put himself in the mind of killers. this show is psychological horror at its very best as hannibal lector manipulates those around him and will graham becomes more and more intwined with the murders hannibal commits. the visuals of this show are astounding and meticulously beautiful. the gradual decay of will graham's sanity is seen through his imagination becoming more and more clear to us as viewers. the creator, bryan fuller, told every director that worked on "hannibal" not to treat it like they were filming a tv show, but like they were filming an art film, and it shows.
2/ "community" (tv series - 6 seasons)
on the other end of the spectrum lies "community", which has been my favorite tv comedy for years. "community" is one that i have proudly watched since it first premiered in 2009.
"community" is about a group of friends who attend a community college. kind of. what's great about "community" is how free it feels. it doesn't let itself be constrained by a description. this is a show that did a stop-motion episode, a puppet episode, and a g.i. joe animation episode. "community" spends much of its time referencing earlier works and even itself.
https://youtu.be/DjQkluKxJGc
3/ "kick-ass" (film - action/comedy)
i love super-stylized in your face violence. that's half the fun of "kick-ass". the other half is that it's absolutely hilarious.
the story follows a teenager who one day decides he wants to be a superhero. from there he meets a father/daughter team of actual superheroes and things really spiral out of his control. the film is shot very much in the style of a comic-book with most shots looking like they're busting straight out of a comic panel.
https://youtu.be/fUdx2siotUo
4/ "fight club" (film - thriller)
every david finches film is gold.
a nameless narrator meets a man with whom he goes down a path of destruction. as with "hannibal" above, part of the charm here is the mental instability of our protagonist and we, as the audience, are treated to his delusions.
https://youtu.be/SUXWAEX2jlg
5/ "the perks of being a wallflower" (film - drama)
this is my favorite drama film. teen angst for the win. when it first came out on dvd, i watched it every friday night for probably about two months. when i graduated high school, i used the final lines from this film as my senior quote. i repeat: teen angst for the win.
a lonely freshman befriends to upperclassmen and comes into his own as a person while dealing with his own personal demons and insecurities. the film takes place in the 90s and feels itself like a memory.
https://youtu.be/n5rh7O4IDc0
6/ "the naked gun" (film series - comedy)
the often overlooked film trilogy from the creative team behind "airplane!", these movies always crack me up.
an inept police detective bumbles his way through more puns and sight gags than you'd think could possibly be crammed into the timespan. pretty much every item/person in every shot in these films is a joke. rewatching them over and over, i still notice new things in the background of each shot.
https://youtu.be/nTh9qpzhunE
7/ "adventure time" (tv series - 7 seasons and counting)
"adventure time" is controlled chaos. the episodes themselves are bright and fast-paced, but together they reveal such a deep and elaborate mythology for the world of oo. it's fantastic.
a boy, a magical dog, and others have adventures in the post-apocalyptic land of oo. as the show progresses, the emphasis becomes less about finn and jake (the boy and magical dog, respectively) and the show explores the other characters who inhabit this world. as i mentioned earlier, there is an elaborate mythology that is slowly revealed as the show goes on.
https://youtu.be/113yv-Kdy7I
8/ "the breakfast club" (film - drama)
i love the 80s and it doesn't get any more 80s than "the breakfast club". this was actually the first r-rated movie i was allowed to watch as a child. now, however many years later here i am with a poster for it hanging over my bed right now.
five very different teenagers bond over saturday detention. the action of the film relies mostly on the dialogue between these characters to the point where at times it almost feels like a play.
https://youtu.be/IN64ta25VBA
9/ "wristcutter: a love story" (film - drama)
this is a weird little film i stumbled across a few years ago and fell in love with. obviously, it was the title that caught my eye.
a man searches for his ex-girlfriend in a world populated only by those who have killed themselves. the world of this film is just like our world, only a little worse. to help emphasize this, there is a faded look to the entire film.
https://youtu.be/eBSn9UWJz2o
10/ "heathers" (film - dark comedy)
i actually only saw this one for the first time not that long ago but i'm pretty confident this is going to be one i watch over and over for quite some time. i mean come on, it's "mean girls" with a murder spree.
in "heathers", two teenagers begin killing the cool kids of high school. the acting is perfectly over-the-top and the dialogue is fantastic. "dear diary, my teen angst bullshit has a body count..."
https://youtu.be/CTmpKgocyYg
