Every week at SiftPop.com, we challenge our writers to choose what they think is the best movie under a certain topic related to a recent release. So this week, with the release of Five Nights at Freddy’s, we’re counting down our favorite movies with the word “night” in the title! Let us know @SiftPop what your ranking is!
The OG zombie film that served as the prototype for the creatures moving forward, George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead is a trendsetter that arguably has more in common with the recent indie horror revival than what most people would associate with “classic horror.” Unlike the slashers of the ‘70s and ‘80s, it’s more interested in social commentary than gory kills, as it explores the coming together of a group of strangers who work to survive the approaching undead horde in a Pennsylvania farmhouse. The way the creatures are portrayed will be familiar to a modern audience, but it’s worth exploring the film that pushed them into the pop culture spotlight if you’re looking for something to get you into the spooky holiday spirit. (Jake Bourgeois)
In an era where many mainstream comedies were beginning to feel stale, overly crass, and oftentimes just downright bad, Game Night felt like a breath of fresh air. The script is full of laugh-out-loud moments and genuinely interesting mysteries and twists, and the cast, headlined by Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, and Jesse Plemons, is incredible. The cinematography and editing are some of the best that you’ll ever see in a comedy film, with interesting framing and lighting, a great one-shot sequence and others that are perfectly cut, and the use of a tilt-shift lens to make the scenery in establishing shots look like game pieces. Game Night is a film that doesn’t cut any corners — every aspect of filmmaking is nearly flawless from start to finish. It’s a film that I could watch nearly any five-minute snippet of and be entertained, be it Plemons’ befuddlement at the profitability of a Tostitos promotion or Bateman and McAdams trying to treat a gunshot wound. I don’t know if I can definitively say it’s the best comedy to come out in the past decade, but it’s certainly in the conversation, and that’s nothing to scoff at. (Jake Hjort)
Before Mr. Smith went to Washington, Mortimer Brewster learned about his aunts’ disturbing habit, or George Bailey got a lesson from an angel, Frank Capra took home his first of three Oscars with It Happened One Night. A reporter (Clark Gable), hoping for a scoop by trailing a runaway heiress (Claudette Colbert) he encounters on a bus, finds his story complicated when feelings get involved when the duo are stranded after missing their bus. The rom-com tale of a reporter falling for his story’s subject is a common one in classic Hollywood, but this is one of the best examples of it. It’s a film bursting with charm and elevated by the chemistry of its two lead performers. There’s a reason it earned not only Capra’s first directing Oscar, but swept Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Best Screenplay, Adapted (Robert Riskin), too. It’s early movie magic at its finest. (Jake Bourgeois)
Owen Wilson’s Gil is a screenwriter who goes on a trip to Paris with his fiancée (Rachel McAdams) and her parents before the wedding. Gil is trying to finish his book, so instead of going out to nice Parisian restaurants, he spends his first night simply walking around the city, taking in the atmosphere, hoping for inspiration to strike. And strike it does, when he’s whisked away to the 1920s, where he meets the likes of Zelda (Alison Pill) and F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston), Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll), and many of their contemporaries. Midnight in Paris is such a charming little exploration of the dangers of idealizing the past, and at a brisk 94 minutes, its messages are hammered home efficiently. (Robert Bouffard)
Robert De Niro has appeared as a tough Italian (or Irish, or Southern…) man so many times that it’s easy to lost count. From The Godfather Part II, to Goodfellas, to Cape Fear, to The Irishman, he’s in some serious and often upsetting movies. But the guy can make a much lighter movie work, too. Exhibit A: Midnight Run. The 1988 buddy roadtrip movie with De Niro and Charles Grodin is about as fun as movies get, and the two leads have some of the best chemistry out of a comedic duo I’ve ever seen. It’s got slapstick humor, one-liners, fun chase sequences, and memorable characters, all to make it one of the most entertaining movies to come out of the ‘80s. (Robert Bouffard)
What if I told you that the best acting performance of 2014 not only didn’t win a single prestigious award, but it also wasn’t even nominated? That should be enough for you to know I must be talking about Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler. His portrayal of a sociopathic conman who finds his way in the cutthroat world of crime scene journalism took my understanding of acting to a whole new level. Throughout this movie, I kept forgetting that Gyllenhaal was not actually a scary, insane psychopath. The way he manipulates everyone and everything throughout the film is both impressive and terrifying. I would be remiss if I didn’t also sing the praise of Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed, and the late, great Bill Paxton, who round out this incredibly talented cast! This story is compelling, and although it can be a bit of a tough watch, it is certainly worth every second of your time. The irony is that a movie about being the first to get a scoop would go unnoticed by everyone is a disservice to the talents in front and behind the camera. (Nick Ferro)
The Beatles weren’t quite Elvis in terms of their acting output, but that doesn’t make A Hard Day’s Night any less memorable. In fact, it probably makes it more so. When the Fab Four are playing a show on live television and need to get to the venue, shenanigans ensue — we meet Ringo’s grandfather, Paul makes trouble, they must escape and outwit their rabid fans, and they even acknowledge who the most popular Beatle was. A Hard Day’s Night won’t hit super hard in the emotions, but sometimes all you need is a quick 88 minutes to watch four of the most famous people of the twentieth century indulge in some tomfoolery. (Robert Bouffard)
Boogie Nights was the first Paul Thomas Anderson movie I saw. It’s an epic movie straddling two different decades in the porn industry. The characters are outstanding, anchored specifically by Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg), a new talent discovered by producer extraordinaire Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds). This is a deep character exploration of the different paths people take based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, and everything in between. Boogie Nights also explores the business of porn and works through how it can be artful in the right hands. PTA’s at the top of craft in Boogie Nights, quite the accomplishment considering he had only one other movie under his belt at the time. (Mike Hilty)
What is one of the most important mainstays in Halloween AND Christmas cinema? Tim Burton had a dream… or maybe a nightmare (I hope you enjoyed that) of a darkly twisted stop motion world of holidays. Director Henry Selick took his vision and created one of the most impressive technical achievements in the history of cinema. The Nightmare Before Christmas finds a scary but benevolent leader of a world all about Halloween having a crisis of purpose. How to resolve it? Try out a new holiday… Christmas! This macabre film is filled to the brim with crazy characters, iconic musical numbers, and enough iconography to keep Hot Topic’s inventories full until the end of time. The cast is incredible, with some impressive singing performances and instantly recognizable voices. The songs and characters are some of the most frequently enjoyed aspects of the Halloween season. Very few films have delivered on such a crazy dream (…or nightmare). (Shane Conto)
A Nightmare on Elm Street
The Before trilogy is among the better trilogies Hollywood has to offer. The three films are truly amazing explorations of relationships and romance. The third entry, Before Midnight, adds aging into the mix, as Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) have spent nine years together and are parents. Each of the movies in the trilogy builds off of one another, as the characters have vivid discussions about the state of their relationship, what they want to do with their lives, and the next steps of their romance. Hawke and Delpy are outstanding, as they’ve truly immersed themselves in these characters. Combined with Richard Linklater’s guidance as director and co-writer, Before Midnight is an authentic and harrowing peek at what a real relationship is like. (Mike Hilty)
Next year will be 40 years since the world has been introduced to one of the scariest, most iconic horror movie villains of all time. Wes Craven was always thinking of new and creative ways to scare us, and with Freddy Krueger, who you can’t ever escape, he succeeded. The premise is brilliantly simple — you get killed in your sleep/dreams. No matter what you do, you have to sleep eventually. You can’t outrun this killer and you can’t (effectively) kill him; you have to put up a fight. A Nightmare on Elm Street has had some questionable sequels (and some good ones, too!), but in my eyes, nothing comes close to the original movie, where we are introduced to Freddy and his shenanigans. Unlike “the other two” (a.k.a. Jason and Michael), he talks, quips, and doesn’t have a mask; he doesn’t have to hide his burnt face, because he wants you to see him. The word “legendary” is thrown around carelessly these days, but A Nightmare on Elm Street, and mainly Freddy Krueger are, with no doubts, legendary. So was Craven, and boy, he is missed. (Luke Burian)
Friday Night Lights
As someone who loves sports movies, it takes something quite special to stand out. I still remember the first time I watched Friday Night Lights. Based on the acclaimed book of the same name, it chronicles a Texas high school football team and its football-crazed town as the team looks to win a state championship. I went to high school in Wisconsin, not Texas, but there’s something so universal about what this film captures about the connection between a town and its local football teams. The game night atmosphere, the school celebrity nature of the players, the old timers always looking to bend the coach’s ear with advice — it all rings true. What really makes it special is how it nails the climax. With sports films, it’s all about building to the big game and here it’s nailed — both in the build up and the resolution. (Jake Bourgeois)
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
When I was nine years old in 2006 Will Ferrell was, as far as I was concerned, the funniest man on the planet. I had seen snippets of his sketches on Saturday Night Live, Elf was an instant Christmas classic, and Kicking & Screaming was a favorite of my siblings and I, watched on repeat for road trips and movie nights. I distinctly remember seeing the trailer for Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,laughing hysterically at Ferrell stabbing himself in the leg, and deciding this would be one of my favorite movies. I recently rewatched it for the first time in over a decade, and although it hasn’t aged perfectly and I may have overestimated how high it would rank in my favorites lists, I do still think it’s a genuinely good comedy. Telling the story of dimwitted NASCAR racer Ricky Bobby (Ferrell) as he deals with turmoil in his family and career, Ferrell is still in the absolute prime of his career in this film and delivers a ton of laughs throughout. There’s a solidly funny Adam McKay script hot off the heels of Anchorman, and a great supporting cast featuring the likes of John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen, Michael Clarke Duncan, Jane Lynch, and Amy Adams. It’s not perfect, and it isn’t the best work in any of its creators’ filmographies, but it still holds its value as a comedy I won’t forget. (Jake Hjort)
Midnight in the Garden Good and Evil
“This (place) is fantastic; it’s like Gone With the Wind on mescaline” is how John Kelso (John Cusack) describes 1980’s Savannah in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It’s also the perfect way to describe the film itself. While based on John Berendt’s book of the same name, Midnight explores the events surrounding the death of Billy Hanson (Jude Law) at the hands of his closeted lover, Jim Williams (Kevin Spacey) after a yearly Christmas party. John has been sent to cover the famous party for a magazine article, and is quickly swept up in the ludicrous eccentricities of the town and its residents, deciding to instead stay and cover the murder trial. In his attempts to aid Jim’s defense, John befriends a night club MC drag queen, takes part in ceremonies with a voodoo priestess in a darkened graveyard, walks with an imaginary dog, attends a cotillion ball, and eats lunch a few seats down from a man that has leashed bees attached to his shirt while brandishing a bottle of poison. And these are just the parts that are true. Midnight’s unconventional cast of characters are all well represented from the main characters down to the quirky residents on the street. Every scene has a twist of weird or whimsy in keeping with the tone of the tumultuous town and the trial is like none you’ve ever witnessed. Peak Cusack and Spacey, with a dash of fresh faced Law, make it more than worth the watch. (Patrice Downing)
Date Night
I’m not a big fan of rom-coms because they all feel too similar to each other, but with 2010’s Date Night,starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey, you get more comedy and action than romance. After dealing with the mundane married life and finding out their friends are getting a divorce, couple Phil and Claire Foster decided to bring back the spark of their date night. Dressing up to the nines, the Fosters take a reservation at a trendy restaurant before a case of mistaken identity ensues. The comedic flair from Carell and Fey carries the film and makes the story fun and enjoyable. Even with a silly plot, including a funny but typical scene with shirtless Mark Wahlberg, an all-star cast with Taraji P. Henson, Common, and the late Ray Liotta, and some over-the-top, entertaining action, Date Night is still a laugh. (Chantal Ashford)
Night at the Museum
Ben Stiller-led comedies are reliably good, and one of my favorites is Shawn Levy’s Night at the Museum. Larry Daley (Stiller) is an out-of-work inventor who must find a job, and is hired to be the night guard at The American Museum of Natural History. All is well until, at night, all the exhibits come to life, embodying the physical person who they are made to look like. Daley must navigate his new job and life as a divorced father. This comedy comes stacked with a great comedic cast, with the likes of Robin Williams, Ricky Gervais, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Rami Malek, Owen Wilson, and Carla Gugino. Levy brings the best out of this big ensemble, and delivers a memorable movie, which spawned two even wilder sequels. (Austen Terry)