The Top 100 Project

Alfonso Cuaron's remarkable career was still in its opening act when he made this beautifully raunchy movie, which inspired us to record a fairly raunchy podcast. Y Tu Mama Tambien is drenched in sex and youthful machismo, but at least there's an older leading lady to offset that with loveliness and soul. Her 2 eager boy toys are fun, dumb and ready to rock at all times. Maribel Verdu puts a fresh spin on the trope of the sexy, older woman while Gael Garcia Bernal & Diego Luna click as friends who learn some lessons on the road. So be a good Charolastra as the 448th Ellises' Analysis hits the beach and dissects Y Tu Mama Tambien. On that long road trip, you'll need to bring along a pile of Sparkplug Coffee. A 20% discount can be had if you use our promo code ("top100project"). Contact us on Twitter (@moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis) and also look for Ryan's sports movie podcast (Scoring At The Movies).

It's hard to argue with the fact that CODA is a heartwarming and inclusive film about a family of fishers. Sian Heder's cast of legitimately deaf actors (Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur and Daniel Durant) gel well with the only hearing member of their family (Emelia Jones). As for Heder's story, it's a well-worn one about strife between people who truly love each other, despite the disputes. You also can't argue with the fact that the critics liked CODA. It's nice and it's safe. But that's the problem. When a movie wins the Oscar for Best Picture, it really should be a lot more remarkable than this is. It's not even the best picture in recent years about this subject. Sound Of Metal and the short documentary Audible are just plain better. So while you can't hate CODA, we failed to see why so many loved it as much as they did. Anyway, fire up our 447th Ellises' Analysis to hear us grade a nice movie on a steep curve, but order a batch of Sparkplug Coffee too. They'll give you a 20% discount if you plug in our promo

Hero (or "Heroes", as it SHOULD have been called...maybe even "Superheroes") was a ballyhooed Chinese blockbuster that followed in the golden footsteps of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Both are beautiful, lyrical and impressive technically, but Yimou Zhang's cool-as-a-spinning-swordsman opus tops Ang Lee's remarkable accomplishment...from an aesthetic standpoint anyway. We just wished Zhang's story had stuck to our ribs the way Lee's did. Hero is indeed one of the prettiest pictures ever made though. Jet Li and his co-stars are right on point. The non-stop action is great and the flashback structure allows Zhang to feature a tremendous colour palette. So use your billowing sleeves to deflect a flurry of arrows as the 446th Ellises' Analysis chats about Nameless and the namesake of China and their noble co-stars. Oh, you should know that our brief gab would feel better in your ears if you had coffee in your mouth. Sparkplug Coffee offers a 20% discount if you use our promo code ("top100project"). Also, shoot

The one that made movie stars out of Damon & Affleck has been discussed by nearly everybody for the past 25 years, but we managed to find several new wrinkles in this well-written dramedy about friendship, love, grief and advanced math. Matt & Ben won Oscars for their quotable script and so did Robin Williams for his heartfelt performance as Damon's therapist. Williams is at his best in Good Will Hunting and now we can see how his character has even more depth than we thought at the time. Gus Van Sant got marvelous work out of those 3 stars, not to mention Stellan Skarsgard and Minnie Driver. It's an atypical film for an arthouse director like Van Sant, but he wrings all the emotion and comedy out of apples, caramels and Bah-ston coffee. So let the quirky, cool and sexy lady win you over with a kiss as the 445th Ellises' Analysis psychoanalyzes Good Will Hunting. But, hey, don't sit around eating caramels when you can get a 20% discount off Sparkplug Coffee. Use our promo code ("top100project") to sav

Invite all your monkey friends out for a day of river rafting as the 444th Ellises' Analysis dives into the goings on in "Apocalypse Before". Werner Herzog was still fairly new to making movies that are filled with verisimilitude when he made this incredibly authentic cult favourite deep in the Peruvian wilderness with his "best fiend" Klaus Kinski. The two of them had famous battles during this and other projects, but this first collaboration just might be their finest. Despite all of Kinski's dangerous unpredictability, he was a powerful and committed actor who deserved to be more of a movie star than he was. As for Aguirre's story, Herzog's Spanish Conquistadors (and *cough cough* all their slaves) float down a raging river to find the fabled city of gold in El Dorado, but that's a fools' journey that results in many deaths. Yeah, this is a bleak flick, but that doesn't stop it from being a great one. So don't let yourself be stalked by savages. Be a savage yourself as you seek out our thoughts about Aguir

The Quiet Man is not the greatest collaboration between the Johns (Ford & Wayne, natch), but it IS probably their most light-hearted. It's also a film jammed with Irish stereotypes. Of course, the director himself was Irish, so some slack should be cut. Other aspects of the story and the performances that don't age very well, however, are more of a problem. At least Maureen O'Hara is no shrinking violet, even if her character is unreasonably upset about her bullying brother withholding her dowry. As for Duke Wayne, he gets to play a former boxer with a serious case of PTSD...and he's pretty likable doing it. So travel to Innisfree with the 443rd Ellises' Analysis filling your ears, which might drown out all those annoying neighbours who won't stay out of your business. To counteract all the beer you'll drink watching this suds-soaked movie, buy yourself a lot of Sparkplug Coffee and use our promo code ("top100project") to get 20% off. You can also tweet us (@moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis) and you can di

Growing a conscience when you're an alcoholic, ambulance chaser is a longtime movie trope (right?), but very few of those guys have been played by Paul Newman. Unfortunately, not even one of the world's greatest actors could overcome some problems with David Mamet's script, namely that Newman's motivations for taking a "let's just settle" civil case to trial are selfish and wrongheaded. Taking on the Catholic Church seems like an honourable move in 2022, sure, but that wasn't so obvious 40 years ago. Did even THE CHURCH deserve what happens in this movie? And is the ending in Sidney Lumet's Oscar-nominee actually a happy one? Was justice done? It's a complicated film. So don't be a double agent working for a talented-but-unscrupulous attorney. Just gather in what the 442nd Ellises' Analysis has to say about The Verdict. Oh, and you might want to be like Newman in the last scene and guzzle a bunch of coffee. We have a java sponsor! They are Sparkplug Coffee. Get a 20% discount when you use our promo code ("top

Orson Welles followed up his monumental Citizen Kane with this similarly-themed film about money, privilege, self-destruction and---say it with us---comeuppance. One of the most-influential directors of all time didn't even get to finish The Magnificent Ambersons though because the studio took it away from him in post-production. We can't have a talented-but-iconoclastic kid go and make 2 masterpieces in a row, right?! As good as this truncated version is, you have to wonder what might have been if they let Welles finish it his way. Joseph Cotten, Tim Holt and the rest of the actors are pretty solid, but the direction, the camerawork and the overall filmmaking are the strongest part of this family-focused classic. So put the car before the horse as our 441st Ellises' Analysis hashes out the magnificence of the Ambersons. And to make your listening experience that much tastier, get a whack of Sparkplug Coffee and use our promo code ("top100project") to get a 20% discount. Also, tweet us (@moviefiend51 and @bev

The Player turns 30 later this week and this satire hasn't lost very much of its punch. Hollywood is the land of phony (now more than ever!) and that atmosphere can be poison to artistic integrity, sure, but most other films of this type don't feature a guy getting away with literal murder. Yup, we wondered if Robert Altman's comeback film is even cleverer than it first appears. Could most of or even the entire film just be a sly suggestion that Tim Robbins & his co-stars are not in a real story? Is this movie actually...about them? Maybe Altman and writer Michael Tolkin were being even more meta than it appears. Of course, the tracking shot at the beginning and the dozens of cameos by A-list movie stars are what The Player is most famous for, but the character actors headlining the cast have fun playing the comedy straight. So give us your pitch while we constantly worry about losing our jobs as we hash out The Player in our 440th Ellises' Analysis. And, hey, what will be perfect at that pitch meeting at

Before The Devil Knows You're Dead wasn't peered at by very many eyeballs 15 years ago, but Sidney Lumet's final film deserved to be seen by many and deserved to be a hit. Kelly Masterson's subtle script is award-worthy and the late & very great Philip Seymour Hoffman is excellent as the lead of this tremendous cast. He shares the screen with pros like Hawke, Tomei, Finney and Shannon. The talent just keeps on comin'. This dark movie is about jewels, money, drugs, debt, family strife, killers and crooks. Nobody is happy, things go off the rails and the Hanson family falls apart. Fun, right?! Okay, it isn't, but their bloody journey is fascinating to watch. So rope your loser brother into helping you commit a few heinous crimes, but also stuff our 439th Ellises' Analysis into your car's CD player (okay, that's not possible) to hear our gab. Meanwhile, Sparkplug Coffee helps us with payin' the bills and they will give you a 20% discount if you use our promo code ("top100project"). You can tweet us (@moviefi

Luis Bunuel was a master director who was often ahead of his time. This isn't the only surreal movie he made, although it isn't always easy to figure out what's real and what's fantasy in this case. In fact, Belle De Jour had us questioning if ANY of this often-masochistic story is real. It's a difficult one to unravel because there's the forward-thinking focus on Catherine Deneuve's sexual empowerment, but the movie also feels like a relic of the old days when men did what they wanted to do to women. Either way, Belle De Jour is an undisputedly creative French flick that somehow found a way to feature plenty of sex without actually showing any. So let your freak flag fly at full mast as we talk about forbidden desires, daytime brothels, cuckolding and so much more in the 438th Ellises' Analysis. Oh, and don't you dare forget to indulge your coffee-tooth by buying a load of Sparkplug Coffee (a 20% discount is yours by typing in "top100project") and also tweet us (@moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis), plus you ha

We cover a lot of movies about movies on this channel. For the 437th Ellises' Analysis, we're digging into what Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas and friends are up to in The Bad And The Beautiful. The story paints Douglas' studio boss as a charismatic devil, but Ryan has sympathy for said devil (yet again) because the bad man is just not bad enough. Perhaps Vincente Minnelli or his actors or even MGM pulled their punches so they wouldn't alienate powerful people in Hollywood. Still, the workaholic David Selznick stand-in who steps on plenty of people never goes into full-on prick mode. And what do we owe people who helped get us where we are, especially after they've betrayed us? We discuss. So fire up the lights and roll the camera as we hash out this hugely entertaining '50s classic. Meantime, get a 20% discount when you buy stuff at Sparkplug Coffee (promo code: "top100project"), chat us up on Twitter (@moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis) or email us (top100projectpodcast@gmail.com) and check out Ryan's other podcas

Pete Docter has directed four of Pixar's very-best films, including Up and Inside Out. Soul makes him 4 for 4, even though it's just a step or two behind those other 2 masterpieces. It's hard to dispute that Docter & Kemp Powers helmed the best animation and design in Pixar's recent history, although we wondered if kids liked Soul as much as adults probably did when it came out. Were they interested in seeing a grumpy jazz teacher going through a bizarre, near-death day, even though there are some goofy pratfalls and body-switching? They probably DID enjoy all the "jazzing" and the sequence that leaves Jamie Foxx's Joe Gardner "mostly dead". Plus, you'd have to be a hideous, purple beast not to enjoy movie-stealer Tina Fey just killing it as 22. So keep your hat and glasses on your head no matter what tragedies befall you as we discuss the movie about keys (piano, maple) in our 436th Ellises' Analysis. Oh, and buy piles of Sparkplug Coffee (get a 20% discount by using our promo code of "top100project"), a

Bonus episode! So what happened at the Oscars? Did people win awards for these mediocre movies while the Twitter-verse crapped all over everything and then the movie stars just happily & quietly went home? Well, of course not. Will Smith assaulted Chris Rock because of a joke and that cast a pall over the rest of what was otherwise an inclusive and fairly-funny show. We kicked this episode off by doing the obvious thing and breaking down the Smith/Rock brouhaha, but we also discussed pretty much everything else about the lonnnnnng broadcast too. Tweet us your own thoughts about these zany Academy Awards. We're @moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis. 

Fittingly, the day after a passably uplifting film wins Best Picture of 2021, we post a chat about The Lost Weekend. Billy Wilder was a genius at tragi-comedy, so he isn't at his best directing something like this. Still, his Oscars-sweeper remains an effective effort. Most of Wilder's legendary films were ahead in the '50s, but his Oscar-festooned 1945 "drinking'll wreck ya" drama is a vivid forerunner of desperate alcoholism. Yes, Leaving Las Vegas, Young Adult and others did it better, but this was revolutionary for its time. Ray Milland took home a trophy for Best Actor (despite the thick-laying he's doing) and Jane Wyman is underused, but the cast is still pretty authentic. So pour 1 (or 100) out to the demons and also to the saints as the 435th Ellises' Analysis concludes Oscar Month with a chat about Wilder's Weekend.   Well, Actually: Alcoholics Anonymous got its start 10 years earlier in 1935. Also, I.A.L. Diamond became Wilder's writing partner in 1957 when they co-wrote Love In The Afternoon. Also

The 94th Academy Awards are only days away and for the first time in many years, we weren't big fans of a lot of the nominees. For that matter, we weren't huge fans of most of the 2021 movies in general. Judging by what many respected critics are saying, the Ellises are the outliers. Well, groupthink is dull anyway, right? We'll be tweeting live on the big night (@moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis) as Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall host the most controversial Oscars in years, especially considering ABC's baffling edict to cut a slew of the awards presentations to speed up the live broadcast. As for what you're in for in the 434th Ellises' Analysis, we discussed all the candidates for Best Picture, Best Director, the 2 writing categories and all 4 acting categories. By the way, if you're looking to catch up on all the (mediocre) 2021 flicks that you haven't yet seen, most of the major nominees are now available on one streaming service or another. Anyway, give our hour's worth of nay-saying a listen, b

Box-office hit Argo was well-loved and won some top prizes at the Oscars a decade ago. In a year that also featured the likes of Amour, Django Unchained and Zero Dark Thirty, was it worthy of winning Best Picture? Well, let’s just say that Bev was not kind to Ben Affleck’s crowning achievement. It doesn’t help that the director (mis)cast himself in the lead role, which whitewashed the real CIA operative he’s playing. Also, as dangerous as the Iranians siege on the American embassy was and the worry that the 6 who escaped might not survive, a lot of the story is fabricated. Yup, this real movie about a fake movie resorted to faking a lot of the drama! Still, Affleck’s film is well-made and it remains taut. So learn your lines, practice your Canadian accent and get comfortable living in someone else’s house because you might be there a while as the 433rd Ellises’ Analysis breaks down Argo…yourself. Sparkplug Coffee continues to sponsor our podcast. No, they aren’t able to get their beans into Iran for those of

Let’s take a trip to Germany in the early 1930s and check into the Grand Hotel along with MGM’s all-star cast. It wasn’t as common then as it is now to cast so many big names like Garbo, Crawford, Beery and the Barrymores in the same movie, but it paid off. This was a hit and went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Edmund Goulding’s interwoven-character study represents the very first time in nearly 9 years of podcasting that we’ve covered Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford or John Barrymore. Their real (okay, real-adjacent) performances were the keys of this stylish production. So don’t steal from your fancy schmancy floormates as people come and people go. Just do normal-people things like drive to work, wash the dishes or fold the laundry as the 432nd Ellises’ Analysis yips in your ear about the Grand (Berlin) Hotel. They didn’t have Sparkplug Coffee back in the early ’30s, which was their immense loss. Maybe it would’ve made all these unhappy people feel better. Anyway, we have it now and we suggest you get a

We are thrilled to report that Call Me By Your Name remains a deeply moving film. It might have been even more effective this time than it was back in 2017. Armie Hammer’s real-life controversies have caused many people to sour hard on him and his career is probably in jeopardy, but truth is truth: the dreamboat has more chemistry with Timothee Chalamet in this than you’ll see in an episode of Breaking Bad. As great as those 2 stars are though, their age difference (both the characters and the actual people) was enough for us to question casting Hammer at all. That troubling aspect got discussed for a long time in this 431st Ellises’ Analysis, which should tell you how lovely Luca Guadagnino’s movie since we still like it so much anyway. So grab a peach and listen to the advice of your caring parents, then feel your feelings as we wax on about Call Me By Your Name. Well, Actually: The proper phrasing of Mandrake’s line in Dr. Strangelove is “…the court of inquiry on this will give you such a pranging…”. Also,

The “Month Of Strange Love” goes to extremely trippy places in the 430th Ellises’ Analysis as we try our best to decipher what’s going on in Lost Highway. The American original David Lynch is a wonderful enigma who often gets big-name actors to go to strange places in his baffling art films that don’t always make obvious sense. Look closer though and you also might notice that even this auteur often repeats themes in his most-noteworthy titles like Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive and this. In this outing, Bill Pullman/Balthazar Getty (Billthazar Pully?) is a shockingly unreliable narrator and you just can’t trust any of the juicy story the character is…well, narrating. Patricia Arquette is at her badass best in almost every way in this sexy escapade. Wow. She's so good. So let guilt shatter your freaky fantasy because you’ll…never…have…me, but you just might have a fulfilling time listening to our layer-peeling of Lost Highway. Well, Actually: Ryan’s nutshell isn’t entirely accurate because Pete clearly DOES ch