The Shattering Effect of a High Explosive

People have asked me several times what my favorite movies are or ones I like or what some good movies are. It would take forever to make a full list, so I’ll do the best I can for now and add more later when I think of them, because I’ll inevitably leave several out. Here’s a basic list (in no particular order) of the movies and their directors. If a director had multiple films on the list, I put them next to each other. I also put Pixar films together.

• The Social Network, David Fincher
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, David Fincher
• Fight Club, David Fincher
• Se7en, David Fincher
• V For Vendetta, James McTeigue
• The Boondock Saints, Troy Duffy
• Dead Poets Society, Peter Weir
• American Beauty, Sam Mendes
• Away We Go, Sam Mendes
• The Prestige, Christopher Nolan
• Inception, Christopher Nolan
• The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan
• Easy A, Will Gluck
• Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky
• The Fountain, Darren Aronofsky
• Reqiuem For A Dream, Darren Aronofsky
• The Fall, Tarsem Singh
• The Shawshank Redemption, Frank Darabont
• The Departed, Martin Scorsese
• Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese
• Network, Sidney Lumet
• Garden State, Zach Braff
• Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino
• Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino
• Kill Bill, Volumes 1 & 2, Quentin Tarantino
• Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino
• The Usual Suspects, Bryan Singer
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Terry Gilliam
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones
• Monty Python’s Life of Brian, Terry Jones
• Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck
• Good Night, And Good Luck, George Clooney
• Harry Potter films, Chris Columbus; Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell, David Yates
• Being John Malkovich, Spike Jonze
• Anchorman, Adam McKay
• The Hangover, Todd Phillips
• Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Nicholas Stoller
• Get Him to the Greek, Nicholas Stoller
• Zombieland, Ruben Fleischer
• Young Frankenstein, Mel Brooks
• Robin Hood: Men In Tights, Mel Brooks
• Blazing Saddles, Mel Brooks
• History of the World, Part 1, Mel Brooks
• Spaceballs, Mel Brooks
• Star Wars: A New Hope, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Richard Marquand
• Trainspotting, Danny Boyle
• Rain Man, Barry Levinson
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Michael Gondry
• It’s A Wonderful Life, Frank Capra
• Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe
• Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, John Hughes
• The Breakfast Club, John Hughes
• Into the Wild, Sean Penn
• Office Space, Mike Judge
• There Will Be Blood, Paul Thomas Anderson
• City of God, Fernando Meirelles
• Up in the Air, Jason Reitman
• An Education, Lone Scherfig
• The Princess Bride, Rob Reiner
• The Sandlot, David Evans
• The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Peter Jackson
• Toy Story 1, 2, and 3, John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich
• Monsters, Inc., Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich, David Silverman
• Finding Nemo, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich
• The Incredibles, Brad Bird
• WALL-E, Andrew Stanton
• Up, Pete Docter, Bob Peterson
• The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Milos Forman
• Casablanca, Michael Curtiz
• Raiders of the Lost Ark, Steven Spielberg
• Catch Me If You Can, Steven Spielberg
• Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg
• The Goonies, Richard Donner
• Forrest Gump, Robert Zemeckis
• Back to the Future, Robert Zemeckis
• Citizen Kane, Orson Welles
• Rebel Without A Cause, Nicholas Ray
• Amèlie, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
• Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki
• Howl’s Moving Castle, Hayao Miyazaki
• A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick
• 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick
• Singin’ in the Rain, Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly
• Some Like it Hot, Billy Wilder
• Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood
• Gladiator, Ridley Scott
• No Country for Old Men, Joel & Ethan Coen
• A Serious Man, Joel & Ethan Coen
• The Big Lebowski, Joel & Ethan Coen
• The Wizard of Oz, Victor Fleming
• Grave of the Fireflies, Isao Takahata
• Annie Hall, Woody Allen
• The Lion King, Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff
• Pinocchio, Ben Sharpsteen and 6 others
• Peter Pan, Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske
• The Jungle Book, Wolfgang Reitherman
• Aladdin, Ron Clements, John Musker
• Mulan, Tony Bancroft, Barry Cook
• Remember the Titans, Boaz Yakin
• Ben-Hur, William Wyler
• In Bruges, Martin McDonagh
• Big Fish, Tim Burton
• Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, Phil Lord, Chris Miller
• and more I’ve forgotten

Favorite Books

• Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut-favorite Vonnegut book, for anyone that’s wondering
• Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
• The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut
• Mother Night, Kurt Vonnegut
• Bluebeard, Kurt Vonnegut
• Timequake, Kurt Vonnegut
• Welcome to the Monkey House, Kurt Vonnegut
• Player Piano, Kurt Vonnegut
• Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut
• Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
• Survivor, Chuck Palahniuk
• Choke, Chuck Palahniuk
• Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk
• Lullaby, Chuck Palahniuk
• Rant, Chuck Palahniuk
• American Gods, Neil Gaiman
• Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman
• Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
• Stardust, Neil Gaiman
• Good Omens, Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, Douglas Adams
• The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
• The Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling
• The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
• The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien
• The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien
• Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
• Consider the Lobster, David Foster Wallace
• A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace
• Catch-22, Joseph Heller
• The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien
• Going After Cacciato, Tim O’Brien
• Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
• The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
• A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
• What is the What, Dave Eggers and Valentino Achak Deng
• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers
• Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
• A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
• The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
• The Road, Cormac McCarthy
• No Country For Old Men, Cormac McCarthy
• Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
• Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
• Montana, 1948, Larry Watson
• Killing Yourself to Live, Chuck Klosterman
• Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, Chuck Klosterman
• Blink, Malcolm Gladwell
• Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
• Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion
• Underworld, Don DeLillo
• Libra, Don DeLillo
• 1984, George Orwell
• Animal Farm, George Orwell
• Walden, Henry David Thoreau
• Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
• All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
• Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
• The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
• A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
• For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
• To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig
• Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison
• Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
• Freedom, Jonathan Franzen
• The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer
• Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon
• One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
• Anthills of the Savannah, Chinua Achebe
• Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, Tom Robbins
• Jitterbug Perfume, Tom Robbins
• Skinny Legs And All, Tom Robbins
• House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
• Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. DIck