Ace in the Hole - MatthewHunt

Aguirre, Wrath of God
(Werner Herzog, 1972)
Wild-eyed Klaus Kinski is a 16th-century explorer in search of El Dorado who is slowly
undone by fever, tribal incursions and delusions of grandeur. From its stunning first shot of
ant-like human voyagers descending the Andes to its final hallucinatory rain of monkeys,
Aguirre is an unforgettable journey into the void.
Airplane!
(David Zucker, 1980)
Airplane!'s comic philosophy is simple: let there be yuks! Wall-to-wall puns, a joke every 8
seconds, visual gags by the zillion: sheer comic overload is what counts. Its cast of stonefaced
50s has-beens found new careers thanks to the film, and the smart-ass American
comedy was revivified overnight.
Akira
(Katsuhiro Ôtomo, 1988)
Japanese anime's unarguable classic compensates for the genre's traditional pitfall - rampant
overplotting - with its adrenalised portrayal of Tokyo in 2019, a city which has become the
plaything of biker gangs, military-industrial goons and a psychic mummy's boy. Superlatively
animated (by hand), it's the kind of deep-seated apocalyptic wet dream only manga could
dream up.
Alexander Nevsky
(Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1938)
Russian nationalism, a battle on the ice and some rousing Prokofiev music are the ingredients
in Eisenstein's propaganda pic. The setting may be the 13th century, but Nevsky's defeat of
the Teutons had a topical resonance at a time when the threat from Hitler loomed ever larger.
Stalin was a fan: during the second world war, he named an award "The Order Of Alexander
Nevsky For Bravery" after the hero the movie celebrated.
Alfie
(Lewis Gilbert, 1966)
Often misappropriated as some kind of Loaded readers' hymn-sheet, Alfie is actually a deeply
ambiguous study of the permissive society, luring you in with those iconic to-camera
monologues. Caine alternates effortlessly between caddish charm and hood-eyed dispassion,
and the abortion scene is another reminder of the chill aftermath of those 60s freedoms.
Alice
(Jan Svankmajer, 1988)
The Czech surrealist's part live-action, part stop-motion adaptation of Lewis Carroll's
Wonderland odyssey reinvented animation, infusing the children's fantasy with a dark,
disturbing undertow of menace. Presented as a fever dream, it shows Alice as a lost, troubled
heroine, adrift in a strange and sometimes frightening low-fi world of jack-in-the-box
pandemonium.
Alien
(Ridley Scott, 1979)
Dirty realism and sexual symbolism combine to brilliant effect in the mother of all space
horrors. Scott's relentlessly measured direction induces real dread as a slithery creature
infests the dark corners of an industrial spaceship and begins picking off its crew one by one.
A darkly adult sci-fi masterpiece that made a star of Sigourney Weaver - and a mess of John
Hurt.
All About My Mother
(Pedro Almodovar, 1999)
This story of grieving mother Cecilia Roth finding a new life caring for pregnant nun Penelope
Cruz and veteran actress Marisa Paredes richly deserved its best foreign film Oscar.
Almodovar keeps the old flamboyance, but exhibits a new emotional maturity that's entirely
gripping.