Midnight Cowboy (1969) Director: John Schlesinger Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles
The only X-rated movie to ever win a Best Picture Academy award, Midnight Cowboy, along with Easy Rider and Bonnie And Clyde brought a whole counterculture into the mainstream. If the sex (it's just T&A) and violence (a smack in the mouth with a phone) now seem tame, the film's tender telling of a Texas stud (Jon Voight) befriending a diseased street hustler (Dustin Hoffman in only his second flick) has lost none of its power to move. Marked by brilliant improvisatory performances, a vividly realised sense of time and place and a subtle interplay of emotions and yearning, it dives headlong into gritty street culture and finds a true grace amongst the grime.
Magnolia (1999) Director: Paul Thomas Anderson Starring: Tom Cruise, Philip Baker Hall, Jason Robards, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C Reilly, William H Macy, Julianne Moore
It's always surprising how many people profess to hate Magnolia, missing the point completely of this melancholic look at modern life. The episodic structure inevitably means that there are going to be bits you like more than others, but by god they're all finely acted (it's unquestionably Tom Cruise's bravest performance), uncompromising in their willingness to be downbeat and united by Aimee Mann's gorgeous soundtrack. But there is a moral to this story, and it's one we can all get behind: sometimes life sucks, but that's when you suck it up and keep going.
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