3º – Leaving Las Vegas (Mike Figgis, 1995)
Disillusioned with the ways of his life, a man decides to go to Las Vegas to commit suicide after a few nights in the place. However, in the midst of this destructive journey, the man will meet a prostitute who will change her way of seeing the world. ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ perhaps shows the greatest performance of Nicolas Cage’s career. And, besides, the film works with interesting concepts of human life, making it a great option.
2º – Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970)
We will follow the daily life of a young man belonging to an upper class family who decided to leave everything behind and live a common life. His anxieties, dilemmas, his exacerbated model of dealing with the human apparatus, his friendships, his turbulent relationship with his girlfriend and his vision of work are distinguished by the film during the 98 minutes of projection. The pearl of the year 1970, ‘Five Easy Pieces’ explains how each subject has his own very evident subjective layer which prevents that traditional view of life from being unique and unalterable. The work still exposes, like few others, the existential dramas of a man completely aimless in the world, and who suffers from this lack of meaning. His daring end, without ceasing to work with all the aura of smoothness ruled throughout the rest of the work, crown and makes this option come very close to the nickname of masterpiece. Oh, and as if that wasn’t enough, we still have Jack Nicholson as a protagonist in a touching and extremely visceral performance.
1º – The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky, 2008)
A middle-aged wrestler has to retire from the ring after discovering that he has a serious heart condition. Away from the ring, life for men presents itself as rustic, with sad family problems, doomed love relationships and a destructive social siege, forcing men to follow their instincts and return to the ring for a last event. A masterpiece of cinema, ‘The Wrestler’ is a film that will surely shed some tears from you in its execution, bringing a story that studies the erratic bonds contained in a society, and exalting the aspect of passion and pleasure to the instances of the world.
