3. 8MM
Okay, great may be overstating it but this scuzzy, sleazy riff on the PI formula isn't as bad as you may think or as bad as 'they' make out. In the tradition of good Joel Schumacher films along with Falling Down and A Time to Kill, 8MM sees buttoned down private eye, Tom Welles (Nic Cage), pushed to breaking point over the mystery of one young girl and a snuff film. Despite A-list credentials, the main draw is in it being Andrew Kevin Walker's follow-up to Se7en and while it doesn't have the same narrative innovations or Fincher's inspired, noir-soaked direction it does descent into comparable grungy depth of depravity that is at least disturbing if not utterly captivating. The film's charm comes in its nasty yet camp depictions of the grimmest corners of the sex industry headed up by the always-dependable Peter Stormare as the devilish fruitcake Dino Velvet. Padded out by the likes of Joaquin Phoenix, Catherine Keener and the late, great James Gandolfini as a supremely slimy douchebag, the cast don't disappoint. In the end it's not a classic to the same extent as Se7en but it's an intense, nasty little thriller that's well worth a revisit.