When you start to dig into what makes a cult movie “cult” it can kind of get slippery. Probably safer to say you know it when you see it.
This week, The Ringer named its 50 best cult movies, so I decided to offer my thoughts on a number of them. You might be relieved to know that I’m not interested in the actual rankings at all; it’s more a fun exercise to talk about a bunch of movies that may or may not fall roughly in the “cult” range.
Before diving in, I want to give a shoutout to PCU, which didn’t make The Ringer’s list. It’s certainly a cult classic in my book, one that we watched often back in the day. It’s a genuinely funny and quotable romp through collegiate life during the “politically correct” era which… feels rather quaint by today’s standards?
Anyway, let’s get to some cult movie riffing, shall we?
Escape From New York
Escape From New York is #50 on the list and for me it’s an ideal example of a great cult movie. It’s a deeply weird and eccentric movie that’s both wonderfully ludicrous and yet it takes itself extremely seriously, which imbues the film with its own kind of tense and cool atmosphere. Kurt Russell is dynamite as Snake Plissken and also look out for a great performance from Ernest Borgnine in a small role.
Bonus: I saw Escape From New York as a kid and never thought about Manhattan in quite the same way since.
Harold and Maude
I’m aware that many love it, but I did not. I’ve only seen it once, and it was at an outdoor theater in Marin County during the summer. The atmosphere was delightful but the seating – on grass – wound up being extremely distracting. It’s a reminder of how much one’s mood, age, and other factors (like sitting uncomfortably on grass!) can impact our take on art and other things.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
I love the Hunter S. Thompson book, but felt actively repelled from the experience of watching the movie. Even so, there’s no denying that Johnny Depp’s performance is phenomenal and director Terry Gilliam’s vision singular. And maybe my biggest takeaway of all is that I still think about the scenes in which we see Thompson finally able to concentrate and write amid the aftermath of titanic amounts of debauchery and literal destruction. An incredible depiction of what it takes sometimes to get to the right place to be creative and productive.
Empire Records
If I saw this in my twenties I might have loved it, but I saw it when I was… much older than that. Didn’t love it at all, and wondered how others could. See: my Harold and Maude entry above.
Clue
A wonderful and fun movie that captures Tim Curry at the perfect time in his career.
UHF
Weird and delightful and often legitimately funny. And as bonus: I just find Al Yankovic to be tremendously likable in his oddball way.
Idiocracy
The rare movie that’s much better as scarily prescient idea versus “great movie” in its own right. The fact that it’s a silly comedy only makes it more amazing. Indeed, “idiocracy” has become a part of our lexicon that very much points to how things are headed in many respects.
American Psycho
This is one where I question if it’s so much “cult movie” versus prestige thriller (or something), but there’s no denying that it’s an outstanding flick.
Bloodsport
I’ll admit that I get Jean-Claude Van Damme movies that I saw as a kid kind of jumbled up together in my mind. Maybe this is the one where he does that cool double punch at the same time move? Maybe he does that in all of them?
Clerks
I revere Clerks, and it has “dialed up in a lab for me” vibes as a talky, smart, and truly hilarious low budget flick about slackers in New Jersey (which hold a cultural kinship to my suburban Long Island long ago slacker youth days).
Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness
I’m not the biggest horror fan these days, but I’m a fan of how well these movies mesh the scary and the deeply hilarious. The combo of director Sam Raimi and star Bruce Campbell seals the deal here.
Bonus: for a modern example of exceptional horror-meets-comedy, see the outstanding first season of Widow’s Bay on Apple TV.
The Warriors
Maybe worth seeing just so you can know the deal with “Warriors, come out and play!”
Reservoir Dogs
I have a hard time thinking of Tarantino’s first movie as a cult flick. I just think of it as one of the best movies ever made.
Rushmore
Likewise, I consider Wes Anderson movies to be very much its own category. Rushmore is very upper tier by that standard.
Office Space
Okay, in this case I think of Office Space more like a Gen X Mount Rushmore comedy than a cult classic.
Heathers
I went through a phase as a kid where I would greet people by saying greetings and salutations as a not good Christian Slater impersonation.
Monty Python & the Holy Grail
If this is a cult movie, it’s the Holy Grail of cult movies. I say so, and then spit in your general direction.
This Is Spinal Tap
I might argue that this was a cult classic that tripped over the wire at some point to simply becoming part of the mainstream pop cultural canon.
Dazed and Confused
It’s a movie that I’ve always liked more than loved. I feel similarly about most of Richard Linklater’s movies, with the exception of the Before Sunrise trilogy (which is magical).
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
I went to a midnight showing of this truly cult classic during the first week of freshman year at Binghamton University and I thought, “Well, I guess this is college then.”
The Big Lebowski
A revered Gen X Coen Bros flick that I never fully got with. Give me Hudsucker Proxy over this one any day of the week, please.