Hey, K-101.7 Faithful, Dave In The Cave is back, back again, with another fun list...of his five favorite movies. Why? So you can get to know your man on the radio better. Down deep. Okay. Probably not. Still reading? Really? Why? Alright. HERE WE GO.

The Big Sleep (1946)

Bogart. Becall. Serious fireworks between the two. Hawks. Tons of great atmosphere. A really scuzzy story right there below the surface for your subconscious to dig into. Rain. Trenchcoats. A script that twists and turns in and around itself so much, the people who made the film got so confused, they had to ring up the writer of the book to explain a few gaping holes, and he had to admit even he didn't know what the hell was going on. Bogart at the center of it all, just slinging that bitter cynical and clever dialogue like a verbal darts right to your pleasure center. I mean, here's my favorite scene. it barely has anything to do with the plot. The girl disappears from the film after this. And it just cooks. Watch the body language right at the top. He casually opens his jacket, puts his hand on his hip. She's holding a BIG pencil.

Miller's Crossing (1990)

Speaking of verbal darts. This whole movie has so much clever dialogue and just plain made up faux gangster patois flying through the air, it's an explosion in the verbal dart factory. All courtesy of the Cohen Brothers, who take noir and gangster fiction, turn it all inside out, flip it on it's head and give us Tom Reagan, who always knows the angles. It all could be a gag, a pastiche that's all wink wink ha ha. The movie rises above that, with questions of loyalty, character, and the central performance of Gaberiel Bryrne's face...and hat. Just brilliant, all of it.

Chinatown (1974)

Wow. Jack Nicholson thinks he's the lead in this, but he's not. The real story is happening away from him, in the background, off screen. He's like the characters in Rosenkrantz And Guildenstern, intersecting with the actual movie at points, not realizing his place in the real plot is tangential. Everything's right there, just out of sight, until it isn't, and he realizes too late his role was nearly pointless, the only point being corruption he couldn't stop, tragedy he couldn't get in front of. All in a brilliantly realized sunny Los Angelas, a desert community, built on shifting sand, just below the surface. Just an amazing film. One of the best.

Blade Runner (1982)

I absolutely am a fan of art that changes as you age. Blade Runner, for instance. When you're a kid, and you see it in a theater, the visual experience is what knocks you back. There was never a film before this that so completely transported you away in a crazily detailed, expansive world, neon lit, crowded, drowning in acid rain. Then, a mature you grows to appreciate the "what is it to be human, to be alive" philosophical underpinnings of the script. Then the director drops the bomb that the main character might actually be the same as the things he is hunting, and his every action is flipped sideways. And, yes, here's another main character who really doesn't know what's going on until it's too late. Except in this case, he might not even be who...or what, he thinks he is. So, yeah, the super grownup realizes this movie is basically all about lies, the one we're told, and the one's we live.

And also, FREAKING FLYING CARS!

Cutter's Way (1981)

And everything mentioned in the above movies, power, corruption, lies, noir, detectives, a palpable atmosphere seething with rot the main characters can fight against but ultimately can do nothing about, it's all here in a film I'm absolutely sure you've not heard of.

Jeff Bridges has an amazing range, but my favorite three roles of his are his portrayal of a bummy slacker adrift in life. You can find it first in Thunderbolt And Lightfoot, the heist film he made with Clint Eastwood. The aged version is, of course, on view in The Big Lebowski. For mid period Jeff Bridges as slacker, you need Cutter's Way. He keeps trying to slack his way into not get involved in the plot, but John Heard keeps dragging him in.

And, oh my god, John Heard. That fat guy in Sharknado? The dad from Home Alone? Once upon a time, he gave a damn, and he burns, absolutely burns off the screen in this movie. His anger and his bitterness just frigging rages itself off the screen. It's an amazing, and sadly unheralded, performance. When I was a kid, and saw this late night on cable, I was floored. I'd never seen anybody that committed to a role before. Just...damn.

P.S: The Dude in The Big Lebowski HATES the Eagles. So, in his honor, here is a little something something about THE EAGLES.