{"id":2078,"date":"2020-09-18T19:32:04","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T19:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/?p=2078"},"modified":"2020-09-18T19:34:17","modified_gmt":"2020-09-18T19:34:17","slug":"top-ten-joel-schumacher-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/2020\/09\/18\/top-ten-joel-schumacher-movies\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Ten Joel Schumacher Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Joel Schumacher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When Joel Schumacher passed on June 22 of this year, it created an unpredictable and substantial void in the world of cinema. In spite of all he accomplished in his near-fifty-year career, his name never fully survived infamy for being the filmmaker responsible for putting nipples on the Batsuit. What those who dwell on his shortcomings easily forget is that there is more than a fair amount of greatness to be found in his large body of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joel Schumacher\u2019s wildly eclectic directorial career stemmed from his multi-faceted early years behind the camera. Working as a costume designer (Sleeper<\/em>, The Last of Shelia<\/em>) and screenwriter (Carwash<\/em>, The Wiz<\/em>) in the seventies, Schumacher steadily rose in the ranks to direct a couple of comedy cult favorites in the eighties with The Incredible Shrinking Woman <\/em>and D.C. Cab<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schumacher then went on to have one of Hollywood\u2019s most impressive and fascinating careers, one in which he was essentially several different filmmakers in one. He was a slick studio helmer who delivered blockbuster entertainment. He was a thoughtful dramatist who skillfully adapted John Grisham bestsellers into box office hits. He was a master stylist who made movie stars out of unknowns with youth-oriented pop culture extravaganzas. He was also an auteur\u2014someone who made a few smaller, grittier, idiosyncratic films that were so personal and unique in their executions that they could come from no other filmmaker than Joel Schumacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However you feel about Schumacher\u2019s films, there\u2019s no denying that he took numerous bold risks throughout his career. Some of his risks were a success, others were failures, and many rode the line as neither and both at the same time. Whatever the final result, Schumacher\u2019s risks will prove to pay off as they continue to be the subject of conversations in the years to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, Mare Winningham, and Andrew McCarthy in St. Elmo’s Fire<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

10. St. Elmo\u2019s Fire (1985)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The eighties are alive in every frame of this poppy, melodramatic tale of young, recent college graduates trying to find their way through the harsh realities of adulthood. The Brat Pack cast (Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Andrew McCarthy, Andie MacDowell, Mare Winningham, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez) couldn\u2019t get any brattier, and Stephen H. Burum\u2019s luscious cinematography couldn\u2019t capture them more beautifully. Schumacher created a cultural phenomenon with St. Elmo\u2019s Fire<\/em> that influenced an entire generation in countless ways. Being young and dysfunctional has never been sexier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Colin Farrell in Phone Booth<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

9. Phone Booth (2004)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colin Farrell stars as a fast-talking publicist who gets trapped in a phone booth by a morally righteous sniper. With its lean 81-minute runtime and highly limited locations, Schumacher proves with Phone Booth <\/em>that he can do a lot with a little. He hits all the right beats of Larry Cohen\u2019s tautly structured screenplay, resulting in a film that packs an intense and unforgettable emotional wallop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nicolas Cage and Peter Stormare in 8mm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

8. 8mm (1999)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nicolas Cage stars in this Andrew Kevin Walker-scripted thriller about a private eye who gets sucked into an underworld of illegal pornography and dangerously perverse men. Probably the darkest film on Schumacher\u2019s resume, 8mm<\/em> is unrelenting in its tension and uncomfortable atmosphere. Gritty, grimy, and downright nasty at times, the film was Schumacher\u2019s first directorial effort after his Batman and Robin<\/em> debacle. There couldn\u2019t have been a better film to cleanse his system of all that family-friendly neon than 8mm<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Matthew Davis and Colin Farrell in Tigerland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

7. Tigerland (2000)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schumacher leaves all his stylistic flourishes behind for this raw, unflinching portrait of army recruits in infantry training for the Vietnam War. Wholly character-driven, the film relies on the strength of Ross Klavan\u2019s and Michael McGruther\u2019s screenplay and its then-unknown cast (including a star-making performance from a young Colin Farrell) to deliver the dramatic goods. Schumacher\u2019s direction is invisible and ego-less, making Tigerland<\/em> one of his most undervalued efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robert De Niro in Flawless<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

6. Flawless (1999)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A homophobic former New York City cop (Robert De Niro) suffers a stroke and starts taking singing lessons from his drag queen neighbor (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Working from his own screenplay, Schumacher takes what could have easily been a contrived sitcom premise and turns it into something heartfelt yet surprisingly matter-of-fact. Flawless<\/em> is a film about diversity and tolerance that delivers its message by way of subtlety, skill, and sincerity without drowning in sentiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Matthew McConaughey and Samuel L. Jackson in A Time to Kill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

5. A Time to Kill (1996)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schumacher\u2019s second time adapting a John Grisham bestseller (after 1994\u2019s excellent The Client<\/em>) is one of his most powerful efforts as a filmmaker. In A Time to Kill<\/em>, Schumacher takes on such challenging topics as racial violence, social inequality, and justice in the legal system. Impressively, he makes the material accessible for a wide audience without watering it down too heavily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schumacher\u2019s talent for casting was never on fuller display than in A Time to Kill. <\/em>Sandra Bullock, Charles S. Dutton, Ashley Judd, Samuel L. Jackson, Oliver Platt, Kevin Spacey, Kiefer Sutherland, Donald Sutherland, and many others round out the phenomenal ensemble. Schumacher\u2019s most inspired casting choice, however, was in his career-jumpstarting selection of the then-little-known Matthew McConaughey for the film\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ted Danson and Isabella Rossellini in Cousins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

4. Cousins (1989)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on the 1975 French film, Cousin, Cousine, <\/em>this entry is easily Schumacher\u2019s most underrated accomplishment as a filmmaker. Filled to the brim with an appreciation for humanity, Cousins<\/em> is a simple but beautifully executed meditation on life, love, and family. The stellar ensemble cast features Ted Danson, Isabella Rossellini, Lloyd Bridges, Keith Coogan, William Peterson, and Sean Young\u2014all of whom deliver some of the most effortless and spontaneous performances of their careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kiefer Sutherland in Flatliners<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

3. Flatliners (1990)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A group of medical students (portrayed by Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, Julia Roberts, Oliver Platt, and William Baldwin) decide to play God and defy death in this overwhelmingly stylish yet thoughtfully executed thriller. Schumacher goes full-blown neon-Gothic with the film\u2019s visual design, creating an unsettling yet beautiful atmosphere that nicely complements the film\u2019s themes of childhood pain and the consequences of meddling with nature. Flatliners <\/em>is a daring piece of pop culture entertainment that will be remembered as one of Schumacher\u2019s finest directorial accomplishments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Billy Wirth, Kiefer Sutherland, Brooke McCarter, and Alex Winter in The Lost Boys<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

2. The Lost Boys (1987)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can\u2019t talk about Joel Schumacher without mentioning this classic, highly stylized teenage vampire movie. Part coming-of-age comedy and part horror, the film is equally funny, sexy, and scary. With The Lost <\/em>Boys, Schumacher is at his boldest visually and his most playful tonally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like St. Elmo\u2019s Fire<\/em>, it is a film that defines and celebrates the eighties while featuring a beautiful cast of then-up-and-comers (Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, Jami Gertz, Alex Winter, and Kiefer Sutherland amongst others). Schumacher\u2019s stylish approach sometimes resembles an eighties metal hair band music video\u2014but you just have to see it to believe how well it works in the context of the film. The Lost Boys <\/em>is an important piece of eighties pop culture that stands as tall today as it did when it was released over thirty years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Michael Douglas in Falling Down<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

1. Falling Down (1993)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Douglas gives the performance of his career as a laid-off defense worker who abandons his car in the middle of an L.A. traffic jam. He then heads home through the city on foot and encounters everything wrong about America: racism, homophobia, rampant consumerism, social inequality, etc. As his journey progresses, he eventually discovers that all of society\u2019s ills are manifesting themselves inside of him and that he himself is at the center of what\u2019s enraging him so deeply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Falling Down <\/em>is undeniably Joel Schumacher\u2019s most courageous directorial effort. He takes more stylistic, thematic, and tonal risks in one film than most filmmakers attempt in an entire career. It is an unforgettable portrait of a man falling apart, a darkly comedic joyride into hell that thrills you and makes you laugh. Then it turns on a dime and forces you to question how you could have ever enjoyed such a tragedy in the first place. Falling Down <\/em>is Joel Schumacher at his most provocative, and by no coincidence, it\u2019s also the filmmaker at his absolute best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Joel Schumacher passed on June 22 of this year, it created an unpredictable and substantial void in the world of cinema. In spite of all he accomplished in his near-fifty-year career, his name never fully survived infamy for being the filmmaker responsible for putting nipples on the Batsuit. What those who dwell on his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2078"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2101,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078\/revisions\/2101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}