Welcome to 5 Favorites. Each week, I will put together a list of my 5 favorites (films, performances, whatever strikes my fancy) along with commentary on a given topic each week, usually in relation to a specific film releasing that week.

This week, I’ve chosen to look at films for five individuals, Gerard Butler, Jessica Chastain, Cary Elwes, Frank Grillo, and Aubrey Plaza. Butler and Grillo appear in wide release actioner CopShop. Chastain appears in Oscar contender The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Elwes and Plaza appear in indie comedy Best Sellers, also starring past 5 Favorites recipient Michael Caine. Chastain and Plaza have immense talent and Elwes and Grillo are always fun to watch. Butler has done more bad than good, but when he’s good, he’s excellent.

The Princess Bride (1987)

The realms of fantasy have been the purview of cinema since the days of silent features. Movies like A Trip to the Moon, Cinderella (1899) or The Impossible Voyage and that was just French filmmaking pioneer Georges Méliès. While the techniques of such films were formed and perfected in the early days of color cinema with such films as The Thief of Bagdad and The Wizard of Oz, each new generation of filmmakers tries to take audiences to new and inventive places. The 1980s was a particularly rich era of cinematic journeys into fantastical worlds with the likes of Labyrinth, Time Bandits, Ghostbusters, Gremlins, and Return to Oz to name a select few. Yet, of all of those films, one of the latest arrivals, and perhaps one with the most fervent cult following, is The Princess Bride.

Directed by Rob Reiner, the film is William Goldman’s adaptation of his own novel about a fantasy realm where a winsome farmer’s daughter (Robin Wright) is betrothed to a loathsome prince (Chris Sarandon) while the man who she might have fallen in love with (Cary Elwes) is presumed dead in a pirate raid. As the film unfolds, Elwes returns in hopes of gaining the hand of his lost love with the assistance of a revenge-seeking cohort (Mandy Patinkin). Reiner is seldom cited as one of the most talented filmmakers of the 1980s, but this film, along with a slew of other disparate and unique efforts, more than proved his capability. It’s a sweet, hilarious tale that seems funnier each time you see it.

Coriolanus (2011)

From the light and jovial Princess Bride, we shift into the dark and bitter realm of Shakespearean tragedy. Coriolanus is one of Shakespeare’s lease adapted works, having only been adapted twice to a filmed medium, once for television in 1984 and this theatrical release directed by Ralph Fiennes. Fiennes stars as the contemptuous Roman general who bitterly fights against the lower classes while finding himself enmeshed in a conflict with the leader of a Volscian army (Gerard Butler). Set in the modern day, Fiennes film is a stark and bleak tale filled with violence and villainy as we are allowed to see Fiennes’ harsh and virulent figure without the rationalizing attempts of other adaptations.

Fiennes does tremendous work here as does Vanessa Redgrave as Martius/Coriolanus’ mother. Butler, whose performances in nearly every other film have been perfunctory at best, delivers his finest performance yet as a man whose principles demand his obeisance only while his goals are being met, but whose moral certitude remains in tact even when drawing swords along a former enemy. Watching the film will certainly be a challenge for non-Shakespeare fans, especially with this being a lesser known work. That alone might give it more latitude to impress than were it one of the bard’s more famous works. The film was an Oscar no-show in spite of deserving recognition for the performances of Fiennes and Redgrave, but it’s one of those films that typify how some actors who eschew serious work for money-making ventures can actually produce exemplary work. Would that Butler did more of this kind of film, he might ultimately earn enough respect from his peers to score an Oscar nomination one day.

Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

Colin Treverrow, who has since joined the ranks of indie directors slumming for the majors and churning out questionably entertaining popcorn flicks, made his feature film directorial debut with this gem of an indie comedy about a scientist who is looking for someone to travel with him into the unknown once his time machine is operational. Mark Duplass stars as the scientist while Aubrey Plaza and Jake Johnson play columnists in search of a story hoping to find humor and psychological depravity in interviewing said scientist.

Duplass, Plaza, and Johnson are hilarious in this traditional indie comedy that builds on countless similar tropes to turn Derek Connolly’s witty script into something a little out of the ordinary. As Plaza begins falling for the presumably daft Duplass, we uncover more information about the truth behind his insane claim that he’s already traveled through time once before and that he only needs someone to share the journey with him before he takes another stretch. The audience is constantly aware of how ludicrous the claims sound, but warm to Duplass’ character as Plaza does through her eyes looking at a misguided, potentially crazy man who genuinely believes everything he says. This is the kind of film that twists audience expectations, taking them through skepticism and credulity to ultimately land on a finale that genuinely surprises.

The Purge: Anarchy (2014)

Frank Grillo is no one’s idea of a great actor. His filmography is filled with tough guy roles that rely on his physical and martial capabilities. In The Purge: Anarchy, those skills are put to good use as Grillo plays an off-duty LAPD police sergeant heading out into the annual purge in search of his son’s killer, hoping to exact revenge on him. For those unfamiliar with The Purge franchise, it’s set in a dystopian America where an array of politicos named the New Founding Fathers have instituted an annual event called The Purge wherein all crime, including murder, is made legal from sundown to dawn the next day. While the event is ostensibly about citizens getting out all their hate and aggression one night a year rather than in random bursts throughout, there’s an ulterior motive at play, namely the elimination of “undesirables,” including the poor and minorities.

The first film was a locked-house horror film that set the concept of the dystopian Purge into a metaphorical background, not venturing out into the dangerous streets as many would have hoped. This second film in the series did just that taking us on a journey with a handful of frightened potential victims hoping to survive the night with so much violence and depravity surrounding them. For horror fans, cathartic emotional relief is one of the aspects of the genre that drives them to seek the films out. A mental and psychological journey of schadenfreude. What great horror does is position itself as more of a moral quandary, asking challenging questions of the audience while providing those visceral thrills. This series might not be of the highest quality, but its sociopolitical underpinnings make it a fascinating watch.

The Martian (2015)

Ridley Scott returned to the limelight with his adaptation of Andy Weir’s popular sci-fi novel of the same name. Written by Cabin in the Woods director and scribe Drew Goddard, the film takes audiences to the surface of Mars where Matt Damon’s Mark Whatney has been left behind after a dangerous dust storm forces his fellow scientists to flee. As the film progresses, we watch as Mark sciences his way into survival, far beyond the timeframe most observers would have expected. Chastain’s performance is solid, but her character doesn’t have a lot to do, since this is largely the Matt Damon show.

Damon is a commanding presence on the big screen and this film taps into that natural charisma as the audience sticks with the plucky cast away as he prepares for long term survivability on a lifeless planet while he waits and hopes for rescue. Scott has directed some of history’s great science fiction films with Alien and Blade Runner now being joined by The Martian as three of the filmmakers best film. This helps keep interest in his future output high even if almost everything he’s done in between is significantly inferior.