49. The Limey

There is the stylized post-modern level of The Limey, which indulges in using Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda in parts that have a history because of the actors' screen personas, but there is also the human post-modern level of the film, which uses editing techniques to capture the distortion of memory. Steven Soderbergh's modification of the revenge thriller came out a year before his one-two punch of Erin Brockovich and Traffic, and it's a testament to his ability to make an intimate connection to material.

We follow an aged British thug named Wilson as he hunts down the man he is convinced is responsible for the death of his daughter. Stamp plays Wilson, his face telling us everything we need to know about years of hard times, and Fonda plays Terry Valentine, the record producer who's grown fonder of material possessions since the '60s. Sarah Flack's dreamlike editing moves characters to different locales and back again in the middle of conversations and flashes images from the past and future to give us the feeling of the thug's mind at work. All he has left are his memories, and by the end of the film, he finds not revenge but the regret of lost time and opportunity. (Mark Dujsik)