Count Five: Walkmen Frontman Hamilton Leithauser's Favorite Movies

The Walkmen's singer-guitarist Hamilton Leithauser is a full-fledged, unapologetic movie buff. He's so much of a film freak that for fun he writes movie reviews for the band's official Web site. This summer, Leithauser experienced a considerably more direct involvement with the cinematic industry when he and his Walkmen mates contributed the song 'Red River' to the summer blockbuster 'Spider-Man 3.' That song served as a coming attraction of what fans might hear on the Walkmen's next album, which Leithauser told Spinner will be out late in the year. Bringing the topic back to projected celluloid images, here are Leithauser's five favorite movies.

1. 'Fargo': My favorite movie ever made -- you can watch it over and over again. It's funny, it's entertaining, it's well put-together, all the actors are great and the directing is great. I really love everything about it. [I've seen it], honestly, probably about 150 [times].

2. 'The Ice Storm': The Ang Lee movie -- I like how serious and intense everybody is. I think you got a really good sort of cold vibe between the people. I think all the actors are really great in that one, too. It's got really great dialogue in it.

3. 'Bottle Rocket': I thought that was a great one; it's really funny, Owen Wilson was fantastic, Luke Wilson is great. It's just really great writing.

4. 'The Black Stallion': The original, with Hoyt Axton, I really like that one. We got that when I was little on a Beta tape or something, and I saw it about a million times. But I saw it again recently and just thought it was fantastic.

5. 'The Departed': That was great. I was so happy that it won awards, but I still think that Leonard DiCaprio got robbed [of an Oscar], 'cause he was absolutely fantastic. And Mark Wahlberg, too -- I thought he was really, really good. I love that movie. I saw it about four times in the theater. It gets better and better every time. I watched it on the plane twice.