This list is by no means exhaustive, and other than the first one, are listed in no particular order. The list is mostly the films I will watch again and again.
1. Casablanca - Hands down my favourite movie. I have watched in dozens of times and will drop anything I am doing to watch it if I come across it on TV. I aspire to write such a timeless screenplay, knowing full well I never will. Romance, international conflict, unrequited love, smoking, espionage, bizarre love triangle, snarky best friends, drinking and Nazis = perfect.
(here's where it gets random... just as they pop into my head.)
Superbad - I laughed until I cried and fell in love with Seth Rogan in the meantime.
Chasing Amy - Because I've been my own version of Alyssa. Because I've chased an Amy. I've been the chased Amy.
Bitch, what you don't know about me I can just about squeeze in the Grand fucking Canyon.
Sick: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist - I saw this movie a while after one of my life's closest friends died of Cystic Fibrosis. Bob Flanagan was the oldest living survivor of CF when he died at the age of 44. He and his friends and family believed that it was his daily beatings from his dominatrix wife that kept him alive as long as he was. He also does something very *graphic* with a hammer, nail and pressure treated lumber. (shudder) Long story long, the last little bit of the film shows his death in fairly disturbing terms.
I hadn't been there for my friend as she was dying, but I felt like watching that film somehow closed that book for me, and I could stop feeling guilty about not being there when she died. I remember walking the couple of blocks from the theatre to the car with my date in absolute silence because anything I had to say about the film wouldn't say enough.
Being John Malkovich Because John Malkovich is creepy and being him would be terrifying.
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure - Teenage escapist fare. Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.
Michael Clayton - because I do love me some good legal drama.
Reservoir Dogs - a film about a jewelery store robbery that never takes place in a jewelery store is a brilliant piece of film making.
I'm the One That I Want - Margaret Cho saved my life two days before my 30th birthday with this quote.
I’m not going to die because I failed as someone else. I’m going to succeed as myself.
It's getting close to shut down time here, so I think I'm going to end it with an explanation free list
Baise Moi
Brave Little Toaster
Hotel Rwanda
Bad Lieutenant
Sin City
Breakfast at Tiffany's
American History X
The Godfather II
The Shawshank Redemption
Todo sobre mi madre (All About my Mother)
Roman Holiday
William Shakespear's Romeo and Juliet
Taxi Driver
Double Indemnity
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Usual Suspects
Happy Gillmore
Lock, Stock and Two Smokin Barrels
Gran Torino
Fubar
The Sweet Hereafter
Dazed and Confused
The Sixth Sense
Paris is Burning
To Kill a Mockingbird
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Seven
The Sound of Music
12 Angry Men
Silence of the Lambs
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
LA Confidential
The Jungle Book
I just gotta say, I avoided Casablanca forever because I assumed it was just going to be some old movie that was good at the time but is probably boring nowadays. When I saw it I was BLOWN away. It was then I dropped all biases toward classic cinema and suddenly worlds appeared to me that weren't there before.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, let's face facts people - Citizen Kane was technically impressive, but lordy! Maybe we should stop referring to it as a masterpiece. That sucker needed something because I can't make it all the way through without falling asleep (then again, watching it as a student, sitting in class in the dark, the odds of falling asleep are pretty high).
Oh, and one last thing...
ReplyDeleteSan Dimas High School Football rules!