Elliott Begins:
Most of you know that movies are not my specific pop culture addiction. I'm a little more TV/music, but I love me a good film. So, cut me some slack if I don't come off like some Ingmar Bergman freak...Ethel Merman, perhaps....
I'll start with my favorite comedy, OFFICE SPACE:
Start Here
Ok, good. Wasn't that funny?
Why, you ask, does this movie make my coveted top 5??? If for no other reason, watch it for the Michael Bolton character, played by the John Ritter-esque, David Herman. The scene where he let's loose on the office printer, set to the sounds of "gangsta" rap, is GOLDEN!!!
This movie is so right on the mark about the absurdity of corporate cubicle hell. All of your favorite co-workers are featured! It's memorable, quotable and re-watchable. "Hey Peter! They're showing the breast exam..."
Next on the list is a horror film that I only recently saw - The Wicker Man.
Check out this original trailer from 1973.
If you have not seen this, do so.
If you have seen this, I bet you still think of it sometimes.
Ok, the inevitable has come. STAR WARS !!!! I can not resist it's charms. I was seven when the first movie came out. I was a boy. Do the math. Also, I think the groovy space people would dig it.
Good Vs. Evil. Action. Sarcasm. Lasers. Robots. Darth Vader. What more, I ask you?? Besides, the Star Wars television holiday special is such an enigma in and of itself. Who remembers that one??? It was on TV after Star Wars, but before Empire, I think.
Next is a concert film, but a film nonetheless! And what a concert film it is...Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars with David Bowie. The thing was shot with poor sound and lighting, which gave it a really other worldly quality that truly suited the whole alien motif. The current DVD release has considerably cleaned up sound and video. This is a great document of the British Glam phenomenon. Watch for covers of The Rolling Stones and The Velvet Underground.
Lastly, you begging space people, is a touching love story, where the will to survive is what it takes to push yourself to the next level and feel no pain and kick some ass. In other words, ROCKY.
Joe Adds:
We come in peace, and here are five movies I'd like to share with them there green-skinned fellas. Keep in mind, of course, that I have a decided bent towards the genre film:
1. The Changeling: In order to acclimate the aliens to what real fear feels like, there are several points in this movie that suffice. The poor child's disembodied voice, piano notes played by the ether, visions of violence in the attic, and that goddamned red bouncy ball. Classic ghost story/haunted house chiller of the first order.
2. Stand By Me: No matter what age, generation, color, creed, or gender, every human of the last half of the twentieth century can identify with this film. Taken from a novella by Stephen King, Stand By Me tackles issues that most people, at one time or another, have faced growing up: parental apathy, ignorance, or downright neglect, the loss of a beloved family member, the quest to define oneself to oneself and in the eyes of others, the awkward journey from childhood to adolescence and beyond, facing the bully...and winning, and feeling a sad, nostalgic ping for those close friends left far behind so long ago. In some way, I think everybody's childhood can be seen in this movie. Everybody's got that body next to the train tracks, symbolizing the end of their innocence.
3. Murder on the Orient Express: In my humble opinion, there is NO better way to spend three hours in front of a TV or film screen than this absolutely epic Sidney Lumet adaptation of Agatha Christie's classic. Honestly, it is the best mystery story that I have ever read, and this movie adaptation does the book absolute justice. Every time I watch it, I catch something new, some nuance, that hadn't registered before. And the cast! Good Lord, the cast. Albert Finney, Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Jacqueline Bisset, John Gielgud, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Widmark, Michael York, and on and on. If you are truly ignorant of the plot and the solution to the crime, and honestly guess the correct solution before Poirot has it, then you are lying. Mystery doesn't get better than this movie, and movies rarely do, either.
4. High Fidelity: Never have adult relationships and the American/British (it's based on a Brit novel) male's fascination with popular music come together so sweetly. I almost included Almost Famous, but I think High Fidelity is a much more fun treatment of music's influence on the life of the man-child than Cameron Crowe's masterpiece. Through all of John Cusack's and Jack Black's histrionic bullshit, the message is clear. Happiness, especially romantic bliss, cannot be found in song lyrics, or words of any kind. Relationships evolve on their own, no matter what Of Montreal or The Kinky Wizards are singing about.
Peter adds:
ok. so i work in at a university library and have access to over 4700 dvds and i have seen zillions of films, but for you my visiting friends i will give specifics:
5. Sixteen Candles
This film is the epitome of the 80s teen shenanigans. great fashion. John Cusack! A character named Long Duk Dong! Brilliant comedy bits.
4. The Birds
I like this film because it's believable and creepy without being over the top. The best scene in the movie is when Tippi Hedren is waiting in the school yard for classes to dismiss. As she sits, birds start quietly flying in and sitting behind her on swing sets, monkey bars and telephone wires. She is completely unaware of this until she slowly turns around and there are literally hundreds of birds sitting there waiting on her to move. Yikes!
3. Memento
The attractive thing about this film is that it's all out of order. You need to be focused when watching this though because if you don't pay attention then you'll miss important elements. Definitely a scholarly film!
2. Mulholland Dr.
David Lynch is the master of creating disturbing characters and disturbing scenarios. I don't know what the hell this movie is supposed to be
about, but that's why i love it so much. I always discover something new when watching it and it never becomes boring. Plus Naomi Watts is nekkid in it! wooohoooo!
1. The Graduate
The musical composition and visual components of this film are extremely admirable. Add to it and relationship between a younger man and older woman and you get delicious moments of sophisticated comedy and drama. I think the editing techniques were way ahead of its time.
Honorable mentions: Buffalo '66, American Beauty, The Shining , Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , Girl Next Door
Laura adds:
Jeesh! Almost all of mine have been mentioned here...
1) Grease-i, quite literally, watched this movie every single day of 5th grade. i'm not the only person who did this either. i think there must be some sort of weird trend with young girls and this movie. we love it. we flock to it. we go to the anniversary releases and sing every song. i loved the 50s fervor that swept the nation in the 80s and i LOVE this movie. the music, the way too old actors, the drag racing! it was all great! i can recite every line-yes, i know it's annoying...sorry. my grease record is one of my most prized possessions-something passed down to me from my parents that they've owned since i was ONE! i went with them to see this in the theater in 1977 when i was approximately one. they also have a cassette tape of me, 2 years old, singing, "look at me, i'm sandra dee, lousy with virginity!"...klassy! it's just in my blood. grease IS the freaking word.
2) American Beauty-i went to see this movie by myself in the theater. when it was over, and elliott smith's version of "because" came on when the credits rolled, i just sat there, slack jawed. had every middle class american's life really just been captured on celluloid? yes. this movie was amazing. finally, i appreciated that i was one of the weirdos, therefore, i was, in reality, somewhat normal. the abused son capturing the paper bag blowing in the wind and seeing the tumultuous beauty...still sits with me.
3) Almost Famous-"one day, you'll be cool." several years later, the young boy that heard these words is on tour with "stillwater", a fictional, badass, 70s rock band. this movie totally captures a vibe that, as someone born in the late 70s, never thought i'd feel. i can't hear tiny dancer without getting the nostalgic feeling of riding on the tour bus with stillwater...it's as if i was there.
4) Hands on a Hard Body-this documentary chronicles the 1995 contest held in longview, TX (actually, it's now defunct, because a contestant in 2005 went seemingly crazy, broke into a K-Mart, stole a shotgun, and committed suicide). the cast of characters includes the wise soothsayer: benny perkins, the religious zealot: norma, the toothless janis and her husband who sports a cardboard hat reading "go baby go". just try and imagine for a moment 24 small town folks trying to keep one hand on a nissan hard body truck for as long as possible. yeshhh, it's as funny as it sounds. this may still be available through netflix or blockbuster total access, but i checked amazon just now and original dvds are going for as much as $200!!!
5) High Fidelity-when this movie came out, my husband and i had not been dating long. i remember leaving the theater and him saying something like "it's really strange seeing a movie that captures your life so perfectly." it does, and that's why i love it.
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