Movies You Love

[Smilla]

Aw, I love Almost Famous, too. That's one of the only films made during the last couple of years I've watched more than once. I liked what EW said about it--that it did an excellent job of capturing the essence of that period of the 70s--its druggy myopia, and its freedom.

[winstonwolfe]

Great topic! Here's a few I've enjoyed in the past:

In Cold Blood: Robert Blake and Scott Wilson as killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, who murdered a Kansas family in 1959 for around $40.00 and a transistor radio...absolutely chilling. Blake is especially good, and it's fascinating to watch him here in light of his recent acquittal.

Quadrophenia: Set in England circa 1964, this film details the youth culture of the era, and the musical influences that defined the various factions. Outstanding music by The Who, from whose album of the same name this film was written.

The Big Lebowski: The most quotable film ever made...I could watch this once a week and still enjoy it, it's just that good!

[Deleted]

Boogie Nights is such a quotable, entertaining movie. I love almost everything about it... the characters, music, scenery, costumes, story, dialoque and actors. It is perfection to me. By far my favorite PT Anderson movie, and I like most of his stuff. Oh, I really want Burt Reynolds' house from that movie.

Dirty Dancing. I loved it when I was seven, I love it now.

Mean Girls is a relatively new movie, but I can't get enough of it. Maybe it's because of the SNL connection, or my girl-love for Rachel McAdams.

I've probably seen Wet Hot American Summer eleventy hundred times, but I still think it's the funniest thing ever. Fondue with cheddar, indeed.

[Deleted]

David O. Russell's Flirting With Disaster catches me everytime. Even when the network or cable companies are showing various butchered and cut versions of that film, I stop everything and watch.

Ben Stiller has never done the slowtake burn of embarassment better in his subsequent films. His eager denial of himself to fit in with whatever birth family that Tea Leoni pulls up on her computer and takes him to meet is hilarious.

I love a deadpan comediene and this movie has two of the best, Lily Tomlin and Miss Leoni. When Miss Tomlin sprawls across the dinner table and picks at the bones of the quail that her other son, Lonnie, has murdered and cooked; Miss Tomlin speaks confidentially to her guests of a vast government conspiracy with a FBI agent tripping on WindowPane at her table and another FBI agent upstairs in a bedroom seducing her daughter-in-law by sniffing the daughter-in-law's armpits. It's just all so complicated and gloriously comic and interwoven and never-ending insanity. Every setup in plot and character and exposition pays off with a punchline that kicks you with steel tipped work boots.

And one of the final scenes with Miss Leoni pregnant and smoking and drinking and fighting with her mother on the phone while trying to dress for a blind date is such a cynical jolt of thematic nastiness, that I whoop with joy---cynical enjoyment, of course, at every viewing.

And Glenn Fitzgerald as the ever dangerous and jealous favored son, Lonnie, was a delight. Whatever happened to him? He was just as good as Mr. Stiller. Mr. Stiller has an outstanding career and I never see Mr. Fitzgerald.

[indygirl]

Dwanollah said:

"What an amazing movie that was… from the first second, whirling and dumping you right into the middle of fin de siecle hedonism… is it 1899 or 1999? Does it matter? Moulin Rouge fucked with your mind and your emotions and the very way you WATCHED a movie. ... Moulin Rouge made me finally "get" that pure bliss is possible in postmodern pastiche! It was a brilliant commentary on musicals and musical conventions, from Gilbert & Sullivan to modern-day raves. It was hysterically funny! Was it a cartoon? Was it a parody? Was it cinematic deconstruction? Social observations? All of these? Holy shit, what a movie!"

Plus... dudes. Ewan. Singing. SO HOTTT!

A thousand times yes!

[shriekingeel]

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is just perfect. I just watched it on HBO and sat, mesmerized, completely immersed in its world, for over two hours, in exactly the same way that I saw it in the theater.

[lyrasilver]

Master and Commander is such a good movie. I saw it for the first time a few months ago on HBO, and I thought it was so brilliantly done. It really captured the nuances of life aboard a navy ship (in my 21st century, non-naval opinion). I also repeatedly watch A&E's Horatio Hornblower series, because Ioan Gruffudd is the hottest thing in a navy uniform ever. I can't remember which episode it is, but there's a gratuitous Ioan-totally-naked moment in one of them. Mmmm.

[indygirl]

Ioan Gruffudd's oh-so-lovely shower scene occurs in the Hornblower episode, "Mutiny." Delightful! I always watch the Hornblower episodes whenever they come on television, even though I have them all on dvd.

In addition to Moulin Rouge!, I realize that another movie I love unconditionally is Velvet Goldmine, Even though I have the dvd, I will watch it every time it comes on tv. I always recommend it to others. Same with A Life Less Ordinary. Hmmm...I'm noticing a trend.

[livviebway]

I can't remember which episode it is, but there's a gratuitous Ioan-totally-naked moment in one of them.

That'd be Mutiny of Mutiny and Retribution... If there's anyone out here who is interested. Tee hee.

[lyrasilver]

I knew there were other Hornblower fans here. Thanks indygirl and livviebway. And to all of you who have not discovered the joy of Horatio Hornblower, I implore you to go out and rent these movies. One of the great things about them is that since they're made by A&E, and are fairly historically accurate, you can pass off your drool session as education. Plus you can find them in almost any public library. Whee!

Topic? I really like Labyrinth. Childhood memories and all that. The songs are catchy, Jennifer Connelly has pretty, swishy hair, and the movie has more muppets than people. What's not to love? I think it was over in The Other Place where people started talking about David Bowie's, uh, pants. And what's in them. I'll never see that "Magic Dance" scene the same way.