So after a brief three year hiatus without writing I've decided to start a brand new blog. Those of you that remember my other blog (thanks select family members!) which started as a series of opinionated (i.e., whiny) pieces, only to transform into a series of dark and profound (maybe?) stories, will be comforted to know that this blog will not be so angsty. Probably not, anyways.
No, instead I am writing about something I love. Film.
Those of you that know me know that I have almost always loved movies. It started at a young age, enjoying a whole host of disney movies and matured from there. There were some dark traumatic times; my first trip to the theatre when I saw Aladdin only to get to the part where Jafar turns into a giant snake and then decide I never want to be subjected to this psychological torture again! Or when my beloved Nana put on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom while babysitting and I still have nightmares about having monkey brains for dessert! Or maybe when it was family movie night and we were watching Mars Attacks!, an admitted comedy, but I just couldn't handle when aliens started zapping people into dust (to this day I have not forgiven Tim Burton and refuse to watch his movies [except for Big Fish, my love of Ewan McGregor outweighs the hate]). So despite those hiccups my love of film has persevered and evolved through the ages. From those family flics, to superhero movies, to almost every movie Rogers had to rent, to the saddest movies I could possibly find, and now finally to whatever happens to interest me.
It's hard for me to explain my own taste in movies, Socrates would not be impressed. But there are just certain movies that I gravitate towards. More often than not they're serious, sad, miserable pieces of art that I feel awful about after watching. All of these movies mean something to me, they all have a special place in my heart. Some have been much more special than others, some I've actually deemed as perfect. Not the best movies, just my favourite, perfect to me. Some of them may have just came to me at the right time in my life. But, here's a quick rundown of every movie on imdb that I've rated a perfect 10 in no particular order:
Terri: A story of an overweight kid who struggles to fit in. Has John C. Reilly in his least funny role since getting hung up on a sign post in Gangs of New York.
Submarine: Story of a kid who doesn't fit in (this might be a theme) because he's incredibly mature and logical for his age. He suspects his mom of infidelity and chaos ensues.
Exit Through the Gift Shop: One of the only two documentaries I've given a perfect ten, and this one is mostly made up. It made me obsessed with Banksy for all of a few months. I changed my facebook profile picture and everything.
Dear Zachary: The other documentary to grace this list. Unlike the last one, this one is all too true in all it's pain and sorrow. Literally the saddest movie of all time, anyone who says otherwise hasn't seen this movie. I'm looking at you Requiem for a Dream fans!
The Godfather: I haven't seen this movie in years, from what I remember it was pretty good. I like the scene where Sonny gets killed almost enough to rate it a ten by itself.
The Prestige: This is one of the greatest twists I've ever experienced. I was shocked at the end and that in it of itself was enough to earn my utmost respect. Side note, Laura guessed the twist ending when we watched it together and I was soooooooo mad at her.
The Shawshank Redemption: I love this movie for all the reasons I'm supposed to. The poetry of the narration, the overarching themes of hope and perseverance, the great friendship that develops, all that good stuff I'd normally find sappy and stupid. But it works in this one.
Schindler's List: Laura hates this movie... Let me just let that sink in for a second. She said it was terrible. We watched it together for the first time because she had to write a paper about it. If it was me I would've written about how moving and important it was, she said it was self-indulgent and borderline anti-Semitic. You should ask her more about her strong feelings.
The Dark Knight: Still to this day the one superhero movie we all can look to and believe that you can be true to the comics and still elevate the material to high-art. It's a compelling story, combined with Christopher Nolan's trademark tone, featuring some of the most interesting characters. This is the only movie I've ever seen more than twice in theatres (it helped that I was working at the movie theatre when it came out).
Inception: This movie too often is simply labeled as a "mind-trip" and not recognized enough for what it truly is. Which is a richly original story done to perfection. The way it twists and turns and keeps you thinking is wonderful.
Forrest Gump: This was the first "good" movie I ever loved. I would always catch parts of it on tv and became more and more intrigued the more scenes I watched. Finally one day I watched it in it's entirety, and absolutely loved it. Much like Shawshank it's a story of optimism and perseverance, within the confines of a very dark story.
Inglourious Basterds: I saw this movie a year or so after it came out due to terrible marketing. The trailers made it look like it was going to be a Kill Bill type of over-the-top action movie, which I wasn't at all in to. I finally watched it after some time only to discover it was a slow, methodical, tense drama that was very compelling.
Fight Club: Who doesn't love this movie? Most people talk about the great twist at the end, but the real twist is how you go in thinking the movie will be about angsty men fighting each other, only to discover that's only a very small part of the story.
Drive: When I watched this movie I felt like I was cool for the next week. I would purposely not talk and would drive around listening to Nightcall. Besides that feeling the movie gave me, it also is tremendously original and interesting to watch.
The Departed: So much double crossing made me feel like I couldn't trust anybody in this world. This is the most stressful movie to watch for the first time.
Saving Private Ryan: Another one of those "who doesn't love this one?" It's worth a ten just for the first and last twenty minutes. But all the middle is great too, do you remember that Vin Diesel is in the movie?
The Shining: This movie made me like Stanley Kubrick, and dislike Stephen King. A great example for when one of those nerds says "the books are always better than the movies!" This movie surpasses the book in every way (which I have read). It takes all the best creepy moments and amplifies them and changes the ending to ground it in some form of reality, whereas the book has a stupid ending that lets Jack off the hook for his insanity. Also Kubrick definitely admits to faking the moon landing, among many other things, in this movie (see Room 237).
Apocalypse Now: Speaking of books... I watched this movie in lieu of reading Heart of Darkness in grade 12 english (don't tell Ms. Sra!). So just for that it's worth a ten (the story and production hardships are good too).
Watchmen: A more controversial ten, I'm sure. But I really love this movie, I put it up there with The Dark Knight. Yes, I know the violence is ridiculous, and some of the dialogue is super cheesy, but I love it. And that's what a ten should be. Also another case of changing the ending from a book that makes the movie better.
Gladiator: Just a great story of revenge. Gave us the line "Are you not entertained?!?!" which is always fun to yell.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: I actually read this book first! I did it right for once! And the book is excellent, and the movie follows suit. The performances in this movie are phenomenal. Proves that Danny Devito can actually act, not just cover himself in hand sanitizer and writhe on the floor.
Into the Wild: This movie came to me at a time when I needed it. A story about a loners journey through so many lives just to escape all of them. Only to realize in the end that happiness is only real when shared. Woah.
Catch Me If You Can: This is just fun movie. Another one that I'll just catch on tv and have to stop and watch. When Tom Hanks says "no one is chasing you" I always feel it in my heart.
Brick: Another movie, like Drive, that made me feel cooler just by watching it. I wanted to be a cool private investigator and trip people and solve mysteries to rescue a girl. Alas, none of that happened, but things turned out fine, I guess.
Short Term 12: A great story of a bunch of misfit kids and the misfit adults who try to keep them out of trouble. The octopus story is still something that haunts me.
Dirty Harry: The movie that made me love Clint Eastwood. This is so much more than the stupid "Do you feel lucky, punk?" line that it gets boiled down to. It's a twisting dark mystery with so many memorable scenes and plot points. It's a shame the sequels never quite lived up to the original.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl: I'm a sucker for troubled coming-of-age stories. This one fit the bill perfectly. Had great friendships, a cool teacher, an appreciation for film, everything you would want wrapped up in a perfectly angsty story.
The Spectacular Now: Another great coming-of-age story featuring Miles Teller being everything I wanted to be in high school, but then showing me the dark and twisted broken child behind the curtain.
Gran Torino: Did I mention I love Clint Eastwood? This is a great movie to watch if you're looking for new hurtful words to use against asian people, because there are some that I honestly believe Eastwood was just improvising. This is one that is worth the whole beginning and middle, just to get to that ending. The ending leaves you broken, and then all you have is Clint Eastwood's raspy voice singing a haunting song.
The Place Beyond the Pines: This movie is all over the place and I love it for that. It really feels like someone was planning on doing two almost completely separate movies and then smooshed them together. And we're all the richer for it.
Boyhood: Speaking of all over the place. This movie you just have to respect for what it is. It is the coming-of-age story to end all coming-of-age stories.
The Jerk: Only true comedy I've given a ten. Which makes sense because it's the only perfect comedy I've seen. The amount of hilarious lines that still crack me up to this day are staggering. James and I watched this for the first time together and we couldn't believe we had gone so long without discovering it.
La La Land: The most recent movie I've given a ten to. I loved it, I know it has some problems, but it just made my heart happy.
(500) Days of Summer: I saved this one for last because this is the movie I've seen the most. After high school when I was trudging my way through university and feeling alone I discovered this movie. It became something of a pilgrimage for me, I would revisit it anytime I felt lonely and thought that any relationship would be better than nothing. I would watch this and remind myself that girls are evil and just because they happen to like the same obscure music as you doesn't mean they're your soul mate. I've since found my soul mate and although she seems to like the same music as me I suspect she would be just as happy listening to Nicki Minaj all day.
And that's the list. Some are obvious, some are unique, and some no one else would possibly care about as much as I do.
Now finally I'll get to the point and the inspiration for this blog. I've been toying with this idea for some time, the idea that I need to make more of an effort to watch better movies. My first plan was to watch the imdb top 250 in order, but then I realized that could potentially take me years (I've also already seen a lot of them and the ones I haven't I have very little interest in). So I came up with a new idea. My new idea is to watch Best Picture winners from the past 48 years (1969-present). Why 48 years? Why not 50 or just from the very beginning? Well, no real reason other than the winner in 1969 is one that I've been meaning to watch for years.
So here's how this will work. I'll watch the movie and write a little piece about it. Beyond that I can't really say how it will manifest. I'm not setting any rules for myself, there may be a week or two between each post, I'm not making any promises. This is just something I'm going to slowly do, and if no one ever reads it I frankly don't care, I'm just doing it for myself. Both to kickstart my writing again and my love of film.
My first movie that I'll watch is 1969's Midnight Cowboy. Like I said, this is a movie that I've been meaning to watch for a long time, ever since I discovered who Harry Nilsson was. So that's what will be on the agenda for tonight and hopefully I have something meaningful to say about it tomorrow morning. Thanks to those of you that made it this far.
No, instead I am writing about something I love. Film.
Those of you that know me know that I have almost always loved movies. It started at a young age, enjoying a whole host of disney movies and matured from there. There were some dark traumatic times; my first trip to the theatre when I saw Aladdin only to get to the part where Jafar turns into a giant snake and then decide I never want to be subjected to this psychological torture again! Or when my beloved Nana put on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom while babysitting and I still have nightmares about having monkey brains for dessert! Or maybe when it was family movie night and we were watching Mars Attacks!, an admitted comedy, but I just couldn't handle when aliens started zapping people into dust (to this day I have not forgiven Tim Burton and refuse to watch his movies [except for Big Fish, my love of Ewan McGregor outweighs the hate]). So despite those hiccups my love of film has persevered and evolved through the ages. From those family flics, to superhero movies, to almost every movie Rogers had to rent, to the saddest movies I could possibly find, and now finally to whatever happens to interest me.
It's hard for me to explain my own taste in movies, Socrates would not be impressed. But there are just certain movies that I gravitate towards. More often than not they're serious, sad, miserable pieces of art that I feel awful about after watching. All of these movies mean something to me, they all have a special place in my heart. Some have been much more special than others, some I've actually deemed as perfect. Not the best movies, just my favourite, perfect to me. Some of them may have just came to me at the right time in my life. But, here's a quick rundown of every movie on imdb that I've rated a perfect 10 in no particular order:
Terri: A story of an overweight kid who struggles to fit in. Has John C. Reilly in his least funny role since getting hung up on a sign post in Gangs of New York.
Submarine: Story of a kid who doesn't fit in (this might be a theme) because he's incredibly mature and logical for his age. He suspects his mom of infidelity and chaos ensues.
Exit Through the Gift Shop: One of the only two documentaries I've given a perfect ten, and this one is mostly made up. It made me obsessed with Banksy for all of a few months. I changed my facebook profile picture and everything.
Dear Zachary: The other documentary to grace this list. Unlike the last one, this one is all too true in all it's pain and sorrow. Literally the saddest movie of all time, anyone who says otherwise hasn't seen this movie. I'm looking at you Requiem for a Dream fans!
The Godfather: I haven't seen this movie in years, from what I remember it was pretty good. I like the scene where Sonny gets killed almost enough to rate it a ten by itself.
The Prestige: This is one of the greatest twists I've ever experienced. I was shocked at the end and that in it of itself was enough to earn my utmost respect. Side note, Laura guessed the twist ending when we watched it together and I was soooooooo mad at her.
The Shawshank Redemption: I love this movie for all the reasons I'm supposed to. The poetry of the narration, the overarching themes of hope and perseverance, the great friendship that develops, all that good stuff I'd normally find sappy and stupid. But it works in this one.
Schindler's List: Laura hates this movie... Let me just let that sink in for a second. She said it was terrible. We watched it together for the first time because she had to write a paper about it. If it was me I would've written about how moving and important it was, she said it was self-indulgent and borderline anti-Semitic. You should ask her more about her strong feelings.
The Dark Knight: Still to this day the one superhero movie we all can look to and believe that you can be true to the comics and still elevate the material to high-art. It's a compelling story, combined with Christopher Nolan's trademark tone, featuring some of the most interesting characters. This is the only movie I've ever seen more than twice in theatres (it helped that I was working at the movie theatre when it came out).
Inception: This movie too often is simply labeled as a "mind-trip" and not recognized enough for what it truly is. Which is a richly original story done to perfection. The way it twists and turns and keeps you thinking is wonderful.
Forrest Gump: This was the first "good" movie I ever loved. I would always catch parts of it on tv and became more and more intrigued the more scenes I watched. Finally one day I watched it in it's entirety, and absolutely loved it. Much like Shawshank it's a story of optimism and perseverance, within the confines of a very dark story.
Inglourious Basterds: I saw this movie a year or so after it came out due to terrible marketing. The trailers made it look like it was going to be a Kill Bill type of over-the-top action movie, which I wasn't at all in to. I finally watched it after some time only to discover it was a slow, methodical, tense drama that was very compelling.
Fight Club: Who doesn't love this movie? Most people talk about the great twist at the end, but the real twist is how you go in thinking the movie will be about angsty men fighting each other, only to discover that's only a very small part of the story.
Drive: When I watched this movie I felt like I was cool for the next week. I would purposely not talk and would drive around listening to Nightcall. Besides that feeling the movie gave me, it also is tremendously original and interesting to watch.
The Departed: So much double crossing made me feel like I couldn't trust anybody in this world. This is the most stressful movie to watch for the first time.
Saving Private Ryan: Another one of those "who doesn't love this one?" It's worth a ten just for the first and last twenty minutes. But all the middle is great too, do you remember that Vin Diesel is in the movie?
The Shining: This movie made me like Stanley Kubrick, and dislike Stephen King. A great example for when one of those nerds says "the books are always better than the movies!" This movie surpasses the book in every way (which I have read). It takes all the best creepy moments and amplifies them and changes the ending to ground it in some form of reality, whereas the book has a stupid ending that lets Jack off the hook for his insanity. Also Kubrick definitely admits to faking the moon landing, among many other things, in this movie (see Room 237).
Apocalypse Now: Speaking of books... I watched this movie in lieu of reading Heart of Darkness in grade 12 english (don't tell Ms. Sra!). So just for that it's worth a ten (the story and production hardships are good too).
Watchmen: A more controversial ten, I'm sure. But I really love this movie, I put it up there with The Dark Knight. Yes, I know the violence is ridiculous, and some of the dialogue is super cheesy, but I love it. And that's what a ten should be. Also another case of changing the ending from a book that makes the movie better.
Gladiator: Just a great story of revenge. Gave us the line "Are you not entertained?!?!" which is always fun to yell.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: I actually read this book first! I did it right for once! And the book is excellent, and the movie follows suit. The performances in this movie are phenomenal. Proves that Danny Devito can actually act, not just cover himself in hand sanitizer and writhe on the floor.
Into the Wild: This movie came to me at a time when I needed it. A story about a loners journey through so many lives just to escape all of them. Only to realize in the end that happiness is only real when shared. Woah.
Catch Me If You Can: This is just fun movie. Another one that I'll just catch on tv and have to stop and watch. When Tom Hanks says "no one is chasing you" I always feel it in my heart.
Brick: Another movie, like Drive, that made me feel cooler just by watching it. I wanted to be a cool private investigator and trip people and solve mysteries to rescue a girl. Alas, none of that happened, but things turned out fine, I guess.
Short Term 12: A great story of a bunch of misfit kids and the misfit adults who try to keep them out of trouble. The octopus story is still something that haunts me.
Dirty Harry: The movie that made me love Clint Eastwood. This is so much more than the stupid "Do you feel lucky, punk?" line that it gets boiled down to. It's a twisting dark mystery with so many memorable scenes and plot points. It's a shame the sequels never quite lived up to the original.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl: I'm a sucker for troubled coming-of-age stories. This one fit the bill perfectly. Had great friendships, a cool teacher, an appreciation for film, everything you would want wrapped up in a perfectly angsty story.
The Spectacular Now: Another great coming-of-age story featuring Miles Teller being everything I wanted to be in high school, but then showing me the dark and twisted broken child behind the curtain.
Gran Torino: Did I mention I love Clint Eastwood? This is a great movie to watch if you're looking for new hurtful words to use against asian people, because there are some that I honestly believe Eastwood was just improvising. This is one that is worth the whole beginning and middle, just to get to that ending. The ending leaves you broken, and then all you have is Clint Eastwood's raspy voice singing a haunting song.
The Place Beyond the Pines: This movie is all over the place and I love it for that. It really feels like someone was planning on doing two almost completely separate movies and then smooshed them together. And we're all the richer for it.
Boyhood: Speaking of all over the place. This movie you just have to respect for what it is. It is the coming-of-age story to end all coming-of-age stories.
The Jerk: Only true comedy I've given a ten. Which makes sense because it's the only perfect comedy I've seen. The amount of hilarious lines that still crack me up to this day are staggering. James and I watched this for the first time together and we couldn't believe we had gone so long without discovering it.
La La Land: The most recent movie I've given a ten to. I loved it, I know it has some problems, but it just made my heart happy.
(500) Days of Summer: I saved this one for last because this is the movie I've seen the most. After high school when I was trudging my way through university and feeling alone I discovered this movie. It became something of a pilgrimage for me, I would revisit it anytime I felt lonely and thought that any relationship would be better than nothing. I would watch this and remind myself that girls are evil and just because they happen to like the same obscure music as you doesn't mean they're your soul mate. I've since found my soul mate and although she seems to like the same music as me I suspect she would be just as happy listening to Nicki Minaj all day.
And that's the list. Some are obvious, some are unique, and some no one else would possibly care about as much as I do.
Now finally I'll get to the point and the inspiration for this blog. I've been toying with this idea for some time, the idea that I need to make more of an effort to watch better movies. My first plan was to watch the imdb top 250 in order, but then I realized that could potentially take me years (I've also already seen a lot of them and the ones I haven't I have very little interest in). So I came up with a new idea. My new idea is to watch Best Picture winners from the past 48 years (1969-present). Why 48 years? Why not 50 or just from the very beginning? Well, no real reason other than the winner in 1969 is one that I've been meaning to watch for years.
So here's how this will work. I'll watch the movie and write a little piece about it. Beyond that I can't really say how it will manifest. I'm not setting any rules for myself, there may be a week or two between each post, I'm not making any promises. This is just something I'm going to slowly do, and if no one ever reads it I frankly don't care, I'm just doing it for myself. Both to kickstart my writing again and my love of film.
My first movie that I'll watch is 1969's Midnight Cowboy. Like I said, this is a movie that I've been meaning to watch for a long time, ever since I discovered who Harry Nilsson was. So that's what will be on the agenda for tonight and hopefully I have something meaningful to say about it tomorrow morning. Thanks to those of you that made it this far.
Great list. I'm going to bookmark this for next time i'm looking for a movie. It was a great year for depressing movies that make you feel awful. Have you seen Manchester by the Sea yet? I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.
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