In Part I of this series I covered my adolescence (1993-1998) and movies 1-6 that changed me. Now on to my post-adolescence, covering approximately 2001-2004.
Movie Store Clerk/Film Student
In 2001 I went to college. I packed my bags into my old VW bug and hit the road. My school experience covered 5 years, and to be honest, some pretty typical “film school nerd” type movies. But just because these movies are loved by many, doesn’t mean they aren’t great. It also doesn’t mean I didn’t have great experiences watching them.
7. Silence of the Lambs
When I first headed out to go to school I left in mid-July and crashed at my aunt and uncle’s house until I could find a place to stay. I quickly got a job at Blockbuster and began enjoying the free rentals that came along with it. Since I was about 10 at the time Silence of the Lambs came out and never saw it, I decided to check it out one night after I finished the late shift. I got back to their place at around 1:30 am. I went down to the basement so as not to disturb anyone and popped the movie in. I sat there in the dark and watched the whole thing. By myself. I’m not usually into scary movies, they just don’t scare me that often. But try watching this movie by yourself in a basement, in the middle of the night. The creepiness factor was through the roof. I definitely did the “Cautious, cautious. Quickly, quickly. FAST!” walk back up the stairs and to my room. It’s safe to say I did not play it cool, despite my intentions.
8. Blair Witch Project
Since I was out of the country and not paying attention to movies at the time this had its theatrical release, I missed the whole experience of it being supposedly real and making a quarter of a bajillion dollars and all that. So it wasn’t until 2002 that I finally sat down to watch it. Again, I was home alone. For some reason my roommates were gone, and it was late again. THis is pretty much the only other movie besides Silence of the Lambs that has ever really freaked me out. These were my two scary movie experiences. It looks like a pretty simple recipe: watch alone, in the middle of the night, make sure it’s earned its ‘legitimately scary’ chops. Done and done.
8. The Royal Tenenbaums and 9. The Man Who Wasn’t There
Even though these movies don’t have much in common (and I’m sure every reader saw them making it on this list from a mile away), they’re on the list and I’ll always think of them together. They came out within 6 weeks of each other. I saw each of them probably 4 or 5 times in the theater, including one time when my buddy Sean and I drove about an hour to a Pub Theater to catch The Man Who Wasn’t There and then stopped off on the way home to watch The Royal Tenenbaums. That was a good movie day.
When you add in Ocean’s Eleven and Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (I’m sure I’m forgetting a couple others) to the mix, this was a pretty spectacular two month period for movie releases.
10. All the Real Girls
A buddy from one of my film classes told me I had to get my hands on this movie. Our entire friendship was essentially based on him recommending this movie to me, and me loving it. It’s a small town romantic comedy, done right. From the second Bust Ass (yeah that’s the character’s name) orders “a hamburger and, um cottage cheese” I knew something special was happening. The visuals, the pace, the dialogue, all right up my alley. It’s probably the most quotable movie of the Aughts (as I’m going to call this decade when I’m 65 and older). Heavily influenced by Terrence Malick’s style, director David Gordon Green jumped right to the top of my favorite directors list.
Incidentally, this movie played a key role in my strategy to win over my future wife. I lent her the movie to watch before we even started dating. She watched it and was so overwhelmed by how good it was she immediately called me. I missed the call, and she sat there having an existential crisis until I called her back. Note to those pursuing women: bowling them over with great movie recommendations goes a long ways, but only if they’re part of an overarching and well thought-out strategy. Don’t think your good taste in movies will get the whole job done.
11. Punch Drunk Love
My buddy Niel once accused this movie of being the password to get into the secret-hipster-indie parties that he alleged I attend. It has all the elements you need: directed by P.T. Anderson, Adam Sandler playing an off-beat role, inaccessible use of sound/music/color. This movie played in my city for two weeks, and I think I saw it three times in that period. I knew the window was going to be short, so I took full advantage. What I’m trying to say is, I love Punch Drunk Love. Maybe it was that I loved watching people leave the theater when they realized this wasn’t Waterboy II, of course it has to do with P.T.’s style and Sandler’s performance. But there was something so simple and pure at the center of this movie (ironic considering the plot catalyst) that got to me emotionally.
People make fun of me for it, but I still always ask why Adam Sandler doesn’t do more movies like this.
12. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Every year there are movies released that are supposed to be great. The autumn leaves start to fall, the studios start releasing the heavyweight Oscar hopefuls. Expectations are high. The great sports writer Joe Posnanski has a modified system for rating movies. Instead of just giving a movie a number of stars, you take the number of stars you are expecting and subtract that from the number of stars you actually give the movie. So if I was expecting to get a 3 star experience from Juno and I ended up with a 2 star experience it gets a -1 and was therefore an overall disappointment.
This gives you a better idea of your actual movie experience than a simple star ranking (I think I got his system right, and I wish I could link you to his explanation of it, but I couldn’t find it in his archives). My point is that, with raised expectations, a movie rarely delivers adequate or full satisfaction. I’ve gone to dozens of movies I had fairly high expectations for and left slightly unsatisfied because the movie was only “really good” and didn’t knock my socks off.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was seen coming. The hype was through the roof due to the great trailer and the talent involved (Gondry-Kauffman-Kuras-Carey-Winslet-Ruffalo et al). It still knocked my socks off. I think it knocked pretty much everyone’s socks off (save the most jaded, cynical film snobs). It was just that good. I was on board from the get go, but here are a few moments that sealed the deal:
1. When Elijah Wood knocks on Jim Carey’s window out of the blue and asks if he can help him
2. When old Jim Carey still gets beat up by the little bully
3. Any scene with David Cross or Elijah Wood in it
4. And of course the last scene between Carey and Winslet where they decide, despite themselves that they want to try again
Going to see it opening weekend I ran into at least a dozen friends, and at the end we all just kind of stood there, stunned, not really knowing what to say (except Shane who claimed on the way out that he didn’t like it one bit because there was not a single pirate involved. He was going through a pirate thing at the time).
Sometimes a movie lives up to its hype. My expectations were a 4 star movie, and I got a 5+ star movie.
Nearly made the list:
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Adaptation
Lost in Translation
George Washington
Dogville (this probably deserves its own post)
Continue reading Part III. Click if you missed Part I of this series.
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Very nice list. Didn’t I dislike All the Real Girls?
I hate Kevin Costner, but Robin Hood Prince of Thieves was one of my favorites growing up. Also – the Muppet Movie.
I think All the Real Girls was too depressing for you. You just had to make it to the end and everything would have been ok.
“What if a water dog comes walking down those tracks. What’s he going to say to you, LAND DOG? It’s called water, get in it.”
Did you hear they’re re-re-making Robin Hood? Ridley Scott + Russell Crowe + Cate Blanchett = CAN’T MISS