My favorite movies
Jun. 13th, 2010 12:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedusorI was thinking today about my favorite movies, and what would go on my top-five list, and I realized that it's kind of an odd collection. So I'm going to tell you about them.
1. À la folie... pas du tout
Actually, I'm going to tell you about all but one of them--my all-time favorite. The reason I'm not telling you about it is that you really shouldn't know anything about it before you watch it. Don't read any reviews or the IMDB page or anything, just watch it. Trust me. Twenty minutes into my first viewing of it, I didn't think I was going to like it very much; I then watched it three times in the next twenty-four hours because it's just. that. good. I own it and I try to get everyone I can to watch it with me, and so far every one of them has agreed with me that it's truly excellent.
2. Boondock Saints
This is about two young Irish Catholic men living in Boston who take up vigilante justice. Willem Dafoe does a brilliant job as an FBI agent trying to track them down. It's extremely violent and occasionally offensive, but it's the characters who are violent and offensive, not the movie, if that makes sense. Sometimes I watch a movie and it feels like it's implicitly accepting things like that; this one shows people who are like that and lets you decide what to make of them. My first boyfriend introduced me to it--I think he, like many of the young men who make up most of the film's cult following, likes it because he can live vicariously through the badass main characters. I can see that, a bit, but I like it because of the frank way it tackles the question of what justice is and who should get to mete it out. I also like it because it's funny as hell.
3. The Emperor's New Groove
The older I get, the more I realize how difficult it is to write really good kid-appropriate humor, which this movie absolutely nails. It's an animated film set (very) loosely in the Inca Empire. The basic storyline isn't anything special: a selfish young royal is turned into a llama and has to team up with a peasant man (John Goodman) to get back to his palace and turn back into a human, in the process learning a few life lessons. The beauty of the film is in the little moments and the characters, and the lovely little occasional breaks in the fourth wall.
4. The Iron Giant
Another animated film, less of a comedy, although it does have some funny moments. I watched it in theaters when it came out in 1999 and liked it a lot, because of the characters and storytelling. Then I watched it again as a teenager and realized, holy shit, this is about the Cold War and the paranoia of the '50s! I had no idea when I was ten how realistic a lot of the movie was. It's really well-done. Also, Dean is one of the hottest animated characters ever. I'm just saying.
5. The History Boys
This movie is not about child abuse. It really isn't. Nor is it about homosexuality; the characters are pretty much all male, and some of them are gay, but it's not about that. It's about sexual dynamics between adults and teenagers (some of which could be considered abuse of power, but when the boys are seventeen years old, it's not pedophilia, and I really hate it when people talk like it is). It's also about education, which people tend to overlook in discussions of the movie because sex is more immediate, but there are some fascinating ideas in there about teaching styles and methods. It's intense, and it always leaves me thinking, but there's also a lot of squee in it. I thought Dakin was hands-down my favorite character the first time I watched it, and the second time Irwin and Posner seemed just as great, but then after the third time I realized how different and plausible a movie it is if you think of Rudge as the main character.
Man, now I really want to watch all of these again.
1. À la folie... pas du tout
Actually, I'm going to tell you about all but one of them--my all-time favorite. The reason I'm not telling you about it is that you really shouldn't know anything about it before you watch it. Don't read any reviews or the IMDB page or anything, just watch it. Trust me. Twenty minutes into my first viewing of it, I didn't think I was going to like it very much; I then watched it three times in the next twenty-four hours because it's just. that. good. I own it and I try to get everyone I can to watch it with me, and so far every one of them has agreed with me that it's truly excellent.
2. Boondock Saints
This is about two young Irish Catholic men living in Boston who take up vigilante justice. Willem Dafoe does a brilliant job as an FBI agent trying to track them down. It's extremely violent and occasionally offensive, but it's the characters who are violent and offensive, not the movie, if that makes sense. Sometimes I watch a movie and it feels like it's implicitly accepting things like that; this one shows people who are like that and lets you decide what to make of them. My first boyfriend introduced me to it--I think he, like many of the young men who make up most of the film's cult following, likes it because he can live vicariously through the badass main characters. I can see that, a bit, but I like it because of the frank way it tackles the question of what justice is and who should get to mete it out. I also like it because it's funny as hell.
3. The Emperor's New Groove
The older I get, the more I realize how difficult it is to write really good kid-appropriate humor, which this movie absolutely nails. It's an animated film set (very) loosely in the Inca Empire. The basic storyline isn't anything special: a selfish young royal is turned into a llama and has to team up with a peasant man (John Goodman) to get back to his palace and turn back into a human, in the process learning a few life lessons. The beauty of the film is in the little moments and the characters, and the lovely little occasional breaks in the fourth wall.
4. The Iron Giant
Another animated film, less of a comedy, although it does have some funny moments. I watched it in theaters when it came out in 1999 and liked it a lot, because of the characters and storytelling. Then I watched it again as a teenager and realized, holy shit, this is about the Cold War and the paranoia of the '50s! I had no idea when I was ten how realistic a lot of the movie was. It's really well-done. Also, Dean is one of the hottest animated characters ever. I'm just saying.
5. The History Boys
This movie is not about child abuse. It really isn't. Nor is it about homosexuality; the characters are pretty much all male, and some of them are gay, but it's not about that. It's about sexual dynamics between adults and teenagers (some of which could be considered abuse of power, but when the boys are seventeen years old, it's not pedophilia, and I really hate it when people talk like it is). It's also about education, which people tend to overlook in discussions of the movie because sex is more immediate, but there are some fascinating ideas in there about teaching styles and methods. It's intense, and it always leaves me thinking, but there's also a lot of squee in it. I thought Dakin was hands-down my favorite character the first time I watched it, and the second time Irwin and Posner seemed just as great, but then after the third time I realized how different and plausible a movie it is if you think of Rudge as the main character.
Man, now I really want to watch all of these again.
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no subject
Date: 2010-06-13 04:28 am (UTC)(Also need to get my own copy of The Fall, as I think I've seen it twice this year already and am suddenly dying to watch it again. Or maybe I just need my own personal copy of Lee Pace.)
Haven't seen the others, buuut I think you just made me want to watch Boondock Saints for the first time ever. Question: more or less violent than Fight Club (book or movie, don't care)? Because I remember with FC, I had to get to a particular point in my life when I could handle that level of...things...and yeah. Now I think it's a brilliant book, full of sneaky brain-melting philosophy and social commentary, but I had to get to a point. You know me; do you think I'm at that point for Boondock Saints?
no subject
Date: 2010-06-13 05:05 am (UTC)I'm not familiar with The Fall. Should I check it out?
I think you can handle Boondock Saints now. It's more blood-'n'-gutsy but less disturbing than the Fight Club book. I haven't watched the movie since I was 13, because I was so disgusted then with how terrible it was compared to the book, so I don't really remember about the violence level. The only part I would be concerned about with BS for you is the the cat who meets an explosive end, but it's pretty cartoony and since you've been warned, I think you'll be okay. There's no gratuitous violence, if you define that as unnecessary to the story--it's just that a lot of violence is necessary to the story. :P
no subject
Date: 2010-06-13 01:57 pm (UTC)The basic premise of The Fall is this: a man tells a story to a little girl. I don't think I could tell you more about the plot without ruining it. I can say that it is the most visually-stunning movie I have seen in my entire life, interweaving fantasy with reality and repeating imagery in surprising ways. Coming to the end of it feels like waking up from a dream. It is a very very cool movie and you should watch it. (Lee Pace being an incredible actor AND the most beautiful man alive doesn't hurt it at all. Ahem.)
Okay, yeah, that does sound like something I could deal with. Cool! Now I'm very curious about it. :D
no subject
Date: 2010-06-13 03:46 pm (UTC)I wish I could watch Boondock Saints with you, because we would totally stay up all night afterward staring at the ceiling and murmuring about religion and moral codes and right versus wrong. (Also Connor/Murphy, because they are kind of like the Winchester brothers, if you know what I mean. Ahem.)
no subject
Date: 2010-06-13 12:38 pm (UTC)Now that I sit and think about it, that's probably my favorite movie in the genre of pure-comedy animated movies. Moreso than any of the Pixar films, even, as well as "The Simpsons Movie".
no subject
Date: 2010-06-13 03:50 pm (UTC)KUZCOOOOOOO...
no subject
Date: 2010-06-13 04:11 pm (UTC)If you think about it the right way, and approach it as if the movie were shot from Rudge's perspective, a lot of the scenes take on different meaning. For example, the mock interview scene, and his line about history being "just one fuckin' thing after another"--that line doesn't just focus that whole scene toward him, it also is a commentary on a bunch of other dialogue that doesn't directly involve him. It's also a clear parallel with the message at the end, about history being a series of accidents. (I think they may have overtly drawn that parallel in the movie, but I don't remember.) And his scene with Mrs. Lintott, about his college interview--man, sometimes I think that scene is really saying, subtly, "Christ Almighty, what are you people doing? It doesn't matter! None of it matters! Get a goddamn life!" Which, you know, is kind of a valid point.
Hm, I'll have to try paying attention to Scripps. Right now, he's sort of filed in my brain as "piano guy." I never noticed much personality, but then I never focused on him. And Dakin... man, what a character, and what a job Dominic Cooper does with it. I think I personally love him because on some level I desperately want to be him, or at least have that kind of charm and confidence and ability to get away with anything. I guess that aspect of him could be considered unlikeable, as indeed my own past attempts to be that sort of person have made me disliked by others.
So what's your favorite film of all time, if HB places second?