Wednesday, February 10, 2016

A few of my favorite movies

Like I've said, I'm not much of a movie person. But, for no reason whatsoever, I thought I'd share some of my favorite movies

1. The Wrestler-The Wrestler is brutal to watch. In fact, I've only seen it once. Like the poem by TS Eliot "The Wastelands" I find The Wrestler beautiful because of it's total lack of beauty. The main character in the The Wrestler has nothing left in life, and even though it's mostly because of his own actions, you still feel tremendous sympathy for him. Mickey Rourke is outstanding in the main role. 

2. The Blair Witch Project-Horror and documentaries are two of my favorite genres, and The Blair Witch Project sort of combines both. It was the first "found footage" movie I ever saw, and at the time I thought it was so innovative. The characters are real people, not just actors playing a role. Sure the found footage storytelling helps with that aspect, but it still requires great acting skill to pull it off. 

3. High Fidelity-Rob (the main character in the movie) and I have so much in common it's actually creepy. His obsession with music, neurosis, selfishness-it's like seeing my life up on screen. The references to obscure music and his dreamlike nature are the good things we both share, and we also have selfishness and a bit of an obsessive compulsive disorder. I've had friends like Barry before-a guy would rather tell you what a loser you are then take your money. High Fidelity is also one of the very, very few movies that is on par with the book. An accomplishment in itself, really. 

4. Hoop Dreams-Hoop Dreams follows the goals of two inner city kids in from the slums of Chicago and their dreams to play in the NBA. It's another intense and moving documentary as you see their lives develop. Since it's a documentary, it all happened in real life. You will cheer for these kids and you will start to cry as you see them, and their families-strive through an existence that is foreign to a lot of us.  This movie is not about basketball-it's about hope. 

5.Airplane!-Just thinking of this movie makes me smile. Zany slapstick at it's absolute best, this movie still holds up the 45th time I've seen it. Total strangers can bond by quoting just a few lines from this movie. Surely I am serious about this (and don't call me Shirley) but if you miss out on it, you are missing out on comic brilliance.

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