10/7/00: Some of my Favorite Movies

In no particular order. I am only listing movies that I would recommend to friends wholeheartedly. Though these movies may not be your particular cup of tea, they would be someone's. I hope I give you a good indication of whether you’d like it or not. And if you’ve seen (and liked) all/most of the movies on this list, do me a favor and e-mail me and give me some suggestions for other movies I might have missed. Thanks! ^_~

1. Eat, Drink, Man, Woman

  • quick take: funny beautiful Taiwanese drama
  • don't think: that it's all about sex. that's what it looks like on the video cover but most of the sex that goes on is just hinted at and it's all dealt with sensibly and realistically (without being boring at all.)
  • about the movie: This is in Taiwanese, and it's directed by Ang Lee, who directed a bunch of other beautiful movies. It's basically about a family -- the father is a master chef, and he has three grown daughters. The eldest is a teacher who looks like she's going to die an "old maid." The middle one is an ambitious career woman, who looks like she isn't going to stick around the family roost for long. And the youngest is working at a Wendy's and looks like she's never going to do anything worthwhile. They have dinner ever Sunday together as a sort of family bonding thing, and every Sunday there's a "little announcement." It's just such a great movie. Funny and sad and touching and realistic and surprising.
  • accessories: be sure and get some Chinese food to eat while you watch it or you'll die looking at all that beautiful food.
  • downside: some people who've seen it say it's too long and/or too slow, but these people say it's still good.

    2. Chicken Run/Wallace and Gromit

  • quick take: claymation movies from Aardman
  • don't think: they're just for kids.
  • about the movies:
    Chicken Run and the Wallace and Gromit shorts are all claymation features from Aardman Studios. They are all characterized by intelligence, the kind of humor that will appeal to anyone, sweetness, and an off-kilter tinge of weirdness. They're very British, so if you hate British humor, they may not be your thing.
    Wallace and Gromit: Wallace is an inventor and Gromit is his long-suffering dog. They love cheese. Everything in their world is wallpapered. That's about all you need to know. They are just about the only thing that my sarcastic overeducated uncle, my mom, my small cousins, my angst-ridden teenage cousins, and I can all agree on.
    Chicken Run completely lives up to the W&G promise. It came out recently, so maybe you remember it. It's the only movie I saw all summer that was worth the money (though Gladiator was probably worth it too, if only for Russell Crowe). It's intelligent and sweet and has a GIRL as its hero.
  • accessories: Everyone you know, and some Wallace and Gromit toys.
  • downside: none, really.

    3. Princess Bride

  • quick take: If you haven't seen this movie, you've been living in a cave.
  • don't think: That all my picks will be this unimaginative.
  • about the movie: For those unfamiliar, this is a romance-adventure-comedy that verges on the spoofy-surreal but has real feelings at its core. It's full of little zingers like, "Rodents of unusual size? I don't think they exist." etc. etc. If you haven't had the pleasure, go rent this movie. It's just so good.
  • accessories: the book is just as funny, maybe funnier.
  • downside: you've probably already seen it.

    4. Breakfast at Tiffany's

  • quick take: Audrey Hepburn. what more do you need?
  • don't think: that it actually has anything to do with having breakfast at Tiffany's
  • about the movie: Holly Golightly is a sweet, sharp, beautiful, and sad young East Village girl who makes her living by bilking guys, essentially. George Peppard is a 'kept man' who lives upstairs. They fall in love. Come on, it's a great movie. Featuring such lines as, "You can tell what a man thinks of you by the earrings he gives you.... I must say, the mind reeeeels." and "If I could find a real life place that makes me feel like Tiffany's, why, I'd buy some furniture and give the cat a name."
  • accessories: champagne to drink and a cat to hug when Holly says, "Where's the cat?"
  • downside: the Mickey Rooney "Mister Yunioshi" stuff is really offensive. and I have lots of friends who think that the characters are annoying. but I love them anyway. my friends, and the characters. ~_^

    5. Heathers

  • quick take: brilliant black comedy about high school
  • don't think: that just because you're out of high school you can't appreciate this
  • about the movie: Oh gosh, I can't put this movie into summery form. It's highly stylized and brilliant and strange. Basically, Wynona Ryder and Christian Slater start killing the popular kids and making it look like suicide, but it's not just about that. You've got Veronica's parents saying the same things over and over, and you've got great lines like, "you know what I need? Cool guys like you out of my life." (In context, it kicks ass.)
  • accessories: corn nuts and your old high school angst
  • downside: not quite as good today as it was when I was in high school. and now that I know that the real ending was supposed to be that they blew up the school, the "happy" ending seems a little tacked on.

    6. Ruby in Paradise

  • quick take: slow, reflective movie about a young woman coming into herself
  • don't think: that slow and reflective means boring.
  • about the movie: Ashley Judd, who I really like, plays Ruby, a young woman who seems to have run away from a bad situation (you never really find out what it was). She's come to Florida to make a little life for herself. That's what she does. It's hard to explain, but maybe it's interesting to me because I can empathize. When you're younger, everything's taken care of, even your social situations. When you get older you realize that everything in your life is your choice. Your job, your friends, everything. I guess that's sort of what the movie's about.
  • accessories: comfy pillow. lean back and take it in.
  • downside: maybe it's not your cup of tea. but it's comforting to me.

    7. Twelfth Night

  • quick take: Shakespeare's crazy comedy is so well done here...
  • don't think: that you won't understand it. good acting makes Shakespeare easy to understand
  • about the movie: This is the one with "If music be the food of love, play on," and there is music all through this movie. It's fun and nutty and sweet. You've got a girl pretending to be a boy and you've got her identical twin brother (??) showing up to confuse everything. All sorts of typical Shakespeare-y subplots with the servants, too. One of those movies that you want to watch over and over again, anytime you're maybe a little bummed. And Ben Kingsley is so great in it. Be sure and watch to the very end, until he looks straight at the camera and sings, "That's all one, my tale is done, and I strive to please you every day."
  • accessories: Well, if you’re like me, you love to read the play itself and see how it was adapted so brilliantly. But if you’re not like me on that, may I recommend Snickers Ice Cream bars? Those things are delicious, man.
  • downside: Identical twins? Doesn't anyone know what that means? split zygotes? same egg and sperm? ::sigh::

    8. Welcome to the Dollhouse

  • quick take: brutal movie about a junior high girl who's an outcast at home and at school
  • don't think: that just because you're out of junior high, that part of your life is over
  • about the movie: I call this movie brutal not because anyone is violently abused, but because this is the terrors of being 12, taken to the nth degree. Poor Dawn Weiner is picked on at school and at home is overshadowed by her hard-working brother and her perfect ballarina little sister. She has various romantic "adventures", with varying degrees of failure. Perhaps what sums up the whole movie is a scene where Dawn asks the mean girl Lolita, "Why do you hate me?" and Lolita says, each word deliberately, "Because you're ugly."
  • accessories: your 12-year-old self.
  • downside: Well, it’s a brutal movie about a junior high girl who's an outcast at home and at school. You do the math, kids.

    9. Passion Fish

  • quick take: a recently paralyzed woman goes back home to Louisiana, where she has to come to terms with it
  • don't think: it'll be depressing. It really isn't.
  • about the movie: The actress who played Stands with a Fist in Dances with Wolves, I forget her name, but she plays the paralyzed woman. The woman goes to live in her family house on the bayou, where she goes through a succession of nurses before she finds one that can stand up to her. The two of them sort of help each other.
    This is one of those movies that you can sort of taste and smell, in a good way.
  • accessories: some gumbo, to start. Maybe a good CD of Cajun dance tunes. Your call.
  • downside: Well, it’s about being paralyzed from the waist down. It’s a kind of bummer. But on the other hand, it’s really about how great life is, even when a part of you is crippled. I think that’s what’s so great about it.

    10. Once Were Warriors

  • quick take: intense, violent, beautiful movie about a Maori family.
  • don't think: that it'll be depressing. It's intense and it'll make you cry but it really somehow isn't depressing.
  • about the movie: The Maoris are the original people of New Zealand. This Maori family has some serious problems – the dad is a mean drunk, the sons are getting in trouble with the law, and the youngest daughter, a sensitive soul, is sort of getting lost in the shuffle. Normally I hate movies about domestic abuse – the kind of movies that you see on Lifetime on a Sunday afternoon, the kind with a colon in the title (“Gone Without a Trace: The Mildred Havershaw story”). This is not like that at all. Everyone has his/her own way of dealing with his or her problems, and there is a lot of love and pride and strength here. It’s not all awful, and the end is, I would say, “life affirming.”
  • accessories: a big box of tissues. You’re going to cry. I promise. It’s cathartic. It’s good for you.
  • downside: if you’re wearing mascara, you’re going to get it everywhere.

    11. What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

  • quick take: another family drama. I love family dramas.
  • don't think: that Leonard DiCraprio will ruin it. He's actually really good in it. And so is Johnny Depp.
  • about the movie: A struggling family in a rural town depends way too much on the oldest son, Gilbert, played by Johnny Depp (who I think is underrated). The mother is obese and can hardly walk. And the biggest problem is Ernie (played by Leo), who is mentally retarded and gets into trouble if no one watches him. Gilbert is left to take care of eveyrone, but who is going to take care of him? The answer is Becky (Juliette Lewis), the free-spirit-y girl who tumbles into town in her grandmother’s RV. Not only is this a funny and touching movie, but it’s really well photographed. The way that they captured the wind in the trees and the long grass – I swear I can smell the grass. It’s wonderful.
  • accessories: a nice back yard with long grass growing in it.
  • downside: Why can’t I go on a long trip in a trailer all across the US? Huh?

    12. The Shawshank Redemption

  • quick take: Tim Robbins is an unjustly imprisoned man who teaches everyone in the prison about hope.
  • don't think: that it's "just" a prison movie, or that because it's by Stephen King it's no good.
  • about the movie: The quick take says it all, pretty much. It shows every ten minutes on TNT, so just be on the lookout. The score is excellent, too.
  • accessories: The Eyes of the Dragon and/or Different Seasons by Stephen King. You might also like to get the score to the movie.
  • downside: another movie with no women in it. But the next movie balances that out. Though it is annoying how you can have a movie with no women in it that appeals to everyone, but the only way a movie with no men in it would appeal to men would be if the women were having sex with each other. ::sigh::

    13. Heavenly Creatures

  • quick take: two girls form a deep, intense friendship and together become a gang of two
  • don't think: that you’ve ever seen a movie like it. There aren’t any.
  • about the movie: Pauline is an outcast with a tendancy to write angrily in her diary. She hates everyone but her new best friend, Juliet (a really really good Kate Winslet) who is slightly scary in her raw emotion, emotional neediness, and capacity for cruelty. Juliet and Pauline are *best friends*. The boundaries get kind of fuzzy when you depend on someone that much. It freaks their parents out, how they’re spending so much time together, making up pretend worlds. But they girls will do anything to stay together. It’s based on a true story. The real Juliet, it was found, is living in England writing successful murder mysteries. Take that as you will.
  • accessories: the angry poetry you wrote when you were 14. If you didn’t write any, maybe you can borrow some of mine.
  • downside: Just slightly on the weird and disturbing side. But for me, that’s not really a downside.

    14. Ever After

  • quick take: Drew Barrymore is a feminist Cinderella.
  • don't think: That every movie you watch has to be a cinematic masterpiece. Have some fun, won’t you?
  • about the movie: So, you’ve got Drew Barrymore as Danielle, an American pretending to be an English-speaking French girl with a very bad British accent. Well, whatever. Then you’ve got Angelica Houston (!!) as her evil-step-mother (that’s good fun) and hilarity ensues. Leonardo Di Vinci shows up – why, I don’t know – and the prince, Dougray Scott, is adorable. You know the basic plot, but it’s updated and feminist, with Danielle the main hero of the story who never really needs rescuing. It’s damn good fun. Especially the scene with the gypsies. Also, there is a really fascinating dynamic between the step-mother and Danielle – a reason is given for their antagonism that I think really adds to the story. Incidentally, Melanie Lynskey, the actress who plays Jacqueline, is the same girl who gave such a great performance as Pauline/Evonne/etc. in Heavenly Creatures. Every once in a while you hear tinges of her New Zealand accent.
  • accessories: a good girlfriend and some chocolate or something equally girly. I recommend Sharon’s Sorbet chocolate flavor. That stuff kicks.
  • downside: You don’t think very highly of me for recommending this, do you?

    15. Run, Lola, Run

  • quick take: Lola has twenty minutes to get 100,000 marks or her boyfriend is going to die.
  • don't think: that because it's in German you won't like it.
  • about the movie: What a kick-ass movie! God! Lola tries three times to get the money, and each time minor differences in her approach change everything. We don’t just see her – we also get flashes of the future of several people she passes on the street. The idea is that not only is our future is changeable, but that our will plays a huge part in it. Lola refuses to fail. What she's trying is impossible but she does it anyway. You’ll cheer when she does that screaming thing she does. You’ll see. Trust me. Also, the soundtrack, a techno-score, is great.
  • accessories: coffee in a spill-proof cup.
  • downside: you can’t memorize the cool lines because they’re in German. Well, I can’t. Maybe you speak German. Also, if you hate techno music with a raging passion it might get to you.

    16. Magnolia

  • quick take: about 20 people all around L.A. deal with life and death and loneliness.
  • don't think: that just because it's 3 hours long and makes no sense really you won't like it.
  • about the movie: I’ll just tell you about the people. There’s Jimmy Gator, the host of What Do Kids Know?, a popular quiz show. He’s not feeling well. There’s Stanley, a child genius, currently appearing on the quiz show, and suffering from an oppressive father. There’s Quiz Kid Donnie Smith (played by William H Macy), a very annoying guy and a former star of What Do Kids Know?. He’s lonely and desperate (that’s what Macy does best). There’s Jim (played by John C Reilly), the lonely, kind of dorky cop who loses his gun. There’s Claudia, Jimmy Gator’s daughter, who has troubles, lots of troubles. There’s Linda (Julianne Moore), the very troubled trophy wife of the dying Earl Partridge, the producer of What Do Kids Know?. Earl is dying and wants to find his son. And there’s Tom Cruise playing Frank TJ Mackey, and his performance as a misogynistic informercial guru will have you laughing and crying at the same time. He’s AMAZING. Really. As they said in the Village Voice, “every scene in this movie plays like the big one.” I think that’s true.
  • accessories: soundtrack, and a notebook to write down the coolest lines
  • downside: Some people really hate this movie. Go in with an open mind, just let it wash over you, accept it as a sort of flawed masterpiece, and you’ll do ok.

    17. The Ice Storm

  • quick take: Suburban adults and kids deal with love, sex, and the absence thereof. Or something. There is no quick take for a movie like this.
  • don't think: That something this sad can’t also be really amazing.
  • about the movie: It’s directed by Ang Lee, for one thing, so you know it’s going to be beautiful. I’m not one of those movie critic people (have you figured that out? ~_^) but I know what I like, and I like Ang Lee! Anyway, it takes place in 1970s suburbia over Thanksgiving weekend. You’ve got two neighboring families, one with two sons and one with a daughter (Christina Ricci) and a son (Toby McGuire). The dad from the second family is having an affair with the mom (Sigourney Weaver) from the first, and meanwhile Christina Ricci is getting involved with the son. God, I’m terrible at names, huh? Anyway, everyone is cut off from his or her emotions and everyone’s a little crazy. When the ice storm comes, everything comes to a head. I could tell you more but I don’t want to spoil it. It’s sad but essentially life-affirming, I think.
  • accessories: vodka, maybe. A warm blanket.
  • downside: I guess if you don’t like this sort of thing, then you won’t like this. What can I say?

    18. Waking Ned Divine

  • quick take: mad comic romp kind of thing. Like a good British comedy, but Irish.
  • don't think: this movie puts down Irish people. The Village Voice said that but I don't think so at all.
  • about the movie: This movie is so sweet and funny and honest. I love movies like that. Basically, an Irish man wins the lottery and dies of happiness, so his friends and neighbors work together to claim the money for themselves. There is also a subplot about the pig farmer who has problems of smelling like the pigs. It’s one of those movies that just makes you feel good. Watch it, and then go out to see a good Irish band. In New York City, I recommend The Prodigals, my pet band.
  • accessories: Guinness. Real Guinness, the kind that you get in pubs in Ireland that’s smooth and mild as milk.
  • downside: It’s a little quick – some of the plot twists are taken care of too quickly. Also, why can’t I go back to Ireland? Oh wait, I am going. In March of ’01. Yay!

    more musings on the state of our culture