Monday, April 13, 2009

Sunday Night is Movie Night

When your handyman has a degree in Philosophy and listens to NPR, you just know that those small jobs like leveling a door or replacing a floorboard are going to take a little extra time. There’s a lot of discourse involved, although rarely about the projects themselves.

I can’t remember whether he was fixing our shower door or the lattice under the porch, but during a recent visit, Griff challenged me to send him a list of my top 20 movies.

Always looking for new ways to waste time, I got right on it. It’s a tougher task than you’d think. The first five or ten are effortless, but when you get to 19 and 20, sometimes you have some heavy decisions to make. Does Godfather need to be on this list? If so, what needs to come off to make room?

We watched 12 Angry Men last night and, because of the elegance, the simplicity, and the brilliant way characters were developed (in a single room, no less) I had to revisit my list. I’m switching out The Usual Suspects, which I watched recently and mostly slept through.

Plus, who doesn’t love a movie that takes place in real time?

New list:
(in no particular order)

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Manhattan
Juno
Little Miss Sunshine
Crash
Lost In Translation
12 Angry Men
‘Night Mother
A Beautiful Mind
Mystic River
American Beauty
Donnie Darko
Legally Blond
Heathers
Stop Making Sense
Annie Hall
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Memento
Sex, Lies and Videotape
Raising Arizona

Anybody else up for this challenge? Anyone? Anyone? ...Bueller?

7 comments:

  1. Here is my top 20: - like you said not too easy:
    Dramas/Thrillers
    The Graduate
    The Departed
    The Usual Suspects
    Mystic River
    Good Will Hunting
    Pulp Fiction
    12 Angry Men
    To Kill a Mockingbird
    Goodfellas
    Crash
    Cool Hand Luke
    Dirty Harry
    Comedies:
    Blues Brothers
    Diner
    Planes, Trains and Automobiles
    War Movies:
    Saving Private Ryan
    The Dirty Dozen
    The Great Escape
    The Deer Hunter
    The Longerst Day

    Movies that I am compelled to watch whenever I see them on: (Ragin Bull, Taxi Driver, Blazing Saddles, Risky Business, Clerks, Caddy Shack, Casablanca, A Street Car Named Desire, Unforgiven, The Magnificent Seven, Animal House) to name a few.

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  2. Glory
    The English Patient
    Cinema Paradiso
    Casablanca
    Lawrence of Arabia

    Of these 5, when I see them, each always feels like they're #1..

    Breaker Morant
    El Cid
    Rudy
    Schindler's List
    Lorenzo's Oil
    Stricktly Ballroom
    Rashamon
    Friendly Persuasion
    The Searchrers
    The Birdcage
    Dolores Claiborne
    Last of the Mohicans
    Forrest Gump
    Roxanne
    Henry V (Branagh's)

    Fav. "pure" war movie's--A Bridge Too Far & Gettysburg

    Honorable Mentions:
    A Man For All Seasons
    Big Night
    As Good As It Gets
    The Wind and the Lion
    The Natural
    Beauty and the Beast '91
    Toy Story I & II

    Fav. all time "perfect pitch" films:
    Beverly Hills Cop
    Pretty Woman
    Raiders of the Lost Ark

    Most important film that is a must see before you die:

    Breaker Morant--because we can't live life without justice..

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  3. I share a lot of favorites with you. Here are mine (I should be working right now!):

    21 grams
    Annie Hall
    The Graduate
    American Beauty
    Sex Lies and Videotape
    Entre Nous
    Slumdog Millionaire (sorry, but yes)
    The Shining
    Goodfellas
    The Deer Hunter
    Interiors
    Husbands and Wives
    Hanna(h?)and Her Sisters
    Manhattan
    Another Woman
    Alice
    Born on the Fourth of July
    Leaving Las Vegas
    Mystic Pizza (candy)
    On Golden Pond (can't resist, nostalgia)

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  5. In somewhat of a particular order:

    Tampopo
    Farewell My Concubine
    Luna
    1900
    Any Buster Keaton
    The Big Lebowsky
    Take The Money and Run
    As Good As It Gets
    Catch 22
    Love and Death
    Ye Yang
    Curse of the Golden Flower
    The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
    Alien
    The Thing (John Carpenter)
    Pitch Black
    Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
    The Replacement Killers
    Fritz The Cat
    Nosferatu

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  6. .... oh yeah... if we were doing 21

    Apocalypse Now

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  7. Wait... let me substitute "My Dinner with Andre" for "Fritz the Cat".

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