Things that Make Me Smile: Part 5 - Google+

Google+ is pretty cool. Kind of exciting. Mostly just better than Facebook.

Things that Make Me Smile: Part 4 - What it Means to be an Adult

From http://eel-hips.deviantart.com/art/What-it-means-to-be-an-adult-215454842. 

It's good to know that most people feel this way.

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 22 - Your Favorite Horror Film

Day 22 - Your Favorite Horror Film

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006, del Toro)

Guillermo del Toro is probably my favorite living director. It’s an absolute shame that he wasn’t able to continue on The Hobbit or At the Mountains of Madness. As demonstrated in Pan’s Labyrinth, the guy can direct the crap out of movies that require imagination and emotional intelligence. And he can make some of the scariest monsters you’ll ever see. The Pale Man scene is among the most terrifying scenes of all time. His herky jerky motion (all praises go to Doug Jones) and extremely creepy design just get to me. But he is not the greatest villain of the film. No, that honor belongs to Sergi López’s Captain Vidal. He’s a very real person and yet so evil that his facial disfigurement seems like an inevitability. Like many other great horror films, Pan’s Labyrinth features a young child as our hero, or, in this case, heroine. Ivana Baquero plays Ofelia with a mix of wonder and fear of the fantasy world and the real world that really makes this movie tick. In a movie where a homicidal man is your new stepfather and your only source of escape is an equally dangerous fantasy land the horror comes from all sides. 

Notes:

• The movie is, like all other GdT films, gorgeous. His camera never really stops moving, adding to the fairy-tale nature of the story. The music, too, is super great. I’ve found myself humming the lullaby around the house. Creepy.
• I feel I must link to my super-long paper about how Pan’s Labyrinth works as a version of Homer’s Odyssey. There’s some good stuff in there.
• Trailer!

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 21 - Your Favorite Sci-Fi or Fantasy Film

Day 21 - Your Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film 

Sunshine (2007, Boyle) 

Sunshine isn’t 2001. It isn’t Alien. It’s not Solaris or even Children of Men. It owes a lot to a couple of these films and others (even Event Horizon deserves some credit) but it is a great film in its own right. I saw it in a theater and the intensity of the sun is fully realized both aurally and visually. It’s as visceral a film as I have seen, an aspect of filmmaking that Danny Boyle is particularly good at. In addition to the directorial prowess, Sunshine boasts superb acting by a few of my favorite young-ish actors: Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, and Chris Evans all give great, human performances. There’s often a tendency to disregard creating actual characters for sci-fi films because most of them end up dead but there’s a lot in the script to build theses into real people in little lines. Early on there’s a big almost-dinner table scene which serves to build the characters and get all the information we need for the rest of the movie to happen. It’s really well done. And then there’s the last third. Some people hate the final third of this movie. I think it works not only technically but thematically. The entire movie is about the power and near religious nature of something as big as the sun and the third act twist just plays that up to its logical end. And the final five minutes or so are nearly transcendent (much like his latest film, 127 Hours). So, watch it but don’t hate me if you don’t like the ending. You’re the broken one, not the film. 

Notes:

• I don’t like that sci-fi and fantasy are joined in this topic. Maybe I’ll put a bonus pick at the end of this series so you can see why REDACTED is my favorite fantasy film. 
• The sound is key to this film and the score is at once beautiful and dangerous. Like the sun! 
• Trailer!

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 20 - Your Favorite Romantic Film

Day 20 - Your Favorite Romantic Film

Punch-Drunk Love (2002, Anderson)

Here’s a nice romance for you and your loved one to watch on a Friday night. Or not. It basically amounts to an Adam Sandler movie if his childish characters lived in the real world instead of his normal, highly stylized habitat. That’s not to say the movie isn’t stylish, of course. This is a PTA film (yes, the third on this list) and his eye for cinematic flair is not lost on this smaller film. Along with Jon Brion’s nearly overbearing score, every frame is composed to make you feel along with Sandler. He does his long takes again (this time we see Sandler talking on a phone-sex line for several uninterrupted minutes) and his camera is never quite settled. But this is a romance! Emily Watson plays the girl that gives Sandler a reason to live when all else seems to have failed him. “I have a love in my life,” he says to his nemesis (played expertly by Phillip Seymour Hoffman in that slimy way he does), “it makes me strong than anything you can imagine.” Here’s a movie where going to Hawaii in pursuit of a girl works out. How is that not romantic?

Notes:

• This is basically a four person movie. Joining Sandler, Watson, and Hoffman is PTA favorite Louis Guzmán. This guy is always a bunch of fun. He brings the lightness that is sometimes lacking in the rest of the characters.
• This film is proof that Sandler can really act. PTA likes doing that with his actors (Tom Cruise in Magnolia, Mark Whalberg in Boogie Nights).
• Trailer! 

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 19 - Your Favorite Action Film

Day 19 - Your Favorite Action Film

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, Spielberg)

Is there a character more iconic than Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones? You’d be hard pressed to find one, I think. There’s something about his cavalier method of handling the tight spots he gets himself in that just makes you want to be him. The guy that just shoots the master swordsman and throws a Nazi off a blimp, explaining he had “No ticket,” is probably the coolest guy ever. On top of the superb character work, the direction of this movie is impeccable. Spielberg gets the grandeur of the archaeological dig and the near slapstick fight scenes and the sly dialogue all pitch perfect. There’s not a sour note in the film. It also holds up remarkably well. There’s something about its adherence to classical storytelling styles and ideas that just works. Unlike, say, Star Wars, it’s not trying to be anything other than a roaring good time. There’s nothing about good and evil to clog it up. It’s just a guy going after an artifact and a girl.

Notes:

• Han Solo may have been Ford’s breakout role but I think Indiana Jones is what he should be remembered for. It plays to his strength’s perfectly.
• The fourth film in the series is not the abomination that some would have you believe. If you think that surviving an atom bomb in a fridge is any sillier than the Holy Ghost melting your face off or grabbing your heart out of your chest or a cup that keeps you alive for centuries you have another thing coming. Crystal Skull is made in the exact same spirit as the other three films.
• “We named the dog Indiana.” Later movie but I still love it.
• Trailer! How can you not love it? The music, the dead guys on sticks. 30 years ago or today, this movie is great.

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 18 - Your Favorite Comedy Film

Day 18 - Your Favorite Comedy Film

In the Loop (2009, Iannucci)

Based on a BBC TV series, In the Loop is a hilarious look at the behind-the-scenes politics leading up to a war in the Middle East. With players from the U.K. and the U.S., and some working for the war while others work against it the film can be a bit hard to follow at the beginning until you figure out where everybody fits in and their relationships to each other but once you do the laughs don’t stop. Peter Capaldi is the standout in this film; his facility with the English language and its swearing potential is quite a thing to behold. The script, too, is outstanding (it was nominated for the Oscar and probably should have won). There are so many quotable lines and they really speak for the film way better than I could. “’Climbing the mountain of conflict’? You sounded like a Nazi Julie Andrews!” “I can't stand to see a woman bleed from the mouth. It reminds me of that Country & Western music which I cannot abide.” “Y'know, I've come across a lot of psychos, but none as fucking boring as you. You are a real boring fuck. Sorry, sorry, I know you disapprove of swearing so I'll sort that out. You are a boring F, star, star, CUNT!” If you like your films sweary and smart, In the Loop will not do you wrong.

Notes:

• There were several other options here including Hot Fuzz and His Girl Friday and The Lady Eve.
• While I think a lot of the current group of Frat Pack films are funny enough I don’t love any of them. So no Anchorman or I Love You, Man or anything like that on the shortlist.
• Trailer!

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 17 - Your Favorite Drama Film

Day 17 - Your Favorite Drama Film

Magnolia (1999, Anderson)

This movie often filp flops with There Will Be Blood as my favorite movie of all time. Where TWBB is a focused study of a man grabbing at whatever he can to get rich, Magnolia pulls back and looks at a dozen or so LA denizens and how their lives weave in and out of each other’s. It’s not the first movie to do such a thing and it owes a lot of debt to Robert Altman’s Short Cuts in both its form and function. But there’s a kind of craziness that underlies everything. This being PTA’s third film he is mostly allowed to go all out on the filmmaking front. There’s a couple of multi-minute-long shots, the characters take a break in the middle of the film to have a cosmic sing-along, and then there’s the ending. It’s a pretty audacious piece of work but what makes it my favorite drama film is the characters. Like I said earlier there are about a dozen characters and all of the directorial trickery works to make you care about each and every one of them. From Tom Cruise’s woman-hating public speaker to John C. Reilly’s well meaning police officer to Melora Walters’ junkie caught between love and addiction, each of the characters has a full life which we glimpse for only a day. It is one of the best combinations of script, direction, and acting I have ever seen and it never fails to get my tear ducts working. Sometimes it’s Cruise’s confession at his dying father’s bedside or the heartbreaking date between Reilly and Walters that ends with this line, “Now that I've met you, would you object to never seeing me again?” or the final, redemptive scene of the film; they knit together to create a dazzling and desperately human work of art.

Notes:

• I have, for some reason, only seen this film twice. I feel like I should go out and buy it right now. I’ve talked myself into it.
• As hard as it was for me to not turn this into a Borzage-fest, it will be just as hard to keep all of PTA’s films off the list. There may or may not be another one coming up soon.
• There were roughly a billion other films I could have chosen for this spot including films like The Assassination of  Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and most of Borzage’s movies and The Searchers and How Green Was My Valley and so on and so forth.
• LOOK AT THE AWESOME!

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 16 - A Film You Used to Love, But Now Hate

Day 16 - A Film You Used to Love, But Now Hate

Star Wars (1977, Lucas)

Here we go. If you didn’t already hate me for disliking Aliens be prepared to quit reading in disgust.

When I was young my mother purchased me the VHS box set of the original trilogy. I watched these films over and over and over again. They were some kind of wonderful. Then the re-done versions came to theaters and I saw all of them. It should have been magical but I don’t recall any of it. When The Phantom Menace came out I loved it. My friend and I (both 11) returned after a Friday night showing and busted out the broomsticks to play at being Jedi and Sith. Because The Phantom Menace was so awesome. What I’m saying is that I was young and stupid. I mostly stopped watching Star Wars after Episode III arrived (and I thought that one was pretty good, too). I returned to the original series recently and, while there are moments of greatness (“I know.”) it’s mostly just poorly written nonsense for kids. Now, let me be clear, there are plenty of movies ostensibly made for kids that are great in their own right; Where the Wild Things Are and the majority of Disney and Pixar films are still great to this 23 year old, among others. But Star Wars is just stupid. From the annoying main character to the horrible dialogue and the silly robot characters, everything is just too dumb for me to enjoy. If this movie wasn't so well loved I’d just be indifferent to it. But if I tell somebody that I don’t like Star Wars they’ll get all red faced and try to punch me. It’s happened. I really hope that as the generation of people that saw it as a kid in the theater dies out it will be recognized as mostly bad.

Notes:

• That’s not to say nothing good came from Star Wars. Knights of the Old Republic is a terrific video game and there are some books I recall liking in the Expanded Universe (of course, I was a kid when I read those, too).
• If you want to see something better than Star Wars I’d suggest the Indiana Jones series. It takes the only good part of Star Wars and gives him his own thing to do.
• Most of the reason why Indiana Jones is better than Star Wars is that it’s directed by Spielberg instead of Lucas and Lucas didn’t actually write the scripts. As Harrison Ford said about Lucas’s dialogue, “You can write this shit, George, but you can’t say it.” Agreed.

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 15 - The Film That Depicts Your Life

Day 15 - The Film That Depicts Your Life

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010, Yates)

Dear readers, I don’t know if you know this about me but I am a teenage wizard. I was chosen from birth to destroy the most evil wizard in all of history. It’s a burden I can only bear with the help of my friends. All of this is probably not true. What is true is that this is the first movie in the series where the kids go out into the real (wizarding) world. Outside the relative safety of Hogwarts Harry, Ron, and Hermione must deal with real issues (the biggest being maintaining their friendship during difficult times) and have a mission to accomplish. My life now consists of trying to find a job and keeping connected to friends. No, I’m not destroying evil or anything but leaving the bubble of college to make my own way is my connection to the guy with the dorky glasses. Also, I have dorky glasses.

Notes:

• Potential other choices: Hot Fuzz, Adaptation, and 127 Hours. Make sense of that, I dare you.
• I thought Harry Potter was one of the best films of last year. This year’s conclusion (one month away!) could be the best movie of the year. David Yates has made the final four HP films really awesome. 
• Check the trailer for the next film in the series. It's close to the best thing ever.

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 14 - The Film That No One Expected You To Like

Day 14 - The Film That No One Expected You To Like

A Prairie Home Companion (2006, Altman)

In 2006 I had never seen an Atlman film before. I’d never listened to the radio show this movie is based on. I didn’t really know who most of these actors were (this was towards the beginning of my movie education). On top of all of that it’s a movie about a faux-old-timey radio show getting shut down. There was nothing in this movie for me to like. But I loved it. There’s a kind of ease that permeates the film. Yes, these people are losing their jobs (and the end makes it seem more like they’re dying, which is practically the same thing) but they’re so comfortable with each other that they know everything is going to be fine. In later years I saw more Altman and more movies with these performers and I learned to appreciate that everything has the potential to be good. Even a quasi-musical staring Lindsay Lohan and Garrison Keillor.

Notes:

• The performances in this movie are all great. They do the typical Altman overlapping dialogue which is fun but the more low-key aspect distinguishes it from some of his other stuff (Short Cuts, for example, is way more manic, I think).
• It’s kind of fitting that this is Altman’s last movie. It feels like it. The end of a performance and the end of an era. That final diner scene is just fantastic. If there is a heaven I would like it to be like that.
• This song is freaking hilarious. It's not exactly indicative of the rest of the film but it is super great.

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 13 - A Guilty Pleasure

Day 13 - A Guilty Pleasure

Anaconda (1997, Llosa)

I have a guilty genre. I will watch anything with animals that eat people. These animals may or may not be genetically modified, released from melting ice caps, or used as metaphors for genocide. I don’t care as long as they eat people. The pinnacle of these films is, obviously, Anaconda. Not only does it star a bunch of pretty ok actors that act in a pretty ok way (JLo! Ice Cube! Eric Stoltz! Danny Trejo! Owen Wilson!) it also has a big, silly CGI anaconda (voiced by master animal noise maker Frank Welker)! And a guy gets stung by a super wasp in the throat! It’s the silliest of movies and therefore I love it. And let nobody forget the supreme absurdity of Jon Voight’s performance. Is he Cajun? Russian? Martian? I don’t know, I don’t care. The scene where he is eaten by the snake and then regurgitated only to taunt JLo some more is one of the best scenes in movie history. Some genius on IMDb put up this quote from Voight, “Eet wraps eetz COILS around yooo... .TIGHTAH zan anny luvvah.” If that’s not a guilty pleasure I don’t know what is.

Notes:

• I could have also picked Deep Blue Sea very easily. Smart sharks! The best Sam Jackson performance! LL Cool J! A parrot! An ending stolen directly from Jaws!
• Anacondas: the Hunt for the Blood Orchid is almost as good as the first film. It doesn't have the star cast but the snake orgy at the end makes up for it. Ball of snakes!
• Anaconda trailer ahoy!

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 12 - A Film By Your Least Favorite Director

Day 12 - A Film By Your Least Favorite Director

Avatar (2009, Cameron)

Can I choose Aliens again? No? Ok, Avatar it is. Take all of the problems I outlined in Aliens and fix none of them and you get Avatar. I don’t even care that it’s not original because, for the most part, nothing is. If the dialogue was even remotely good I’d forgive the trite plot. The visuals are cool, yes, but they serve anything. I don’t need subtlety in my movies but I do require something that respects my intelligence. You want a good action film? Go to Die Hard or the Bourne films. Avatar has nothing outside looking cool (and even that isn’t really all that special. It’s fantasy plus neon.) and making a lot of money. It is so thoroughly mediocre for a movie that should be amazing. That’s the real problem. James Cameron can create cool looking things but he has trouble getting me to care about them. The Abyss is his only film that I can truly claim to enjoy without reservation since even T2 has the same annoying-child-actor-problem that hurts Aliens. For a guy that can do pretty much anything he wants he doesn’t seem to want to do anything of actual import. It’s a damn shame that people like Guillermo del Toro and Terry Gilliam can’t get the proper funding for their films but Cameron’s utterly boring films rake in the dough.

Notes:

• It seems like Michael Bay would be an obvious choice here but I like a lot of his movies. The Rock is fantastic and The Island and Armageddon both have some things going for them. Also, I really like the looks of Transformers: Dark of the Moon or whatever it’s called.
• James Cameron is probably better than most directors but it is his lack of ambition that gives him his spot here. I never expect a Paul W.S. Anderson movie or a Uwe Boll film to be anything but crap. Cameron could be so much better!

30 Day Film Challenge Day 11 - A Film By Your Favorite Director

Day 11 - A Film By Your Favorite Director

Lucky Star (1929, Borzage)

I’ve written (or at least picked out the movies for) the remaining posts in this series now. I’ve worked out that there is, after today, only one more Frank Borzage movie coming up. I feel justified having 1/10^th of this project be about Borzage because he is just that good. There’s a certain level of optimism in his films that is absent from the majority of films both today and in his time – his last directorial job came in 1961 but Moonrise in 1948 is considered his last great film. Magical dresses abound and the power of love usually conquers all. That’s not to say his films ignore reality. People die and lose their loved ones but the focus is always on the good rather than the bad. Today’s film is a sweet little love story where an injured WWI vet (the fantastic Charles Farrell) falls in love with a feisty younger woman (Janet Gaynor). They teach each other lessons about being good people and love and by the end the power of love is quite literally transcendent. The final ten minutes of this film are among the most beautiful I have ever seen and for that it is worth of this coveted spot on my list.

Notes: 

• These two actors also star in the more well known (relatively, of course) Borzage film 7^th Heaven. That, too, is a great film but I don’t like it nearly as much as I do the intense melodrama of Lucky Star.
• Janet Gaynor had a real good shot at taking my favorite actress spot. I do like Margaret Sullavan better but it’s a close race. Gaynor’s more famous role in F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans won her an Oscar (along with her roles in 7^th Heaven and Street Angel).
• Here's a clip of some of the best scenes from three Borzage-Gaynor-Farrell films: 7th Heaven, Lucky Star, and Street Angel.

30 Day Film Challenge Day 10 - A Film With Your Favorite Actor (Female)

Day 10 – A Film With Your Favorite Actor (Female)

The Shop Around the Corner (1940, Lubitsch)

Margaret Sullavan isn’t one of the super famous actresses from the ‘30s but she’s in four of my favorite films of the era. The Shop Around the Corner (later remade as You’ve Got Mail) is the only of these four not directed by Frank Borzage but since I probably shouldn’t pick his films for everything on this list I decided to go for this Ernst Lubitsch romance. The chemistry between Sullavan and Jimmy Stewart is the real draw of this film. Sullavan has a quality about her that is both ethereal and grounded. She seems like an angel and a flawed human being at the same time. See also: Three Comrades and Little Man, What Now?

Notes:

• Borzage’s The Mortal Storm came out in the same year as The Shop Around the Corner. It also stars Sullavan and Stewart and Frank Morgan (AKA The Wizard of Oz). It’s a much heavier movie than this one because of the whole Nazi thing. It is quite awesome.
• Also, The Shop Around the Corner is a way better Christmas movie than It's a Wonderful Life (which is very good).
• This scene shows the greatness of Margaret Sullavan quite well:

30 Day Film Challenge Day 9 - A Film With Your Favorite Actor (Male)

Day 9 – A Film With Your Favorite Actor (Male)

My Darling Clementine (1946, Ford)

Henry Fonda has been in roughly a billion great movies. The better known 12 Angry Men, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Grapes of Wrath, and The Lady Eve all boast really great Fonda performances. His lesser known films like Young Mr. Lincoln, Fort Apache, and My Darling Clementine are just as good. While John Wayne is known as John Ford’s muse, Fonda was also in a bunch of his movies. My Darling Clementine is a Ford western telling the story of the shootout at the OK Corral. Fonda plays Wyatt Earp as a more relaxed guy and sells the titular romance well. It’s not all that far off from his normal roles (for that you can go to The Lady Eve and OUATITW) but his normal roles are what I like so much about him. He’s not a superhero, he’s just a guy trying to do good in the world. 

Notes:

• Ward Bond is also in MDC. If I could pick another guy for this day it might be him. He seems to be in every movie made between 1930 and 1960. 
• Check out this clip (it's kind of long but worth it) to see some awesome Ward Bond-ness, Henry Fonda dancing and John Ford community building.

30 Day Film Challenge Day 8 - The Film You Can Quote Best

Day 8 – The Film You Can Quote Best

In Bruges (2008, McDonagh)

When the only thing I knew about this movie was the trailer I thought it would be dumb. There was a part that showed Colin Farrell say “Why Bruges?” in what seemed to be the silliest way possible. My friends and I began to mock it by greeting each other with our bastardized version: “I BRUUUUUUUSE”. And then I saw it and realized it was one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. There’s a bit of heart, too, but the overwhelming dark comedy is what makes this movie so special. I have since read some of McDonagh’s plays and they too are full of hilarious and mean lines. The chemistry between Farrell and Brendan Gleeson (and later Ralph Fiennes) is perfect and their repartee is top notch throughout. How could you not like a movie that swears so gleefully?(WARNING: SWEARING AHEAD) “I mean no disrespect, but you're a cunt. You're a cunt now, and you've always been a cunt. And the only thing that's going to change is that you're going to be an even bigger cunt. Maybe have some more cunt kids.”

Notes: McDonagh's got a new film coming next year called Seven Psychopaths. The cast looks awesome.

Here's a trailer for In Bruges. It's not the tv commercial which had the "Why Bruges" in it but it's still awesome:

30 Day Film Challenge Day 7 - A Film That Reminds You of Your Past

Day 7 – A Film That Reminds You of Your Past

War of the Worlds (2005, Spielberg)

I was a shy kid, mostly just going to class and then coming home to play videogames and do homework. In 2005 I made myself start to socialize with my peers. War of the Worlds is the first movie I went to see with people my age and not family. It also comes near the beginning of my film obsession. It’s a movie that isn’t exactly a masterpiece but I think it’s underrated, problematic ending aside. Combining the beginning of making my own friends, making film a big influence in my life and the summer before my senior year of High School makes War of the Worlds a movie that means a lot to me.

Note: This is my second Spielberg. I think he's good and often great but he wouldn't be one of my favorite directors. His movies just happen to fit for this sometimes.

30 Day Film Challenge Days 1-6

The 30 Day Film Challenge is a fun little project that I started doing over at The Reelists website. That website is shutting down so I'll be continuing it here. The idea is to pick a movie based on certain criteria for each day of the month. First up are the 6 movies already posted there. I'll just put them here for completion's sake. Later today I'll post Day 7.

Day 1: Your Favorite Film

There Will Be Blood (2007, Anderson) 

If there’s one thing that Paul Thomas Anderson is good at it’s examining the way broken people deal with the broken world they live in. There Will Be Blood is the epitome of that idea. Daniel Plainview (played perfectly by Daniel Day-Lewis) will tell you that he is an oil man and you will have to agree. The problem is that he is single minded in his quest for oil. His nemesis Eli Sunday (Paul Dano’s performance has been maligned but I think he does a good job of being the sniveling opposite of Day-Lewis’s towering inferno of a show) is similarly broken, leaning on religion as a way to exploit the small town people he purports to lead. The movie is deeply serious on first viewing but after multiple exposures the dark comedy comes to the fore. It’s a great example of what movies can do and the technical craft is second-to-none.

Day 2: Your Least Favorite Film

Aliens (1986, Cameron)

How can I hate Aliens, you might ask. Let me count the ways. It’s a sequel that completely changes the tone and world of the original film (which is a masterpiece, by the way). Instead of a smart and scary thriller we get a dumb and explosion-y action film with nothing horrifying in the 137 minute run time. Remember the characters in Alien? They had depth and a purpose. The sequel gave us people that spout one-liners like they were going out of style and lacked anything resembling nuance. And then the creatures. One alien was enough to kill the entire crew of the Nostromo but a hundred aliens left three survivors (thankfully killed in the superior third film)? The increase in numbers did not lead to an increase in scariness. And there’s a boss fight! A freaking boss fight. Aliens, you did what every other sequel does but for some reason people love you and condemn the rest. Not I! Boo, Aliens, Boo.

Day 3: A Film You Watch to Feel Good

Jurassic Park (1993, Spielberg)

Sure, Jurassic Park has a few people dying in it. And it’s not exactly a carefree romp or anything. But it is super fun and fulfills the promise of cinema to the fullest extent. The great thing about movies is that you can see and hear things that don’t exist. It’s limited only by imagination and the craftiness of the artists behind the scenes. In the case of Jurassic Park the imagination is great and the craftiness greater. Like most young boys I was fascinated by dinosaurs. They were so big and there were so many kinds. And thanks to Steven Spielberg and Stan Winston I could finally see real live (or real clever use of CGI and giant puppets) dinosaurs. And that’ll make me happy any day of the week.

Day 4: A Film You Watch to Feel Down

Hoop Dreams (1994, James)

The great thing about Hoop Dreams is that it’s a documentary about two kids that are chasing a dream. The terrible thing about Hoop Dreams is that they fail. It’s a 3 hour movie about people struggling against the system and themselves and losing. Not exactly what I would call uplifting. The two kids aspire to go to a good basketball school and transition into the NBA. While not the easiest goal to meet it certainly seems doable to young William Gates and Arthur Agee. But when one pushes his schooling to the side and the other’s body starts to fail him already the dreams begin to disappear. There are moments of joy sprinkled in there – Arthur’s mother getting her nursing assistant certificate made me cry – but most of it is utterly depressing. It is on my list of 100 greatest movies but I’d never watch it unless I wanted to be super sad.

Day 5: A Film That Reminds You of Someone

Liliom (1930, Borzage)

Those of you that know me might be surprised that this is the first Frank Borzage film from me. Many of you might not have seen a film from Mr. Borzage. Allow me to explain. My final semester in college I took a film class that focused solely on the films of Frank Borzage. He’s an old Hollywood director that nobody else seems to care about. But my professor, Bob Smith, really loved him. His appreciation was infectious and by the end of my time in his class I, too, had become a huge Borzage fan. Liliom is not a typical Borzage movie. It’s got a lot of flaws (mostly in the whole spousal abuse element and some of the acting choices) but those flaws serve only to highlight the spectacular look and feel of the film. To quote another Borzage film, “Everywhere… in every town, in every street… we pass unknowingly, human souls made great by love and adversity.” I’d like to thank Bob Smith for introducing me to Frank Borzage and for being the best teacher I’ve ever had.

Day 6: A Film That Reminds You of Somewhere.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001, Jackson)

How can a movie remind me of a place that doesn’t exist? It’s just that good at the world-building aspect of film. Peter Jackson took J.R.R. Tolkien’s base novels and planted them firmly in the already otherworldly land of New Zealand. The combination leads to a place that doesn’t really exist outside of the frame of the film but within that frame it’s as real as anywhere. It takes a special film to make me nostalgic for a place I’ve only experienced through books and movies. The Fellowship of the Ring is that movie. I would live in a hobbit hole in a second and even listening to that flute piece that plays seemingly throughout the time spent in the Shire is enough to bring me back to that place I’ve never been and will never go to.