In my last post, I ruminated on the dangers of reverse culture shock. Presumably, you, the concerned reader, thought to yourself, "This simply will not do. How can I help Mike minimize these feelings of isolation?" For the answer, I'm turning to the cinema.
This blog has made repeated mention of my love of music (like here, for example, or here. Here too), but save for the occasional Anchorman reference, I've given no play to my other pop culture passion, film. Until now.
The way I see it, if I can quickly update my grasp of Western cultural iconography by ravenously devouring the most important flicks of the here and now, I will in the process minimize at least one avenue for potential alienation. And that sounds like a pretty good excuse to watch movies to me.
Here's where you come in. Some films are obvious must-sees whose buzz has reached me even in Freetown, such as Slumdog Millionaire. But there are many, many more for which I am relying on the considerable knowledge of my film nerd friends.
Thus, I am now accepting proposals for single- and double-feature bills of the best the movie industry has pumped out in the last eight months. Both in-theatre and video release options are acceptable.
The annual cache from the November Oscar blitz will have hit rental shelves by now, I presume, but I'm also down for some light summer fare at the cineplex. After all, this is by far the longest stretch I've gone without adding a five-digit AFI number to my collection and I'm straight-up fiending. (If you've never gone to the movies with me, don't even try to understand this last comment.)
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7 comments:
Dude!
I definitely look forward to getting the opportunity to participate in the reintegration process. There are still a few flicks from the November Oscar blitz that I have yet to check out myself (among those being Doubt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Frost/Nixon). I'm also down with seeing some movies for a second time (Waltz with Bashir comes to mind). I can't wait until your back in town.
Keep it real brother,
- Jimmy D.
I'm going to say my favourite movies of the year were:
-Revolutionary Road
-Rachel Getting Married
-I've Loved You So Long
-M.I.L.K.
-Let the Right One In
And oh the AFI number. I actually miss going to movies with you just for that reason. Sometimes I find myself just sitting in the theater after the film ends out of habit, hah.
See you soon friend!
Mike! I have also yet to see Slumdog Millionaire, so if you need a buddy for viewing, I'm in!
Ok, I’ll try to cover as broad an area as possible:
1. The Wrestler - Darron Aranofsky, the guy who did Requiem for a Dream. You'll LOVE it, especially the part where the crowd chants “use his leg, use his leg” lol
2. In Bruges: It's funny, foreign and definitely unique.
3. Synecdoche, New York: if you’re a Charlie Kauffman person you’ll like it.
4. The Dark Night – I’m not sure if you were here for that, but this is a no-brainer. And not just because of Heath Ledger’s incredible performance, which happened to be his last ever…and not just because it’s Batman and that’s cool. Chris Nolan (Memento) is a goddamn genius and the most promising, underrated director around.
5. Wall-E: I’m not a big animation person, but I think this is an incredibly special movie that is probably more relevant to adults than kids.
6. Forgetting Sarah Marshall and/or I Love You, Man were the funniest movies this year, IMO.
7. I also saw Rachel Getting Married at TIFF and really liked it, but that might just be because I’m a girl and because my family is also dysfunctional…not to mention I’m getting married. So many parallels!
8. The Reader may have been one of my personal favourites, but I wouldn’t expect everyone to like it. It’s a drama, historical, holocaust related, love story, etc.
Hope this helps!
xoxo
Pinchy
The Reader was fantastic, Kate Winslet is a fucking Godsend.
Role Models was highly underrated and exceptionally hilarious.
Alas, I can't be much more help (I'm a sham of a film major) as I'm still trying to catch up on what I missed while I was away.
Thank you all. That is tremendously helpful. I'll look into the ones that I don't already know I want to see, which is most of them.
I actually watched Milk on the plane from London and thought it had some pretty emotionally-charged moments. Not sure it'll end up being my favourite movie of '08, but certainly worth seeing.
Pinch, the mere fact that you give explicit mention to Aranofsky and Nolan means your opinion gets extra cred; they're two of my favourite directors, so certainly not underrated by me. I saw The Dark Knight before I left, and it was stellar. Same for Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I'll look into the others.
And Millet, consider yourself recruited for Slumdog. We'll have to choose a mutually acceptable date sometime soon.
Terminator Salvation has been underrated but is actually a wicked renewal of the time warping killer robot franchise...I'd be up for seeing that again while it's still in theaters.
-Paul
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