Slowly Going Bald

"Look, we're gonna spend half the night driving around the Hills looking for this one party, and you're gonna say it sucks, and we're all gonna leave and we're gonna go look for this other party. But all the parties and all the bars, they all suck. I spend half the night talking to some girl who's looking around the room to see if there's someone who's more important she should be talking to, and it's like I'm supposed to be all happy 'cause she's wearing a backpack."

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

The Best Movies You've Never Seen

I've seen more than a thousand films in my life. At only 22, this is no small accomplishment, although others my age have seen as many or more. For instance, one of my roommates, an old friend from college, has probably seen more movies than I have, but I take more pride in my list (I actually made one) than I would of his were I in his shoes. Why? Because, with a few exceptions and the transgressions of youth (I'd prefer to forget that I've seen 3 Ninjas and other less-than-exceptional elementary school flicks), most of the movies I've seen are, to a degree, better than others. I care too much about movies to simply see everything released. I'd rather not put myself through things like White Chicks or Alexander if I can help it. And that's where my roommate and I differ: if he's seen it and I haven't, the film's probably mainstream; if I've seen it and he hasn't, it's probably independent, older or conventionally ignored. I don't mean to sound elitist; on the contrary, being exclusionary does more to harm than good to my cause of getting people to see more movies and more kinds of movies.

With that in mind, I've put together a list of a few films I feel are unappreciated (or unheard of) by many members of my generation. Rent them, if only to drop their titles at a party and make people believe you're more knowledgeable than they'd expected.

1. The Limey (1999)
2. Donnie Darko (2001)
3. Bottle Rocket (1996)
4. Hard Eight (1996)
5. Following (1998)
6. Abre Los Ojos (1997) (Yes, this is in Spanish with English subtitles. Deal.)
7. Election (1999)
8. The Conversation (1974)
9. Breaking the Waves (1996)
10. A Midnight Clear (1992)

That'll do for now, although I'm sure I'll think of more later. I always do. But the preceding are good movies that not many people my age have taken the time to see. I'd like to see that change.

1 Comments:

Donnie darko was a great movie that everyone should see. Not too sure where I stand on The Limey. The rest We'll see about when we can.

By Azathoth100, at 5:58 PM, January 02, 2005

: Name: Dan Carlson; Location: Houston, Texas, United States

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...a stone, a leaf, an unfound door; of a stone, a leaf, a door. And of all the forgotten faces....

O waste of loss, in the hot mazes, lost, among bright stars on this most weary unbright cinder, lost! Remembering speechlessly we seek the great forgotten language, the lost lane-end into heaven, a stone, a leaf, an unfound door. Where? When?

O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again.

--Look Homeward, Angel

Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.

--John Stuart Mill

We have all read in scientific books, and indeed, in all romances, the story of the man who has forgotten his name. This man walks about the streets and can see and appreciate everything; only he cannot remember who he is. Well, every man is that man in the story. Every man has forgotten who he is. One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God; but thou shalt not know thyself. We are all under the same mental calamity; we have all forgotten our names. We have all forgotten what we really are. All that we call common sense and rationality and practicality and positivism only means that for certain dead levels of our life we forget that we have forgotten. All that we call spirit and art and ecstasy only means that for one awful instant we remember that we forget.

--G.K. Chesterton

We were, for the briefest of moments, something greater than the sum of our uncertain parts; we were youth itself, in all its painful glory and sharp joy.

--August Van Zorn

There is a time in the lives of most writers when they are vulnerable, when the vivid dreams and ambitions of childhood seem to pale in the harsh sunlight of what we call the real world. In short, there's a time when things can go either way.

Film lovers are sick people.

--Francois Truffaut