Movies

[handful_ofdust]

This movie meme that's been going around on Facebook is predictably baffling to me, mainly because I could answer each category with ten titles and still feel like I was shorting someone somewhere. Do I answer with movies I've seen multiple times, or movies I've seen once but keep thinking about--classics, or something more recent? Do I answer with films I find comfortable, familiar, sustaining, or with films that have challenged and disturbed me? The whole overrated/underrated thing is similarly difficult; there are films I wish more people knew about, but I've rarely resented films just for being popular.

I will say that in the Most Hated category, I do actually have an answer, because this film will genuinely make me leave the room when it comes on: A Few Good Men. It's chemical, basically; I hate everything about it, from all the characters to the philosophy it espouses. There isn't a single scene during which I don't want to throw things at the screen, or shut my eyes and yell "LALALALALA" until it goes away--I feel like the mere fact of its existence wastes my time. The fact that Steve will watch it whenever it's offered really doesn't help, either.

Okay, so here we go:

A Movie I Love: Gangs of New York
An Action Movie I Love: Set It Off or Die Hard or Full Contact or From Dusk Till Dawn or La Femme Nikita or The Accountant
A Drama I Love: Beasts of the Southern Wild or The Sweet Smell of Success or Whiplash or The Voices or The Lion in Winter or The Red Shoes or Black Narcissus or Cries and Whispers or Chungking Express or My Left Foot or The Fountain
A Western I Love: Ravenous or 3:10 to Yuma or Ride With the Devil or Near Dark or Dead Man or True Grit
A Horror Movie I Love: Session 9 or The Thing or Psycho or Suspiria or At the Devil's Door or Nightbreed or The Legend of Hell House or The Innocents or The Devils or The Haunting or The Witch or The Collection or The Invitation or I, Madman or Lake Mungo
A Comedy I Love: The Imposters or Raising Arizona
A Romance Movie I Love: The Handmaid or Morocco or Blonde Venus or Bright Star or Gotham
A Noir I Love: L.A. Confidential or Gilda or The Shanghai Gesture or Nightcrawler or White Heat or To Live and Die in L.A. or The Glass Key or Brick
A Disney Movie I Love: The Hunchback of Notre Dame
A Sci Fi Movie I Love: Blade Runner or Alien or Aliens or Scanners
An Animated Movie I Love: Princess Mononoke
A Superhero Movie I Love: The Avengers or Watchmen or Guardians of the Galaxy
A War Movie I Love: Laurence of Arabia or Full Metal Jacket or The Hurt Locker or Apocalypse Now
An Exploitation Movie I Love: Switchblade Sisters or Deep Cover or People Under the Stairs or The Purge: Anarchy
A Musical I Love: Across the Universe or Hard Core Logo or The Runaways or Stop Making Sense or Velvet Goldmine
An Historical Movie I Love: Queen Margot or Meek's Cutoff or Empire of the Sun or Elizabeth or The Age of Innocence or Malcolm X or Heavenly Creatures
A Bad Movie I Love: Con Air or The Core or Event Horizon or Death Race or Drive Angry
A Childhood Favourite: Flash Gordon (1980)
A Shakespeare Movie I Love: Othello (Laurence Fishburne) or Coriolanus (Rafe Fiennes) or The Tempest (Julie Taymor) or Richard III (Sir Ian McKellen) or Throne of Blood (Kurosawa) or Much Ado About Nothing (Kenneth Branagh)
A Franchise I Love: Star Wars
A Trilogy I Love: The Trois Couleurs Trilogy (Bleu, Blanc, Rouge)
A Guilty Pleasure I Love: Silent Hill
A Movie Recently Seen: The Void
My Favourite of This Year: Logan
A Favourite of All Time: The Exorcist

Comments

[sovay]

This movie meme that's been going around on Facebook is predictably baffling to me, mainly because I could answer each category with ten titles and still feel like I was shorting someone somewhere.

Seriously. I don't have single favorite movies. And I have incredible trouble with the concept of guilty pleasures: I don't think I have any movies that I feel bad about liking. I suppose an overrated movie would be a movie where everyone I know seems to love it and it does nothing for me, but I don't think it would ever occur to me to describe it that way, because presumably they're getting something out of it even if I'm not.

It's chemical, basically; I hate everything about it, from all the characters to the philosophy it espouses.

That's amazing. I think I had a reaction like that once to being trapped on a bus with Mouse Hunt (1997).

[teenybuffalo]

I love "Hunchback of Notre-Dame" too.

In case you haven't listened to this: here is Frollo's song in always-scarier German.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVlNbs7PaFc

"Feuer der Hölle." Being forced to listen to it in another language makes the operatic overstatement hit you hard. A former schoolmate played this for me back in like 2009 and we listened with dread, and other things, in our hearts.