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.