Caddyshack: 1980, dir. Harold Ramis. Seen on DVD April 18.
I really did think I would like this movie. I thought it would be like There’s Something About Mary, where I put off watching a film that seemed distasteful to me, but then it was so amusing and entertaining that I didn’t care so much about the gross jokes.
I was wrong.
Category: films seen in 2004
There’s Something About Mary (1998)
There’s Something About Mary: 1998, dir. Bobby and Peter Farrelly. Seen on DVD (April 8).
There’s Something About Mary ruined my life, I tell you. Well, slightly.
I hadn’t seen the movie, but I felt its effects. I read scripts for a film competition in 1999 and it was obvious that a certain scene in this movie had an effect on comedy screenplays. Suddenly the taboos on precious bodily fluids in film had been lifted.
Trouble in Paradise (1932)
Trouble in Paradise: 1932, dir. Ernst Lubitsch. Seen on DVD (April 7).
It was such a happy surprise, such a nice little gift, to watch Trouble in Paradise and realize that it was yet another movie that I would enjoy and love and remember fondly. You never know, with these early films, whether it will be a static dull dud (Morning Glory, for which Katharine Hepburn won an Oscar), or something that hasn’t dated and faded over the years.
The problem with Trouble in Paradise is that I cannot really talk about it without talking about Thirties movies in general, and how much I love them, and the qualities of these films and how this relates to Trouble in Paradise. If you don’t want to read about the evolution of the romantic comedy film … your loss, not mine. But you have been warned.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre: 1948, dir. John Huston. Seen on DVD (March 28).
I had high hopes for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. I thought it would be a wonderful adventure movie, full of action and bravado and quotable dialogue. I’m not the world’s biggest John Huston fan, but this seemed like the type of movie he would do very well.
I have to admit I was somewhat disappointed.
Best in Show (2000)
Best in Show: 2000, dir. Christopher Guest. Seen on DVD (March 23).
This movie made me laugh, even though I was watching it alone. I laughed aloud, and I giggled a lot, and I put my hand to my forehead and groaned, “ohhhh, my God, they didn’t,” and then I laughed some more.
I saw A Mighty Wind last year and I thought it was funny and cute, but Best in Show is even funnier. I mean, just in terms of plain old laughs, this is a wonderfully entertaining movie.
The Ladykillers (1955)
The Ladykillers: 1955, dir. Alexander Mackendrick. Seen on DVD (March 10).
I realized I had better see the 1955 movie The Ladykillers pretty soon because the Coen brothers have directed a remake of this movie, and it would be fun for me if I’d seen the original one first. (This is a definition of “fun” that only works for film geeks/critics/writers, in which you get to compare versions and notice what elements the filmmakers chose to keep and what to transform in the remake.) I normally don’t like remakes very much, but I like the Coens so I am looking forward to seeing the remake.
I am particularly looking forward to the remake now that I’ve seen the original, because I didn’t find The Ladykillers to be nearly as funny as I’d expected.
Spellbound (2002)
Spellbound: 2002, dir. Jeffrey Blitz. Seen on DVD (March 7).
Spellbound is a documentary that got a lot of attention last year. It was meant to be broadcast on Showtime, but it was so popular and well received that it ended up having a theatrical release instead. People were charmed by the story of eight children all preparing for the National Spelling Bee.
My coworkers in particular enjoyed it because they are geeky tech writers who like to watch people spell. In fact, I have to wonder how many of my tech writing coworkers might have been in spelling bees in their youth, perhaps losing traumatically and turning to a life of pathologically perfectionistic proofreading and editing as a result. Not me, of course.
Freaky Friday (2003)
Freaky Friday: 2003, dir. Mark S. Waters. Seen on DVD (March 6).
We saw Freaky Friday because of peer pressure. All kinds of people told my boyfriend and me how funny it was, how surprisingly entertaining, and how much we would enjoy it.
So I think we expected too much from this movie. It would have been better if we had seen it the weekend it opened, perhaps under duress, expecting something formulaic and crappy, and then we would have had a happy surprise.
As it was, we saw Freaky Friday at home on DVD when we had nothing much else to do, and it was entertaining enough, but not quite the laughfest we anticipated.
Local Hero (1983)
Local Hero: 1983, dir. Bill Forsyth. Seen on DVD (March 3).
Local Hero was on The List for 2003 because people have been telling me for years that I ought to watch some Bill Forsyth movies. Someone suggested I pay attention to the quirky characters in the movie because I write characters in the same way. Back in my screenwriting days, I was always better at writing vivid, interesting characters than I was at developing plot and story.
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Heavenly Creatures: 1994, dir. Peter Jackson. Seen on DVD (March 14).
Heavenly Creatures is one of the most intense movies I’ve seen in a long time. It also has one of the most disturbing endings I’ve seen, period.
What I knew going into the film was that it was about two girls who are such close friends that they create their own world and wrap themselves in it, and then something terribly tragic happens at the end when they go too far. I couldn’t remember the details since it’s been such a long time since the movie was released.