21. A Mighty Wind

2003; dir. Christopher Guest; starring Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Jane Lynch, and a bunch of other incredibly talented people
My views: 12

When my parents first saw this together, my mom loved it and my dad didn't.  He bought it for her on VHS soon afterwards, but we didn't watch it for a very long time.  I remember having no idea what it was, but thinking it looked really boring.  It wasn't until May of 2007 that my mom finally talked me into watching it, and I ended up seeing it a total of five times that year alone, making this yet another of my favorite films that my mom had to initially talk me into watching.  My dad also liked it a lot better the second time, and this has since become one of our family's favorites, both to watch and to recite.

This was my first Chris Guest mocumentary, and I'd never seen anything like it before.  I was completely unprepared for what I was about to experience, and A Mighty Wind completely blew me away (pardon the pun).  I already knew that I was a huge fan of ensemble films, but I had no idea they could be done so well.  In this, as in the other Chris Guest mocumentaries, even the people who are only in a few scenes get a chance to shine.  This cast is overflowing with talent, both comedic and musical, and it becomes even greater as they play off each other.  I still can't believe that it's possible to say some of their lines with a straight face.  Even after watching this as many times as I have, I still burst out laughing when Chris Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer start talking about the record with no hole, Jane Lynch describes Witches in Nature's Colors, and Catherine O'Hara sings about Sure-Flo.  I also love that, even though they're making fun of folk music, they actually bothered to write quality folk songs for the soundtrack (which I'm of course listening to as I write this), and that they sing them well.  This movie reinforced my belief that it's okay to like something both ironically and un-ironically at the same time, which is good because I do that a lot.

Not long after watching this film, I got the other films like it from the library.  While I really enjoyed all of them, I didn't think any of them could quite compare to A Mighty Wind.  Perhaps it's because I saw this one first, but I find it more charming and less inappropriate than the others.  I'm still incredibly happy that this genre exists, and that I can watch other films with basically the same cast in completely different roles.  Christopher Guest might be the most versatile actor on the planet, and the rest of the cast runs a close second.  When I'm having a bad day, reminding myself that these people exist always makes me feel better.

22. Enchanted

2007; dir. Kevin Lima; starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden
My views: 12

As I mentioned in my first post, I grew up loving Disney.  I've spent hours of my life analyzing the movies and  their characters, and my brother and I wrote several stories combining Disney characters from different films in alternate universes.  So when I found out that they were making a film that was basically a conglomeration of all the Disney princess films as if they took place in the real world, I was a little disappointed because I'd hoped to make that movie myself someday.  But I'm no filmmaker, and my film wouldn't have been nearly as wonderful as this.

This movie is like a big reunion for Disney movie characters and plot points.  A wicked royal stepmother, a handsome prince, a beautiful not-quite-princess, animals to help with the chores, a poisoned apple, a villain who turns into a dragon, true love's kiss...the list goes on and on.  I also love how many people that were involved in previous Disney films are in this.  My brother was quick to spot Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid, as Patrick Dempsey's secretary.  I noticed Paige O'Hara (the voice of Belle)'s name in the credits, but it took me a really long time to find her (she's in the soap opera Nathaniel watches in the motel room).  I thought it was quite fitting when I heard the unmistakable voice of Julie Andrews as the narrator.  I learned from the special features of the DVD that she wasn't the only Mary Poppins cast member to put in an appearance: one of the chimney sweeps is in the "That's How You Know" number, which is probably my all-time favorite on-screen musical number ever.  It's also one of the most-played songs on my ipod, which brings me to Alan Menken, the man who, as my sister pointed out the other day, "kind of saved Disney," and who quite appropriately composed this film's incredible songs and score.  I think it's his contribution more than anything else (with the possible exception of Amy Adams, who makes a fabulously convincing real-life Disney princess) that brings such an enchanting, Disney-esque feel to this film.

While this movie borrows a lot from other Disney films, it's still very much its own.  It took a story I thought I knew backwards and forwards and turned it upside down.  The beautiful not-quite-princess is transported from her fairy tale land of Andalasia into a dreadful place known as Reality.  At first she looks quite ridiculous, having no idea how to behave in the real world, but it doesn't take her long to figure out that she's a lot better suited for it than she could ever have imagined.  Enchanted came out when I was a senior in high school, and the timing couldn't have been more perfect.  I was terrified to grow up and face the world of adulthood, but if Giselle could make it in New York City, then maybe, just maybe, I could make it as an adult.

23. The Princess Bride

1987; dir. Rob Reiner; starring Cary Elwes, Robin Wright
My views: 11

It's hard for me to remember a time when I hadn't seen this movie.  It used to be on TV quite frequently, so I saw a lot of bits and pieces of it when I was growing up.  I didn't really understand all the stuff about trying to start a war, but I thought Wesley was one of the most attractive men I'd ever seen, and that ROUSes were the most terrifying things in the world.  Then, as I got older, I began to appreciate this movie more and more for its incredible script and the brilliant way the actors deliver the lines.

Most movies have a few really great lines that people like to quote a lot.  The Princess Bride is one of the few where practically all of its lines are quotable.  From short catchphrases like "As you wish" and "Inconceivable!" to dialogues like "No more rhymes now, I mean it!" "Anybody want a peanut?" to monologues like the one about mutton lettuce and tomato sandwiches to "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die," the entire script is overflowing with wit.  And that, in a nutshell, is what I love about this movie.  I've probably mentioned it before, but I love films with good dialogue.  In real life, it's hard to come up with the right thing to say on the spot, but movies aren't real life, and people have time to think about what should be said in every situation.  It makes me really happy when writers use this to their advantage, and this film is a perfect example.  I'm not sure who made the decision to let William Goldman do the screenplay, but it was ingenious.  The film is significantly different from his book, but it retains his witty, satirical voice, which is the best aspect of the book in the first place.  And then there are the incredible actors who read the lines the way they were supposed to be read.  I mean, when you've got, in addition to Cary Elwes and Robin Wright, people like Mandy Patinkin, Wallace Shawn, Christopher Guest, Billy Crystal and Carol Kane, with Rob Reiner directing, you can't go wrong.

Another reason I really like this film is it appeals to a wide audience.  If you like romantic films, there's a great love story between a beautiful rich girl and her poor farm boy.  If you prefer action/adventure films, there are some pretty epic sword-fighting and chase scenes.  If you want something a little more heart-warming, you can focus on the grandfather who's reading a story to his grandson.  This is why I usually end up watching this film when I'm with a large group of people: it's something we can all agree on.  In addition, The Princess Bride's wide appeal and immensely quotable script make it one of the few I can recite without people looking at me like I'm crazy.

One thing people find out rather quickly when they get to know me is I recite movies a lot.  It goes back to what I said before; it's hard to think of something to say on the spot, but people who write film scripts get to think them through.  I also have a really good auditory memory (I'm not really sure if that's a thing, but I'm pretending it is), so if I hear a song or a line of dialogue a few times, I'm likely to have it memorized.  This is probably part of the reason I like musicals so much.  Anyway, as you can probably guess when I have movies like Neptune's Daughter in here, most of the time people have no idea what I'm talking about when I reference my favorite movies.  But The Princess Bride is a film that most people have seen and memorized lines from, and if they haven't seen it, they've almost certainly heard someone quote it before.  Like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, this is one of the movies that makes me feel less weird about being obsessed, because I'm not the only one.

24. Monty Python and the Holy Grail

1975; dir. Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones; starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Michael Palin
My views: 11

My mom took me to see this in a theater in the summer of 2001, before I started keeping track of the movies I watched or became obsessed with films. I had no idea that this was a cult classic or the ultimate nerd film or anything. I don't think I really got it, although I remember thinking it was quite funny. Actually the main thing I remember from that first viewing is jumping about 10 feet when a little white bunny suddenly leapt into the air and bit the head off of a knight.  I think I needed a little bit of time to think about this film after I saw it before deciding that, overall, I'd really enjoyed it. I've always liked quoting movies, and this has so many good quotable lines that I was bound to get into it.

I remember that I saw this in 2001 because that was the summer before I started sixth grade. Soon after watching this movie, I had to start attending middle school, which I was absolutely dreading. I loved my elementary school, and I was very comfortable there. The middle school was a big, daunting new place, and when I got there, I discovered to my dismay that in most of my classes, the only people from my elementary school were people I didn't know or some of the very few people I couldn't stand. I'm also incredibly introverted and hate meeting new people, so I was afraid I would never have any friends. But I met someone on the bus, and somehow we got around to discussing this movie, and that was all we needed. So I started hanging out with her group of friends. We would go around demanding each other's name, quest, and favorite color, shouting, "Ni!" and asking for shrubberies. I'm also pretty sure we all had mothers who were hamsters and fathers who smelt of elderberries.

I would love to be able to say that we remained best friends to this day and it's all because of this movie, but that's not what happened. By the end of sixth grade we had drifted apart and I'd started hanging out with different people, some of whom I am still friends with today, but none of whom had seen this movie. I don't remember if I watched it again in 2001 or 2002, but once I started keeping track I didn't watch it until 2005. I understood a lot of the humor better as a 15-year-old than I did as an 11-year old, and I've continued to watch it as often as possible, whenever I need cheering up or am in the mood for something fun. The humor is just so perfect I can't get over it. But I think at least some of my love for this movie comes from the fact that I was able to use it to make friends in sixth grade. And, of course, this movie is so popular and quotable that I've been able to connect with several other people on the basis of references to it. I think it's helped me realize the extent to which bonding over movies is possible, which is something I still exploit whenever possible. When I have to participate in one of those awful icebreakers where you have to say something interesting about yourself, I usually bring up movies. I hate small talk, so it's usually difficult for me to get to know new people, but if you've seen a movie I like I'll talk to you about it for days. This movie was one of the first to help me realize this, and I've never forgotten that.

25. Chicago

2002; dir. Rob Marshall; starring Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere
My views: 11

When my mom first took me to see this film in early 2003, I was very excited, partly because I was only 12 and my parents usually took the 13 in PG-13 very seriously, and partly because one of my best friends had the soundtrack and I pretty much had "Cell Block Tango" and "We Both Reached for the Gun" memorized.  It did not disappoint.  This movie fascinated me for two main reasons, which are the two reasons I watched it over and over again, and the two reasons I still find this film worth watching 10 years later.

First, as I'm sure you've gathered from reading this blog, I absolutely adore musicals.  Practically all the music I listen to and a significant proportion of the movies I watch are musical-related.  So I was particularly intrigued by Chicago because, not only is it a musical, it's actually a somewhat plausible musical.  Let's face it; in real life people don't randomly break out into perfectly choreographed dance routines while singing clever songs that they all make up off the top of their heads to music that comes out of nowhere.  I mean, I wish they did, and I'm convinced the world would be a much better place if that happened, but unfortunately it doesn't.  In Chicago, all of the musical numbers are either part of a performance or in Roxie's head.  Roxie wants to be a Vaudeville performer so badly, she turns her world into a musical.  I love the juxtaposition of what's going on in Roxie's outside world and what's going on in her imagination.  I think it's very well done, and it's what sets this apart from the other musicals I love.  Also, I really like that even though these actors aren't known for their singing, they all have really good voices (Mamma Mia, take note).

Secondly, I found it fascinating, albeit unsettling, that I could love and hate these characters simultaneously.  I was used to good guys and bad guys.  Fred Casely was a jerk, but did he deserve to die?  Roxie and Velma were murderers, but to what extent were their actions justified?  And does it even matter?  When I first saw this film, I was just starting to realize that the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters (and Order of the Phoenix hadn't even been published yet, so you can't blame me for not knowing it before), and I think this was an important stepping stone in my growing awareness of moral ambiguities.  I was comfortable with the clear boundaries between good and bad in my mind: you follow the rules and you're good, you don't and you're bad.  This film blurred those lines, confusing me, so I had to keep returning to it over and over again to figure out what was going on.  Once I got into my later teens, I started to become more comfortable with this fact of life, and consequently stopped watching this movie as much, but I still return to it every once in a while, and I listen to the soundtrack quite a bit.  Also, I feel it necessary to point out that despite all this, my favorite character is still Amos.  Moral ambiguities are interesting and all, but I still prefer nice people.

This movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture, so if you want to see what I said about it two years ago when I was watching all the Best Picture Winners, click here.

26. Bringing Up Baby

1938; dir. Howard Hawks; starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn
My views: 11

The first time my mom got this from the library, towards the beginning of my classic-movie-watching career, she said, "I don't really like this movie, but you might."  Then I watched it, and I thought it was one of the most hilarious films I'd ever seen.  Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn are to this day my favorite actor and actress, and Bringing Up Baby was a major contributing factor.  I couldn't help but admire the way they managed to emanate class and style while chasing leopards, knocking over dinosaur skeletons, and finding themselves in other completely ridiculous situations.  I can't tell you exactly when my crush on Cary Grant began, but it could very well have been while I was watching this film.  I also really wanted to be Katharine Hepburn's character, and not just because she ends up with Cary Grant (sorry for the spoiler, but I think it's kind of implied).  She's so ridiculous and silly and obnoxious, and yet, she's so confident and lovely and, for lack of a better term, so Katharine Hepburn, that even a stuffy scientist can't help but love her for it.  Unlike most kids, when I was in middle school I wanted to stand out.  I loved that I was into movies most of my peers had never heard of.  And I think this is part of the reason why I was so drawn to this movie: I wanted to be weird and slightly annoying and have someone love me anyway.

As I'm sure I've mentioned, I do a lot of movie-watching with my mom, so the fact that she doesn't like this film makes it surprising that I've seen it enough to blog about it.  But fortunately for me, I could always count on my brother to watch this with me.  He and I both really appreciate screwball comedy, and this is an example of the genre at its finest.  For years (mostly 2003-2005) when we weren't watching this movie, we were reciting it.  My brother was pretty young at the time, but I remember him doing a hilarious Mrs. Carlton Random impression: "Constable, if you continue to annoy me about this girl who is no responsibility of mine, I'll have you arrested!"  The rest of our family thought this movie was stupid, but we appreciated its humor, and probably drove them all crazy talking and laughing about it constantly.

And then, our obsession with this movie ended.  Part of it was that my brother decided he didn't like old movies anymore and refused to watch anything in black and white for a long time, mostly to annoy me (it worked).  I think since then he's relented a bit, but it's still not the same as it was before.  Another part of it is after a while this film does get a little annoying, so I decided I needed a break from it.  But I see now that the last time I saw this movie was in October of 2008, so I think it's just about time to end that break and give this movie another chance.  After all, I can always use more Cary and Kate in my life.

27. His Girl Friday

1940; dir. Howard Hawks; starring Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy
My views: 11

My love for Cary Grant, which is probably more appropriately termed an obsession, makes it unsurprising that I love this movie.  But I've seen a whole lot of Cary Grant movies, and while several of them are going on this blog, it will not be nearly all of them.  It seems that Cary Grant's presence alone is not enough for me to watch a movie ten times.  In this movie's case, I know exactly why it's on here: it's all about the fantastic dialogue.

It's not just that the lines are clever, although they are.  One of my particular favorites is when Cary Grant's character, Walter Burns, is told he's through, and he responds with, "The last man who said that to me was Archie Leach, just a week before he cut his throat."  I love this because, of course, Cary Grant's real name was Archibald Leach.  Another of my favorite lines is when Walter describes Ralph Bellamy's character as looking like, "that fellow in the movies, what's his name...Ralph Bellamy."  I can't help but laugh when movies reference the fact that they're movies, especially when it's done that well.  But the real reason I love the dialogue in His Girl Friday is it's almost like a dance.  The characters are constantly talking over each other, which fits perfectly in the film's newsroom setting, and yet incredibly, they do it in such a way that no word that's vital to the plot is missed.  While the audience can't hear everything at once, they're allowed to perfectly understand everything they need to keep the thread of the story.  That's why I say it's like a dance: the dialogue is not only written; it's choreographed.  And Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell attack this verbal choreography just as well as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers did with actual dance choreography.  And that is why I love this movie.

The way the characters talk over each other also makes this a movie well worth watching multiple times.  I catch new snippets of dialogue every time I see it.  And it's not just the dialogue that's subtle.  It took me a long time to realize how often the camera shows us the fateful desk that doesn't become important until towards the end.  So while part of the reason I watch this so often is I think it's a wonderful movie, I've also gotten a lot more out of it the last few times I've seen it than I did the first time.

I'm definitely considering watching this at some point today, since it's Cary Grant's birthday and a Friday.  Also, according to imdb this movie was released on this date in 1940.  So we'll see.