I am also going through a strange cinematic phase of life. Instead of feeling pressure to like all movies that are underground and hate all movies that are commercial, I am realizing that some movies (You, Me & Everyone We Know, Running with Scissors, Junebug) that I’m supposed to like as according to the unwritten guidelines of my age/hipness/usual preferences aren’t enjoyable to me. There are some movies that I can see why they are great, even though I don’t like them. There Will Be Blood is the best movie I hope I never have to see again. It deserved every single critical acclaim that it received, and I hope that Zack never feels the urge to buy the DVD. That’s fair, isn’t it? I can recognize museum art as being of good quality even if it doesn’t tickle my tastebuds. Surely that same ideal can apply to movies, RIGHT?
The above coming-into-my-own weirdness combined with my gross overuse of the word “favorite” make it difficult for me to do simple things like assemble a list of my 10 favorite movies. But here I am anyway–partly because I rarely get tagged in memes, and I feel flattered that Sadie thought of me. And partly because I wanted to post something ‘easy’ because I AM TIRED BECAUSE I STUDY U.S. HISTORY ALL THE MINUTES OF MY LIFE. Easy wound up requiring a lot of internet research, but ALAS. I am here, with a list. Without any more ado than I’ve already given you:
Ten of Sarah’s Favorite Movies, but Not A Truly Definitive List, And Not in Any Real Order:
10. I <3 Huckabees
9. The Departed
8. Juno
7. Little Miss Sunshine
6. Thank You For Smoking
5. Life is Beautiful (Only seen this once. Fantastic, though I can’t watch it again because the weeping.)
4. The Motorcycle Diaries
3. Along Came Polly (I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t include this movie, it’s my go-to feel-good flick.)
2. Spanglish (maybe second most favorite of all time? maybe?)
1. Amelie (most favorite of all time.)
There you go. If you asked me to do this next week, that list would probably be 80% different. Whatever. What did I miss?
you spelled Amelie wrong…i was bored by that movie, but i watched it with a really hot girl so i guess it was easy to be easily bored by that movie.
Damn! I can’t believe I spelled it wrong! I totally knew better than that! For shame.
I can’t believe you thought it was boring! I loved it. Every second and every saturated color of it.
yes, Amelie was fantastic.
you missed Wes Anderson somehow. I’m going with The Royal Tenenbaums.
I watched Belle last night, It was pretty good.
Crash, The Godfather, When Harry Met Sally, Singin’ in the Rain, There Will Be Blood, To Kill A Mockingbird, Schindler’s List, Rain Man, Hotel Rwanda, Philadelphia, Fargo, American Psycho, All Quiet on the Western Front, Goodfellas, Dirty Dancing, Dog Day Afternoon, One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, etc. etc. etc. =)
You know what? I never want Ben Stiller to smack me on the ass.
Hi. I got here from the Random Ramblings link.
Not that you care, but a few of my favorites are: The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, Arsenic and Old Lace, It’s A Wonderful Life, Places in the Heart, Fried Green Tomatoes, Weekend at Bernie’s, Forest Gump, Say Anything, and Dirty Dancing.
Rocket– I thought about Wes Anderson, but I didn’t include him on purpose. His movies fall into the “I SHOULD like these because it’s part of my Indie culture, but they REALLY aren’t in my top 10″ category. If I had to choose a favorite, I’d have to say that I saw most of The Darjeeling Limited, and I really enjoyed that which I could stay awake for (I was severely sleep deprived at the time) and I really liked (I think, I always get two of his movies confused) Bottle Rocket. And I really like that Shane looks like he belongs in The Royal Tenenbaums.
Betsy– I also really like Hotel Rwanda, but I can’t call it favorite, because it depressed me so bad. Life is Beautiful also depressed me severely, but I can’t deny how happy the first part made me. Also, WW2 is over, whereas that kind of violence still persists in Africa every day, which depresses me beyond words.
Lee Ella– I never want him to smack me on the ass, either. Not even as Gaylord Faulker. It is funny, however, to see him smack someone else’s ass.
and Penny– I totally DO care. Your picks are very classic! Forest Gump is one of my husband’s favorites, and despite the fact that we own it on DVD, he watched the whole thing when it aired on network TV the other day. Every time there was a commercial, I’d walk through and say things like, “Um, it’s in the top DVD drawer, right hand side.” or “It’s filed under F for FOREST.” but he never switched it. It boggled my mind. (as you can probably tell from this comment, I, unlike you, have severe perfectionist tendencies. That’s why my DVDs are alphabetized.)
Ha! My DVDs are in a box in the closet. They are not in any order let alone alphabetical order. My husband watches movies that we own when they come on TV too. I don’t get it either.