Hey, everyone! It’s been a minute, hasn’t it? Life has been gloriously busy, and yet I cannot seem to account for where the year has been going. Time measured in more ways than one ticks by. I’m twenty-eight now! A World I Have Never Seen is gearing for release (more on that in the coming weeks!). Summer’s flicking away. In the spirit of all the shifts and growth around us, I thought it high time to get around to blogging about a topic I’ve discussed doing for a few years now. Being honest, it’s also an attempt to get back into a schedule of writing here more frequently. Two birds one stone, or something like that.
That’s right—it’s time to discuss my Top Ten Movies!
Now let’s get something out of the way at the start: this is NOT a list of the greatest movies of all time, nor does it claim to be. This is something a little more subjective (as if the above is not subjective. All these lists are). Over the course of the weeks ahead, I will write about movies which, for various reasons highlighted below, are important to me and have influenced my life in significant ways. Good means different things to different people, and if I am going to be entirely truthful, some of these may not even qualify as “good” movies. Much like certain wines, there is a time and a place for them. They’ve had moments, or they themselves created moments in my life that have changed it, arguably for the better, but sometimes just for the deeper. That kind of personal subjectivity is hard to rank, but we’re going to do our best. Plus, I am nothing if not a little skilled at forming criteria for this kind of thing.
That criteria?
Well, first, we’ll go with influential. As stated above, that means the movie has had a profound effect on my life in one way or another. Normally, that’s good. Sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s just a matter of shifting my perspective on certain issues, or else challenging a belief I’ve had. It can be grand, or it can be small, though more than once I’ll make reference to the grand power of small things. Sometimes it’s the right movie that came along at the right time, and those are uniquely profound eperiences. Otherwise, and this has happened more than once, it’s a movie I returned to and found I was more ready to understand than previously expected. Movies can be like life that way—lessons seen in hindsight. Only in this case, there’s the benefit in that movies are…
Rewatchable! Yeah, that’s just a basic statement. These are movies I watch, and rewatch, and sometimes rewatch terribly frequently. Some are kind of like holidays in their own right, with a time and a place set aside to view them again. Others I rip out of a DVD case (those still exist!) and put on in the background when I am in need of their message, aesthetic, or the mere comfort of familiar lines and scenes. It’s worth noting here that some of the movies I’m going to discuss I may have before, and I am sort of sorry for that and sort of not. That’s the beauty of watching something again and talking about it again—there’s always something new. That should be true of the movies on this list.
And, finally, there’s just something personal I like about all these movies. Sometimes, I just like something. So do you. So do we all. It’s a shrug and a smile and an admission of fondness that might not require an explanation. I will break this own a little, though, and talk about some of the things I enjoy seeing in movies:
· Writing! Surprise, hahaha. I like good writing. I have a deep appreciation for the proper execution of planting and payoff, the way a writer is able to tie themes back around on their heads, and develop similar arcs through disparate characters and scenes.
· A Deep Love of the Unapologetically Absurd. This will be the title of my someday memoir. I can only explain this as a kind of joie de vivre, palpable in any work of art that knows honestly what it is and embraces it. It’s enviable, it’s inspiring, and by GOD does it make one laugh, applaud, and cry. I am here for it in all its forms. Bring it on.
· Subtle Acting. Here we go… getting pretentious. It is the small things, though! Sometimes it’s barely noticeable—a shift of eyes, a breath. Other times it’s something about a whole performance, the beauty of the understated and visibly retrained art of emotion and voice.
· Clever dialogue. Okay, so, this is different than writing. At its most base, it means I kind of like smartass characters. But it is more than that. There’s something like poetry about a precise line, a cutting remark, a last heartfelt admission. It need not even been thematic, but if it is clever, or quick, and capable of absolutely flaying a heart or mind, then I am here for it!
· Sound Design. Yeah… it’s true. Especially a proper incorporation of score. But it makes for such an immersive experience, sound. The absence of it can be as important as its presence. It’s a different way of focusing and I always really appreciate how sound is used, and find it glaringly obvious when it is not done properly.
· Animation. IT IS A MEDIUM, NOT A GENRE. A lot of these movies will be animated, as it happens, in part because the art of animation is lovely and in part because there is such a freeing level of imagination inherent in the medium of animation that it makes all the above pop in unimaginable ways.
That being said, not every movie will fulfill every aspect of this completely. I was kind of surprised at how difficult this list was to curate, and still grapple with the honorable mentions (its own post to come) which had to be cut over what were sometimes arbitrary things. I think it’s also important to be clear that I am nowhere near a film buff, an expert on half the things I am talking about, or someone who believes my opinions have any real weight in the terms of the wider discussion about movies. But these are what I like, and I like sharing what I like. That’s part of the point of art, too. If I inspire anyone to give these movies a watch, or a new rewatch, then that’s quite enough for me!