15 Films (and a Music Video)
Nine years ago I wrote a post called "15 Albums." Basically a popular Facebook post at the time that I pushed to this blog as a means to expound on my choices. Also, posting here means I can more easily return to my ramblings years later when the feeling grab me. Well this past weekend I read that old post and thought; I should write a sequel to this! ...then I realized that the concept of an album (songs written, recorded, and released together as a collected work of musical art) lost a great deal of importance right around the time of that 2009 post. So instead of a sequel, how about a spinoff? So...
Here are 15 films and a music video that had a profound effect on my life. The initial post waxed poetic on albums that changed your life, soul, gut punch, etc. Some of these films had that effect, but films don't really effect people in the same manner as music. Throwing on headphones and listening to music is so personal the very act is designed to shock your system. Great films can do that, but the experience doesn't wall you off from the world. You get it right? Any who, these aren't necessarily my favorite films, although some are definitely up there. I'll start with the music video.
Ordered by memory of viewing experience.
1. Michael Jackson - Thriller
Released in December 1983, I don't remember watching it until several years later as a four-year old and its affect was arresting. I have a very vivid memory of watching Thriller at a family gathering as a four-year old in my family house in Arlington Heights, Illinois. I don't know why they put on Thriller, but I remember being the only person in the house giving it my undivided attention. The music and dancing were compelling, but the climax portion where Ola Ray is running from zombies in a house terrified me. I could not sleep that night and when I did, I woke up with my heart-pounding from the nightmares induced by Thriller. That is an impact. There is no reason to include a single music video on this list, other than the fact it was the first piece of media I remember overwhelming me. I figure it deserves it's due alongside the rest of these works.
At four, the affect of Thriller was nothing more than visceral terror, but it's always stayed with me. But given how this video kind of launched the format into industry necessity, I think the trauma might have been worth it.
Now for the films.
I have no idea when I first saw Ghostbusters. The film was released in 84, I was born in 82, and my brother was born in 80. I remember watching it dozens of times as a kid, and multiple shots from the film are burned into my brain. According to my mother, we watched it so many times we would recite the film line-for-line on car rides. Something I don't fully doubt as Bill Murray's Peter Venkman style and distinct joie de vivre is basically a latent alt-personality of mine. I've written about this film before, but it goes without saying no other film from my childhood is as important as Ghostbusters.
2. Terminator 2: Judgement Day (James Cameron, 1991)
T2 will always be the film of the 90s for me. Citizen Kane, 40s. Singing in the Rain, 50s. 2001: A Space Odyssey, 60s. Godfather, 70s. Ghostbusters, 80s. T2, 90s. This is totally arbitrary and personal, but its got Arnold in his defining role, the score, theme, and imagery are iconic, and was the first VFX film where the effects looked seamless. Oh and those effects were still years ahead of industry standard. Setting aside T2 was my first rated R film viewing, nothing was softened in its delivery and it felt fresh to me. I still hold action films and tone against T2. As someone who loathes James Cameron's other films, T2 is something entirely different. I will always holdout hope someone cracks the terminator puzzle and it turns into a viable film franchise.
3. Wayne's World (Penelope Spheeris, 1992)
As I've recounted several times, music was my lady well before film. I still remember moving to Iowa and discovering MTV and being blown away from the imagery, music, and intoxicating excess of 1988 rock n roll. MTV wasn't banned in our house, but I watched it alone in the basement as if my mom would come in any moment, witness me watching Aerosmith's "Love in an Elevator" and send me to Boys Town in Omaha.
Wayne's World was the first film I said was my favorite movie. I wore the VHS down. It's gags and one-liners supplanted Ghostbusters as my go-to film to quote. The rock scenes made me want to become a rock guitarists. The prospect of hosting a public access TV show in your basement made me want to get into video production and start messing with cameras (a prehistoric thought for me and something that if I had taken a little more seriously would have greatly altered my life path). I still love Wayne's World and find it kind of ironic that 20 years after the world fell in love with Wayne and Garth, I work in public television with a career that is a variation on what Wayne and Garth were doing. Sadly, no one ever handed me a check for $5,000 though.
4. Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, 1993)
When Jurassic Park came out in 1993 it was a watershed moment in my youth. I saw it with my brother and aunt (who dug her nails into my arm when the T-Rex started eating people and screamed so loud my ears heart). JP road so much of the T2 wave with its CGI but the tone was brimming with wonder and all of the dreams of children roughly my age. It was incredible. Easily the first film I wanted to live in and watch again as soon as I could. I think I saw it four times in the theater.
5. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (Tom Shadyac, 1995)
This film has not aged well. The jokes are downright suspect and climactic gag is stomach turning. But no films release was better timed for my subsequent maturity than Jim Carrey's breakout. I laughed like a drunk hyena at every moment of Ace Ventura and it made me a Jim Carrey fan for life.
6. Clerks (Kevin Smith, 1994)
Clerks changed everything. In 8th grade 1996 I invited a few new friends to stay the night, including maybe the most influential friend I've ever made; Brian Hogan. We spent the day walking to the grocery store to drink 2-liters of RC and the evening smashing a bicycle. When the guys ultimately stayed the night, Hogan had two VHS' with him. Richard Linklater's Suburbia and Kevin Smith's Clerks. Neither film are great and they are both small stories about normal-ish people that I could relate to, but the difference between the two films can not be missed. Clerks was a film I could write, shoot, and produce. I could see from the very way the shots were framed and the story was relayed that this was something I could do and wanted to do. I didn't know how to make a movie but by the time the credits rolled (sometime around 1am) the dream of making a feature film had formed in my brain. The importance and desire to do this has waxed and waned through high school, rock bands, girls, college, careers, traveling the country, and more, but in the past five years that 14 year old dream has become no longer a wish, but a real necessity. Kevin Smith made it possible, now it's up to me to make it happen.
7. Event Horizon (Paul W.S. Anderson, 1997)
Entering High School I was a rather active guy. I wasn't an athlete but I was starting to play guitar and write music, I was in Boy Scouts, and I was making a gaggle of new friends. Seeing movies was a big deal. We'd go and see movies all the time. The only film I have ever snuck into is Event Horizon. Only a few years after Jurassic Park, Sam Neill still seemed like he should be the biggest actor in the world. 15 minutes into Event Horizon I forgot who Sam Neill was and became terrified about the Gravitron Drive and themes of this film. Years since this viewing I've learned the pitch was "The Shining in Space," and while the film is nowhere near the quality of The Shining as a 15 year-old it scared the shit out of me. I've since become kind of obsessed with Event Horizon and should some day the possibility arise.
8. Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)
In the fall of 1999 I was in a rather depressed state. In the middle of high school my family moved to Grand Rapids, MI, meaning I had to leave all of my friends and formative life experiences behind. Funny thing is, within a week of moving I had made a couple dozen new friends and joined a new band. All of these people wanted to include me in their happenings but occasionally I would just ghost for no reason other than feeling down about the move (and the people I left behind). One of those ghostings saw me end up in a theatre on opening night of Fight Club. I had wanted to see the film from the moment I saw the trailer and I used this films premiere as an excuse to ditch my very welcoming and fun new friends. Fight Club rocked my world. I loved the style, the comedy, the dialogue, the acting, and I for years the frenetic, dirty world of Fight Club informed my personal taste in basically all popular culture. I am still a bit of snob when things seem to polished, over lit, or tone shifty and that's all because of Fight Club. I fell hard for David Fincher, harder for Brad Pitt, hardest for Chuck Palahniuk (the book author). Should I ever get the chance I would love to adapt a Palahniuk book, my personal favorite being Lullaby. (Have you noticed a theme forming since I listed Clerks? i.e. I want to make movies).
9. Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
While in Michigan I spent a fair share of those ghosting nights filling in movie gaps. The most impactful was screening Ridley Scott's Alien alone, in my basement. From time-to-time I call Alien my all-time favorite film and love everything about it. The style, the cinematography, the pace, the mystery, the lowbrow science fiction angle of it all. One of the great things about being a kid post-VHS and after the auteur era is we all get to discover the classics on our time and they feel just as fresh as their original release. Ridley Scott is an all-time great director. Give him a top shelf script and he will deliver an masterpiece. I was riveted, surprised, terrified, and in love from minute one to the credits. What's so great is beyond the visceral experience, the experience and themes gnaw at you until you can distract yourself something, anything else.
10. High Fidelity (Stephen Frears, 2000)
Similar to Wayne's World, this movie was designed for men of disposition a la the turn of the millennium. Music obsessed, selfish idealists prone to romanticizing and or criticizing everything. Right at the nadir of vinyl's appeal there was something so counter about Championship vinyl and the acting of John Cusack and Jack Black were pitch perfect for the material. Also, -and this is a very big thing for me- High Fidelity is storytelling and filmmaking that is attainable. I loved it the moment it started and knew if I wanted to I could make that film. Such a beautiful marriage of soundtrack and story tone. I remember the credits rolling at nearly midnight and without hesitation I just started the film right back up. I was 17 with no place to be but navel gazing at the wonder of music, women, Chicago, and John Cusack.
11. X-men (Bryan Singer, 2000)
Look I am a science fiction nerd. I don't read too many science fiction books because my brain doesn't have the patience for the jargon and world building, but I love comic books. It's not particularly unique but X-men is my title. I love the 90s cartoon and that line up heros. My favorite all-time run is X-men 2099. And when the film came out in 2000 my world was rocked. Is it a perfect film? No, but I was enthralled. There was so much promise in it and I nerded out hard on the drive home. My friends and girlfriend liked it, but I think by the time we got to our destination they hated it. I would not stop talking about everything possible because of that initial X-men movie. I didn't care about mis-castings or sluggish action, the dam had been breached and I could see an endless tsunami of comic book films. 18 years later, that is exactly what we're experiencing.
12. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
There were so many good movies between X-men and Eternal Sunshine, but nothing that I need to put on this list. And yet somehow 2004 fits two films in that were such a big deal to me. X-men played to the nerdiest levels of my personality and Eternal Sunshine blended that with my most sentimental and indie film/music/whimsy-loving self. Such a good marketing campaign, incredible acting and filmmaking. This film will go down as Jim Carrey and Michel Gondry's movie to remember. Everyone can relate to the theme and concept therein, but no one had visualized it in such an evocative nature before. Years later I remember walking out of Inception thinking "That was supposed to be a dreamscape? Eternal Sunshine wiped the floor with this film." Of all the movies on this list, Eternal Sunshine maybe the first film I'd reach for as a rewatch... maybe... wait till number 13.
13. Hot Fuzz (Edgar Wright, 2007)
My wife and I do not see eye-to-eye on many films. Our common ground is Soderbergh's Oceans films and the Bourne movies. I do enjoy those films greatly, but not on a profound level. The first film that really grabbed us both by the back of the eyeballs is Edgar Wright's Hot Fuzz. Shaun of the dead is fun, but it is not sing to me the way a metaphor of zombies as male arrested development sings to others. Hot Fuzz is a brilliant cocktail of machismo, parody, conservatism, and profound absurdity opposed by contemptuous seriousness. The themes slapped with tone, whip-crack dialogue and editing are simply too much to disregard as anything less than genius. On top of everything, the film is pure fun, something that I love to experience whenever possible. Thankfully my wife and I watched it together for the first time and we were both blown away. We have watched it dozens of times since, both together and separate. I've aped so much style from Wright, I am a full blown disciple. Should I make a 90 minute work, would be a wright knockoff? No, but you could probably see the influence.
14. Iron Man (Jon Favreau ,2008)
The Avengers are not my thing. The movies are fun, the characters are represented in their best cinematic way I could imagine, but on the page I have never been a fan. Next to Captain America, Iron Man was the worst. He's almost the Marvel version of Batman except he occasionally loses and has actual vices that keep him from being the nauseating symbol that Batman seems to have become. But Jon Favreau's Iron Man is the perfect superhero origin film. Maybe it doesn't have enough action to wear the crown of perfect superhero film overall, but origin story from top to bottom it encapsulates the best aspects of the character, cuts out the cold boring nature of brilliant CEO that's always been an issue on the page, and offers a great deal of fun in the middle of relatively high stakes. Robert Downey JR is a throwback movie star channeling the aura of "The Bandit" Burt Reynolds, "Butch Cassidy" Paul Newman, with smarmy patina of "Peter Venkman" Bill Murray. Instead of the generic Batman or Superman mystery, there is an elegant application of celebrity. This film opens the door to placing the audience in the "I could do that" mindset, while still holding Tony Stark's riches, genius, and fame beyond reach. I have a hard time believing any superhero film will top this origin story any time soon.
15. Breathless (À bout de souffle) (Jean Luc Godard, 1960)
There's some wonderful that this venture just worked to have the oldest film in list comes last. I didn't see Godard's Breathless until 2013 and the film just rocked me. The filming style was so ahead of its time, the characterization of the criminal lead being so obsessed with glamorized, fictional American gangsters, the foolish romantic girl who takes nothing seriously until adult life forces her to and she then must deal with the ugly consequences. I could write a book on this movie, but I know so many already have! I tell people all the time to watch certain movies, but given the age of this film and the fact it is in french and black & white, I wouldn't be surprised if it has the lowest viewership out of my circle of family and friends. Finally, this movie is attainable filmmaking at its finest. Godard and company shot this film guerilla style day-by-day in Paris and wrote each day's shoot the night before or in the moment. I love thinking about this film and the filmmaking that went into it. In fact, as soon as I publish this post, I might have to watch it immediately.
Okay, it looks like I broke a secret rule; I posted a film post here, instead of on my podcast blog. Oh well. This has been really fun. Now when I find myself with a free evening and I feel like staying in, but don't know what to watch... maybe I'll roll the dice across this post and rewatch an old favorite. I know 15 films isn't a thing, but I think you should try this exercise out and drop me a link. I don't want to know your 15 favorite films, what 15 films made the biggest impact on you and when did you watch them.
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