What is it about?: Well there’s these 4 mop topped kids from Liverpool, who wrote a lot of great songs right…
What makes the movie special?: There are a lot of concert movies out there. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a meta concert movie before, but that crazy layered storytelling gives A Hard Day’s Night a loopy energy and excitement that lasts throughout the entire film. The loose concept of “preparing for a concert” allows John, Paul, George, and Ringo to take all sorts of detours whether it be chasing or being chased by girls, tracking down a band member’s grandfather, or escaping from prison, while they pontificate on life and fame. Oh, and they sing some of the greatest Beatles songs of all time along the way.
What is it about?: The last days of the 2 Western pals who robbed trains. The movie tracks Butch and Sundance when they rob their last train, flee to Bolivia, and have their last stand.
What makes the movie special?: Every Marvel Movie. Every buddy cop film. Picture a world where none of these films really existed. That’s because the concept of quippy fun dialogue paired with really fun action started here. Watching Paul Newman and Robert Redford snipe at each other while threats bear down on them is something that everyone will instantly recognize. William Goldman’s screenplay is so zippy that when the talking stops the movie drags (there’s too many montages). I get that some of what Goldman is doing is upending the standard idea of a Western, but age makes that concept get lost in the shuffle a tad. These are minor quibbles though, this movie was as fun of a time I’ve had watching a Western as I’ve ever had watching any other Western because of what Goldman, Newman, and Redford pull off here, and has lost none of its well earned brilliance.
What is it about?: A bunch of GenX twentysomethings navigate post college life in Texas.
What makes the movie special?: Reality Bites must have the greatest publicist in Hollywood. This is a movie that thinks its smarter than it actually is. Selling out vs. doing something cool/artistic is the essence of this time, personified on both sides with Ben Stiller vs. Ethan Hawke. By sticking to that theme all the way through its story, Reality Bites takes its title to heart. WAY too much to the heart. Troy show’s all the other characters that he’s pretty much a dick and a mooch, and would eventually wear on everyone to the point he would either go away or start selling out. The movie judges his failures equal to Michael’s which simply doesn’t make sense. Watching Reality Bites at times feels akin to watching privilege on a screen, which is inherently dissatisfying without some consequences. Ethan Hawke does get to show here how talented he is: Troy Dyer in anyone else’s hand but Hawke’s would be an insufferable douchebag.
What is it about?: Romeo and Juliet is translated into a tale of a white boy and a “Puerto Rican” girl falling in love during gang wars in 1950s New York City.
What makes the movie special?: The Bernstein/Sondheim musical numbers are so recognizable I new at least half of them by the time I saw this movie. I Feel Pretty. Somewhere. America. All song by younger me not knowing what I was singing. On top of the songs its always a good idea to use Shakespeare as your story source. This translation is just ok, using the beats of the story so it can get to singing, and doing insanely amazing dance sequences. The fence scaling scene belongs up there with the most spectacular sequences ever committed to film.
What is it about?: Two women go on the run from the law after killing a sexual assaulter.
What makes the movie special?: At this point in time, movies centered around women were either 1) not made or 2) made to make sure the women ended up with a man. Such is the pioneering joy of this one, letting Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis (and our first dose of hunky Brad Pitt) dominate the screen and come more and more alive as the story goes on. Men come and go, but the pair simply, want to keep going, building to one of the great endings in movie history.
What is it about?: The small town of Santa Maria gets invaded by alien pods, which replace the person they inhabit with an imitation of that person.
What makes the movie special?: Science fiction movies are usually at their best when they using the future to comment on some issue, usually in the present. This screenplay is special; in fact, I would argue, this is one of the greatest science fiction screenplays to ever exist, due to the screenplay’s amazing allegorical flexibility. At the time, this was written about McCarthyism, and the search to suss out Communists among us. The 1978 version was about political paranoia…and PTSD from the Vietnam war. I saw corollaries to mental breakdowns, substance abuse/sobriety, immigrants. On top of that, the story is quick and scary as hell, with at least 2 -3 shots that will send a chill up your spine and keep you on the edge of your seat.
