Monty Python and the Holy Grail was my #16. It's one of the few movies I felt some, consternation on putting on. I mostly tried to avoid including ballot entries just because they're hailed as comedy classics, or if I watched them a lot growing up, haven't watched them forever, but vaguely recall the last time I watched it, I finally started to stop laughing because I had just become too familiar with the jokes and heard them too many times; I also didn't want to confuse quotability with actually being funny (sometimes the amount we quote something exaggerates how good or funny we think something is). However, it felt weird not including a Python on my list just because their was so formative growing up (by my count, I first saw Grail around age 10-12). I initially was thinking I was going to go for Brian because my intuition tells me the general consensus is that it's considered the smarter, funnier one for adults, and the one that probably stood a better chance of making me laugh as an adult. But ultimately decided if I was giving over to chilldhood and adolescent nostalgia for this entry, it'd make sense just to list Grail. Maybe it would have made more sense to use that spot for something else, but if I didn't, I'd probably then start to think of the scenes and think a complete omission wouldn't have been right either.
I guess for further reveals on the list...
Since I didn't do one for
Groundhog's Day, a "rom-com" (cough) about someone repeatedly making the same mistake, I had Elaine May's
The Heartbreak Kid (1972) at the #17 spot on my ballot
A movie that I can only describe as
acidic. The rom-com tropes of a man trying to get together with a girl across class-boundaries - except he's on his honeymoon and there's no real reason why they should get together, and you actively think they'll both be worse off if they do.
Also... consider the cauliflower.
Elaine May and her filmography seemed to really make the rounds over the past few years across the different movie podcasts I listen to, coupled with the recent death of Charles Grodin gave me a slim hope it might make the countdown. Just working against it is the complete inability to see it legally. It's been a long time since I've watched a bootleg copy of a movie on youtube. A New Leaf was probably the better hope, but felt this one had significantly more bite. It's odd how big the difference is to me between this and The Graduate in terms of appreciation. Though, there's a huge difference between Virginia Woolfe and The Graduate as well.
Update on my ballot:
I only expect one more movie off of it to appear after this.
(probabilities were given after reveal #40)
WARNING: spoilers below
1. It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012) (#61)
2. 60% (at the beginning of the list, I would have put this at 90%)
3. 90%
4. House (1977) (#89)
5. 15%
6. Brazil (1985) (#47)
7. 30%
8. 33%
9. 1%
10. The Death of Stalin (2017) (DNP) - 50%
11. 50%
12. Fargo (1996) (#97)
13. 20%
14. 10%
15. Dark Star (1974) (DNP) - 0.1%
16. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) (#5) - 90%
17. The Heartbreak Kid (1972) (DNP) - 33%
18. Heathers (1989) (#46)
19. Duck Soup (1933) (#8) - 85%
20. The Apartment (1960) (#29) - 90%
21. Evil Dead II (1987) (#93)
22. Dead Man (1995) (DNP) - 5%
23. Best in Show (2000) (#74)
24. 0.01%
25. The Phantom of Liberty (1974) - 0% (1 pointer)
1. It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012) (#61)
2. 60% (at the beginning of the list, I would have put this at 90%)
3. 90%
4. House (1977) (#89)
5. 15%
6. Brazil (1985) (#47)
7. 30%
8. 33%
9. 1%
10. The Death of Stalin (2017) (DNP) - 50%
11. 50%
12. Fargo (1996) (#97)
13. 20%
14. 10%
15. Dark Star (1974) (DNP) - 0.1%
16. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) (#5) - 90%
17. The Heartbreak Kid (1972) (DNP) - 33%
18. Heathers (1989) (#46)
19. Duck Soup (1933) (#8) - 85%
20. The Apartment (1960) (#29) - 90%
21. Evil Dead II (1987) (#93)
22. Dead Man (1995) (DNP) - 5%
23. Best in Show (2000) (#74)
24. 0.01%
25. The Phantom of Liberty (1974) - 0% (1 pointer)