A belated congratulations on the list, Miss Vicky! It was a very enjoyable read.
Thank you very much. Your reply to it was also enjoyable. Your posts are always well thought out and engaging. It's a shame you don't post more than you do.
I also love how the list is so uniquely you. If everyone posted their favorites anonymously, I think it'd be difficult to gauge the author of most of them since so many lists tend to feature the same films. Not the case here. This is a Miss Vicky list through and through.
I'm sure some people would chalk that up to me having bad taste, but yeah the abundance of animation, all those Joaquin Phoenix movies, and
Quills at #1 do make it really obvious.
I'm planning on getting around to Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Bubba Ho-Tep, Romper Stomper, Casualties of War and U-Turn sooner than later. I've also added a few to my watchlist that weren't previously on my radar, like Clay Pigeons and Return to Paradise.
I'd be very much interested to read your thoughts on those when you get to them.
I knew about your obsession with Joaquin Phoenix (I mean, duh!), but I never realized that Christian Slater gets you so hot and bothered.
Well,
young Christian Slater anyway (and he has since I was a kid). Today's Slater not so much. What's funny about that though is that I've never actually watched a movie because he was in it. All of his movies on this list I initially saw because my mom wanted to see them or because they happened to be on TV.
I feel like several entries on this list are based more on your ability to rub one out to the leading men -- especially the bean-flicking trio of Phoenix, Slater and Cusack -- than the films themselves. Not that there's anything wrong with that!
What can I say? A girl's gotta have her priorities.
I also find it fascinating that you've included several animated films that received lukewarm receptions. I never bothered with films like Surf's Up or Meet the Robinsons because I didn't think they were supposed to be worthwhile. I almost skipped Bolt, too, just based on Miley Cyrus's involvement, but that turned out be a delightful little film. I have a lot of respect for your knowledge of animation, so I'll definitely be checking out all the animated films on here.
I think sometimes people take movies too seriously and are resistant to just having fun with them. And that's what
Surf's Up and
Meet the Robinsons are, just fun. There's not a whole lot of substance to them but I don't think that's a bad thing.
We share a few favorites in common. (
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest;
Edward Scissorhands;
Bambi;
Ghost World;
Se7en,
Con Air,
Mad Max: Fury Road, along with a few others.) I'm very happy to see
Encino Man on here. I watched that movie a ton growing up and I still quote it from time to time.
3:10 to Yuma is the movie that kick-started my fandom for westerns, so thumbs up for its high ranking. It's also nice to see
Black Snake Moan get some much deserved recognition. I saw it in the cinema (that marketing campaign you criticized may not have worked for others but it put my butt in the seat on opening night
). The movie is sexy, trashy and borderline exploitative, yet it's also very heartwarming and down-to-earth. The movie even inspired me to explore the blues. Such an underrated flick.
Nice choices. I'm always happy to see some love for
Black Snake Moan and
Encino Man. The former rarely gets talked about and the latter is usually met with derision. I'll admit that the marketing campaign for
Black Snake Moan got me interested as well. However, I still think it was detrimental to the film's reception - either people dismissed it out of hand thinking that it was trash or went in wanting trash and were disappointed to find it was actually a genuinely good movie. I went in expecting trash and was pleased to find a sexy movie with substance.
I think The Raven, State of Play and Batteries Not Included are the only films on here that I dislike. Even if a lot of your other choices may not be personal favorites, I still rate most of them fairly high.
71 out of 74 is damn good. You've got great taste.
You'll also be happy to know that I watched and liked Quills a few days ago. I tend to struggle with period dramas, but with the exception of a couple lulls mid-way through where I got a bit restless, I found myself rather invested in the story and characters. The perversity and themes also helped. (It's fitting that The Libertine also made your list since I was reminded of the film while watching Quills). I thought Geoffrey Rush was excellent (although my eyes saw way more of him than they needed to!). It's not the type of film I'd have much interest in revisiting, but it's certainly a quality film and I can see why you love it so much. I might even read some of Marquis de Sade's writing. Judging by the excerpts in the film, his writing is a little too flowery for me, but I appreciate any artist who seeks to shatter taboos.
I am happy to know that. It seems to be a very underseen movie. I'll agree that I didn't really want to see
that much of Rush, but I actually found those scenes to be really impressive. It was like he viewed his own skin as just another piece of wardrobe.
Yeah, I think the similarities between
Quills and
The Libertine really worked in the latter's favor - though my first viewing of it was quite an uncomfortable one since I saw it at the theater with my mother.
I've actually read a little bit of de Sade's work and I didn't care for it at all. I do respect what he was doing but the actual writing just didn't work for me. I do wonder how much of that though is the result of something being lost in translation.
Anyway, thanks again for the thoughtful reply. It's always a treat to read your posts.