Welcome to the unruly world that is my favorite movie exhibit. . .
For as long as I can remember I've been a bit of a movie freak. For a long time movies have provided a doorway for me to think deeper about things and they played a major role in my wanting to pursue Literary Studies. For this exhibit, I decided to highlight a few genres I've been particularly excited about lately. Although I love movies like Singin' in the Rain and 2001: A Space Odyssey, for the sake of this exhibit I wanted to provide lists of movies not often seen on "top favorites" lists (with maybe a few exceptions). Herein you will find despicable horrors, sweeping romance, and cinema that transcends crude definitions of good or bad. But first, here are a few that changed my life (in chronological order).
Alice in Wonderland, but sad and scary. I watched this for the first time when I was probably too young and it haunted me to my core and also changed me forever. Love it to this day.
A movie about two people talking and falling in love overnight in Vienna. It was also the first movie I'd seen with essentially no plot and dialogue as it's driving mechanism. I'm not sure how this movie works, but it does. This was also the beginning of my deep burgeoning love for Ethan Hawke.
I watched this for the first time shortly after leaving the LDS church and it blew my mind. I'd never seen a movie so interested in deconstructing traditional moral codes while also being hilarious and also very serious. This also marks the beginning of my deep unwavering love for Colin Farrell.
A college coming-of-age movie complete with cannibalism. Sound like your kind of movie? I didn't think so either until I saw this. This already excellent watch was made better after reading Barbara Creed's The Monstrous Feminine.
Another breakthrough for me where I kept thinking, "is this allowed? movies can do this??" It's a beautiful mess of a movie and it's all the better for it. It also happens to be a queer masterpiece. My love for Ewan McGregor, already established after Moulin Rouge, was nonetheless intensified by this viewing experience.
I've always been fascinated by acting as an artform. Somehow both an overappreciated and underappreciated artform, I'm always curious what it is about some actors that draws me to them. In this case, Nicolas Cage took traditional acting customs and threw them out the window. If this movie's a masterpiece, it's only because Cage's performance is on another level. Just watch him recite his ABCs