My favorite movies
[Skip to fun movies]
I'm not a connoisseur of film the way I am of music but I do have a few movies that mean something to me for one reason or another. Click the pictures for the corresponding pages on IMDB.Sophie's choice
This is my favorite movie. It has great characters and amazing acting. It's the story of
young writer named Stingo who gets to know a fascinating couple over the course of a summer. Sophie is a Polish
woman who recently survived Auschwitz and Nathan is her eccentric lover. Little by little, Sophie reveals
her story and we learn about her complex relationship with Nathan.To me, this story is far more moving than something like Schindler's List, which aims to show us the enormity of the horror of the Holocaust, because it tells a deeply personal story of one woman's experience.
High Fidelity
This one is a must-see for anyone with an obsessive love of music - and anyone else for that
matter. It's considered to be sort of a romantic comedy for men. Also, it has a Belle and Sebastian song in the
soundtrack, although not one of their best. I think Scott objects to this movie partially due to the presence of the annoying Jack Black and partially because
some of the characters are morally bankrupt and think that cheating on one's girlfriend is no
big deal. I dunno - a large reason why I like it is because I have an obsessive love of music, just like
the John Cusack character does.
Do these two people look alike to you?? 
Magnolia -- Short Cuts -- Happiness
I get teased a lot because I can't follow the plots of movies - especially gangster movies. But somehow, when a movie involves a lot of intertwining storylines, I usually don't have a problem following it. Such is the case with the next three movies on my list. I won't try to explain the plots because each one has several plots and I would wind up giving away too much. Short Cuts is a little older and probably a little lesser known than the other two but I think it's great, maybe my favorite of the three. Short Cuts and Magnolia seem to me to be particularly similar in structure. Both are long, 187 and 188 minutes respectively, but they go by quickly because you're shown just a few minutes of one story before switching to another. Happiness is shorter (134 minutes) and is probably the darkest movie of the three. All three have a large number of characters and and several storylines that cross occasionally due to the relationships between the people involved. Happiness and Magnolia both include Philip Seymour Hoffman. You might not like these movies if you prefer a movie with a neatly tied-up plot and a clear theme, but if you care more about interesting characters and an engaging story, these would be great for you. Don't read too many reviews of Magnolia if you haven't seen it because some of them spoil the ending, which ought not to be spoiled. Actually, don't visit Magnolia's IMDB page at all if you don't like spoilers.
Vanilla Sky
This movie has an engaging and complex story where we're never quite sure what is real and what is a dream. The movie is well choreographed, with a great soundtrack. I'm sure "choreographed" is not the correct word but it seems to fit. I was surprised that Tom Cruise wasn't too vain to spend substantial screen time looking ugly.
Citizen Ruth
This movie has a personal connection because it is clearly based upon a real event that
my mother actually had a part in. Let me explain: the movie is billed as an "abortion comedy",
which, strangely enough, is fairly accurate. It's about a woman named Ruth Stoops who is
addicted to sniffing glue and paint and other assorted chemicals. She has already had a
couple of children who had to be put in custody of the state because she was declared to be an unfit
mother. As the movie begins, Ruth is picked up for the umpteenth time after being caught
sniffing paint. This time, it turns out that she is pregnant, and the courts decide to
try something unconventional: they are going to charge her with endangering the life
of her unborn child. However, it turns out that if she has an abortion the charges will be dropped.
An anti-abortion group decides to offer her a substantial sum of money if she decides not
to have an abortion.Up to this point, the basic plot is identical to what happened in Fargo in 1992 with a woman named Martina Greywind. In real life, she chose to have the abortion anyway and was smuggled into the clinic outside of normal hours while the "antis" weren't there to try to prevent it. My mother had a job at the clinic in question and was the driver of the minivan that smuggled her in. Martina Greywind even had a problem with paint-sniffing. (Paint is such a "humorous" addiction compared to crack or heroin, don't you think?)
To find out what happens after this in the movie, you'll have to watch it. And, mind you, it's very good. It also has great moments of comedy. Without revealing anything, I can say that the final scene sums it all up: we are shown visually how pro-life and pro-choice activists both rally about their causes to the point where they can lose sight of the individual they claim to be helping.
I figured I have listed enough serious movies here to keep anyone busy for quite a while so I thought I would add some good fun movies.Galaxy Quest
This is a funny movie about actors from a Star Trek-like TV program who are mistaken for real intergalactic heroes by a race of aliens who enlist their aid to defeat a powerful enemy. The humor directed at Trekkies is great. The actors meet the aliens at a Galaxy Quest convention and for quite a while they have no idea that the aliens are anything other than ordinary fans in costumes and makeup.
Reality Bites
This is a comedy that will probably ring true to anyone who has struggled with deciding what to do in the "real world" after finishing school.
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