I am a big rewatcher of movies by nature. I think it started when I was little, and my dad and I watched the Indiana Jones movies on VHS probably every weekend. Back then, blissfully unaware of conventional wisdom, I hated Raiders ("the first one") and loved Temple of Doom ("the middle one") because the girl wore pretty dresses, and who doesn't love offensive cultural steretypes? I also had a crush on River Phoenix as Young Indy in The Last Crusade, and my dad and I shared the third installment as our favorite. He and I were able to see The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull together on the big screen this summer. What fun.
Another tape I wore out: the VHS of Drive Me Crazy that I ordered online sophomore year of college. I can't explain what possessed me to make the $3 purchase, but I ended up watching this underrated teen movie over and over that year. I maintain that it surpasses Ten Things I Hate About You in cleverness. Counter-culture! The Donnas! Reverend Camden as a dead-beat dad!
SOME GUY: Who would you rather do? Agent Scully or Gillian Anderson?It's the one teen movie to get the geek characters right.
SOME GIRL: They're the same person, brainiac.
ADRIAN GRENIER: Let's see, a flaky, self-absorbed actress or a gun-toting, badass FBI agent with years of pent-up sexual tension? No contest.
But none of the above have I watched as often as Patricia Rozema's 1999 adaptation of Mansfield Park. Critics and Austen fans alike tore apart this film for its egregious departures from the novel -- many of Fanny's lines are taken from Austen's personal correspondence, and whole scenes come anew from Rozema's script -- but I consider Mansfield Park the movie and Mansfield Park the book separate entities and love them both. I often contrast Mansfield Park with Donnie Darko, a movie that seems filled with meaning upon first viewing but makes less sense the more times you watch it. None of the mysteries in Mansfield Park are empty; each glance, word, and visual draws you back to the center. It's beautiful in every way, and really gets at human motivation and emotion, a place that, in my opinion, critically acclaimed films often fail to penetrate.
Other than that, series like Twin Peaks, Freaks and Geeks, and My So-Called Life are givens for those of you who know me well, and the complete X-Files on DVD could probably keep me entertained for a lifetime. The holidays are just around the corner, guys!
I'll be back later with the seminal works of art I've mastered avoiding. There are some biggies.
4 comments:
i love(d) river phoenix too.
Sorry I missed this before Acree! I'm adding it to my blog right now. Also, I think you are the pop culture heads to my tails. 10 Things I Hate About You vs Drive Me Crazy? Your Indiana Jones to my Star Wars? Let's team up and fight crime.
I just watched Drive Me Crazy again last night and realized that Rob Thomas (of Veronica Mars) wrote the screenplay! I was never a fan of VM but always heard that it was well-written, so this makes sense. Seriously, guys, watch DMC, if only for the scenes with The Electrocutes. ("Hey! They don't sound like Brandi!") That, and the poignantly sad scene in which a remix of "I Want it that Way" plays hilariously in the background.
So should I genuinely or ironically enjoy DMC? I must know!
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