The movie that always makes you cry.
There are very few movies I can watch more than once. They have to be a psychedelic or musical experience for me to want to have the experience repeatedly. “Punch Drunk Love” puts me in a trance every time. It’s just so pleasing. And I could stare at dreamy “Badlands” forever. “2001: A Space Odyssey” is also a common replay on insomniac nights, I think the craziest things while I watch it.
On the flip side, movies that simply make me feel something at all are rare. “Irreversible,” “Breaking The Waves,” “Romance” and “Storytelling” are films that make me feel big and dark and crazy and inspired. It’s that vein of intense film I’m always looking for. A full experience. It’s got to have a lot of energy for me to want to watch it again “Bob And Carol, Ted and Alice” may be the only comedy I’ve ever fallen for (well that and “San Andreas“). It’s so real! I have never laughed harder and will never get tired of it. And I must mention, now that I have a kid and am forced to watch things a million times, the original “Jungle Book” is the only movie I can literally watch on repeat day and night.
The movie that always freaks you out/makes you scared.
Well I recently tried to watch “Poltergeist” again alone, and couldn’t. I was hard at three. And “The Human Centipede”? Terrible! Imagine if that happened to you.
The movie you love that no one would expect you to love.
“Donnie Darko.” Fuck the haters. That film is perfect every second. It’s so well crafted. I once watched it for 24 hours straight.
The movie that defined your coming-of-age/high school experience.
Well, “The Virgin Suicides” was a romantic ideal, but “Doom Generation” and “Twin Peaks” felt more like reality. In the evangelical Mid-West everything was super surreal. I watched all of “Twin Peaks” in one sitting.
The movie that defined your childhood.
I feel like the ‘50s were my childhood even though I was born in the ‘80s. Pure nostalgia, I love that shit. “Stand By Me” and “Mermaids” were kinda darkish kid explorations of sex and death, which is all I’ve ever been interested in. And they were the soundtracks of my youth, played on cassette tapes in my Dad’s red ’65 mustang. God bless America.
“White Girl” is playing now in limited release.
