September Filmfest

Just in time for blogspot to become un-blocked at work, here we are at the beginning of another month, meaning it's time for the usual look back on the old movies from last month.  Apparently September was busy (although it doesn't feel any more so than the rest of the year), since I only watched five movies from my lists.  Five was my original goal, then it became more of a minimum, and now apparently that's all I had time for.  But that's fine, too, since I'm being more open about picking ones I want to watch rather than just the next one up the list.  So it was a pretty good batch.  But enough yakking, here's this month's list, from least to most favorite.

5) Raising Arizona (1987) - Extra!  This movie was only on the list of 100 comedies, not the full AFI list.  But I had heard of it, so I recorded it to the DVR at some point and decided to try to watch it.  Emphasis on try.  Out of the 54 films I've seen since starting the movie section of the blog, this was the first I've had to give up early on.  It's allegedly a quirky comedy from the Coen brothers about Nicolas Cage stealing a baby (sounds surprisingly natural when you write it that way...), but after nearly an hour, I don't think I'd even chuckled once.  All the jokes were the stupid, screaming-style physical comedy that I usually expect from lousy kids' movies, and the characters were so vapid they were just irritating.  Sorry, but I'm not going to laugh at Cage putting six babies on the floor and then running around hopelessly trying to catch them all.  I think this was the worst movie I've seen on this project, and I am so glad I quit partway through.

4) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) - This movie was very much not what I expected, and it was nasty and uncomfortable, but also interesting in its own way.  The premise is that a verbally abusive husband and wife invite a younger couple over to a late night party and basically unravel while the other couple watches/kind of falls apart themselves.  They all are really very cruel to one another, so it's not really fun to see, but it's an intriguing view of the more base levels of human nature and raw, ugly emotion.  Kind of like American Beauty, where the family's destruction isn't entertaining per se, but it does keep you drawn in.  I wouldn't recommend pulling this one out if you have guests over (ha!), but it could be worth a try.  If the first half hour or so feels too uncomfortably nasty, though, call it quits, because it just gets meaner.

3) The Silence of the Lambs (1991) - Well, I think everyone has seen this, so there's likely not much that I can say that would be informative or interesting.  It's creepy, but in a good way, or at least as good as a movie about a serial killer who eats his victims can be.  ;)  There are lots of parts that I like about this film, but the best moments are, not surprisingly, the interactions between Clarice and Hannibal Lecter.  The tension is palpable, to coin a phrase, as Clarice desperately seeks information from a psychopath who's just toying with her all along.  Bizarre as it may sound about such a twisted movie, it really is an enjoyable film to watch.  Downsides are few: the ending seems a bit happenstance to me, but not overly so.  And this may be just me, but I always preferred Julianne Moore in the sequel to Jodie Foster as Clarice.  That's probably blasphemy to hardcore fans, but I thought she was more identifiable with.  Both good though.

2) All the President's Men (1976) - As the movie jacket calls it, "the film that launched a thousand journalism careers."  This is the (perhaps dramatized) true story of the reporters who broke the story of the Watergate scandal, and one I've liked from the first time I watched it, probably ten years ago.  Now, I had not yet been born when this scandal occurred, so I can't comment on the factuality of it, but it's got to be the best newspaper movie ever.  We follow along with Woodward and Bernstein, rapt, as they slowly peel away layers of clues to find out just how far up the cover-up goes.  Played perfectly by Robert Redford, as the youthful idealist and Dustin Hoffman, as more worldly but reinvigorated by the story, the pair is the perfect inspiration for seeking truth and doing what's right.  The movie's long, but I don't think much of it could have been cut without losing the drama of the struggle to both uncover the truth and actually get it published.  My only complaint with this movie is the ending.  I can understand ending it where it does, since that's essentially where Woodward and Bernstein's story closes, but you're left wanting to know more.  It's great, though, and heartily recommended.

1) The Sound of Music (1965) - I think Stacia would kill me if this didn't rank pretty high up the list.  ;)  Although I don't hold it in quite the same esteem as she does (it's probably not in my all-time top ten) I did enjoy seeing it again.  Part of my hesitance I suppose is that I didn't really grow up with this one; the singing Julie Andrews in our house was Mary Poppins, not Sister Maria.  All that said, this is a cute and charming movie, it has a pretty good lessons about standing up for what you believe in yet encouraging fun and happiness, and it has good songs and laughs along the way.  Even if you've never seen the movie, you probably recognize the songs - "My Favorite Things" and "Do-Re-Mi" are my favorites in this film.  It's not quite as serious as most of my top movies, but it's a lot of fun, and you can't help but smile at Maria's boundless enthusiasm.  A good movie, to be sure, and worth watching if you happen upon it.  Oh, and I totally want the puppets from "The Lonely Goatherd!"  :)

The AFI lists are slowly getting whittled down.  Technically, I still have to watch one of the #79s, but I've been picking and choosing higher up the lists, so there are 71 movies to go, or just over 55% of the original list.  Fortunately, whenever I do finish the list, there are literally hundreds of other AFI-recommended movies, and thousands of other old films for me to enjoy.  I'm starting to think this project might never officially end, just adding new movies as I go.  Can't wait to see some more!