List making is so limiting. I avoid it whenever possible. For some reason, I feel bound to the list and to deviate means a betrayal of some sort. However, due to Zboy's prompting, I will make a list of movies that I enjoyed this year.
1) Garden State. I have absolutely no idea why this film moves me so deeply, but it does. I have never heard a better matched soundtrack.
2)Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Eliminating the things that you think you can't live with ultimately takes away the person without whom you can't live.
3)Man on Fire. Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning create such a connection on screen that makes this film compelling and completely believable. I wish I had had a Creasy when I was growing-up.
4)Maria Full of Grace. A wrenching and fascinating film.
5)Osama. I think every woman complaining that the United States is opressive be required to view this film. It made my heart hurt.
6)The Bourne Supremacy. The second of three, this film held my full attention the entire time. The further development of Jason's character stuck and didn't seem out of place. My favorite scene is when Bourne is fighting the operative in Germany in whose home he was waiting. The guy has zip ties on and it was such a tense and well-matched fight....I can't wait to see the third installment.
7)Napoleon Dynamite. Stupid films rarely appeal to me, but this one was silly and funny. And any girl would be impressed with a guy building her a cake.
8)Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.. When I read that a new director, the Columbus guy who did Y tu Mamá También was directing, I new that he would lend an artistic interpretation to the screenplay. I am typically a purist, but I really did enjoy the few liberties he took. It produced a more mature, creative film that even my purist offspring found acceptable.
9)Kill Bill, Vol.2 This the ultimate female revenge movie. Cathartic films are sometimes necessary to keep us from doing what shouldn't be done or what doing would undo us.
10)A Series of Unfortunate Events. A small piece in Newsweek last spring announced the film version of Lemony Snicket's smash hit books to the girls and me. We couldn't wait to see the movie and we weren't disappointed. It presented as completely fantastical reality, something all kids already enjoy, but in which more adults should indulge.
My hopes for a year in which you grow stronger, laugh harder, and look longer.
Posted by Rae at January 1, 2005 01:00 AMRae, I just watched "Osama" and I totally agree with you that every woman who thinks she is oppressed should watch it. Although I thought some of the editing was strange and the lines confusing, the story was heartwrenching. We are so lucky to be born in America. I disagree with you on "Kill Bill" but I think it is because I couldn't make it past the violence in the first 5 minutes. What is cathartic about blood and death? This is exactly why I did not want to see "The Passion." I think because I am a visual that those violent images stick with me and bother me. I still can visualize the scenes in "The Excorcist" when the listen girls head spins around and in "Nightmare" where the girl is being dragged nak3d across the ceiling while being stab_ed and the boyfriend is watching. Yuck!!! I love movies like "Bourne Supremecy." Chad and I always rent the action packed mysteries. I have stayed away from Harry Potter and Lemeny Snicket because I am not sure where I stand on whether it is harmful to children. I would also like time to preview them before my children see them and haven't had time yet. I will try to rent the others on your list.
Posted by: Kelly at January 1, 2005 04:42 PMKelly- re: Kill Bill. It wasn't the blood and violence that was cathartic. It was the idea of exacting revenge against those who have harmed you or someone you love. As a human, I occasionally wrestle with my desire for revenge.
The Series of Unfortunate Events isn't scary at all, just, well occasionally depressing. It stimulates less provocation for Christians than HP does. Last February, I decided to read the HP series myself and make own decision. It seemed communistic to let someone else tell me what my thoughts should be about something. I think we Christians can sometimes allow other people to think for us, to decide for us on some of the more grey areas of the liberties of Christ (please note that I am not talking obvious issues, like p@rn, etc.) So, I read them...all. I enjoyed them and found so many Christian themes in them. I called and asked B at the church office to ask if I could borrow the books that they have (and I think it should change that they only stock books that support their personal perspective against HP). I read them (the second time, the first being without having ever read HP) and found them grossly exaggerated and much taken out of context. I am waiting to receive the book Looking for God in Harry Potter written by a homeschooling Dad who began reading them much like myself, in search of an opinion formed by his own brain and by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. E and I honestly now feel sorry for the great literature that people are missing out on in this series. I would strongly recommend that a parent read it first so that they may 1)be prepared to discuss the book and it's ensuing themes, and 2)to enjoy a profound addition to the world of children's literature.
Let me know what you think of the other films :)
Posted by: Rae at January 1, 2005 05:33 PMI can only comment on four of the above movies. I have only seen Man on Fire it was good but very gory. Osama, O.K. I can understand and appreciate but I don't have to like it. The Bourne Supremacy-best. Not nearly as gory as Man on Fire, it definitley drew me in. Napoleon Dynamite-very good. I think I saw the Kill Bill #1 and thought it to be mindless gratuitous violence, no class.
Posted by: R at January 1, 2005 06:34 PM
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