2. Adventures in Babysitting - [rewatch x100] This was one of my favorite movies as a tween (possibly my favorite?!). It was one of those films that I watched on repeat and it drove my mother insane. I knew every line and I thought Elisabeth Shue was the COOLEST woman alive. It's HILARIOUS that she's supposed to be 17. The oldest looking 17 year old to ever grace the screen. She was only 24 but definitely looks and acts like she was in her 30s. But whatever, she was still super cool. That opening scene with her dancing along to "And Then He Kissed Me" is so cute. I didn't remember that Bradley Whitford played her asshole boyfriend! That's so funny! I think the best scene is the blues scene "nobody leaves this place without singing the blues". It's so good. And the scene with the line "don't fuck with the Lords of Hell" and she responds "don't fuck with the babysitter". Classic. Although I watched this on Disney + so they changed the line to "don't fool with the babysitter". It was very jarring! Haha! I really thought that this would lose some of the excellence, watching it 30+ years later with a more critical eye, but it's still a 5 star movie, I don't care what anyone says. Perfect adventure comedy. Great cast, funny dialogue, genuine moments of peril, some romance sprinkled in, and a solid ending.
3. Raging Bull - [blind spot] Obviously one of my bigger blind spots, but I dreaded watching it because it's long and about boxing and I feel like I already knew the story. They're all the same, even when I think some are good (or great even!) - the stories are all identical. And this is in black & white??? Fucking kill me. But, obviously it's a great film. DeNiro is incredible - probably his best performance outside of Taxi Driver? I like all of the non-boxing stuff. The story of this man - who is very clearly bipolar before people were diagnosed with bipolar disorder (he's manic, paranoid, angry etc.), who is a misogynist and an emotionally abusive manipulator isn't something that resonates with me, but DeNiro gives him depth and nuance that only the best actors can accomplish. I also love the curly hair! But, it's not a movie I'd ever want to watch again (although that can probably be said for most of Scorsese's films? The only one I've watched A LOT is The Departed because it's my second favorite film of all time. My Scorsese ranking is WILD). I did like that the home video moments are all in color - that's a really nice little touch. And as I expected, the whole boxing part is incredibly boring.
4. The Outsiders - [blind spot] This is actually not what I was expecting at all. I always considered it as part of the "brat pack" films, but it's definitely not. It just has some of the "brat pack" actors so I lumped it in. It's a very dark film, though. And it's basically West Side Story but changed a bit. There's lots of fighting and arguing and yelling and I couldn't tell who was on what side because the characters all have names like "ponyboy" and "sodapop", which made me laugh and is very distracting. There is a STACKED cast in this, though. Tom Cruise??! Rob Lowe! The Karate Kid! Patrick Swayze! Leif Garrett (my mom loved him!), Sofia Coppola (makes sense, it's directed by her dad), and an ABSOLUTELY STUNNING Diane Lane. She was only like 17 in this and just drop dead gorgeous (she still is!). And I can't forget Matt Dillon doing his best John Travolta impression (what is that walk he does in the beginning??? Did he think he was in Saturday Night Fever? LOL). There's some really cool camera angles though - weird thing to focus on, I know, but I really like the extreme angle shots. It feels modern but also retro (Hitchcock inspired) for that time period. I just think the story was lacking, and extremely dramatic - like the scene with them fighting in the rain. DRAMA. It had the opposite intended effect because I couldn't help but laugh at it all.
5. The Little Mermaid (1989) - [rewatch] One of my favorite Disney movies of all time. I prefer The Lion King slightly, but this has better songs (still a tough call). "Part of Your World" is my favorite Disney song. I love it so much. But also "Under the Sea", "Kiss the Girl" and "Poor Unfortunate Soul" are ALL incredible too. And HELLO Ursula???! One of the greatest villains EVER. I haven't seen it in a long time (aside from the live action remake, which I surprisingly didn't hate), so this was a fun rewatch. My husband said he could hear me singing along to it from the basement (haha!). It does such a good job at introducing us to all of these characters and making us fall in love with them so quickly. Flounder is adorable, Sebastian is hilarious, Scuttle is a knucklehead, and Prince Eric risks his life to save his dog! I love him! I did think that this was an obvious 5 star film, but with this rewatch, I do think that the ending feels way too rushed. And it doesn't make all that much sense either - that he wants to marry this stranger so quickly after having such a connection with Ariel. I subtracted a 1/2 a star, but still close to a masterpiece!
6. Do the Right Thing - [rewatch] I think the last time I watched this in full was probably over 25 years ago, and I watched it in film classes (in parts) when I was in college which was still like 22 years ago. I was WAY overdue for a rewatch. I saw a lot of people bring it up during the BLM protests in 2020, and when Spike Lee dedicated BlacKkKlansmen to Heather Heyer. It's INSANE how relevant this film is to present day. That all of these things happening with police brutality and the clashes between different races and cultures is still SO prevalent in our current culture that this film could literally be made today and you wouldn't even have to change anything except maybe the soundtrack. Not that I'm knocking Public Enemy's "Fight the Power", I just think it's the only part that feels dated. Well, I guess the costumes too, but the 90s are back in fashion, so that's not even true. I LOVE Rosie Perez dancing her ass off in the beginning. It's so fucking iconic. I think the thing that Spike gets so right - and that I see people often criticize about films about race today, is that most of the film is just black people hanging out. It's just their everyday life in Brooklyn - and it's not about drug dealers or prison or slavery. It's the beginnings of gentrification with the clash of an Italian pizzeria being at the center of the story, and an Asian supermarket opening across the way. It's creating dialogue, and opening up conversations. The way these cultures interact with each other - each being so disrespectful instead of learning about and accepting their cultural differences. It all begins to boil over, with an explosive ending that feels unfortunately accurate. The cast is incredible - obviously Spike Lee is great, but the highlight is definitely John Turturro. It's insane that he was not nominated for an Oscar for this. Also, I did not realize that THAT was Giancarlo Esposito until writing this little blurb. How did I not put that together??? I literally was just looking at the cast and said to myself "I don't remember Giancarlo in this...who did he play?" LOL at my dumbassery.
7. A Hard Day's Night - [blind spot] I've never really been the biggest Beatles fan. I mean, they're great, sure. But I'm probably only familiar with a dozen of their songs and they have like hundreds between them all. Although, fun fact: I met Paul McCartney in 2000. Like, really met him - was introduced to him, shook his hand, sat in a meeting with him, etc (I used to intern at a major record company - not his record company, but he had a meeting with one of the executives and that executive really liked me and asked me to join the meeting to take notes). But anyway, I was inspired to watch this by The Beatles biopic announcement. Sam Mendes directing four different biopics featuring each Beatle and releasing them all in the same month??? It's certainly...interesting. I'm not thrilled by the cast, aside from Barry Keoghan. Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn and Harris Dickenson are just white boys of the month that have overstayed their welcome (I like both Mescal & Quinn but they aren't being cast to their abilities). Anyway, as far as this movie goes, I'm not the biggest fan. Some of it is interesting - like the scene with them switching cars to try to trick the crowds. But overall, it's just a lot of running. I think you just have to be a pretty big Beatles fan to truly enjoy this.
8. The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) - [blind spot] I read the book last year for the the first time, so decided to watch the original film too. I would love to see the Broadway version starring Sarah Snook, but I doubt I'll get the chance. Unfortunately this movie is...boring. I hate the narration and the guy who plays Dorian looks like a plastic surgery nightmare (this was before plastic surgery, but he's so weird and creepy looking). It's weird to me that it's described as a "horror" when I would describe the book as a drama/suspense. And this I would describe as dull drama. The highlight is a young Angela Lansbury! She was so beautiful! Otherwise, this is a snoozefest. There's not even much else to say about it.
9. The Abyss - [blind spot] Wow...I don't know how I missed this movie when it was released. I assumed that I had watched it, but then one day my husband was describing this movie (he couldn't think of the name of it, but claimed it was one of his favorite movies even though he's never mentioned it during the entire 9 years we've been together), and I had NO IDEA what he was talking about. He finally said "The Abyss!!!" and that's when I realized that I've never seen it! It's great! It's basically Armageddon with a little bit of Alien, but underwater. And it's SO James Cameron - it's like everything he loves combined into one movie. I'm a big Cameron fan - he has such a flair for big, cinematic movies and such an imagination. I really wish he would step away from the Avatar movies though. I enjoyed the first one just fine (and it's INCREDIBLE filmmaking), but I still haven't even seen the second one. I know that he's obsessed with them, though, and he has the type of personality that fixates on something (like how his obsession with the Titanic kept him going for years). I will say that this lacks one thing for me - likeable characters. I don't care about any of them. I do like Ed Harris, though! He's one of the greats. But it's crazy that he's only like 30 years old in this but he looks 55. He's always looked 55. As expected, some really great filmmaking on display - I love the POV shots. Some of them are really cool and I think pretty innovative for the late 80s. The more interesting part of the movie is all the behind-the-scenes drama (I was reading all the insane drama that happened well after the film was over).
10. La Boheme (1926) - [blind spot] I feel like now that I'm into the 80s with this retrospective series, I don't want to get stuck watching relatively newer movies, so I have to be adamant about still watching older films. So, I went real old with this one! Pre-talkies! I was drawn into this by the poster because it looks like a Renoir painting, but I'm HERE for Lillian Gish!! Such a STAR. It's based on the Puccini opera, so it's a well-known story (typical story of a woman giving her whole life for a man to be successful). I love the music in this (obvi). The piano heavy soundtrack, and how it changes to match the mood of each scene was so essential to films before dialogue, but still essential to modern films (definitely something I don't recognize as much, but some film people are more attune to). I also like some of the superimposed images - pretty radical for the time period. Overall, I really liked this - but it's an adjustment to watch a film with no dialogue. You, like, really have to pay attention which is hard to do in this modern world.
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