Perfect Movies: Introduction
If any of you have read any of my previous entries, you may have already sussed that I am a media junkie: TV shows, movies, commercials, and the general ephemeral bits that bob in time’s wake and the ever-widening cultural river—these are the things of which…
Perfect Movies: Dazed and Confused
Nostalgia is a powerful force: the sentimental longing for a past connected to personal and positive memories is the kind of feeling that, when brought up in conversation, makes older people unbearable to younger generations; meanwhile, those who have gained a certain experience in life know that the callous youth that reject their…
Perfect Movies: Pulp Fiction
In 1994, shortly after I turned 12, my father took me to see Pulp Fiction in the theaters. He and I had both been raving for weeks about how great the movie looked based on the trailers airing on TV, and the reviews that came out only confirmed what we both assumed: that this was…
Perfect Movies: I ♥ Huckabees
“What am I doing? I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m doing the best that I can. I know that’s all I can ask of myself. Is that good enough? Is my work doing any good? Is anybody paying attention? Is it hopeless to try and change things? The African guy is a sign, right?…
Perfect Movies: Goodfellas
“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.” This wry confession comes from the narrator and protagonist of the film–who will soon be formally introduced as Henry Hill–hovering over a body in the trunk of his car, bathed in the red light of his brake lights in the darkness…
Perfect Movies: The ‘Burbs
If there’s two things I love in this life, it’s comedy and living in the suburbs. The comedy part is easy enough to understand: because funny things are funny. But why the suburbs? For one, I’m neither a city nor country mouse: I’ve lived the rural life and found it boring and very briefly…
Perfect Movies: The Breakfast Club
It is a truth universally acknowledged that being a teenager sucks. Not objectively, of course: as an increasingly cantankerous adult, I look at teenagers and want to let them know that they are young and healthy and will never be this free of full of promise again…
Perfect Movies: The Big Lebowski
The Dude abides. But how? With the Gulf War raging in the background and as the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune–mostly concerning a soiled rug that really tied the room together that escalates into a wild series of improbable events–fall about him…
Perfect Movies: Blade Runner
Do androids dream of electric sheep? This question–the title of Philip K. Dick’s novel that serves as the basis for 1982’s Blade Runner–becomes the film’s central thesis, as android bounty hunter Rick Deckard is tasked with bringing in six Nexus-6 androids that have gone…
Perfect Movies: American Psycho
“You like Huey Lewis & The News?” I sure do, and Patrick Bateman makes a great argument for the strengths of their 1983 commercial breakthrough album, Sports. It would be a great moment in any retro film for the main character to espouse his love of mainstream…
Perfect Movies: Monkey Business
There may be no more perfect comedy configuration on film than the Marx Brothers. I have had some dark days in my life–as have us all–and despite any hardship or emotional upset, I can turn on a Marx Brothers movie…
Perfect Movies: A Hard Day’s Night
No film has ever captured the excitement of being young–and the energy, pluck, and spirit that goes along with it–better than The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night. And it doesn’t come from the plot of the film, which is nominally a day in the life of The Beatles as they get ready to do a TV appearance–but…
Me Like Movies 