Fun Movies You've Maybe Never Seen Before: The Way, Way Back

Steve Carell's BIG, HORRIBLE PERSON HEAD.

 Oh, I reallyreallyREALLY liked this movie.  It's supersweet and funny.  But I must warn you, I teared up several times... so, it will make you a little sad in parts.  And it will make you a little mad in parts, too.  Actually, maybe a lot mad in parts. You will never think of Steve Carell the same way again, because in this movie his character is a HORRIBLE PERSON.  Like, in the first 4 minutes of the movie I wanted to throw the Oreo cookies I was snacking on at the image of his BIG, HORRIBLE PERSON HEAD on my TV.  Even still, like I said, I reallyreallyREALLY liked this movie.  It's a movie about things like choices and kindness and kindred spirits, and it's a quiet reminder that while the world is populated with supercreeps, there are also nonsupercreeps out there.  There's also lots of really awesome cheesy music from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.  In fact, when exactly the story is supposed to be taking place creates an ambiguous-mishmash-of-decades sort of feeling.  I suspect that's purposeful; that it's a way of saying: "This story takes place in present day.  And it took place in the 90s.  And in the 80s and 70s.  And prolly the caveman days, too." 

Anyways,  Here's a scene with Sam Rockwell and that guy from Community:

Fun Movies You've Maybe Never Seen Before: The Grand Budapest Hotel

This is easily my very most favorite movie I've seen so far this year.  The characters are all interesting and vivid and just incredible, and this might sound weird, but I think the hotel itself is one of the best characters.

Fun Movies You've Maybe Never Seen Before: Moonrise Kingdom

I've lately realized that the movies I find most creatively inspiring are distinctly stylistic.  These movies are somehow magical;  I can enjoy watching them without the sound on, and I can also enjoy listening to them without watching them.  That probably sounds weird.  But anyways, this is one of those movies:

Fun Movies You've Maybe Never Seen Before: The Brothers Bloom

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Don't watch the trailer.. it incorrectly represents the type of the movie it is.  But this opening scene is spot-on.  It's a quirky, smart, unexpectedly sweet movie, and there's a deliciously old-timey feel to it, too.   I think if you watch the whole movie you will especially love the Penelope character. 

Fun Movies You've Maybe Never Seen Before: Bugsy Malone

Uh-huh. That is young Scott Baio. He stars in this movie with Jodie Foster. No, I'm not kidding. It's a movie about old timey gangsters and their old timey showgirl broads. Except all the characters are played by children. They hang out in speakeasies. They dance. They SING! Except. They don't sing. Because mature adult voices sing the songs and the actor kids lip-sync to it. Badly. And... It. Is. Bizarre. And Awesome!

Fun Movies You've Maybe Never Seen Before: That Darn Cat! (The 1965 Version, Of Course)

Hayley Mills.  Cats.  Fake Accents.  Youth Trapped in a Garage Door.  Enough Said.

Geeky Stuff Alert: Populaire

Must. See. This. Movie.

Fun Movies You've Maybe Never Seen Before: Priceless

Audrey Tautou.  Pretty dresses. Fancypants Locations. Subtitles.

Fun Movies You've Maybe Never Seen Before: Picnic at Hanging Rock

It's creepy. It's unintentionally funny. It's boring sometimes. It's sort of the perfect gray-day movie.

Fun Movies You've Maybe Never Seen Before: Mad Monster Party?

If you haven't seen this movie, you're missing out on big-time fun.

Fun Movies You've Maybe Never Seen Before: The Royal Tenenbaums

This is another movie I could watch with the sound off. Besides the kooky storyline, interesting characters, and clever dialog, I LOVE the stylistic feel of absolutely everything.

Fun Movies You've Maybe Never Seen Before: Dr. Goldfoot And The Bikini Machine

I love Vincent Price.

Geeky Stuff Alert: The Artist (A New Silent Film!)

This movie got such great reviews at Cannes this year, and I want to see it sooo bad. It's got comedy, melodrama, music, dancing... and really great costuming. Take a peek:

Fun Movies You've Maybe Never Seen Before: The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec

This imaginative foreign film takes place in 1912, and is based on a graphic novel. It's sorta like a girly, more aesthetically-pleasing Indiana Jones adventure. You can watch the original French trailer w/ English subtitles here. Or the more Americanized trailer right here-here:

Fun Movies You've Maybe Never Seen Before: Return To Me

This is a supersweet, old fashionedy romance-drama-comedy about love and family and friends and mostly wholesomeish stuff like that. It will make you both cry and giggle. And it has a fantastic soundtrack (lots of Dean Martin!)

Fun Movies You've Maybe Never Seen Before: Heartbreaker

If you like offbeat romantic comedies with quirky foreign actors, hunt it down. It's sort of adorable.

Top Twelve of The Past Ten

Can you believe that it's going to be a brand new year, of a brand new decade? These are my very favorite movies of the past ten years (now, I'm not claiming that these are the best movies of the past decade...they're simply my favorite movies of the past decade!)


I chose to list twelve movies just because... most lists seem to list ten things (ever wonder why that is...?) My selections are in no meaningful order (which explains why my list has wonderlandy nonsequential numbers), and I didn't have any supersnazzy selection criteria, but I did notice some universal themes after reflection. Each movie on my list, is, in some way:

*) funny

*) romantic

*) rewatchable

*) visually interesting

*) uses music in an artful way


...I think rewatchableness is the key factor that really turns a "good movie" into a true personal favorite. There were a lot of great movies during the past ten years (Once, Slumdog Millionaire, etc.), but, for me, the movies that I actually enjoy watching again & again are the ones that wind up taking an extra-special place in my heart :)



So here they are:

3) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind



1) Amelie



7) Shaun of the Dead


2) Moulin Rouge



8) Love, Actually




12) Lars and the Real Girl



6) 500 Days of Summer



4) Penelope



10) Being John Malkovich



5) Wall-E



9) The Jane Austen Book Club



11) Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day


Go see them. If you already have, maybe go see them again.

Happy Father's Day!

Since today is all about dads, I thought I'd share two of my favorite, recently-discovered dadcentric-themed movie picks:

Dan in Real life (A Romantic Dramedy, rated PG13, staring Steve Carell and Juliet Binoche.) This is a heartwarming little movie about a big crazy family, life with daughters, getting through grief, and love-love-love. Very Parenthoody, but more modern, sophisticated, and warm. I saw the trailer and it looked pretty boring, but the actual movie was a wonderfully sweet surprise. In my opinion, this one's prolly best for teens and up :)

Kit Kittredge (A Family Film, rated G, staring Abigail Breslin, Julia Ormand, and Chris O'Donnell.) This movie's based on a product (the American Girl dolls), so I thought it would be reallysuperLAME, but, as is sometimes the case...I was wayway wrong! Remember those great old fashioned Hayley Mills Disney movies?... This movie feels like those... it's a kind, wholesome movie about the Great Depression, told through the eyes of a little girl. It tackles delicate economic issues honestly but gently, and focuses on the importance of perseverance, optimism, friends, and family (a perfect choice for Grandparent visits.)

Bat For Lashes, Yogurtland, Penelope

These are my THREE THINGS I LOVE RIGHT NOW for this week:

PERSON: Bat For Lashes (AKA Natasha Khan.) Wow. This is my latest favorite girly singer. I think you'll like her, too. Her newest album is really cool, her older stuff is just as interesting, and her cover songs are awesome. I especially love Travelling Woman, The Forest (The Cure cover), and the three gems that follow. Listen, listen, listen, and look, look, look:

Calling Moon and Moon (mp3 via quiet color.)

(very Donnie Darko)



(Karate Kid inspired... no, really, I'm not kidding, it actually, truly was...)





PLACE: Yogurtland. My brother introduced me to this place and it's just won-der-ful! They have a zillion flavors and you get to serve yourself any combination you like. So if you've ever got a hankering (yes, I said "hankering") for a special peanut butter-mango-pumpkin-mint chip concoction, this is the place to go. You can also choose whatever serving size you prefer, from teenytinytaste-sized to giantgiantbucket-sized, and the same goes for toppings (whatever combination, however much you like.) Then the Yogurtlandians weigh your finished masterpiece, and the price is based on... the weight. The yogurt is yummy, the toppings are actually fresh (some are even healthy!), and what's best is that the prices (at least for my concoctions) are really great (much lower than our local Golden Spoon.) Our location has the nicestever employees, and they're totally kid-friendly (pup-friendly, too, if you don't mind munching alfresco.) I loooove Yogurtland...

...this guy not so much... (be sure to bring puppy treats for your more carnivorous-leaning canine friends.)




THING: Penelope. The movie. I love it. Penelope has a swing in her bedroom. She creates lovely terrariums. And I suspect she shops at Anthropologie.

(pretty soundtrack, yes?)

So, those are three things I love right now. If you have a blog, maybe you'll want to try sharing three weekly things, too... then there'll be six happy things, then nine, then... maybe one week...2,400!