Relevant elements: Macaulay Culkin being precocious, particularly when he slaps on aftershave and yells
Why it resonated: How could America say no to a holiday family film by John Hughes that showcases the most promising child actor of his generation?
General comments on the film: Maybe it's just Festivus sentimentality, but this movie annoyed me much less than I expected. Because I didn't see it when it came out, I never really got the full Macaulay Culkin experience. In my world, he went straight from Uncle Buck to being an object of gleeful scorn because of his over-cuteness and notoriously difficult behavior, to the point that audiences cheered when he plummeted to his death in The Good Son. I knew this film put him on the map, but the subsequent criticism of Culkin and endless unfunny allusions to the above-mentioned face-slap-and-yell tainted my perception of Home Alone, making me think his performance would be obnoxious and overly child-performer-y. It also didn't help that I knew Joe Pesci was involved, since he sets my teeth on edge in most appearances.
In retrospect, I should have trusted John Hughes more. Yes, there was a little too much direct-to-camera mugging, but Hughes is not one to let too much sugar pile up without a touch of down-to-earth sourness to balance it out. I'm still a little confused about why Kevin's family are so mean-spirited toward him, but the Hughesian suburban Chicago setting was so comfortingly familiar that such quibbles didn't linger very long.
This is by no means a masterpiece of filmmaking, but it's highly professional and perfectly pitched for a broad audience looking for something to put on in the background as they put up holiday decorations. And it makes me wonder what other films I might be misguidedly avoiding....
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
Cultural Gap Film #6: Twilight
Relevant elements: Teen vampire melodrama
Why it resonated: Who can say why vampires become a trend every 10 years? There's always been something vaguely adolescent about vampire fascination, what with the moodiness, swells of sensuality, and so on, but for some reason this iteration spoke unusually deafeningly to the current generation of teenagers.
General comments on the film: This is the first of these films I've watched that honestly felt like a waste of time. I didn't really learn anything from the experience that I didn't already know about the film or its impact on our culture.
Going into it, I expected a fairly badly made movie, and in that sense Twilight was not a disappointment. Just about every element is handled poorly: the pacing drags, the acting is lifeless, the exposition is clumsy, the voiceover narration is spotty and artless, the story is unoriginal, the cinematography is distractingly ham-handed (just watch the "You're a vampire" scene in the forest for an example).... I could go on and on. Actually, I think I will. Here are two of the countless "Really?" moments: the benign vampire family playing baseball in the woods in a thunderstorm (?!?!) and the tone-deaf closing scene with the lone remaining "bad" vampire walking toward our lovestruck heroes at their prom to the wholly mismatched Radiohead song "15 Step." Even the closing credits don't strike the right note.
But enough complaints about what is--I'm sorry, I can't stop. Why is the world so blue-tinted? Why is everyone--not just the vampires--so inhumanly pale? Why does there seem to be only one teacher in the high school, why is he so incredibly excited about biology, and why aren't the students rolling their eyes at him incessantly? Isn't it enough that there are vampires in this world? Do they have to be telepathic and clairvoyant as well? Why not just let them travel through time and breathe fire? Did Bella really need to do internet research to find out what a vampire is? And finally, has there ever been a more deliciously spot-on description than Nathan Rabin labeling Kristen Stewart a "dead-eyed talent vacuum"?
OK. I think I'm done. But just in case that paragraph didn't suck out all the venom and stop me from turning into a blood-lusting monster (yet another cliched plot point in the film), let me end this quickly by saying to any of you who haven't seen this movie that it is exactly what you think it is.
Why it resonated: Who can say why vampires become a trend every 10 years? There's always been something vaguely adolescent about vampire fascination, what with the moodiness, swells of sensuality, and so on, but for some reason this iteration spoke unusually deafeningly to the current generation of teenagers.
General comments on the film: This is the first of these films I've watched that honestly felt like a waste of time. I didn't really learn anything from the experience that I didn't already know about the film or its impact on our culture.
Going into it, I expected a fairly badly made movie, and in that sense Twilight was not a disappointment. Just about every element is handled poorly: the pacing drags, the acting is lifeless, the exposition is clumsy, the voiceover narration is spotty and artless, the story is unoriginal, the cinematography is distractingly ham-handed (just watch the "You're a vampire" scene in the forest for an example).... I could go on and on. Actually, I think I will. Here are two of the countless "Really?" moments: the benign vampire family playing baseball in the woods in a thunderstorm (?!?!) and the tone-deaf closing scene with the lone remaining "bad" vampire walking toward our lovestruck heroes at their prom to the wholly mismatched Radiohead song "15 Step." Even the closing credits don't strike the right note.
But enough complaints about what is--I'm sorry, I can't stop. Why is the world so blue-tinted? Why is everyone--not just the vampires--so inhumanly pale? Why does there seem to be only one teacher in the high school, why is he so incredibly excited about biology, and why aren't the students rolling their eyes at him incessantly? Isn't it enough that there are vampires in this world? Do they have to be telepathic and clairvoyant as well? Why not just let them travel through time and breathe fire? Did Bella really need to do internet research to find out what a vampire is? And finally, has there ever been a more deliciously spot-on description than Nathan Rabin labeling Kristen Stewart a "dead-eyed talent vacuum"?
OK. I think I'm done. But just in case that paragraph didn't suck out all the venom and stop me from turning into a blood-lusting monster (yet another cliched plot point in the film), let me end this quickly by saying to any of you who haven't seen this movie that it is exactly what you think it is.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Cultural Gap Film #5: Saving Private Ryan
Relevant element: Standard-bearer for the Spielberg-Hanks project of re-envisioning World War II
Why it resonated: The 1990s saw a surge of interest in mainstream retrospectives about WWII, epitomized by a few prominent films and Tom Brokaw's paean to "The Greatest Generation." Why this cultural wave swelled at that time is a question for another day, but the result is that for an ever-increasing percentage of the American population, their vision of the war is significantly defined by historical films--especially this one, thanks to its graphic depiction of battle and Spielberg's usual emotional manipulation.
General comments on the film: I've been avoiding this film because I have a fairly strong allergic reaction to unmitigated earnestness and non-nuanced sentimentality, which are hallmarks of Stephen Spielberg's directorial style. So when the movie opened with a proudly fluttering American flag and an aged veteran leading his family into a seemingly endless and perfectly manicured cemetery, let's just say I was not heartened.
At times, however, another of Spielberg's hallmarks--his consummate craftsmanship--distracted me long enough to let my inflammation subside. For every two overdone elements (like the Ryan homestead in Iowa being the picturesque living embodiment of the American heartland) there is a finely shot piece of visual storytelling as an antidote. The Normandy invasion scene is a nice example of this balance: moments like a soldier's helmet saving him from a bullet, followed by him taking it off to marvel at it and being shot in the head feel gratuitous to the point of verging on slapstick, but the cinematography is spectacular. All in all, I'm glad I finally watched this film, but I don't think I'll ever see it again.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Cultural Gap Film #4: Beverly Hills Cop
Relevant elements: Wisecracking loose cannon cop archetype, Eddie Murphy in his glory days
Why it resonated: Despite the role being originally intended for Sylvester Stallone (which helps explain my longtime question: Isn't Axel a strange name for an African American detective from Detroit?), this film took the already strong action/cop genre and fused it with the country's hottest comedian to help establish the formula that Jerry Bruckheimer and others would spend the next generation following to the point of exhaustion.
General comments on the film: Seeing it for the first time now, it's hard to determine exactly how much the movie is following the conventions of the genre and how much it is establishing those conventions, but in any case, it checks off nearly all of the familiar elements, right down to the plight of the poor fruit vendor during the opening car chase, during which the film seems to be trying to keep Detroit's automotive industry going by smashing gratuitously into as many huge cars as possible. For a while I thought there wasn't going to be the requisite strip club scene, but how dare I doubt Bruckheimer?
I found this movie's iteration of one of the standard genre roles--the exasperated boss of the cop who plays by his own rules--to be top-notch, so I looked up the actor and discovered that he was a real-life Detroit detective. That was a nice touch. Otherwise, this film is basically a time capsule of 1984's vision of Los Angeles: blonde women with huge sunglasses riding in convertibles along Rodeo Drive, etc. All of that is backed by the constant sound of 1984 behind all of the action: “The Heat Is On,” “Neutron Dance,” “New Attitude,” and the ever-present "Axel F."
Only two things interrupted my comfortable immersion in the genre and time. The first was the typeface choice for the movie's title sequence, which seemed way too old-fashioned-scrolling-Hill-Street-Blues-y for the sharp-edged modern California setting. Speaking of which, the Beverly Hills police department looked like a set borrowed from WarGames--filled with giant blinking computer consoles and high-tech screens--which seemed odd in such a low-crime precinct. Otherwise, watching this film for the first time felt like watching it for the twentieth time. Now I have to figure out how to stop humming that song.
Why it resonated: Despite the role being originally intended for Sylvester Stallone (which helps explain my longtime question: Isn't Axel a strange name for an African American detective from Detroit?), this film took the already strong action/cop genre and fused it with the country's hottest comedian to help establish the formula that Jerry Bruckheimer and others would spend the next generation following to the point of exhaustion.
General comments on the film: Seeing it for the first time now, it's hard to determine exactly how much the movie is following the conventions of the genre and how much it is establishing those conventions, but in any case, it checks off nearly all of the familiar elements, right down to the plight of the poor fruit vendor during the opening car chase, during which the film seems to be trying to keep Detroit's automotive industry going by smashing gratuitously into as many huge cars as possible. For a while I thought there wasn't going to be the requisite strip club scene, but how dare I doubt Bruckheimer?
I found this movie's iteration of one of the standard genre roles--the exasperated boss of the cop who plays by his own rules--to be top-notch, so I looked up the actor and discovered that he was a real-life Detroit detective. That was a nice touch. Otherwise, this film is basically a time capsule of 1984's vision of Los Angeles: blonde women with huge sunglasses riding in convertibles along Rodeo Drive, etc. All of that is backed by the constant sound of 1984 behind all of the action: “The Heat Is On,” “Neutron Dance,” “New Attitude,” and the ever-present "Axel F."
Only two things interrupted my comfortable immersion in the genre and time. The first was the typeface choice for the movie's title sequence, which seemed way too old-fashioned-scrolling-Hill-Street-Blues-y for the sharp-edged modern California setting. Speaking of which, the Beverly Hills police department looked like a set borrowed from WarGames--filled with giant blinking computer consoles and high-tech screens--which seemed odd in such a low-crime precinct. Otherwise, watching this film for the first time felt like watching it for the twentieth time. Now I have to figure out how to stop humming that song.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Cultural Gap Film #3: Singin' in the Rain
Relevant element: The title song, along with a few smartly choreographed set pieces
Why it resonated: This functions as a classic example of the grand Hollywood musical, with high-energy productions of songs already popular or intended to become popular, strung together as gamely as possible with an overarching plot. It's a basic formula done very well here: a little song, a little dance, a little cake in the face....
General comments on the film: The elements of this film that struck me most were the self-conscious industry bits. This is, after all, a movie made in 1952 about the advent of talking pictures in 1927. While focusing on a silent film star whose voice would doom her career might seem a bit obvious, the scenes dealing with the silent stars spitting venom at each other while filming a love scene and the sound not syncing with the image are playful and clever. Anyone who has watched early sound films has to laugh with recognition at the ploys the director uses to capture the actors' voices, like putting a microphone in a conspicuously placed bush and anchoring the actors around it.
It's hard not to be won over by the charm of the leads, the snappy old-time-Hollywood line delivery, and the remarkably choreographed numbers with few obvious cuts. The continuity suffers at times, especially in the surprisingly draggy falling-in-love song and the overlong New York/"Gotta Dance" passage, but the films within films and the persistently cheerful energy of the movie dare you to be grumpy about such quibbles.
Why it resonated: This functions as a classic example of the grand Hollywood musical, with high-energy productions of songs already popular or intended to become popular, strung together as gamely as possible with an overarching plot. It's a basic formula done very well here: a little song, a little dance, a little cake in the face....
General comments on the film: The elements of this film that struck me most were the self-conscious industry bits. This is, after all, a movie made in 1952 about the advent of talking pictures in 1927. While focusing on a silent film star whose voice would doom her career might seem a bit obvious, the scenes dealing with the silent stars spitting venom at each other while filming a love scene and the sound not syncing with the image are playful and clever. Anyone who has watched early sound films has to laugh with recognition at the ploys the director uses to capture the actors' voices, like putting a microphone in a conspicuously placed bush and anchoring the actors around it.
It's hard not to be won over by the charm of the leads, the snappy old-time-Hollywood line delivery, and the remarkably choreographed numbers with few obvious cuts. The continuity suffers at times, especially in the surprisingly draggy falling-in-love song and the overlong New York/"Gotta Dance" passage, but the films within films and the persistently cheerful energy of the movie dare you to be grumpy about such quibbles.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Cultural Gap Film #2: Bridget Jones's Diary
Relevant element: The archetypal single thirtysomething woman trying to find happiness in her love life and career
Why it resonated: This was perhaps the first major adaptation of a so-called chick lit novel, and it put forth a main character whose concerns echoed those of the target audience
General comments on the film: Much of the success of this movie relies on the audience's sympathy with the title character as she is put through a ridiculous series of social humiliations. Apparently, many people identified with her struggles to take control of her eating, drinking, smoking, working, and shagging, but I found it difficult to figure out exactly why I was supposed to like her. Yes, she has a horrifying night when she has to introduce her boss at a launch party for a new book (--is it just me or do an inordinate percentage of women in movies work in publishing?), but that seems to be mainly because she is not very intelligent, articulate, or responsible.
The more I think about it, the less I would want her to be my friend, employee, relative, etc. That lack of a reason for me to sympathize with her beyond her seemingly endless capacity for embarrassing herself erodes the foundation of the film for me. At least there was a gratuitous Jane Austen reference.
Why it resonated: This was perhaps the first major adaptation of a so-called chick lit novel, and it put forth a main character whose concerns echoed those of the target audience
General comments on the film: Much of the success of this movie relies on the audience's sympathy with the title character as she is put through a ridiculous series of social humiliations. Apparently, many people identified with her struggles to take control of her eating, drinking, smoking, working, and shagging, but I found it difficult to figure out exactly why I was supposed to like her. Yes, she has a horrifying night when she has to introduce her boss at a launch party for a new book (--is it just me or do an inordinate percentage of women in movies work in publishing?), but that seems to be mainly because she is not very intelligent, articulate, or responsible.
The more I think about it, the less I would want her to be my friend, employee, relative, etc. That lack of a reason for me to sympathize with her beyond her seemingly endless capacity for embarrassing herself erodes the foundation of the film for me. At least there was a gratuitous Jane Austen reference.
Friday, November 5, 2010
"Elephants are VERY BIG. Motor cars go quickly"
The title of this post is a line from one of the most enjoyable artistic manifestos of the early years of the 20th century. There were a lot of manifestos flying around in those days, as creative people broke free of the dowdy shackles of the Victorian age in a variety of nutty ways. Scores of -isms shouted their founding principles, usually relishing just how anti-establishment and avant garde they were.
It didn't take long for these passionate whatever-ists to turn on each other in their lust for idols to smash, and the line above happens to be the Vorticists' snide parody of the Futurists in their perfectly-named but short-lived publication BLAST. (Don't worry, this mini-lecture on artistic modernism is almost over.) The Futurists wanted to blow up the stuffy-old-museum conception of art and tended to write rhapsodically about driving really fast in cars and embracing the thrills of new technology. The Vorticists distinguished themselves from the Futurists mainly by advocating blowing everything up, including the Futurists.
So why am I detailing this century-old modernist smackdown?
The Vorticists' derision of the worship of extreme things echoed in my mind today as I finally got around to trying out Breaking Bad. For those who don't know, it's an AMC series that's a darling of television critics. Since that description fits another series I love, Mad Men, I've been meaning to get my hands on the Season 1 DVDs and give it a shot. After the first episode, I put the disc in its little sleeve, put that in the red envelope, and took it down to the mailbox.
Before anyone gets defensive, let me say that my reaction wasn't based on the merits of the show. It does what it sets out to do pretty well, as far as I can tell. The problem lies with me--specifically, with my allergy to extremism. As I get older, I find I have less and less interest in watching things that are supposed to be compelling because of their grand scale, extraordinary intensity, or extremity of situation. Thousands and thousands of detailed computer-generated warriors are nice and all, but spectacle doesn't stir me. Characters in the utmost far-out stressful situations with swelling orchestral emotional cues just feels like overkill. If the creators of a cultural product are trying to push a particular button in my brain, I'd much prefer they do it with an artful touch instead of a sledgehammer.
Here's why Breaking Bad tripped my circuit breaker: the premise is that a brilliant scientist somehow finds himself working as an unappreciated high school chemistry teacher (all right so far) while also working a second job at a car wash (not too far-fetched) as he turns fifty (fine) surrounded by a bunch of bozos led by his blustery meathead brother-in-law drug enforcement officer (OK, we get that his life is bad), and then he finds out he has inoperable lung cancer despite never having smoked (that just feels like piling on), so he decides to start manufacturing crystal meth (why not?) with the assistance of a rascally former student of his who gets him into a situation in which he is driving a meth lab/RV through a wildfire in the New Mexico desert with no pants on as he tries to avoid being killed by other drug dealers (I'm speechless). Oh, and his wife literally tracks her online auction sales while half-heartedly initiating sex with him on his birthday. And she's pregnant. And their teenage son has cerebral palsy, which draws the mockery of the locals. And I'm probably forgetting something else the writers have heaped on this poor guy just so we know how awful his life is so we can justify to ourselves his decision to go into the meth business.
With all of these conditions as the starting point for this character, there is literally nothing he can do in the show that can connect with me on a human level any more. His situation is so over-the-top that it's cartoonish, which is not what I want out of a drama. How much more interesting would it have been if he decided to start making meth because he felt like life had cheated him in just one of those ways? Preferably one of the smaller tribulations. His choice has less meaning because of the extremity of his problems.
Maybe I'm an outlier, but I feel like real human life is interesting enough without amplifying things so much that our receptors get flooded. That's part of what makes Mad Men work so well: it sharpens our focus to the point that we find meaning in seemingly insignificant details and happenstances of the world they create. Sure, there will be a runaway lawnmower in the office every once in a while, but a shared glance or a spilled milkshake actually carries more power for the viewer than a shower of blood.
I know it's easier to guarantee an emotional reaction from an audience if you blow their doors off, but the kind of reaction you're likely to get is outsized as well. The degree of difficulty in getting people to sympathize with someone plagued by troubles at a Job-like level is not very high, and that sympathy doesn't seem to add up to much to me because it's so obvious and loses any fine-tuned connection with the humanity of the viewer.
Elephants are very big indeed, but we don't need something to be the size of an elephant to be able to be interested in it.
It didn't take long for these passionate whatever-ists to turn on each other in their lust for idols to smash, and the line above happens to be the Vorticists' snide parody of the Futurists in their perfectly-named but short-lived publication BLAST. (Don't worry, this mini-lecture on artistic modernism is almost over.) The Futurists wanted to blow up the stuffy-old-museum conception of art and tended to write rhapsodically about driving really fast in cars and embracing the thrills of new technology. The Vorticists distinguished themselves from the Futurists mainly by advocating blowing everything up, including the Futurists.
So why am I detailing this century-old modernist smackdown?
The Vorticists' derision of the worship of extreme things echoed in my mind today as I finally got around to trying out Breaking Bad. For those who don't know, it's an AMC series that's a darling of television critics. Since that description fits another series I love, Mad Men, I've been meaning to get my hands on the Season 1 DVDs and give it a shot. After the first episode, I put the disc in its little sleeve, put that in the red envelope, and took it down to the mailbox.
Before anyone gets defensive, let me say that my reaction wasn't based on the merits of the show. It does what it sets out to do pretty well, as far as I can tell. The problem lies with me--specifically, with my allergy to extremism. As I get older, I find I have less and less interest in watching things that are supposed to be compelling because of their grand scale, extraordinary intensity, or extremity of situation. Thousands and thousands of detailed computer-generated warriors are nice and all, but spectacle doesn't stir me. Characters in the utmost far-out stressful situations with swelling orchestral emotional cues just feels like overkill. If the creators of a cultural product are trying to push a particular button in my brain, I'd much prefer they do it with an artful touch instead of a sledgehammer.
Here's why Breaking Bad tripped my circuit breaker: the premise is that a brilliant scientist somehow finds himself working as an unappreciated high school chemistry teacher (all right so far) while also working a second job at a car wash (not too far-fetched) as he turns fifty (fine) surrounded by a bunch of bozos led by his blustery meathead brother-in-law drug enforcement officer (OK, we get that his life is bad), and then he finds out he has inoperable lung cancer despite never having smoked (that just feels like piling on), so he decides to start manufacturing crystal meth (why not?) with the assistance of a rascally former student of his who gets him into a situation in which he is driving a meth lab/RV through a wildfire in the New Mexico desert with no pants on as he tries to avoid being killed by other drug dealers (I'm speechless). Oh, and his wife literally tracks her online auction sales while half-heartedly initiating sex with him on his birthday. And she's pregnant. And their teenage son has cerebral palsy, which draws the mockery of the locals. And I'm probably forgetting something else the writers have heaped on this poor guy just so we know how awful his life is so we can justify to ourselves his decision to go into the meth business.
With all of these conditions as the starting point for this character, there is literally nothing he can do in the show that can connect with me on a human level any more. His situation is so over-the-top that it's cartoonish, which is not what I want out of a drama. How much more interesting would it have been if he decided to start making meth because he felt like life had cheated him in just one of those ways? Preferably one of the smaller tribulations. His choice has less meaning because of the extremity of his problems.
Maybe I'm an outlier, but I feel like real human life is interesting enough without amplifying things so much that our receptors get flooded. That's part of what makes Mad Men work so well: it sharpens our focus to the point that we find meaning in seemingly insignificant details and happenstances of the world they create. Sure, there will be a runaway lawnmower in the office every once in a while, but a shared glance or a spilled milkshake actually carries more power for the viewer than a shower of blood.
I know it's easier to guarantee an emotional reaction from an audience if you blow their doors off, but the kind of reaction you're likely to get is outsized as well. The degree of difficulty in getting people to sympathize with someone plagued by troubles at a Job-like level is not very high, and that sympathy doesn't seem to add up to much to me because it's so obvious and loses any fine-tuned connection with the humanity of the viewer.
Elephants are very big indeed, but we don't need something to be the size of an elephant to be able to be interested in it.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Cultural Gap Film #1: Apollo 13
Relevant element: "Houston, we have a problem."
Why it resonated: The combination of a well-known story of surviving a series of catastrophic failures and the pithiness of military-style understatement made this instantly recognizable shorthand for any bad situation. Did you just realize, as your dog was emptying his bowels, that you're out of waste disposal bags? "Houston, we have a problem." Have you just dropped a birthday cake on the floor? "Houston, we have a problem."
General comments on the film: If you've never seen this movie, just take about 20 seconds to imagine what it's like. Got it? You're exactly right. Not a single element of Apollo 13 surprises you--not the casting, not the plot, not the dialogue, not the cinematography, definitely not the music....
That's not to say it's a bad film. It does a solid job of telling a can't-miss dramatic true story. But if you share my low tolerance for unrelenting earnestness, the pure twinkling Hanksianism of the movie wears on you pretty quickly. So does the sledgehammer foreshadowing, as people harp on the unluckiness of the mission number, small children ask their astronaut fathers if another disaster could happen, and astronauts' wives drop their wedding rings down shower drains. All of this pushes it into the territory of fiveshadowing, which seems a touch unnecessary when we all know what's coming before the movie even starts.
But Ron Howard has never been the kind of director who lets an emotional button go unpushed. The swelling score might as well include choirs of thousands singing, "This is inspirational" over and over. And what could be more essential to the story than the mission commander's elderly mother defiantly asserting that her son could land a flying washing machine safely? Similarly, Howard never lets you forget for a second that it's 1970, even though it's unlikely that you would. We're given multiple "But mom, I want to be a hippie!" scenes, and there always seems to be a radio on in the background playing a seminal song of the time.
On the plus side, Clint Howard is always a welcome inclusion, and it is a darn good story about people fighting against the slings and arrows of a world seemingly governed by Murphy's Law.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Minding the Gaps
As a followup to my previous exercise of identifying the 200 most culturally relevant films for today's America, I'm starting a new endeavor: filling in my own gaps on that list. I've seen most of the movies on the list, but there are some I've avoided on purpose and some I just never got around to watching for some reason or another.
Before I start this project in earnest, though, I want to set up a framework--a list of objectives, maybe--that helps provide a perspective from which I'll be viewing these films. I won't be watching them for content; the very fact of their cultural relevance means that I already know what they're about, and even know the general plot points of most of them. For instance, I've never seen Pretty Woman, but I know the premise, several scenes, and the overall plot structure. And I'm not going to be watching them for entertainment purposes, though it won't be the worst thing in the world if I happen to enjoy some of them.
What I'm really interested in is why they're culturally relevant. Why did they resonate enough that they became a seemingly integral part of our culture? What values or ideas do they put forth? What function do they serve in our lives, and has that function changed since the moment of their first appearance? These are the kinds of questions that I'm interested in answering, but I'd like to hear some suggestions for other things I should consider.
In a way, I've already started this project. Since I first starting thinking about the topic of culturally relevant films, I've been going out of my way to watch movies that I'd often heard referenced but had never seen. In the past month or so, for instance, I've watched Ghost, Thelma and Louise, Mr. Mom, Sleepless in Seattle, and Good Will Hunting for cultural studies purposes. I have thoughts about each of them, you won't be surprised to hear, but I won't be writing full posts about them because my viewings of them predate the official start of this exercise.
Here's a list of some films from the list (or from suggestions to the list) that I haven't yet seen:
Apollo 13
Beaches
Beverly Hills Cop
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Bridget Jones' Diary
Cast Away
City Slickers
Dead Poets Society
Flashdance
Footloose
Gone with the Wind
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Home Alone
Love Story
Mr. Holland's Opus
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Old School
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Philadelphia
Pretty Woman
Rudy
Saving Private Ryan
Saw
Singin' in the Rain
The Great Escape
The Sound of Music
Titanic
Twilight
So, does anyone have any suggestions for things I should be considering when I watch these movies or for which movie I should see first?
Before I start this project in earnest, though, I want to set up a framework--a list of objectives, maybe--that helps provide a perspective from which I'll be viewing these films. I won't be watching them for content; the very fact of their cultural relevance means that I already know what they're about, and even know the general plot points of most of them. For instance, I've never seen Pretty Woman, but I know the premise, several scenes, and the overall plot structure. And I'm not going to be watching them for entertainment purposes, though it won't be the worst thing in the world if I happen to enjoy some of them.
What I'm really interested in is why they're culturally relevant. Why did they resonate enough that they became a seemingly integral part of our culture? What values or ideas do they put forth? What function do they serve in our lives, and has that function changed since the moment of their first appearance? These are the kinds of questions that I'm interested in answering, but I'd like to hear some suggestions for other things I should consider.
In a way, I've already started this project. Since I first starting thinking about the topic of culturally relevant films, I've been going out of my way to watch movies that I'd often heard referenced but had never seen. In the past month or so, for instance, I've watched Ghost, Thelma and Louise, Mr. Mom, Sleepless in Seattle, and Good Will Hunting for cultural studies purposes. I have thoughts about each of them, you won't be surprised to hear, but I won't be writing full posts about them because my viewings of them predate the official start of this exercise.
Here's a list of some films from the list (or from suggestions to the list) that I haven't yet seen:
Apollo 13
Beaches
Beverly Hills Cop
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Bridget Jones' Diary
Cast Away
City Slickers
Dead Poets Society
Flashdance
Footloose
Gone with the Wind
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Home Alone
Love Story
Mr. Holland's Opus
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Old School
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Philadelphia
Pretty Woman
Rudy
Saving Private Ryan
Saw
Singin' in the Rain
The Great Escape
The Sound of Music
Titanic
Twilight
So, does anyone have any suggestions for things I should be considering when I watch these movies or for which movie I should see first?
Sunday, October 3, 2010
A Brief Musing about Information
I think it's important to know things.
That shouldn't be too surprising to hear from an professional educator, and you probably wouldn't think that many people in the general population would disagree with the sentiment. But more and more in my classes, I've run up against a contrary mindset.
When a student would declare that America fought the Nazis in World War I, or (to borrow an example from a recent episode of The Amazing Race) claim that he or she has never heard of Stonehenge, my instinct used to be to shake my head in disbelief that such basic pieces of information haven't lodged in their heads. What started to strike me after a while, however, was not that they didn't know things, but that they had no problem with not knowing things. In fact, they thought I was kind of weird for thinking it was important for them to walk around with that kind of information in their heads all the time.
Naturally, I started asking them questions to figure out why there was such a gap between our worldviews. As someone who loves information for information's sake to the point that he made up trivia cards about the bride and groom for his wedding, I had to put aside my assumptions and consider their perspective, and here is my best estimate of the situation.
When I was growing up, information was something you had to seek. If you were watching a TV show and saw an actor who looked familiar, but you couldn't quite remember how you knew him, what could you do to get an answer? You wouldn't know his name, so you would have to wait for the end credits and hope to see it as it flashed by. If you were lucky enough to get his name, you would need to ask other people what else he was in or go to a library to try to find some publication with a list of shows and cast information or track down the phone number of a studio or agent or something and then call and ask, or...well, you get the picture. The effort needed to find things out made information valuable to hold onto when you came across it, like water at an oasis.
My students have always lived in a world in which information is readily accessible. You could even say that it's the medium in which they live. It pulses through the very air they breathe and shows up on their electronic devices wherever they are. If they see an actor and want to know why he seems familiar, they can find out in less than a minute from nearly anywhere at any time with a minimum of effort. And once they find out that piece of information, why would they keep it in their head? They can get it again just as easily if they ever need it in the future. Why carry a bottle of water when you're swimming?
Add to this scenario the element of social networking and it seems even more logical that the idea of any one person burdening himself or herself with information that costs mental energy to pick up and carry sounds ludicrous to my students. As long as someone somewhere can find it out, no one person needs to know it.
Again, my instinct is to shake my head at the state of things. But little good has ever come from that kind of handbasket grumbling, and it's worth asking what the consequences of this shift really are. Maybe my students have a point when they complain that it's a sadistic exercise to make them memorize and regurgitate facts they can easily look up. Or maybe their reliance on the surrounding stream of information substantially changes their experience of the world in negative ways. What happens when you encounter every new thing empty-handed, without the weight of information to help contextualize it? I'm sure we'll find out the answer to that question, even if that answer is then immediately dropped right back in the information pool.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Need-to-Know Movies
It started with The Sound of Music. Over and over in my life, I had "You've never seen The Sound of Music?!?!?" squealed at me in such a way that nearby non-English speakers might well have guessed that I had just confessed to inveterate cannibalism. After a while, I started to think about why I was being scolded so harshly for my non-compliance with a clause of the social contract I clearly hadn't read.
And that brought me to the idea of Need-to-Know Movies. You know what these are. Indeed, the very fact of their essential nature should make any explanation unnecessary. But I'll explain anyway.
These are the films that everyone expects everyone else to be instantly familiar with. If someone makes a joking allusion to such a movie, they don't need to explicitly identify the source. The Office sometimes plays on this idea by having Michael make an obvious reference to one of these films, then wait a beat and unnecessarily name the movie, thus intensifying the lameness of his joke.
If someone comes to a costume party dressed as a character from one of these films, everyone will instantly recognize who they're supposed to be. If someone describes a real-life situation by saying, "This is just like [title of movie]," everyone understands why that movie is being invoked. If someone uses the name of the film as shorthand for a character type, place, behavior, etc., everyone unblinkingly processes it.
These movies are cultural touchstones. There's some element of them that resonates, whether it's a line, a scene, a character, or a general idea. As my Sound of Music experience shows, they're the kind of movies that you take for granted to the point that you're surprised if other people aren't familiar with them. They seem like such a part of the fabric of our culture that they feel eternal and unavoidable.
Of course, every person is their own culture in a way, and will therefore have their own touchstones. There will obviously also be local cultures (a family, a subculture, etc.) in which certain films will be seen as essential that aren't as important to the wider culture. What I'm trying to get at here are the movies that are either clearly relevant to that wider culture or so important to a particular segment that the wider culture is aware of them.
So I started making a list and bringing up that list in conversation, which made it change and grow. Eventually it got close to 200 movies, and I arbitrarily decided that I should limit it to that number. It's probably close to the number of films that the general public can keep in its collective mind at one time anyway.
Keep in mind that what is culturally relevant will constantly change, so a film that was unequivocally crucial a generation ago might have outlived its relevance by today. And today's essential movies might fall away in turn. What I'm trying to capture here is a snapshot of today's movies.
It's also important to note that these aren't necessarily good films. What I'm considering here is how culturally relevant they are, not how much I, you, or film critics like or appreciate them. But I feel like I'm starting to sound defensive before I've put out anything to defend, so here's the list as it stands right now. Let the arguments begin.
2001: A Space Odyssey [the theme, the opening section with the prehumans, HAL...]
9 to 5 [helped by the song, but just clinging onto relevance]
A Christmas Story [fra-gi-le]
A Clockwork Orange [the look, the slang, the ultraviolence]
A Few Good Men [a line we all know]
A Nightmare on Elm Street (any) [premise, character]
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective [like I said, the movie doesn't have to be good]
Airplane! [the standout representative of the spoof genre]
Alien or Aliens [the titular creatures, the bursting-out-of-the-stomach scene]
Animal House [the general atmosphere if nothing else]
Annie Hall [Woody Allen needs to be on the list somewhere]
Apocalypse Now [Vietnam, napalm, operatic helicopters, the horror]
Apollo 13 [a line we all know]
Austin Powers [the character and catchphrases]
Babe [talking animal and "That'll do, pig," but I find this one tenuous]
Back to School [the idea and Dangerfield together]
Back to the Future [the premise, the car, etc.]
Basic Instinct [the crossing of legs]
Batman [a few lines, the new-school superhero reboot, the overall look]
Beaches [general tearjerking]
Beverly Hills Cop [song, character]
Big [the premise, the piano scene]
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure [characters, speech pattern, premise]
Billy Madison or Happy Gilmore [Sandler man-child persona]
Blade Runner [setting, androids/cyborgs]
Blazing Saddles [representative of parody genre/Mel Brooks films]
Blue Velvet [representative of David Lynch surrealist weirdness]
Borat [the character/voice]
Boyz in the Hood [inner city youths]
Braveheart [costumes, freedom speech]
Breakfast at Tiffany's [overall look]
Bridget Jones' Diary [character/archetype]
Brokeback Mountain [homosexuality, cowboys]
Bull Durham [some lines, sports/romcom blend]
Caddyshack [groundhog, screwball premise, golf setting]
Cape Fear [tattoos, premise, threatening stalker]
Carrie [blood scene, picked-on girl getting revenge]
Casablanca [lots of lines, song, etc.]
Cast Away [Wilson, premise]
Chinatown [losing its relevance, I think]
Citizen Kane [Rosebud, AFI's top film]
City Slickers [premise/setting]
Clash of the Titans (the original) [Greek mythological setting]
Close Encounters of the Third Kind [mashed potatoes, meeting the aliens scene]
Clueless [character/archetype]
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon [representative of the new-school martial arts genre]
Dead Poets Society [premise, "O Captain"]
Deliverance [banjo music, creepy mountainfolk]
Die Hard [premise, a line we all know]
Dirty Dancing [songs, a line we all know]
Do the Right Thing [racial tension]
Dr. Strangelove [Cold War setting, riding the bomb scene, etc.]
Dumb and Dumber [characters/archetypes]
E.T. [several scenes and lines, alien]
Fame [song, premise]
Fargo [accent, setting]
Fast Times at Ridgemont High [character, premise/setting]
Fatal Attraction [situation]
Father of the Bride [situation]
Ferris Bueller's Day Off [characters, premise, a few scenes]
Field of Dreams [a line we all know, premise]
Flashdance [music, scene we all know]
Footloose [song, premise]
Forrest Gump [premise, character, a line we all know]
Friday the 13th (any) [character, premise]
Full Metal Jacket [Vietnam, boot camp setting]
Ghost [a scene we all know]
Ghostbusters [song, premise]
Gone with the Wind [a line we all know, Civil War setting]
Good Morning, Vietnam [a line we all know]
Good Will Hunting [premise, a few lines/scenes]
Goodfellas [overall Scorsese/mobster vibe]
Grease [songs, setting]
Gremlins [characters, premise]
Groundhog Day [premise]
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner [premise]
Halloween [character, premise]
Harry Potter (any) [characters, premise]
Home Alone [a scene we all know, premise]
Hoosiers [sports premise]
Independence Day [White House scene, premise]
Indiana Jones (first 3) [character, premise]
It's a Wonderful Life [premise, some lines]
James Bond film (any, pref. Goldfinger) [character, premise]
Jaws [music, shark]
Jerry Maguire [a line we all know, premise]
Jurassic Park [premise]
King Kong [character, Empire State Building]
Lord of the Rings (any) [premise, characters]
Love Story [tearjerking premise, a line we all know]
Mary Poppins [songs, characters]
Men in Black [premise]
Miracle on 34th Street [Christmas, courtroom scene]
Mommie Dearest [a line we all know, archetypal abusive mother]
Monty Python and the Holy Grail [premise, some lines]
Moulin Rouge [style/look, songs]
Mr. Holland's Opus [premise]
Mr. Mom [premise]
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington [premise]
Mrs. Doubtfire [premise]
My Big Fat Greek Wedding [premise]
My Cousin Vinny [premise, "two youths"]
My Fair Lady [songs, premise]
Napoleon Dynamite [characters]
National Lampoon's Vacation [several scenes/lines, premise]
North by Northwest [plane scene, Mount Rushmore scene, general Hitchcockness]
Ocean's Eleven (new) [premise, Vegas]
Office Space [setting/premise, smashing office machines]
Old School [premise/setting, some lines]
Old Yeller [don't make me write it]
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest [characters, setting]
Parenthood [premise]
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure [character, some scenes/lines, Burton style]
Philadelphia [premise]
Pirates of the Caribbean (any) [characters, setting]
Planet of the Apes [scenes and lines we all know, premise]
Police Academy (any) [premise, characters]
Poltergeist [a line we all know, premise]
Predator [premise, Arnold]
Pretty Woman [premise, a few scenes]
Psycho [shower scene, music, premise]
Pulp Fiction [several scenes, violence]
Rain Man [some scenes/lines, premise]
Raising Arizona [song, premise]
Reality Bites [premise, overall Generation X vibe]
Rear Window [voyeurism premise]
Rebel Without a Cause [character/archetype]
Remember the Titans [inspirational sports premise]
Reservoir Dogs [violence, songs, ear scene]
Revenge of the Nerds [premise]
Risky Business [underwear scene]
Rocky (at least I and IV) [premise, underdog sports premise]
Roger & Me or Fahrenheit 9/11 [Michael Moore style]
Rudy [inspirational sports premise]
Saturday Night Fever [music, style]
Saving Private Ryan [premise/setting]
Saw (any) [premise, torture genre representative]
Scarface [several lines/scenes]
Schindler's List [premise/setting]
Scream [premise, mask]
Shrek (any) [characters]
Silence of the Lambs [a few lines/scenes, premise]
Singin' in the Rain [songs, title song scene]
Single White Female [situation]
Sixteen Candles [premise, John Hughesness]
Sleepless in Seattle [premise, Hanks and Ryan]
Slumdog Millionaire [premise, setting]
Sophie's Choice [situation]
Spartacus [setting, "I'm Spartacus" scene]
Speed [premise]
Stand By Me [flashback childhood premise]
Star Trek (any) [tenuous, since its relevance is significantly influenced by the TV show]
Star Wars (Episodes IV-VI) [needs no explanation]
Steel Magnolias [strong Southern woman archetype]
Superman (I or II) [characters, a few scenes]
Taxi Driver [premise, a scene/line we all know]
The Big Lebowski [characters, setting/feel]
The Blues Brothers [music, premise, characters]
The Breakfast Club [premise, characters, song]
The Crying Game [premise]
The Dark Knight [characters]
The Deer Hunter [premise, a few scenes]
The Exorcist [premise, a few scenes]
The Godfather (I and II) [needs no explanation]
The Goonies [youth premise, Sloth]
The Graduate [scenes/lines we all know, music]
The Great Escape [premise, song]
The Hangover [Vegas attachment, premise]
The Karate Kid [scenes we all know, premise]
The Lion King [songs, premise]
The Little Mermaid [songs, characters, premise]
The Matrix [premise, style]
The Natural [sports premise, lights scene]
The Notebook [premise, "chick flick" power]
The Princess Bride [lines/characters]
The Rocky Horror Picture Show [cult status, style]
The Shawshank Redemption [premise/setting]
The Shining [setting, lines/scenes we all know]
The Sixth Sense [a line we all know, premise]
The Sound of Music [songs, premise]
The Terminator (1 and 2) [characters, premise, a line we all know]
The Truman Show [premise]
The Usual Suspects [premise]
The Wizard of Oz [songs, premise, scenes/lines we all know]
Thelma and Louise [premise, ending scene]
There's Something About Mary [representative of the gross-out comedy genre]
This Is Spinal Tap [representative of the mockumentary genre, a few lines]
Three Men and a Baby [situation/premise]
Titanic [needs no explanation]
Tootsie [premise]
Top Gun [premise, character, some scenes/lines we all know]
Toy Story [representative of the new school animated genre]
Twilight [premise, characters]
Wall Street [premise, a line we all know]
WarGames [premise, a line we all know]
War of the Worlds (original) [premise]
West Side Story [songs, premise]
When Harry Met Sally [premise, a scene we all know]
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory [songs, characters]
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? [animated/live action blend, characters]
And that brought me to the idea of Need-to-Know Movies. You know what these are. Indeed, the very fact of their essential nature should make any explanation unnecessary. But I'll explain anyway.
These are the films that everyone expects everyone else to be instantly familiar with. If someone makes a joking allusion to such a movie, they don't need to explicitly identify the source. The Office sometimes plays on this idea by having Michael make an obvious reference to one of these films, then wait a beat and unnecessarily name the movie, thus intensifying the lameness of his joke.
If someone comes to a costume party dressed as a character from one of these films, everyone will instantly recognize who they're supposed to be. If someone describes a real-life situation by saying, "This is just like [title of movie]," everyone understands why that movie is being invoked. If someone uses the name of the film as shorthand for a character type, place, behavior, etc., everyone unblinkingly processes it.
These movies are cultural touchstones. There's some element of them that resonates, whether it's a line, a scene, a character, or a general idea. As my Sound of Music experience shows, they're the kind of movies that you take for granted to the point that you're surprised if other people aren't familiar with them. They seem like such a part of the fabric of our culture that they feel eternal and unavoidable.
Of course, every person is their own culture in a way, and will therefore have their own touchstones. There will obviously also be local cultures (a family, a subculture, etc.) in which certain films will be seen as essential that aren't as important to the wider culture. What I'm trying to get at here are the movies that are either clearly relevant to that wider culture or so important to a particular segment that the wider culture is aware of them.
So I started making a list and bringing up that list in conversation, which made it change and grow. Eventually it got close to 200 movies, and I arbitrarily decided that I should limit it to that number. It's probably close to the number of films that the general public can keep in its collective mind at one time anyway.
Keep in mind that what is culturally relevant will constantly change, so a film that was unequivocally crucial a generation ago might have outlived its relevance by today. And today's essential movies might fall away in turn. What I'm trying to capture here is a snapshot of today's movies.
It's also important to note that these aren't necessarily good films. What I'm considering here is how culturally relevant they are, not how much I, you, or film critics like or appreciate them. But I feel like I'm starting to sound defensive before I've put out anything to defend, so here's the list as it stands right now. Let the arguments begin.
2001: A Space Odyssey [the theme, the opening section with the prehumans, HAL...]
9 to 5 [helped by the song, but just clinging onto relevance]
A Christmas Story [fra-gi-le]
A Clockwork Orange [the look, the slang, the ultraviolence]
A Few Good Men [a line we all know]
A Nightmare on Elm Street (any) [premise, character]
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective [like I said, the movie doesn't have to be good]
Airplane! [the standout representative of the spoof genre]
Alien or Aliens [the titular creatures, the bursting-out-of-the-stomach scene]
Animal House [the general atmosphere if nothing else]
Annie Hall [Woody Allen needs to be on the list somewhere]
Apocalypse Now [Vietnam, napalm, operatic helicopters, the horror]
Apollo 13 [a line we all know]
Austin Powers [the character and catchphrases]
Babe [talking animal and "That'll do, pig," but I find this one tenuous]
Back to School [the idea and Dangerfield together]
Back to the Future [the premise, the car, etc.]
Basic Instinct [the crossing of legs]
Batman [a few lines, the new-school superhero reboot, the overall look]
Beaches [general tearjerking]
Beverly Hills Cop [song, character]
Big [the premise, the piano scene]
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure [characters, speech pattern, premise]
Billy Madison or Happy Gilmore [Sandler man-child persona]
Blade Runner [setting, androids/cyborgs]
Blazing Saddles [representative of parody genre/Mel Brooks films]
Blue Velvet [representative of David Lynch surrealist weirdness]
Borat [the character/voice]
Boyz in the Hood [inner city youths]
Braveheart [costumes, freedom speech]
Breakfast at Tiffany's [overall look]
Bridget Jones' Diary [character/archetype]
Brokeback Mountain [homosexuality, cowboys]
Bull Durham [some lines, sports/romcom blend]
Caddyshack [groundhog, screwball premise, golf setting]
Cape Fear [tattoos, premise, threatening stalker]
Carrie [blood scene, picked-on girl getting revenge]
Casablanca [lots of lines, song, etc.]
Cast Away [Wilson, premise]
Chinatown [losing its relevance, I think]
Citizen Kane [Rosebud, AFI's top film]
City Slickers [premise/setting]
Clash of the Titans (the original) [Greek mythological setting]
Close Encounters of the Third Kind [mashed potatoes, meeting the aliens scene]
Clueless [character/archetype]
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon [representative of the new-school martial arts genre]
Dead Poets Society [premise, "O Captain"]
Deliverance [banjo music, creepy mountainfolk]
Die Hard [premise, a line we all know]
Dirty Dancing [songs, a line we all know]
Do the Right Thing [racial tension]
Dr. Strangelove [Cold War setting, riding the bomb scene, etc.]
Dumb and Dumber [characters/archetypes]
E.T. [several scenes and lines, alien]
Fame [song, premise]
Fargo [accent, setting]
Fast Times at Ridgemont High [character, premise/setting]
Fatal Attraction [situation]
Father of the Bride [situation]
Ferris Bueller's Day Off [characters, premise, a few scenes]
Field of Dreams [a line we all know, premise]
Flashdance [music, scene we all know]
Footloose [song, premise]
Forrest Gump [premise, character, a line we all know]
Friday the 13th (any) [character, premise]
Full Metal Jacket [Vietnam, boot camp setting]
Ghost [a scene we all know]
Ghostbusters [song, premise]
Gone with the Wind [a line we all know, Civil War setting]
Good Morning, Vietnam [a line we all know]
Good Will Hunting [premise, a few lines/scenes]
Goodfellas [overall Scorsese/mobster vibe]
Grease [songs, setting]
Gremlins [characters, premise]
Groundhog Day [premise]
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner [premise]
Halloween [character, premise]
Harry Potter (any) [characters, premise]
Home Alone [a scene we all know, premise]
Hoosiers [sports premise]
Independence Day [White House scene, premise]
Indiana Jones (first 3) [character, premise]
It's a Wonderful Life [premise, some lines]
James Bond film (any, pref. Goldfinger) [character, premise]
Jaws [music, shark]
Jerry Maguire [a line we all know, premise]
Jurassic Park [premise]
King Kong [character, Empire State Building]
Lord of the Rings (any) [premise, characters]
Love Story [tearjerking premise, a line we all know]
Mary Poppins [songs, characters]
Men in Black [premise]
Miracle on 34th Street [Christmas, courtroom scene]
Mommie Dearest [a line we all know, archetypal abusive mother]
Monty Python and the Holy Grail [premise, some lines]
Moulin Rouge [style/look, songs]
Mr. Holland's Opus [premise]
Mr. Mom [premise]
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington [premise]
Mrs. Doubtfire [premise]
My Big Fat Greek Wedding [premise]
My Cousin Vinny [premise, "two youths"]
My Fair Lady [songs, premise]
Napoleon Dynamite [characters]
National Lampoon's Vacation [several scenes/lines, premise]
North by Northwest [plane scene, Mount Rushmore scene, general Hitchcockness]
Ocean's Eleven (new) [premise, Vegas]
Office Space [setting/premise, smashing office machines]
Old School [premise/setting, some lines]
Old Yeller [don't make me write it]
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest [characters, setting]
Parenthood [premise]
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure [character, some scenes/lines, Burton style]
Philadelphia [premise]
Pirates of the Caribbean (any) [characters, setting]
Planet of the Apes [scenes and lines we all know, premise]
Police Academy (any) [premise, characters]
Poltergeist [a line we all know, premise]
Predator [premise, Arnold]
Pretty Woman [premise, a few scenes]
Psycho [shower scene, music, premise]
Pulp Fiction [several scenes, violence]
Rain Man [some scenes/lines, premise]
Raising Arizona [song, premise]
Reality Bites [premise, overall Generation X vibe]
Rear Window [voyeurism premise]
Rebel Without a Cause [character/archetype]
Remember the Titans [inspirational sports premise]
Reservoir Dogs [violence, songs, ear scene]
Revenge of the Nerds [premise]
Risky Business [underwear scene]
Rocky (at least I and IV) [premise, underdog sports premise]
Roger & Me or Fahrenheit 9/11 [Michael Moore style]
Rudy [inspirational sports premise]
Saturday Night Fever [music, style]
Saving Private Ryan [premise/setting]
Saw (any) [premise, torture genre representative]
Scarface [several lines/scenes]
Schindler's List [premise/setting]
Scream [premise, mask]
Shrek (any) [characters]
Silence of the Lambs [a few lines/scenes, premise]
Singin' in the Rain [songs, title song scene]
Single White Female [situation]
Sixteen Candles [premise, John Hughesness]
Sleepless in Seattle [premise, Hanks and Ryan]
Slumdog Millionaire [premise, setting]
Sophie's Choice [situation]
Spartacus [setting, "I'm Spartacus" scene]
Speed [premise]
Stand By Me [flashback childhood premise]
Star Trek (any) [tenuous, since its relevance is significantly influenced by the TV show]
Star Wars (Episodes IV-VI) [needs no explanation]
Steel Magnolias [strong Southern woman archetype]
Superman (I or II) [characters, a few scenes]
Taxi Driver [premise, a scene/line we all know]
The Big Lebowski [characters, setting/feel]
The Blues Brothers [music, premise, characters]
The Breakfast Club [premise, characters, song]
The Crying Game [premise]
The Dark Knight [characters]
The Deer Hunter [premise, a few scenes]
The Exorcist [premise, a few scenes]
The Godfather (I and II) [needs no explanation]
The Goonies [youth premise, Sloth]
The Graduate [scenes/lines we all know, music]
The Great Escape [premise, song]
The Hangover [Vegas attachment, premise]
The Karate Kid [scenes we all know, premise]
The Lion King [songs, premise]
The Little Mermaid [songs, characters, premise]
The Matrix [premise, style]
The Natural [sports premise, lights scene]
The Notebook [premise, "chick flick" power]
The Princess Bride [lines/characters]
The Rocky Horror Picture Show [cult status, style]
The Shawshank Redemption [premise/setting]
The Shining [setting, lines/scenes we all know]
The Sixth Sense [a line we all know, premise]
The Sound of Music [songs, premise]
The Terminator (1 and 2) [characters, premise, a line we all know]
The Truman Show [premise]
The Usual Suspects [premise]
The Wizard of Oz [songs, premise, scenes/lines we all know]
Thelma and Louise [premise, ending scene]
There's Something About Mary [representative of the gross-out comedy genre]
This Is Spinal Tap [representative of the mockumentary genre, a few lines]
Three Men and a Baby [situation/premise]
Titanic [needs no explanation]
Tootsie [premise]
Top Gun [premise, character, some scenes/lines we all know]
Toy Story [representative of the new school animated genre]
Twilight [premise, characters]
Wall Street [premise, a line we all know]
WarGames [premise, a line we all know]
War of the Worlds (original) [premise]
West Side Story [songs, premise]
When Harry Met Sally [premise, a scene we all know]
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory [songs, characters]
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? [animated/live action blend, characters]
A Note of Explanation
You're right. I've been wasting my critical insights by expounding at just a few people at a time. My words have been bouncing off their skulls and evaporating in midair for too long. So here you go, internet.
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