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Not the "best" movies to go on like an AFI list, but the ones that shaped me:
Blue Velvet - my first (only?) exposure to that level of mordant humor and Freudian menace
American Movie - I watch this at least once a year and feel its rawness and sadness a little more profoundly each time
Gummo - my people, finally represented on screen
Zodiac - captures something no one talks about, which is how fucking *dark* the Bay Area is. A procedural, but less about cops and more about a kind of media terrorism and the propagation of social-psychological contagion
Twin Peaks: FWWM - the first 30 minutes rewired me permanently, never been the same since
Raising Arizona - I grew up in the sticks and this was the first "art film" I ever saw. Watched it enough times to memorize every line
Feb 25, 2024
Related Recs
I was born in San Francisco and raised in Marin and Sonoma (specifically a town called Petaluma) and now that enough decades have past, I have a new appreciation for the beauty of the region—particularly as depicted by Hollywood's great genre filmmakers of the '70s, '80s, and '90s. Of course, this includes great San Francisco movies like Vertigo (Hitchcock), Bullitt (Yates) and The Game (Fincher), but there are so many others that venture out to Monterey, Bodega Bay, and all the way up to Humboldt County. Some of my friends keep a running tally of "NorCal Noir" movies. Some favorites:
Salem's Lot (Miniseries, 1979), The Fog (1980), Play Misty For Me (1971), The Birds (1963), The Final Terror (1983), Firefox (1982), Dead and Buried (1981), Murder She Wrote (TV episodes, various), Cujo (1983), Point Blank (1967).
There are probably many others but between the midcentury architecture, west coast hippie/yuppie dialectic, atmospheric coastal fog, and rolling hills, it's a distinct vibe that always feels incredibly indulgent and tasteful even when it's lent in service of schlock.
Nov 24, 2024
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Juliet of The Spirits (1965), Federico Fellini
House (1977), Nobuhiko Obayashi
Possession (1981), Andrzej Żuławski
The Night of The Hunter (1955), Charles Laughton
3 Women (1977), Robert Altman
Meshes of The Afternoon (1943), Maya Deren.
The Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954) and Lucifer Rising (1972), Kenneth Anger. Also- his complete Magick Lantern Cycle.
Dreams (1990), Akira Kurosawa
Mirror (1975) and Stalker (1979), Andrei Tarkovsky
Bell, Book, and Candle (1958), Richard Quine
Chess of The Wind (1976), Mohammad Reza Aslani
Body Double (1984), Brian De Palma
Klute (1971) and The Parallax View (1974), Alan J. Pakula
Nine to Five (1980), Colin Higgins
Apr 28, 2024
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My favourite thing in the world is motion pictures. These are some movies I recommend, a fraction really. I also want to say I really dislike irony so hope no one thinks i’m kidding about what I recommend. Fractions also of television art and writing . Not qualified to recommend anything elseHouse of Games (1987), The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), California Split (1974), Beau Travail (1999), The Juror (1996), The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), The Bourne Identity (2002), The Long Goodbye (1973), At Close Range (1986), Hardcore (1979), Where’s Poppa? (1965), Face/Off (1997), King of New York (1990), The Deer Hunter (1979), The Piano Teacher (2001), Born to Win (1971), The Limey (1999), The Town (2010), Glass Chin (2014), Climax (2018), Midnight Special (2016), Three Days of the Condor (1975), Downhill Racer (1969), The Conversation (1974), Arrival (2016), Body Heat (1981), Romancing the Stone (1984), Inherent Vice (2014), Body Double (1984), Barry Lyndon (1975), Touch of Evil (1958), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), The Game (1997), Sisters (1972), Half Moon Street (1986), Masquerade (1988), Hi, Mom! (1970), Symbiopsychotaxiplasm (1968), Bitter Lake (2015), La Soufriere (1977), Rififi (1955)
Mar 29, 2022
Top Recs from @jamesminton
Aesthetic + philosophical contemplation, & somehow the crowds are no bother. The closest I come to outward religious observation
Jan 29, 2024
The elemental, straight dope version of the sound that terrified white conservatives in the '50s. (Also the soundtrack to Ben's Place in Blue Velvet.) I tell Spotify to make a "Honky Tonk Part 1 Radio," the party flows from there, and I get compliments on a well-curated playlist.
Jan 29, 2024