A couple quick entries to close my contributions:
The Royal Tenenbaums Actually watched last week, just didn't bring it up. The running joke about Margot not
really being neither Royal's daughter nor Richie and Chas's sister is the saddest and meanest funny running joke around. I also see an interesting critique about the nature of genius and the results of a sheltered - if exceptionally well-meaning - upbringing. None of these grown children can cope with themselves let alone the outside world. Watching them, along with neighborhood friend Eli Cash, resolve major loose ends from their childhoods in various different ways is captivating, heart-breaking, and even a little heart-warming.
Last note, but the
suicide scene with Elliott Smith's
Needle in the Hay playing is very rough on me, but incredibly well and sensitively done by Anderson.
Young Frankenstein Oh, the puns and double entendres! Oh, the comedic timing! Oh, my god...woof.
Highly quotable and memorable, I knew I had to get to this one after finally getting a complete viewing of Blazing Saddles last month. Now Saddles' political and social critiques on top of some very on-the-edge moments of cinema (third wall breaking, spilling into other sets, etc.) made that one an insta-fave, and YF doesn't quite get to that level. That's not to say it doesn't have anything to say, the Putting on the Ritz/monster exhibition surely has something to say about what it means to be cultured and intelligent. There's also commentary embedded on the classic Hollywood blonde, putting out into daylight the trouble with the influence of the male gaze in film. But this one truly lives on its laughs per minute, nothing wrong with that. A delightful take on a classic monster story.
I'm sure many of you have your favorite laughs, mine is a classic that Wilder just pulls off so well: With the monster locked up in a cell, he decides to go in and win him over with love, but tells his companions not to let him out no matter the screaming and the pleading; then, he gets in there, and well, you know. Well, you only know if you've seen, but Wilder pulls this joke off with such great physicality, tone of voice, and timing, I got such a good laugh out of it.