Author Topic: #184 Top 5: Me Decade Movies  (Read 7993 times)

VmSoze

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Re: #184 Top 5: Me Decade Movies
« Reply #20 on: October 29, 2007, 07:58:48 PM »
I don't know, Russel Hammond is pretty much the definition of "me" centered... if that makes sense.

Adam

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Re: #184 Top 5: Me Decade Movies
« Reply #21 on: October 29, 2007, 08:00:07 PM »
I don't know, Russel Hammond is pretty much the definition of "me" centered... if that makes sense.
I meant in the pantheon. If you're talking about Almost Famous as a 'me' movie, yep, I agree it qualifies.
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VmSoze

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Re: #184 Top 5: Me Decade Movies
« Reply #22 on: October 29, 2007, 08:01:38 PM »
I don't know, Russel Hammond is pretty much the definition of "me" centered... if that makes sense.
I meant in the pantheon. If you're talking about Almost Famous as a 'me' movie, yep, I agree it qualifies.

ahhhh, now it all makes sense.  I'm having a slow day decade.  ???
« Last Edit: October 29, 2007, 08:03:15 PM by VmSoze »

pixote

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Re: #184 Top 5: Me Decade Movies
« Reply #23 on: October 29, 2007, 08:22:38 PM »
Definitely not Pantheon... and only been on three other top 5 lists. If I have to exclude every movie that has come up 2-3 times in the last  2.5 years, I'm going to have a lot of sketchy choices.

I haven't thought through the ramifications of this, but in the spirit of just tossing out an idea:  Maybe instead of a penalty box, you could just make a rule that you can't use the same film twice within X number of weeks.  Not sure what that number would be ... 13?  26?  52?

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Adam

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Re: #184 Top 5: Me Decade Movies
« Reply #24 on: October 29, 2007, 09:56:26 PM »
That's kind of what the penalty box is. I've never set a number... but in my mind, it's something like 3 times in 30 shows... gotta kick it out for a while.
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pixote

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Re: #184 Top 5: Me Decade Movies
« Reply #25 on: October 29, 2007, 10:19:31 PM »
Just glanced through to see what else might be eligible or getting close:

Bourne Identity (171, 158, 136, 130)
Ran (180, 157, 155, 12)
Lone Star (182, 155, 129 - sorta, 89 - sorta, 73, 39)
Stand by Me (155, 153, 115, 18)
Memento (171, 146, 131, 74, 71, 29 - joint)

pixote
« Last Edit: October 29, 2007, 10:23:55 PM by pixote »
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pixote

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Re: #184 Top 5: Me Decade Movies
« Reply #26 on: October 29, 2007, 11:11:04 PM »
I was probably going to include The Basketball Diaries on my list — it's a film I've have a soft spot for — but after thinking more about it, I vaguely remember the film having a slightly muddled sense of its period setting.  It's definitely set in the seventies (in theory), but there might have a few too many modern touches sprinkled throughout.  Or maybe I'm thinking of another film.

Has anyone seen Basketball Diaries recently enough to comment on whether it's true to the decade or not?

But Tony couldn't fly ... Tony died.

pixote

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VmSoze

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Re: #184 Top 5: Me Decade Movies
« Reply #27 on: October 29, 2007, 11:14:03 PM »
I was probably going to include The Basketball Diaries on my list — it's a film I've have a soft spot for — but after thinking more about it, I vaguely remember the film having a slightly muddled sense of its period setting.  It's definitely set in the seventies (in theory), but there might have a few too many modern touches sprinkled throughout.  Or maybe I'm thinking of another film.

Has anyone seen Basketball Diaries recently enough to comment on whether it's true to the decade or not?

But Tony couldn't fly ... Tony died.

pixote




My only memory of The Basketball Diaries is that parts of it were filmed in my home town and a bunch of the girls in my class went to the set to meet Leonardo DiCaprio... they said he was kind of a jerk but that Mark Whalberg was nice.  That doesn't help, does it?

pixote

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Re: #184 Top 5: Me Decade Movies
« Reply #28 on: October 30, 2007, 12:13:24 AM »
My only memory of The Basketball Diaries is that parts of it were filmed in my home town and a bunch of the girls in my class went to the set to meet Leonardo DiCaprio... they said he was kind of a jerk but that Mark Whalberg was nice.  That doesn't help, does it?

I guess I'll just play it safe and put in the fifth spot.  I'm not real happy with my list so far anyway, especially since I can't seem remember these movies well enough to comment on them intelligently. Also, the seventies continue to scare me.

Fun fact:  The Ice Storm and Boogie Nights opened two weeks apart in 1997.  I saw them back-to-back on the same night and went in expecting it to be one of the greatest double-bills ever.  As the Top Five below indicates, I came out a little disappointed.  The curse of high expectations?  Maybe.

Here goes nothing.

5.  The Basketball Diaries (Scott Kalvert, 1995) — A film I'm a little scared to revisit (though I think the backlash against Juliette Lewis had already begun by '95), but Carroll's path from high school basketball star to heroin junkie to introspective poet (and extroverted punk act) in many ways mirrors aspects of the culture as a whole from 1970 to 1980 (when Catholic Boy hit record stores).

4.  Tillsammans (Lukas Moodysson, 2000) — The "me decade" Swedish-style, from the director of F'ing Amal and Lilya 4-Ever.  It might not be quite up to the level of those other two films, but its disillusioned yet sentimental look back on the seventies worked better for me than Ang Lee's take in The Ice Storm.  The English title is Together, by the way.

3.  The Falcon and the Snowman (John Schlesinger, 1985) — Maybe one of the earliest films eligible for this Top Five, Falcon has aimless young men getting involved in drug dealing as a way to get by in the world (a requisite for this list, almost), then taking their burgeoning capitalist dreams a step further and selling secrets to the Russians. I actually don't remember much more than that, so I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope it's half as good as I remember.

2.  Jesus' Son (Alison Maclean, 1999) — Plenty of other drug movies could have appeared on this list — the trend-setting Drugstore Cowboy and not-so-hot Blow come first to mind — but what sets Jesus' Son apart for me is its unexpectedly brilliant (and brilliantly expected) flashes of humor in some otherwise tragic material.  As Ebert wrote to begin his review, "Thinking at first I am seeing still one more road movie about a druggie, I find I am wrong. Jesus' Son surprises me with moments of wry humor, poignancy, sorrow and wildness. It has a sequence as funny as any I've seen this year, and one as harrowing, and it ends in a bittersweet minor key, as it should, because to attach this story to a big climax would be a lie, if not a crime."  I can't remember how much this film has to say about the seventies, but I'm just going to assume it belongs on this list anyway.

1.  Donnie Brasco (Mike Newell, 1997) — Screenwriter Paul Attanasio and director Mike Newell make a damn fine team, and Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, Michael Madsen, and Bruno Kirby (on this list twice!) make a damn fine cast.  I hope history doesn't treat it as some lesser version of Goodfellas, because this film easily stands on its own.  The period detail is fantastic, and the (slightly) revisionist take on the mob genre may have helped pave the way for The Sopranos.

pixote
« Last Edit: October 30, 2007, 11:18:29 AM by pixote »
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Tequila

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Re: #184 Top 5: Me Decade Movies
« Reply #29 on: October 30, 2007, 12:48:44 PM »
Has anyone seen Basketball Diaries recently enough to comment on whether it's true to the decade or not?
I've seen it like two months ago and frankly, I don't think they cared about the decade all that much (probably due to budget constraints). If anything, it looks more like an 80s flick.
As a film, it still feels a lot like a particularly depressing after school special.
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