Sometimes there is just too much entertainment and not enough time.
As much as I would relish taking a deep dive into each and every one of my all-time favorite movies and TV shows, it’s much easier to throw it all together in list form. Here are the top 10 films or series that have had the greatest impact on me.
Contact
This film is an incredible adventure from the mind of renowned astrophysicist Carl Sagan, juxtaposing speculative fiction with full-blown fantasy. But instead of coming off as ridiculous, the fantasy bits are beautiful. And it’s believing in the fantasy as much as the science fiction that reminds us of the central theme of faith, and the faith Dr. Arroway has in shining the light on alien life.
I can’t tell you the exact circumstances I was in the first time I saw this movie, but I can tell you that I was very young and was definitely not giving my full attention to it. What makes this movie so remarkable for me was how the scene on “Pensacola Beach” stayed with me for years and years.
Manipulating stars with your fingers and conversing with benevolent psychic aliens was mind blowing to my kid self. I became obsessed with the works of Christian Reese Lassen as a means to transport myself back to that moment. For years I dreamt of standing on warm sand in some distant place, watching galaxies and shooting stars with my naked eye.
Every time I revisit this film I get something more out of it. Even as I young girl I could identify with the struggle Jodie Foster’s character, Dr. Arroway, went through as woman in a male-dominated world. Now that I’m older I respect her character’s beliefs even more—and would like to thank Carl Sagan for not having romance be the center of her story.
Black Mirror
Speculative fiction, as it relates to sci-fi, tells stories that imagine possible technologies or near futures. Works like Dune or Star-Wars are strictly sci-fi, as they involve distant pasts, futures, and places that never existed. However, Black Mirror falls perfectly into the category of speculative fiction, because it often only goes one step beyond real-world technology. The same reason some people love the show is the same reason others are critical of it—it falls too close to real life.
I appreciate Black Mirror as both a fan of speculative fiction and for its skillfulness in applying futuristic fantasies to modern-day issues and the incorrigible flaws of the human condition. It’s also a pretty macabre show, which I tend to be drawn to (gothic horror is my favorite genre of literature, after all).
Not to mention this series allowed Netflix to present the world with the stream-your-own-adventure special, Bandersnatch. Transforming the viewer into the protagonist a la Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books of the 80s and 90s felt like Black Mirror’s dark universe had finally melded with our own. Meta.
Moulin Rouge!
Gothic horror may be my favorite literary genre, but musicals have to be my favorite film genre. The visceral emotions expressed through song as opposed to dialogue are powerful, leaving me more elated, more in love, and more heartbroken with their stories. For someone who is not a huge fan of romance or rom-coms, I’m a real sucker for love stories told in song.
Moulin Rouge! is one of my favorite musicals for its chart-topping music, its quirkiness, and artfully entangling love and tragedy together. Ewan McGregor’s character wooing Nicole Kidman’s with “Your Song” (particularly the way he sings the lines about her eyes) sent my heart soaring the first time I saw it in some high school film class, and it remains one of my favorite movie scenes to this day.
Hannibal
After a friend raved to me how good this show was (and how superb Mads Mikkelsen is as the titular character), I queued it up on my watchlist, where it sat, ignored, for months. I didn’t have high hopes anyone could take up the mantle that clearly belonged to the great Sir Anthony Hopkins, so I wasn’t eager to start watching right away.
Oh, how foolish I was.
Hannibal hooked me almost instantly. I say “almost” because the crime-procedural style of the first season severely dampened my hopes for the show. (I watched so much CSI and their spinoffs in my younger years that I just can’t take it anymore.) But I like to give everything a chance, and once I saw Hannibal moving outside of the procedural plot…I couldn’t stop watching.
For starters, it’s weird. Like Twin Peaks weird, but less supernatural, more experimental, and ramp up the artistic direction by about 100. The dialogue is laughably pretentious at times, but somehow fits perfectly with the overall aesthetic. Mikkelsen’s Hannibal is fascinating in a way that doesn’t dare tread over Hopkins’s toes. And the FOOD. I don’t think there’s many people that walk away from this series without thinking, “I’d totally eat a person if Hannibal cooked them for me.”
What surprised me the most, though, was the relationship that forms over the course of the series between Hannibal and Hugh Dancy’s Will Graham. It happens organically, through Bryan Fuller’s excellent writing and the two actors’ natural chemistry. For weeks (weeks!) after I finished the show, I couldn’t stop thinking about the dynamic between Hannibal and Will, so much so that it inspired me to write an essay on it.
Just re-watching the trailer floors me, and reminds me of how crazy, tragic, well-written, and over the top this show is. I’m hard-pressed to name another show that has the same depth or feel. Sure, I jumped on Killing Eve immediately after my re-watch, and Mindhunter has definite similarities, but for now, Hannibal is in a category all its own.
The Lion King
When I was growing up, my house had an entertainment center with pull-out drawers for housing VHS tapes that was 90% full of Disney animated movies. If it came out prior to the new millennium, my brother and I had seen it, and we’d seen it at least 10 times (and had a few of the soundtracks on cassette, too).
As I grew older, I found myself still wanting to revisit some of these movies, despite being in those awkward teen years where you try to shun childish things and embrace adulthood. But by that time I knew who Elton John was, and had read Hamlet, so I had a renewed interest in seeing The Lion King again with more mature eyes.
That re-watch cemented this movie in my heart as my favorite Disney movie of all time. The songs, the score, the animation, the adventure! This wasn’t a kids’ movie, this was a kid-friendly masterpiece!
It’s been years since that moment, but I still cherish The Lion King. I rushed to watch an original re-release in theaters, I’ve seen the live Broadway version, and it was one of a handful of DVDs I bought for my best friend after she had her first child. And yes, I had full-body goosebumps during the opening scene of the live-action remake and spent the following two days singing “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” around the house. But as great as the remake was, the original will always have my heart.
Fight Club
I see this movie on a lot of “Toxic Men Starter Pack” memes, but I’ll still defend it. I mean, has Chuck Palahniuk (author of the original novel) written things that have disturbed and disgusted me? You betcha. Do I think people who idolize Tyler Durden need therapy (and maybe to chew some valerian root and get more exercise)? Of course. But one can still appreciate movies with toxic characters without wanting to be those characters.
The DVD commentary confirms the approach to making this film was more of a black comedy than any anarchist manifesto. The twist is great, even if you saw it coming. The vibe is both gritty and silly. Not to mention it’s directed by David Fincher, a modern-day auteur in the film industry.
OK look, Brad Pitt is heart-stoppingly hot in this movie and Jared Leto’s fine ass also exists as a character in this universe. If I ignored the red flags in the plot it’s not 18-year-old-me’s fault.
But you know, it’s like, also really well made and stuff…
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
There was a time in the late 90s and early aughts where Jim Carrey tried to branch out with more dramatic roles, and Eternal Sunshine is one of them. I absolutely love the way the film depicts memory loss, with scenes losing their details, audio and visual becoming swapped, and the haunting aftertaste of heartbreak.
We’re drawn to Joel and Clementine’s story as it shows the relatable ugliness of relationships, but also its tenderest moments. I also love the argument that even if you erase someone from your memory, you can’t erase your attraction to them. Maybe more importantly, this movie shows humanity’s willingness to jump into doomed romances, because we want more than anything to believe love will prevail.
Donnie Darko
This film was the inspiration for not only Weird Movie Wednesday, but this entire blog. Its high marks with both critics and audiences alike show that you don’t have to fully understand what’s going in a movie on to enjoy the ride. It’s dark, convoluted, has an atmospheric soundtrack, a horrifying icon in Frank, and Jake Gyllenhaal is a cutie—which ticks all the boxes for me. I have no further notes.
The Dark Knight
According to my ticket stubs (back when those were still a thing), I saw this film six times in the summer it was released, including once in IMAX. I don’t think I’ve ever re-watched a movie so many times in such a short span, and I’ll probably never break that record. Part of my infatuation had to do with just moving to a new place and trying to make friends, part of it was due to that Christopher Nolan magic, and part of it was recycling a tried-and-true movie plot. And, you know, the tragic death of the lead antagonist months before.
Heath Ledger’s role as the Joker is so spectacular that it elevates his character into what I like to call a Lovable Villain—that is, a villain the audience enjoys watching do bad things. We know Batman is supposed to catch this murderous psychopath…but we really just want to see what the Joker will do next.
Getting the audience to care and root for both sides isn’t an easy stunt to pull off, and it was helped in part by taking from the 1995 classic, Heat. The gist of that movie is that good-guy Al Pacino lives for chasing down baddies like Robert De Niro—and De Niro loves the chase. They need each other for the excitement and purpose the other brings to their lives. And despite the Joker explicitly coming out and saying this in The Dark Knight, the audience very much feels this relationship throughout the film. The Joker makes this movie, but truly, where would the Joker be without Batman?
Our Flag Means Death
I first got into OFMD like I did Hannibal: a coworker gushed to me about the show, but I was less than enthusiastic to start it, only giving the first episode a chance when I was bored one day. The trailer made it look a little silly so I approached it expecting the same lighthearted comedy found in What We Do in the Shadows. A palate cleanser from all the dramas and horror, if you will.
I finished the first season and almost immediately binged it again less than a week later. I was infatuated. This silly little show somehow evolved into an endearing story with a lot of heart. And I couldn’t explain it. Why was I suddenly shopping for t-shirts for Blackbeard’s Bar & Grill and Googling updates on season 2’s shooting schedule? What was it about some middle-aged men falling in love that had me so hooked?
After rabidly consuming finishing the second season of OFMD, I came to the awkward realization that I may have a “type” when it comes to film and TV shows…and that type is “men who are obsessed with men.” Fight Club, Hannibal, The Dark Knight, Heat…what is it about these queer-coded relationships that I love so much?
Turns out it might just be the queerness. Instead of vague hints or blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments, OFMD jumps in headfirst with multiple queer relationships throughout the series. And these relationships don’t take a backseat to a heterosexual leading couple, or even firmly establish themselves in the camp of “fully gay.” Several characters are fluid in their orientation and gender expression as they figure out who they are.
Since the majority of the characters in the show are cisgender men, OFMD in turn challenges what it means to be a man and express masculinity in a healthy way. While sharing feelings and having nightly story times first come off as cheesy, we come to see how these aspects help the characters change their toxic behavior and heal from their traumas. They are allowed to live their lives without needing to explicitly out themselves to everyone.
And there is something so relieving in that. That queerness can one day be treated without a sneer and a side eye. That a straight man can find themselves with feelings for their friend and not feel horrified at the notion.
But beside all that…Our Flag Means Death is just cute. It’s not mindless fun that you can jump into at any episode without worrying about the plot. It tells a story that is ridiculous, clever, and occasionally heartbreaking. And sometimes, with all the ugliness in this world, it’s good to settle down and enjoy a feel-good work just for the sake of feeling good.