I’m a HUGE movie fan and have watched hundreds and hundreds of movies. When I tell people this they usually want to know which were my favorites and my mind usually goes blank and I look like an idiot (which no one seems too surprised about …). So I decided to compile a list of my all-time favorite movies in no particular order:

• The Shawshank Redemption: I don’t usually watch movies more than once and I rarely purchase them but I own this flick and have seen it about 10 times. It’s so smart and gorgeous and different than your average movie. And it has Tim Robbins – one of my future husbands!
• When Harry Met Sally: Some people write this off as a chick flick or light romantic comedy but I just love it. Meg Ryan was great and cute and I love Billy Crystal. They just seem so cool with their huge NY apartments and great jobs. I’ve seen this more times than any other movie on my list. I’m not saying it’s the best one on the list, just the most watchable if you don’t want anything heavy or complicated.
• The Color Purple: Gorgeous. Just gorgeous. I love the soundtrack and all of the actors. It portrays the empowerment of not only women of color, but ALL women. “I think it pisses god off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” The movie feels like a deep breath of fresh air.
• Memento: I LOVE movies that challenge me and are unique (but not just weird to be weird). The main character (Guy Pearce) suffers from short-term memory loss and thinks someone killed his wife but he can’t remember anything for more than a couple seconds so he has to write himself notes to try to help himself figure out what’s going on. The movie goes back and forth in time and when I got to the end I just sat there and said, “What the fuck did I just see?!” I immediately watched it again to try to figure it all out. I’m still not sure I completely unraveled all of it but that’s what makes me love it. This description makes it sound kind of contrived and like it could be a screwball comedy but it isn’t. It’s a mystery/drama/action flick and very original without being too artsy-fartsy.
• Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels: First of all, Sting has a couple short scenes and that’s reason enough to watch a movie. But beyond that it is HILARIOUS in a very British way. This is also a challenging movie but only because they use a TON of British slang and talk very fast. It’s one of those movies that has a million things going on and you panic because you feel like you’re not keeping up but there’s no need to worry because it all comes together in the end and things you’ve already seen suddenly make sense. There are young con men, illegal poker games, TONS of pot, guns, bumbling thieves, and a sex-toy businessman. It’s very high energy and toward the end I found myself holding my breath as the action ramps up.

• Sin City: This is a very violent movie but I love it anyway. It’s extremely artistic and has a very unique style. It’s a collection of a few different story lines that intersect at different times. The violence is more palatable because of the style of the film: black and white with cartoonish colors for the blood.

• Pulp Fiction: I figured I may as well get this violent one out of the way, too. I’m not a big fan of violence in movies (it amazes me that parents seem so concerned about their kids hearing swear words or seeing a little sex but then let them see movies like this) but I think this is a great movie so I love it anyway. And I would say that the violence is apropos for the people who are being portrayed. I love how the different story lines intersect just like in real life our lives cross the lives of others. And how can you go wrong with John Travolta?
• What Dreams May Come: This movie was not well-received but I think it is amazingly beautiful. It’s definitely a heavy movie because it deals with death and what happens after we die, but it is also uplifting and gorgeous. It suggests that we create our own afterlife based on what we love during our lives. The main character (Robin Williams) loves art so after he dies he creates a heaven that is made of paintings and he lives in the paintings. When he runs through fields he gets paint on his clothes and slips in areas where the paint is thick. It’s just so creative and gorgeous that I love it even though I cried like crazy.

• Toys: I’m putting this movie on here even though I don’t really like the second half of it. The first half, however, is so creative and beautiful that I had to include it. It’s like no other movie you’ve seen and includes a bed that is shaped like a huge swan that I’ve wanted ever since I saw the movie.
• Please Don’t Eat the Daisies: I admit this seems like a strange entry but I can’t explain why I love this movie so much. Maybe it’s Doris Day’s beautiful wardrobe, or her singing, or watching the strange pairing of her and David Niven. Whatever it is, this is just a sweet, innocent movie that makes me smile.
• Across the Universe: This movie seemed to polarize Beatles fans; some people loved it and some thought it was blasphemous. I love the Beatles and I love the movie. It uses Beatles songs to portray the lives of a few young people during the Vietnam War era. It also had some very clever references to Beatles songs in character names, dialogue, and even props on the set. The movie was directed by Julie Taymor who created all the costumes for the Broadway musical The Lion King. She was the reason I wanted to see this movie because I was so in awe of her creativity with the costumes in that show. The best scenes are the ones while they sing “Let it Be” and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).”

• In the Cut: Not too many people heard of this movie but I think it is a great mystery and also has some very sexy scenes. This is the first film I saw with Mark Ruffalo and I absolutely fell in love with him! But even without him the movie is intriguing and the kind of movie that keeps you guessing until the end. I read the book but actually liked the movie better.
• Singin’ In the Rain: I love musicals and this is my all time favorite. I wanted to marry Gene Kelly when I saw this movie! The music is great, the dancing is amazing, and the innocent romance is light and refreshing.
• Unforgiven: Not to be confused with The Unforgiven, this is the one with Clint Eastwood. I’m not generally a huge fan of westerns or Clint, but this is a great, atypical western that debates issues of ethics and keeping promises.
• The Wall: I love Pink Floyd and I love the way they portrayed the album using live action and animation. Since it’s basically an opera using all the songs from the album, it probably only would appeal to fans of the music. I like the melancholy feel to the film/music as a it portrays a rock star trying to deal with a broken marriage, fame, drugs, the death of his father when he was young, surviving a childhood illness, and an overprotective mother. “All alone, or in twos/The ones who really know you/Walk up and down outside the wall….And when they’ve given you their all/Some stagger and fall/After all it’s not easy/Banging your heart against some mad bugger’s wall.” Oh, the angst!
• Magnolia: I do not like Tom Cruise but I totally dug this movie. The music by Aimee Mann is wonderful and the film contains all kinds of weird things like a rainstorm in which frogs fall from the sky. It’s full of metaphors, strange phenomena, symbolism, and the number 82. Sometimes it tries too hard to be artsy but I still like it.
• Amadeus: The music, the costumes, the scenery, the actors … there’s nothing that isn’t perfect about this movie. Very loose interpretation of the relationship between Mozart and Salieri that is probably not very historically accurate but if I want that I’ll watch a documentary. Salieri: “All I wanted was to sing to god. He gave me that longing … and then made me mute. Why? Tell me that. If he didn’t want me to praise him with music, why implant the desire? Like a lust in my body! And then deny me the talent?” “I speak for all the mediocrities in the world. I am their champion. I am their patron saint.” I identified with that character because I felt the same way about my singing. Now that I’m older I realize that it wasn’t that I didn’t have the talent, it was that I didn’t believe in my talent.
• Paper Clips: I can’t believe I forgot to put this one on the list until now! This is a documentary about teachers at a small school who decided it was time to broaden the horizons of their students. The teachers created a program to teach the students about the Holocaust but the students couldn’t visualize the number of people who were victimized by the Nazis. They decided to collect paper clips (you’ll have to watch the movie to see why they chose paper clips!) until they had 6 million (the number of Jews killed). Their program grows bigger than they ever imagined and touches the people in their small town. Please watch this movie!! I don’t care for they way they focused on the Jewish victims but they do end up addressing the facts about the “other” victims of the Nazis.

Well, I think that’s enough for now. I’m sure there are a couple I’m forgetting so I’ll add them when I think of them.