Recovery Time

I really needed a break after that Alphabet Film Festival. I managed to spend the entirety of this past week trying to catch up on season finales of my favorite shows. However, now that I have distanced myself from the marathon of movies that I experienced, I can finally share a few highlights:

• I think the movies that will most stay with me are Days of Heaven and sex, lies, and videotape.
• If I were ever to sacrifice my soul to become a film director, my only purpose would be to make good movies that begin with the letters "q" and "x".
• No, really, The Quiet Man sucked.
• Movies on the cusp of greatness: The Adventures of Robin Hood, Full Metal Jacket, His Girl Friday, Malcolm X and y tu mama tambien.
• The drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket is one of the funniest characters in cinema history.
• Holocaust movies can very easily lose their relevance.
• I really shouldn't have made someone or something eat it for every movie I watched. I quickly ran out of ideas.
• I reluctantly learned to enjoy and appreciate horror movies although I'm still not a horror junkie. Horror movies are still only good when suspense is built from an unknown opponent.
• Crime movies also don't age well. White Heat was good but not great yet it was still more timely than Little Caesar and Key Largo.
• Edward G. Robinson is still the shit though.
• I can't seem to hate movies very easily. That's a good sign, right?

I think by the final stretch, I was really exhausted. In the midst of my Woody Allen marathon now, I'm liking the idea of just enjoying a movie instead of having to watch it. Until the next ridiculous idea of mine!

Alphabet Film Festival

Keeping track of the movies I see each day with a short blurb of said film and who deserves to eat the proverbial "it".

A is for......The Adventures of Robin Hood
Errol Flynn is a bad ass in a swashbucklingly fun film. (Eat it Ridley Scott)
A-

B is for......Bullitt
A cool little movie ahead of its time. San Francisco rocks. (Eat it Clint Eastwood)
B-

C is for......The Candidate
An amusingly revealing look at just how crappy politics is. (Eat it Chris Rock)
(Note: I still love Head of State though)
B

D is for......Days of Heaven
A wistful, gorgeous, and perfectly crafted tragedy that packs a punch. (Eat it Pearl Harbor (the movie))
A

E is for......Eraserhead
I have no idea. I really don't. I'm going to go clean myself. (Eat it.....me)
C-

F is for......Full Metal Jacket
A cool, hard, often hilarious view of Vietnam. (Eat it Oliver Stone)
A-

G is for......Ghostbusters
Bill Murray steals the show in this fun yet unnecessarily scary comedy. (Eat it CGI)
B+

H is for......His Girl Friday
Epitomizes the screwball comedy with a classic Cary Grant performance. (Eat it Adam's Rib)
A-

*Kramer/Tracy Double*
I is for......Inherit the Wind
Almost comically preachy, Spencer Tracy and Gene Kelly give a humanist touch to a great parable. (Eat it William Jennings Bryan)
B+


J is for......Judgment at Nuremburg
A preachy, lengthy exhibition from a holocaust obsessed Hollywood. (Eat it Stanley Kramer)
C

*Edward G. Robinson Double*
K is for......Key Largo
A breezy crime film with noirish potential falling flat. (Eat it Humphrey Bogart)
B-

L is for......Little Ceasar
A seminal rise and fall film with Eddie G. kicking ass. (Eat it Jimmy Cagney)
B

M is for......Malcolm X
An engrossing, inventive and overall revealing look at a very complex individual. (Eat it biopics)
A-

N is for......Night of the Living Dead
A campy, apocalyptic scrapper with a solemn ending and a plot that actually makes sense. (Eat it Eli Roth/Rob Zombie/Zack Snyder)
B+

O is for......One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
An interesting and odd take on the freedom and rebellion of mankind. (Eat it the rest of Danny Devito's career)
B+

P is for......The Postman Always Rings Twice
An overly complicated yet trademark noir with impeccable acting and characters. (Eat it Barbara Stanwyk)
B+

Q is for......The Quiet Man
A droll and exhausting yet well shot vehicle that lost my interest quickly. (Eat it John Wayne)
D+

R is for......Red Rock West
A tightly wound noir where I actually liked Nicholas Cage. (Eat it the rest of his movies)
B

S is for......sex, lies, and videotape
A mesmerizing, intimate, and seductive look at communication and honesty with fantastic acting. (Eat it Ocean's movies)
A

T is for......The Thing
A quese inducing, shocking, and ultimately fascinating horror film with an eye towards human
nature. (Eat it [see "N"])
B+

U is for......Unbreakable
Manages to reinforce and reinvent all comic book cliches while still being entertaining. (Eat it M. Night's other movies)
B+

V is for......Vanilla Sky
A flabbergasting and confusing experience. I like that though. (Eat it Tom Cruise)
B-

W is for......White Heat
The great, classic gangster film that I've been waiting for. (Eat it Little Caesar)
B+

X is for......Xanadu
I just want to meet the person that thought this would be a good idea. (Eat it Hollywood)
C-

Y is for......Y tu mama tambien
An infectious and frank film that goes where other coming of age films dare not. (Eat it Vicky Cristina Barcelona)
A-

Z is for.......Zathura
Ultimately far too thinly drawn and predictable, if light. (Eat it Dax Shepard)
D

26 Days Later

Thus begins my own personal film festival. 26 days, 26 movies I haven't seen, 26 letters of the alphabet. I'll be making a list of movies I have free access to that begin with each letter of the alphabet.

Wednesday, May 6---A
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Arsenic and Old Lace
As Good As it Gets
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
The Age of Innocence
After Hours
The Awful Truth
Anchors Aweigh
American Madness

Thursday, May 7---B
Barry Lyndon
Bullitt
Best in Show
Boarding Gate
Batman
Breathless
Boxcar Bertha
Broadway Danny Rose
Boyz N' the Hood
The Band's Visit
Barbarella

Friday, May 8---C
Charade
The Constant Gardner
Clockers
The Counterfeiters
Chop Shop
City Lights
Camille
Cape Fear
The Candidate
Cool Hand Luke
Cabaret

Saturday, May 9---D
The Dirty Dozen
Dog Day Afternoon
Deliverance
Days of Heaven

Sunday, May 10---E
Eraserhead
East of Eden
Enter the Dragon
The Exorcist
Elegy
The Edge of Heaven

Monday, May 11---F
The Front Page
The Fortune Cookie
Five Star Final
Foreign Correspondent
From Dusk Till Dawn
The Fugitive
Farewell, My Lovely
4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
Full Metal Jacket

Tuesday, May 12---G
The Greatest Show on Earth
The Great Dictator
The Gold Rush
Grand Hotel
Gilda
The Glenn Miller Story
Giant
Get Carter
Ghostbusters

Wednesday, May 13---H
High Sierra
His Girl Friday
Holiday
Hair
Hello Dolly!

Thursday, May 14---I
Inherit the Wind
In Cold Blood

Friday, May 15---J
Joyeaux Noel
Judgment at Nuremburg

Saturday, May 16---K
Key Largo
King Kong
Kramer vs. Kramer
Klute

Sunday, May 17---L
Little Ceasar
The Life of Emile Zola
Love and Death
Lock, Stock, and Two Barrels
Letters From Iwo Jima
The Last of the Mohicans
Lost Horizon
Love Songs
The Lost Weekend
Lifeboat
The Last Temptation of Christ
Letter From an Unknown Woman

Monday, May 18---M
My Left Foot
A Man for All Seasons
Mrs. Minniver
Mutiny on the Bounty
Mildred Pierce
Modern Times
Manhattan
Malcolm X
Monsoon Wedding
The Music Man
The Motorcycle Diaries

Tuesday, May 19---N
No End in Sight
Night of the Living Dead

Wednesday, May 20---O
Oliver!
On Golden Pond
Only Angels Have Wings
Once Upon a Time in America
The Orphanage
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Thursday, May 21---P
The Public Enemy
Pride of the Yankees
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Passion of the Christ

Friday, May 22---Q
Quills (Hulu)
Quest for Fire (Hulu)
The Quiet Man

Saturday, May 23---R
The Road Warrior
Rebel Without a Cause
Revolver
Reprise
Red Rock West

Sunday, May 24---S
Seven Samurai
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Shadow of a Doubt
Sergeant York
Stalag 17
Saboteur
Stardust Memories
sex, lies, and videotape
Strangers on a Train
Superman
The Seven Year Itch
Scarface
Shall We Dance
Swingers
Salo

Monday, May 25---T
They Were Expendable
Torn Curtain
Taxi to the Dark Side
THX: 1138
2 Days in Paris
The Thing
12 Monkeys

Tuesday, May 26---U
Unforgiven
Unbreakable

Wednesday, May 27---V
Very Bad Things (Hulu)
Vanilla Sky

Thursday, May 28---W
Woman of the Year
White Heat
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The Wind That Shakes the Barley
The Weather Underground
Water Drops on Burning Rocks

Friday, May 29---X
Xanadu

Saturday, May 30---Y
Young and Innocent
Yeast (Hulu)
Your Friends and Neighbors (Hulu)
Y tu mama tambien

Sunday, May 31---Z
Zathura