OK first - the Flying Cow Awards don't really exist. I made it up for Mindy. :) I'm telling you all that so that you don't start wondering how you possibly could have missed this HUGE event!!
Having said all that... Let me recap! The Harpist's AP Language teacher suggested that there are films that high school students should see before college ("so that you don't look like an idiot when you get there")
The categories, recommendations and choices ARE NOT MINE!!! they are straight off of the page of Ms. O--'s hand-out. It's taken me a while to type them all in, and I apologize for the delay.
KEY TO COMMENTS
bold=highly recommended
* = R rating
# Academy Award nominee
@ Academy Award winner
$ cultural literary
+ Ms. O--'s "R" rating
italics=films I have seen (and possibly some comments)
bold=highly recommended
* = R rating
# Academy Award nominee
@ Academy Award winner
$ cultural literary
+ Ms. O--'s "R" rating
italics=films I have seen (and possibly some comments)
Without further ado, here we go!!
Recent Classics
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind *@
American Beauty *@
Pi *
Donnie Darko*
Amelie*#
Y Tu Mama Tambien *+#
Good Night and Good Luck #
Brokeback Mountain *@ (truthfully? I didn't think it was that great a movie.)
Crash *@
Almost Famous *@
The Ice Storm*
The Motorcycle Diaries*@
Dancer in the Dark #
In the Bedroom *#
Monster's Ball *+
Chocolat # (not overly impressed.)
Shakespeare in Love @ (it got an award why?)
American History X *+
Life is Beautiful (La Vita e Bella) *@
Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt) *
The Talented Mr. Ripley*
The Shawshank Redemption *# (probably one of the better ones)
Pulp Fiction $*@ (eh)
Fight Club *#
Sin City +*
Memento *
Good Will Hunting *@
City of God *#
The Matrix (first one) $*@ (good movie!)
Scent of a Woman *@
Spirited Away
Requiem for a Dream *+@
All About My Mother (Todo Sobre Mi Madres) *@
Harold and Maude (I think I saw this one... obviously I loved it LOL)
Being John Malkovitch * (Not my favorite, but OK)
Brick *
Delicatessen
Philadephia
Secretary *+
Transamerica
About a Boy
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas *+
Boys Don't Cry *+
Do the Right Thing *
I am Sam
What's Eating Gilbert Grape (geez. it's been a while!)
QUALITY COMEDY
Wet Hot American Summer *
The 40 Year Old Virgin * (Quality comedy? I thought it was stoopid.)
Anchorman
Zoolander
Mean Girls (WHY was this not considered "cultural literacy"? LOL)
Caddyshack (a true classic.)
Coffee and Cigarettes *
The Aristocrats *****+
This is Spinal Tap
The Royal Tennenbaum's *# (slapstick... some good moments.)
Rushmore *
Best in Show
A Fish Called Wanda @ (I did enjoy it -- never understood how it won an Academy Award!)
Say Anything
The Birdcage *#
Waiting for Guffman *
The Full Monty *@ (wickedly funny)
Grosse Pointe Blank *
The Big Lebowski *
Monty Python and the Holy Grail $ (shrubbery, NI! and sparrows... need I say more?)
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (I'll play Stairway to Heaven if I want!)
Big (thought provoking AND funny)
Airplane (hee hee)
Office Space
Ghostbusters (whoya gonna call?)
Blazing Saddles (now go do that voodoo that you do so well)
Little Miss Sunshine
Back to the Future$ (of course!)
Borat (he's funny when he doesn't try so hard.)
Hairspray (I liked it live better)
High Fidelity
FILMS ABOUT COLLEGE
PCU
Animal House $ (But of course!)
Real Genius
With Honors
Revenge of the Nerds
FILMS ABOUT HIGH SCHOOL
The Breakfast Club (yeah. I saw it. whoopee)
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (eh)
Pretty in Pink (ditto)
Heathers
Sixteen Candles (yeah. I saw it.)
Clueless
Romy and Michele's High School Reunion
Napoleon Dynamite (I've only seen half of it... I keep falling asleep in the middle.)
Dazed and Confused
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (anyone? anyone?)
Rock and Roll High School (see? I go see all the strange ones.)
Grease $ (sung it. seen it.)
Dead Poet's Society (A good movie)
HORROR
The Shining $*
Carrie (yuck)
Jaws $* (DaDHUM... DaDHUM...)
The Exorcist $* (scared me to death)
Rosemary's Baby *
Shaun of the Dead *
Friday the 13th *$ (seriously creeped me out)
Nightmare on Elm Street *$
Dawn of the Dead *
FAMILY
The Incredibles @ (LOVE this one. I've busted out of my spandex many times...)
The Emperor's New Groove #
The Muppet Movie # (a looonnnng time ago)
Monsters INC (probably one of my favorites!)
Finding Nemo (Believe it or not, I have never seen this movie!)
Toy Story (both) # (I loved these too.)
Whale Rider #
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971 version) (OK, I've seen BOTH versions!)
Mary Poppins @$ (HOW could Mary Poppins not get a top rating? honestly!)
Iron Giant
Meet the Robinsons
MUSICALS
Hedwig and the Angry Inch +* (NEVER heard of it!!!)
Rent $ (knew the songs before the plot)
Into the Woods #
Singin in the Rain # (a MUST see)
The Triplets of Belleville #
Little Shop of Horrors # (can I say this and be friends? I didn't really think this was all that great.)
OLDER CLASSICS
Casablanca @$ (of course!)
Psycho $#
The Maltese Falcon (natch!)
Rear Window #
The Godfather $@* (good movie - the book was better.)
The Graduate $@ (yup)
Annie Hall$@ (why else would I have worn that style of clothes???)
12 Angry Men @#(ages ago!)
Dr. Strangelove #$ ("Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room.")
Seven Samurai #
Citizen Kane (it was a LONG time ago.)
Star Wars (the first 3) $$$ (what, are you kidding???)
Planet of the Apes $ (It's what I think of when I see the Geico caveman commercial...)
Brazil *# (no - but I know the soundtrack)
A Clockwork Orange (whoopee)
Apocalypse Now *@
DOCUMENTARY
Supersize Me #
Enron: Smartest Guys in teh Room *#
Bowling for Columbine *@
Roger and Me
Winged Migration #
Spellbound #
The World According to Sesame Street
Born Into Brothels @
Grizzly Man
Murder Ball #
No Direction Home: Bob Dylan $
Sound and Fury #
Planet Earth
This Film is not yet Rated
TELEVISION SERIES
30 Rock
Pushing Daisies
Six Feet Under
The Wire
Arrested Development
Malcolm in the Middle (THIS was recommended?? yuck.)
SOOOOooo....
What did you think was missing?
What did you think was a stoopid choice? (I tried not to bias you.)
Any absolute all-time faves and raves from this list??
Feel free to comment!
Deb
Posts
13 comments:
I didn't see O Brother Where Art Thou, which I think has a lot of literary relevance (The Oddessey).
I'm surprised something like Sideways wasn't included... And Dogma...
I've actually seen a fair number of these movies and feel pretty movie literate! =)
Eternal Sunshine (loved it)
American Beauty (sad, but good)
Pi (weird...)
Donnie Darko (extra weird... but you've gotta see it)
Amelie (one of my all time favorites)
Brokeback Mountain (I actually thought it was fairly good - it stuck to the short story really well - which was good - but also added in some pieces that were needed for the big screen)
Crash (another all time favorite - so poignant)
Almost Famous (eh)
Monster's Ball (didn't like it a whole lot)
Chocolat (I kind of liked this one)
Shakespeare in Love (not overly impressed)
Run Lola Run (GREAT movie)
The Shawshank Redemption (fantastic)
Pulp Fiction (okay)
Fight Club (ironically, another one of my favorites... not for the fighting, but for the anti-consumerist/anti-materialism)
Memento (LOVE this movie... had to watch it like 3 times to figure out what was going on... i love puzzles)
Good Will Hunting (I liked it)
City of God (nothing spectacular, but does talk about the crusades)
The Matrix (another all time favorite)
Spirited Away (anime flick - and a very good one!)
Requiem for a Dream (fantastically terrible movie... which means watch it and prepare to feel awful afterwards)
About a boy (seriously?)
Boy's Don't Cry (need to see it)
I am Sam (good little movie - and great soundtrack - all Beatles covers)
whew... i made it through the first batch... mabye that's all for now!
Men of Honor didn't make the list.
Ok the language is raw, it's cleaned up some for TV. Every 5th-6th grader ought to see it - about responsibility, adversity, determination, overcoming prejudice, strength of character, living by a higher standard, morals, etc.
I'd add, Radio, and To Kill a Mockingbird.
I can't believe I forgot Singing in the Rain in my past post! LOVE that movie!
wow that is some list!
so I kept count as I went down..I've seen 53 of these movies. I'm surprised by ones that are bold/not bold...and by the lack of movies like Dogma, the Princess Bride, O Brother, When Harry Met Sally, etc. There are lots of movies I think are sort of cultural icons and get referenced/reused in lots of current stuff and if you don't know them, you can be lost! But overall, a pretty good list, I suppose. :-) Thanks for taking the time to type it all in!
PS--PLEASE tell me the teacher also has a list of must-read books????
Wow...lots of these I haven't seen, and I think I see a LOT of movies. I am another who would include O Brother Where Art Thou, and also a movie that didn't get nearly as much attention as it should have, The Green Mile. Also maybe A Beautiful Mind.
And what the heck, no Fiddler on the Roof? No SOuth Pacific? No My Fair Lady? Okay, I like those old musicals, but there are reasons!
Oh, scratch the 40 Year Old Version and put in The God's Must Be Crazy instead.
Version? I meant virgin. You knew that, right? :-)
There were lots of movies I wondered about as well.
"Classics" means what?? was my first problem. And "Documentary" or "Propaganda"??? (Michael Moore cuts it pretty close to the latter way too often.)
The lack of "funny" comedy was the second. Potty mouth humor isn't really funny. I just saw my first Madea movies and laughed myself SILLY.
There's a BOATLOAD of musicals that were ignored!
Serious movies like Philadelphia Story and The Killing Fields and Saving Private Ryan... why weren't THOSE included? What about the story under the story of Mona Lisa Smile?
TV shows like MASH, Archie Bunker, as well as retro ones like Queen for a Day...
Like I said, I didn't choose this list. And I don't think we will add them to our Netflix list!
Interesting stuff!
OMG!!!! Kike what planet did this chick come from???
No M*A*S*H? Seriously???? What's up with that?
A sit-com set in Korean Conflict but made during Vietnam era with major commentary on war and human cost from any era?
How can you ignore this?
Oh, no SAVED? Very good movie for religous right to see about how the not so religous and the lefters view them.
And Juno, totaly put a new spin on teen pregnancy issues and full affects on all concerned.
Oh, some other stuff is like so missing here.
BTW, I am trying to find a copy of 3 Amigos! I want to use the El Gapho speech with my session. :)
Off to bath and bed tongiht. It is late...but I have a new watch and my dining room is now presentable.
Okay, and i am a Tom Hanks fan, but really think Castaway makes us learn to think of the other person, live each day, and totally be thankful for that which we have...plus the whole non- verbal stuff is incredible nad the r'ship with Wilson still brings me to tears....
yeah, so with Teri, some books are must reads. Seldom does none find a movie fro ma book that is actually good.
so is this the actual title (and a subtle ironic jab):
Enron: Smartest Guys in teh Room
or do your fingers just misspell that word like mine do?
I think I was one of the few kids in college (mid 80s) who didn't know ANY Monty Python references - and I even hung out with the Christian Cruisers people. So I can sorta kinda understand the motivation behind making a list. But is this really something a teacher should be making? Or someone who is currently in college (and thus more on top of current fads)? Maybe this teacher just graduated herself. Anyway, just me musing.
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