After my last post about my ‘real’ favorite movies my brain has been flooded with more films I can place in this category. If you didn’t read the previous post these are films that aren’t widely circulated as classics or ‘great movies’ but that I love and rewatch over again with great pleasure. You could probably also call this the most rewatchable list.So here are a few more of my favorites that may not be Citizen Kane to most but I LOVE
Walk the Line-
Like Moonstruck, I feel like I frequently hear Walk the Line brought up as an undeserving Oscar winner. Not in my book! I love this movie so much. I love that it focuses on a narrow window in June and Johnny’s life and relationship. I love how it handles the situation with his first wife. I love when he goes on the June Carter love walk. I love all the songs and the chemistry of Reese and Joaquin. The dialogue is so good and it is one of my favorite romances ever
The Perks of Being a Wallflower-
Perks of Being a Wallflower is the first new movie I’ve ever seen that felt nostalgic to my life. It’s set in 1995 I believe which was right when I started high school and everything took me back to those years even down to the colors on the lockers at the high school. I love how it gets little details right that high school movies never get right like how he breaks his hand after being in a fight or how the party is just kids drinking in a basement. Not these massive parties you so often see in high school movies. I love all the dialogue and the music and all the performers. Ezra Miller is amazing as Patrick. I could watch an entire movie about him. It’s Emma Watson’s best acting by a mile and Logan Lerman is so great. I love the message that ‘we accept the love we think we deserve’ and how we all deserve so much better. The twist at the end is dark but it totally worked for me. It’s a rare movie that improves upon the book in every way probably because it was adapted and directed by the author.
Juno-
I wasn’t even aware that it had become uncool to like Juno. I don’t care I love it! Ellen Page is so wonderful and full of heart as Juno and the emotional journey she goes on is powerful. She thinks she knows it all but she quickly learns she does not. I love JK Simmons and Allison Janney as her parents. I love Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner as the adoptive couple who you think you know but you don’t really. I love all the cute indie music but mostly I love Diablo Cody’s terrific script. I love how funny, sweet and emotional it is. Sure it has a certain affectation to it but I like it. It completely charms me every time I watch it, which is frequently.
Return to Me-
I feel like a lot of Mormon people know about Return to Me for some reason but it isn’t widely viewed as one of the great romantic comedies which it should be. Return to Me stars David Duchovny and Minnie Driver who come together when she gets his dead wife’s heart in a transplant but they don’t know they have this connection. It was written and directed by Bonnie Hunt and she did such a good job. Parts are devastating but then other scenes are hilarious. Driver and Duchovny have such great chemistry and all the supporting cast feel like a family. It even makes me yearn for an Italian/Irish restaurant. It’s also refreshing to have a modern romance where the couple is together and he doesn’t even realize she has a giant scar on her chest because they are chaste and yet still fall in love.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvloIUSHogs
Calamity Jane-
I am a massive Doris Day fan so naturally I love Calamity Jane but I feel like it is never talked about as one of the great musicals of the 1950s. I like it every bit as much as Annie Get Your Gun or Oklahoma! In the film Doris Day plays Calamity as a tomboy who can beat any of the men at shooting, drinking or any other activity. She goes to the big city to find a singer named Adelaid Addams but ends up getting a common girl named Katie by mistake. When all the men including Calamity’s crush fall for Katie, Calamity is threatened and the story goes from there. It is so sweet and Howard Keel is fantastic as Wild Bill Hickok. The songs are catchy and fun (well sung by Doris Day). It’s a great movie!
I love this series! Are you going to do more? Have you ever seen the Doris Day movie The Thrill of it All? My mom and I love that movie! Soap bubbles! lol Also enjoyed Return to Me, it wound up on my top 10 favorite movies of 2000 for my going back a bit series and admittedly it probably wouldn’t have placed in a year with movies that drew me in more (I make a point of saying it was a personally weak year for me) but it was cool getting to shout it out after all these years. I have some issues with Walk The Line as I feel like without including the point in Johnny Cash’s life where he got so low he lived in a cave until he turned it around made it lose one of the most important parts of Cash’s life and it lost something major as a result (I’m just pickier with movies based on true stuff when I know more about them, that’s why I sometimes gravitate towards non-factual stuff if I want to avoid huge nitpicks.) Still a decent movie and Reese Witherspoon deserved the Oscar (so agree on it deserving the Oscar win! lol)
I will definitely do more because I enjoy it very much. With Walk the Line I like that it didn’t try and tell all of their story but just their love story. It’s one of my favorite romances in life and on screen and I think the family felt it did a pretty good job
Yay! Yay! Also: HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, and Return to Me ranked at number 7 on that list! lol I forgot whether or not Bonnie Hunt wrote it just knew she directed and co-starred.
I’ve never seen these 5 personally.
Cool. Let me know if you ever do
It has been a long time since I saw Walk the Line. It’s so good. Return to Me is one I’m unfamiliar with. For some reason I can’t place it at all.
Yes! Another Walk the Line fan! You should definitely watch Return to Me!