Some of my favorite movies...

I wrote about my favorite books, now it's time to write a couple of my favorite movies! And I will deliberately leave out the movies that go with the books I already mentioned, because I feel as if I've already endorsed my love for them. These are some movies that I have watched countless times. But I picked the ones that not everyone has probably heard of, except maybe the last one. Enjoy these if you've never seen them!

First hidden gem, that I literally doubt anyone has seen:

Go

This is a movie from 1999 that stars Sarah Polley, Katie Holmes, Jay Mohr, Scott Wolf, Timothy Olyphant, Taye Diggs and Desmond Askew. This is an amazing cast of people, in a very little known story. It's written in a Pulp Fiction style, where the same story is told over a 24 hour period, by different character point of views. And it works. The premise is fairly simple. A group of friends works at a grocery store, and Simon (Desmond Askew) is the friendly group low level drug dealer. Two soap opera stars happened to be busted for drugs (Jay Mohr and Scott Wolf) and to get out of a jail sentence, they're helping set up a sting operation.

So they show up at the store looking to score Ecstasy, but Simon went to Vegas, so Ronna (Sarah Polley) decides she'll make the deal for them, because she's incredibly hard up for cash and is about to be evicted on Christmas if she doesn't make like $400 in one night. Now Ronna is no dealer. She's just a casual consumer. But she decides to meet with a high level dealer to score the drugs to sell to the undercover guys.This is a debacle wherein the dealer, Todd, doesn't believe Ronna will come back with the money, so he asks for her to leave collateral. Which leads to the funny line, "I already have a fucking Swatch. I need something I know you'll come back for." Cue her best friend Claire and this scene.

She leaves her friend with the drug dealer as her collateral. Claire looks thrilled huh? Lots and lots of stuff happens, and I won't give it away. But Ronna's story ends in quite a terrible predicament. For now, anyway. Everything that can go wrong, does go wrong.

Then we have Simon's story in Las Vegas with his buddies. There's a hilarious scene in the car where one of Simon's very white friends, keeps talking like he's black and it's pissing off Taye Diggs character, Marcus. He tells the dude, "If you were any less black, you would be clear." Then they argue because the white guys says, "Hey my mothers, mother's mother was black!" To which, Taye asks to see a picture of this Nubian princess. It's hilarious!

But anyway, they're in Vegas now, using Todd the drug dealer's credit card (with permission) And this rubs Marcus the wrong way, because he's the most straight laced of the group and is into Tantra and healthy living, etc. When Simon says Todd's a good guy, Marcus says,  "oh you mean he's the GOOD drug dealer?"

There's a hilarious scene at the hotel where all the valets and bathroom attendants are wearing jackets just like Marcus's, and he gets a tip in the bathroom for handing someone a paper towel. And Simon makes fun of the jacket and Marcus says, "look at your shirt, bitch! This ain't Hawaii!" But this all leads to some rich jerk thinking Marcus is the valet and he hands over the keys to his Ferrari (Or something like that). So they just take off in it!

Much, much wackiness ensues, and there's an amazing car chase involved, etc. But all of this circles back around to Ronna and Claire and Todd, and the soap opera actors. Which the story from their perspective is a true delight. They're both closeted gay lovers, but they're in an off again phase, so they bicker like an old married couple. And this creepy cop and his wife force them to eat dinner with them, and I can't tell you what happens or it gives too much away, but things are NOT what they seem. And ALL these characters and stories culminate at the end. This is literally one of my favorite movies of all time, but I've never met another person besides my husband who's seen it. Someone else watch this!!

Next up...

Dirty Love

A 2005, probably straight to DVD, movie starring Jenny McCarthy, Carmen Elektra, and Eddie Kaye Thomas (Finch from the American Pie series). Yes, this movie is cheesy. I won't lie. But holy God, it's HILARIOUS. Over the top in places? Yes. But if you like slapstick and outrageous comedy, you can't go wrong with this movie. It begins with Jenny's character, Rebecca, getting dumped once she walks in on her model boyfriend screwing another girl. And even this is funny, because she walks in and he doesn't even stop. He just smiles and asks how her day was, as he's totally fucking this other girl. Cue Rebecca having a a complete nervous breakdown on Hollywood Boulevard and trying to get a homeless man to sleep with her, just to prove she's still sexy. Doesn't work, obviously.

But she has two best girlfriends, one is Carmen Elektra, who is a riot as a ghetto girl who everyone has to remind isn't actually black or from a ghetto. But her lines and delivery crack me up.

Then Rebecca has a best guy friend, Eddie Kaye Thomas, who of course, is actually in love with her. But he's dorky and she's gorgeous, so of course he never tells her how he feels. He just lets her mourn and try and date other losers, while he waits in the wings.

One particularly bad moment for Rebecca is when she attends a fashion show her ex is in, with some old Woody Allen looking movie producer. And her plan is to make the ex jealous by letting him see her there with this powerful (albeit old and ugly) guy. Except ugly guy is super drunk and as soon as the ex walks down the catwalk, old dude pukes on Rebecca's boobs for the entire world to see. Which causes another mental breakdown, where she's screaming outside and her dress flies open and her boobs are just in everyone's face. Carmen's character stops her and is like, "your big ol' titties are just flapping around girlfriend! Get a grip!"

There are several other horrendous dates, one involving a fish...

And another involving a magician with explosives in his car, which lands her in jail with a hooker and she contemplates becoming one, just so she doesn't have to date anymore. But of course, true love is right in front of her, if she'd just open her eyes. A psychic told her she'd meet a white pony, signifying her soul mate. But she doesn't understand what this means until the end.

This movie isn't for everyone. And if you don't like crude or silly, you'd hate it. But if you DO like those things, dig this movie up. I bought it for like $3 at Blockbuster when those places still existed. And I've watched it several times, especially after being dumped, because at least my life is better than hers! (Marginally...)







Next on the roster...

Heathers

This is an oldie, but a goodie. 1988. But man, it still holds up and despite the horrible outfits, this remains one of the most twisted and dark comedies I've ever seen. I don't even think they could make this movie today, due to the real life tragedies in schools. But if you take this as a totally FICTIONAL fantasy story, and also a very BLACK comedy, you'll love this. It's not real. And just as a disclaimer, I don't condone murdering your friends or blowing up a school, however, I may have had some fleeting moments in high school where that sounded interesting. But since I'm not psycho, it's not as if I'd DO it. That's why JD and Veronica are so much fun to watch.

Veronica is in the popular clique of 'Heather's' at school. If you went to school in my generation you had at least 3-6 Heather's floating around, and yes, they almost always were bitches. That's what makes this movie title so perfect.

As you can see, Veronica isn't exactly loving her 'friends' here. They're making fun of someone, and she's had enough. She's sick of their bullshit, and sick of trying to fit in, sick of keggers and tipping cows.


That's when she meets the mysterious and handsome new guy at school. JD.

Could you resist him? Not me. Veronica is smitten almost instantly because he's a rebel and a little crazy and he just seems to 'get her'. And bonus, they both hate her friends. She thinks he's cool and will help her make the Heather's pay a little for their misdeeds. But she has no idea JD is actually psychotic and enjoys killing people for real, and not setting up 'pretend' suicide scenarios, like Kurt and Ram shooting each other in the woods in a repressed homosexual death pact. Only she thought they were using blanks. Oops. Nope. Dead jocks in the woods. That wasn't her plan!

She tries to break up with him, but of course, he's completely out of his mind. He comes to kill her, but she gets the best of him in the end. She realizes that she doesn't need a crazy boyfriend to be a better person, or to get away from the friends she didn't kill. Veronica sort of finds her inner bitch and goddess at the same time. And she gives JD the send off he deserves.

"Veronica, you look like Hell!" "Yeah? I just got back..."

If you've never seen this, you must watch! It has SO many quotable lines. And it'll make you a little nostalgic for school, even if Westerburg High sucked.

"Seriously, people are gonna look at the ashes of Westerburg, and say "There is a school that self-destructed not because society didn't care but because the school was society"! Pretty deep, eh?"