Movies You Love Part 6: Now And Then and others
Welcome back to Movies You Love, a weekly blog about movies recommended by you, watched by me.
Several months back, I eloquently demanded on Facebook, “tell me what movie is ur fav that u ask people to watch all the time but u know they never watch it. b/c I'm gonna watch it.” Art can mean so much to someone, for better or for worse. Films, in particular, can pair with good or bad memories or even stimulate personal growth. Everyone in the World could watch the same film, but have a different interpretation of and emotional connection to it.
We’ve all recommended that ONE movie to our friends over and over. It might be a bit odd, a bit slow, a bit cheesy, deeply dark, or emotionally taxing, but we love it so much we want everyone else to love it as well. That’s what we have here. The people have spoken. These are the films that mean the most to you. The films no one ever watches even when you beg. I’ve watched them, and now I wanna chat.
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Film: Now and Then (1995) Recommended By: Chelsea Hunter
One of the most famously GIF'd movies of the 21st century was also one I had never seen. Filled with popular actors of the 90s, this film is about life, love, growing up, and growing together. It follows a group of girls and their summer as 12 year olds and also flashes forward to them as adults coming together again-- pregnant, divorced, famous and a bit more distant than they used to be. I laughed. I cried. I empathized and was filled with nostalgia, and a love for all my childhood friends.
Chelsea: I was very young when I first saw Now and Then (1995) because my sister is ten years older than I am and she was in the movie's target demographic (12 or 13 years old) when it came out in 1995. That's how I got exposed to a lot of 90's pop culture that most people born in the early 90's (I was born in 1992) missed out on. I think we got the movie on VHS, and we bought the DVD when those started becoming more popular. I still have it.
This film reminds me of a time when my sister and I spent time together and enjoyed each other's company. Not that this kind of nostalgia is what brings me to watch it now; I don't particularly miss that time of my life, and I don't remember much about it. It's more of a feeling, I think.
I recommend this film to anyone who asks me for suggestions because I love it and I know it's not particularly popular. Above all, I enjoy the notion that 12-year-old girls are fierce, smart, strong, funny, compassionate, and so much cooler than anyone gives them credit for.
Film: The Pagemaster (1994) Recommended by: Patrick Smith
A beautiful and fun story of the importance of libraries and learning. Macaulay Culkin, coming a few years off the high of the first and second Home Alone movies, starred in this film alongside Sir Patrick Stewart, Christopher Llyod, Whoopi Goldberg and more. An accident-prone and terrified child is swept up into an animation by "The Pagemaster” and has to overcome his fears and challenges from classic books to return home to his family.
Patrick: Most people know Macaulay Culkin primarily as Kevin from Home Alone. But for me, his first most memorable role is as a scrawny little bullied kid with glasses whose adventure to a library sends him on wild adventures. I’m talking about Richard Tyler, the hero of The Pagemaster.
What can I say about The Pagemaster? Well, for one, I was able to very easily identify with it as a scrawny little bullied kid with glasses who spent most of his waking hours as a kid at a library. But even putting aside the blatant parallels to my personal life, The Pagemaster was a storytelling success on so many levels. It was marketed as a movie for kids, but still remains highly enjoyable for adults and those of us pretending to be adults.
The casting? Excellent. Names you might recognize aside from Culkin include Sir Patrick Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg, Leonard Nimoy, Christopher Lloyd and Ed Begley, Jr. The pacing? Breakneck, with an amazing interplay between animated and live-action. The music was even impressive, as the original song “Whatever You Imagine” earned a Grammy nod.
Look — The Pagemaster should have been a classic. It never achieved the levels of praise I always felt it deserved. There’s a reason it’s one of only two movies I own on both VHS and DVD, the other being Jumanji. Do yourself a favour and watch it. Whether you go into the experience highly invested or bored and with a “eh, why not” mentality, I promise you’ll be filled with youthful exuberance and a renewed love of literature when it’s all said and done.
Film: The Sunset Limited (2011)
Recommended by: Marcell Sasvári
The Sunset Limited is based off of a play of the same name written by Cormac McCarthy. Two characters, lots of dialogue, philosophical debates, conversations on creation and God, all happening in real time. Tommy Lee Jones stars in and directs this HBO movie special.
Marcell: I first saw The Sunset Limited on one of our regular movie nights, before going out for drinks with my good friend Roland. It was he who suggested checking it out and the opening shots accompanied by the dreary, somber sounds of the train station instantly pulled me in. It’s one of those slow moving, dialogue-heavy, one room TV movies, where the characters contemplate serious subjects or entertain unlikely scenarios. This might be a red flag for most, but I only need an interesting topic with a few strong lines and I can look past all the overacting that usually accompany these movies. In this case, however, there’s no sign of sloppy performance and the topic at hand is nothing less than the belief in God and the ways in which different people understand suffering.
The dialogue from Cormac McCarthy’s original play could easily carry the film by itself, but the acting helps to elevate it even further. Samuel L. Jackson gives an unusually heartfelt performance as ’Black,’ who is built up as the more sympathetic character from the start. Throughout most of the runtime, we see him trying to convince Tommy Lee Jones’ ’White’ that there’s some intrinsic value to human life and in helping others on behalf of God. One can even imagine Black as the evolution of Jules from Pulp Fiction, but what really sells the film is White’s (sometimes pronounced, sometimes quiet) frustration during these lectures.
The movie reaches its climax when White delivers a menacingly nihilistic monologue which finally breaks Black’s persistence. Both of them address the viewer (or God) with a single line before the film ends, leaving plenty to discuss for the audience. What makes this movie truly something to behold is that their views on life stem from personal understanding, but the argumentation is extraordinarily sound on both sides for different reasons.
I’ve been rethinking my stance on all this for the last few months, so it was especially nice to revisit this piece.
Check back each week to find a new group of films recommended by my friends. And if you have a suggestion, feel free to email me or write in the comments. I’d love to add you to my list.