April Come She Will

I recently texted The Glass Castle trailer to my brother. I needed to know if he'd seen it and if he was at least a little excited for it to come out. I LOVED the book, but that doesn't really bear on my interest in seeing the movie. The movie appeals to me on its own merit. I'm not overly precious about movie adaptations either. I try to not compare movies to books and vice versa in that way, but just to appreciate them in their own separate mediums.

...but I digress.

I first saw this preview in the theater and... I got chills while I was watching. I also teared up. It just made me feel something pretty strongly. My brother wrote back that he had, indeed, seen the trailer and that he thought it looked great too. I think it's so interesting how certain films just resonate so deeply within us. It's so personal. It's like we're all operating at different frequencies and when something hits your frequency, it vibrates everything within you.

I texted my brother back and told him that it had the makings of my "favorite type of film." This led him to naturally ask me to describe said "favorite type of film.' That's soooo not easy to do. Not an easy task. I thought over which movies immediately came to mind as those which have impacted my heart/mind/soul so strongly that they were right there for me to pick out. In a sort of quick, journaling experiment, I (without giving it too much thought or analysis) wrote down the movies that came to mind as favorites. I didn't judge my list because, if I did, I'd be inclined to change it. To edit it. To make it more "well-rounded."

I'd be inclined to say:

I should add more comedy.
I need a foreign film.
I need to back up to earlier than the 90's.
I'm leaving out some of the great directors.
And blah, blah, blah, more diverse, blah, blah, blah, historically monumental, blah, blah, blah.

Anyhow... I looked at my list, pondering whether there was a similar theme/feeling or some kind of connectivity between them, so that I could easily sum up my "favorite type of film." If there is, I think maybe its that there's something I relate to in most of the films. There's a recognizable conflict in self/in relationships/in society within all of them. Something that's a little (or a lot) off and there's some effort made to regain something lost. Or an intense, interesting realization's been made... most of them have dark humor mixed in. It's not necessarily obvious, but if you get it, you get it. It'll be interesting to see how this list changes over the years...

Ermahhhgerd.

Here's the preview for The Glass Castle:

So, with all of that said... here are my gut-level, favorite films of all time. Also, I was planning for a top 10, but when 20 come just as easily... go with 20.

1. The Hours

Image from https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/6f/37/3a/6f373af91b5df53b0a714e0a393db31a--film-scene-movie-titles.jpg

2. Mulholland Drive

Image from https://dbmoviesblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/mulholland-drive.jpg

3. Her


Image from https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/e0/36/7d/e0367df7dd1c9fe84e485c2b5225db56.jpg

4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Image from https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/49/a7/fc/49a7fc748b40b3efcdc0cc4dfa64af34.png

5. Walk the Line

Image from https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/0d/a1/79/0da179edff9b0cf4d01e945e4fe39a65.jpg

6. Revolutionary Road

Image from https://data.whicdn.com/images/114549105/large.jpg

7. Mystic River

Image from https://image2.123tagged.com/images/m/mystic_river-9010.jpg

8. In the Bedroom

Image from https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51eCbgVslaL._SY445_.jpg

9. Far from Heaven

Image from https://media3.giphy.com/media/e6sZKRn63LPwY/200_s.gif

10. The Constant Gardener

Image from https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/1e/f1/90/1ef190fcaf06d171e222c255769cc305.jpg

11. The English Patient

Image from https://68.media.tumblr.com/d22b6834061a6c9448161a722fe71cc2/tumblr_mv6ap4aPG01slbfvzo1_r1_500.gif

12. Adaptation

Image from http://www.stargatecinema.com/images/magictoolbox_cache/3bf842518f40ca6b8a10b619b8e02daf/1/9/19318/thumb400x400/20227-04.jpg

13. Bridget Jones' Diary