Back to the 90's and Back to Steve Soderbergh's 2014

Before I forcefully cram more of my 90's movie memories down your throats I want to draw your attention to another blog that's been generating a bit of buzz in the world wide film web.

As a number of you must have seen (if not read meticulously) Steven Soderbergh shared a list of everything he watched and read in 2014.

http://extension765.com/sdr/22-seen-read-2014


Comb through it if you must (hopefully we'll hear from you again in 2-3 days...), I personally skimmed and never made it past April.  The reaction I've seen has largely been one of interest, some people are deep in analysis, asking why he watched particular films twice, others argue that it's really not that much compared to what they themselves consume (those that broke down the numbers make a good point, I probably watch the same number of films as Soderbergh does in a year, but then again, I don't also have an award winning writing/directing career on the side...)

What I found most interesting was the simple way in which he recorded everything, putting his TV series in caps, books in italics.  It's a concise, elegant way of coding things.

Let me backtrack a second... One of my new year's resolutions (and I haven't done this resolution thing in a while now) was to reestablish my list of "movies that I watched over the year", something that was inspired by my friend Alex Carter many years ago, but a habit I fell out of with the advent of GetGlue (whose every goodness was completely undone by the shift to TV Tag).  These lists were particularly useful when coming up with my top movies of the year, or just being able to look back and seeing what I watched.  The common practice during 30 Films in January is to use letterboxd.com, a great site... that still doesn't have a mobile app.  Hence my desire to re-start that list on Evernote (one of my favourite mobile apps, I don't know how anyone can live without it).

Seeing Soderbergh's list has sparked my imagination and amibition of record something similar for myself in 2015!  Perhaps even slightly more ambitious because in my original list I am listing my films by number (so I know offhand at any point in the year how many films I've watched) as well as giving a coding for films that are new releases (easy reference come Top 10 of 2015 time) and films I've seen for the first time.

I think the result is going to be muddled and obviously generate a lot less interest.  However I may post some of it on this blog from time to time for those who are curious what consumes my time so much that I never talk to them anymore.

And now... Back to the 90's - Can't Hardly Wait

My mom always likes to point out what a stupid movie Can't Hardly Wait is every time I tell her I'm watching it.  So it's an annual conversation pretty much.

Can't Hardly Wait is definitely a movie that has the potential to kill brain cells, but it's also amazingly awesome.  Preston, Amanda, Kenny, et al from Huntington High were class of 1998 just like me.  I saw this movie at Sherway Gardens back when Sherway Gardens still had a theatre. It was June 1998, pretty much when I was getting ready to say farewell to Lakeshore C.I. so I'll always remember them fondly as fellow graduates.

Other reasons I like Can't Hardly Wait:  I love large ensemble casts, I love the exploration and integration of high school cliques, and I love how the cast was a who's who of failed teen TV dramas of the late 90's/early 00's (I think half the cast of Popular must have roles/cameos in this movie, and let's not forget Jason Segel)

The cliques in Can't Hardly Wait are interesting to me in that it was a modernization of say, The Breakfast Club, that and it wasn't simplified down to one individual to represent a group.There were multiple cliques that were kind of like offbeat weirdos and that was something I could very much relate to.  It was a time when everyone was striving to be different, at Lakeshore we had the alt rockers hanging out at the front of the school, us half academic/half artsy types hidden in the Art Hall, the cool kids at their table by the vending machines in the cafeteria, and lord knows where the computer geeks, avant-gardes (who were all Polish from what I remember), etc got to.  We interacted between cliques, which is a realistic representation of high school.  Plus let's face it, who wouldn't love Preston Myers? And Kenny Fisher!!!

 Back to the 90's - Cruel Intentions

TIFF really got into the good stuff in the back end of  this series.  Cruel Intentions is one of my all time favs, based on the tale of Dangerous Liaisons (which is also one of my all time favs!) It was the first time Sarah Michelle Gellar did a villainous role since her part in Swan's Crossing (which I reminisced about in a previous blog post), I really wish she'd done more roles like that, she's much more suited to it than trying to righteous.

It goes without saying alongside the soundtrack (Placebo! The Verve!) I was in love with Ryan Phillippe, but let's not for Joshua Jackson's Blaine Tuttle, I have an appreciation for a cute cunning gay man - so long as he's on my side.

Cruel Intentions lived on in the early 00's when we were auditioning actors for our film projects in University.  Half the girls who came out performed monologues by Kathryn Merteuil from the film, to the point even I had them memorized for years.

Back to the 90's - Empire Records

Of the entire series programmed by TIFF, I was most excited about Empire Records.  Yes, it's one of my favs right up there with Can't Hardly Wait and Cruel Intentions, but unlike the other two, I never had an opportunity to see Empire Records on the big screen.  I'd seen the trailers in theatres, but though I waited patiently for it to screen at Sherway, it never did!  I couldn't determine from an internet search whether Empire Records never had a release in Canada or just not a wide release, either way, after 19 years I was finally getting my chance to see it in a theatre!

Dec 19, 2014 was Rex Manning day! Seeing the whole gang on screen (in the original cut not that crappy re-mix they tried to con us with the in the late 00's) was nothing short of magical.  The idea of working in a record store with all my friends was the dream in 1995, hell, it still is...

Without conscious effort, Empire Records permeated my life, even to this day!  At the time of the film's release, I had just about every single piece of clothing Liv Tyler and Renee Zellweger wore.  Lines from the movie made it into my every day utterances, even now you'll occasionally hear me exclaim "What's with today, today?" and of course there's AJ's response when asked by Warren why he glued the scattering of quarters on the floor... (I'll give you a hint: scroll up to the title of this blog!)

 And now a disappointing denouement...no, no, I'm not purposely trashing Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.  The truth is for whatever reason, I've never seen it.  It screened at Lightbox on Boxing Day, when I was, of course, busy shopping and I have not been able to find a copy for download since.

So there you have it, the end to our happy trip through the 90's.  This felt like but a taste, hopefully TIFF will program Back to the 90's Part 2 sometime this year...?