What do you pop in? Citizen Kane? Or The Rock? That ain't no choice at all. Citizen Kane is a far better film. But The Rock is the DVD you pop in at 9:37 pm on a Wednesday night when the kids are asleep and there's nothing on TV.
That being said, our next two films, both masterpieces in our humble opinion, present us with something of a conundrum.
#7: Amelie
In a masterful long opening sequence, heavily laden with overly explanatory voiceover (oh the horror, sez, Robert McKee), Jean-Pierre Jeunet (yes, the director of an Alien sequel!) introduces us to the world of Amelie. Played by the winning and, okay, adorable Audrey Tautou, our heroine is the only child of a widowed country doctor who makes human contact with his own daughter so rarely he thinks she has a heart defect because of the way her heart races whenever he gives her a check-up. Alone, but fascinated by the world and also the world which exists solely within her own imagination, Amelie grows up to be a waitress in a small bar and diner in Paris.
Occassioned by her shock over the death of Princess Di in 1997, Amelie happens upon a small tin box hidden behind a tile in her bathroom. Its contents: a time capsule from a little boy, probably made in the 1950's. Amelie resolves to find the owner of the time capsule. If it works out, she determines to become a regular do-gooder.
Because this is a movie, of course it works out. Without giving away any of this enchanting films' many pleasures, Amelie becomes a regular Zorro of good deeds. In the process, she runs into Nino, a similarly lost dreamer floating through a world of his own imagination. You might be able to guess what happens from there. But I'd wager you could not guess how it happens.
There're few films I can think of that make me feel as good as Amelie. It's a wonder of whismy, a charming creme brulee of a picture that never falls in love with its own quirkiness. (That being said, maybe if it wasn't in French, it would come off as cloying and saccharine. However, having to watch a subtitled film also requires total focus (no Kindle Fire facebooking!) which is refreshing). We haven't watched this movie for probably a decade, but I smiled ear to ear the whole time.
We absolutely, fully love this movie. But how often will we watch it? Do we need it at the ready at 9:37 on a Wednesday night?
#8: American Beauty
If internet comment sections (which are, next to Dianetics and Mini-Trucker Magazine, my most trusted sources of information) are any guide, this 1999 Best Picture winner has fallen out of favor of late. I seriously don't see why.
Kevin Spacey, in his best film performance this side of Verbal Kint, plays Lester Burnham, a put-upon family man and writer for an industry magazine, who, as he informs us in voice over (oh the horror! again) at the top, dies at the end. Spurred by the looming threat of downsizing and a dying marriage, Spacey's Burnham embarks on a spiritual quest of a sorts which consists mainly of working out, smoking pot, and (generally speaking) reverting to his 17 year old self. Meanwhile, his wife, Carolyn, played by the superb Annette Bening, experiments with an affair with the Real Estate King (Peter Gallagher) and toting a hand cannon. Unbeknownst to either of them, their daughter, Janie (Thora Birch) is falling in love with mental-case-videophile-pot-dealer next door, Ricky (Wes Bentley).
There appears to be this idea of American Beauty as being all about how empty American suburbia can be - and in a very cliched way. But as a resident of American suburbia (residents of Sylvania and Perrysburg, Ohio now have permission to cringe at the thought of West Toledo being classified as suburbia) allow me to combat that: at the end, the Burnham's realize the value of their lives lies in their ordinary suburban existence, specifically, it lies in each other. At the end, Lester focuses intently on a photo of his family at a carnival (how suburbs is that?) and part of his life flashing before his eyes are the leaves on the maple trees that line his street. At the end of the day, the Burnham's realize they should have looked closer at the beauty of their day to day lives in boring, ordinary suburbia. Is it kinda silly that the best screenwriter Allen Ball had to represent that was a plastic bag floating in the wind? Yes. But did you watch Season 3 of True Blood? Be glad that's what he went with.
It's also problematic that Lester's realization is brought on by finding out his daughter's dance team "friend" (Mena Suvari, where she at?), whom he is about to statutorily rape, is a virgin. It all feels just a tad slut-shamy - as if she wasn't a virgin, it would've totally been fine for Lester to manipulate his daughter's friend into sleeping with him. It's all part of his stupid, empty, high-school-id-driven quest! I'm sure that's not what was intended and it makes a certain amount of character sense for this to be the thing which snaps Lester into reality, but it feels a little off and cheap today.
That notwithstanding, American Beauty is fiercely funny, moreso than I remembered, and it still hits me at the end. Like Amelie, it's all about how life's little moments can pile up to big ones. Also like Amelie, I'm pretty sure we haven't watched this for like a decade. So, while it is an great film, do we need to keep it?
We're on the fence. Hence, the sense with both films is PITCH IT, but ambivalently so.
Constant Readers, your input is appreciated.
UPDATE: Here's what we decided. PITCH American Beauty. The DVD transfer we have is brutal anyway. If we get a hankering to watch it, we'll always be able to get our hands on a good copy in the future...which we can't say the same for Amelie, which we've decided to KEEP. We still won't likely watch it soon, but I have feeling Amelie might be harder to come by ten years from now when we want to watch it. Okay, carry on with your lives now, crisis averted.
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