My Beloved Movies: Slipper Socks, Medium

Noises Off

I don’t have a favorite movie (hence the giant list), but if I did, I think this might be it. I absolutely love the play this movie is based on. I love this movie. I love my older sister’s high school production of it. I love the production I saw in Pasadena. The silent second act is a virtuoso dance of physical comedy, and at its center is master physical comedian, John Ritter. Weird that this list has two John Ritter movies. This movie has more laughs per second than anything else I’ve ever seen.

North by Northwest

My favorite Hitchcock. This over the top cross-country thriller is just set piece after set piece. Cary Grant as action star, who knew? And Eva Marie Saint remains the only actress on my list. Yes, she’s 95, and I don’t care. I saw her at the Hollywood Bowl a couple years ago, and she absolutely owned that crowd. She’s incredible.



Oscar

You might be sensing a type for me. I love movie comedies that could just about work as a play. This is both a top to bottom Italian-American joke, and a hilarious ride. Stallone is surprisingly good, and the cast around him is solid, especially a manic Tim Curry. “But we don’t have a daughter that’s not Lisa!”

Overboard

Maybe it’s because I’ve seen it so many times. Maybe it’s because Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell are electric on screen together. Maybe it’s because I’m waiting for you, Tofutti. Tofutti Klein-ein-ein.

Pan’s Labyrinth

What an absolutely beautiful piece of filmmaking. It’s magical and tragic. Beautiful and deeply ugly. Fairy tales are how we process the horrors of the world, and this movie is divinely horrific. I love it so much.

The Parent Trap

Not that Lindsey Lohan garbage. Hayley Mills all the way. This was one of the VHS tapes in my grandmothers collection, and I would watch it every time I went to visit her. Another movie that fed my lifelong obsession with split screen. What if instead of having to cut her hair, Susan was missing a finger? That’s the modern remake I want.

Predestination

I randomly came across this film on Amazon Prime and instantly fell in love with it. Based on a Robert Heinlein short story, this time travel yarn plays out like a fairy tale. As the time travel conceit twists back on itself, it’s not the complexity that hits you, it’s the depth of character. I can’t even explain what that means because it would ruin the film. This is easily one of the best films of the last decade, and it’s a shame no one has seen it.

The Prestige

I’ve always been fascinated by magicians. I was really into David Copperfield as a kid. I do some simple card tricks. Christopher Nolan realized filmmaking is a magic trick, and every moment of this movie about magic plays like a magic trick. He tells you he’s pulling a trick on you. He tells you he’s telling you he’s pulling a trick on you. He tells you you won’t see the trick because you don’t want to, and you still don’t. And it’s not a gimmick. It’s the perfect way to get into the heads of these characters.

The Princess Bride

When I was five-years-old, I was in afternoon kindergarten. But I was also a morning person, so I would wake up every morning and watch this movie while my sisters got ready for school. I’m not exaggerating, every morning. Every. Morning. Ask my sisters. I must have seen this over 200 times. There was a time I could quote it beginning to end. It’s lightning in a bottle. It can’t be remade, it can’t be repeated. It’s an adventure story where the hero defeats the villain by insulting him, while the hero can barely move from a bed. No one else could ever get away with that.

The Ref

My favorite Christmas movie. It’s such a slow burn family drama, and when it finally explodes, it’s fucking hilarious. When Kevin Spacey finally tells off his mom, it’s pure catharsis for all of us.