The Lingering Lemon of Death

The Shawshank Redemption

This post is part of a series on Perfect Films, please read the original post if you wonder what I mean by "perfect".

I am looking at my list of possible perfect movies and I am beginning to feel more afraid about sharing them. So today I pulled one off the list which felt safe. The Shawshank Redmeption is a film which I missed when it first came out, but since then I have watched and re-watched and re-re-watched.

I am particularly happy with the ending of this film, which wonderfully finishes the story and starts a new one, but without saying much, and without making you wish the movie would keep going. I don't really have much else to say because I am pretty sure everyone has seen this one.

 

Waking Ned Devine

This post is part of a series on Perfect Films, please read the original post if you wonder what I mean by "perfect".

Waking Ned Devine,a glorious little film about people in a town in Ireland trying to figuring out what to do when the death of Ned Devine leaves them holding a winning lottery ticket. It's a sweet comedy, a little bit of farce, a little bit of slapstick, a little romance, a little larceny. Loads of lovable quirky characters, fun story, cheering for the little guy and a very pleasing ending.

I think my favorite part of this film is the genuine affection that the people in this town have for each other. I would love to live in a world where we cared for each other that much.

 

Silverado

This post is part of a series on Perfect Films, please read the original post if you wonder what I mean by "perfect".

Today we visit the perfect western. Silverado. OK, there are probably many perfect westerns, because so many of them were made, they had to get it right a time or two. When I first thought of the list of perfect movies, this was one of the few which instantly popped into my head.

It starts with the west itself as a character, and then you slowly meet the various people that you are going to be riding with. Even with all our years of iconization of the old west, each character you meet seems to be a newer even purer distillation of someone familiar. By the time the whole gang is together, you are ready to ride with this gang from here til past the sunset.

It has great actors. It has a a huge classic sounding score which, as I write this, is playing in my head. It has humor, superhero good guys, evil schemeing bad guys, gunfights, gambling, justice, revenge, and not a single kiss to mess all it all up.

It has one strange note, there is this not quite perfect sub plot with the farmers who have come to Silverado and the beautiful widow. Normally that one not perfect thread would cast this movie out of the perfect category. However the rest of the movie is extra perfect, so this one gets on the perfection list, even with a small blemish. Eveyone who made this movie, there is a place for you at my fire anytime.

Update: My friend David also has this movie on his list, and he has a great comment about the sub plot, a nice viewing which I was not clever enough to catch: I would argue that the sub-plot with the widow is what makes the film perfect, as awkward as that part of the movie is. It humanizes three otherwise superhuman characters as they each try to relate to her in their own way--as sexual object, as a romantic connection, or as a victim--and all come away baffled by the fact that she just wants someone to share the work.

That Thing You Do

This post is part of a series on Perfect Films, please read the original post if you wonder what I mean by "perfect".

For me, the perfect film to start the list of perfect films is "That Thing You Do". This is a film set in the 60s, about a band which gets a hit song and is suddenly thrust into the crazy world of rock and roll. I could gush for hours about what I like about this movie ... I have just deleted a lot of gushing. I will probably have to be careful about that when I start writing these. There is no time, let me sum up.

The story is sweet and heartwarming. It is set in the imaginary 60s that I grew up in, so it has a rosy nostalgia to it that makes me pre-disposed to enjoy everything about it.

I love every single actor in this film, even the ones who have 10 seconds on screen. The dad ranting about the son who can't remember to turn the store lights off, the waitress at the jazz club, the host of the TV variety show, the old wise jazz musician, the movie is overflowing with these wonderful gems.

I love the writing, there are many really beautiful words, words filled the with the sort of trouble-blind exuberance of the post teenage post war era that I barely caught the tail of when I was growing up. These kids would have been my role models when I was becoming a teenageer. Faye's speech in the dressing room is possibly the most amazing piece of film dialog ever, it is so perfectly what that character would say, exploding with emotions which she doesn't have the cool words for, instead writing like a writer they wrote it like a young woman who was looking for her own poetry in someone else.

If you watch it, do not watch the extended edition directors cut. That version of the film is fine for people who are in love with the characters and story, because you do get to see more of some of those things, but the theatrical release is the one which is perfect.

Perfect Movies

I was chatting with Christopher this weekend and we came up with this idea of perfect movies.  These are not the best movies, or the deepest movies, or the most important movies. They are the movies that, after you have watched them 10 times, you still wouldn't change a single thing. I have always had a small secret list of these films and now I have decided that I want to share the list.

I like movies for many different reasons, and I admire the ambitious movie, as well, the one which dreams big but misses, either a little or a lot, and that list of movies which you admire for their courage, might be another interesting list. However, for now I am thinking of maybe of posting about one perfect movie per day, until I am out of perfect movies.

The one slightly embarassing thing about this list is that I tend to prefer watching fluffy movies which do not address to real issues of the day. Movies are totally an escape for me, and they can, while providing escape, also reflect on the broken world, but I took a spin at being a serious movie goer in my early 20s and decided that I could not do that to my soul. So my list of perfect movies contains many light and fluffy movies. I assure you, I am a deep and complex person who appreciates the paradox and pain of this world. I just don't want to see it on the movie screen.

What is perfect to me is not perfect to everyone. I know more than one movie on this list which, though I think they are perfect, make some other people want to scream in pain. I am also certain that the makers of the "perfect" films could point out many places where they didn't quite accomplish what they wanted to. I just like the idea of a "perfect little movie" as a class of films, and here we go!

I'm creating a category for this series, you can always check the list of articles by going straight to the category page. Keep watching the blog ( or the social media stream ) for the movies, the theory is, one post per day until I am done.

 Link: Perfect Films -- The Category Page

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