Let’s trade favorite movies.
It’s the time of year where I sit around with my family, while someone plays movie trailer, after movie trailer, and someone else tries to get us to watch something derided by the rest, and we never actually choose anything, and then my father falls asleep on the sofa.
Maybe this is also your family… so I am hoping that from a shared list of recommendations, we can all be like– oh yes! That is exactly what we should watch!
I will go first, but please understand— I am NOT a film critic… to prove this, I begin my list with a Nicholas Cage movie… The Family Man, love! SO GOOD!
Note: I am breaking up this wall of text with past Christmas photos.
My movie-criteria was ABSOLUTE FAVORITES: movies that make me clap my hands together and say– oh! I LOVE that movie! LET’S WATCH IT RIGHT NOW!!!
In no particular order, and with plans to update the list, as you remind me what I forgot:
Goodfellas
Urban Cowboy
Amadeus
Wolf of Wall Street
Kiss Me Kate
Roadhouse
Braveheart
Good Will Hunting
Elf
White Christmas
The Family Stone
The Princess Bride
True Romance
Aristocats
Armageddon
Brokeback Mountain
Independence Day
Thelma and Louise
Ocean’s 11
It Happened One Night
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Blow
Casino
The Martian
I love a heist movie.
Bad boys, being bad.
Anything set in another period with EXCELLENT COSTUMES.
Anything with Robert DeNiro… EXCEPT THAT EXCRUCIATING NETFLIX MOVIE.
Brad Pitt, shirtless.
Literally everything about Elf.
Young Matt Damon.
Old Matt Damon.
Howard Keel.
scored these auction urns for a great price–they were exactly what I wanted for a tree base!
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Some of my movies are garbage.
Or generally problematic.
Be warned.
I rewatched Armegeddon this summer… and… Steve Buscemi’s character is… not good.
Some of these movies I love because they remind me so strongly of periods of my life— rewatching them is sort of like revisiting myself in that time period.
Sometimes I find that a movie is improved if you edit it for yourself… example: I don’t watch the end of Thelma and Louise— because it’s wrong.
Same for Roadhouse— once all the monster trucks show up, I’m done… also, even though obviously I am fine with a young Patrick Swayze, I’m actually in it for Sam Elliot.
Life Pro Tip:
If you have a choice, always choose Sam Elliot.
After he two-steps the girl around the diner, the movie is pretty much over for me.
Now.
I want to tell you how I came to watch Urban Cowboy, which I LOVE SO MUCH– it is pure kitsch, with EXCELLENT DENIM AND HATS AND CHARLIE DANIELS BAND AND A VERY BAD DUDE AND A MECHANICAL BULL AND LOTS OF FANTASTIC MUSIC AND DANCING.
Many years ago, on some list of “films every person should see“ I made a mental note of a movie titled Midnight Cowboy.
Sometime later, as I was searching through Netflix, I saw URBAN Cowboy. And my brain remembered the “cowboy” part, so I said to Paul— oh! This is a top movie everyone should see… want to watch it?
And like 10 minutes into it? I was speechless.
TRULY, I was like– HOW have I never seen this!! This IS the greatest movie ever made!
But also, HOW is this on a list of must-see cinema!?
Usually, when they say you should watch something, it’s Easy Rider. Have you tried to WATCH Easy Rider? I tried… after four minutes I was like— this is unwatchable AND WHERE IS JACK NICHOLSON?
ANYWAY.
Urban Cowboy.
I was SO confused that I googled— why is Urban Cowboy one of the greatest movies ever made?
And Google was like— do you mean MIDNIGHT cowboy?
Which we did watch later and it was depressing and cold and not in a good way.
Ok! I think that’s it! NOW IT’S YOUR TURN… what is your FAVORITE!?
Whatever you celebrate, I hope you get to spend it with the people you love!
xoxo, VEB
December 23, 2019 @ 12:29 pm
Moonstruck
December 23, 2019 @ 12:32 pm
-Ellyn Burstyn’s “Resurrection” / -“Hachi” (just describing it to others I badly tear up) / -“Fiddler on the Roof” / -“Jesus Christ Superstar” (I love musicals!) / -Tom Hanks’ “Castaway” / -“The Lives of Others” (really not kidding about being a cryer) / -“My Brilliant Career” / -“Persuasion” (I adore the dirty glove fingertip) /
Happy Holidays, all!
December 23, 2019 @ 12:36 pm
It Could Happen To You!
Nicolas Cage, Bridget Fonda, Rosie Perez. The best all ages feel good movie. My kids watched it when they were 8 and 12 and loved it.
December 23, 2019 @ 12:42 pm
Sound of Music; Casablanca; Love, Actually; The Wedding Singer (which is stupid but amazingly sweet and so relatable if you spent any part of your adolescence growing up in the 80’s); Summertime (with Katherine Hepburn); The Italian Job; Sense and Sensibility (the version with Emma Thompson and a delightful Alan Rickman whom I adored in every single thing he did); Best in Show. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas with lots of actual movie watching and not just debating what to watch
December 23, 2019 @ 12:43 pm
Bell, Book and Candle with Kim Novak as a Greenwich Village witch discovering love at Christmas time in the late 1950’s. Jimmy Stewart, Hermione Gingold, Elsa Lanchester, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, and a fabulous Siamese cat called Piewacket. Pure camp! Gorgeous MCM clothes and sets, exquisite African art. The hanging Christmas “tree” in the shop has been my style goal since forever.
December 23, 2019 @ 12:45 pm
Kate and Leopald. French Kiss. IQ.
December 23, 2019 @ 12:46 pm
“Desk Set” with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Hepburn is a corporate librarian for a film production company and Spencer Tracy arrives to automate her operation with a big-ass computer. The film was made in 1957, so you can imagine. It is also a Christmas movie, somewhat tangentially.
December 23, 2019 @ 12:46 pm
Travels with myu Aunt
Antie Mame
Bell Book and Candle
Cat on a hot tin roof
December 23, 2019 @ 12:49 pm
My very favorite is “The Quiet Man”. Here is a brief description from wikipedia: The Quiet Man is a 1952 Technicolor American romantic comedy-drama film directed by John Ford. It stars John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Ward Bond and Victor McLaglen. The screenplay by Frank S. Nugent was based on a 1933 Saturday Evening Post short story of the same name by Maurice Walsh, later published as part of a collection titled The Green Rushes. The film is notable for Winton Hoch’s lush photography of the Irish countryside and a long, climactic, semi-comic fist fight. It was an official selection of the 1952 Venice Film Festival.
The Quiet Man won the Academy Award for Best Director for John Ford, his fourth, and for Best Cinematography. In 2013, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”
December 23, 2019 @ 12:52 pm
well, yes – anything with Sam Elliott., no plot necessary. Two little known movies will be my all time favorites: A Walk in the Clouds (1995 with Keanu Reeves), and The Last of the Dogmen (1995 with Tom Berenger and Barbara Hershey). Check them out.
December 23, 2019 @ 1:39 pm
Love last of the dogmen
January 6, 2020 @ 11:58 pm
I loved A Walk in the Clouds…but…. the grape crushing song…
Lyrics are literally – “crush the grapes, crush the grapes”
Still worth a watch for Keanu at his prettiest.
December 23, 2019 @ 12:53 pm
Christmas Vacation
The American President
Fracure
When Harry Met Sally
Fracture
Imitation of Life (OMG…such a tearjerker!)
Gone With the Wind
The Greenbook
Anything with Tom Hanks except The Road to Perdition ( hated it)
Its a Wonderful Life
Did I mention Fracture?
December 23, 2019 @ 12:55 pm
Oh yes! Seven brides for seven brothers … great dancing!, WHMSally, Casablanca, Maltese falcon, The Thin Man movies but the last ones aren’t as fun because no drinking!, My Man Godfrey … dashing William Powell 🥰, you got mail, Harry Potter, the rocketeer, Red and Red 2 … Bruce Willis and John malchovich, Murphy’s Romance, Charade, English patient, like water for chocolate, guys and dolls, Macao with Robert Mitchum and Rosalind Russell — STEAMY! , home for the holidays, and mr brooks. Wishing you a fabulous holiday!
December 23, 2019 @ 4:09 pm
Omg I LOVE Murphy’s Romance. So so so much. And Home for the Holidays is one of my favorite holidays, if not my actual favorite.
December 23, 2019 @ 12:58 pm
Die Hard, L.A. Confidential, Love Actually. Odd list, I know.
December 23, 2019 @ 1:08 pm
I have nothing to add. They’ve all been mentioned above. Except no one added anything Merchant Ivory. So sad my Christmas no longer includes a new costume fantasy of theirs. And I definitely second Charade (music!), Just the Dance At The Gym scene in West Side Story (on repeat preferably), Amadeus, and Keira Knightly Pride and Prejudice. Oh, Ryan O’Neal and Marissa Berenson in Barry Lyndon. Not much substance, but soooooo beautiful. Enjoy. Have a lovely holiday y’all!
December 23, 2019 @ 1:09 pm
Pride and Prejudice(with Emma Thompson), The Spitfire Grill – this is a small movie with a great cast that always makes me weep, The Holiday, Overboard with Goldie Hawn, Wild Cats with Goldie Hawn OK I have a thing about Goldie Hawn, Con Air – and I know this is an awful movie but its so wonderfully awful. The Day After Tomorrow, because the dad has to save the son and he does. Yellow Dog because the dog is the hero. This is a great family movie.
December 23, 2019 @ 1:09 pm
While you were sleeping. Also some Hallmark movies. A season for miracles has Patty Duke in it. Silver bells has Ann Heche. In her shoes with Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette?
December 23, 2019 @ 1:10 pm
A few of my favorites that might be worthy of your list….
-Amelie
-Dangerous Liaisons
-Argo
Merriest of Christmases to you!
December 23, 2019 @ 1:10 pm
How could I forget The Women (1939 version of course)
December 23, 2019 @ 1:11 pm
Inception
The Prestige
Love Actually
Two weeks notice or the Proposal (who doesn’t love a romcom with Sandra Bullock and/or Ryan Reynolds/Hugh Grant
Baby Driver- how is this not on your list!? Heist movie with amazing soundtrack and awesome car chases!!
December 23, 2019 @ 1:11 pm
I agree with a lot of your choices. I’ve been to the dancehall where Urban Cowboy was filmed, great place. I love odd quirky movies that have great characters. But a few mainstream, too. I could watch To Kill A Mockingbird a thousand times and see a new sub plot or message. Juno. Big Lebowski. Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Saving Grace, if you haven’t seen it, try to find it. With Brenda Blethlyn – not the TV show. Gregory’s Girl. Love, Actually.