The Annuals

After washing the acrid taste of WHEN WILL I BE LOVED out of my mouth with what has come to be an annual viewing of Kenneth Lonergan's intimate masterpiece, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME, I got around to thinking it'd be worthwhile to compile a list of those movies I go out of my way to watch at least once a year.  Why?  Because your mother's a crab-ridden whore.  That's why.

Seriously, I don't do many repeat viewings of movies, save for certain films that captivate upon their initial release.  (In the last year, that would be ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, PRIMER, KILL BILL, VOL. 2, and THE INCREDIBLES.  And, by the way, sorry about that mother crack; at worst, she smells a bit like a wet Newfoundland.  Decrepit.  With crabs.)  But after those select flurries of viewings, those titles don't necessarily make the annual list, which, you might now be thinking smugly to yourself, is basically going to be a list of my favorite movies.  But that's where you'd be spectacularly full of shit, you see, because, while true in some respects, some of these titles are merely comfort food.  I watch LAST TANGO IN PARIS once a year, but it's not a favorite; it is, however, the film that absolutely blew my mind when I was eight years-old, and I like to revisit it to sort of gauge how phenomenally little I've matured emotionally.

That's more of an explanation than is necessary, I think.  Here are The Annuals:

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE
JAWS
LAST TANGO IN PARIS
THE RIGHT STUFF
TRADING PLACES
CONTEMPT
25TH HOUR
A HARD DAY'S NIGHT
HIS GIRL FRIDAY
BLOW OUT
THE FURY
DIE HARD
HALLOWEEN
PRINCE OF DARKNESS
GREMLINS
CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS
MANHATTAN
YOU CAN COUNT ON ME
MY DARLING CLEMENTINE

Added @ 1:06 PM PST

HUDSON HAWK
BULL DURHAM

If a year goes by that I haven't watched one of those titles, it gets popped in the ol' DVD spinner.  Obviously, most of those are films that impacted me one way or another in childhood, so you'll kindly cut me a shitload of slack for the notable absence of Renoir, Welles, Ozu, Pyun, Lubitsch, etc. (though when TO BE OR NOT TO BE finally hits DVD in March, it will surely be added to the above list).

Comments

[otherpeoplesblogs]

25th Hour is on my list by default, much like Narc, because I stop at them everytime it airs.

Night On Earth
LA Story
Grand Canyon
The Birds
Heat (Mann's)
Cannonball Run
Pi
The Muppet Movie & The Muppets Christmas Carol
Red Dawn
When Harry Met Sally (Go ahead and mock... it is a perfect RomCom)
sex, lies, and videotape
Modern Times
The Day the Earth Caught Fire
Alien
Star Wars (ANH, ESB, ROTJ... usually all in one day)
Airplane

This year I'm going to add The Guns of Navarrone... and probably Valley of the Dolls.

[Gus Dahlberg]

Since I hold you at least one-third responsible for some of my own list of Annuals, I don't believe for a second that the HAWK doesn't make that list.

[Slam]

Ok, call it strange. But every time I see THE NATURAL or FIELD OF DREAMS or SHAWSHANK on TV (which is often), I find myself sucked in for the rest of the movie. I don't go out of the way to put a reminder, just flip to it and it's on for the rest of the movie.

[jeremy]

You know me entirely too well, Gus. The HAWK is added. As is BULL DURHAM.

THE NATURAL and FIELD OF DREAMS get watched, but not quite annually.

[Dre]

For me it's:
RIO BRAVO
DUCK SOUP
RULES OF THE GAME
MARNIE
CEMETERY MAN
KNOCK OFF
THE MISSION
and, of course,
ROCK AND ROLL NIGHTMARE

[Peej]

Well thank goodness Gus steps up to the plate. It was a CRIME that THE HAWK was off that original list.

[jeremy]

It was considered initially, but I was doubting that I've watched it once a year since college. An hour later, the mescaline wore off, and I did the right thing at Gus's urging.