Night one: Pranksters and Hoaxers
This great documentary would open my film festival (it will actually close my section of the Southern Appalachian film festival here in Johnson City later this fall):
This film is a screamingly funny look at the life of Alan Abel and his media pranks. The film was made by his fabulous daughter, who left a comment on my blog!, and it's one of the best documentaries ever made. This film deserves a wider audience and I will never get tired of recommending it.
The second film on the first night would be this one:
It's a great dramatization of the Clifford Irving Howard Hughes biography scandal. It's one of Gere's best roles in years and the always good Alfred Molina is a stand out in it as well. And it features the delightful French pastry Julie Delpy in it too, hubba hubba.
Night two: Con Men
I love movies about con men and this film is one of my faves.
It's Mamet so get ready for lots of spoken ellipses, double crosses, and other trickery. It's one of Lindsay Crouse's best movies.
Next up we go back to the late 1960's to one of my favorite George C. Scott movies: 
I saw this one when I was young and I loved it. It's light, yet still slightly criminal.
I saw this one when I was young and I loved it. It's light, yet still slightly criminal.Night three: Put the funk in Dysfunctional 1970's style!
Ahh, this one will leave you thanking your lucky stars that your family is not as fucked up as this one was. Robert Duvall is chillingly good in this one, as is Michael O'Keefe in the role of his tormented tortured son.
We go further into the lives of some fucked up white families with this choice. This movie was Robert Redford's directing debut and he did a hell of a job with it. Great performances all the way around in this one.
Night four: Sports Comedies
After night three I figured we all could use a good laugh so I combined my love of sports with my love of comedies. We'll start by screening this classic:
It's a bit dated now but still it's funny as hell. Bill Murray's improvised dialogue, especially the bit about being the Dali Lama's caddy, is pure genius. We'll then close the night by watching this great comedy:
Night five: Together again, an original and it's remake
Once in a blue moon Hollywood gets it right. The original Bedazzled was comic genius and no one could top Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, and Raquel Welch, so in the remake they didn't even try. Instead they took the basic premise and moulded it to fit their cast and the result was stunning. I love both these movies for different reasons.
Night six: War is h-e-double hockey sticks!
As long as we are mired in an illegal immoral war then we need to be reminded of the toll that war takes on the people who fight it and the people who love them. One of the best films to show that terrible toll is this one:
I can't tell you how much I love this film, words are not sufficient so if I tried to tell you how much I loved it I'd have to do an interpretative dance to go along with whatever words come out of my mouth, and maybe I'd have to do a multi media slide show as well.
And finally to close out the sixth night I'd show this film:
It's one of the best anti war films ever made. It's not bloody and violent but it makes it's pacifist case all the same.
8 comments:
It will come as no surprise that I loved Bad News Bears - mostly because I was the only girl on a boy's little league team (and we sucked) when this came out. I thought for sure, it was my life story they were telling.
Dear Dr.,
I've just returned from a week in northern Wisconsin where I had no Internet access. It's time to catch up with my favorite blogs.
First -- thanks for noticing how dang cute I was in 4th grade.
This film festival is the best. You had me guffawing here in the stylish coffeehouse. I, too, loved "Joyeux Noel."
I'm not only impressed with the depth of your film festival offerings, but also by the fact that you can watch two movies a night, five nights in a row!
When is the fest starting and do you have a couch I could crash on? I'll bring some popcorn.
At first, I became panicky, thinking I'd never seen anything on your list, and had a lot of movies to watch. However, relief washed over me when I saw "Ordinary People," and "Caddyshack" on the list.
"The Intellectual's Hellzapoppin"
That's a blurb worth its weight in malted milk balls.
I'd like to see Joyeux Noel. Have you heard John McCutcheon's song "Christmas in the Trenches"? It is very poignant.
Another good movie for the tricksters and hoaxes genre would be "Bob Roberts." The last scene in that movie made the hair on the back of my neck stand up ... and it was positively prophetic.
One more: Have you seen "Tapeheads" with Tim Robbins and John Cusack? It's one of my all-time favorite films.
While I love the perfection of the original Bedazzled, I'm harsher than you on the remake.
Still Elizabeth Hurley in some of the outfits in that movie, just about makes me forgive any of their sins.
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