Tuesday, April 14

The Movies You Watch Over and Over

Last week I was in my favorite city, Seattle. It's always hard to come home from there, so I spent the day after I returned being nostalgic and watching Seattle-related videos (and I do mean actual videocassette tapes because my stuff from the grunge era is old), most of them were music videos (an Alice in Chains vid and then anyone remember the documentary Hype? Love that one.), but I also broke out Singles and made my fiance watch it. Hey, it's a romantic comedy, but it's still a comedy.

I think he enjoyed it and I was in eighth grade all over again, mouthing along to all my favorite lines ("I was just nowhere near your neighborhood." and "...a big record just broke in Belgium"), squealing, "Oh I love this scene!" at just about every scene, but especially the one where Cliff blows out Janet's car windows with her new speakers and Chris Cornell is an extra bopping his head along, then looking like he's been shot when the glass starts breaking. At the point, my fiance went "Oh that can't really happen," and I replied, "Shush! Suspension of disbelief." Because cheesy as this movie may be, it's one of my all-time favorites. I'll even go so far as to say that the only Cameron Crowe flick that came out after it that lived up to Singles for me was Almost Famous.

I was just addicted to Singles in 8th grade/freshman year of high school. Romance plus live performances by Alice in Chains and Soundgarden? It was a teenage grunge girl's perfect flick. I watched it over and over until I finally got my own loser wanna be rock star boyfriend like Cliff. Well and until The Crow came out and I started watching that one over and over because I wanted a beautiful Brandon Lee boyfriend too. All my guy friends loved that movie for the action and all my girl friends because we wanted a boyfriend as devoted to us as Eric Draven was to his girl, willing to come back from the dead and seek vengence. Isn't that romantic? And after The Crow came my Sid and Nancy obsession. Clearly my take on love was at it's most innocent during the Singles phase.

Before Singles, I was addicted to Beetlejuice in fifth and sixth grade. What can I say, I had goth tendencies even as a tween. I used to try to gel my bangs into points like Winona Ryder's. Next came Wayne's World and there was also a brief phase where, along with Singles, my best friend at the time and I also watched The Shining repeatedly. Um, I guess it balanced out Singles? Or else we needed therapy. Heathers and The Breakfast Club were also on constant repeat for me throughout junior high and high school. Especially as anyone from Chicago may remember, the played The Breakfast Club on channel 9 like every Saturday.

In my first year of college, it was all about The Lost Boys. I don't think I've had a real movie obsession since then. Unless you count the first X Files movie which I saw in the theaters three times, but I think that's just my X Files geekery. Oh wait, and there was a Velvet Goldmine phase. Johnathan Rhys Meyers as a pseudo-David Bowie and Ewan McGregor as an Iggy Pop lookalike in shiny leather pants, it's just too beautiful not to watch over and over.   

So yeah, those are my comfort food movies. The ones I still turn to when I'm home sick or feeling down in the dumps or nostalgic or just in need of good eye candy. What about you? Which movies did you watch so much you memorized them?

13 comments:

E Brown said...

Ohhh Loved Singles! Though I admit to being quite a bit over ei9ght grade. I also loved "Tomorrow night, we rock Portland!"

Because we are in Portland. Hee.
Teri

Oh, and did you know that Eddie Vedder was in it too?

Stephanie Kuehnert said...

Ha! yes tomorrow we rock Portland was another one of my fave lines!

I did know about Eddie Vedder. I'm not much of a Pearl Jam fan (one of my college professors likened the divide between hardcore early 90s Nirvana and Pearl Jam fans to that between the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, you often chose between one or the other. Apparently we were of similar minds because he chose Jefferson Airplane and I chose Nirvana. LOL), but I do like the part where Eddie tells Cliff, "A compliment for us, is a compliment for you" after the reviewer rips Cliff a new one. Alice In Chains and Soundgarden were probably my big highlights. Oh and I like Tad's appearance too as the guy who Janet accidentally calls thinking it's Cliff and she describes what she's wearing and he says, "I don't know who Cliff is, lady, but I'm coming over!" Also I just realized in this viewing of Singles that Bruce Pavitt from Sub Pop makes a cameo. He's on of Debbie's video date options, lol!

I'm such a Singles nerd!

Erika Powell said...

I've never seen Singles *hangs head in shame* but i promise to rent it very soon!
I could watch Italian Job every day and not get sick of it. Also 10 Things I Hate About You and my collection of Gilmore Girls DVDs get me through anything.

Stephanie Kuehnert said...

10 things I hate about you is also set in Seattle. I need to own that movie. I wanted to watch it so bad on Friday too. I love it. And I need to watch Gilmore Girls too!

Unknown said...

The ones I watch so much I've memorized them are:

Moulin Rouge (I LOVE Ewan McGregor)
Pan's Labyrinth
The Incredibles
Finding Nemo
Titanic
Metropolis (the Ozamu Tesuka one)
Requiem for a Dream

and T.V shows:
Buffy series
Angel series
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

hehe :D I just never get sick of any of those and of course there's a LOT more

Anonymous said...

Heh, I saw the Breakfast Club in its edited form on channel 9 so many times that I was forced to accept the sudden shift to the dance scene, even though it seemed random and inexplicable. It was only years later when I finally got a copy on VHS complete with the bit where they all smoke up that my confusion was clarified.

Sara Hantz said...

Movies I know word for word: Calamity Jane, Sound of Music, Love Actually.

I don't remember seeing Singles, but that doesn't mean I haven't seen it, I have such an awful memory. But I'll try and track it down to remind myself!

Wendy Toliver said...

We like(d) a lot of the same movies! You have excellent taste. :)

Lexie said...

ohh let's see...
The Princess Bride
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Ever After
Watcher in the Woods
While You Were Sleeping
The Classic (a korean film)
Spirited Away
all 3 Resident Evil movies

those are probably the ones I re-watch the most often or rather the movies I turn to when I need a pick me up. I have others I watch regularly, but not when I want a pick me up. In the Resident Evil movies case--I watch them whenever they are on TV, or when I need a good zombie movie, or I'm bored at 1am or pretty much at the drop of a hat XD

Erika Powell said...

I know that 10 Things I Hate About You is set in Seattle because one of my very best friends is from Seattle and everytime we watch she tells me how in this one shot you can almost see her house, haha.

Alyson Noel said...

Oh, I loved Singles! I should rent that so I can watch it again!

Movies I like to watch over and over include:

American Beauty (my all time fave)
The Graduate
Bridget Jones Diary
High Fidelity
Pretty In Pink
Shrek

Oh, and many, many, others!

Great post!

A Paperback Writer said...

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is THE quintessential movie to quote. :)
Even most of my junior high school students can recite huge chunks of the thing.

Lauren Baratz-Logsted said...

Memorized?

The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Monty Python Holy Grail.