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Arts and Music (Cont.)

The Prater's Creek Gazette

15th Issue Fall 2007 Page #6

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THE BEST MOVIES OF THE PAST 25 YEARS (That I Have Seen)

BRAZIL - (1987, Rated R) Terry Gillian, from Monty Python, directed this move and had to fight the studio to get it released. He still had to compromise on the ending for the USA release. Thanks goodness for DVDs so we Americans can see the real ending.

HAIRSPRAY - (1988,Rated PG-13) Written and directed by John Waters. By the time this article goes to publication, the movie musical of the Broadway musical based on this, the original movie, which was a musical, will be out and a box office smash. But John Travolta’s performance will be weak, very weak compared to the original actor who played the role of Edna Turnblad, DEVINE. Rent this, I promise you it’ll blow away this Hairspray. But I hope John Waters makes a killing at the box office. He deserves it.

DO THE RIGHT THING - (1989, Rated R) A Spike Lee “joint”. A huge movie with a great cast that includes John Truturro, Ossie Davis, Spike Lee, and Rosie Perez. As with all of Lee’s movies, a clear message is not given to us, the audience. It’s up to us to decide what is “the right thing”.

FIELD OF DREAMS - (1989, Rated PG) Any guy who ever played catch with his dad, or shared any kind of love for baseball with his dad, loves this movie.

GREAT BALLS OF FIRE - (1989,Rated R) Biopic of Jerry Lee Lewis, the greatest rock and roller of all time. Dennis Quaid is goofy playing Lewis but Winona Ryder is perfect as Myra, Jerry Lee’s thirteen year old cousin/child bride. “Here comes the creepy mouse”

HEATHERS - (1989, Rated R) A dark comedy starring the greatest actress and most beautiful woman of all times, Winona Ryder. “Dear Diary: My teenage angst now has a body count”

SEX, LIES, and VIDEOTAPE - (1989, Rated R) Written and directed by Steven Soderbergh, with great performances by Andie MacDowell and Laura San Giacomo. This movie shows you don’t have to overdo it, and flirt with X ratings, to have one of the steamiest movies ever.

THE COOK THE THIEF HIS WIFE & HER LOVER - (1989, Rated R) Written and directed by Peter Greenaway. A hilarious tale about adultery, with a little cannibalism thrown in for good measure!

THE BAD LIEUTENANT - (1989, Rated R) Harvey Keitel is the Bad Lieutenant.

THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS - (1989, Rated R) Jeff and Beau Bridges play the Baker brothers who have been a piano duet since they were kids. Then they hire Michelle Pfieffer as singer and things change. One of the best movies you could ever see about being a musician. Pfieffer is incredibly hot, but they could have left that whole subplot out, and it still would have been a great movie about being a musician, and about “art” vs. commerce.

CRYBABY - (1990, Rated R) Written and directed by John Waters and it has Traci Lords! And Rikki Lake is great as a white trash pregnant teen. Johnny Depp’s first role as he tried to distance himself from his “21 Jump Street”/cover of Tiger Beat image.

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS - (1990, Rated PG-13) Co-written by Tim Burton and Caroline Thompson, and directed by Burton. I'm no fan of fantasy movies or literature. I went to see this movie because Winona was starring it. And this turned out to be one of the best movies I had ever seen. Winona was great of course, and Dianne Wiest equally great. But Johnny Depp was incredible as the the title character. And an awesome performance by legend Vincent Price. Burton's middle class neighborhood with it's pastel colored houses is really visually comical.

MO BETTER BLUES - (1990, Rated R) Spike Lee looks at the workings of a jazz band in NYC, and their women trouble, their management trouble, and their trouble with each other. And “art” vs. commerce.

FRIED GREEN TOMATOES - (1991, Rated) “The secret of life? The secret's in the sauce” Adapted from Fannie Flagg’s novel of the same name. I’ll watch this movie every time it airs on TV. Kathy Bates is great, and Mary Louis-Parker and Mary Stuart Masterson are greater than great. I fell in love with both of them while watching this movie.

NIGHT ON EARTH - (1991, Rated R) Five stories about cabdrivers. Funny, funny movie. And Winona Ryder plays a Hollywood cabbie in the first story.

SLACKER - (1991, Rated R) Written and directed by Richard Linklater, the film takes place on a day in Austin, TX and has a slew of funny weirdoes that we meet.

RESERVOIR DOGS - (1992, Rated R) Directed by Quentin Tarentino. We can never hear “Stuck in the Middle with You” the same way again.

UNFORGIVEN - (1992, Rated R) Clint Eastwood single handedly revives the Western.

WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE? - (1993, Rated PG-13) “I'm having a birthday party, but you're not invited, but you can come if you want” I wasn’t interested in seeing this movie until Mickey Mantle, while he was in the hospital getting a liver transplant, talked about how he loved this move. I had to go rent it. And it’s one of the most touching movies you’ll ever see. Johnny Depp and Leonardo DeCaprio deserved Oscars for their performances.

DAZED AND CONFUSED - (1993, Rated R) “It’d be a lot cooler if you did” Directed by Richard Linklater. It’s the last day of school in 1976. Great cast of unknown actors who would go on to become stars like Matthew McConaghy, Ben Afleck, and Parker Posey.

SCHINDLER’S LIST - (1993, Rated R) Directed by Steven Spielberg. Based on the true story of Oskar Schindler, a German factory owner who helps save 1100 Jews from the gas chambers at Auschwitz.

CLERKS - (1994, Rated R) Kevin Smith’s first full-length film and shot in black and white. Hilarious! “46, is that including me?!” “Oh, 47”.

CRUMB - (1994, Rated R) Directed by Terry Zwigoff. Documentary about the underground comic artist R. Crumb. Well, “underground”, might not be accurate since every person my age had a poster or sticker drawn by Crumb in our room during the late 60’s-early 70’s. The ironic thing about this movie is that you find out that as weird as R. Crumb was (IS?), and he is eccentric, he’s the normal one compared to his two brothers!

BULLETS OVER BROADWAY - (1994,Rated R) Written and directed by Woody Allen. This movie is so funny it made me want to stand and cheer for the cleverness of the script and the great acting, most notably Diane Wiest who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Set in 1929, a young playwright, played by John Cusack, agrees to let a mobster’s no talent girlfriend star in his play if the mobster will bankroll the project. Lots of good humor about Broadway and writing.

PULP FICTION - (1994, Rated R) Written and directed by Quentin Tarentino. You never get tired of watching this move. Everybody is really good in their roles, hilarious dialogue, and a line for the ages “I’m about to go Medieval on your ass!”

KIDS - (1995,Rated R) Directed by Larry Clark. We follow NYC poverty level teens on a hot summer day as they indulge in drugs, sex, and violence.

PARTY GIRL - (1995, Rated R) Parker Posey plays a hip New York girl with no job and no money but the hippest wardrobe in town. The movie that made her an indie star.

WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE - (1995, Rated R) Directed by the brilliant, and brilliantly twisted, Todd Solondz. Like all of his movies, this film rips away the façade of family life in America. His films may not be for everybody, but as for the people who don’t like his films: Who cares about those idiots.

BEAUTIFUL GIRLS - (1996, Rated R) A guy comes back to his small Pennsylvania for a high school reunion and to mull over his serious relationship back in NYC. And he meets, and develops a non-sexual crush on, 13 year old Natalie Portman. Natalie is awesome in this film.

WAITING FOR GUFFMAN - (1996, Rated R) Directed by Christopher Guest, and co-written by Guest and Eugene Levy. A small town in Missouri, without any writing or performing talent, stages an original musical about the history of their town.

Parker Posey is outstanding as Libby Mae Brown, a Dairy Queen worker who auditions singing “I wanna be teacher’s pet”. I love her.

SLING BLADE - (1996, Rated R) Written and directed by Billy Bob Thornton, who also stars. The movie that a million trailer park women went to see because Dwight Yoakum was in it, only to find out why he wears a Stetson onstage, and have their image of him ruined.

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