In honor of me losing my ongoing list of every movie I have watched in two years with full reviews and movies I want to watch, I am gonna list my top four favorite/ underrated movies that need to be watch.
1. Rockstar (2001) with Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston.
In the mid 80s rock and roll was taking over in a extremely extravagant way. The music was louder, the pitches were higher, and the over sexualization of musicians was stronger. Mark Wahlberg is Chris Cole who plays in a tribute band of the famous band Steel Dragon. He lives his life aspiring to be someone else and when he gets a taste he doesn’t know what he’s getting himself into.
2. American Beauty (1999) Directed by Sam Mendes and starring Kevin Spacey.
American Beauty is a film that I watched randomly and became very intrigued with the way this film was created. This film was pretty much created in the editing process. With a different film intended in the script, the director saw a another film in the editing stages, which was a great, becuase it ultimately led to the nomination and winning of multiple Academy Awards and Golden Globes. American Beauty is confusing. I would put it into the genre of other dark dramas of the early 2000s and late 90s, because it gives me the same feel as Virgin Suicides and Donnie Darko. American Beauty is a great movie that is hard to explain. Kevin Spacey is a man that is tired of his everyday life, his wife, his rebellious teenage daughter, and his job. Not much more can be said without spoilers, because I feel like every part of this movie is intense going into it blind. Watch this movie. It is great.
3. Everybody Wants Some!! (2016) This is a movie directed by Richard Linklater, the same director who directed Dazed and Confused.
Everybody Wants Some!! is filled with nostalgia of a time period where I wasn’t even conceived. The Van Halen inspired title is full of heavy rock influences. Guys it's like dazed and confused but in the 80s. It’s about this baseball player's first couple days of college living in the baseball house in the 80s. The movie brings up the idea of who are we? What is our identity? And how we chose to identify ourself? This movie is really good. They smoke a lot of weed. This movie is completely underrated.
4. The Graduate (1967)
I watched this movie because I was intrigued by the background and the pioneer of the film. I was always interested in films that used one album from a particular artist to score the entire film. That’s what the Graduate does, and it chooses a bomb a** album. Simon and Garfunkel music perfect captures the feel of this ambiguously captivating and inspirational feel. You may not be fan die hard fan of Simon and Garfunkel, but you can appreciate the way the music makes you feel throughout the film. The Graduate says the story of Benjamin played by Dustin Hoffman who has just graduated college and is now in a state of limbo in his life. He doesn’t know what to do so he occupies his time with a mother then daughter. I love the rustic feel of the film. And the way the camera holds the attention of its audience. The movie has an ambiguous ending that makes me ask the question what now? Although this movie is old, watch it. It is worth your time, this is not coming from a pretentious movie nerd, it’s coming from your friend.
As confusing as it may be, I don't have a favorite movie. I couldn’t think of one, Dazed and confused and Donnie Darko may be contenders but not quite. I did lose my list of movies remember?
Instead of putting a movie that didn’t fit the others. These are my favorite movies and they all have something in common. They are about people who don’t know themselves and are trying to find themselves through multiple different outlets.
Each of these movies are completely and very different, but I noticed, that my place in life lead me to consider these movies the greatest. I am in a place where I can trying to understand where I belong and what I want to do in my life. I didn’t mean to pick movies with the same theme, but that’s why I love movies. The morality and lessons taught are subconsciously instilled in the minds of the viewers and we remember and take note of the movies that changed our life.
