30 Day Movie Challenge Days 5, 6, 7, and 8

Day 5: Your favorite drama
This is one that I had to think about. I was this close to naming something else after going through my DVD collection and scrolling through Netflix and Hulu to remind myself of all the movies I've seen. Somewhere I saw an ad for Terms of Endearment and I realized this was my favorite drama. It was the first movie I remember being a "grown-up" film that made me emotional, rather than a children's film (like E.T. or Old Yeller). I don't own this film in any of its forms and I always relied on finding it on television randomly. I'd plan afternoons or evenings around watching it, or I'd be flipping through and find it halfway through and drop everything to watch. Now that I do less channel flipping I need to find a source for watching this on demand.




Day 6: Your favorite comedy
I debated this for a long time and, see below, where Day 7's film could easily have been switched with The Royal Tenenbaums. Despite some bizarre and low moments in this film I always find it funny, whimsical and irrelevant in just the right spots.




Day 7: A movie that makes you happy
I almost put this one for Day 6 but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that The Big Lebowski makes me happy when I'm feeling down, whereas The Royal Tenenbaums makes me snicker in places but can also leave me feeling low in places. The Big Lebowski, despite any greater message you try to find it in, ultimately is smart and silly at the same time.




Day 8: A movie that makes you sad
I considered another Jake Gyllenhaal film for this category, Donnie Darko. I realized, though, that while Donnie Darko makes me feel pleasantly melancholy, Everest makes me cry my eyes out. I've read the book Into Thin Air twice and I've seen Everest several times and even knowing who died before I'd read the book the first time, I still bawled. Every time. Climbing season started on Everest this week. While I have no desire to climb the mountain myself, I always keep an eye on news from there. And I'll probably watch the movie again in the near future because I'm a sucker for a good cry.

30 Day Movie Challenge Days 2, 3, and 4

Day 2: The last movie you watched

I used this prompt as an opportunity to watch something new that I've been meaning to watch since it was released several months ago: Hidden Figures.


I'm so glad I took the time to watch it and I can't wait for Muffin to see it. Over the spring break we took a Virginia road trip and learned a few things about civil rights history in Virginia that were really brought home by the film.

Day 3: Your favorite action/adventure movie

Hands down, Raiders of the Lost Ark. And since I'm pretty sure you've all seen it, instead of a clip I'm going to show one of my favorite GIFs.


via GIPHY

Day 4: Your favorite horror movie

I don't watch enough horror movies to really have a favorite. I don't care for them much. But the most recent horror-like movie I've seen that I really liked was The Witch.


I wasn't going to bother watching this film until a friend posted about it on Facebook, saying he needed to turn on the subtitles because the seventeenth-century New England English was too difficult for this California boy to understand. I exclaimed that seventeenth-century New England English was practically my second language and he replied I would probably really enjoy this film, for reasons other than the language. He was right. I appreciate how they incorporated so much of the folklore and the different reasons given for episodes like the witch hysteria in Salem, such as the children faking it for fun, or the mold on the rotten corn. (Rotten lamb stew is also used as a reason for Lizzie Borden's activities a couple hundred years later. So if you live in Massachusetts, make sure your food is always fresh and free of rot or you'll be held responsible for some horrible stuff.) There's also a creepy rabbit and a creepy goat, which makes me feel betrayed because I love rabbits and goats so much.

30 Day Movie Challenge Day 1: Your Favorite Movie

Because I don't have enough challenges in life I decided to take on a new one. (I'm kidding. I'm just not blogging or tweeting or Facebooking about every single challenge.) I've seen a number of friends on my Twitter feed doing a 30 Day Music Challenge lately, and I may do that one, too, but when someone suggested a movie challenge yesterday I realized it was much more my style. I'm not going to blog my movie selection every day but I will be tweeting it daily and maybe I'll follow-up with weekly posts or every few days.

Number 1 on the list easy. My favorite movie is The Philadelphia Story, starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and James Stewart. It's got fast-paced, witty dialogue. Comedy. Romance. Strong, independent women, some of them wearing pants. Reading. And drinking. So many things that make a perfect story for me.

I can't remember when I first this film it but for many years it's been my absolute favorite. I watched it last night, thinking of this list. I watch it every six months or so. I always want the ending to be different even though I know it's not going to be and it ultimately does have the right ending. This moment always has me on the edge of my seat in anticipation even though I know exactly what's going to happen:

This may seem like a spoiler but it's not. And really, the film came out in 1940 so the statute of limitations on spoiler alerts has pretty much run out.

If you're in the mood for what I consider to be one of the origins of romantic comedy in cinema, give this a chance.

Here's what's to come in the following days: