Absolute Wannabe

Today is a milestone for this blog. Not only is it the 25th post in The Film List Project and the 60th post on this site, but it's also my first post about a documentary. It's not uncommon to hear people say that documentaries are boring. That's fair. There are some documentaries that are really, really dull. However, people who think that documentary films are synonymous with boring have really seen the wrong docs. To me, documentaries are one of the coolest forms storytelling. They allow you to see into someone's actual life on a really intimate level. Documentary subjects are doing inspiring, extraordinary things just like people in narrative films, but you get to experience these very real events with them. Docs have a unique vulnerability and intimacy to their storytelling that you can't find anywhere else. Because I watched The Punk Singer , I feel like I understand Kathleen Hanna's career and impact. Watching The Last Waltz  gave me a unique perspec...

Seeing a movie you really connect with is pretty rare, but when it happens, it's incredibly special. It's a story you can hold on to forever, something that will always stay the same no matter how much your life has changed. That's how I feel about the movie I watched this week: 1971's Harold and Maude . I see a lot of movies I can say I loved, that I can say are good, that I can say I got something out of, but this movie is in a league of its own. The movie explores life, death, relationships, and adolescence in both a respectful and unique way. A lot of its success comes from its titular characters. Harold is a young man obsessed with death, while Maude is an old woman who sees the beauty of life. When the two become friends, beautiful things start to happen that nobody around them can fully understand. When I grow up, I want to be Maude. We have a lot in common already: we drive poorly, collect things, love nature, and see beauty in the world through its diff...

Hello, and welcome back to The Film List Project, my poorly named series in which I discuss great films that I watch. It's supposed to be weekly, but life happens occasionally. This is one of those weeks when I've gone in blind. In other words, I go down my list and find the first thing available online. This week, it was the 1949 film Caught. For those of you who haven't seen the movie (and I'm betting you haven't), it's about a woman who achieves her childhood dream by marrying a rich man, only to find out he's less than perfect. His abusive and manipulative behavior forces her to leave, only to be pursued by him until he lures her back. Basically, it's the story of a woman struggling to make her own decisions in a world where certain decisions have already been made for her. Even though it wasn't a commercial success, this film is a success in my heart. Here's why: it takes the idea of a woman looking to marry up and flips it on its...