Tell me a story

I go to the movies a lot in a year, and majority of the time I leave the theater thinking I saw an okay film. Not great, not bad, but a pleasant way to have spent the last couple hours. I’ll usually think about the movie for a while afterwards, trying to replay it in my head from beginning to end, thinking about what I liked, what didn’t work for me, and maybe what I would have done differently if it were my movie. The film probably bounces around in my head for a couple hours before other thoughts crowd it out, and more times than not, I don’t go back to thinking about it.

But then there are the films that linger, the ones I continue to mentally replay days after I’ve seen it. Something about them has struck a resonant chord in me, and they won’t leave me. The longer they stay the more I want to see them a second time, so I can revisit and re-enjoy the parts I liked the most, so I can find new things to appreciate, so I can marvel at the collective skill, talent and will that created the work of art, and also so I can see if I really liked it as much as I thought. If they stand up on a second viewing, these are the films that usually become my favorites.

In 2010, the movies that I most wanted to give a second look were Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (saw it 4 times), Inception (saw it 3 times), 127 Hours (saw it 3 times), The Social Network (saw it 2 times), and Buried (still only 1 time). Scott Pilgrim joins the ranks of The Matrix and Shaun of the Dead in becoming instant favorites after only one viewing.

Below are the movies of 2011 that I most want to see a second time. They may not be the best movies of the year—in fact there a couple movies that I enjoyed more than the ones on this list—but they are the movies that struck me the most and the hardest after only seeing them once.

RANGO

Director: Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean 1-3, The Ring)
Screenplay: John Logan (Hugo, The Aviator, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street)

Rango may be one of my favorite cartoon movies, and surprise surprise, it wasn’t made by Pixar. Rango, an oddball of a chameleon, gets separated from his owners and finds adventure, mystery and romance in the dessert. His look, his voice (supplied by Johnny Depp), his delusional behavior are his charm. Depp does a perfect job voicing him. He makes Rango delicate, brash, funny, kooky, and oddly lovable.

What makes this movie stand out above other cartoon movies is that it didn’t feel like a kid’s movie. The story was pretty much a retelling of Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, but with rodents and lizards—a town is losing its water and Rango must figure out why. Sure the movie had the requisite amount of slapstick and bright colors for the kids to enjoy, but it’s also filled with sophisticated jokes and movie references that no kid will get. In my theater, more adults were laughing than children.

Why I want to see it again:
To catch all the jokes and references I may have missed.
To listen to Johnny Depp’s voice work.
For the opening scene which features Rango starring in a truly bizarre play in his own imagination.

THE SKIN I LIVE IN  (LA PIEL QUE HABITO)

Director: Pedro Almodóvar (Volver, Broken Embraces)
Screenwriter: Pedro Almodóvar
Based on the novel Mygale by Thierry Jonquet

Speaking of bizarre, The Skin I Live In is the strangest movie I’ve seen in some time—way more disturbing than The Human Centipede. Sadistic things happen in this film, but it’s not as clear cut as a psychopath who thinks linking humans ass-to-mouth is the cat’s meow. How can I even describe this movie without giving away the important shocks and twists? It stars Antonio Banderas, who plays successful plastic surgeon, Robert Ledgard. We learn early on that he keeps a woman trapped in a room in his house. Is she really trapped? She seems content there, but she tries to escape when she has the chance. Then again does she try hard enough? She clearly has a bond with Dr. Ledgard. Is it just a cast of Stockholm syndrome? Whatever it is is definitely a lot more than that. A lot darker than that. The movie is colorful, funny, dark, twisted, and completely engaging.

Why I want to see it again:
To watch it now that I know all the twists so I can see how all the pieces fit together from the beginning.
To be disgusted.
To get a better understanding about the characters and their motivations.
Because it’s a wild ride of a movie, and wild rides beg for more than one go round.

HANNA

Director: Joe Wright ( Atonement, Soloist, Pride and Prejudice)
Screenwriters: Seth Lochhead & David Farr

It’s a revenge story, but it’s a little different: A man, played by Eric Bana, has spent the last sixteen years of his life training his daughter—this is Hanna, played by Saoirse Ronan—to hunt down and kill the woman responsible for the death of his wife, Hanna’s mother. The fact that it’s a teenager out for revenge makes the story interesting. That the fight scenes look brutal and real makes it fun. That the movie has some of the most fascinating settings I’ve ever seen—from the strip club scene, to the abandoned Brothers Grimm theme park, to the cold woods, to the government facility—that makes it memorable. These are places that could easily exist, but here they have a surreal, out-of-this-world feel to them, and that feeling permeates the movie. It’s not a great movie. I thought there were a few too many cuts and close-ups during combat scenes for them to be fully enjoyable, and I didn’t find the quirky villains very threatening. Still, I enjoyed the movie.

Why I want to see it again:
Just to visit the strange and fascinating settings again.
To hear the surreal soundtrack by the Chemical Brothers. (Music plays an important role in this movie as Hanna has grown up without it. Music becomes her connection to the world outside of revenge, and it’s also how the viewer connects to the world of Hanna.)
For an impressive scene with Eric Bana that goes on for several minutes which features an awesome fight scene and no cuts (that I can remember).

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

Director and Screenwriter: Woody Allen (Like you don’t already know)

I thought this was a charming little movie with a fresh take on the old saying that the grass is always greener on the other side. Gil (played by Owen Wilson) is a writer (I love stories about writers) who has a strong affection for a previous age, a time when the writers he grew up reading actually lived—heavyweights like Hemingway and Fitzgerald. I loved that the central conceit of the film, i.e., what happens to Gil after midnight, wasn’t given away in the commercials and came as a surprise. Personally, I never understood people who wanted to live in a previous time. I read more sci-fi books than classics. I daydream about the future, not the past, but after seeing this movie I can get it. There’s definitely a romantic appeal about Paris and its artists in the 1920s. But I don’t think I would want to go back to that time… I would miss my iPhone too much.

Why I want to see it again:
To pick up on more of the jokes and humor I’m sure I missed.
To see Corey Stoll’s great performance as Hemingway.
To see one writer’s rendering of some of the most famous writers and artists in history.
To revisit the artistic world of Paris in the 1920s.

HESHER

Director: Spencer Susser (I Love Sarah Jane)
Screenwriter: Spencer Susser & David Michôd (I Love Sarah Jane, Animal Kingdom)

Young TJ (played by Devin Brochu), his father, and his grandmother have had a devastating loss in their lives and it’s splintered the three of them. They live in the same house but they’re barely a family. The father (played by Rainn Wilson) is a walking zombie. He takes pills to help him deal. The grandmother, who has what seems like the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, is only half-aware of what’s going on at all times. TJ is out of the house all the time, chasing the past, getting himself into trouble. Then he meets Hesher. What to say about Hesher? He has one name. He has tattoos. He curses like they were the first words he learned. He threatens people. He has no respect for rules. He’s the only hope the family has.

I became a Joseph Gordon-Levitt fan since The Lookout, and an even bigger fan after 500 Days of Summer, but I had the most fun watching him play Hesher. He pretty much disappears in the role. The story may ultimately be about TJ and his family, but Hesher is the one you watch.

Why I want to see it again:
Because Joseph Gordon Levitt’s performance was incredibly fun to watch.
Because I enjoyed the growth and connection him and TJ.

RUBBER

Director and Screenwriter: Quentin Dupieux

Hands down, one of the weirdest, most unique movies I’ve seen. It’s about a car tire that one day comes to life in the desert. It begins rolling around and discovering what existence is all about it. When it comes up to a plastic bottle in the sand, it approaches it cautiously, then rolls over it, seeming to enjoy the crunch it makes as it steps on the bottle. Then things get weirder because the tire has the ability to kill. How? Wait for it… wait for it…by making people and animals explode! It’s really awesome!

Why can it do this? I’ll let Lieutenant Chad (played by Stephen Spinella) explain it to you as he explains to the audience at the start of the film: “In the Steven Spielberg movie E.T., why is the alien brown? No reason. […] Worse, in The Pianist by Polanski, how come this guy has to hide and live like a bum when he plays the piano so well? Once again the answer is, no reason. […] You probably never gave it a thought, but all great films, without exception, contain an important element of no reason. And you know why? Because life itself is filled with no reason.” A film that reference other films? I like it.

“The film you are about to see today,” Lieutenant Chad goes on to explain, “is an homage to the ‘no reason’ – that most powerful element of style.” A film that knows it’s a film? I love it!

Why I want to see it again:
To watch a tire come to life and admire the technicality of such a feat.
To see if I better understand the message of the film the second time around.

TRAILERS