30 Day Film Challenge: Day 30

Day 30: Your Favorite Film This Time Last Year

Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2010)

I'm not the type of person who changes their favorite film often--hell, mine has been Gone With the Wind for the past seven years--so I chose my favorite film of last year instead. Fish Tank will turn you on in the moment (Fassboner!) and make you think afterward. A rare combination, indeed.

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 29

Day 29: Your Favorite Film as a Kid

Aladdin (Ron Clements and John Musker, 1992)

It has always surprised me that, given the gay boy I became, my favorite Disney film when I was a kid was the one straight boys loved as well. Who'd have guessed it?

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 28

Day 28: The Most Obscure Film You've Ever Seen

Decasia (Bill Morrison, 2002)

Much like yesterday's, this question is a bit silly in the scheme of things. It's either an invitation for some pretentious snob to go on and on about some film you've never heard of or really dumb movie fans to discuss that one time they saw some obscure film called Citizen Kane. I saw Decasia, a 67 minute long avant garde film full of clips from films on decaying film stock, in my freshman year cinema course during experimental week. It's an interesting idea but at 67 minutes it is far too long and dry.

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 27

Day 27: Your Favorite Independent Film

Masculin féminin (Jean-Luc Godard, 1966)

This seems like such an arbitrary distinction, particularly for someone like me who watches a lot of movies. With that being said, I have to go with Masculin féminin, my favorite Godard film. I know that calling a Godard film "adorable" and "cuddly" seems like an incredibly wild stretch, but with Jean-Pierre Léaud in the lead role, how could it be anything else?

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 26

Day 26: Your Favorite Foreign Language Film

Stolen Kisses (François Truffaut, 1968)

This follow-up to Truffaut's The 400 Blows is never as highly regarded as that classic. It's a shame because Stolen Kisses is the rare sequel that isn't merely basking in the memory of the first film. Stolen Kisses is its own film, as light and adorable as The 400 Blows was dark and melancholic.

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 25

Day 25: Your Favorite Documentary Film

Bowling for Columbine (Michael Moore, 2002)

My favorite film of the last decade. The moment Michael Moore became my hero and any iota of political mindedness I possess was born.

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 24

Day 24: Your Favorite Animated or Children's Film

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (Trey Parker and Matt Stone, 1999)

Definitely not for children, this animated film is not only one of the funniest films I've ever seen, but it's also one of the smartest and shrewdest attacks on American hypocrisy when it comes to censorship and parental control.

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 23

Day 23: Your Favorite Thriller/Mystery Film

The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991)

There was a reason why I was obsessed with Psycho Movie Killers in high school and why, every day, I made that obnoxious sucking noise with my lips that my man Hannibal Lecter does in the beginning of this film. To this day, whenever I see this film is starting on TV, I have to stop everything and watch up until Hannibal and Clarice's first encounter.

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 22

Day 22: Your Favorite Horror Film

Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)

It's not the scariest film I've ever seen, but it is among the most well-made films of the genre. Plus, it features Anthony Perkins playing against type, freaking the fuck out of the audience with every stammer and twitch. And there's a reason the shower scene has become as infamous as it is. (Side note: the shrieking violins from this scene is the ring tone for when my parents call me).

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 21

Day 21: Your Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film

Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)

This one's a bit of a sci-fi/horror hybrid, but I can't really think of any other sci-fi movies I truly love and Alien is enough of a sci-fi film to count. I have nothing much else to say other than see this film because not only will you shit yourself in fright but you will be fascinated by the exploration of the unknown.

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 20

Day 20: Your Favorite Romantic Film

Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967)

Not a romance film in the traditional sense, Bonnie and Clyde goes beyond typical romance film merely by depicting a couple that will literally do anything for each other--whether it is robbing a bank or murdering someone while getting away. And it's also one of the sexiest movies ever made, which is saying something since the lovemaking scenes are interrupted by Clyde's impotence.

30 Day Film Challenge: Days 14-19

Oops, I'm a bit behind on this. Let's play catch up, shall we?

Day 14: The Film That No One Expected You to Like

Star Trek (J.J. Abrams, 2009)

To be quite honest, I never expected to like this one either. But I guess low expectations really helped because I had quite a fun time watching this. Star Trek is one of the few recent action blockbusters that doesn't take itself seriously and has a bit of fun amid all the mindless explosions.

Day 15: The Film That Depicts Your Life

Waiting for Guffman (Christopher Guest, 1996)

This isn't my life, necessarily, but I feel like it's one of the few films that truly captures what it's like living in small Midwest town.

Day 16: A Film You Used to Love, But Now Hate

Our Modern Maidens (Jack Conway, 1929)

Usually it happens the other way around, where I hate a movie but love it the second time I see it. I had a hard time coming up with one for this as most of the shitty movies I loved as a child still hold a special place in my heart. I finally decided on Our Modern Maidens, a silly Joan Crawford silent melodrama that I saw very early on in my cinephilia. I loved it the first time but after a second viewing a couple years later, I couldn't see what I had originally found so special about it. I don't exactly hate it, but it's not exactly the classic I thought it was back then.

Day 17: Your Favorite Drama Film

Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)

Norma Desmond is big and so is this movie, possibly the greatest movie about the movies ever made. It's hardbiting wit is still surprisingly strong sixty years later.

Day 18: Your Favorite Comedy Film

Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938)

The fastest paced, zaniest comedy I've ever seen, Bringing Up Baby gave new meaning to the term "screwball comedy." Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn were never better, riffing on untapped portions of their star personas.

Day 19: Your Favorite Action Film

Speed (Jan de Bont, 1994)

If only all action films were like Speed: a well plotted thriller that takes a simple premise and extracts as much tension and suspense out of it as possible. Bonus points: Sandy Bullock in her star making vehicle (ha).

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 13

Day 13: A Guilty Pleasure

Saratoga Trunk (Sam Wood, 1945)

I don't believe in guilty pleasures. There's no way I feel guilty for loving Spice World or Monster in Law. But I suppose the closest thing I can think of that qualifies as a "guilty pleasure" is Saratoga Trunk. I've written about this odd film involving a gold digging Ingrid Bergman and Gary Cooper as her confidante/potential boy toy before. While I don't exactly feel guilty about loving this trainwreck of a movie, I do think it's a bad movie, just so incredibly nutsy its badness becomes fascinating to watch.

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 12

Day 12: A Film by Your Least Favorite Director

Brideshead Revisited (Julian Jarrold, 2008)

I'm sure there are "worse" directors out there, but Julian Jarrold immediately comes to mind if only for the fact that over the course of two movies, he managed to dull the talent and charisma of Emma Thompson, Matthew Goode, Ben Whishaw, James McAvoy AND Anne Hathaway in two separate movies. He redeemed himself slightly with Andy Garfield's sexhair in Red Riding: 1974, but it's still not enough to overcome the horrors of these two atrocities of celluloid.

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 11

Day 11: A Film by Your Favorite Director

The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935)

This isn't my favorite Hitchcock film; it probably wouldn't even make my Top 5. That, however, has more to do with the fact that The Master has so many incredible masterpieces in his filmography than because The 39 Steps is a "lesser" Hitchcock. Like many of his films, this took me a couple of viewings to fully "get," but I absolutely adore this sleek, sexy spy adventure.

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 10

Day 10: A Film With Your Favorite Actor (Female)

All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950)

The biggest bitch Hollywood has ever seen playing the ultimate bitch. They don't make 'em like Bette Davis anymore.

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 09

Day 09: A Film With Your Favorite Actor (Male)

The Mother and the Whore (Jean Eustache, 1973)

French New Wave icon Jean-Pierre Léaud has been my favorite actor for a couple years now and this is his greatest work. The film is sadly unavailable (legally) but it is well worth seeking out (illegally). The Mother and the Whore reveals a newfound depth from an actor we thought we all knew.

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 08

Day 08: The Film You Can Quote Best

Spice World (Bob Spiers, 1997)

I know a lot of gays would pick Mean Girls, and I'm pretty handy with a Mean Girls quote, but there is no question in my mind--or those of the poor souls who have sat through this movie with me--that I can quote massive chunks of Spice World at the drop of the hat. I'm literally speaking along with the Girls, half of the time not even realizing I'm doing it. I'm sure it's pure torture to anyone who has watched it with me, but I can't help these things. I was a gay child and knowing all the words to Spice World comes with the territory.

Because I'm feeling generous today, here's a special bonus clip from the should-have-been Oscar contender Victoria Beckham in this movie:

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 07

Day 07: A Film That Reminds You of Your Past

Clueless (Amy Heckerling, 1995)

You guys have no idea how obsessed I was with this movie in elementary school. If you think my High School Musical addiction is bad, you should have seen me in 4th grade, endlessly saying "As if!" and "Whatever!" to anyone and everyone who could tolerate me at this point. I swear this movie turned me into a consumer whore for a very brief period of time. For my birthday after watching this movie, I wanted a cell phone (I needed one for high school so I could talk on it all through class!), a camera and loads of other electronic crap no nine year old could ever have a possible use for. The icing on the cake is one year for my birthday, I wanted a Cher Horowitz doll...and I got it! My poor father. I still wonder what he was thinking when he had to buy that for his namesake.

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 06

Day 06: A Film That Reminds You of Somewhere

Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, 2000)

My first weekend away at college I watched this film late at night with a couple of new friends, one of whom is still one of my closest friends on the planet. I had already seen it before, but I still remember grimacing throughout the finale and being thoroughly depressed afterwards. Fun times in the dorms!