The Spy in the Sandwich

Tuesday, August 04, 2020

10:00 AM | The 30-Day Film Challenge in One Blog Post!

I decided to do this film challenge over on Twitter, starting on July 5, and now it's done thirty days later! So here is a month of personal film choices following a daily prompt, all in one go. I also took note not to repeat titles from my recently-concluded film challenge.

Day 1 / The First Film You Remember Watching: The Swarm [Irwin Allen, 1978]. I was four years old, and I saw this in a movie theater in Bayawan that no longe exists. In retrospect, this is not a good movie, but it provided my first brush with cinematic thrill -- which I crave for until now.

Day 2 / A Film You Like That Starts with the First Letter of Your Name: In the Realm of the Senses [Nagisa Ōshima, 1976]. Might as well choose a title that goes for our baser instincts.

Day 3 / A Film You Like That Has More Than Five Words in the Title: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown [Pedro Almodóvar, 1988]. My introduction to the crazy world of Pedro Almodovar, and I have been spellbound ever since.

Day 4 / A Film You Like with a Number in the Title: 3 Women [Robert Altman, 1977]. I love almost all of Altman's films -- but this one, a mysterious dreamlike tale, sealed the deal for me.

Day 5 / A Film You Like Where a Character Has a Job You Want: Almost Famous [Cameron Crowe, 2000]. A journalist for a famous magazine, a career that's basically a fantasy now.

Day 6 / Your Favorite Animated Film: The Little Mermaid [Ron Clements and John Musker, 1989]. Well, not exactly my favorite animation, but it's right there in my Top 5. It reawakened my love for Disney, and when I first saw it I was astonished by its innovations.

Day 7 / A Film You Will Never Get Tired Of: (500) Days Of Summer [Marc Webb, 2009]. A film whose quirks and love lessons easily make it a modern classic of romantic comedy. This will be the millennial When Harry Met Sally...

Day 8 / A Film Where You Liked the Soundtrack More: Paris, Texas [Wim Wenders, 1984]. Ry Cooder's music is haunting. I'm still on the fence regarding the film itself.

Day 9 / A Film You Hate That Everyone Else Liked: District 9 [Neill Blomkamp, 2009]. I hate hate HATE every single one of Blomkamp's movies. Walked out of a screening of Chappie.

Day 10 / Your Favorite Superhero Film: Unbreakable [M. Night Shyamalan, 2000]. I loved how it delves into comics lore, but does something different with it. But let's not talk about that misbegotten sequel.

Day 11 / A Film You Like From Your Least Favorite Genre: Apocalypse Now [Francis Ford Coppola, 1979]. I don't like war movies, or action movies in general, but I like this one.

Day 12 / A Film You Hate From Your Favorite Genre: Geostorm [Dean Devlin, 2017]. I loooove disaster films, and I had high expectations from the makers of Independence Day and 2012. But my vitriol for this one knows no bottom.

Day 13 / A Film That Puts You in Deep Thought: The Man from Earth [Richard Schenkman, 2007]. One of the best "what-if" movies I've seen, and it's just one long, provocative conversation among friends...

Day 14 / A Film That Gave You Depression: Loveless [Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2017]. Bleak, bleak, bleak.

Day 15 / A Film That Makes You Feel Happy: Everyone Says I Love You [Woody Allen, 1996]. A lighthearted musical set in New York and Venice and Paris. What's not to like? Saw this in Tokyo in autumn in 1997, which will always be a happy memory.

Day 16 / A Film That is Personal to You: Call Me By Your Name [Luca Guadagnino, 2017]. Read the book years before the film, and it spoke to me in a deep way. Happy that the film turned out the way it did.

Day 17 / Your Favorite Film Sequel: Addams Family Values [Barry Sonnenfeld, 1993]. A sequel that's even better than its original, powered by the no-holds-barred performance by Joan Cusack as a husband-killing social climber.

Day 18 / A Film You Like That Stars Your Favorite Actor: Postcards From the Edge [Mike Nichols, 1990]. I'm there for every Meryl Streep movie. And this drama showcases everything, even her singing voice.

Day 19 / A Film You Like Made By Your Favorite Director: E.T. the ExtraTerrestrial [Steven Spielberg, 1982]. Spielberg is the compleat filmmaker, someone who makes critically acclaimed films that are also commercial behemoths. I like how he balances the two, and this film is a distillation of that balance.

Day 20 / A Film That Changed Your Life: Brokeback Mountain [Ang Lee, 2005]. This film devastated me. This scene near the end wrecked me. But it also allowed me to be braver in the telling of my queer stories.

Day 21 / A Film That You Dozed Off In: xXx [Rob Cohen, 2002]. But I'm generally bored by generic car chases and action scenes.

Day 22 / A Film That Made You Angry: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room [Alex Gibney, 2005]. I seethed watching this documentary. Down with capitalism!

Day 23 / A Film You Like Made By a Favorite Director Who's Dead: Working Girl [Mike Nichols, 1988]. Nichols died too soon. He made films that spoke to me in many ways, and this film is one of his most enjoyable.

Day 24 / A Film You Wish You Saw in the Theater: Lawrence of Arabia [David Lean, 1962]. The small screens of our televisions and our laptops cannot do justice to the immersive scale of its cinematographic grandeur.

Day 25 / A Film You Like That is Not Set in the Current Era: Pride and Prejudice [Joe Wright, 2005]. Set in the Georgian period, and photographs the time in such earthy sensuality. Probably my favorite adaptation of my favorite Jane Austen novel.

Day 26 / A Film You Like That is Adapted From Another Medium: Yellow Submarine [George Dunning, 1968]. A movie based on a Beatles song! It's trip.

Day 27 / A Film You Like That is Visually Striking to You: The Cell [Tarsem Singh, 2000]. An uncanny visual feast from a director known for his visual idiosyncrasy. The film is gory, but beautiful.

Day 28 / A Film That Made You Feel Uncomfortable: Hostel [Eli Roth, 2005]. This film made me realize torture porn is not horror, just a glorification of sadism and psychopathy. I've since refused to watch films of this subgenre.

Day 29 / A Film That Makes You Want to Fall in Love: Sleepless in Seattle [Nora Ephron, 1993]. I love how the physical separation makes the movie. The lovers never meet until the end but the fact that we root for them is testament to the power of its storytelling.