1. THE EXORCIST

Being a sincere, born-again Christian who cites a graphic portrayal of demonic possession as my favorite movie ever, I should expect some puzzled second glances and more than a few questions. The film’s subject matter definitely isn’t for everyone (I actually discourage people who are particularly sensitive to its such things from seeing it), but it is also often highly misjudged based on its reputation as “the scariest movie of all time” and the viewing of a few popular scene clips. At its core, The Exorcist is an examination of how we cope with evil in the world around us, particularly when that evil attacks the innocent among us. For those who don’t already know, the story revolves around a young girl and her actress mother whose imperfect but comfortable little world nearly comes undone when the girl begins to exhibit evidence of demonic possession. The mother’s only hope for her daughter lies in a young priest whose faith is wavering and an elder priest who health is failing. My affections for it almost entirely lay in the film’s quieter moments, but I also admire that the film presents the devil as horrific and malevolent rather than cool or charming. Its script is a powerful exploration of the persistent struggle we each have not only to overcome evil in the world around us, but to try to understand it and this theme is a constant source of fascination for me (the moment when the elder priest provides his theory for why this is all happening is profound). Despite its occasional theological awkwardness, The Exorcist presents us with the message that the only way to ultimately overcome evil is to lay down your life and even though this message might be obscured for some by the film’s more extreme moments, it’s a message that resonated with me so strongly that it placed this movie as my favorite. My favorite moment in the movie (one that I think best captures the movie’s heart) comes after the younger priest has lost a psychological battle with the demon and is forced to retreat from the conflict. As the young priest sits sulking in self-pity and confusion, the girl’s mother steps in and quietly asks, “Is my little girl going to die?” In that moment, the young priest casts aside his self-absorption and with a confidence he never had before, declares “No.” before rising back up the stairs to fight again for the soul of the little girl, and his own.  There is genuine ugliness and horror in The Exorcist, but there are also moments of striking beauty and grace and perhaps such is true of life itself as well.

In this minisode, Josh and Tyler discuss Josh’s eighth favorite film of all time, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather.

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As an adult, if I see a movie more than once in the span of a year, it’s is an indicator that I really enjoy it. Maybe I’ll buy it on DVD or Blu Ray somewhere down the road when the price suits me and watch it again, but twice is usually my limit. There’s so much more to be seen that I haven’t yet discovered, why would I waste hours watching the same things over and over again? J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek is a movie I find myself revisiting several times a year.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

For a movie to enthrall me in such a way that I watch it on such a regular basis is unheard of. The last time any film captured my imagination and entertained me was prior to my teenage years, when I would wear out VHS copies of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, and the Star Wars Trilogy. What is it that sets Star Trek apart from nearly every other film that I’m introduced to? Maybe it’s the action and adventure, or the iconic characters and the journey they experience with the help of Michael Giacchino’s emotional and spellbinding score. Perhaps it’s the humor, created and balanced so well between dialogue of talented actors and quirky moments created through direction/editing. None of these elements, by themselves, can be picked out and pointed to as the answer. What makes Star Trek work for me in the wonderful way that it does is that it’s a perfect cocktail created by all of them.

This is what makes film and television stand apart from all other forms of art, because they are the result of so many other art forms coming together. Not all of those pieces always come together harmoniously for me, but when they do, this is the result. What Abrams’s and the entire crew of the first film excelled at was the creation of a story that captivated me visually, aurally, kinetically, and emotionally. The only word I can use to appropriately describe the experience is cinematic.

Star Trek isn’t a perfect movie. Like all art, it’s subjective to the viewer. Star Trek, however, is my perfect movie. It combines all of the aforementioned elements, while also being an inherently geeky genre film, which has been, and shall always be, a cinematic category that I’m unapologetically drawn to. It defines so many things that I point to when describing my love for cinema.

With all that being said, Star Trek Into Darkness was my most anticipated movie of 2013. When Abrams was announced as the director for the next Star Wars film, my hopes for it were lifted yet higher. With such high expectations, I should have been destined to be disappointed. Into Darkness is a gripping and spectacular adventure. It’s conjures up everything its predecessor had, while also being much more emotionally poignant, an element Abrams’ has been very vocal about adding to the franchise.

The most controversial and dividing element of the film is its antagonist, played brilliantly by Benedict Cumberbatch. There’s been a mystery behind his character, whose identity I’m going to have to address in the next paragraph (as well as a crucial scene in the third act), so spoilers abound.

Halfway through the film, Cumberbatch reveals himself to be Khan. After this revelation, the film’s latter half then incorporates a few moments that mirror those seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. What many people find to be a point of contention is that this movie takes place within a new timeline, which should mean endless new possibilities. Instead, what they got was a villain and a series of events, which appear to be recycled from the most iconic Trek film.

Many perceive this to be lazy writing on the part of Orci, Kurtzman, and Lindelof. I refuse to believe they integrated everything they did without reason. The encounter Kirk (Chris Pine) has with Khan, and the consequences of it are more than trying to appease original Trek fans. Given many of the themes found in Lost, which was run by Lindelof, I like to look at interaction and consequences Kirk has with Khan is something he was always destined for. No matter what had happened to disrupt Kirk’s life and upbringing, Abrams’s first film told us that he was always destined to be captain of the Enterprise with the same crew of friends (a point addressed by Leonard Nimoy’s original Spock in the film). Kirk was always fated to meet Khan, and that encounter would always make him question his decisions and shape him.

In Wrath of Khan, Kirk (William Shatner) learns the cost of his decisions through the loss of his friend, Spock. Into Darkness let Kirk learn a similar lesson about his arrogance and disregard for consequences, while giving him the opportunity to take responsibility for them. In Abrams’s first film, Kirk’s father sacrificed himself for the sake of his crew. That bit of altered history is incorporated within Into Darkness, and lent itself to Kirk’s decision to give up his own life for the sake of his own crew. Nimoy’s Spock in Wrath of Khan was prepared and ready to sacrifice himself while experiencing the full range of emotions accompanied by it. Quinto’s Spock had not been given the opportunity to emotionally develop as Nimoy’s had after 3 seasons of a television series, so the moment is as much a learning experience for Spock in this film as it was for Shatner’s Kirk in the other.

Are there moments of fan appreciation at work here? Of course, but there’s also so much more that can be dissected that goes beyond that. Giacchino’s score, as always, nearly brought me to tears. The lens flares are all there, as is Abrams’s wonderful ability to create humor or intimate emotional beats onto the screen that weren’t on the page. Nitpicks in logic are par for the course in every major film that’s released in this age. Star Trek is full of plot and logic holes, but what matters to me is a film’s ability to take me on an emotional ride that is so spellbinding that I don’t notice them until much later. I can fault the writing for not tying things up perfectly, but I’d rather appreciate the fact that J.J. Abrams is out there making me feel like a 10-year-old again.

2. PSYCHO

Alfred Hitchcock is my favorite director of all time and Psycho is unquestionably one of his greatest thrillers. It has been analyzed and discussed ad nauseum and there’s so much that I love about this film that it’s hard to narrow down precisely what I love most. Within the context of a riveting suspense tale, the film explores how guilt and desire can make us “all go a little mad sometimes.” That observation, in all its haunting simplicity, is what makes such an outlandish story as Psycho so frighteningly human. We may never go as far as the characters in this film go (outright theft and cold-blooded murder, for instance). But what the film doesn’t come right out and tell you is implied pretty strongly: The only hindrances to the unleashing of your criminal impulses are often motivation and opportunity. This theme of the good and evil that lies within all of us has always fascinated me and Psycho certainly has some rich depth of creative exploration from that arena. But what I love the most is that it’s simply a gripping story, well-told by an unparalleled master of the suspense genre.

3. UNFORGIVEN

Eastwood helped to redefine the Western for American audiences and he cited Unforgiven as summing up everything he felt about the genre. The film is about big ideas in a very small world. Amidst simple confrontations of violence and revenge are examinations of identity, politics, violence, and (most notably) the deconstruction of legends and myths. When I first saw this movie, I didn’t care very much for it because it consistently gave me what I didn’t expect. However, as multiple discussions and repeated viewings occurred, I became enthralled by what the film had to say about what happens when we play games with the darker shades of our humanity. Characters move arrogantly through the story until finally one of them (like a flesh and blood angel of death) literally cleans house in one of the most compelling climactic shootouts in film history. In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the point is made that “When legend becomes fact, print the legend.” In Unforgiven, you could almost imagine someone saying, “When legends become fact, you’d better arm yourself.” It’s a staggering character study about the nature and power of modern myths (particularly the myths of the old west) and the more I see it, the more compelling I find it to be.

4. IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE

I’ve written and spoken at length about this film before on this website (see an earlier blog and podcast episode), so I won’t retread all of the same ground here. I adore this film primarily because of its overt life-affirming message. I’ve heard recently that the film supports conformism and status-quo compliance, but I respectfully disagree. The heart of the film’s message is that every individual matters and that when people believe that they don’t matter, they need only see beyond the lens of their own perceptions to recognize their value. Certainly some people lead lives of unbearable hardship, but the film isn’t trying to say that everyone should just shut up and be grateful. It’s saying that there are truths beyond the realm of our own experiences concerning our value in this world, and the verdicts we so freely declare over ourselves and others are often flawed simply because we don’t have all the information. I think of this film often when I begin to feel that I’m a victim and that life simply hasn’t been fair to me. It’s a wonderful reminder to know that perhaps the disappointments I’ve known can’t compare to the blessings I’ve been given.

In this episode, Tyler and Josh discuss Tyler’s eighth favorite film of all time, F.W. Murnau’s The Last Laugh.

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5. THE IRON GIANT

I have always loved animated movies and many of them would rank among a larger list of my all-time favorite movies. But of all of the ones I’ve seen throughout the years, this little gem from 1999 holds a unique place in my heart. It’s criminally under-known, although everyone I know who has seen it expresses great praise for it. The story feels like one of the Ray Bradbury or Steven Speilberg fables about childhood in idyllic America and coming-of-age via elements of fantasy (i.e. ET or Something Wicked This Way Comes). Yet, the deeper well in The Iron Giant is what it has to say about identity. Many stories have dealt with the tension between how others perceive you and how you really are, but Iron Giant deals more directly with a more challenging theme: what if the purpose in your nature directly contradicts the purpose which you have chosen? Admittedly, the film’s last third can feel a bit heavy-handed, but the substance of that question (Are we who we choose to be rather than who our nature tells us we are?) is beautifully treated in this movie. When the metal machine of the film’s title finally answers that question directly, I dare you not to choke up. It’s a warm, touching, funny, and constantly engaging story that inspires me exponentially more the more times I view it. When I first saw it, it instantly entered my top 25. Less than ten years later, I gladly place it here.

He is very close to his goal.  Please take the time to check out the Indiegogo page for the film and help out.