movies

1. Total number of films I own on DVD: 28 (plus all 7 seasons of Buffy!).

2. Last film I bought: Greg Pak's Robot Stories. I haven't actually finished watching this one. Is a bit sentimental for my tastes.

3. Last film I watched: Probably The Incredibles at Rob's sister's place. Early that day, I also watched Willard, which was awesome.

4. Five films I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me:

• The Hole
  One of Tsai Ming-liang's films with lots of water. There's a strange epidemic in the city. Two neighbors stay in the apartment building despite an evacuation and quarantine of the area. Sparse dialogue. Scenes intercut with fantasy musical sequences. This is my sense of not-quite-dystopic urban life and how people do and do not connect. Not really a movie I watch a lot, though.


• Spider-Man 2
  Best comic book movie ever. Seriously. Anyone who says otherwise just is jealous that they couldn't make a movie this good. That part with the runaway train? And Tobey's crucifixion? Classic.


• The Hulk
  Also excellent comic book movie but in different way. Great visuals that re-create the comic book page on screen. Also, how can you not love the Ang Lee inflected Oedipal struggle overlayed on the creation myth of the Hulk? And the combination of radiation, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology (microbots!)????


• The Adventures of Felix and Happy Together
  Ok, so this is two movies. The first is this awesome French picaresque with this guy (gay, with AIDS) who hitchhikes south to find his father. Though it relies a bit much on this idea of creating one's own family (as a gay man), it is wonderful in its depiction of friendships and fleeting encounters that have meaning but aren't imbued with the necessity of longevity or continuity. The second is the perfect example of an obsessive relationship in which happiness exists only in moments of sickness and total dependence.


• X2
  The second installment of the X-Men movies. It's okay. I see bits of it frequently (a few times a week) because it is in heavy rotation as one of Rob's sleeping movies.*

5. Tag 5 people and have them put this in their journal:

• shyaku
• legalmoose
• poetofthefuture
• robslug
• peebles

* Movies Rob puts on in the bedroom when he is going to sleep. Others include the Lord of the Rings trilogy. They are movies he likes and has seen many times so that they can lull him to sleep.