Movies don’t have to be amazing to have an impact. These are films that I still think about or led me to explore new ideas. Some are great, some are trashy, and some just hit me at the right time.
Foreign
- Irreversible
- Rashomon
- Belle du Jour
- Red
- White (Three Colors Trilogy)
- Blue
- Dancer in the Dark
- The Taste Of Others
- Earth
- Water
- Fire
- The Decalogue
- The Red Balloon
- Anatomy of Hell
- Fat Girl (The Criterion Collection)
- Dreams by Kurosawa
- Dancer in the Dark
- Ran
- The Passion of Joan of Arc
- Woman in the Dunes
- The Saddest Music in the World
- La Chatte à Deux Têtes (Porn Theater)
- C’etait un Rendezvous
- Pardes
C’était un rendez-vous – 1976 from LeCatalog on Vimeo.
Comedy
- Sordid Lives
- Cloudburst
- Repo Man
- Police Academy
- Pink Flamingos
- Female Trouble
- Rubin and Ed
- The General
- Airplane
- Reform School Girls
- Hedwig and the Angry Inch
- Fast times at ridgemont high
- Shakes the Clown
- Midgets vs. Mascots (Unrated)
- Porky’s
- Death Race 2000
- Smokey and the Bandit
Horror
- Blair Witch Project
- Giant Spider Invasion
– This was the first movie to give me nightmares. I discovered I could avoid nightmares by imagining monsters playing baseball and never worried about scary movies again. - Return of the Living Dead
- Evil Dead 2
- Little Otik
- Human Centipede
- Hostel
- Martyrs
- Audition
- The Blob
- Halloween
- Friday the 13th pt. 2 – I thought the series really took off when Jason returned as an adult.
- Hellraiser
- Blood Diner – This is the best vegan, zombie Shetar film ever made. If John Waters made a horror film, it might look like Blood Diner. This scene is just the tip of the iceberg.
- Requiem for a Dream
- The Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror
- The Shining
- The Hitcher While the remake wasn’t bad, you’ve got to go with the original.
- The Birds This was another film that I watched at too young of an age.
- The Exorcist I watched this at least a dozen times on TV before reading the book and watching the un-edited version. Hoo boy, skip the TV version and go for the real one. I was more than a bit surprised with what a crucifix can do.
Drama
- Bless the Beasts and Children – This film had a huge impact on me as a child and is probably a major reason I have no respect for people that hunt.
- Watership Down – Mom didn’t know what this movie was about when we saw it at the Navy base theater. We thought it would be yet another war film. This blew me away and became my favorite book to read in school. Forget Harry Potter, give me a socio-political novel based on rabbits.
- River’s Edge – Crispin Glover’s masterpiece
- The Outsiders – Stay golden pony boy
- What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, not to be mistaken for Baby Jane?
- Freaks
- Deliverance
- Do the Right Thing
- Fight Club
- The Diving Bell and The Butterfly
- The Warriors – Come out and play!
- Thelma and Louise
- Brazil
- Suburbia
- Harold and Maude
- Beneath the Valley of the Ultra Vixens
- Cherry, Harry, and Raquel
- Trainspotting
- The Pillow Book
- Can’t Stop the Music – My obsession with the Village People should’ve been an early sign…
- But I’m a Cheerleader
- Dazed and Confused
- Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer
- Dudes
Documentary
- The Gleaners and I
Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse from WDROTV on Vimeo.
- Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead – Great introduction to to juicing, although it led to an unfortunate meeting with beet green juice.
- A Band Called Death
- The Devil and Daniel Johnston
- The Botany of Desire – Did man cultivate these plants? Or did they manipulate man?
- Rivers and Tides – the art of Andy Goldsworthy
- Trouble the Water – Experience Katrina from the eye of the storm and surviving the flood by a New Orleans resident with a video camera. This is probably the best document of the disaster.
- It’s Gonna Blow – I spent many nights at the Casbah photographing and growing up with these bands, yet I still learned a lot from this documentary about San Diego’s music scene.
- Born into Brothels – Explore the difficult life of prostitutes in Calcutta
- Urgh! A Music War– Early punk and new wave documentary that introduced me to Klaos Naomi and others.
Other
- Blue – Derek Jarman’s film discusses his struggle with AIDS and loss of vision. The film is entirely blue with the sound of monlogues and conversations.
- Pink Narcissus
- Powell-Peralta Animal Chin DVD (1987)
- The Muppet Movie – I have no idea why this struck a chord with me, but I watched it repeatedly.
- Lovedolls Superstar: Fully Realized
