Tag: John Waters

100 Impressionable Films

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

  1. Irreversible
  2. Rashomon
  3. Belle du Jour
  4. Red
  5. White (Three Colors Trilogy)
  6. Blue
  7. Dancer in the Dark
  8. The Taste Of Others
  9. Earth
  10. Water
  11. Fire
  12. The Decalogue
  13. The Red Balloon
  14. Anatomy of Hell
  15. Fat Girl (The Criterion Collection)
  16. Dreams by Kurosawa
  17. Dancer in the Dark
  18. Ran
  19. The Passion of Joan of Arc
  20. Woman in the Dunes
  21. The Saddest Music in the World
  22. La Chatte à Deux Têtes (Porn Theater)
  23. C’etait un Rendezvous
  24. Pardes

C’était un rendez-vous – 1976 from LeCatalog on Vimeo.

Comedy

  1. Sordid Lives
  2. Cloudburst
  3. Repo Man
  4. Police Academy
  5. Pink Flamingos
  6. Female Trouble
  7. Rubin and Ed
  8. The General
  9. Airplane
  10. Reform School Girls
  11. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
  12. Fast times at ridgemont high
  13. Shakes the Clown
  14. Midgets vs. Mascots (Unrated)
  15. Porky’s
  16. Death Race 2000
  17. Smokey and the Bandit

Horror

  1. Blair Witch Project
  2. 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.
  3. Return of the Living Dead
  4. Evil Dead 2
  5. Little Otik
  6. Human Centipede
  7. Hostel
  8. Martyrs
  9. Audition
  10. The Blob
  11. Halloween
  12. Friday the 13th pt. 2 – I thought the series really took off when Jason returned as an adult.
  13. Hellraiser
  14. 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.
  15. Requiem for a Dream
  16. The Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror
  17. The Shining
  18. The Hitcher While the remake wasn’t bad, you’ve got to go with the original.
  19. The Birds This was another film that I watched at too young of an age.
  20. 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

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. River’s Edge – Crispin Glover’s masterpiece
  4. The Outsiders – Stay golden pony boy
  5. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, not to be mistaken for Baby Jane?
  6. Freaks
  7. Deliverance
  8. Do the Right Thing
  9. Fight Club
  10. The Diving Bell and The Butterfly
  11. The Warriors – Come out and play!
  12. Thelma and Louise
  13. Brazil
  14. Suburbia
  15. Harold and Maude
  16. Beneath the Valley of the Ultra Vixens
  17. Cherry, Harry, and Raquel
  18. Trainspotting
  19. The Pillow Book
  20. Can’t Stop the Music – My obsession with the Village People should’ve been an early sign…
  21. But I’m a Cheerleader
  22. Dazed and Confused
  23. Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer
  24. Dudes

Documentary

  1. The Gleaners and I

    Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse from WDROTV on Vimeo.

  2. Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead – Great introduction to to juicing, although it led to an unfortunate meeting with beet green juice.
  3. A Band Called Death
  4. The Devil and Daniel Johnston
  5. The Botany of Desire – Did man cultivate these plants? Or did they manipulate man?
  6. Rivers and Tides – the art of Andy Goldsworthy
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. Born into Brothels – Explore the difficult life of prostitutes in Calcutta
  10. Urgh! A Music War– Early punk and new wave documentary that introduced me to Klaos Naomi and others.

Other

  1. 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.
  2. Pink Narcissus
  3. Powell-Peralta Animal Chin DVD (1987)
  4. The Muppet Movie – I have no idea why this struck a chord with me, but I watched it repeatedly.
  5. Lovedolls Superstar: Fully Realized