Wow--Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Wayne's World, and a treasure trove of movies I've never seen, but need to, and never knew it? And none of them newer than American Movie (2000)? Man I like this guy. I'm constantly reminded that I'm aging, though. I saw him doing Angry Video Game Nerd videos when I was younger, and then I had kids. Then he had a kid. And he started branching out, doing all kinds of videos, all under the Cinemmasacre moniker. And these videos show a more mature, practiced James Rolfe, doing his thing, talking about a subject that he knows best--film. It's what he's spent his entire adult life doing, and he's good at it. So I trust his judgement. Plus, his tastes are mature. He's seen it all, and he's not fooled by bullshit. Good job on these videos, James, if you ever end up reading this. By the end of it I could see your eyes moving down to the cue card, though--my only criticism. 😅 Sorry.
James' personality and career trajectory aside, this all made me want to talk about my very favorite movie, and about favorite things in general. Because one thing James said about his #1 favorite movie of all time is that you don't choose your favorite--your favorite chooses you. And it made me think many things. One is that my favorite movie of all time continues to be Lost Highway (1997)--and I don't know why the fuck that's the case. It just gives me this certain perfect feeling. I've seen it so many times and it took that many to really understand it.
And when I felt I did, I felt as if I had climbed a mountain, like--and this is going to sound shitty--I was on a higher plane of understanding than the general public. Like I had achieved a thought triumph and could hold my head high; be one of a select few. That thought of exclusivity really appealed to me then, and still does today, but to a lesser degree and a different angle. When 1997 began, I was halfway thru junior year of high school. Suffice to say, my understanding of the world and myself have changed, but overall--and this is something I've learned that gives me peace--my tastes have not. I don't want to say this exclusivity feeling was pure selfishness, but it's just that, to my own personal memory, there's no one I've spoken to about this movie who understands it on a deep level. But who else has seen it as many times, I wonder? And why would they? It's weird af, really supernatural, and it explains nothing along the way. It's off-putting, to say the least. You need patience and a big love of darkness and shadows. Right up my damn alley. I haven't counted, but I think I'm between 10 and 15 views.
Mulholland Drive came after, and I think the plot was more or less the same as Lost Highway, just more palatable. Lost Highway was a more intense, dark approach.
Back to the subject of favorites--when I was watching Rolfe's videos today, as he was getting down to #1, I had to think about what mine would be. Lost Highway popped into my head immediately, which made me think--why that one? I started questioning my own intuition, with questions such as: 'Why?' and 'Is it because you've just told yourself that's your favorite, and are forgetting some other movie that's had as strong an effect on you long-term, maybe because you're such a dumbass pot smoker, you idiot?' Or is the reason more simple, less guilt-trippy? Is it that I've just told myself that it's my favorite movie throughout the years, and kept reinforcing it, and that's the main reason?
Well I'm happy to say I got an answer to those questions when I schmoogled 'lost highway movie' and got the old pwickapedia preview on the upper right, with the logo and stills of the actors. All these scenes came flooding back to me--the ending in the desert, the prison cell sequences, Bill playing that sax live, meeting Patricia Arquette for the first time, and who he becomes later, a literally completely different person. And if I could say one thing in answer to myself, and also to just sum it all up--why it's my favorite movie, why I've been saying that for 20 years, why it gives me that perfect feeling, why it's something I never forgot, why no movie has toppled this one in my mind yet--it's this: "I'm in your house."
Then you're Bill Paxton, and you go, "What do you mean, you're where in my house?"
Then I, Robert Blake, hold up this obnoxiously big 90s cell phone and I go, "I'm there right now." And then my face gets really dark and my tone turns sinister and I say with a slight, furious growl, barely contained among my perfect composure, "Call me."
Okay, I got it wrong, but that's how I remembered it offhand. The memory was powerful. It actually goes like this:
The scene is exponentially more powerful than my memory. That's the one quintessential scene in the movie, and it's really all I feel I oughtta say about why Lost Highway is my #1 favorite movie of all time.
Hey, thanks for reading.
James' personality and career trajectory aside, this all made me want to talk about my very favorite movie, and about favorite things in general. Because one thing James said about his #1 favorite movie of all time is that you don't choose your favorite--your favorite chooses you. And it made me think many things. One is that my favorite movie of all time continues to be Lost Highway (1997)--and I don't know why the fuck that's the case. It just gives me this certain perfect feeling. I've seen it so many times and it took that many to really understand it.
And when I felt I did, I felt as if I had climbed a mountain, like--and this is going to sound shitty--I was on a higher plane of understanding than the general public. Like I had achieved a thought triumph and could hold my head high; be one of a select few. That thought of exclusivity really appealed to me then, and still does today, but to a lesser degree and a different angle. When 1997 began, I was halfway thru junior year of high school. Suffice to say, my understanding of the world and myself have changed, but overall--and this is something I've learned that gives me peace--my tastes have not. I don't want to say this exclusivity feeling was pure selfishness, but it's just that, to my own personal memory, there's no one I've spoken to about this movie who understands it on a deep level. But who else has seen it as many times, I wonder? And why would they? It's weird af, really supernatural, and it explains nothing along the way. It's off-putting, to say the least. You need patience and a big love of darkness and shadows. Right up my damn alley. I haven't counted, but I think I'm between 10 and 15 views.
Mulholland Drive came after, and I think the plot was more or less the same as Lost Highway, just more palatable. Lost Highway was a more intense, dark approach.
Back to the subject of favorites--when I was watching Rolfe's videos today, as he was getting down to #1, I had to think about what mine would be. Lost Highway popped into my head immediately, which made me think--why that one? I started questioning my own intuition, with questions such as: 'Why?' and 'Is it because you've just told yourself that's your favorite, and are forgetting some other movie that's had as strong an effect on you long-term, maybe because you're such a dumbass pot smoker, you idiot?' Or is the reason more simple, less guilt-trippy? Is it that I've just told myself that it's my favorite movie throughout the years, and kept reinforcing it, and that's the main reason?
Well I'm happy to say I got an answer to those questions when I schmoogled 'lost highway movie' and got the old pwickapedia preview on the upper right, with the logo and stills of the actors. All these scenes came flooding back to me--the ending in the desert, the prison cell sequences, Bill playing that sax live, meeting Patricia Arquette for the first time, and who he becomes later, a literally completely different person. And if I could say one thing in answer to myself, and also to just sum it all up--why it's my favorite movie, why I've been saying that for 20 years, why it gives me that perfect feeling, why it's something I never forgot, why no movie has toppled this one in my mind yet--it's this: "I'm in your house."
Then you're Bill Paxton, and you go, "What do you mean, you're where in my house?"
Then I, Robert Blake, hold up this obnoxiously big 90s cell phone and I go, "I'm there right now." And then my face gets really dark and my tone turns sinister and I say with a slight, furious growl, barely contained among my perfect composure, "Call me."
Okay, I got it wrong, but that's how I remembered it offhand. The memory was powerful. It actually goes like this:
The scene is exponentially more powerful than my memory. That's the one quintessential scene in the movie, and it's really all I feel I oughtta say about why Lost Highway is my #1 favorite movie of all time.
Hey, thanks for reading.
