Movies to see before you die (Post 1 of 5).

I'm coming up on my two-hundredth post and I was thinking that I ought to do something special, and so, inspired by my friends over at Two Bibliomaniacs as well as a conversation I had last night with some good friends (one of them being One Bibliomaniac), I've decided to review ten movies that I think everyone should see. I will do two reviews per post and I will take as long as I darn well please to do so. Enjoy.

Juno (2007) PG-13

Jason Reitman (son of legendary director Ivan Reitman of Animal House fame) directs Ellen Page in this Academy Award-nominated story (written by ex-stripper, Diablo Cody... you don't have to like her, but you have to like her name) about a young girl, Juno Macguff, who gets pregnant and chooses to put the child up for adoption, all while being charmingly smarmy. Her peers, contemporaries, and associates are shockingly well cast, with Michael Cera nearly stealing the show as the sweet and remarkably naive Pauly Bleeker. It's amazing that Cera can maintain his character's childlike innocence in spite of the fact that he's the father of Juno's unborn child.

The dialogue is so dryly humorous and endearing that it's easy to find yourself wanting to watch this movie over and over. For example:

Bleeker: "Um, I did the prep questions for this lab last night. So you can just copy my answers if you..."
Juno: "Oh, I couldn't copy your work."
Bleeker: "You copy my work every week."
Juno: "True. I'm kind of a deadbeat lab partner, aren't I?"
Bleeker: "No, I don't mind. I think you definitely bring something to the table."
Juno: "Charisma."

So, go rent Juno. It's awesome.

You know what else is awesome? The Big Lebowski. (1998... wow, has it really been twelve years?) R

But before you rush out and rent this gem, know this: Some young cinema lover edited a selection of clips from The Big Lebowski using every single swear word in the film. The finished product is just over four minutes. Four minutes of cussing. Four minutes of highly offensive nano-syllables. Four minutes of jaw-dropping obscenity that would make even the most hardened free-speech activist uncomfortable. It's pretty great. 

Briefly, The Big Lebowski is a story of a missing woman, a million-dollar ransom, a bunch of artsy-fartsy weirdos, some nihilists, league bowling, unchecked aggression, over-priced urns, a ringer for a ringer, the chief of police of Malibu, a pornographer/loan shark, White Russians (the drink, not the people), the Little Lebowski Urban Achievers, rug vandals, and, most importantly, the Dude.

This is quite possibly Jeff Bridges' most important work. Written by the Cohen brothers, it chronicles several days in the life of pot-smoking, unemployed, amateur bowler, Jeffery Lebowski (although he insists that people call him "The Dude"). He is mistaken for a millionaire (also named Jeffery Lebowski) whose wife owes money to a local pornographer named Jackie Treehorn. As a warning to the Dude that he'd better pay up, one of Treehorn's henchmen pees on the Dude's rug, which, as he puts it, "really tied the room together." The Dude's best friend, Walter (played brilliantly by John Goodman), convinces him to seek out the other Jeffery Lebowski to seek retribution for the soiled rug. Then a whole bunch of other stuff happens and if I keep going I'll end up telling you the whole movie. 

 That's all for now. I shall now go and eat a delicious dinner.
Thank you,
      Matt Beers