16 Days of Birthday, Day 9: "You like that movie?"

As many of you may know, I work at a video store. Working at a video store generally means that you often have to recommend movies a lot. Which just so happens to be the thing that I am worst at. Because, I'm pretty sure that nobody in Dannevirke has the same taste in movies as I do. And I'm not one of those old film snobs high on their pedestal...I'm just the teenager who is trying to avoid film snob status.

At the store we have these things called 'staff favourites'. We get a little square of paper and we stick a movie review on it because we really recommend it. Of course, me being me, I usually have the most of these. But I must say, many of the films I pick barely made it through a healthy cinema release, and aren't really considered 'mainstream' here. In fact, off the top of my head, the only 'mainstream' movies I can remember that I staff favourited are Inception, True Grit and The King's Speech.

Then again, Dannevirke being Dannevirke, 'mainstream' has a whole different meaning to what you think it is. The only films that fit into the mainstream category are pretty much just action flicks and gross out comedies. Meh, I like some of these movies, but not enough to staff favourite them. No, I'm more into picking the movies that everyone I know hates, but they were really well received by some of us film-lovers. I'm pretty sure that no one can really understand why a 15 year old girl would like such movies, but there you have it.

One of my proudest moments was when I staff picked Somewhere. You know the one - the really slow Sofia Coppola flick that really doesn't go anywhere. Okay, so maybe the staff pick was more of a warning. If I were to find another person within a 10 kilometre radius of my house that liked it, I would be more than surprised. But to me, while I notice the flaws in Somewhere and why most people hate it, the movie is a beautiful observation of Hollywood life. And guess what? It's done by someone who knows what they are talking about. Plus, Coppola's film-making style is so romantic...I couldn't help but love it. It probably did help that I watched Love and Other Drugs before slipping this in the player, and I was in quite an emotional state (that wasn't due to Love and Other Drugs...that movie was terrible).

A Single Man is another movie I picked. A lot of people I talked to said that it wasn't a very nice movie at all. Which is fair enough, because I'm sure that a movie that deals with death and depression and gay lovers isn't everyones cup of tea. But my goodness, I love this movie to bits. I think it's such a beautifully made and horribly sad movie which observes a day in the life of a fractured soul so well. Unfortunately, very few people I know have been able to see this. Maybe Tom Ford shoulda put some more bombs in it, eh?

The one movie people have a lot of trouble with me liking (though I wasn't around to staff pick it when it came out) is Brokeback Mountain. Now, I know a lot of you film-lovers really dig it, and it obviously should have won Best Picture back in 2006. But let me tell you a story of a customer who rented this movie out. She said she rented it out for a laugh. That's not all she said, though. She started going on about how "disgusting" the movie was and then embarked on a homophobic rant condemning the movie. I don't think I've ever been so angered by another human being in my presence ever in my life. First of all, Brokeback Mountain is one damn good movie with such brilliant performances and direction - plus, it's a moving love story, just as worthy as any other love story. And hey, if you don't like the choices that other people make, it doesn't mean you have the right to condemn it.

Anyway, while I tend not to like anything by Michael Bay or the latest Ashton Kutcher movie, I'm pretty happy with the movies I like. Because, to be honest, at least I'm getting the most out of my movie watching.

Any similar experiences to mine?