Looking back, I have to say 21 was my most rebellious year. Most kids get all the angst out in their late teens; with my devoutly Christian parents that wasn’t happening. Hell, even at 21 there was only but so much I could get away with. All things considered, 21 was a very freeing time for me, I had a job which meant a stable source of income and I didn’t have to ask the parentals for money, I discovered the joys of alcohol (hey, I know I started late), and I had my own car, and we all know that car equals freedom. I wish I could tell you all the things I did (and would never do again) from when I was 21 but that’s not the point of this post, here I’m going to list my 5 favorite movies from that time; some of the movies came out that year, and others just captured who I was at the moment.
Grandma’s Boy: So one night I get a call from my best friend saying we should go to the movies. We get there and find out that there’s nothing really interesting playing, we happen to see that Grandma’s Boy was showing so we caught it. I am so glad we did. Grandma’s Boy has all the fun of old-school Adam Sandler movies without the annoyance of well… modern-day Adam Sandler. I laughed from beginning to end and quoted the movie of weeks on end.
Borat: Unlike most of America, I watched and loved Da Ali G Show on HBO. So when I heard that Sacha Baron Cohen was making a feature length Borat movie, I was totally onboard. What is absolutely genius about SBC’s comedy is that he doesn’t necessarily make fun of the people he’s punking, granted he does put them in some zany situations, but rather he gives them free reign to make themselves look like an ass. Aside from the slapstick comedy, Borat really brought to light some of America’s thinly veiled issues with foreigners and immigrants. Borat was shocking, appalling, introspective, and hilarious
Go : Go wasn’t released when I was 21, it was released when I was closer to 12, but I could really relate to it when I became 21. The film is about three intertwined stories showing different angles of a drug deal gone wrong and all the antics that are a product of it. This movie buzzed with an energy that I was really in tune with at 21; there was this sense that anything could literally happen at any time. 21 was a sensory overload for me and this movie represented the spirit of that time, not to mention that main single from this movie, No Doubt’s ‘New’ was my anthem.
Pan’s Labyrinth: I remember seeing a MTV news special on Pan’s Labyrinth and thinking “this movie looks pretty good.” Unfortunately it had a limited release so I missed it in theaters. When it was released on Blu Ray I scooped it up. Before Pan’s Labyrinth, never have I seen a movie that combined the imagination and fantasy of a fairy tale and juxtaposed them with dramatic topics; and if I’m being honest, I haven’t seen anything that comes close to it since.
The Prestige: God, I love Christopher Nolan. This movie just rocks, I saw it in theaters and could not wait for it to come out on Blu Ray. The Prestige has one of my favorite twist in cinema, I totally did not see it coming. Being a part of a film blog and podcast, I often find myself singing the praises of my favorite films, I remember doing this annoyingly so at 21. I remember bringing it up in conversation whenever possible. In hindsight, I probably turned more people off to the movie than I inspired to watch it. I was definitely a movie fan before the age of 21 but The Prestige made me really pay attention to the art of storytelling.
What were some of your favorite films when you were 21?