It's awards season, when the best movies and brightest stars are honored and feted. All the fashion, the gorgeous men and beautiful women, the cringe-worthy acceptance speeches... so much glamour -- and so many great movies. Who doesn't love the movies?
There are some movies that you forget five minutes after you leave the theater, and then there are the movies that stay with you for a long time. Both types fill a need -- sometimes a fluffy rom-com is just the ticket, other times you want a movie that stay with you for days afterwards. The Crying Game kept me thinking, while Leaving Las Vegas left me stunned. This awards season, Argo has the most staying power -- it combines nostalgia, history, suspense and patriotism in an exceptional film.
Best of all are the movies that cause you to fall in love, movies from which you remember whole passages of dialogue, or in some cases, the dialogue from the entire film. These are the movies that you can watch over and over, whether you're channel-surfing and happen to catch them on TV or just feel in the mood for something that makes you feel happy, or weepy, or brings back memories... that's what movies can do.
Here are my movies, my favorites that I can watch pretty much anytime, anywhere.
1. The Wizard of Oz
I know I'm not alone here. I more or less know the dialogue in this movie from start to finish. Who didn't eagerly wait each March, year after year, for the annual presentation of it on television? What an event that was.
Best line:
Dorothy: "There's no place like home."
2. Moonstruck
Everything about this movie is romantic -- every relationship, every room, every scene. Cher and Olympia Dukakis both won Oscars for their roles as mother and daughter. Love it.
Best lines:
Loretta: "Snap out of it!"
Rose: "Your life's goin' down the toilet!"
3. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Truthfully, I don't know that I'd love this movie nearly as much as I do if it wasn't for Paul Newman and Robert Redford -- and as ridiculous as it was to hear "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head" in the middle of this film, I still adore the scene where they're riding on the bicycle.
Butch Cassidy: "Alright. I'll jump first."
Sundance Kid: "No."
Butch Cassidy: "Then you jump first."
Sundance Kid: "No, I said."
Butch Cassidy: "What's the matter with you?"
Sundance Kid:" I can't swim."
Butch Cassidy: "Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill you."
Sundance Kid: "Oh, shit..."
4. Annie Hall
A turning point in film history, Annie Hall introduced the world to Woody Allen's life through his alter-ego, Alvy Singer, and Alvy's object of adoration, Annie Hall. This movie was, in a way, my introduction at the age of 15 to the world of grown-up movies.
Annie Hall: "La-di-da, la-di-da."
Alvy Singer: "A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark."
5. When Harry Met Sally
I just saw this again a few weeks ago and laughed out loud again at all of the same lines I've laughed out loud at before. It just never gets old. Written by the brilliant, late Nora Ephron, this is a classic.
Harry:"I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."
Marie: "I don't think he's every going to leave her."
Sally: "I know he's never going to leave her."
Marie: "You're right, you're right. I know you're right."
6. Lars and the Real Girl
Besides the amazing Ryan Gosling, this movie has a sweetness and gentleness that keeps me teary-eyed through the whole thing. It also makes me want to move to Minnesota and join a sewing circle.
Sewing Circle Lady 3 - Hazel: "Well that's how life is, Lars."
Mrs. Gruner: "Everything at once."
Sewing Circle Lady 2 - Sally: "We brought casseroles."
Lars Lindstrom: "Thank you."
What are your favorite movies?
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