TNMC

Last night I watched The Departed, which I fucking love.  Normally I wouldn't swear in such a statement but somehow it seems appropriate when talking about that particular movie.  Now, I've seen The Departed several times to date.  Probably something like a half dozen times.  The reasons are many.  It is brilliantly written, wonderfully acted and confidently shot.  Martin Scorsese and his merry band did a great job.  But I can say that about a lot of movies and I don't find myself returning to them over and over again.

I think everyone has go to films that they just keep watching for some reason.  Even my mother, who I don't call a serious movie fan, has a few films she'll stop dead and watch if she finds them on TV.

For The Departed, the short explanation for why I watch it repeatedly is that it is greatly entertaining.  But that's an inadequate answer.  It really comes down to two elements.  One is the language and the other is tension.  There is a great joy in the use of language in this movie.  It's endlessly quotable and it is very colorful.  I remember clearly at the Oscars a couple years ago when Mark Wahlberg was nominated for his role as Sgt. Digman, a character that said fuck more often than he said the.  When the category came up a short clip was played for all the nominees and Wahlberg's clip was about two seconds long because that's about the longest clip of him talking available that didn't feature language off limits to prime time television.  Wahlberg was clearly laughing at this when they showed him.  The swearing was done so lustily that the actors clearly had a blast using it.  I think that great use of language by writer William Monahan really encouraged the actors to take everything to a higher level.

The other major element is tension and this movie has it coming out of its pores.  Rarely have I seen a movie that finds tension in so many different ways, playing virtually ever character off another with some secret or agenda.  The main storyline would have had enough tension for most movies but this one keeps digging deeper for any extra scraps of drama that might have been missed.  That's just textbook writing.

I'm really more interested at the moment in the idea of the go to movie.  Those movies that you find yourself popping in over and over again.  It's like comfort food except of course that you can't eat it.  Generally I watch movies as a way of learning more about movies.  My Netflix queue is pretty much always bumping up against the 500 movie limit.  I've mined their collection for every movie anyone  has ever suggested is required viewing.  You can see trends in the list as there will suddenly be a bunch of movies by a particular director, writer or actor.  Then there are thematic clumpings that related to some book I read about the movies.  For instance a spurt of black and white noirs or first films of famous directors.  So of course on my desk is a small stack of DVDs from Netflix, none of which I've seen before.  But something in the back of my head demands the familiar and so I grab The Departed.  Other movies that get endlessly repeated are The Big Lebowski, Shaun of the Dead and Clerks.  That's just the short list obviously.  The list of comfort movies is probably in the dozens.  It goes without saying that they are all movies I love but I wouldn't necessarily call them all brilliant or perfect.  It's more that something about each one connects with me on a level that makes them an easy way to cheer up a day.

So, anyone else care to share their go to movies?