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| Dave |
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| Erik |
Where did you grow up, and what was it like?
Dave: I spent my formative years in one of three places: Jacksonville, Illinois, various places in the San Fernando Valley, in Southern California, and finally in and around Tampa, Florida. Jacksonville is a small town. It's fairly bucolic, and as I look back on it now, I rather value my time there. I was experiencing an era of Americana that's largely gone. Four seasons; snowmen in the front yard during winter time, skipping stones in spring, climbing trees and lemonade in the summer, jumping in piles of leaves in the fall. Make of it what you will. This period was why I've always related so well to Calvin and Hobbes, Stephen King and the Simpsons. Two old school movie houses.
Southern California in the early 90s was fun, in its way. It's a much more media rich environment, but much more homogenized. I don't really like LA. I like going to the beach, and I like Disneyland and Universal and Magic Mountain. I like the museums and the restaurants and the book stores. I like a lot of things about LA, but I don't really like it. I wouldn't want to live there again.
Tampa was pretty hellish. Florida's a special kind of sickness. Sex and drugs, but I did watch a lot of movies. I raided the local video stores and attended the theater regularly, often alone, a practice to which I attach no stigma.
Erik: My family lived in Hayward, CA until I was 11 before moving to nearby San Lorenzo. Neither town did much to inform my taste in film or anything else. I'll get to that stuff later. The Hayward house concludes a dead end road, surrounded by junipers and sentried by a slate gray wall. To quote Daniel Plainview, "I think if I saw that house now it'd make me sick." The San Lorenzo house sits just off the main drag of nothing much in particular. At least in my lifetime, that town has never offered even the illusion of culture. Its only saving grace was the local multiplex, Festival Cinemas, being walking distance from my house. It's a Target now. I say "in my lifetime" because San Lorenzo's old movie palace, now a protected ruin roughly the same distance from the house going the other direction, closed the year I was born. From everything I've seen, read and heard, it was a beautiful building that served as a cultural, economic and physical center for the whole town. I'll die having never been inside it.
Was anyone else in your family into movies? If so, what effect did they have on your moviegoing tastes?
Dave: Not really, no. My mom watches a lot of movies, but I honestly think to this day that she has some of the worst taste of anyone I've ever met. I think her favorite movie of all time - legit - is The Great Outdoors with John Candy and Dan Akroyd. Now, granted, I do like that one, so I guess my mom had some influence on me. I watched all sorts of stuff, but I really broke into movies on megadoses of 80s comedy and horror. Probably the most influential thing my mom did was taking me to the video store and letting me get anything I wanted. We went to movies in the cinema fairly often, but in my recollection, I always picked them. I have some really fond memories of those early theatrical experiences. My first movie house experience was Tim Burton's Batman, which, honestly, is just too perfect.
My dad, on the other hand, is not into movies. He's very particular about content (for example, he walked out of Lord of the Rings, because it was "too dark"), but he'll watch one once in great while. We went to see Jurassic Park, because that's just what kind of hype that movie had, and he will talk to this day about how stupid it was. It was his go-to example of why he's not into movies for a long time, but I tried to explain, "Look", I said "everybody thinks Jurassic Park is stupid. It's an unusually bad movie. That's not what movies are." It's like watching an episode of The Monkees and deciding that music isn't for you. Still, if he sees a good movie, he can still appreciate it. He let me rent movies from the library, if they were clean, so for that reason, I got to watch a lot of classics when I lived with him. That was valuable. Most ten year olds would rather watch, I don't know, Three Ninjas than Inherit the Wind, but I didn't have a choice. In the end, I'm grateful.
Erik: My family likes movies about as much as the average family would. Nothing too complex or extreme. If my parents had any effect on my own tastes, it would have been through letting me rent almost anything I wanted from the video store conveniently located across the street from the house in San Lorenzo, The Warehouse. It's an Auto Zone now. Honestly, most of my formative psychogeography is a collection of things that are not there anymore. As for their own tastes, my dad likes action, adventure and war stuff and my mom likes romantic comedies, because of course they do. I didn't get a sense of what my sister liked until a couple years ago. To my surprise, she loves classic film, in particular anything with Bogart. She had paid me to write her paper for a film class she had no time for. "She" got an A on it. I gained a new appreciation not just for her, but for Bogart and Chaplin. Winners all around.
What's the first movie you remember seeing, and what impression did it make on you?
Dave: I don't remember it, but the first movie I ever watched was Commando. My grandfather showed it to when I was three. Even though I don't have a memory of it, I'm certain the influence is still felt. I love those kind of over the top action films, and Arnie is one of my favorite actors. I love almost everything he does.
The first movie I have a memory of watching is The Wizard of Oz, on TV in a trailer in Decatur, Georgia. It's one of the greatest films ever made, as most anyone will agree, so I guess there was no looking back. I've loved movies from my first experiences with them. It doesn't necessarily mesh with some aspects of my personality, but I still unabashedly love kids' and family movies (when they're good), so maybe it had some lasting impact that way as well.
Erik: I don't remember the very first movie I ever saw, whether it was a VHS, something playing on TV or whatever, but the first moviegoing experience I had was my parents taking me to Festival Cinemas to see Honey, I Shrunk the Kids in 1989 when I was 6 years old. Just to orient you, this was the same summer as Batman, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Do the Right Thing, UHF and many, many other, better movies than Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Thankfully, my second moviegoing experience soon after was Batman, because my father is not a toilet person. He was aware six year old me would love that movie. I did, and that experience probably shaped my taste in movies, certainly protagonists, more than Rick Moranis ever could.
My first movie rental experience was probably around the same time, if not earlier, but it wasn't quite as formative. My dad rented Big Trouble in Little China because he was a fan of Kurt Russell, as everyone should be, and I loved it. Consequently, I ended up renting it over and over as a kid. It's still one of my favorites. To this day, if you hum a few bars of dialogue, I can probably finish the scene it's from.
What's the first movie that made you think, "Hey, some people made this. It didn't just exist. There's a human personality behind it."
Dave: Interesting question. An answer wasn't immediately apparent, but on reflection, I think it must be Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. It was a very early one for me (I still remember it starting and my saying "I don't want to watch a movie about a bicycle race!"), and in the climactic chase through the Warner Bros. lot, I remember Pee-Wee passing through both a Godzilla movie and a Twisted Sister video, both things I was a big fan of. That put the idea in my head that there was a kind of back drop to these things. The image of a hallway behind the food court at the mall. You go in one door and it's Panda Express, and the next door is Hot Dog on a Stick. That sort of thing. These worlds didn't exist autonomously. They were all connected to our world. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? would have been another one like that.
Erik: That didn't happen probably until Pulp Fiction, which might sound like a stock answer, but whatever. Tarantino was the first director I'd known as an auteur before finding out about all the others that came before him. Then you realize how many directors have their own singular vision of the world and how many do not. It's a good shorthand for finding great movies: Who directed it? Oh, okay, cool, I know what that guy does.
What's the first movie you ever walked out of?
Dave: I've never done this. I've tried to watch Hatchet twice at home, though, and couldn't make it.
Erik: My girlfriend at the time and I ended up walking out of The Fellowship of the Ring because I had a nagging headache and she was too tired from work and school to pay attention, so really it had nothing to do with the movie itself. By all accounts, LotR is a fine movie (that I still haven't watched all the way through), we just weren't up to sitting there for possibly the rest of our born days watching this thing, so we left. We actually did this again the following year with another movie, but because we actively disliked it: My Big Fat Greek Wedding, because I guess there was nothing else going on anywhere in America. Not even halfway in, we sort of turned and looked at each other as if to say, "This should've been called Four Holocausts and a Bunch More Genocides," and we left.
What's the funniest film you've ever seen?
Dave: There's a short list of my funniest films: Kingpin, Wet Hot American Summer, Billy Madison, Spaceballs, Vacation and Christmas Vacation. I have a fairly low brow sense of humor. I think the hardest I've ever laughed at a movie was seeing Hot Rod in the theater. I couldn't breath. I was dying. It was one of the most unique experiences I've ever had. It's still a hilarious movie, but it doesn't have quite the same impact on multiple viewings.
If you force me to pick one movie as the funniest... it's either Kingpin or Vacation. I honestly can't choose between those two.
Erik: Either Brain Donors, a total Marx Brothers rip starring John Turturro or Hot Rod starring Andy Samberg. The former had me on the floor in front of the TV holding my 11-year-old stomach. The latter had me literally in the aisles laughing so hard my sides and face hurt. Dave will tell you the same thing, because he and I were the only ones in the theater.
What's the saddest film you've ever seen?
Dave: Oslo, August 31st. Movies about addiction hit close to home for me, and this is the most devastating and realistic depiction I've ever seen. Even with the emotional barrier of this being Norwegian, it just crushes me. Leaving Las Vegas is also incredibly powerful, but I think I'm a little too aware that it's a film (I had a similar experience with 12 Years a Slave, also monstrously sad). I'm not including documentaries in considering this question, but Oslo, August 31st may as well have been.
And hey, say what you will, but I say Jessie's song in Toy Story 2 is one of the saddest things I've ever experienced anywhere.
Erik: Schindler's List, probably. Or Blue Valentine. Or Edward Scissorhands. What? Nothing. There's something in my eye. Don't look at me. I'm differentiating this between "most depressing", of which the answer would be Michael Haneke's "The Seventh Continent". You don't cry at that movie. You're dismantled by it systematically.
What's the scariest film you've ever seen?
Dave: Three films have gotten under my skin like no other, and terrified me on a deep, psychological level. The Shining, Candyman, and Wes Craven's New Nightmare. All great films. The Shining is many people's scariest film, so I don't really need to justify it, but I think there must be some central thread that connects these three, because I really don't get scared by much of anything and they all hit some magic button in me.
Besides just being well made (and all three having excellent, scary scores, particularly Philip Glass' Candyman score and the justifiably famous Shining score), all three contain imminent harm to young children. The other, and I think more significant connection, is that all three films could be reasonably interpreted to be occurring entirely within the characters minds. In my opinion, there is truly nothing more terrifying than losing your mind, and this may be what these films were tapping into that got to me so thoroughly.
Erik: Jesus Camp. But seriously, I'd have to say Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, because it can and did happen. That is, if you believe Henry Lee Lucas, the man the film's, er, protagonist is based on. The home invasion scene alone cements this movie as some of the sickest shit ever, and it's seen as video camera footage after the fact. Fun Fact: Ottis Toole, played by the great Tom Towles, was later found to be Adam Walsh's killer. Honorable Mentions: Audition, The Shining, The Vanishing, and, you may be surprised to hear, The Strangers. As middling as that movie is remembered to be, the premise is still scary, and the trailer has maybe the best last line I've ever heard. "...Why are you doing this to us?" "...Because you were home."
What's the most romantic film you've ever seen?
Dave: Fight Club. Not a joke answer. Fight Club can be viewed as a love story between two extremely damaged individuals: Tyler/Jack and Marla. It's the fact that they find each other in spit of everything else that happens in that story, and that they are there for each other when probably no one else in the world would put up with either of them, is why it affects me that way. I've been there! I've always liked Tyler and Marla as a couple. Damaged love, if you look at the right way, is the truest love. Those are the relationships that touch me the most. It genuinely makes me happy that they're together at the end, after all they've been though.
Erik: I don't watch a lot of romantic movies, but I've seen the classics. City Lights is probably the answer, even just for the ending. It's devastatingly sad, but holy shit is that the most romantic thing I've ever seen. Leave it to Chaplin.
What's the first television show you ever saw that made you think television could be more than entertainment?
Dave: I would have to say it's The Simpsons. The Simpsons during it's peak (in my estimation, seasons three to nine) was so good it transcended television and entertainment, and became sublime art. I would hold nearly any work of visual arts up to that period of the Simpsons, I really would. It worked on more levels than Frogger.
The first dramatic show I got really into was Oz, and then by the time I watched The Wire, there was no turning back. TV could be every bit as good as film.
Erik: Excluding educational shows I watched as a little kid and early reality shows like COPS, I guess The Simpsons was the first show I remember having really smart humor that wasn't necessarily for kids and opened up my intellectual curiosity about former presidents and old timey remedies. As far as a fictional show I could point out as holding up a mirror to reality or at least elevating its genre, probably Oz, because I never watched The Sopranos. If I had watched it when it was on, I would have told you The Wire. I'd say the latest example of how goddamn good TV can be is Breaking Bad. Honorable mentions: Star Trek: The Next Generation and Futurama.
What book do you think about or revisit the most?
Dave: Daniel Quinn's Ishmael trilogy changed my life, and I honestly interpret everything differently after reading it. The principals contained are daily considerations, really.
I read Stephen King's IT maybe once a year or so. I often revisit David Foster Wallace's non-fiction; it seems like the more I learn, the better I appreciate it. On that note, I've read American Psycho three times and interpreted it radically differently each time. Hogg is never far from me.
Erik: Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. If you've never read it, it's basically Moby Dick meets Paradise Lost in the Old West. It's an epic nightmare about humanity that a lot of people have a hard time getting through, due either to the extreme violence or the endless descriptions of the landscape. I happened to take to it and was able to just eat the language. Read it before McCarthy dies and everyone else lies about having read it.
What album or recording artist have you listened to the most, and why?
Dave: It's a toss up between Black Sabbath and Guns 'n' Roses. Why? There's just no better band, in my opinion. They're both my favorite band, I can't hold one over the other. Aphex Twin would probably come in second. If you factor in the various projects he's worked with, Trent Reznor would be on the list as well.
Brian Eno is getting up there too, although I haven't been listening to him for as long.
I think my currently most played albums are Brian Eno's Thursday Afternoon, Sleep's Dopesmoker and The Social Network soundtrack.
Erik: Black Flag, probably. Having played in punk bands for ten or so years, they've informed a lot of what kind of person I am. When I was 15 I watched The Decline of Western Civilization and later read Get in the Van by Henry Rollins and was blown away by the amount of hard work, range of musical output, levels of hostility and depths of poverty they dealt with the entire way through. They did what they did and took no shit from anyone
Is there a movie that you think is great, or powerful, or perfect, but that you never especially want to see again, and why?
Dave: Honestly no. I'm not wired that way. Maybe if it were really, really long, like Bela Tarr's Satantango, but I haven't seen that one yet, and I haven't had this experience yet.
Erik: 12 Years a Slave. I saw it with an almost full, almost entirely white audience. One black woman in attendance. The movie was extremely well-made and is an important film that will probably win a lot of awards. Watching it felt like penance.
What movie have you seen more times than any other?
Dave: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I've seen it well over two hundred times. There were long periods where I would watch it every day, sometimes more than once in a day. Sometimes more than once in a row.
For theatrical viewing, the record is Con Air with six.
Erik: John Carpenter's The Thing. No question. It's a perfect horror film with airtight storytelling logic and incredible special effects, not to mention the most nihilistic ending you could invent. I did a list post last time where I said the film's protagonist, R.J. MacReady, was the one character in that list I was closest to in personality. Make of that what you will.
What was your first R-rated movie, and did you like it?
Dave: It was the aforementioned Commando. One that I have a memory of, I'm not sure. I was allowed to watch R rated movies as a kid, so I didn't have a rite of passage experience in that way. The first movie I can remember watching and thinking "Wow, this is really not for kids, I can't believe I'm allowed to watch this." was probably either Toxic Avenger or RoboCop. Both favorites to this day. The first movie that kind of disturbed me was, believe it or not, Maximum Overdrive. I like that one too.
Erik: My first was on TV. Friday the 13th part III. I liked it enough to keep watching the marathon, but I was young enough to where I had trouble sleeping after I watched them. Theatrical: Terminator 2. Of course I liked it, I was eight years old. I can still watch it and enjoy it, despite the story's flaws and huge gaps in logic.
What's the most visually beautiful film you've ever seen?
Dave: Speed Racer. Fuck the haters. I think Speed Racer is a legit good movie, but there's a couple other movies that aren't so great that come to mind here: The Cell. It's ok, not great, but man... what a visual feast. Incredible. Nearly as good (and much better as a film) is Tarsem Singh's follow up The Fall. Also, the saccharine schmaltz fest What Dreams May Come. Atrocious film, really, but holy shit.
Everybody says Days of Heaven and why not? Days of Heaven is beautiful. There's like ten movies I could mention and surprise no one, but I will say, since I love black and white, that my vote for most visually beautiful black and white movie is The Night of the Hunter. One of my favorite films, period.
Erik: Blade Runner. I should probably say Avatar, but I'm not gonna. Blade Runner premiered in 1982 when all effects were still practical. It's 31 years later, and it still looks incredible. The film is shot with such detail and such care that most anything else today, no matter how advanced the CGI might be, rings hollow.
Who are your favorite leading men, past and present?
Dave: Robert Mitchum, Klaus Kinski, Dennis Hopper, Toshiro Mifune, Vincent Price, Matthew McConaughey, Willem Dafoe, Michael Keaton, Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, Jeff Goldblum, Woody Harrelson
Erik: Charlie Chaplin, Robert Mitchum, Jack Nicholson, Daniel Day-Lewis, Idris Elba.
Who are your favorite leading ladies, past and present?
Dave: Natalie Wood, Kim Novak, Vivien Leigh, Barbara Stanwyck, Mae West, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Jodie Foster, Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron, Tilda Swinton
Erik: Audrey Hepburn, Susan Sarandon, Helena Bonham-Carter, Michelle Williams, Charlize Theron
Who's your favorite modern filmmaker?
Dave: Werner Herzog, hands down. I also see anything from Errol Morris, David Lynch, Michael Haneke. Of the younger generation, I'm a big fan of Jeff Nichols, Nicolas Winding Refn, Gaspar Noe, Steve McQueen and Harmony Korine. Hm... Wes Anderson, Takashi Miike, the Coens and the Wachowskis are all also great.
Erik: The Coens, but Paul Thomas Anderson and Nicholas Winding Refn are right up there.
Who's your least favorite modern filmmaker?
Dave: Zack Snyder, hands down.
Erik: Michael Bay. I mean as a person. He's my least favorite person, but he happens to make movies, so.
What film do you love that most people seem to hate?
Dave: Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween. It doesn't get much more blasphemous among horror fans, but I prefer his version to Carpenter's. I can't really explain it beyond just saying that it's... more true to life? My own life, anyway. I do love Donald Pleasance, but it's got a bigger crop of actors I like. Brad Dourif, Sid Haig, Malcolm McDowell, William Forsythe, Ken Foree, Udo Kier, Clint Howard, Danny Trejo, Bill Moseley... that's a veritable Who's Who of cult actors. And "I'm Joe Grizzly, bitch!" has to be one of the greatest one liners of all time. I have nothing bad to say about it.
There's actually quite a few of these. The aforementioned Speed Racer. A couple I just watched recently were Lee Daniels' The Paperboy and The Informers. This probably isn't that unusual among people my age, but, despite the fact that I acknowledge Wizard of Oz as one of the greatest films ever made, I prefer Return to Oz with Fairuza Balk. Lots and lots of "bad" action movies.
Erik: Drive. It got shit on by people who thought it was poorly written or acted or whatever, which isn't the case.
What film do you hate that most people love?
Dave: I honestly can't think of any movies I hate, but I think The Hangover is okay at best, and I won't watch the sequels.
Erik: Titanic.
Tell me about a moviegoing experience you will never forget—not just because of the movie, but because of the circumstances in which you saw it.
Dave: The Dark Knight. I won't go into details because I covered it in depth in my ten favorite films blog, but just back up a few posts and you can read it. I've been to a drive in once, and saw a double bill of Beavis and Butthead Do America and Scream. Excellent one two punch. Uh... I once fingered a girl to orgasm during Casper.
Erik: I went with some friends to the midnight premier of Snakes on a Plane, and the line wrapped around the room. We saw some other friends of ours there and ended up all sitting together, taking up almost an entire row, right in the middle. The vibe of the room was great, because everyone there new exactly what they were getting into, and we couldn't wait for it to happen. While waiting, Jack took it upon himself to get up, stand in the center aisle and lead the room in a chant of "SNAKES ON A PLANE! SNAKES ON A PLANE!" The entire room joined in as if on cue. We were fucking STOKED. The movie was amazing from start to finish. The title card came up and everyone went nuts. Pretty much nonstop cheering and yelling for the rest of it. It was like the liberation of France. If that ever happened again for a movie I went to, I'd be very surprised.
What aspect of modern theatrical moviegoing do you like least?
Dave: Obviously the price, but also the theatrical homogeneity. It's all AMC or Regal. I'm fortunate to live in a part of the country with many, many local and independent theaters, so this isn't really an issue for me personally, but on principle. 3D is a blight, but when done right, it can be a good thing. Tangled and Coraline are two examples that come to mind.
Erik: Bad 3-D. It's the worst, because it's expensive AND shoddy. You can tell the difference between a movie made specifically for 3-D and one that was converted after the fact. Thankfully, those movies usually tank.
What aspect of moviegoing during your childhood do you miss the most?
Dave: I guess it's the way that movies seemed like "events" even though we went at least once a month or more. I'm still doing well. There's all those great theaters here, as I mentioned, and I go about once a week. It's still great. The sense of wonder may have diminished a little bit, but that's just part of growing up.
Erik: Not having to pay for them.
Have you ever damaged a friendship, or thought twice about a relationship, because you disagreed about whether a movie was good or bad?
Dave: Once I was on the phone with a girl I was dating. She: "Spider-man is stupid." Me: "Fuckin' you're stupid." She hung up. Fin.
Erik: Come to think of it, not yet. That's a boring answer, but yeah. It's not like we have to keep watching that movie every day.
What movies have you dreamed about?
Dave: Debbie Does Dallas and Wild Wild West.
Erik: Friday the 13th part III, 28 Days Later and Memento, that I can remember.
What concession stand item can you not live without?
Dave: I smuggle them in, but I love Trolli Sour Brite Crawlers. Even better is the harder to find Sour Brite Octopus.
Erik: I don't buy any.
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