the Muse visits *during* the act of creation, not before. Don't wait for her. Start alone.

    This is the next of several (seven?) posts that springs from an article, essentially listing "the most [x] book I've read." Having worked through the list in book form (e.g. here), I've decided to do the same with movies.   

 

The most fragile movie I saw: The Painted Veil (2006)

    This film is a period piece (China in the 1800s), with all the lovely costumes and manners, and it's also a morality play, the kind of story that comes on quietly and gradually but once it hits, it's monumental. Watching this movie makes me feel shattered inside.

    (reviewed here)

 

The most hip movie I saw: Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

    A rare first-run, contemporary, critically acclaimed and popular movie I've watched, and I liked it a lot. Maybe it could be considered proof that I'm not constitutionally unable or unwilling to watch what other people watch, and to like it....

    (reviewed here)

 

The most resonant movie I saw: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)     

    Roger Ebert's review of this film says it all: "As long as we have wars and returning veterans, some of them wounded, The Best Years of Our Lives will not be dated." It's not 'a war movie', but centered in the war and its effects on soldiers and civilians alike. It is also about loyalty, family, vulnerability, trust, and friendship.

    (reviewed here)

 

The most unpleasant movie I saw: ugh, why promote unpleasantness? I will replace this     (as I did with the book prompt) with... 

    The oldest movie I saw: The Gold Rush (1925)

    Full disclosure, I actually watched the version that Charles Chaplin reissued in 1942. In the spirit of the exercise, though, I think this counts as the oldest movie I've seen. It's not the most elaborate story ever told, and some of the effects are rather transparent, but in the time that it was made it is profound, brilliant, well-acted, incredibly well-filmed and -edited, and hilarious.

    (reviewed here)

 

The queerest movie I saw: Saving Face (2004)

    An unexpected, marvelous movie about trying to be a good [whatever, fill in the blank] and learning how to be your own authentic self. Universal, yet deeply rooted in the ethnic tradition. Beautifully filmed and well acted. And the dress, oh my lord. The most beautiful dress!

    (reviewed here)

 

[based on this post; the title quotation is ]