It was the eighties, and I was sharing a stuffy apartment with too many people on New York’ s Lower East Side. Just around the corner was Kim’ s Video.
It was an institution. Like a couple of my roommates, the founders and employees of Kim’ s were film students at New York University. They were all terrible film snobs, as were we. The thousands of videos at Kim’ s, many of them rare, were cataloged by director; this made sense for the films of, say, Ingmar Bergman, but not so much if you were looking for, perhaps, something in the James Bond franchise. You’ d ask for Goldeneye and the bespectacled hipster behind the counter would drag his contemptuous gaze over you, sigh deeply, and ask,“ Who’ s the director?” He knows you don’ t know. You don’ t belong in Kim’ s. There’ s a Blockbuster for people like you.
We compiled our own extensive film library by making bootleg copies from Kim’ s, cramming three or four movies onto a single videotape to save money( the quality was awful but hey, we had all these movies!). So we could watch our favorites over and over again, and we did. Choosing a top three is almost impossible but a list of favorite oft-repeats would have to start with...
1. And the Ship Sails On( 1983). Fellini at his Fellini-est! It’ s 1914 and the greatest of all sopranos has died. The cultural elite are on an ocean voyage to scatter her ashes. Drama and mayhem ensue. Also, there is a rhinoceros. The opening three minutes may be the most wonderful sequence in film, ever.
2. Hope and Glory( 1987). John Boorman’ s semi-autobiographical account of his boyhood in London during the Blitz. Funny, sad, ultimately uplifting.
3. Never Cry Wolf( 1983). A young biologist is on a solo government assignment to study Arctic wolves. It’ s a gorgeous, thoughtprovoking movie.
And then there’ s The Rocky Horror Picture Show( 1975). Never rented it, though! You go to this movie for the surrounding party. Yes, it’ s objectively a terrible film, but I was there every Friday for the midnight showing at the Waverly Theater when I was fifteen( I played Magenta, for those in the know).
So many runners-up: His Girl Friday( 1940), Little Miss Sunshine( 2006), Boogie Nights( 1997), My Life as a Dog( 1985), Best in
Show( 2000). I’ ve seen all of these so many times, it’ s almost embarrassing. And, yes, they are all mostly feel-good films. There are certainly movies I’ ve adored that weren’ t— There Will Be
Blood( 2007) comes to mind— but I’ m not inclined to watch them repeatedly. Every film I love hits me hard, and I’ m not always ready to be devastated. You know what I mean.
Happy Viewing!
Mason Jane Milam Executive Editor
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