Uncreated Conscience

On my way to work last week, I was listening to my favourite soundtrack of all time. My headphone must have been blaring loud enough for the person next to me to overhear, so he casually leaned over and asked what I was listening to.

“Oh, the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack.”

“Cool,” he said. “Is it a band?”

“No, it’s a movie soundtrack from a film set in early 1970s London.”

“That sounds neat. What’s it about?”

I opened my mouth to reply and then shut it. He seemed like a nice enough young man, dressed in khakis and a light pink dress shirt, clearly on his way to work in midtown somewhere. He had the clean-cut, all-American good looks of an Average Joe. Velvet Goldmine is not something you casually spring on someone before a first date; Velvet Goldmine is something you subtly drop hints about to see how comfortable the other person is before broaching the subject due to its, uh, less-than-mainstream content.

Which got me thinking: I have a lot of movies I adore that I happily recommend to people, but three of my favourite movies of all time always have been putting on the brakes before getting the word out. Without further ado, my 3 Movies I Love But Hesitate to Recommend To People Due to Less Than Mainstream Content are:

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Last night I went to see Titanic in theatres.

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Last night I went to a midnight viewing of the Hunger Games.

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First and foremost, you love yourself some books. Some people have porn, you have that scene where Beast reveals to Belle the library that he is now giving over to her, as he knows it’s what she would love more than anything in the world. No human being will ever romantically live up to you in your life now, as no one will be able to present you with an 8,000 square-foot Baroque library in the middle of a French castle to use at your discretion. You also have a soft spot in your heart for provincial France, Stockholm Syndrome, teacups with tiny chips on their rim, and furniture that springs to live to give you fabulous dating advice. Essentially, when you dream and go to that happy place, you are Belle.

I wish these lists had broken these Disney films into Pre-Renaissance, Renaissance, Post-Renaissance, and Pixar, because I definitely have favourites in each category. But I suppose you had to make me choose, then Beauty and the Beast is the hands-down winner. And the thing about book porn is totally true.

My friend Allison IMed me today, saying she had run into Julie Andrews in the restroom, which naturally led us into discussing our favourite Julie Andrews movies, Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music.

• JJ: It’s so funny, because when I was younger, I had no idea how MEAN the Baroness was being to Maria. I was like, “Oh, she’s nice, helping her pick out a pretty dress!” Just goes to show how much a child doesn’t understand…
• ALLISON: yeah i definitely didn’t get the whole suffragette thing in mary poppins either
• JJ: …wow, I was a weird child. At six I knew what a suffragette was, but apparently had no concept of deceitful manipulation between women vying for the romantic affections of the same man.
• ALLISON: hahaha
• JJ: Now I have “Well done, sister suffragette!” stuck in my head.
• ALLISON: man i don’t even remember the actual song
• JJ: I don’t know if I could think of the lyrics off the top of my head, but I bet you if it were playing somewhere, I would know every word.

Cast off the shackles of yesterday,
Shoulder-to-shoulder into the fray!
Our daughters’ daughters will adore us,
And they’ll sing in grateful chorus,
“Well done, sister suffragette!”

And yes, I apparently do know all the words to “Well Done, Sister Suffragette!” when it’s playing.

Peter and Wendy. Excuse me while I swoon. (And feel dirty.)

If you were on Twitter last night, you probably would have seen me live-tweet my watching of the 2003 version of Peter Pan with Jason Isaacs as Hook. I apparently blog about this movie a lot (see this review, and this review and this mention), and generally all within the same context: coming-of-age.

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Yesterday we discussed the casting of Jennifer Lawrence in a role that could have gone to a person of color. Today I would like to direct your attention to something far worse:

Actors Hollywood is courting to play the lead roles in a live-action adaptation of Akira.

For those of you who don’t know, Akira was a cult film based on a manga about a post-apocalyptic, dystopian future society. They are making a live-action version of it. With apparently only white people. Named Tetsuo and Kaneda.

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