24 Hours of Movies: Happy Birthday Erika! Part II

by Patrick Bromley

It's Erika's birthday! Let's do another movie marathon for my favorite girl.

The Movie Music of 1986

by Erika Bromley

When Patrick first told me that 1986 was likely the year for 2019’s F This Movie Fest, 1985 popped in my head. Years ago, I put together a list of favorite songs from 1985 movies as we were celebrating ‘85 for the 2014 F This Movie Fest, and I had the most fun writing it (of course as soon as a submitted it to my beardy editor/boss, I realized I had forgotten some favorites, as I am SURE I will do right now).

Netflix This Movie! Vol. 173

by Patrick Bromley

Is it just me or is this column getting a whole lot sexier this week?

24 Hours of Movies: Movies About Movies

by Patrick Bromley

Movies inside of movies? How much more movie can you get?

Where the F is Doug? #2

by Doug Schultz

This one should be a little harder.

Riske Business: Paul Thomas Anderson is Pissing Me Off

by Adam Riske

What do directors owe their audience?

F This Movie! - Falling in Love at the Movies

Patrick and Erika talk through some of the movies that played a part in the evolution of their relationship, from Boogie Nights to Armageddon.

Our Favorite Musical Numbers

Sometimes, words just won't do. Sometimes we have to SING.

F This Movie! - Erika's Favorite Movies

For the last show of 2011, Patrick talks to Erika about her favorite movies, the importance of empathy and what it's like to be a lifelong fan of one Thomas Mapother IV.

Thanksf'ing #6: Five Movies for Which Erika is Thankful

It's November, and that can mean only one thing at F This Movie! -- it's time to celebrate the holiday of Thanksf'ing. Throughout the month, all of the F This Movie! crew will be sharing the movies for which they are thankful. Because the Mayflower.

Today's unnaturally pretty Thanksf'ing list comes from Erika:

1. Wuthering Heights (1939) - My early introductions to film came from my family, and some of the titles were in the classic tradition of “First Movies for Young Children” -- aka Disney films. I’m pretty sure I, like most others, cried during Bambi. Like many other children of the '80s, I graduated to Annie and E.T. But I did not quite fit in with the rest of the elementary school set when it came to the other film I watched weekly: Wuthering Heights (0ther grade-schoolers were not crying at Heathcliff’s sorrow or the heartbreaking way that money and circumstance kept two people in love apart). My mom loved this film, and whenever she suggested a movie to me – even when I was very, very young – I took the suggestion as an important ‘event’ of which I could not miss. This was before buying movies to own was common, so if an important (or fun) movie was going to be on TV, my family was all over it. Or, in front of it. (I still have the TV recording of Grease from when it aired in 1980. Yes, I was a baby. But my mom had the foresight to know that in just a couple years, I’d want to watch it every week.) My mother recorded Wuthering Heights, and I watched that VHS tape repeatedly for nearly twenty years. When I was in college, I bought it on VHS; I’m still waiting for its release on DVD. Or Blu-ray. I’ll take it however I can get it! I still hear the music playing at the ball when Heathcliff enters as a wealthy man; I still hear the whistling wind that brings Cathy’s spirit back to the farmhouse; I still feel the pain as Heathcliff is made a servant because of his social/economic status; I still see the aching in Heathcliff’s eyes as he thinks of Catherine. This movie has never left me.

2. Hairspray (1988) - I liked Adam Shankman’s 2007 remake (I’m not a total snob… I can like more than one version of a story) quite a bit. It was the last film I saw in the theater with my grandmother, Pearl. She loved movies and passed down that love to my mother and to me. My grandma LOVED it, and we had a great time at the theater. For that, Shankman’s film will always hold a special place in my heart. But John Waters’ 1998 film was more than fun to me when I first saw it – it was an introduction to the Civil Rights movement, Beatniks (I really wanted to wear black turtlenecks and read poetry), music history, and The Sixties. Thanks to my Aunt Lori, I got a bootleg copy of this film and watched it repeatedly (Ghostbusters and Can’t Buy Me Love, two of my other childhood favorites, were also on this bootlegged VHS. It was fantastic!) I still remember my mom showing me '60s dance moves and both of my parents explaining to me why so many talented, popular African American music artists ended up penniless at the end of their careers… Did Hairspray influence my passion for equality and fairness?

3. Goodfellas (1990) - See Mike Pomaro’s list. He got it all right. (But I think he forgot to elaborate about the soundtrack…)

4. Boogie Nights (1997) - When I worked at Blockbuster Video (one day, that statement will not make sense), a small number of people refused to rent this film because – NO! – it dealt with some ‘adult’ situations. That’s too bad. Paul Thomas Anderson owes a lot to the directors who inspired him (in 1997, I kept thinking, “Scorsese” when I saw Boogie Nights in the theater), but that’s a good thing, because every choice in the movie is the right one. The story is about so much more than the posters let on, and the performances are more complex than the Academy Awards left us to believe (in the Academy’s defense, 1997 was an strong year for American films). I was entranced and moved by the lives of these characters; their desire to belong and to prove themselves worthy made them relatable and sympathetic. Who knew a story set to the backdrop of the pornography industry could be both heartbreaking and heartwarming? And thanks to Boogie Nights, I had a great Halloween costume one year in college. For one entire day, I never took off my skates.

5. Notting Hill (1999) - My husband and I were just friends when this movie came out. We liked it. Very much. Five years later, we danced to a song from this film at our wedding. We connected over a lot of movies when we were friends. And then when we were dating. They were simply easy conversations. We both loved movies – all kinds of movies – since we were kids, and we loved how we could finish each other’s sentences all the time (even when we weren’t talking about movies!). Is this post getting schmoopy? Are we still talking about movies? Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant sitting on the park bench at the end of the film still makes us squeeze hands a little tighter.

Got a movie or movies you're thankful for? Email us at fthismoviepodcast(at)gmail.com and share. We'll be reading submissions on the podcast all month long. Happy Thanksf'ing!

F These F'ing Awesome Movies

Inception is finally out in theaters today, and because we are human beings with sight we can all agree that it's going to be f'ing awesome. Let's F some more f'ing awesome movies.

1. Back to the Future (1985) - If you don't agree this is the best movie ever made, you're a total Russian.

2. Streets of Fire (1984) - Maybe you hate sledgehammer fights and rock n' roll musicals. Maybe you hate Rick Moranis and Willem Dafoe as a greaser. Maybe you hate things that are awesome. I don't want to know the person that doesn't like Streets of Fire.

3. Boogie Nights (1997) - I've been around this block twice now. Looking for something. A clue. I've been looking for clues and something led me back here. Yeah. So here I am. It could have been me, the one who was at Ringo's place when the shit went down. Hey. I know how it is. I've been there. We've all done bad things. We've all had those guilty feelings in our heart. I'm going to take your brain out of your head and wash it and scrub it and make it clean. I don't know. But I'm going to have to settle this. First we're going to check the hole and see what we can find. We're going to get nice and wet, and you're going to spread your legs. Oh, that's good. So you know me. You know my reputation. Thirteen inches of tough load, I don't treat you gently. That's right. I'm Brock Landers. So I'm going to be nice. So I'm going to be nice. So I'm going to be nice. I'm going to ask you one more time. Where the fuck is Ringo?

4. Point Break (1991) - Because Johnny Utah. Between this, Speed and The Matrix, Keanu Reeves has starred in three of the best action movies of all time.

5. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) - Not just the best Star Trek movie ever made, but one of the best sci-fi films of all time. Great score, great story, great Shatner.

6. Death Race 2000 (1975) - F'ing awesome in every single way. Somehow manages to make Mary Woronov hot.

7. Something Wild (1986) - Jonathan Demme is the man.

8. Lost Highway (1997) - Dick Laurent is dead.

9. The Sure Thing (1985) - There's a large number of f'ing awesome John Cusack romantic comedies to choose from: Better Off Dead. Say Anything. High Fidelity. Must Love Dogs. Except not Must Love Dogs. This one's not actually the best of them, but it gets the edge today for one reason: the Zuniga Factor.

10. Phantom of the Paradise (1974) - We're talking about movies that are f'ing awesome, right? Right. That's why this movie is on here.