Notes on Film: Thankful for Film

 by Anthony King

A top ten.

A GOODFELLAS Diary: Reflections on Movie Love and Friendship

by Erika Bromley and Mike Pomaro

Or, "What It's Like to Hang Out with Erika and Mike."

F This Movie! - F Breast Cancer! Adam Riske and the Best of 1990

Adam Riske stops by the 18-hour F Breast Cancer! Podcast-a-thon so he and Patrick can name some of their favorite movies of 1990. Originally recorded and broadcast July 9, 2016.

Cinema Bestius: Goodfellas

Like colorful relatives who live on the shady side of town, it is a joy to visit Martin Scorsese's gangster opus Goodfellas again and again.

Growing Up Nerdy

by Adam Thas and Mike Pomaro

The Nerdy boys will keep you up all night.

More of Our Favorite Movies (400th Post!)

Can you guys believe it? 400 posts! It seems like just yesterday we were at 398. Let's celebrate by busting out some more of our favorite movies of all time!

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.

10 Good Performances from Bad Actors

by Patrick Bromley

This one pretty much speaks for itself, right?

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!

Thanksf'ing #2: Five Movies for Which Mike 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 installment comes courtesy of Mike Pomaro:

1. Goodfellas (1990) - No movie means more to me then Goodfellas. Seeing it for the first time was literally a life-changing experience. For the first 13 years of my life, I watched a lot of movies. It was a wonderful hobby. But when my parents rented Goodfellas in 1991 (yes, I know, I was way too young to watch Goodfellas), it shook my world. It was the first time I noticed things like camera movement, music, editing, lighting – all the things a director uses to tell his or her story. As soon as Goodfellas ended, I knew I was changed: I went from being a kid that watched whatever was on at the time, or whatever his parents dragged him to, to someone that sought movies and directors and writers out. Goodfellas is the reason I went to film school. Goodfellas is the reason I stayed up late at night editing short films on 16mm. Goodfellas is the reason I’ve seen the films of Kurosawa and Fellini and Powell and Kubrick. Goodfellas broke a seal in my life, and it's never been the same.

2. The Empire Strikes Back (1980) - Like many nerds, the original Star Wars trilogy means the world to me. The Empire Strikes Back was my favorite as kid and remains so today. I’m thankful for Star Wars for a number of reasons, the biggest being that it's a common thread in many of my relationships. My friends and I have bonded over the franchise from the first time we met. Some of the fondest memories I have (remember, I’m a huge nerd) are Star Wars related. Like waiting outside of a local Toys “R” Us for seven hours in anticipation of the Episode I figures being released at midnight. Or watching my friend Charlie win Star Wars Trivial Pursuit in one turn. ONE TURN. Or hearing my beautiful wife quote the movies and watching her excitedly purchase her own Yoda backpack. We don’t all agree on politics or religion or countless other issues, but the one common ground we all share is Star Wars.

3. Swingers (1996) - My old girlfriend broke my heart at the end of 1997. Ripped it out, stomped on it, pissed on it, then stomped on it a little more. A week or two after she ate my soul, I found myself in an uncomfortable position: It was a Friday night and my friends all had plans that didn’t involve me. I decided to drown my sorrows in cinema, in the hopes that I would stop crying long enough to actually watch a movie through my foggy, tear-filled glasses. Swingers was about to start. I hadn’t seen it, and thought I could coast through a pointless movie without having to exercise any part of my brain. What I got was the perfect movie at the right time in my life. It’s a simple story of boy loses girl, whines about it for 2 hours, before finding out that his life will go on and there are other fish in the sea. As corny as it sounds, it restored some hope in me, if only for that night, and it stands alone as a shining example for me that sometimes movies are the best medicine.

4. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) - This is easily the worst movie on the list, but I’m extremely grateful it entered my life. I was 10 or 11 years old at the time. My sister had rented it one Friday night with her boyfriend. The next night I had a few friends over for a sleepover. When my family went to bed, we threw in Nightmare 3 (thank you, sis, for forgetting to return it!) and my love of horror films was born. From that point on, I tried my hardest to watch any horror when and where I could. I’d beg my sister to rent them, especially the Freddy movies, and “forget” to return them. This way I could watch them without my mom or dad finding out. They weren’t fans. And don’t think I forgot about you “accidentally” throwing out my copies of Fangoria, mom. Not cool.

5. Private Parts (1997) In 1996 and 1997, I was listening to a local Chicago DJ named Mancow. I thought he was the funniest/craziest thing I’d heard. I wasn’t a smart kid. Then, in my freshman year of college, my friend Adam (another Mancow disciple) and I rented Private Parts. We didn’t like Howard Stern at the time (mainly because Mancow told us not to), but we’d heard the movie was pretty good and gave it a shot. Thank God we did. We found in Howard Stern, through Private Parts, what we thought we had found in Mancow: Stern was, and is, a brilliant satirist, amazing interviewer and the ultimate entertainer. I’m proud to say that I started listening to Stern right after seeing Private Parts and I haven’t looked back. He and his show have been a big and important part of my life for over ten years, and I owe it all to Private Parts.

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!