Sweetpea’s Garden

Both sprite and randomduck ran this meme over the past couple of days and I found it fun and challenging, so I thought I’d give it a try. Here are the rules:

1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. Looking them up is cheating, please don’t.

And here are the quotes:

1. Oh, I see! So God made you, and the baker, apparently, made God?

2. Each time I wear black, or like, lose my temper, or say anything about anything, you know, they always go, “Oh it’s so French. It’s so cute.” Ugh! I hate that!

3. Phone call from God… Now if it had been collect, it would have been daring
(Dead Poet’s Society, correctly identified by sprite)

4. Lesbian? Her birthday’s in March. I thought she was a Pisces.

5. I can’t believe my grandmother actually felt me up.
(Sixteen Candles, correctly identified by Roon)

6. I named my guitar “Roosevelt”-not Ted, Franklin. You know, the cute one, with polio.
(Juno, correctly identified by randomduck)

7. This isn’t a conversation about this being over. I’m not like, putting a period at the end of this. I’m putting like… an ellipsis on it.

8. I have been chosen. Farewell, my friends. I go to a better place.
(Toy Story, correctly identified by Roon)

9. A trip to the moon! And I’ll tell ya a secret. It ain’t a man that’s up there, Doc. It’s a girl, lady. Buenas noches, Señor.

10. That felt good. (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, correctly identified by Shannon)

It’s a strange thing… As eager as I was for 2007 and all of its horrible-ness to be gone, I had a serious lack of enthusiasm for ringing in the new year. I’ve never been a huge fan of New Year’s Eve, I think because I spent my entire life hearing my dad refer to it as “amateur night,” but this year I was feeling especially disinclined. I was leaning strongly toward having a low- key night at home, but sprite & Rudi invited me to join them on their annual NYE movie-fest and managed to convince me that I would not be a third wheel, so I agreed. A long night at the movies with good friends seemed like just the way to usher in the year.

The last time I went to three movies in one day was on my 11th birthday, when I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark, Chariots of Fire, and Deathtrap. (My main memory of this outing is that it was the first time I had ever seen a romantic kiss between men onscreen. I remember wondering why Superman would kiss another guy like that. But I digress.) After some deliberation of movie listings and available venues, we decided to start with Charlie Wilson’s War at Dupont Circle, and then head down to E Street Cinema for Juno, where we were joined by our friend Susan and her friend Hal. They stayed with us for a late dinner at Ella’s, but passed on the trip to Gallery Place, and our final selection, The Great Debaters.

I found Charlie Wilson’s War odd; it couldn’t seem to decide if it was a bordering-on-slapstick comedy or a Serious War Film, which lead to awkward transitions like moving from goofy scene between Wilson, his buxom secretaries, and the CIA guy to archival-looking footage of the bombing of Afghanistan. It was… jarring, to say the least. The Great Debaters was OK; heavy on the message (Racism is Bad), but salvaged by really great performances. I’m pretty sure I could be happy watching Denzel Washington read the phone book, and Forrest Whitaker is great, so they saved what could have been a dull, self-serious film.

The hit of the night was Juno. I honestly enjoyed it so much that I would have stayed in the theater and watched it again if we hadn’t been at the final performance of the night. (E Street Cinema closed early, unlike other places.) The story — 16-year-old finds herself unexpectedly pregnant by her geeky best friend — could easily have veered into Lifetime-movie-of-the-week territory, but instead offered characters who came across as honest, interesting, and real. Even those who seemed at first to be cardboard cutouts, like Jennifer Garner’s role as the wife of the couple Juno selects to adopt her baby, turn out to be more nuanced and sympathetic than they initially appear. The dialog was sassy and funny, and it turned out to be a surprisingly touching movie, but in an entirely non-schmaltzy way. Big, big love for Juno – go see it if you can.

The Hogwarts Express, that is.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re aware that the latest wave of Harry Potter-mania is sweeping the world as the fifth movie (The Order of the Phoenix) and the seventh — and final — book (The Deathly Hallows) are making their debuts in a ten-day wizardpalooza that began last Wednesday.

I managed to convince myself that all of this was happening last month, and was eagerly anticipating both the book and the movie. Once I found out I had the dates all wrong, I somehow lost steam and now am not ready at all. I haven’t yet made it to the movie, I just pre-ordered the book on Amazon over the weekend, and I still need to re-read The Half-Blood Prince — before Saturday when the new one comes in the mail.

I’m wishing right now that I had Hermione’s time-turner so I could buy myself a few extra days, but alas, I’m just a muggle.