I'm a teacher, and today I return to work for a month of inservice and preparation before school starts on Aug. 15. This is only my second year teaching and it is at a different school than I was at last year.
To get myself ready, I put together a little triple feature of movies that inspire me. Herewith, my thoughts on those movies:
Rock n Roll High School
I know, not exactly the first movie that comes to mind when you think of "inspirational" films, but this movie has such energy and vibrancy that it continues to astound me. The greatest thing about it is that it imagines an alternate universe in which The Ramones are the pop stars they always should have been. The sheer pop delight of their music and the energy of PJ Soles as Riff Randall make up for all of the movie's failings (and there are plenty. This is a Roger Corman production after all). The "Do You Wanna Dance?" musical number remains one of the most joyful three minutes in movie history.
Waking Life
I didn't get into this film at first, but it has grown on me over the years. Every time I watch it, the disparate, seemingly random pieces become more and more connected to reveal the film's underlying theme: life is a vast sea of untapped potential -creatively, spiritually, scientifically - and we should work harder to make our waking life have the limitless potential of our dreams. As a teacher, I also love this film (and several of Linklater's other films, such as Slacker and Before Sunrise) for the way they revel in the joy of intellectual pursuit. I (no doubt like many other people) often had that joy crushed out of me by lifeless teachers. I have thus made it my job to turn kids on to learning just like Linklater and many of my other heroes did for me.
Dazed and Confused
What can I say that hasn't already been said? To me, it ranks right behind Pulp Fiction as the defining film of the '90s. I don't know how many times I've seen it, but something new strikes me everytime. This time, I have just recently finished Steven Johnson's new book Everything Bad is Good For You, in which he argues that pop culture actually makes us smarter. One of his main arguments is that mainstream entertainment has gotten increasingly complex over time, and storytelling techniques that forty years ago were relegated to avant garde theatre are now popping up in mainstream entertainment like Seinfeld. This crystallized something that has always struck me about Dazed and Confused. Linklater created a Robert Altman-style plotless ensemble piece that is favorite movie of many people who would never have the patience for an Altman movie, or even one of Linklater's more experimental works like Slacker or Waking Life. It, like Pulp Fiction, is both picked over by film scholars and beloved by jocks and stoners who would look at you cross-eyed if you used words like auteur around them. More art should strive to be like that.
To get myself ready, I put together a little triple feature of movies that inspire me. Herewith, my thoughts on those movies:
Rock n Roll High School
I know, not exactly the first movie that comes to mind when you think of "inspirational" films, but this movie has such energy and vibrancy that it continues to astound me. The greatest thing about it is that it imagines an alternate universe in which The Ramones are the pop stars they always should have been. The sheer pop delight of their music and the energy of PJ Soles as Riff Randall make up for all of the movie's failings (and there are plenty. This is a Roger Corman production after all). The "Do You Wanna Dance?" musical number remains one of the most joyful three minutes in movie history.
Waking Life
I didn't get into this film at first, but it has grown on me over the years. Every time I watch it, the disparate, seemingly random pieces become more and more connected to reveal the film's underlying theme: life is a vast sea of untapped potential -creatively, spiritually, scientifically - and we should work harder to make our waking life have the limitless potential of our dreams. As a teacher, I also love this film (and several of Linklater's other films, such as Slacker and Before Sunrise) for the way they revel in the joy of intellectual pursuit. I (no doubt like many other people) often had that joy crushed out of me by lifeless teachers. I have thus made it my job to turn kids on to learning just like Linklater and many of my other heroes did for me.
Dazed and Confused
What can I say that hasn't already been said? To me, it ranks right behind Pulp Fiction as the defining film of the '90s. I don't know how many times I've seen it, but something new strikes me everytime. This time, I have just recently finished Steven Johnson's new book Everything Bad is Good For You, in which he argues that pop culture actually makes us smarter. One of his main arguments is that mainstream entertainment has gotten increasingly complex over time, and storytelling techniques that forty years ago were relegated to avant garde theatre are now popping up in mainstream entertainment like Seinfeld. This crystallized something that has always struck me about Dazed and Confused. Linklater created a Robert Altman-style plotless ensemble piece that is favorite movie of many people who would never have the patience for an Altman movie, or even one of Linklater's more experimental works like Slacker or Waking Life. It, like Pulp Fiction, is both picked over by film scholars and beloved by jocks and stoners who would look at you cross-eyed if you used words like auteur around them. More art should strive to be like that.