2.22.2003 [before midnight]

lookit all them 2's in the date! 2.22.2002. that's just cool. course now i realized it's not 2002, it's 2003. nevermind.

so: i'm fucking TIRED. just came back from a conference in cincinnati, going out to another next wednesday. URGH!

heh. read this thing in Premiere magazine: top 100 movie moments? i wanna do something like it! mine's not gonna be 100, though. that's WAY too many. and i'm not gonna bother sorting them. so here's just 20 of my favorite movie moments in no particular order:

1. Ballroom Dance, Beauty and the Beast. you know the one. he's all nervously preparing, and then suddenly Cogsworth comes in, clears his throat, and goes: "Your lady awaits." and then it cuts to the staircase with Belle sashaying down in her yellow gown (who cares if she looks like a cake?) and then the dinner and the dance and all - awww, it's just a great scene.

2. while we're on Disney - Lion King. Simba ascending Pride Rock after killing Scar. that MUSIC. that RAIN. that MOMENT. ooooog.

3. Last of the Mohicans. The KISS. Yeah, the last 25 minutes are just incredible, and Alice jumping off the cliff deserves and honorable mention (that look in her eyes, man. ooog. that silence. that music!), but it's the kiss - utterly wordless, grasping, shuddering - that i remember.

4. Mission Impossible II. The dove scene, where Ethan Hunt blows the door open and the bad guy's squinting through the flames and this dove flies in and simultaneously Ethan stalks past the door, firelit - oh MAN, so cool.

5. The Cell. The demongoat. It's that scene where J Lo's char finds the serial killer by the bathtub in his mind, and then he fades into the darkness and suddenly his demonic self just APPEARS and throws J Lo down, and then - oooozes over her all bestial and alien with his head shaved, his hair gelled into two twisting horns, and like - weird yellowish fleece-y stuff crusted over his head and down his back. lotsa cool scenes in the Cell, but that's the one that stands out in my mind.

6. another J Lo one. Out of Sight, the sex scene. quite possibly THE BEST sex scene i've seen. very cool, tasteful interspersion of the conversation with what you think at first is a fantasy of them undressing in a hotel room that - suddenly, at the end of the convo ("let's get outta here.") - you realize is real.

7. Star Wars Ep 2. Anakin's confession, where he snarls and seethes about HATING the folks that killed his mother - and then that insidious Imperial March just creeps in, all low and threatening. honorable mention to the terrifying incidence of that imperial march at the end, too, when the camera pans out over all them storm troopers.

8. The Godfather, Michael's first assassination. you TOTALLY think he's chickened out when he walks out of the bathroom and goes back to the table and sits down - and then BLAM.

9. The Silence of the Lambs. First (and only) Contact. that moment where clarice is in baltimore and hannibal's in that cage-y looking thing and he holds out his file to her and she breaks away from the guards dragging her off, runs back, grabs it - and their fingers touch for that one. instant. 'course, Hannibal in action is worth an honorable mention or two (when he beats the guard to death totally calmly, and when he rips the dead man's face off his face in the ambulance...)

10. Interview with the Vampire. The Kiss, again. that one between claudia and louis. for a moment, you COMPLETELY forget that kirsten dunst is a human child, 11 years of age. all you see is the 100-year old vampiress kissing her maker and love(r).

11. The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers. GANDALF! that one scene! in theoden's hall! where saruman mocks through theoden's mouth: "you cannot banish me. you haven't the power - Gandalf the Grey" - and Gandalf doesn't say a thing. his eyes blaze. he THROWS OFF THE CLOAK: BLINDING! WHITE! HELL YEAH!

...ahem.

12. Monsters Inc. "BOOO!" when Sully sees the crunched-up cube of trash with one of boo's costume's eyes dangling from it and you see him yell "BOOOO!" through the glass - mouth all like, lopsided, all horrified - oh man. comic GOLD.

13. Dark City. Shattering Glass. where the guy and his wife are seated across from each other in the police station and then their time is up and he reaches forward and focuses and his fingertips touch the glass - and it just. shatters. oh man. i mean, there's an honorable mention for when he breaks through the wall and sees SPACE - but that's really the defining moment of the movie.

14. X-Men. Stigmata. wolverine - knowing full well that she could kill him - puts his hand on rogue's forehead to transfer his healing powers to her...but nothing happens. so he's all distraught and pulls her closer, rocking her - and then her power kicks in after all and like, the wounds transfer to him, and blood starts trickling out from unseen cuts. man, just so cool. honorable mention for the scene with magneto walking across space with metal flying up to form a path at this feet, and also the sequence with xavier's bigass machine.

15. American Beauty. the "life flashing before eyes". i don't think this needs any explanation. it's that last incredible few minutes where he recounts - in such deceptively simple prose - moments out of his life, and the beauty all around, and ...wow.

16. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Fly Away. where at the end, Dark Cloud gets to Jen and you think he's gonna save her - but NOOO. she fucking...SOARS up. and. floats into the fog. and then while you're still left there stunned, it pulls into this gorgeous panoramic of those ancient, ancient mountains - and then fades to credits. SHIT.

17. Virgin Suicides. Unbuckling. another example of Kirsten Dunst's INCREDIBLE acting. at the end where, in retrospect, she's resigned to her doom and fully aware of her sisters dying in the house all around her - she's got such world-weary wisdom in her eyes, and such jaded sensuality, sidling up to Chase Buell and just...undoing. his. belt. buckle. one-handed. one last tease. one last game. one last...whatever. my god.

18. Moulin Rouge. Lovers at the Window. just that one - tiny - miniscule - instantaneous glimpse of the lovers (duh) at the (duh) window (duh) of his flat, all aglow with sunlight, entwined and bareskinned, but somehow not obscene.

19. Original Sin. Swap! at the end, where you think she's a goner and the guards come for her and find her praying - and then strip off the shawl to reveal - THE PRIEST! hahahaha! i know it's a stupid, trashy, campy movie? but DAMN did i love it.

20. another Angelina one: Girl, Interrupted. Devastation. that one scene where what's her face, the chicken girl says some little smug comment that just sets. lisa. off. and starts this horrifying chain-reaction of venom not spewed, not shouted, but just ...dripped... word by word from her tongue. dear god.

--all right! that's enough. there are more, and some of my favorite movies aren't even mentioned here because these are just MOMENTS, not whole flicks (and many movies i love have to be seen whole) - but god, these moments did rock.