Questions from SLIFR

I encourage everyone to participate in Dennis Cozzalio's new, recent, fun-filled quiz over at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule. My answers are as follows.

1) What was the last movie you saw theatrically? On DVD or Blu-ray?

Theatrically - Role Models. On DVD - My Favorite Year.

2) Holiday movies— Do you like them naughty or nice?

I prefer to think of it as a choice between emotional and honest or saccharine and syrupy. I'd just as soon snuggle up by the fireside with Bad Santa (or better yet, Blast of Silence) as It's a Wonderful Life or A Charlie Brown Christmas.

3) Ida Lupino or Mercedes McCambridge?

Lupino was a better actress and director, but McCambridge was the voice of little Reagan in The Exorcist, so I'm afraid she wins.

4) Favorite actor/character from Twin Peaks

Kyle McLachlan

5) It’s been said that, rather than remaking beloved, respected films, Hollywood should concentrate more on righting the wrongs of the past and tinker more with films that didn’t work so well the first time. Pretending for a moment that movies are made in an economic vacuum, name a good candidate for a remake based on this criterion.

Even lousy movies are products of their time, and as such, unless the remakes in question have the distinction of being as good as Cronenberg's The Fly, I'd still kinda prefer that they left well alone.

6) Favorite Spike Lee joint.

The 25th Hour

7) Lawrence Tierney or Scott Brady?

"Let's go to woik." Tierney all the way.

8) Are most movies too long?

No. Some, but not most.

9) Favorite performance by an actor portraying a real-life politician.

Cheating here, but nothing else really comes to mind: Ossie Davis as John F. Kennedy in Bubba Ho-Tep.

10) Create the main event card for the ultimate giant movie monster smackdown.

The Kraken vs. The Giant Claw!

11) Jean Peters or Sheree North?

Peters for Sam Fuller's seminal Pickup on South Street.

12) Why would you ever want or need to see a movie more than once?

Because, I dunno, you like it? I know Pauline Kael was against this, but really, I've never paid that much attention to what Pauline Kael had to say about anything.

13) Favorite road movie.

Y Tu Mama Tambien

14) Favorite Budd Boetticher picture.

Seven Men From Now

15) Who is the one person, living or dead, famous or unknown, who most informed or encouraged your appreciation of movies?

My high school photography teacher, Jason Whiton

16) Favorite opening credit sequence. (Please include YouTube link if possible.)

Coonskin

17) Kenneth Tobey or John Agar?

I'm not sure who Kenneth Tobey is, but I'm sure I've seen John Agar in some monster beach party movie or another. So, him.

18) Jean-Luc Godard once suggested that the more popular the movie, the less likely it was that it was a good movie. Is he right or just cranky? Cite the best evidence one way or the other.

I don't think Jean-Luc Godard's crankiness is mutually exclusive from his rightness or wrongness of any given subject, but that's beside the point. Great movies are popular (The Godfather) and so are crummy ones (300). I think it's just highfalutin' nonsense to try and say a film's popularity is disproportionate to its quality, especially since popularity is statistically mesaurable and quality is extremely subjective. That's not even taking into account films whose reputations has changed over the years - The Wizard of Oz tanked when first released, now it's the most beloved film ever. Does that make it it a worse movie now than it was in '39?

19) Favorite Jonathan Demme movie.

Stop Making Sense

20) Tatum O’Neal or Linda Blair?

Paper Moon is my girlfriend's alltime favorite movie (and a film I dearly love too), so, Tatum.

21) Favorite use of irony in a movie. (This could be an idea, moment, scene, or an entire film.)

The ending of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

22) Favorite Claude Chabrol film.

I'm afraid I've only seen his most recent, A Girl Cut in Two, but I liked that one.

23) The best movie of the year to which very little attention seems to have been paid.

I really don't see why everyone hated on My Blueberry Nights. It's true that Wong Kar-Wai hasn't got a great ear for English, and Rachel Weisz does a pretty poor Southern Accent, but I found it an incredibly sweet fable of a confection and Norah Jones is just too cute.

24) Dennis Christopher or Robby Benson?

Dennis Christopher, for a little film called Fade to Black which every self-proclaimed cinephile should see as a cautionary tale.

25) Favorite movie about journalism.

His Girl Friday

26) What’s the DVD commentary you’d most like to hear? Who would be on the audio track?

The interviews I've seen with Sam Fuller are even better than the movies themselves. What I would've given for this man to record a commentary track.

27) Favorite movie directed by Clint Eastwood.

Unforgiven, although I really also love Play Misty for Me.

28) Paul Dooley or Kurtwood Smith?

Kurtwood Smith.

29) Your clairvoyant moment: Make a prediction about the Oscar season.

That I will have seen (or will have any interest in seeing) fewer of the nominated films than any year in recent memory, but will still watch the ceremony anyway, because I'm weak.

30) Your hope for the movies in 2009.

2009 is probably askin' a bit much, but for the near future, I sincerely hope that Ralph Bakshi manages to complete his ongoing project The Last Days of Coney Island.

31) What’s your top 10 of 2008? (If you have a blog and have your list posted, please feel free to leave a link to the post.)

#1 is Let The Right One In. #'s 2 through 10 have yet to be determiend. I need to catch up on my movie watching, but Synecdoche, New York, Pineapple Express and WALL-E all factor pretty highly too.