One of the nicer trends flying around my social feeds right now is about films, and the memories and connections people have to them.
Put simply, it’s a thing where one person nominates another to talk about their 10 favourite films. Some people have done it one film at a time, others have just lumped them all into a single post.
You’re not required to share your history with each of the movies, but it’s a good chance nonetheless to talk about what they meant to you, and generally just go down a bit of a nostalgia trip.
For instance, I’ve seen former editor Mark Serrels talk about his preference in Ghibli films. Another close friend wrote about their love of The Thin Red Line. John Wick‘s been a particular favourite, unsurprisingly.
You pick the films in no particular order. So with my current headspace, and I’ll provide a bunch of reasons below, here’s my favourite 10:
- V for Vendetta
- Howl’s Moving Castle
- Aladdin
- Saving Private Ryan
- The Matrix Reloaded
- Requiem For A Dream
- Star Wars: A New Hope
- WALL.E
- How To Train Your Dragon
- Labyrinth
I don’t pretend that most of the above are the best films of their time, or even the best works of their particular production houses. But I have a strong memory with each of them, which is why they’ve stuck out.
I was way too young to be seeing Saving Private Ryan in the cinemas, for instance, but some smooth talking from Mum got me through the doors. That was a confronting movie to watch at the time – but worth it, especially since I was also playing a lot of military shooters at that age.
On the flipside, The Matrix Reloaded was an utterly shithouse film. No bones about it. But it was the first midnight movie launch my family had gone to – we lapped up the original so much – and the fun of doing that at the cheapo movie theatre in Campbelltown (Dumaresq St for life) was a great time.
I don’t love all of WALL.E, but the first 45 minutes I think are as good as anything Pixar has produced. It was essentially a movie without words at that point. It spoke to kids and adults without having to pander or over-explain. It was as an intelligent bit of cinema as anything else that year.
Howl and How to Train Your Dragon speak to the kid in me; Star Wars because my brother and I named one of our dogs after Yoda, when we were so young I couldn’t even remember seeing the film for the first time. I still loved the experience of seeing Labyrinth on the school bus and hearing the science teacher rave about his crush on Jennifer Connelly. And seeing Bowie do Bowie is still special today.
What are your 10 favourite movies – and what are your memories of them?
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