I'm a fan of the film blog Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule, and I'm also a fan of its seasonal film quizzes. Here are my answers to the latest installment, and here's a link to the original post. I look forward to reading the other responses, but I purposely avoid them until I get my answers down
1) Most obnoxious movie you've ever seen
Paul Haggis' Crash springs immediately to mind for its mixture of tin-eared sanctimony, white liberal self-congratulation, sitcom-level coincidence, and annoying and unfair usurpation of Cronenberg's Crash as the first movie that comes to mind whenever anyone mentions Crash.
2) Favorite oddball pairing of actors
Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis (and Sandra Bernhard and De Niro, and Bernhard and Lewis) in The King of Comedy
3) Which movie would you have paid to see remade by Ken Russell?
Teen Wolf
4) Emma Stone or Margot Robbie?
I've only seen a few of their films so my opinion is pretty uninformed, but I prefer Stone's more relaxed touch. Robbie looks too much like she's thinking about acting in the scenes of hers I've watched.
5) Which member of Monty Python are you?
I've always felt a particular affinity with Michael Palin, but now I'm curious which one friends and family think I am.
6) Which movie would you have paid to see remade by Vincente Minnelli?
West Side Story
7) Franco Nero or Gian Maria Volonte?
I think Volonte has a much more expressive face and better range. I've never quite warmed up to Nero.
8) Your favorite Japanese monster movie
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
9) Which movie would you have paid to see remade by Stanley Kubrick?
If you share my distaste for Oliver Stone, you may also agree that Kubrick would have made a much better JFK
10) Hanna Schygulla or Barbara Sukowa?
As a Fassbinder fanatic, this is like asking me which eye I'd like to keep, but Schygulla is that eye.
11) Name a critically admired movie that you hate
Inception. It made a ton of critics' year-end lists, and I have friends who love it, but for a movie about dreams, it left no space for my imagination to move around in. I found its exposition-heavy dialogue and overbearing CGI effects as far away from my dreams as a days' worth of office work.
12) Which movie would you have paid to see remade by Elia Kazan?
Jack Hill's Spider Baby, in the style of Kazan's Baby Doll. This would undoubtedly be a disaster, but I'd pay to see it.
13) Better or worse: Disney comedies (1955-1975) or Elvis musicals?
A whole lot of dreck in both piles, but Elvis musicals are better because you get King Creole, which is a genuinely great movie, Viva Las Vegas, which is goofy nonsense with a lot of charm and Ann-Margret, and a couple of concert films full of great songs.
14) Which movie would you have paid to see remade by Alfred Hitchcock?
Robert Benton's The Late Show, with the same cast. I could see it pairing nicely with Family Plot.
15) Ryan Gosling or Channing Tatum?
I once worked in an office with the step-aunt of Jenna Dewan-Tatum, but even that degree of separation can't lure me away from Team Gosling. To be honest, I'm a little sick of both of these guys, but they mostly make good choices.
16) Bad performance in a movie you otherwise like/love
I don't love Okja, but I like many things in it and admire the risks it takes. My minor problems with it are easy to forgive, but Jake Gyllenhaal's performance is nearly a disaster. I don't know whose decision it was to give his character multiple unbearable mannerisms and combine those with a homophobic, over-the-top, gay '80s sitcom character delivery, but it damages the movie whenever he's onscreen.
17) Which movie would you have paid to see remade by Howard Hawks?
True Grit
18) Tippi Hedren or Kim Novak?
Novak has a better filmography, but I think Hedren's my favorite. She has an almost magic screen presence, and she survived Hitchcock's assaults, harassment, and attempts to destroy her career while acting in two of his best and most perverse films, and she and her family lived with a bunch of leopards, tigers, lions, and cheetahs in the '70s, so she's clearly tough as hell.
19) Best crime movie remake
Friedkin's Sorcerer
20) Which movie would you have paid to see remade by Preston Sturges?
The original doesn't need improving, but it would be fun to see a Sturges take on Some Like It Hot
21) West Side Story (the movie), yes or no?
A mild yes. There are dull stretches and moments that are so cornball they make me wince, but certain songs and individual scenes are very much worth seeing.
22) Which movie would you have paid to see remade by Luchino Visconti?
The Barefoot Contessa
23) What was the last movie you saw, theatrically and/or on DVD/Blu-ray/streaming?
Theatrically - Stranded (Juleen Compton) at the Austin Film Society
DVD - The Who: The Kids Are Alright
Blu-ray - Blood Diner
Streaming - The Meyerowitz Stories or Jim & Andy (can't remember which one was last)
24) Brewster McCloud or O.C. and Stiggs?
I've never seen O.C. and Stiggs, but I love Brewster McCloud.
25) Which movie would you have paid to see remade by Luis Bunuel?
The original's a masterpiece, but I would love to see a Bunuel Vertigo
26) Best nature-in-revolt movie
The Birds, with honorable mention shout-out to Kingdom of the Spiders and the line, "Well, that would explain Spider Hill."
27) Best Rene Auberjonois performance (film or TV)
I'm partial to McCabe & Mrs. Miller and his episode of The Rockford Files
28) Which movie would you have paid to see remade by Ingmar Bergman?
Another case of an original that doesn't need a remake, but I want to see a Bergman version of Suspiria
29) Best movie with a bird or referencing a bird in its title?
Duck Soup
30) Burt Lancaster or Michael Keaton?
I like them both, but Burt Lancaster gets the nod here and it's not even close
31) In what way have the recent avalanche of allegations unearthed in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal changed the way you look at movies and the artists who make them?
I don't have the space or the time to fully express my answer, since it's something I can't stop thinking about and would take weeks to articulate. Short answer: I've stopped thinking of artists as heroes or role models and started thinking of them as people who make art. A lot of these people are good people. Some are not. All of them are flawed. Some are rapists, abusers, and/or predators and should be in prison, not rehab or back in the industry after a slap on the wrist. Some are harassers and manipulators who should serve time and never work in the industry again. Some said or did a few bad things of less severity and should probably be able to work again if, and only if, they own up to it and accept the consequences. Women have to put up with an inordinate amount of bullshit just to get through the day. Men need to shut up and listen. Believe women (and the girls and boys and men who have also been victims). The movie business needs to diversify, clean house, and allow a culture where women are half the workforce and can thrive without marginalization, exploitation, and abuse. And men need to watch more movies by and about women. The film industry, its artists, and its audiences also need to address the often connected issues of racism, xenophobia, and class, too, but that's three more long-winded paragraphs from me.
32) In 2017 which is "better," TV or the movies?
Setting aside the can of worms about whether watching a movie on a TV screen is TV or the movies, I think it depends on where you live and how much your choices are controlled by corporations and how curious you are about seeking alternatives to what's easily available. If you only have multiplexes in your town and don't watch movies on streaming services, TV is better. TV is certainly more of a cultural influencer and more omnipresent in people's lives in the U.S. in 2017. I'm lucky enough to live a few minutes' drive from a repertory and independent/arthouse cinema in a big city full of movie lovers that still has two great video stores and another handful of decent theaters. I will always love movies more than TV. I have deeper, more intense experiences watching movies than I do watching TV. I like TV, but movies are something more for me. I feel like a dinosaur, though. Everything I love is fading away, I'm out of step with the world, but that's OK. I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.
