Re-view, re-watch, reaction, re-visit, repeat

This morning, I made my daily mistake of checking my Twitter feed before rising.  I follow Colin Mochrie (which isn't a mistake), but he was commenting on a status by someone named J. Kelly Nestruck, who, as it turns out, is a theatre critic for the Globe and Mail.

Nestruck thunderstruck me with the following observation:

 

Actually, I'm not sure why I was thunderstruck. I've seen debates elsewhere over the years about the use of re-reading books, for heaven's sake. That really knocked me sideways.  Re-reading books?  Of course, you re-read books.  You re-read to review, to pick up the details you missed while rushing to the climax the first time, to re-visit in order to bring your older and - please gawd - wiser, better-informed self back to see how your reaction has changed.

You re-watch movies for the exact same reasons.  Now, some films (just like some books) are not worth a subsequent airing.  And some films, entertaining enough on the first or even second viewing, lose their charm with repetition - Love Actually (sadly, a favourite of both elder and younger daughters), Elf (still beloved by younger daughter), and Bridget Jones's Diary spring to mind.

There are even a small group of films that I feel require rewatching, because I didn't quite get them the first time.  Alone in Berlin is in this group; I didn't think much of it at first, but have watched it twice since and my appreciation has grown.

Some years back, I devoted an overlong, and rather too labour-intensive post to films that I like enough to watch repeatedly.

I think, given it's been eleven years, that I should add a few -- but only a few.  Once again, this is not a "best films" list; they are simply films I enjoy, and, so far, have not tired of.  There were 35 films in my 2009 list, so I'll just pick up where I left off:

#36. They Might Be Giants 

George C. Scott, Joanne Woodward, Jack Gilford

This should have been on my original list.  I stumbled across it on television when I was a teenager, and fell in love with the music, and the quirky story.  Viewed as a grown-up, I find some of the dialogue cringey and sentimental, but if you love character actors, the performances by Jack Gilford and Oliver Clark are particularly beguiling.

#37.  The F-Word

Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan, Adam Driver

This is sort of When Harry Met Sally for millennials, but manages to avoid the cookie-cutter plot of your average rom-com.  The script is by a fellow who went to my university, and the setting is a fairy-tale version of Toronto, where somehow, it's never winter -- yet I recognized the city perfectly.  The cast, a blend of Canadians, Brits, and Americans, is delightful.

#38. The Lady in the Van

Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings, and pretty well the entire cast of The History Boys

Based on Alan Bennet's play about an old homeless woman who really did live in her van in his front yard in London for several years.  A beautiful and messy mixture of humour, pathos, tragedy and mystery.

#39. Boyhood

Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke

I first saw this at the soon-to-be-lamented Bytowne Cinema, and remember thinking at the time:  I have never seen anything like this.  Director Richard Linklater, filming in short spurts over about thirteen years, told this story of growing up in real time.  It's a childhood in Texas, so a little foreign to me, but I still recognized many elements of my own children's younger years.

That'll do for now.