Coming Soon to "Hit Me..."
Monday, April 16, 2012 at 9:58PM Have you been following along with season three of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"? This series thrives on your comments and/or visual participation and dies without them. So don't leave us in solitary confinement staring at the movies obsessively. In season three we've already covered Snow White (30s Disney), Easter Parade (40s musical), Bonnie & Clyde (60s landmark) and Ladyhawke (80s fantasy). Because we aim for a true variety of genre and time periods in this series, here's the next six weeks of the movie schedule.
Please consider joining the fun.
Apr 18th Serenity (2007) and/or Firefly (2005)
Joss Whedon is having a huge film year (Avengers, Cabin in the Woods, Much Ado About Nothing) so we're looking back at his directorial (feature) debut. Or if you have never seen the TV series on which Serenity is based for this episode only of the cinematic series you can do "best shot" with a television pilot. Both are available on Netflix Instant Watch.
Apr 25th Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
This Oscar nominee and arthouse hit helped make international sensations out of the legendary director/muse pair Zhang Yimou & Gong Li. We love them both so let's dive into this sad gorgeous concubine's den in 1920s China.
May 2nd Pariah (2011)
We've never done a brand new movie just as it hits DVD so I chose this one about a closeted lesbian teenager because it's a) very good b) underseen and c) not principally acclaimed for its visuals and those films can be interesting challenges in this series which tends to focus on more visually ambitious pictures.
May 9th The Exorcist (1973)
It was just voted the best horror movie of all time, it's a massive touchstone film, and if I don't force myself to watch it (I know I know) I never will. Will our heads spin until we're vomiting trying to choose the single greatest shot? Currently available on Netflix Instant Watch.
May 15th Edward Scissorhands (1990)
With Dark Shadows in theaters, we'll look at the Burton/Depp collaboration that started it all.
May 23rd Possessed (1947)
I've been itching for some Joan Crawford lately and this acclaimed noir brought her her second Oscar nomination (shortly after the win for Mildred Pierce). I've never seen it so join me as Joan obsesses so hard over a man that she ends up in a psychiatric ward.
You'll be possessed by the love-madness of POSSESSED
Will you be joining us for any of these? Truly it's the more the merrier with this series. I can't be the only best shot participant that loves loves loves seeing the wide range of opinions when a lot of people look at the very same piece of art.
Sound off on this series in the comments. What do you think of it?
Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Reader Comments (16)
Never give up on this series, Nathaniel, it makes all your movie-loving madness, actressexing, Oscar goodness, list-making, feel even more extra special!
It makes for a beautiful centerpiece, if you will, for all the work you put on this blog. It's funny, it's clever, it can even be insightful as to what my fellow readers' creative sensibilities are and it's so interesting to see what other people think about the same movie. I've often found myself re-thinking something I thought about a scene in one movie we've done for the series because someone else had a different perspective on it.
And another plus: you make people watch all kinds of movies and some of them I wouldn't have watched it otherwise (like Easter Parade) and you make it a fun assignment...
'Possessed' is probably Crawford's best performance (as much as I do love her 'Mildred Pierce'). She gets so many mega-bitch scenes as well as ones with quite a bit of emotional weight and 'Black Swan' franticness; a real treat for fans.
!!!! I'm so excited for The Exorcist! Also very interested in seeing how a film like Pariah translates to a series like this, wouldn't be my first thought for picking one shot.
I'll be participating, as usual. I love discovering all these films.
I plan to participate on some of these for the first time. I especially look forward to "Pariah". Living in northern West Virginia, this film never reached my vicinity. I study LGBT counseling in a social work/psychology context, and I have been looking forward to seeing this film with its minority lesbian lead and the accompanying portrayal. Also, cinematography always grasps my attention when properly used, so I also anticipate the artistic aspect to my usually dry academic work.
Pariah's got a few good shots. A lot of reflective surfaces are used, making a few shots interesting. The coloring is very unique as well. But my favorite shot is probably the most obvious choice. Her laying down, nearly naked, in her self-destructed room. Clearly a metaphor and works well in context, not to mention completely beautiful - in every sense of the word.
OMG, as soon as I finish typing that I read that Adepero Oduye has just been signed on to the new Steve McQueen movie with Michael Fassbender! So excited.
Certainly interested in participating, but I am blog-less. Oh, well...
Love the series and love that you try to offer something for everyone. That being said, even though I know you're a huge Buffy fan, I will not be participating in this week's Serenity/Firefly. After Cabin in the Woods, I realized I am just not that into Joss Whedon. :/ But, I'm sure there are plenty of other readers who are. :) I look forward to all of the other weeks, though. However, I am skeptical of finding anything in Pariah that visually stood out for me. We'll see. :)
Oohh, you will do Serenity/Firefly this week?! How exciting! I cannot wait for all the links to come.
I watched POSSESSED because I know Nick Davis likes it a lot and I totally enjoyed it so I'll probably join the fun on this one.
I like to participate when I have the time and access to the film. So I'm in for tomorrow, The Exorcist, and Edward Scissorhands, for sure. I want to do Pariah, as well.
I wouldn't worry too much about the content in The Exorcist. It's not nearly as shocking now as it was then and the violence is limited to scratch marks and a whole lot of twisty motions from Linda Blair. Regan's dialogue is probably the most shocking part of the film at this point.
There is a lot of beautiful lighting and camerawork to gawk at. Ellen Burstyn's performance is incredible and Linda Blair set the benchmark for the body language possessed child archetype as an actual child (a rarity in the possession/exorcism subgenre).
Raise The Red Lantern AND Edward Scissorhands? Oh eyeball raptures!!
I am so glad you're doing Possessed! That was one of my very favorite movies growing up. Love Crawford in it and Raymond Massey. I don't have a movie blog, so I can't participate, but I love reading this series!
Hannahlily and Cinesnatch - I think Nathaniel has said in previous threads that blog-less folks can participate in the comments section? (Correct me if I'm wrong.)
For me Jorge hits exactly on the aspects that make this fun for me as well even though I am also "blogless" (except for a food blog) and though I don't participate I read - and it's the readings, the texts, that I most enjoy, that give the images their context to each viewer who does participate.
hannahlily, cinesnatch, janice --- anyone can participate. as long as you have some sort of webspace. it can even be as simple as a flickr or tumblr or facebook page if you want. but if you don't wanna blog, commenting is fun and also participatory.