Spiritual and Meditative Films

These are the type 10 movies I find that have some of the most spiritual or meditative experiences while watching or perhaps films you can just eat some shrooms and watch and have a spiritual breakthrough, but these films reach for the spiritual moments in humanity. (In no particular order)  

1 The Holy Mountain (Produced by John Lennon*) 

2 Koyanisquatsi

3 Altered States

4 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (I find something spiritual in it, I guess the journey of life is wild and tacky and filed with fun characters that weave in an out in strange ways) 

5 Begotten (Can be described as a necessary really, really, bad trip) 

6 Jacob's Ladder

7 Groundhog Day (Whole things have been written about the Buddhist significance of this film) 

8 Cloud Atlas (Find my "Cloud Atlas" review on this blog*) 

9 2001 A Space Odyssey

10 The Fountain 

*Runner Up* (It is rather long winded a little on the nose stylistically but when I saw it in theaters it was a shorter version.)

 

Sexy Movies About Sex.

Sex isn't something often explored in American Cinema (though the films on my list aren't all American*) but it's an important part of life, like the thing that creates it, it's funny how little sex I've seen in the Romantic Comedy genre and yet how in my youth all I could think about was sex.

I've done a sex edition to this blog before but I think these 5 films show a little variety in sexuality in cinema, I've not seen "The Dreamers" or "The Last Tango in Paris" or films like "Lust/Caution" yet.

1.) Y Tu Mamma Tambian ~ This is one of the best 'coming of age' movies I've ever seen, and I do mean 'coming'. It's a deep exploration of both adult and teenage sexuality in one of my favorite road trip movies.




2.) Quills ~ "Quills" deals more with the deep dark ideas of sex, I mean think about it, your 1# sexual fantasies, the ones you don't talk about in circles are violent, wild, uninhibited, because it's your imagination. It shouldn't be romantic and slow, if it is that's rather boring, when in your mind you can fuck people while flying through space and the Marquis De Sade (a real person and character in this fictional take on his real life) explored the DARKEST places of the human mind and sexuality so much so (of course he actually assaulted people) that he was imprisoned in an asylum for it. "50 Shades of Grey" is for pussies, if you've read one of his. And by pussies I actually mean wimps.




3.) In the Realm of the Senses






(I can't describe how wild this film is, it is a HARDCORE PORNO meaning there is actual penetration. However, it's also considered on of the most important films of all time, and is actually released by the *Criterion Collection* and deservingly so it pinned me to my couch with it's rawness.)



4.) Fast Times at Ridgmont High, a purely (honest film about teenage sexuality, layered with wonderful memorable moments, but not all high points, some sad low points in a film still considered a comedy and not a sexual drama as I remember it)







5.) Basic Instinct ~ A movie about the concept of a woman using sexuality as a weapon or a manipulating agent, this film captures the idea of a sexualized feme fatal near perfectly but perhaps one of the most iconicity.

Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm"

Re-watched Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm", ordered it from Amazon after I remembered it was released by The Criterion Collection on Tuesday on Blu-ray.

It's one of those subtle family dramas that not everyone will dig, and I think in the midst of this culture of pop music and explosions got lost in the shuffle of other films that not a lot of people talk about anymore. It's the type of film that reminds me of 'The Dead Poets Society' or 'Freaks and Geeks' just awkward home life that someone has tasted at one point or another. The film is more than just a great cast (Kevin Kline, Elijah Wood, Christina Ricci, Sigourney Weaver just to name a select few, and a few others whose face and not name you'd recognize*) subtle deep score, brilliant cinematography, and a simple but detailed script. It has those pauses between the moments that breath like real life which only a handful of films I know do and modern films seem to forget the close-ups of leaves outside a window to create, dread, tension, and atmosphere before the moment. 

It plays like a slice of life poem. It's reflective and intertwined of characters and small moments made only big because they're on a screen, in a movie that's damn near perfect.

I think in the future years Ang will be more remembered for this film as hopefully people discover it than "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" or even "Brokeback Mountain". (But I doubt the impact of 'Brokeback' could be diminished, I still find "The Ice Storm" a better and much more relatable film to me...and 'relatable' is a hard thing to do. Most people desire escapism in their movies in one way or another and "The Ice Storm" feels the opposite, like it's holding up a mirror to suburban life in America in the 1970's or whatever time you were young and just discovering what betrayal, sex, and tragedy were all about.)