teenage movie embarassments

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Like the ILB teenage bookcase embarassments thread - the films you luvved as a youth for their profundity and greatness, and now you try to pretend you never saw.

Top of my list - American Beauty. My friends and I had hours-long stoned conversations about that Spacey voiceover. Oops.

Trainspotting is up there, but I still don't think it's awful.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 07:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I've come around on a lot of my embarrassing teenage movie obsessions. Things like The Lost Boys have turned out to be classics after all.

Mad Max (a really early teen fave) is overrated, though. And highly silly.

― Possibly Kate Again (kate), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 07:34 (twenty-two years ago)

hmmm well heathers isn't really all that embarrassing. can't remember what else i liked actually..

― the surface noise is generally somewhere between 'in some spots' and 'throu (ele, Wednesday, 9 June 2004 07:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I think I'm far enough from my teenage years to just find them laughable. Beetlejuice was on TV the other week. At the time "My Life is a DARK!!! ROOM!!!" seemed profound, then a few years later it seemed cringeworthy, but now it seems laughable to the point of hilarity.

― Possibly Kate Again (kate), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 07:50 (twenty-two years ago)

(I wonder how I'd feel if I saw Repo Man or Sid & Nancy again, tho.)

― Possibly Kate Again (kate), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 07:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I was suckered by American Beauty first time around ("It's about REAL PEOPLE!"...oh brother) as well. Caught it on video a year later and it was embarrasingly bad. Space's smugness, Bening was just a caricature and alltogether just a bad movie. I never dug (haha) 6 Feet Under either.

I remember defending Saving Private Ryan to friends too. It was on over the weekend and it's like a slightly edgier A-Team episode.

― Michael B, Wednesday, 9 June 2004 08:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I loathed AB on first viewing, but on second and third viewings it isn't so bad. I mean it's still pretty idiotic (military man is... A REPRESSED HOMOSEXUAL!!!! OMG!!!), but not *that* bad.

― Enrique (Enrique), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 08:12 (twenty-two years ago)

But... American Beauty is only a few years old! How "youthful" are we talking? And how much perspective on a film do you need before you can make a fair assessment of it?

― Possibly Kate Again (kate), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 08:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I reassess my teenage assessments of Tarantino. Not the Genius Meta-Cinema Commentator Upon Cinema Etc that was the general opinion when I first saw Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction, but not terrible either. (NB I have only seen those two and parts of Jackie Brown.) I watched PF again last week and it was OK--not as bad as I thought upon 2nd viewing, not the wondrous achievement that the first viewing probably left in my brain.

I still like Beetlejuice and have a hunch I'd still like Repo Man if I saw it again. I also still like watching Harold & Maude, which was one of my favorites when I was 16/17.

― sgs (sgs), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 08:23 (twenty-two years ago)

I was nineTEEN when 'AB' came out!

― Enrique (Enrique), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 08:26 (twenty-two years ago)

It's not my fault you're young! How old are you now, Enrique, I forget? Like I said, I can look back at things that I found profound, then embarrassing, because I've got a ten to twenty year distance on them. Two or three years is not enough distance to be able to assess anything definitively.

― Possibly Kate Again (kate), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 08:29 (twenty-two years ago)

first time anywhere i've encountered American Beauty hate (apart from a Bonnie Greer column once, and of course the Daily "why are the homosexual couple the only people with stability in this film?" Mail) - clearly i must stay in more ;)

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 08:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I were 17 when AB came out, I guess I had reassessed it at 20.

I'm not sure that had as much to do with aging (maybe finding that closing voiceover enlightening and profound was inexcusable then) as with just seeing and understanding more about films.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 08:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I was a big-for-my-boots stude film critic, so probably wanted to grind some axe that day; but I *had* been looking forward to it. 'Virgin Suicides' is a better film.

But as for stuff I liked when *really* young: war movies. The promotion for 'A Bridge Too Far' has creeped me out cos I *know* that movie. I'd still rate 'Where Eagles Dare' as a classic action movie, and I'm not mad keen on action movies.

'Goodfellas' was also formative around the time I was 14, and although I've not grown to love Scorcese, I still love that film.

― Enrique (Enrique), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 08:40 (twenty-two years ago)

i think the "my life is a dark room" is supposed to be a gag about self-important teenagerism, no? (i mean, of COURSE it's "laughable" - it's a JOKE!)

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 09:07 (twenty-two years ago)

i guess "apocalypse now" was my big movie experience as a teenager - i'm sort of afraid to see it again, i'm afraid i'll either find it disappointing after all this time or (possibly worse?) just as good as it ever was...meaning i haven't changed a bit since i was 17!

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 09:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, but the joke is funny for different reasons at different ages. And there is a specific point where it is NOT funny, it's just TRUE. The embarrassment comes when you realise that it is *supposed* be taken as a joke, and the joke is on you, as a pretentious, depressed teenager.

― Possibly Kate Again (kate), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 09:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I totally had a 16-17 year old thing about 'Apocalypse Now', 'Taxi Driver' -- all those cock-rock Uncut-type Easy Riders Raging Bulls sorts. Like Scorsese I am the opposite of macho. I reacted to that in a big way, but watching 'Apocalypse' the other weekend, it's got a hell of a lot going for it, and you can't fault De Niro in 'Taxi Driver'. If these films *do* evince right-wing sympathies, well -- I'm responsible enough to enjoy them anyway. Perhaps insight into other wordlviews is what movies are for.

― Enrique (Enrique), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 09:15 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, i had a similar reaction to "taxi driver" (though i never really got "raging bull"). i think pretty much every 17-year-old guy i know went through that phase (so is the entire staff of uncut 17, or what?), it's sort of the film equivalent of getting into the velvets/stooges/blah blah blah.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 09:26 (twenty-two years ago)

God, feeling your pain -- that's me 6-7 years ago all over. I do worry about Uncut. I bought issue 1 (last time I ever bought it) and it was bigging up Peckinpah. And it seems to have done that every month since. Not that I necessarily dislike Peckinpah -- but there are other kinds of movie!

I liked 'RB' for about a week when a friend was being truly self-destructive, but apart from that it's never really had 'Taxi Driver''s hold on me.

― Enrique (Enrique), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 09:29 (twenty-two years ago)

my problem with RB is that there's not really any insight into the character of jake la motta - it's awesome as a portrait of a guy who's just compelled to fuck himself over time and time again, but i never felt like i understood WHY he was compelled to do that. whereas we hardly know anything about travis bickle, anything beyond the vaguest hints about his past, but he's one of the most fully realized characters in film history.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 09:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I sort of tend towards sociological readings, and obv the Nam factor is there for Trav, and there's all that frustration with politics, and a class factor that you don't often get in US movies (ie those scenes w/ the politicos). That's what I like now. But as a 17-year old of course all the alienation was indie kid bread and butter. You're right, definitely, he is a more interesting screen companion (poss cos he's more complex -- Jake is sort of repetitive?).

― Enrique (Enrique), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 09:38 (twenty-two years ago)

(I wonder how I'd feel if I saw Repo Man or Sid & Nancy again, tho.)

repo man retains awesomeness.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 14:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Animal House to thread. I found it in my video collection the other day - I must have seen it about 25 times. I'll make Sarah watch it with me and we can get back to you with our respective responses.

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 15:01 (twenty-two years ago)

heathers. perfect at the time but i got bored about halfway through the last time i watched it. still classic to quote at people though ("who does he think he is? bo diddley?"). on the other hand, cheech and chong's up in smoke just seems to get better with each viewing.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 15:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I like Repoman even more now. Weird Science is still ABSOLUTE POWER!!!

― ddb (ddb), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Only saw Repo Man a couple of years ago for the first time and so to me it's still utterly fresh and perfectly goddamn funny. If anything it was wonderfully prescient -- half the movie parodies The X-Files years before said series started!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 15:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Easy Rider

I probably would have loved Rules Of Attraction (Satan!!!!!) if I saw it when I was 16.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Natural Born Killers to thread, obv. (And, yeah, Heathers.) I haven't actually watched Akira and Blade Runner since those days but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like them that much now.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 15:43 (twenty-two years ago)

real genius only gets better.

spies like us is even more relevant now after reagan's death!

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 15:45 (twenty-two years ago)

real genius only gets better.

Definitely.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 15:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes. I didn't see Real Genius until I was like 23 and I love it.

― NA (Nick A.), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 15:48 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.movie-montage.com/montageView.php?montageCategoryCode=1&montageCode=11

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 15:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Romeo & Juliet. It still looks good, but oh lord the butchering of the language.
I have not seen Interview with a Vampire since high school. That's okay too.

― Jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 15:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not sure how I understand Heathers being an embarrassment after the fact. I mean I get people not liking it as much when they are older, but there's nothing about that film that makes one wince and say "Jesus, I actually thought that was a good movie back then. What was I thinking?"

My taste in film (and music for that matter) has weirdly changed very little since I was like 14. Which is not to say that there aren't a lot more things I "get" now that I'm pushing 30, it's just that the same kind of stuff appealed to me then as now in many ways.

I mean, Buckaroo Banzai, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and shit like that is still stuff I like now. My favorite film of all time is the same now as it was when I was in junior high school: Raising Arizona. Mind you, there's a hell of a lot more I can take from that film now that I'm older (and at this point I've written a thesis on it and studied it in a screenwriting workshop), but it's still my favorite.

The only real embarrassment I can think of off hand is that I actually thought Hysterical was funny. But that was preteen.

― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 16:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh shit, wait. I totally had a thing for Reality Bites right after college (which is close enough to teen I think to qualify). I think that had a lot to do with the fact that I wanted to jump Janeane Garafa1o's bones, but I will admit that I also thought that film was a lot better than it really is.

I guess I can temper my embarrassment by pointing out that I never thought Tarrantino was any good. I like Reservoir Dogs, but everything else I thought was shit the first time I saw it. (Only one I haven't seen is Kill Bill 2.)

― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 16:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I wrote a whole short novel for my English final paper in a voice stolen entirely from the Raising Arizona voiceover (or a USA-fixated Englishman's idea of it). It was about a young business school graduate who travelled to Vegas to find the reclusive Howard Hughes. I'm still very proud of it.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 16:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Although English people writing in American voices = dud, naturally.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 16:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Heheh... That's okay Adam. I wanted to write in an English person's voice during a great deal of my formative years. Probably wasn't until after college that I became comfortable with my own (uncontrollably and unalterably) American voice.

― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 16:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually, I blame Tom Stoppard and John Wesley Harding for that tendency in dramatic lit and songwriting, respectively.

I blame Hal Hartley and They Might Be Giants for the comfortable shift back to my native voice. Probably the Coens too.

― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 17:01 (twenty-two years ago)

i think when I was a teen I thought "the crow" was fucking amazing.

― mandee, Wednesday, 9 June 2004 17:10 (twenty-two years ago)

It still is...if you're talking about the comic book. (Proyas went on to direct Dark City, though, which is a good thing.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 17:11 (twenty-two years ago)

right, the crow is choice, but it's not the same as when you think something is choice as a teen.

i mean, had there been hot topic around at the time.. i totally would have bought the eric draven journal. (they have a new one with a LOCK on it y'all!)

― mandee, Wednesday, 9 June 2004 17:16 (twenty-two years ago)

"Doom Generation" - I thought it was the best movie ever made when I saw it.

A few years after that, I saw the rest of the Araki catalogue and every single movie was horrible beyond redemption. I will never see "The Doom Generation" again, I don't want to ruin the what we once had. (How romantic.)

And American Beauty is not THAT bad, I just think it's overrated. online.

And American Beauty is not THAT bad, I just think it's overrated.

― Pingu, Thursday, 10 June 2004 05:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Suburbia (the 1980s one, not the more recent one) and Liquid Sky I thought they were hella cool and soooo out there at 16. What a dork. I actually havent seen LS since, but I can imagine it is unbearably horrible. Suburbia isnt actually that bad, but the acting is pretty atrocious.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 10 June 2004 05:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I just gradually lost interest in movies.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 10 June 2004 07:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I just realised my teenage movie embarrassment. David Lynch. Just not as deep or profound or meaningful as I thought when I was a teen. Pretentious, deliberately obscure, and vaguely cringeworthy, I find his stuff now.

― Possibly Kate Again (kate), Thursday, 10 June 2004 07:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Lynch movies are like the popular cinematic equivalent of paintings or mood music. It's best not to expect them to be "deep or profound or meaningful".

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 10 June 2004 08:17 (twenty-two years ago)

someone said on another thread that "american beauty" was like a safe, tidied-up version of "blue velvet." what's good about lynch's film, i think, is that it deliberately ISN'T deep or "profound" or "meaningful" in any conventional (i.e., "oscar nominable") sense - it works on the level of a horror film, as pure sensation.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 10 June 2004 08:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to think Lynch was a pretentious idiot. Than I saw Mullholand Drive. Now I want to watch all of his movies again, because MD was just amazing. Really loved it.

And you gotta give him credit for casting beautiful and sexy women in his movies. The Coen Brothers fucked up by casting C. Zeta-Jones in that comedy with George Clooney. And other people go for Halle Berry (good body, but boring), Julia Roberts, Gwyneth Partlow (both horrible) or some other personality-free and sexuality-free actress de jour.

Lynch, on the other hand, casted Naomi Watts.

― Pingu, Thursday, 10 June 2004 11:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Mannequin, Weekend At Bernies

― Chris 'The Velvet Bingo' V (Chris V), Thursday, 10 June 2004 11:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Films I am not embarrassed about liking: Heathers, Pump Up The Volume, The Lost Boys

Films I am embarrassed about liking: Peter's Friends, Four Weddings and Funeral

I don't like the thought that I might have been a braying, self-regarding, smug, boring, middle-class, neurotic twat in embryo... thankfully I (think I) took a different route. I can't avoid being English though.

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 10 June 2004 11:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Kenneth Branagh acting drunk in Peter's Friends is one of the worst things ever. 'Four Weddings' is good for the odd chuckle though.

― Michael B, Thursday, 10 June 2004 11:34 (twenty-two years ago)

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