P is for Pretty in Pink and Pulp Fiction

I pretty much love every P movie on the list today. First, there’s Parent Trap, the original with Hayley Mills which is just spot-on cute, Disney entertainment and has a lot more heart than the remake (even though I don’t dislike the remake my any means.) Another Hayley Mills movie that I love is Pollyanna which, again, is another Disney classic that has an Anne of Green Gables vibe. I also love Purple Rain, Peggy Sue Got Married, Postcards from the Edge, Pleasantville, Point Break, Prozac Nation, Parenthood, and the third contender for the top two spots: Princess Bride. So my top choices are films that I’ve seen a million times and still love and consider the most important viewing during Culture Month.

Pretty in Pink: But, Missus P., surely everyone has seen this movie. Oh, contraire. There are plenty of people who have not seen this, which is a travesty to young girls everywhere who need to understand how social class and the power to have a self-created wardrobe can make you an amazing woman. Molly Ringwald, our 80s, Brat Pack queen is Andie Walsh the poor, motherless girl who, you guessed it, loves to wear pink. She has a best guy friend, Duckie Dale (who is still the hippest dressing male character) who is in love with her but she has a new romance with the “richie” boy Blane. (Say it with me, “Blane? His name is Blane? That’s not a name, that’s a major appliance!”) So, while Andie has to deal with her beat-down father, she also has to contend with the snobs at her school who can’t stand her or the fact that she is going out with Blane. It’s just a cool high school clique, girl triumphs over everything that tries to get her down. The punk/goths against the preppy/rich kids. What more could you ask for? And now, I love this movie. I’ve even seen the Psychedelic Furs sing the theme song live in Orlando. It’s just an awesome movie and, again, James Spader is great as a bad guy. (I do not condone, however, making a tacky looking pink trash bag of a dress to wear at your prom. Please buy something vintage such as the dress she got from Annie Potts and go with it.)

Andie: I don't know what I'm doing!
Iona: Wishful make-upping!

Pulp Fiction: I’ve been waiting through all these posts to finally get to this film. It was the most amazing thing when I first saw it and I still to this day love to watch it and say the lines to the movie. In the past, I wrote college papers on what was in the briefcase, I’ve nominated this as a best movie for as long as I’ve had blogs (which, coincidentally, is about the same time when the movie came out.) Because it was the first movie we had scene that wasn’t in sequential order, now the general public takes it for granted when movies do it now. Tarantino is a master at dialogue and just the comedy involved with the dark, violent, disturbing nature of the movie makes it likeable. You like every single one of these main characters who are nothing but drug dealers, killers and thieves. It just has something so many movies don’t have and that’s innovation. It’s different, it’s entertaining, it’s solid. 12 years later I am catching scenes that look off and the age of the film but all in all, it’s still completely cool. All star cast (Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Walken, Bruce Willis…), cool, off-beat soundtrack, nothing paranormal or CGI to ruin the blood and guts (see what I did there?) or the story. I don’t know if it’s not being as revered these days so younger audiences wouldn’t have seen it (plus a lot of them wouldn’t know how cool seeing John Travolta again was when he made his comeback in this movie.) There’s a lot of movie blood but knowing how this film was made and who the actors are these days, it’s not as shocking as it may have been in 1994. Seriously, just watch it. A+ film. (I had to choose through a lot of great dialogue for one quote too.)

Jules: [Jules shoots the man on the couch] I'm sorry, did I break your concentration? I didn't mean to do that. Please, continue, you were saying something about best intentions. What's the matter? Oh, you were finished! Well, allow me to retort. What does Marsellus Wallace look like?
Brett: What?
Jules: What country are you from?
Brett: What? What? Wh - ?
Jules: "What" ain't no country I've ever heard of. They speak English in What?

Technorati Tags: Uma Thurman,Bruce Willis,John Travolta,Samuel L. Jackson,Christopher Walken,Ving Rhames,Quentin Tarantino,Molly Ringwald,Jon Cryer,Annie Potts,Andrew Mcarthy,80s,90s,atozchallenge,a-z

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