Before we’re all full of turkey, mashed potatoes and that experimental vegan dessert Aunt Trina keeps trying to make work, we’d like to take a pre-coma moment out to take stock of what’s worth celebrating this Thanksgiving.
Without a doubt, we’re thankful for friends and family and all the good within eyesight (even as the world spins too-loudly out of control), but as we’re a movie website, we’d like to use this space to focus on all the wondrous film stuff that’s currently bringing a smile to our faces.
To help out, the Rejects — including Rob Hunter, Kate Erbland, Cole Abaius, Christopher Campbell, Kevin Carr, Landon Palmer, Nathan Adams, Robin Ruinsky, Luke Mullen, Caitlin Hughes and Allison Loring — compiled a list of cinematic things to be thankful for. See if you can guess who picked what (spoiler: everything Magic Mike-related is Hunter). Now, let’s get to thanking!
What We’re Thankful For in 2012
The nearly three hour runtime of Cloud Atlas. After enduring Hurricane Sandy on Long Island and a week without electricity, escaping into that world was very much appreciated.
More Star Wars Movies on the way
Blu-ray box sets and big ass HDTVs
Redford and Newman
Cary Grant’s chin dimple
James Spader wearing a white suit and smoking on school property in Pretty in Pink
Say Anything giving me my first movie + music memory
Joss Whedon finally having the clout to make all the geeky movies his heart desires
Chris Evans‘ Captain America
Two 2012 stop-motion movies (Frankenweenie and ParaNorman) that had something for everyone
Terry Gilliam‘s imagination
Mondo Tees and copious wall space
Scream Factory, the best new Blu-ray/DVD label in years
The impending Asian invasion of brilliant Korean directors on America’s cinematic shores
R-rated nudity and violence
Big bold risk-taking (see: Cloud Atlas) and incredible ambition matched with vision (see: Paul Thomas Anderson)
Peter Gallagher‘s eyebrows
The $5 DVD section at Target, also known as the reason I own both Roadhouse and Catch and Release
The satisfying structure of planning your schedule around repertory screenings
Clueless - for teaching me that Billie Holiday is a lady
Whit Stillman’s Damsels in Distress
Buster Keaton and Harpo Marx silently making me laugh after all these years
That drive-ins still exist, and that I live near one so I can take my newborn son to movies without disturbing anyone
That the Academy Awards (despite its problems) encourage studios to continue making art films
Andy Dufresne crawling through a river of shit and coming out clean on the other side
Netflix, Hulu Plus and VOD making non-commercial stuff you’ve never heard of easy to access
Iconic directors with a good sense of humor
People taking superhero movies seriously
Cherry Icees at the concession stand
The melted ice on the bottom of your 40oz movie soda that provides unexpected thirst-quenching at the two-hour mark
Arclight theater popcorn
That even the worst Adam Sandler comedy gives people an excuse to eat popcorn and candy in the dark
Readers who take time to comment on posts
That Hollywood has started making mid-budget films for adults again (see: Argo, Flight, Lincoln)
Unicorn attacks
Pixar
Michael Giacchino‘s perfect scores
Matthew McConaughey‘s “Alrightalrightalright!”
That a movie about male strippers can be award-worthy
Assigned seating
Time-traveling Bruce Willises
Sneaking into cineplexes to marathon up to three crappy movies in a single, glorious afternoon
Indiana Jones‘ whip
Brody’s chum bucket
Every quotable line from Blue Velvet, but especially the very useful, “Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!”
The opening scene and Adele-filled credits of Skyfall
That Twilight is finally over
(And that we can sniff for the next YA hit)
The Film Festival Flu
Whatever the hell Beyond the Black Rainbow is
That Jason Blum almost single-handedly kept super low-budget, wide release horror films alive
The fact that people are so nuts for movies that I can just barely make a living writing about them
(And tons of other great writers can find reason to write interestingly about them too)
An impressive amount of short films and emerging filmmakers
Fantastic Fest
An October with horror
That whenever you need to get away, there’s always a movie ready to be checked out
The modern use of practical effects over CGI
Ratso Rizzo and Joe Bucks’ beautiful friendship in Midnight Cowboy
Emma Stone for demanding Ryan Gosling take his shirt off in Crazy, Stupid, Love
The existence of Point Break
That the term “truth is stranger than fiction” will never become a cliche as long as there are unbelievable documentaries to support it
That The Hollywood Reporter finally apologized for the Hollywood Blacklist because, even at 65 years late, it’s certainly more than Elia Kazan ever did
The Bond 50 set that corrected my misguided opinion on many of the pre-Daniel Craig movies
Franklin Leonard giving aspiring screenwriters a new platform for discovery
Escapism
Todd Solondz‘s dark joy (or joyous darkness)
Over 435,000 new readers (welcome!)
And more than 10 million readers who’ve stuck with us through the years (thanks!)
The MGM lion roar
“What’s in the box?!”
Geographical oddities and cans of Dapper Dan
Bullet-shaped rockets in the face on the moon
The futile fun of Best Ever Lists
An art that’s over a century old and still kicking like a rebellious teenager
Now tell us — What are you thankful for?