Stand by Me (1986)
QFS No. 194 - To start the year, we need to honor a favorite filmmaker of many of ours. The truly tragic and shocking death of the legendary filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner has been on the minds of many of us for the last several weeks now. And while it’s important to mourn him and the horrific way his life unexpectedly ended, it’s also essential we remember him for all the joy he brought to our lives. And what an incredible life.
Empire of the Sun (1987)
QFS No. 177 - This year marks the 50th anniversary of Jaws (1975), the film that made Steven Spielberg a household name. So revisiting a Spielberg film feels like an appropriate thing to do as we approach the summer. You can make the case, as many have, that Spielberg invented the “summer movie” with Jaws. Empire of the Sun, however, is not a summer movie. I remember when it was released when I was a kid and the reaction to the film was lukewarm. “Lukewarm” or course, is a relative thing, given the stratospheric heights and expectations of a Spielberg film of the time.
Terms of Endearment (1983)
QFS No. 175 - For our 175th film, the QFS Selection Committee chose one of the most decorated Oscar-winners in the last quarter of the 20th Century with eleven nominations and five wins, including for Best Picture. Terms of Endearment for a long time has been the most recent Best Picture winner I, your humble curator, have never seen.
Chan is Missing (1982)
QFS No. 173 - Chan is Missing was the first feature film by an Asian American to have a significant theatrical release and critical reception – and it wasn’t all that long ago during most of our lifetime’s, 1982.
Brazil (1985)
QFS No. 158 - Is now the right time to watch a film about trying to life under the gaze of a dystopic government with a crippling and heartless bureaucracy on the eve of what could be the downfall of representative democracy in this country?
Blow Out (1981)
QFS No. 148 - Brian Da Palma is one of the great polarizing filmmakers of our time, I think I can safely say. He has made some of classic films – Carrie (1976), Obsession (1976), Scarface (1983), The Untouchables (1987), the first Mission: Impossible (1996) – but has also made several bombs. Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) was a legendary box-office disaster and Mission to Mars (2000) is a truly terrible film and I dare you to convince me otherwise. But it’s not the financial failures of some of this films that have made him polarizing.
Planes, Trains and Automobies (1987)
QFS No. 129 - John Hughes is one of my all-time favorite filmmakers and, I dare say, one of the reasons I wanted to become one myself. The only reason we haven’t selected one of his movies yet is that I have seen basically all of them – especially the ones he directed. There are a few he wrote that I haven’t yet seen, but truly it’s hard to remember a time when I hadn’t seen a John Hughes film.
Beetlejuice (1988)
QFS No. 125 - Well, it’s been 124 films in and we’re just now getting to see our first QFS selection of a Tim Burton film. I’m pretty surprised by that, but perhaps it’s because I’ve seen pretty much all of his films from his golden era of the mid 1980s until the 2000s.
The Player (1992)
QFS No. 123 from Oct 4, 2023. The Player (1992) will be our first selection from the works of master Robert Altman since way back in 2000 with one of our early QFS selections, McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971, QFS No. 11). Unlike the Western setting of that film, The Player storyline takes place and is set in Hollywood.
Blood Simple (1984)
QFS No. 4 - I have some peculiar blank spots in my film knowledge, many of them shameful for a filmmaker. Here’s one: I admit it, I have never seen Blood Simple, first film of the Coen Brothers (Miller’s Crossing, Big Lebowski, The Man Who Wasn’t There, No Country for Old Men, Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou, A Serious Man, True Grit.)
I listed all those other films in the parenthesis just to prove that yes, I do quite love their filmmaking and movies and yes I’ve seen all of those, you jerk. I just can’t explain it, but by chance I have never seen the film that put them on the map.
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
QFS No. 2 - As perhaps with you, “thunderdome” is my stand by phrase for anything that has no rules with chaos as its only governing principle and where destruction is the norm. It entered the zeitgeist after this film and entered our collective lexicon even if you haven’t seen the movie. Related point – if you come to our home you will see that we have our fenced-in children play area in our main room that we have dubbed “Baby Thunderdome.” No holds barred, very few rules and the only directive is “to survive.” So far, both children have. But for how long?