Awesome Kids Movie Villains You Almost Forgot About

So I was feeling nostalgic (AGAIN!) thinking about how fun kids movie villains can be. OK sure, they spend a lot of time making silly faces and tripping over their own feet. But some really take that character and run with it. Let's revisit a few of my favorites!

Meredith Blake (Elaine Hendrix), The Parent Trap

I love a rich bitch! I watched this movie a lot when it came out, and I can't get enough of how awful Meredith Blake was. I want her wardrobe, though.

Double-Bill: Auteurs

Miami Connection and The Room

The Devil's Backbone (2001)

Near the end of the Spanish Civil War, a young boy (Fernando Tielve) is sent to stay in an orphanage in the middle of nowhere, where some rather spooky goings on are going on.

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The first class I ever took in film school was titled: Intro to Visual Storytelling. Each week we would be given different vague prompts of increasing difficulty. The one rule that applied to all of these films was that we were not allowed to use any dialogue. We had to rely entirely on camera placement, camera movement, close-ups, cut-aways and reaction shots to tell our stories. We couldn't explain things away with clunky dialogue. Think this sounds easy? Trust me, it's not. This is why I love Guillermo del Toro. With him the visuals are never an afterthought. Sometimes they even predate the story. Thanks to his meticulous attention to color and design, you can watch a film like The Devil's Backbone with the sound off and follow the story completely. More so than Spanish or English, its clear that del Toro's primary language is that of cinema.

Why is Guillermo del Toro an important filmmaker?
Because in an industry content with See Spot Run, he insists on treating every film as though it were War and Peace.

Friday Quote: The Night of the Iguana

How calmly does the olive branch  Observe the sky begin to blanch  Without a cry, without a prayer,  With no betrayal of despair. 
 Sometime while night obscures the tree  The zenith of its life will be  Gone past forever, and from thence  A second history will commence. 
 A chronicle no longer gold,  A bargaining with mist and mould,  And finally the broken stem  The plummeting to earth; and then    An intercourse not well designed  For beings of a golden kind  Whose native green must arch above  The earth's obscene, corrupting love. 
 And still the ripe fruit and the branch  Observe the sky begin to blanch  Without a cry, without a prayer,  With no betrayal of despair. 
 O Courage, could you not as well  Select a second place to dwell,  Not only in that golden tree  But in the frightened heart of me?
The Night of the Iguana (1964)

Spring Breakers (2013)

Four college girls on spring break (Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine) find themselves in the company of a heavily armed white-boy rapper/drug dealer who calls himself Alien (James Franco).

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I went in to this movie prepared to hate it. The day-glo aesthetic and dubsetp scoring combined with the easy-target social criticism and stunt casting all just seemed to scream, “Being Controversial 101”. Having recently wasted 83 minutes of my life on the desperately cloying attempts at provocation in Gregg Araki’s The Doom Generation, I was not really keen on potentially wasting another 94 minutes (plus ticket price) on empty shock-cinema. And then I saw this Indiewire Critics Poll... Had I unfairly judged this book by its cover? Only a trip to the local Redbox could let me know for sure.

Obviously I was still a bit resistant at first, but within a few minutes I found myself firmly under the spell of this film’s crazy rhythms. Rather than a music video, it comes off feeling like a classic Nicolas Roeg film. The past, present and future all exist simultaneously in a beautiful, continuous, cinematic fever-dream of sex, violence and music. I’m not sure if it was written that way, but I sure am happy that it was directed and edited that way. Are we in the past? Is that bloody hand in the future? There’s really no use questioning where you are in the time-stream, you just have to go with it and experience this beautifully horrific tour through the dark American psyche. There are images here that will lodge themselves in your brain.

In a year filled with films that dabble in greed, fame, crime and psychopathy, this is easily the best and most chilling. Spring Break Forever!

The Completist: Jim Jarmusch

A few weeks back I read a tweet where someone was demeaning the quality of the film writing on Letterboxd. Seeing as 'Becca'lise and I are both huge proponents of the site (find us here and here) this came as a bit of an insult. I've personally read many fascinating and insightful pieces on the site and as a result have found certain reviewers that I make a point of regularly reading. One such critic is Simone. I'm not really sure where she finds the time to watch as much film as she does (in June alone she watched 100 films!) but boy do I appreciate the writing that comes out of it. Here's hoping that you do too!

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One of the signs you may be obsessed with cinema is that you like to complete the entire filmographies of notable directors. It's easy to knock out the directors who only have a handful of films, especially if they've been released in the past couple of decades. Last year I did Christopher Nolan, Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, and Guy Ritchie. Sometimes a director's body of work is too large to get to everything, and other times it's too difficult to find the more obscure ones. In those cases, I like to pick 10 of their most well-known titles in the short term and dig into the rest over time. This year I've challenged myself by taking on directors with horror films (I’m such a wimp!) like Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch. I've steadily gone through the the Coens and Martin Scorsese over the past year and I’m hoping to be finished with both in the next month or so.

A few months ago, I randomly decided to watch Dead Man, a 1995 black-and-white western starring Johnny Depp. It's beautifully shot and endlessly stylish, but I found the story and tone too opaque to fully appreciate on a first watch. When I looked into the rest of director Jim Jarmusch's filmography, I was surprised to discover that I’d seen two of his films and formed wildly different opinions on them. I enjoyed Broken Flowers and hated Coffee and Cigarettes. It got me thinking that I should explore his other work. What's unique about his filmography is that almost all of his films are currently available to stream:

Hulu Plus
• Permanent Vacation (1980)
• Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
• Down by Law (1986)
• Mystery Train (1989)
• Night on Earth (1991)

Netflix Instant
• Dead Man (1995)
• Ghost Dog (1999)
• Broken Flowers (2005)
• The Limits of Control (2009)

Amazon
• Coffee and Cigarettes (2004)

With all of his works so easily accessible, I decided to make him my next project. It was strange to go into it without already being a die-hard fan like I’ve been in the past. This endeavor was more to understand why he's well-regarded, recognize his place in film history, and identify common themes and stylistic flourishes. I didn't really come out of the project more of a fan than when I started, but I suspect that if I go back and watch Dead Man, I'll have a better-informed and articulate opinion of it than "It's very cool, but I don't get it." His films move along at a languid, glacial pace and don't have much to say. The soundtracks are always excellent. There’s usually a diverse mix of people on screen and the stories he tells are often about people on the fringes of society. I mostly enjoyed the style and atmosphere, attributable to gorgeous cinematography and subdued performances from both amateurs and seasoned professionals. Even though it's hard to deny a lot of his films are deeply flawed, I find the majority of them unforgettable and extremely creative.

It was definitely a worthwhile experience, but what's missing from this and other projects I've completed is an understanding of the person behind the art. To be able to ground Jarmusch's unique style in a specific context and place in history would probably increase my admiration for him. Maybe one day I'll go deeper than his Wikipedia page and read a biography on him. Maybe I'll just leave him a mystery. As much as I want to go back and research him and the other directors I've looked at, I know myself too well. Faced with the choice between reading about films and watching them, I'd much rather spend my time on the latter.

-Simone

This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

I don't think I could possibly love a fake band any more than I love Spinal Tap. A completely genius "mockumentary" directed by Rob Reiner, this film paved the way for the Christopher Guest-directed mockumentaries Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind. This is Spinal Tap tells the story of sort-of-legendary rock band Spinal Tap (the world's loudest band!) with members Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) desperately trying to remain in the spotlight as tensions rise within the band.

They have to deal with their own egos along with problems like getting lost backstage, having to eat bread that's too small, trying to rock onstage with a teeny tiny Stonehenge, a bitchy girlfriend, and losing all their drummers to sudden death. And it is HILARIOUS. It's kind of mindblowing that these same actors went on to be the nerdy-but-talented Folksmen in A Mighty Wind. Trivia time! They actually toured as Spinal Tap in 2001 and occasionally opened for themselves as The Folksmen! I love it.

I don't know what else to say about this film except that it's a hilariously on-point look at the world of a rock band, from its early days to fame to near-obscurity. The acting is all excellent, and the music is both hysterically funny and incredibly well-performed and enjoyable. But don't take my word for it! Enjoy!

Double-Bill: And Now For Something Completely Different...

The Straight Story and Kundun

Manhattan (1979)

A divorced New York writer (Woody Allen) finds himself caught between his 17-year-old girlfriend (Mariel Hemingway) and his friend's mistress (Diane Keaton).

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I know everyone loves to goo all over the opening of Manhattan (when you’ve got Gershwin laid over beautiful Gordon Willis photography it’s kind of hard not to) but for me the film is really all about Tracy’s final line and Isaac’s reaction to it. Yes the film is funny, and yes the film is beautiful, but it’s that perfect ending which makes this film transcendent. Everything comes together beautifully: the music, the acting, the writing, the photography, etc. I don’t think I’m overstating anything when I say this is a small miracle, as great endings are so hard to get right. I’ve seen so many potentially great films crash and burn while coming in for a landing. Sometimes I’ll even get nervous as I sense things coming to a close. Will they get it right? When they don’t, it’s heartbreaking. But when they get it right, it’s something you want to tell the whole world about.

Friday Quote: A Bug's Life

"Oh, I know it's a rock, I know. But let's just pretend for a minute that it's a seed, alright? We'll just use our imaginations. Now, now do you see our tree? Everything that made that giant tree is already contained inside this tiny little seed. All it needs is some time, a little bit of sunshine and rain, and voilá! [...] Now, you might not feel like you can do much now, but that's just because, well, you're not a tree yet. You just have to give yourself some time. You're still a seed."

A Bug's Life (1998)

Kickstart The Frida!

Let me tell you about Logan Crow...

When I first encountered Logan I didn't even know his name. This was in the days of Myspace and he was running a profile called Mondo Celluloid which condensed the calendars for all of Southern California's various indie and revival cinemas into one convenient location. As a So-Cal film lover, this was mana from heaven. No longer did I have to go around from site to site to see what was at The Egyptian, The Nuart, or The New Beverly. This man was obviously a genius.

Before long, Logan was programming and hosting his own screenings of classic midnight films like Faster, Pussy Cat! Kill! Kill! and The Forbidden Zone in various local theaters complete with costume contests and special guests in attendance. Due to laziness and an unpredictable work schedule, I was unable to attend any of these early screenings, but when Mr. Crow took up residency at the nearby Art Theatre of Long Beach I no longer had an excuse to miss out on the fun. I decided that I simply had to attend the February 2009 screening of A Clockwork Orange.

Seeing as there was a costume contest component to the screening, I figured this would be a great opportunity to work on my amateur photography skills. In the days leading up to the screening, I reached out to Logan (I think this is where I finally learned his name) and asked if it would be cool for me to take some photos at the screening and if he liked them he could use them on his website as long as he credited me. Being the nice guy that he is, he did me one better: he offered 'Becca'lise and I free admission to the screening! And so began my year-long tenure as official photographer for Mondo Midnights. And oh what a year that was!

Here's a sampling of some of the films I had the pleasure to shoot screenings of: Sid and Nancy (for Valentines Day), Killer Klowns From Outerspace (with the Chiodo Brothers in attendance), The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari (with live rock score), my first Jodorowsky film El Topo, The Toxic Avenger (with Lloyd Kaufman, Toxie and a Tromette), a prom themed Carrie screening and of course the first several Long Beach Zombie Walks!

As much as I loved these screenings, after moving to Orange I had to gracefully bow out. But Logan has just kept going. Mondo Celluloid begat the much more prestigious sounding Long Beach Cinematheque and the Zombie Walk grew into an all day event. He has organized wonderful community events ranging from summer screenings on the beach and family movies in the park to a breast cancer benefit screening where they showed a Russ Meyer film. Wherever there is a screen (or room for one), Logan Crow will find a way to show a great film on it because he eats, drinks, breathes and bleeds cinema.

And now it is time for Logan to take the next logical step in his film fanatic evolution: running his own art house theater! This is where YOU come in:

Please for the sake of art and cinema, give what you can to make The Frida into the best Art House you've ever seen. All you have to do is donate to this Kickstarter which is filled with all sorts of fun rewards that simply cannot be beat. Thank you for your time and see you at the movies.

Mary Poppins (1964)

Like many of my friends, I am eagerly anticipating the new film about the making of Mary Poppins, Saving Mr. Banks, so I thought I'd sing the praises of the beloved original film. But where do I even start? All the actors are so incredibly fantastic and wonderful and memorable. Every single face in this film makes me feel like I'm looking at an old friend, especially David Tomlinson as Mr. Banks. Maybe it's because there's a quality about him that reminds me of my own father, but when I look at him I feel like I've known him my entire life. The entire cast is great. Say what you will about Dick Van Dyke's questionable Cockney accent, but his dancing and physical comedy is absolutely top-notch. And Julie Andrews! She needs no explanation; she's "practically perfect in every way."

Can we talk about the music for a second? Every single song in this movie is a classic. Even the songs I found kinda boring as a kid are my favorites now..."Stay Awake" and "Feed the Birds" are just sublime. Those Sherman Brothers, man. That's a whole lot of talent right there. "Let's Go Fly a Kite"? Such a great song! "Jolly Holiday"? Marvelous! Every song is so good!

I'm trying not to gush over this movie, but it's more difficult than I thought. There's a lot to take in - frolicking in chalk drawings, dancing with chimney sweeps, winning a horse race, laughing on the ceiling, cleaning a room with the snap of your fingers - but I guess at the end of the day there's only one word to describe this film...

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Oh come on, you knew that was coming.

The Matrix (1999)

A computer hacker (Keanu Reeves) learns that reality is not quite what it seems and that he might just be the key to saving humanity. Whoa!

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So I decided to watch The Matrix for the first time in a million years. Guess what? It really holds up! I know the sequels were awful, but try and put them out of your mind. Viewed in a vacuum, the first film is pretty close to perfect. It’s kind of hard not to be when you take from so many disparate yet fertile sources. Some might even argue that this film is without merit since there isn't a single original idea in the whole film. To them I say: So what? Watching this film feels like The Wachowskis are downloading their brains directly into your own. Film Noir, Anime, David Cronenberg, H.R. Geiger, Plato, Joseph Campbell, Industrial Music, Comic Books, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Fetish Culture, Cyber Punk, Philip K. Dick, John Woo/Hong Kong Cinema, Kung Fu Films, Submarine Films, Cold War Paranoia, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, Liberation Politics, Video Games, Westerns, Computer Culture and Multiculturalism all feature prominently at some point in this film’s narrative. Like David Bowie before them and Kanye West after them, The Siblings were able to take extremely out-there or niche ideas/aesthetics and make them palatable to a mass audience. What Pulp Fiction was to the early-90’s, this film was to the new millennium, a survey course in cool. It's entirely up to you what course you take next.

Double-Bill: Family Time!

The Celebration and Melancholia

Friday Quote: Ferris Bueller's Day Off

"I am not going to sit on my ass as the events that affect me unfold to determine the course of my life. I'm going to take a stand. I'm going to defend it. Right or wrong, I'm going to defend it."

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Nostalgia and "Missing It"

Confession time! I have never seen Labyrinth.  I know, I know  I've had many a wide-eyed look of disbelief from people when they first hear that. The thing keeping me from seeing it is the fact that I didn't grow up with it.  I feel like if I see it for the first time as an adult so many years after it was made, I just won't "get" it. Conversely, I'm hesitant to recommend and sing the praises of movies I saw and loved as a kid, especially fantasy films, to someone who has never seen them because they probably wouldn't get it either. When I find out somebody hasn't seen The NeverEnding Story, The Goonies, or Flight of Dragons (which apparently NOBODY has seen), I just say "Aw, you missed it!" Some movies you have to grow up with, or at last see it in their time when it wasn't quite so dated (talking puppets, anyone?). Looking at the films on our 80s poll, I have a feeling nostalgia played a big part in many of our choices. There's something very special about feeling like a kid again, enjoying a movie that you've loved for years. And if you missed it, well, you missed it!

Are there any films you missed? Does nostalgia make just-okay films greater in our memories than they really are? Am I full of it? Has ANYONE seen Flight of Dragons??

Berberian Sound Studio (2012)

While working on the sound design for an Italian horror film, Englishman Gilderoy (Toby Jones) begins to gradually...ya know...lose it. 

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While cinema is meant to be a primarily visual medium, nothing can ruin a film faster than bad sound. Suddenly you begin to notice how sparsely populated the street scenes and party scenes are. A three minute scene can feel like an eternity. Good sound on the other hand, can bring a film to life by creating a whole  separate world outside the one we are witnessing on screen. This is the world of Berberian Sound Studio.

Though we never see a single frame of the Giallo film that Gilderoy is working on (outside of the wonderful title sequence) we feel the horror right from the get-go. My wife has even banned me from playing the soundtrack when she's around. Just a few notes of Broadcasts's wonderful, Goblin inspired score is enough to send chills up your spine. Add to this the startlingly violent sound-effects along with the vivid, spoken descriptions of the horrors being depicted in The Equestrian Vortex, and your mind will wander to some pretty gruesome places.

But don't go assuming that this film is nothing more than audio porn. The visuals are no slouch either. All the visual cues you would expect from a Euro-horror film (shadows, red lights, brutal smash-cuts, stomach-turning inserts, black-gloved hands, slow-tracking hallway shots, etc.) are there in abundance. When used in conjunction with the soundtrack, what you get is an authentically horrific and uniquely cinematic depiction of a man gradually losing his mind/soul by embracing the misogyny inherent in much of the horror genre. How much horror and brutality can you watch without becoming horrific and brutal? Where is the line?

The 80's Strike Back!

The wait is over and the results are in! Did your favorite film come out on top? Below you will find our list of the Top-11 Films of the 1980's. Why 11 you ask? As always with our polls, there were a healthy number of ties. Three films tied for 3rd place, three films tied for 4th and three films tied for 5th. What do you expect from a sampling size of 33?

Speaking of 33, that number narrowly squeaks past the previous record of 32 ballots cast for our October Spooktacular Poll! It's a small victory, but we'll take it! All of us here at This Cinematic Life are so honored and humbled that you take time out of your busy day to visit our little corner of the Internet. Thank you for that.

We'd also like to thank the special guest contributors to this particular poll. We have film critics Alonso Duralde and Dave White, podcaster extraordinaire Jack Morrissey, theater owner Logan Crow, comic book writer Matt Fraction, and writer/director Vincent Pereira. When you see their names listed above their ballots, give them a click and see what kid of cool stuff they're up to!

And while we're on the topic of ballots, please do check out the individual Top 10 lists all of our  fine readers and contributors submitted. Perhaps you'll discover a new favorite!

As usual, all ties in the Top Films are listed alphabetically and titles that are clickable will take you to a review we've written about that film in the past. Lastly, please enjoy the brand new review written about our #1 film by Ms. 'Becca'lise!

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Honorable Mentions: Amadeus, The Goonies, Labyrinth

The Breakfast Club (7 votes)

Monsters University (2013)

I don't often see children's films in the theaters, but who's going to miss a Pixar movie? I had heard mixed reviews for this one, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to revisit good ol' Mike and Sulley. Even if prequels don't have the best of reputations, I had high hopes and I wasn't disappointed.

We all know Sulley went on to be the top scarer at Monsters, Inc. and Mike Wazowski was his biggest supporter, coach, and friend. In college, however, they were bitter rivals, butting heads and not respecting what the other was bringing to the table (Mike's perfect knowledge of textbook-scaring vs Sulley's instinctual and natural scaring abilities). Mike is kind of a nerd, and Sulley's kind of an asshole. After getting on the dean's bad side and getting kicked out of the scaring program, they have to team up with an unlikely group of weirdos to win the annual Scare Games and get themselves back into the program.

I looooved seeing all the different monsters, and I liked the different levels of humor the film was working on. There was plenty there for the kids to understand and enjoy, but the out-there character of Art ("I can't go back to jail!"), an older character returning to college after losing his job and trying to fit in with the young crowd, and a scene mocking teenagers are definitely aimed at parents and the now-older fans of the first film (quick aside: I was fifteen when the first movie came out!). The film has all the components of a rowdy college film but it's family friendly and a whole lot of fun. And come on, it's Pixar!

Have fun, and don't forget to leave behind your extra toe (wait, what??)!

Double-Bill: Spielberg By Proxy

Poltergeist and The Goonies

The Goonies (1985)

With the scheduled foreclosure and demolition of their town imminent, a scrappy group of kids band together and go in search of lost pirate treasure with some very bad people hot on their trail.

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Why can't movies for kids be this awesome any more? More specifically: Why can't they be this scary anymore? I'm inclined to blame political correctness, but that would make me sound like Rush Limbaugh and we of course can't have that. But seriously! It's important for kids to be scared and the only way to do that is by putting young characters in real danger like this film does. Sure there's elements that defy the laws of physics/reality (ie: all of Data's inventions) but even when he's dangling from chattering teeth, there are still real jagged spikes down there waiting to kill him. Even when they cut out the dirty stuff to show it on the Disney Channel, they re-inserted the Octopus scene! More danger! Outside of awesome exceptions like ParaNorman, this would not fly today. Some of my fondest childhood memories are connected to things I was afraid of and it's sad to think that the children of tomorrow are being deprived of this. They're also being deprived of dirty/naughty stuff, but that's another rant all together...

Double-Bill: VH-YESSSSSS

Be Kind Rewind and Son Of Rambow

Side Effects (2013)

A young woman's (Rooney Mara) world unravels when a drug prescribed by her psychiatrist (Jude Law) has unexpected side effects.

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When I first saw the trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s final theatrical feature, I was a bit underwhelmed. The trailer just looked so generic. Woman, man, pills, psychosis, sex. How could this be the film that a master filmmaker was deliberately deciding to go out on? Oh me of little faith. As simple as the narrative may appear to be, Side Effects has a LOT on it's mind and it intends to get it all out in just under two hours. Like a Spike Lee Joint, no societal ill is left untouched. Just when you think you've pinned down what type of film this is, it becomes something else. That it's able to feel like one coherent whole is a testament to the narrative skill of Soderbergh and writer Scott Z. Burns. Of their three awesome collaborations (The Informant! and Contagion being the predecessors), Side Effects is the real stand-out for me. It’s just a shame that we won’t get to see any more progeny from this glorious union. Let’s hope that Soderbergh gets tired of painting soon.