The Film Emotion Blogathon

The Film Emotion Blogathon

Hosted by Conman at the Movies

My love of Pixar's Inside Out is documented. It is currently the best film of 2015...so far. So, it's no surprise that I would find myself drawn to this genius idea for a blogathon. Much like the world we create for ourselves, the movies create worlds for us as well, and, in movies, just like in life, we have emotional connection as the driving force.


Here are the rules for the Blogathon.

1.) Pick five films to represent the five emotions in Inside Out. The criteria for choosing these films is listed below. I would be willing to allow a tie, if you couldn’t decide between two films to best represent one of the emotions.

2.) Write out five paragraphs, (one for each film) talking about the movies and why you chose them.

3.) Post them on your blog (or Tumblr or whatever).

4.) Send me the link by posting it here in the comments.

Now, it’s occurred to me that all good Blogathons need a deadline in order to work. Two weeks seems good. You have until August 11 to participate. That’s when I’ll be doing one big post talking about the movies that everyone chose and my opinions on the choices.

What I’m looking for are five movies that make YOU feel a certain emotion. 

First of all, you want to pick a movie that makes you happy. The kind of movie that you put on whenever you’re in a bad mood that never fails to lighten your spirits. It can be a family film, a romance, a comedy – as long as there’s a smile on your face by the end credits, it should be fair game.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin

Dir. Judd Apatow, 2005

It's the final scene, the totally out-of-left-field homage/lampoon of the "Aquarius" number in the late 1960s musical Hair. I sat in my matinees screening that day and was just happy. It was the first time I had gone to a movie by myself, a practice I continue today. In fact, I've gone to as many movies alone in the last five years as I have with my wife. Every time I watch Judd Apatow's directorial debut and Steve Carrell starring vehicle, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, I am at my happiest. It is just a perfect mix of dude humor, raunch, and love. 

Now for the movie that made you cry the most. From Bambi to Titanic, there are plenty of tear-jerker movies out there. These are movies where you gravitate towards the main characters and really don’t want to see anything bad happen to them. Maybe a character dies, maybe the guy doesn’t get the girl, but your eyes should be pretty watery by the film’s end.

Leaving Las Vegas

Dir. Mike Figgis, 1995

It's the journey of depressed alcoholic screenwriter Ben Sanderson (Best Actor winner Nicolas Cage) that does it. It is a journey drenched in regret and pain and the most horrid disease imaginable... addiction. Cage brings a perfection to his performance here that is rarely seen. He is tortured, crazed, drunk, sad. Not even the tiniest glint of hope in the form of Sera (Best Actress nominee Elisabeth Shue), the call girl with a code, can save him. It is just devastating and filled with sadness. 

This is the movie that gave you the most nightmares. Pretty self explanatory. There are plenty of classic horror movies to choose from, but it doesn’t have to be an out-and-out horror film. If the movie’s about a more subtle kind of fear, or if the movie just has a creepy atmosphere, that should work. Whether blunt or subtle, this is the movie that scares the **** out of you.

The Blair Witch Project

Dir. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, 1999

It's the knowing that something's out there that does it. Roger Ebert, in his four-star review of The Blair Witch Project, states that "The noise in the dark is almost always scarier than what makes the noise in the dark." That's why this film is so effective and so dreadfully scary. We are scared of what we can't see. Our mind plays its great tricks. And whether or not there is truth in this story becomes a non-factor. It's not what happens or doesn't happen in the end. It's not about a killer in the woods. No. It's about the sounds and the feelings of being alone and lost and tired and hungry and filled with stories of a witch that haunts a wood. 

This is a movie that you flat out hated. Not a movie that was dull or boring, but a movie that just fills you up with rage just thinking about it. Maybe it’s a movie made by a certain director that had so much potential, maybe it’s an adaptation or a sequel that just didn’t do the original justice. It could also be a movie where your anger isn’t directed at the movie, but at the characters. Ever wanted to scream at movie characters for making such incredibly stupid decisions?

The Matrix Reloaded

Dir. The Wachowski Brothers, 2003

It's that ridiculous, horribly long orgy in Zion that does it. I was so pissed off at the ugliness and senselessness of this sequel to the brilliant 1999 sci-fi masterpiece, The Matrix, that I got up out of my seat in a packed out on opening night and walked right the fuck out. I HATED THIS MOVIE! It makes me actually angry to even think about it. I'm sure there was some cool stuff in it. I wouldn't know because I couldn't make it past the sweaty, smelly, dirty 10-minute techno sex rave.

This last one is a bit tricky, I’ll let you interpret it the way you want. It could be a horror film with a lot of really awful imagery that you don’t want to look at, it could be a comedy with a bunch of gross-out humor that you can barely listen to. It could even be a movie that you like, but your disgust comes towards the basic premise in a grander sense, like being disgusted by what you see in 12 Years A Slave or Schindler’s List. Either way, this film should make you cringe.

Nymphomaniac: Vol. II

Dir. Lars Von Trier, 2014

It's Lars Von Trier's inability to respect any sort of human decency that does it. As soon as the spoons fell out, I was done. I was disgusted. I was appalled. I was witnessing the most disgustingly unattractive piece of trash I've ever chosen to witness. As it stands alone, this is one of the worst things I've ever seen. I kept watching for a little while after this scene (pictured above) but not much longer. I have no sympathy for a character who enjoys watching his girlfriend destroy her body, as if her problems and her devastating addiction are a string of jokes.