I Am Ridiculous

After cleaning out my home office and filling up four bags full of old CDs (mostly compilations, soundtracks & CD singles) and VHS tapes to sell, I felt a sense of accomplishment. That was short lived.

Tonight I brought those items to Rasputin, and then applied every cent of the store credit earned from the sale of the CDs and tapes to obtain 7 new DVDs. 

In alphabetical order, here are the latest additions to my collection:

DINER
1982. Directed by Barry Levinson. Starring Kevin Bacon, Ellen Barkin, Tim Daly, Steve Guttenberg, Paul Reiser, Mickey Rourke and Daniel Stern. Classic college, coming-of-age male bonding film.

THE GIFT
2000. Directed by Sam Raimi, co-written by Billy Bob Thornton. Starring Cate Blanchett, Katie Holmes, Greg Kinnear, Keanu Reeves, Giovanni Ribisi and Hilary Swank. Underrated thriller with Blanchett as a psychic. Reeves plays against type and pulls off town creep with great success.

ONCE
2006. Directed and written by John Carney. Starring Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. From Sundance to the Oscars, this was the little-film-that-could, and last year’s indie darling with the best soundtrack of the year.

POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE
1990. Directed by Mike Nichols, written by Carrie Fischer. Starring Annette Bening, Richard Dreyfuss, Gene Hackman, Shirley Maclaine, Denis Quaid, Rob Reiner and Meryl Streep. Fischer’s thinly veiled autobiography on the big screen, she was a mess and it made for a very entertaining film.

ROMEO + JULIET
1996. Directed and co-written by Baz Luhrmann. Starring Claire Danes, Brian Dennehy, Leonardo DiCaprio, John Leguizamo, Harold Perrineau (Michael on Lost), Paul Rudd and Paul Sorvino. A very visual and fast paced contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare’s original.

THIRTEEN DAYS
2000. Directed by Roger Donaldson. Starring Kevin Costner, Steven Culp and Bruce Greenwood. Fascinating look at Kennedy and his team during the Cuban missile crisis.