From: Adam Kempenaar
To: Sam Hallgren; Eric Baker
Subject: Lists
I disagree with Eric's contention that Rabbit hasn't changed that much from the beginning of the film to the end. Besides the usual movie stuff about "discovering yourself," Rabbit has become a halfway responsible adult. He finally learns not to say, "It's not my fault," whenever something goes wrong in his life. As for Eric's final two points: 1) I don't know how hot she is, but Brittany Murphy is definitely the dirtiest dirty girl around now. 2) You call what Kim Basinger was doing -- with that cartoonish, transplanted Southern drawl -- "acting"? Apparently Eminem can't act because he was too subtle and beliebable for you. As for the list of the year's best, I don't usually keep track of the movies I've seen and start ranking them until the end of the year. It's such a curious and difficult process that I probably wouldn't do it at all except that the past two years I was producing them for The Daily Iowan, and this year I will surely come up with one for CS. I had never read Andrew O'Hehir's explanation of how he develops his lists -- which movies he most wants to watch again -- but I can honestly say it's the exact same criteria I use...with a slight modification: If both were on DVD at the same time and had the exact same special features, which one would I buy if I could only buy one? I actually try to envision myself in front of the DVD rack making my selection. At the same time, O'Hehir's reasoning becomes problematic because there are some movies that are so devastating to sit through that nobody in their right mind would be in a rush to see again soon. Does 'Schindler's List' not belong on a top ten list because I'm still not interested in watching it again? Same with 'In the Bedroom'. O'Hehir apparently didn't want to see it again, but when you're dealing with a movie about such weighty subject matter, you can hardly blame him. I do blame him, however, for leaving it off his list. It made mine at #3.
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