On November 15, 1966, Two Young Couples From Point Pleasant, West Virginia—Roger And Linda Scarberry,

Matinee by Joe Dante.

One of the great ones.

The most overlooked movie about movies.

Joe Dante's love letter to horror gimmicks.

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." - Albert Einstein

Mythic stories fall into several categories. There are sagas, epics, and fantasy stories called "märchen." These stories depend on something difficult for us to conceive these days: Simplicity or the "Logic of the Fairy Tale." In other words: things are just what they are, because that’s just the way they are.

These stories frequently examine or teach a moral lesson, exalting it or exposing a particular flaw. If the story is a parable or doctrinal, one of its goals is to delineate the characters as "types" in order to illustrate this basic lesson, characters which make the story whole and who are also contained by it. The lives of these "types" can and must have links with the past and the future but their role ends with the story.

In a magic story, the flow is more important than the logic. Man invented monsters to explain the entire universe (Norse and Greek mythology, for example). Once man began to live in an organized way, with a "social contract," an abyss was opened up between his instincts and his thoughts, and monsters started to REPRESENT another universe altogether: man's inner universe. The pagan prefigures the social and offers us a glimpse of the deepest reaches of man's soul, articulating a primordial, savage universe, populated by elves, fauns, ogres, faeries, trolls, and demons.

Some of you have probably wondered "Where did the Easter Bunny come from and why does a rabbit give out eggs?"

The exact origins of the Easter Bunny are unclear, but it's believed to have originated in Germany during the Middle Ages. The tradition probably stems from the pagan festival of "Ēostre", which honored the goddess of the same name and was celebrated during the spring equinox in the form of feasting and fertility rituals. Ēostre was eventually co-opted by Christians and it was rebranded as a celebration of Jesus's rebirth.

Following this theme of new life, rabbits and hares (which have long been seen as symbols of fertility and new life, as they often give birth to large litters in the spring) became the holiday mascot. And as early as 1682, it became a tradition for the "Easter Hare" to make the rounds and judge whether children were good or bad, similar to Kris Kindle. If they were good, they'd be given gifts like toys and colored eggs, eggs being another symbol of new life. German immigrants brought the tradition to the United States in the 18th century, where it became popularized and eventually spread to other parts of the world.

Brazil by Terry Gilliam.

A good film, one that I felt was made exclusively for me. I was transformed upon first watching this. Brazil is an amazing masterpiece of a movie. Is it better than Blade Runner? ...Close.

Uncanny vibes, everything about it is freaky, every character in the film feels like they have this sinister agenda underneath this goofy facade, and it has an ending that's horrifyingly hopeless and really upset me upon first viewing. I was like, "Please, that is not the way it ended. Please no..." But I'm SO glad it ended like that, because apparently there was an alternate version where it ended happily. Forget that. It would not be as nearly as impactful if it didn't have that.

I should note that Terry Gilliam does this thing with fisheye lenses where he makes certain things in frame feel all the more close and intrusive to your personal space. The way he distorts the screen...say someone has a screwdriver or a syringe in their hand. It can really just bend around to really feel like it's about to get you. There's just something really intrusive about some of the visuals in this film.

A scene from Studio Ghibli's most timeless, underrated masterpiece....

It's worth mentioning that Miyazaki has a personal affinity with pigs. He often draws himself as a pig and even created a whole film starring a man turned pig, "Porco Rosso" (I love it. The end.).

L'Homme qui rit, The Man Who Laughs: A Romance of English History (or By Order of the King/On the King's Command) by Victor Hugo.

A poignant, profound and tragic story. 

One of my top ten.

I agree with Miyazaki.

Fun Fact:

The Cheshire Cat was first introduced in Lewis Carroll's novel "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". The character was inspired by an old phrase "Smiling like a Cheshire cat". The origins of that phrase are still debated to this day, but the most widely accepted theory is that it refers to a cat living in the English county of Cheshire, which is known for producing a lot of milk and dairy, which cats love, hence the smiling. Carroll decided to personify the cat from that phrase, he gave it a physical form, a personality and magic powers. In the book, the cat doesn't play quite as large a role as he does in the Disney movie, but the two have very similar characteristics. They talk in really confusing ways that are sometimes funny but also kind of annoying, they raise philosophical questions to Alice even though she clearly doesn't understand them and while they sometimes appear to be making a situation worse for her, they're actually rooting for Alice to succeed and even are helping her indirectly.

"Dark Kingdom" by Frank Frazetta.