adamkemp
Posts 54
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7/16/2007 4:03 PM
posted awhile ago
Top 5 Misfits
Tying in with Harry Potter and Ratatouille, Sam and Adam share their Top 5 Misfit Movies -- not exactly rebels or delinquents, but people who just can't fit into their environments, whether it be work, school, home or society. Sam's list included Harold and Maude, Amadeus and Nights of Cabiria ... Grey Gardens, The 400 Blows and Full Metal Jacket all made Adam's list. Share your favorite misfits... and add them to the list!
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achance42
Posts 17
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7/16/2007 4:43 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Top 5 Misfits
No children's movies. No fish out of water. No repeats of Adam and Sam. 5. Barton Fink (John Turturro) in Barton Fink - Few people fit in anywhere less than a writer with integrity does in Hollywood. 4. Colin Smith (Tom Courtenay) from The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner - I just saw this one for the first time last week. Really underrated movie. It's almost an English twist on The 400 Blows. However, instead of sharing Antoine's ability to make a mess out of good intentions, Colin has the talent to fit into the system but chooses to remain outside it at all costs. A self-made misfit but a misfit nonetheless. 3. Stroszek (Bruno S.) in Stroszek - I only saw this film for the first time recently. Bruno is an alcoholic, released from prison, gets involved with a prostitute, is terrorized by her pimp, moves with her and his neighbor to America, and watches his hopes of living the American Dream go right down the tubes. 2. David (Haley Joel Osment) from A.I.: Artificial Intelligence - OK, everyone just get off your "Spielberg crapped on Kubrick" horse for a minute and think about this one. This robot was designed simply to replace a dead child. The family he ends up with took him in out of grief over their comatose and dying biological son. He is programmed to love his "mother" but cast aside when her biological son makes a recovery. He can't fit into his own "family" or the rest of the world that, in turns, hates him and uses him. And he has no leg to stand on to improve his situation. If that's not a misfit, I don't know what is. 1. Johnny (David Thewlis) in Naked - Not only is this my favorite performance ever put on film but can you find a greater misfit than Johnny? He's astonishingly brilliant, incredibly obnoxious, highly irritable, and very cruel to just about everyone he comes into contact with. And yet it's all in some bizarre aid of his search for someone to connect with... or rather for someone that can connect with him. Throughout the entire film, he repeatedly asks people, "Are you with me?" as he spouts off about everything from the butterfly effect to signs of the apocalypse, knowing that almost none of them know what the hell he's talking about. The one person he finds in the film that is, in some way, "with him" is a divorced nightwatchman who guards an empty building and continuously pines for a hopeful future. Johnny is THE modern misfit: too smart for his own good but only because no one else is as smart as he is.
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joem18b
Posts 576
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7/16/2007 5:22 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Top 5 Misfits
A wonderful movie for the "most obvious" misfits list.
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dreamersbrow
Posts 2
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7/16/2007 9:30 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Top 5 Misfits
"Down and Out" Top 5 Misfits: No geniuses, just Joes and Janes and all the pain that entails. - Dawn Weiner ( Heather Matarazzo ) in Welcome to the Dollhouse. We later learn in Palindromes, that Dawn has killed herself, and who can blame her. She is the subject of ridicule and harassment at home and at school. Dawn is the middle child eclipsed by a "smarter" older brother and a "cuter" little sister, Dawn's last shelter from the storm of her life 'The special people's club' must be dismantled for her parents' anniversary party. The scene at the dinner table with the chocolate cake is more painful and difficult to watch than anything a Saw-like movie has come up with.
- Lee Holloway ( Maggie Gyllenhaal ) and E. Edward Grey ( James Spader ) in Secretary. We're all misfits when it comes to love. The great thing about this movie for me was the way that it took the 'misfits' and made them seem normal. What a beautiful ending when Grey literally cleanses Lee's soul. I was reminded of Psalm 23 when he lays her down on the bed of grass.
- Enid ( Throa Birch ) and Seymour ( Steve Buscemi ) in Ghost World. Seymour is a gentle spirit, an "authentic", in a world full of fakers. Who but the true believers could leave a message like Seymour did in the personals section. Enid is the misfit as rebel. She rails against the many gray standard faces in their city if banality. Tangentially, is this a case of life imitating art in the careers of Birch and Johansson? Johansson "gets back to work" and Birch disappears on a bus. I would definitely put Birch on my list for career reboots.
- The Gleaners and I is a beautiful film about the misfits who live in the recesses of our excesses. I love how Varda gleans shots for the film, using the scraps to complete the story as the other gleaners use our scraps to complete their lives.
- Mark Borchardt from American Movie, the Everyman of my misfits list. Mark is the avatar of each of us as we scurry, and dream, and ultimately procrastinate in order to keep
the a dream alive.
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joem18b
Posts 576
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7/16/2007 10:02 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Top 5 Misfits
Five terrific "Down and Out" movies. Well done! Name that misfit (male)
1. Hud (1963)
2. Willard (1971)
3. Norbit (2007)
4. Rocky (1976)
5. Fitzcarraldo (1982)
Also: Nixon, Kinsey, Harper, Maverick, Rambo, Ivanhoe, Freud, and Pasteur.
Name that misfit (female)
1. Carrie (1976)
2. May (2002)
3. Frida (2002)
4. Sylvia (2003)
5. Marnie (1964)
and Lorna (1964) - "Lorna Maitland - a wanton of unparalleled emotion... unrestrained earthiness...destined to set a new standard of voluptuous beauty."
Name that misfit (other)
1. Herbie (1966)
2. Michael (1996)
3. Moby Dick (1956)
4. Godzilla (1998)
5. It (1990)
and Mothra (1961) - "Mightiest monster in all creation! Ravishing a universe for love!"
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Risselada
Posts 1349
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7/18/2007 3:32 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Top 5 Misfits
People have named some good ones. Dawn Weiner in Welcome to the Dollhouse was the first one I thought of too. Bruno S. is great in Stroszek, but I actually think The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser is even better. Herzog films are great sources for misfits. Actually you could name any of his films. Probably the same for Errol Morris. Most of my favorite movies are about misfits in some way I think. Too many to name.
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rsncrntz
Posts 1
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7/24/2007 9:03 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Top 5 Misfits
Dare I admit it publicly? One of my favorite movies is Nightmare Before Christmas, and I think Jack Skellington is one of the greatest misfits. Although he's a hero in Halloween, no one else really understands his vision, and when he tries to make his dreams a reality, everything goes wrong. Even when everyone else follows his lead and feeds off his enthusiasm, no one really gets it. I just love the misunderstood genius archetype. :)
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jmart
Posts 3
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7/27/2007 12:50 AM
posted awhile ago
Re: Top 5 Misfits
5. The Klopeks in The 'Burbs - perhaps for a good reason, but they just can't seem to get any lovin' 4. Robert and Charles Crumb in Crumb - so far outside the world around them, they're better off just staying inside 3. Adam Sandler as Barry Egan in Punch-Drunk Love - you don't want to be on his bad side, and nobody understands his good side 2. Robert De Niro as Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy - only Sandra Bernhard and his mother (perhaps) love him 1. Godzilla - who could be more misunderstood and abused than a giant irradiated dinosaur in Tokyo?
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lukasblu
Posts 172
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7/29/2007 1:30 AM
posted awhile ago
Re: Top 5 Misfits
the latest misfit movies i have seen this year which are pretty good are: School for Scoundrels (2006)parking meter officer takes an assertive training (more like aggressive training)classes to get the girl of his dreams and supposedly to increase his self-confidence with suprising results, and The Devil Wears Prada (2006),Andy(anne hathaway) trying to fit into the fashion business world
some other good ones i liked are :Napoleon Dynamite (2004) which stars (jon heder),the same guy from school for scoundrels;Saved! (2004);Angus (1995) a classic misfit fave movie from the 80s is:The Breakfast Club (1985),well actually a mix of misfits and non-misfits
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lukasblu
Posts 172
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7/29/2007 1:39 AM
posted awhile ago
Re: Top 5 Misfits
"2. David (Haley Joel Osment) from A.I.: Artificial Intelligence - OK, everyone just get off your "Spielberg crapped on Kubrick" horse for a minute and think about this one. This robot was designed simply to replace a dead child. The family he ends up with took him in out of grief over their comatose and dying biological son. He is programmed to love his "mother" but cast aside when her biological son makes a recovery. He can't fit into his own "family" or the rest of the world that, in turns, hates him and uses him. And he has no leg to stand on to improve his situation. If that's not a misfit, I don't know what is." This one of my ultimate fave movies of all-time But i never really thought of this flick being a misfit movie til i read your viewpoint. Wow!! Thanks for that insight!! I just thought of it as a tragic/drama, futuristic version of Pinocchio/fairy tale story of a robot in the future (before your viewpoint)
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