Top Five Fav Movies of the 90's

I've been on a nostalgic kick lately...it happens, usually in the summer and around my birthday, so I was well prepared this time. Sometimes it can kick me in the shins....it hurts remembering how much fun summer vacations were when there was no bills, no work, no worries. My brother and I would stay up until 3 or 4 every night watching Nick at Night (remember when they showed OLD shows? Now they show shows that were popular in the 90's in which I speak) sleep in, swim, and watch MTV all afternoon (remember when they shows MUSIC videos?) Throw a few movies in there, bike rides, friends and boys, and that was my summers growing up. Pretty perfect. I always wanted to be a writer when I grew up (I'm still growing up I guess) and would lose myself in the fantasy of the movies. Maybe it was that imagination that created my own stories about the movies. Each of these on this list represents something I wanted: Either a character I wanted to see more of in myself, a lifestyle I wished to live, even if just a little while, or a character I wanted to know in real life. The fantasy was fun, it was encompassing, it was my own escapism from the recent death of my mother.....So here goes
My Top Five Fav Movies of the 90s

1.) Now and Then-the characters were me and my gang of girls. The boys were the boys we chased around, who chased us back. The at home dramas struck a little too close to home sometimes, but the lightheartedness balanced out enough to make the list.

2.)Dazed and Confused-Funny story. Rented this movie 2 weeks after my mom died (obviously not the funny part) I was 12 and if she was still around she never would have gone for it. But God bless my dad he would do anything to make my brother and I happy at this point, so he rented it. My friend and I watched it in the basement of her house while her parents were at work, drinking diet pepsi and getting sugar rushes that made us feel drunk while we danced around to the killer soundtrack. So it wasn't sugar rushes and we just wished we were drunk, but we were 12 and, even if Dad let me WATCH the movie, I knew PARTICIPATING in some of the activities in the movie would get my @$$ kicked.

3.)White Squall-Remember when Scott Wolf was all the rage? Before Lost's Sawyer vs Jack, it was Party of 5's Bailey vs Charlie on the hotness scale. I watched this movie tonite, and didn't realize that, made in 1996, Scott Wolf was born in 1968 making him...thats right...still older than me when this movie was made. Yet, Balthazar Getty (so hot in this movie btw) was born in 1975 making him only 19, but still looking the same age, if not older, than Scott Wolf. Crazy. Guess the last thing I've seen Scotty in was Go-and he still looks about 25 tops. I digress. The true draw of this film was the sea. I've always been happiest when in water-I would sit out for hours in the pool when I was ten or so, curl up in the fetal position w/ my snorkel, and bob around for hours....I've always loved going out on boats any chance i get....and I never feel as at peace as I do when I'm on the shoreline staring at the ocean....so this had to make this list, bittersweet and all. And Jeff Bridges as the Captain makes the movie.

4.) Reality Bites- "hello, you've reached the winter of our discontent" + Ethan Hawke's band + Ben Stiller playing a yuppie tool (not that far of a stretch in my opinion) + Steve Zahn as the recently-out-to-his-parents gay friend=what I expected my friends would be like in my 20s. Because, you know, me and Winona are SOO on the same page and all.

5.)Basketball Diaries-"Your growing up, and Rain sort of remains on the branches of a tree that will Someday rule the Earth, and that's good there is rain, it clears the month, of your sorry rainbow expression, and clears the streets, of silent armies, so we can Dance"-Jim Carroll played by Leonardo Dicaprio. Ah-mazing. I was a complete b-ball nut back in the day so totally related to that part, but this, along with my drug talk w/ my dad, kept me clean. (In case you are wondering, my drug talk w/ my dad was, "I'm not encouraging you to do drugs, but I want you to watch this." he sits me down and we watch Easy Rider. After watching Peter Fonda drop acid and cry to his mother on the statue-I was good. And, in Peter Fonda's memoirs, he states he really did drop acid for that scene, and was crying to his mother for killing herself. My dad's a pretty smart guy diguising his motives and all. I recommend this approach to any parent. sidenote)



So there they are. The movies that shaped my childhood, shaped the amazing eclectic crazy girl you have before you today. I now insist you Netflix them all and report back to me. Or don't and tell me which ones I left off. You decide.