Film Feu, or My Life in Movies

When we were kids, Goat Boy (my younger brother) and I used to play a game called "movie theatre." Basically, it was watching the same films over and over on the VCR while eating cereal directly from the box (our version of popcorn). Some of our favorites were "Batman," "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure," "Dick Tracy," "Adventures in Babysiting," and the "Back to the Future" trilogy. This video is our favorite scene in "Adventures in Babysitting." The best part about '80's movies has got to be watching them from a current perspective. The hair, the clothes....and who knew the young girl crazy Darrell from "AIB" would grow up to be a gay actor best known for his work in a musical? For that matter, it's hard to watch Keanu Reeves in the "Matrix" movies if you think of him as Ted.
Movies reflect their time period, not only in history, but in the viewer's life. My public persona was partially shaped by Madonna's femme fatale, Breathless Mahoney, from "Dick Tracy." I was an awkward 10 year old when I saw the film in 1990, and I put the character of Breathless away inside me, saving her for a day when I could emulate her. I still know all her songs and gestures from the musical numbers in the film. The jokes in the comedies have become fond friends, and anyone who gets them, a kindred spirit. It's a shared history, and an affirmation, when I find someone who laughs when I say, "Strange things are afoot at the Circle K."
These films are a walk down memory lane, like visiting oneself as a child. And, if you haven't seen "Dick Tracy," it's worth it just for Mandy Patikin's odd cameo as the piano player, 88 Keys. Not to mention Al Pacino's bipolar Big Boy Caprice....