Madeline
Long before Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu, there were VCRs. As a teen, I had a 13 inch television with a VCR attached in my bedroom. I spent my time with a handful of movies playing in the background as the soundtrack to Madeline’s room. Movies that I’ve seen over and over again on VHS.
Between my older siblings, who collected video tapes and then ran off to college, and a friend who’s parents who owned a video rental store (remember those?), I had a small collection and rotated through my favorites regularly. This is a list of my favorites from that era.
American Pie
American Pie is not just first on the list here. It was first on my list to watch as a teen. I’ve seen this movie so many times, over and over again on VHS, that I still quote it to this day. This is the iconic movie of my high school years. So iconic they made as many sequels and prequels as they possibly could.
The premise of American Pie is simple: four boys, each agree to get laid by prom, each have a promising lead, each has an issue, none of them get laid. The End.
Wayne’s World
I had seen this movie about fifty times before I ever knew it was a spin off from a Saturday Night Live skit. This movie was my introduction to not only Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, but also to one of my long time celebrity crushes, Rob Lowe.
There are so many great one liners in this movie, I came to find myself quoting this movie over and over again. “If you are going to spew, spew into this” and my favorite, “No body likes Benjamin. If Benjamin was an ice cream flavor, he would be pralines and dick.”
Due to my younger age, there are so many references in this movie I never understood. From the cop asking “Do you know this boy!?” to the Sergeant York references to Cassandra learning English from the Police Academy movies. I still don’t understand these references, but by god, I don’t care.
Clueless
Talk about movies I grew into. I actually remember the first time I saw the movie poster for Clueless, it was my birthday and we were at the theater to watch Pocahontas, which was age appropriate for us. My sister, some friends, and I all saw the movie poster for Clueless and started gushing over how much we want to see it. It wasn’t much longer till I did see Clueless and as you can imagine, just watching Pocahontas, a lot of the references went over my head.
I saw the movie multiple times a year over the next decade, each time picking up something new. The most recent “Oooohhh” moment during the Pismo Beach Disasterly drive, putting a bong into Kitchenware. My innocent little heart truly thought this was a vase.
As discussed in my previous post about Emma by Jane Austin, Clueless is a teenage satire that follows the story of Emma to a tee. Girl makes new friend. Makes the friend well mannered and well liked. There is all kinds of love and lust. And in the end there are lessons to be learned
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
…The movie, not the television show. I’m not sure if it is widely known that Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a movie looooong before it was a television show. And although I was a big fan of the movie, some how I don’t think I’ve seen a full episode of the much more popular, television show. There fore, I can’t comment on how different it is.
What I can comment on is how great the movie is. Buffy is a bad ass valley girl cheerleader who cares about nothing but being a teen and cheer leading. But then she is convinced by some who “Elvis talks to” that she is chosen to stop the vampires. And that’s where the action comes in.
Cruel Intentions
Sarah Michelle Gellar (aka my doppelganger) may be known for her part of Buffy the Vampire Slayer the show, which, as mentioned, above I’ve never seen. Sarah Michelle Geller is Kathryn, the cocaine snorting manipulative bitch of Cruel Intentions.
As a teen, my favorite line came out of this movie: “Keep your friends close. Keep your enemies closer.” As a teen I thought I knew what this meant. And I thought I was following it. But alas, I was a teen and my life was not nearly as exciting as the drama in this film.
