Ten Movies I Grew to Like, Eventually
(Some of these I was simply too young to appreciate the first time I saw them. Others demanded a change in my aesthetic or even my character before I was able to recognize their virtues. One or two I disliked at first for reasons I really don’t know how to explain—maybe I was just in a bad mood that day. I’ve arranged them in order of the age I was when I first encountered them, and I’ve footnoted them generously.)
age 8: Chariots of Fire (directed by Hugh Hudson)
age 9: The Shining (directed by Stanley Kubrick) *
age 10: Local Hero (directed by Bill Forsyth)
age 13: Hannah and Her Sisters (directed by Woody Allen)
age 18: The Quiet Earth (directed by Geoff Murphy) **
age 18: Blue Velvet (directed by David Lynch)
age 25: The Thin Red Line (directed by Terrence Malick)
age 28: The Man Who Fell to Earth (directed by Nicolas Roeg) ***
age 31: The Bourne Supremacy (directed by Paul Greengrass) ****
age 35: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (directed by Julian Schnabel) *****
* We were shown this at a Cub Scout meeting one Halloween, when I was way, way, way too young.
** This is now one of my ten favorite movies of all time.
*** I saw it immediately after I read the book, to which, at first, I regarded at as infuriatingly unfaithful.
**** All of the character development happens in the first Bourne movie, which I hadn’t yet seen at the time.
***** I saw it again eight days later and loved it. It’s now on my fifty favorite movies list.
— March 4, 2023