Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Friends united through cinema, kind of.

Every Sunday, my fellow members of the "Manny Perry Movie Club"* and I go to the last matinee at a local theater and then out to dinner. This past Sunday, we celebrated the end of our fifth full year of the club (ironically, by not seeing a movie). It was a terrific evening with friends, food and wine, and remembering good times. Kevin brought a list of all 231 movies we have seen as a group. There were four or five that I didn't remember at all until I looked them up on IMDB. My favorite, however, is "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill," a small documentary that I didn't know a thing about before we went to see it, a film I never would have picked in a million years, but a film that entertained me, taught me, and even moved me.

Here is the list of all 231 movies we've seen as a group thus far:
In America
Big Fish
Calendar Girls
The Cooler
Master and Commander
Love Actually
The Triplets of Belleville
Dolphins
Monster
The Dreamers
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Company
Osama
Touching the Void
The Barbarian Invasions
Mean Girls
Goodbye, Lenin
Monsieur Ibrahim
Shrek 2
Bon Voyage
Saved!
I’m Not Scared
Fahrenheit 9/11
Dodgeball
Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself
Spider-Man 2
The Clearing
Napoleon Dynamite
The Manchurian Candidate
The Hunting of the President
Before Sunset
Hero
Intimate Strangers
Let’s Get Frank
Vanity Fair
Maria, Full of Grace
Coral Reef Adventure
Team America: World Police
I ♥ Huckabees
Ray
What the #$*! Do We Know?
The Incredibles
Being Julia
Sideways
Closer
The Motorcycle Diaries
Kinsey
Finding Neverland
A Very Long Engagement
Primer
Million Dollar Baby
Vera Drake
Hitch
Hotel Rwanda
The Woodsman
In Good Company
Robots
Schultze Gets the Blues
The Upside of Anger
Bride and Prejudice
Gunner Palace
Up and Down
Millions
Born into Brothels
Dear Frankie
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Layer Cake
Batman Begins
Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room
Howl’s Moving Castle
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
Saving Face
Almost Normal
Ladies in Lavender
Hustle and Flow
Me and You and Everyone We Know
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Murderball
Broken Flowers
March of the Penguins
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
Junebug
A History of Violence
Serenity
Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit
Grizzly Man
Good Night and Good Luck
Walk the Line
Paradise Now
Rent
Capote
Tarnation
The Squid and the Whale
Syriana
Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic
Brokeback Mountain
Munich
The Matador
Match Point
Transamerica
Caché
Why We Fight
V for Vendetta
C.S.A.: Confederate States of America
Inside Man
Thank You for Smoking
Friends with Money
Akeelah and the Bee
Tsotsi
L’Enfant
Aliens of the Deep
Over the Hedge
X-Men: The Last Stand
A Prairie Home Companion
Cars
An Inconvenient Truth
Water
Superman Returns
Clerks II
The Devil Wears Prada
Wordplay
A Scanner Darkly
The Great New Wonderful
Little Miss Sunshine
Hollywoodland
The Heart of the Game
The Illusionist
Quinceañera
The Departed
The Science of Sleep
Jesus Camp
The Prestige
Keeping Mum
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
The Queen
Casino Royale
Babel
Blood Diamond
Charlotte’s Web
Catch a Fire
Dreamgirls
Children of Men
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Last King of Scotland
Music and Lyrics
Zodiac
The History Boys
Bridge to Terabithia
The Lives of Others
The Lookout
Days of Glory
Disturbia
Starter for 10
Spider-Man 3
Hot Fuzz
Waitress
Knocked Up
The Valet
Away from Her
300
Ratatouille
Sicko
Once
Hairspray
Stardust
Rescue Dawn
Paris Je T’aime
Shoot ‘Em Up
3:10 to Yuma
Eastern Promises
Death at a Funeral
In the Valley of Elah
Sea Monsters in 3D
The Nightmare before Christmas in 3D
Gone Baby Gone
Into the Wild
Lars and the Real Girl
Beowulf
No Country for Old Men
Enchanted
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
For the Bible Tells Me So
Juno
Atonement
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Cloverfield
The Savages
The Kite Runner
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Persepolis
Be Kind Rewind
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Horton Hears a Who
In Bruges
The Bank Job
Paranoid Park
The Band’s Visit
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Snow Angels
Baby Mama
Iron Man
The Visitor
Son of Rambow
Priceless
Kung Fu Panda
Bigger, Stronger, Faster
WALL-E
Hellboy II
The Dark Knight
Mongol
Roman de Gare
Gonzo
Vicky, Christina, Barcelona
Man on Wire
American Teen
Tropic Thunder
Burn after Reading
Trans Siberian
Ghost Town
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Religulous
Appaloosa
Tell No One
A Girl Cut in Two
Happy-Go-Lucky
Quantum of Solace
Bolt
Rachel Getting Married
Cadillac Records
A Christmas Tale
Slumdog Millionaire

*Manny Perry is the famous stunt man who appeared in an anti-piracy PSA five or so years ago. We named the club after him because that PSA played in front of nearly every movie we saw for months. If not for him, we likely would have named the club "Friends United through Cinema, Kind Of" or "F.U.C.K.O."

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Welcome to the world, CJ


Introducing my first nephew, Christopher Shane Caviness Jr., a.k.a. "C.J." He was born 8 lbs., 4 oz., and 21 inches long. He may be the biggest newborn I've ever seen. He was born a couple of weeks early, so he's in NICU until his lungs dry out and he can breathe 100 percent on his own. The doctor says it's perfectly normal and there is nothing to worry about, but if you're they praying kind, we'd certainly appreciate you remembering him.

But as far as I can tell, he's beautiful and perfect and I'm proud as can be to be his uncle.