Eyes Wide Shut

My love affair with Stanley Kubrick didn't begin until several years after his death. I'd seen The Shining and loved it, but was unfamiliar with most of his other work. It still pains me to this day that I was not able to see Eyes Wide Shut (1999) when it came out in theaters (I remember the radio advertisement calling it the most controversial movie of the year.) I was also only 10 years old at the time and probably wouldn't have understood most of the plot anyway.

That said, I love this movie. It keeps a slow pacing that builds and builds with each scene. You're never really sure what or why anything is happening, but neither does the main character you're following. It really is a dramatic thriller in every sense. Most people seemed to hate this movie when it first came out, but that was the case with all of Kubrick's films. He was at least a decade ahead of his time with every picture. The same is true with this one, people are just now beginning to look back on the experience and appreciate it for the art it truly is.

I love this movie, one of my all-time favorites and one of Kubrick's best. (9.2/10)

Happiness

The first time I saw Happiness (1998) I think I was about 15 years old. I had figured out that my local library carried some off-the-wall movies and did not discriminate as to who checked them out or how old they had to be. Within a couple of weeks I had picked up Pink Flamingos and Happiness. The experience was surreal. I knew I didn't quite understand why or what was happening in every scene, but it always stuck with me. Just recently I re-watched the movie and had an entirely new experience.

Where things seemed heavy and disturbing when I was 15, I was laughing at 22. The movie is darkly funny and straddles the line between hilarious and stomach-churning concepts. There are too many storylines to summarize here, but it's safe to say that the movie has become a personal favorite of mine and will warrant many repeat viewings in the future.

I will always wonder what might have happened if the Academy had the balls to nominate this movie for Best Picture that year. (8.9/10)