I have had a lot of marketing posts lately so I wanted to shift gears and give you a couple of great movie recommendations. For those of you how are new visitors, we want you to think of Dog Star Media when you think about video. After all, most of us here have degrees in Film and Video production so, we kind of know what we are doing.
I have three great movies set in Summer season to recommend, all for a different taste in movies. So you are bound to find something here. Remember, try one or more and then keep coming back for more great tips.
For the sports or comedy lover... Try Long Gone. This is one of the best baseball movies out there. I even like it better than Bull Durham. Long Gone is a funny story about standing up for what is right set in the deep south of the 1950s. The team is a small minor league franchise and a young William Peterson (from CSI) stars. If you like Penn & Teller, Teller has a small role in this movie playing the comic genius Henry Gibson’s son. Teller talks in the movie.
For those of you who want a tense drama on the adult side, I highly recommend Summer of Sam. This is Spike Lee’s movie set in NYC during the unbearably hot summer of 1977. The movie focuses on the impact the Son of Sam killer (David Berkowitz) had on the city. However, I think this is Lee’s best movie to date. I lived in New York state in the summer of 1977 and I remember that time very clearly. This movie captures the cultural clashes of the time, such as the rise of the Punk music culture vs. the indulgent, drug-driven Disco culture, with a remarkable clarity. Watch this movie and you will never be able to hear some disco hits again without getting a chill down your spine.
And, finally, I highly recommend Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing for those of you with a liking for Shakespeare and a taste for art-house films. Sunsplashed and magnificent from the first scene when the men ride into town, this is by far the best Shakespeare adaptation to film. That includes Olivier and Gibson as Hamlet, by the way. A fantastic cast including Denzel Washington, Kate Beckinsale and Michael Keaton only helps. This is an art film with all the commercial trappings. The slow motion montage of Branagh’s Benedick and Emma Thompson’s Beatrice privately celebrating their realization that they are loved midway through the film is one of my favorite scenes of any movie. Just pure joy on film.
Writing this, I realize how much I love all of these movies. I will be seeing them this month. Give yourself a bonus. Pick a genre or two and treat yourself.
