#35: Dog Days (2013)

This is a great documentary about the underworld of street vending in DC. Not only was this film entertaining but very educational. I love it when I get to learn new stuff about my city. National politics is usually the focus of the news around Washington, DC. It's interesting to learn some of the local politics of the District, particularly in the food industry. It's also interesting to see the lives of recent immigrants and how the system can take advantage of them.

#34: Nothing But A Man (1964)

The last film in my black history month series, Nothing But A Man is a perfect ending at that. This is a very brave film, especially considering the year in which it was made. The films director, Michael Roemer, was a documentarian at the time who was supposedly determined to make a serious film about African-Americans. This is a movie about a black man's struggles with life as a laborer in the segregated South and love of a preacher's daughter in an upper class. I was surprised at how many of the issues in the film - his issues with his father, his issues as the father of a son he conceived with a woman out of wedlock, his issues with marrying a woman with a higher education and more means - resonate today. This is definitely an important film.

#33: Election (1999)

I absolutely love Alexander Payne's films, and this movie is right in his wheelhouse. It's about regular people at a Midwestern small town high school. The people are odd but interesting, disturbing but fun. All of the characters feel like people I know in real life. The story itself is creepily hilarious. The relationship between teachers and students is often a little weird. Tracy Flick is the kind of character you'll swear you knew in high school. I probably knew her troubled government teacher, Mr. McAllister, too. I just didn't know that I knew him. The movie is a satire about an election for student government with Tracy running for president. It's not a teen movie though. We see Tracy mostly through the eyes of Mr. McAllister, who has had more than enough of her manipulative ways and recruits the proverbial popular dimwit jock to run against her in an attempt to stop her from winning. What is Tracy Flick's platform? That she should win simply because she's the school's self-appointed winner. When the jock's anarchist lesbian sister jumps into the race in order to piss off the girl who rejected her (her brother's campaign manager), we're really off to the races. Ultimately, this is a parable about elections in general - in which the voters have to choose from among the kinds of people who have been running for office ever since high school.

#32: Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935)

Charlie Chan is basically a cross between Shirlock Holmes, Jessica Fletcher, and Confucius. People die whenever he comes to town, he has to solve the mystery, and for some reason (which I'm sure has nothing to do with his race/ethnicity, yeah right), he constantly speaks in aphorisms. Even though I find Chan to be more of an annoying caricature than a true-to-life character, there is something about the story itself that is very entertaining. I love the Agatha Christie-like whodunit mystery it imbues. Some parts of the story are illogical, but for the most part, it captured my attention from the first scene and kept it until the end. And of course, it was easy to watch at a mere 71 minutes. I know there's a saying that a good movie is never too long. I'm not sure I completely agree with that. Sometimes the length effects the quality.

#31: 48 Hrs. (1982)

My favorite Eddie Murphy film is still Beverly Hills Cop with Trading Places and Coming to America tied in second place. This movie, of course, is where it all started for Eddie's Hollywood career. I've been told the scene when he walks into the country and western themed bar and says, "There's a new sheriff in town," became an event in black cinema history because it marked the first time a black character was allowed to do that in a mainstream film. That whole scene was kind of ridiculous to me. I guess early '80s San Francisco is very different from modern day San Francisco because I can't imagine a bar like that anywhere in that city today. I feel for those dudes now. That's probably the worst place to live in the US if you're a redneck. I'm sure they've since moved and settled someplace else. The movie is classic buddy cop stuff - the rogue police detective that hates everyone being forced to work with a smartass convict in order to solve the case. It's very cliche. James Remar is interesting as the bad guy. I mostly know him as Samantha's asshole billionaire boyfriend on Sex and the City. It's a decent movie. Nothing to write home about, but it's the movie that made Eddie Murphy famous. That makes it special to me.