Before I came to college I had a long hard look at myself and asked ‘what will best prepare me for student life?’ The first thing I thought of, and thus the only thing I did, was to gather a greater knowledge of pop culture references. This endeavour has stood to me greatly. I rememeber being at some debate about something and someone said Bertie Ahern was like Keyser Soze* and I knew exactly who he was talking about. Keyser Soze that is, I think Bertie Ahern was that sketchy looking chap with the crutches.
How I set about learning about references to films, that make you feel smarter than everyone else, was to watch all of the 250 films on the Internet Movie Database’s ‘Top 250,’ a list of films complied from the votes of people with nothing better to do on the internet. Obviously this would make me a better person and bring me closer to achieving nirvana or heaven on earth or whatever ridiculous thing I believe in. I am still working my way through the list but I’ve now seen approximately a lot of the films. My Alfred Hitchcock boxset has been a big help, as has ‘my local DVD store’… *cough*watchingfilmsontheinternet*cough*
During my (tribe called) quest** I discovered loads of fantastic films, like ‘Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain’ (#48), ‘Metropolis’ (#86) and ‘Annie Hall’ (#138) but also I found a waste of time that felt slightly relevant, as it seemed to be a method of self-improvement. It also made me think. If I didn’t like any of the films THAT much, like ‘Se7en’ (#31), ‘Memento’ (#29), ‘The Dark Knight’ (#9 [seriously, cop on]) or ‘The Godfather’ (#2) did it mean I had bad taste in films, or was the list just wrong? Either I had to admit a flaw in my personality or admit my whole endeavour was misguided and pointless. So I came up with a solution that lets us both be right. I could admit the films were good, it was just that I didn’t ‘get it.’ It’s like how people can listen to the Kings of Leon. Clearly different people like different things, and I just wasn’t bothered acknowledging that earlier because, if I had, there wouldn’t have been anything to write this article about.
*This is a reference to ‘The Usual Suspects.’ Learn your shit.
**This is a reference to the hip hop group ‘A Tribe Called Quest,’ you don’t really need to learn anything about them.
