pointing to the trix la cine

The cinetrix has an especially brilliant post, which you should go read. (And, tangentally, I'm loving Maisonneuve whole-cloth right now; it's my current favorite magazine.) She ends it with a challenge, from J-Fly:

Over a Modelo Negro at our staff happy hour this evening, a fellow film teacher offered up a rather sparkling idea that he borrowed from his film teacher at UCLA. His teachers would ask students to jot down five of their most favorite films off the top of their head, quickly, without much contemplation. Then she asked her students to determine what the bare bones story was to each of the films on the list. Chances are, those films will tell essentially the same story. And chances are, your films will tell that story too. Because that is your story.

Tonight, some of my choices are different than they would be on other days, just because: Midnight, Gas Food Lodging, Run Lola Run, Happy Accidents, and The Station Agent.*

You tell me if the story is essentially the same. Maybe all life is.

George still sick, so no real posting tonight or tomorrow until late afternoon or early evening. Visit the folks on the right. (And Christopher ponied up a great poem.)

*This is a particularly odd list for me, having several wild cards, but I do in fact love all these movies lots.

**You'll be amused to know I'm already second-guessing these choices, thinking of movies that should have been on there -- Rushmore, Bowfinger (yes), The Apartment, etc. Which, of course, totally misses the point of the exercise. Ahem.