FILM / Captain Canada's Movie Rodeo / May 2022 / Gabriel Ricard
Image © Gabriel Ricard
I’m a lot to put up with. Not surprisingly, no one deals with this more than my wife Cara. We have a good marriage, but imposter syndrome combined with genuine flaws often leads me to believe that I’m a huge pain in the ass. I try to offset this by doing a lot of housework. And not talking as much. And maybe dialing back the movie trivia just a tiny, tiny bit.
Yes, even when we’re at the movies.
I love movies (and other things, I swear), so it falls to whoever happens to be around me to keep that in mind. Cara’s around me more than most, so it’s a good thing probably that she also enjoys movies. Just not as much as I do, which is fine because who actually needs that.
It’s been my amazing fortune to share a lot of movies over the years. The poor woman has probably seen too many, but she doesn’t seem to have a problem with that. We’ve watched a couple hundred at this point if I had to guess. Probably more.
What’s more interesting to me today are the movies I love specifically because of her. It’s easy for me to get overwhelmed with stuff I’d love to show to someone. Working on that impulse over the years has meant actually letting other people choose things. This is apparently something some adults do.
This month’s Captain Canada’s Movie Rodeo is going to be a little different. We’re going to cover five movies I’ve either seen because Cara wanted to see, or simply something I love in a way that is extremely specific to why I love her.
It could be said that I use film as a reference point for other aspects of life a bit too much. I’m afraid we’re just going to have to deal with that next month.
Sing (2016)
Image © Illumination Entertainment
Before Cara and I started dating almost eight years ago, I didn’t watch a lot of movies built around some sort of singing competition. I was only just starting to realize around 2014 that it wasn’t fair to dismiss movie musicals outright, so meeting a musical (which includes Broadway) nerd like Cara was good timing. Sing was a movie we made plans to see in theaters as soon as she heard about it.
Not really having expectations either way, I was surprised to like Sing as much as I did. The songs are cleverly used. The characters are pretty charming. The voice performances from a cast of mostly celebrities was a lot better than my growing cynicism about big stars doing VA gigs told me it would be. If I had watched this movie on my own, and I probably would have gotten to it eventually, I think I would have the same takeaways.
Seeing it with Cara was way more fun. It still is, as we’ve now seen Sing (we liked Sing 2 fine, but she rarely brings it up) quite a few times. It’s one of her comfort movies, which has led to me seeing it far more than I ever would have on my own. The movie is still fine, but Cara getting into the story, the songs, and the characters is uniquely entertaining without fail.
A Knight’s Tale (2001)
Image © Columbia Pictures
The first movie Cara ever mentioned loving to me, I had seen this film long before we met. It wasn’t the biggest movie of 2001, but it was pretty successful, well-liked movie. While I prefer the double win of seeing something someone else loves for the first time, I’m still interested in watching your favorite movie with you. That’s one of my favorite ways to spend time with people period. Going out seems expensive and sweaty. I’m not much for sports or physical exercise.
Chances are, if you’re spending time with me, we’re going to watch some movies. As time goes on, I’m getting better at remembering that the other people may have suggestions, too.
A Knight’s Tale holds up nicely as entertainment. It was another good step forward for Heath Ledger, who was already someone who could anchor a big budget action epic. Cara loves the movie for the same reasons everyone else does, and it’s as much fun watching her laugh at the one-liners and anachronisms as anything the actual movie offers.
Magic Mike XXL (2015)
Image © Warner Bros. Pictures
In the fall of 2015, Cara and I were back on the east coast. We had lived in Oregon for most of our relationship at that point. We hadn’t been able to visit my family in Virginia much, but we were able to change that in the few months we lived apart after returning from the strange, sudden life we had built together in Ashland OR.
One of her visits would involve doing as much in Richmond, Virginia as we could fit into a weekend. This included seeing Magic Mike XXL, the sequel to 2012’s male stripper dramedy musical ensemble (I guess you really can make a movie about nearly anything) because it was the only thing playing at the historic Byrd Theater in the window of time available to us. We would have seen literally anything playing at that particular moment in time.
To our surprise, we not only liked the movie, but wound up loving it a lot. So much so that we refuse seemingly to watch the first one. Probably for the best. Cara loves the movie for being surprisingly wholesome as a road movie with a surprisingly sweet depiction of friendship.
There’s also a lot of male stripping, so really, it’s the complete cinematic experience.
Although to Cara, the dance sequences, which are very well done indeed, are secondary to why she likes it so much.
Anna and the Apocalypse (2017)
Image © Vertigo Releasing
I knew we were going to see this peppy musical about high school kids surviving a zombie apocalypse from the literal second that I saw the title and a brief description. I’ve seen a lot more musicals with Cara than I ever would have at my own pace. This has been enjoyable the vast majority of the time. A close second to musicals might be horror, which would be the genre we tend to have the most fun watching together.
Anna and the Apocalypse is a good combination of both of those types. The songs are fun enough on their own, move the plot forward nicely, and generally get us into some good character stuff for our zombie hellscape. The horror movie parts are just as impressively realized, as well, although I don’t imagine the movie will prove to be too terribly scary for anyone.
Cara knows all these songs. At least a couple of them are in our regular music rotation. You can sell me on seeing this yet again just because it’s fun to watch her sing along, although Anna does have one of the best casts for a zombie movie I’ve seen in a while.
One Cut of the Dead (2017)
Image © Enbu Seminar
Apparently, 2017 was a solid year for quirky zombie comedies. Of the two we’ve covered this month, One Cut of the Dead is my favorite. Cara agrees. We were introduced to One Cut of the Dead, the story of a movie within a movie within something so beautiful and surprising, via The Last Drive-In on Shudder. If either of us were to make a list of the reasons we love Joe Bob Briggs and company, seeing this film under those ideal circumstances would be right at the top.
One Cut of the Dead is essentially a movie about filmmaking. If you still haven’t seen one of the best horror movies of the 2010s, I would say it’s basically a story built around the worst-case scenario of everything going wrong simultaneously. That part is certainly, but it’s what the people involved do in response that puts One Cut of the Dead in a special place. The execution of this concept is still one of the best things either Cara or I have ever seen in a film.
Honestly? We cried. It’s not a sad movie, but what else can you do when a movie is so entertaining, and so absolutely what you hope to experience with your friends and loved ones?
Cara and I are pretty good at enriching the other with the crap we love. Movies are just one of the ways she makes me feel sporadically okay about the world.
Gabriel Ricard writes, edits, and occasionally acts. His books Love and Quarters and Bondage Night are available through Moran Press, in addition to A Ludicrous Split (Alien Buddha Press) and Clouds of Hungry Dogs (Kleft Jaw Press). He is also a writer, performer, and producer with Belligerent Prom Queen Productions. He lives on a horrible place called Long Island.