What are your favorite movies?

Remember when sick days were all about lying on the couch, surrounded by tissues and cold medicine and tea and juice and watching movie after movie and falling asleep and getting better? That's totally what Coco did today. Back-to-back, she watched Trolls and Frozen. Pretty much her version of heaven, minus the headache, chills and fever. 

Anymore, if I get sick, it's nothing like the above scenario. It's more like Sudafed, coffee and powering through anyway. Sometimes I'll let the kids watch a movie so I can sleep, but they usually wake me up in the most unpleasant way, like poking my eyes and then smiling the biggest, sweetest smile when they open. This is the toddler I'm talking about. If Coco did that at 5 1/2, it would be pretty weird, and I would not call it sweet. But when Theo does it, it's pretty cute, and it was when she was a toddler, too.

So, in the spirit of sick days, what are your favorite movies? Three of mine, straight ahead!

In my humble opinion, Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette is one of the best movies of all time. It is so beautifully shot and staged and the costumes are decadent and scrumptious and everything about it is completely gripping and engaging. Of course, we all know how it ends, and yet the story keeps you holding on to see what happens next. Probably what I love most about this movie is the female narrative. Marie Antoinette is young and put into a position she is in no way prepared for and she fails miserably. But along the way, she just wants what we all want. Love and connection, friendship, companionship, and (let's be real here) plenty of champagne, parties, clothes and beauty. Of course, she loses her head as queen. Literally and figuratively. I love it. It's such a wonderful story, cleverly told.

I have easily seen James Ivory's A Room with a View 200 times. This is because for a long time at the end of college, it was the only VHS that I had and I didn't have any TV connection, so any time J and I wanted to "watch TV", we'd just watch A Room with a View from where we'd left off the last time. We never, ever say the lines along with the movie, because that is obnoxious and annoying, but we both know every single one. The way it captures Italy is perfection. The true credit goes to E.M. Forester, of course, because he wrote the book. But the movie is resplendent and makes me swoon every single time. While we were in college, the library archives put all sorts of notes and photos and other memorabilia from the filming on display for a few months. James Ivory is a University of Oregon alumnus and it was all incredible to see! 

And then there is Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge!, which is the best sing-along spectacle of all time. Ewan McGregor is such a heartthrob and then he sings and it's like I am going to explode. I love this movie. There is that lull in the middle where I kind of feel like, can we fast forward a bit here? Yes, yes we can, and then it's good again. So dreamy! It makes me want to go to Paris and be a writer. And then I think about being starving in Paris and change my mind, but it's good for a bit of daydreaming anyway. And the songs. Sing along, loudly and feel it! And Kylie Minogue is the green fairy?! Stop it. Just stop it, now.

Tell me your favorite movies in the comments. But please, do not laugh at me or mock my favorites. These movies transport me to another realm of existence and it really is just the best to detach now and then, don't you think?

(Photos all via Google Images, except top image via Vogue and bottom animation via Beto Piccolo)