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Friday, March 29, 2024
Cold weather brings collegiate cinema

David

Cold weather brings collegiate cinema

While a few dedicated dreamers still strolling to class in cargo shorts and flip-flops may be ignoring the inevitable, the ugly truth is that summer is over and the fall semester is upon us. It's hard to ignore the clearly inverse relationship going on here—the temperature keeps dropping and the homework keeps piling up. 

But lest we forget while sitting in the shadow cast by our mountains of reading, college, on occasion, can be pretty fun too. So, in the hopes of getting that ephemeral season which shall henceforth go unnamed out of our heads and reminding us that school isn't so bad after all, I present you with my top five back-to-college flicks. 

 

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""Back to School"" (1986) One of my dad's all-time favorite movies—in case the cinematic inclinations of a suburban accountant are your preferred taste-barometer—""Back to School"" stars Rodney Dangerfield as a wealthy, yet-uneducated, self-made man who, upon discovering that his son is struggling in school both socially and academically, decides to enroll at his son's college—ostensibly ""Grand Lakes University,"" but in reality our very own campus. 

 

Watch Dangerfield spend the year bribing his way through classes, remodeling his dorm room to fit in a five-person Jacuzzi and teaching the kids these days how to party. Or perhaps just take a stroll up Bascom Hill 25 years ago and appreciate the fact that you don't have to go to school with your dad. 

 

""The Rules of Attraction"" (2002) Written and directed by Academy Award Winner Roger Avary (co-writer of ""Pulp Fiction""), this flick is a pitch-black comedic adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel of the same name. It chronicles the interwoven stories of three college students in a love triangle—Sean (James Van Der Beek,) a drug dealer; Lauren (Shannyn Sossamon,) a virgin poetry major; and Paul (Ian Somerhalder,) a promiscuous bisexual. The film narrates these characters' self-destructive, hyperbolic debauchery. 

 

Avary's stylish production (the film was one of the first studio releases to be edited with Apple's Final Cut Pro, which later became an industry standard,) coupled with Ellis' acidic satire of college life, provide an entertaining, though occasionally disturbing, product that is without a doubt the most faithful cinematic adaptation of any of Bret Easton Ellis' works. 

 

""The Social Network"" (2010) You know that luminescent blue and white thing you use to talk to all you friends, keep tabs on your enemies, stalk your latest crush, display all your photos, plan all your parties, follow all your favorite musical artists and at this point probably to breathe as well? This is the story of that; the story of the revolution that went on to define our generation's college experience—Facebook.

 

If you read my column with any frequency last year, you're probably already aware that I'm a vocal supporter of this movie. ""The King's Speech"" receiving best picture over ""The Social Network"" will forever rank, in my mind, as the most horrible moment in Oscar history, besides Scorsese's snub for ""Goodfellas"" in favor of ""Dances With Wolves."" If for whatever reason you have not yet seen this movie, I would recommend you do so immediately.        

 

 ""Good Will Hunting"" (1997) What started out, in early drafts, as a thriller about a rough-and-tumble secret-genius from South Boston being recruited by the FBI, thankfully eventually transformed into the script that became ""Good Will Hunting."" 

 

It won Matt Damon and Ben Affleck an Academy Award for  Best Original Screenplay, launching them into the stratosphere. Robin Williams also won Best Supporting Actor for his role as the therapist Will Hunting (Damon) must see. 

 

The therapy  sessions are part of an agreement that allows Will, who works as a janitor, to study mathematics there after faculty members find out that he is a genius. 

 

While the story may seem lofty, the movie will hit home with college students who can identify with one of the central thematic conflicts in the movie—the pains of leaving home, friends, and family to pursue personal opportunity. 

 

""Animal House"" (1978) If this movie were not such a seminal icon of American collegiate education in pop culture I would have left it off the list simply because everyone who wants to see this movie has likely seen it at least once or twice already.

 

After all, John Belushi's pose in a Jack-Daniels-soaked navy-blue ""COLLEGE"" sweatshirt, whisky in hand, is likely the only image on par with the Obama ""Hope"" poster in terms of frequency of appearance in college habitats. 

 

There is no denying that ""Animal House"" is the gold-standard by which all college comedies have been measured since, and there's quite a good reason for that. If there's one movie that will remind you that the fun doesn't stop rolling when the summer comes to a close, it's ""Animal House.""

 

What are your favorite college classics? Think these don't belong? Let us know at arts@dailycardinal.com

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