A Relationship in Movies

When compiling last week's list of "interesting/important movie experiences," I realized a LOT of them were significant or memorable moments in my relationship with Jacob. I generally bond with people very quickly over artistic things, so it's no surprise that our relationship would contain its fair amount of movie-related memories. These are all ones I considered for the original list before deciding to cobble them together into this list instead.

1. Alice in Wonderland. The first movie I remember watching with him. I went with some friends (including him) all went to see this in theaters. At this point I had definitely developed a crush on him (and, although I didn't know it, he liked me as well). We ended up sitting next to each other in the theater, and we tried to identify all the celebrity voices we heard from the creatures. It turned out we both knew the same set of celebrities, which was refreshing for me after talking with a lot of people who tried to claim movie buff status but really hadn't seen much of anything. The highlight of the evening was when the dragon spoke and Jacob and I looked at each other, eyes wide with excitement, and whispered almost simultaneously, "THAT'S CHRISTOPHER LEE!" I had so much fun gleefully searching for celebrities with him, and I left the theater more certain than ever that I really, really liked this guy.

2. Casablanca. The first movie we saw together by ourselves... and the first time I showed him one of my favorite movies. (And one of the few - we always tended to go with a larger group.) I mentioned it was my favorite movie and he expressed interest in watching it. So I grabbed my copy, we found a room on campus with a DVD player and a screen, and I introduced it to him. It made me nervous, since I didn't really know much about his movie preferences at the time - was he against classic movies? Was he against movies where he had to think about them? When it was over, though, he may not have been as enthralled with it as I was, but he liked it, and I felt better.

3. The Crazies. The first horror movie we watched together, which apparently started a trend, since the only horror movies I have ever seen in theaters have been with him. That's really the only significant thing about this movie.

4. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. We bonded over this movie. A group of us went to see it. While a few didn't like it and a few mildly liked it, Jacob and I developed a ridiculous enthusiasm for this movie. He and I went back to see it the following weekend (accompanied by another small group of friends). When it came out on DVD, he instantly bought it and organized a mini "Let's watch Scott Pilgrim!" party on campus. In our small group of friends, it was always Jacob and I against the other two in our opinions on this movie.

5. Hop. And here, the reverse happened. The group of friends all saw a free showing of this movie. One friend thought it was OK and the other LOVED it... however, for Jacob and myself, this movie became our standard for measuring movie badness.

6. Fright Night. Horror movie #2! We hadn't been all that interested it in on its own, but then discovered David Tennant was in it. I had just gotten Jacob hooked on Doctor Who, so the two of us and a friend all went out to see the movie in all our nerdy glee. We all enjoyed it more than we thought we would.

7. Paranormal Activity 3. The first movie we saw together after we became an official couple. Or, well, it was going to be. He invited me to go see it with the gang the day we did become a couple, and I thought, "OK, this is our first official coupley outing, and I don't really wanna see Paranormal Activity 3, but I do want to spend time with him, so, uh... OK!" However, we got there and the movie was sold out. So this entry is a lie. PSYCH!

Real #7. Mean Girls. We went back to one friend's house and watched this instead. I'd never seen it before and thoroughly enjoyed it. This is a MUCH better movie for the "first movie as a couple" category than Paranormal Activity 3.

8. Paranormal Activity 3. Yeah, we went back to see it. After watching Mean Girls, we went back and caught a later showing. The theater was almost sold out, so the four of us couldn't sit together, but Jacob and I found a spot and the other two girls found a spot. Jacob and I both agreed afterward that the movie was pretty dumb. The highlight was when the main character opened a shed door and there were a bunch of witches behind it, and a crazy audience member behind us yelled, "THERE ARE NINE GRANDMAS IN THE CLOSET!" Jacob and I still occasionally reference that, and constantly hope for closeted grandmas in all horror movies we watch now.

9. Moulin Rouge! We'd both seen this before already, but decided to have a movie night one night and watch something together. We had each brought a couple of our favorite movies to choose from and, rather than choosing something that one or the other hadn't seen, we opted for this one, which we both love (it's one of my all-time favorites). It's important to me that I can share my artistic loves with those around me. As I watched it, I remembered feeling a sense of delight that I was dating someone who loved this movie as much as I did.

10. Cabin in the Woods. The last movie we saw together before I graduated. We're both avid Joss Whedon fans, and we went with a small group to go see this. When the credits rolled, we both looked at each other and agreed that THAT. WAS. AMAZING. And discussed it all the way home.

11. The Evil Dead. We watched this together via Netflix at his house. Neither of us had seen it, but we'd both wanted to watch it for awhile, and I figured I should continue my trend of watching horror movies with him. It was completely ridiculous and silly, and we cheerfully made fun of it the whole way through, making it so much more fun than if I had watched it by myself. The experience of watching the movie with him, yelling, "DO SOMETHING, ASH!" at the screen was so, so much more fun than the movie itself.