From a New Yorker article about Quentin Tarantino:
One of the many personal genres that Tarantino has made up is "hangout movies" -- movies whose plot and camerawork you may admire but whose primary attraction is the characters. A hangout movie is one that you watch over and over again, just to spend time with them. "Rio Bravo," one of Tarantino's favorite movies of all time (the two others are "Taxi Driver" and "Blow Out"), is a hangout movie. Richard Linklater's "Dazed and Confused," perhaps Tarantino's favorite movie of the nineties, is another hangout movie, and when Tarantino is abroad, in a hotel or some apartment he's rented, if he feels lonely he goes to a video store and rents "Dazed and Confused," and then he doesn't feel lonely anymore. The characters in the movie have become friends of his. -- Larissa MacFarqhhar, "The Movie Lover," The New Yorker (October 20, 2003)
Below are mine. As I reflect on these I'm struck by the lack of writers and directors who are women and/or people of color and/or not from the US or UK and/or not straight. Perhaps hangout movies are narcissistic by definition. I will note that all of these movies have amazing performances by women (with the exception of Django Unchained). In any case, I'm going to have to think about that and review my choices. Off the bat, I think there might be qualification by films by Lisa Cholodenko, Spike Lee, and Jordan Peele. Maybe Lone Scherfig. Sounds like a good film fest, right? I might argue that some...
Read more and comment . . .