What's that you say?

Top five moving pictures with plot and sound that changed the way I think and talk

1: Clueless. The cultural phenomenon that is Clueless needs very little elaboration on my part. Just watch VH1 or some Top 100 Teen movies on Bravo or A&E. But personally, I mark elapsing of time by how long ago Clueless was released (14 years ago, this July). Four days before I turned thirteen, Amy Heckerling released this beast upon my psyche. I can't identify the millions of tiny ways in which this movie affected me on the large scale, but ever since seeing it, I've always wanted to drop an entire log of cookie dough into an oven to see what would happen.

2: Wayne's World. If for no other reason than I say "ah" to emphasize random things. "A gun wrack. A gun wrack? You bought me a gun wrack. I don't even own ah gun, let alone many that would necessitate an entire wrack. What am I gonna do? With a gun wrack?" I was eight when this one came out. I didn't get half the jokes but I know laughed when my parents did. The emphasis on the ah didn't pop into my vernacular until late high school, but every time I said it, that scene goes through my head.

3: Sudden Impact. I was four months old when this came out so clearly I saw it later, on VHS–when I was three. Why my parents let me watch this movie at three, I will never know. But there are two things I remember saying over and over again. "Listen, punk!" and "Who's we sucka." My cousin Jonathan also remembers because he's told me stories of how cute, but annoying it was to have his three-year old cousin grabbing his collar, getting in close to his face, and saying "Listen, punk" every time he picked her up.

4: If I were a boy, The Big Lebowski, Star Wars, Trainspotting and anything Quentin Tarantino. I'm not a boy, however. I've never seen The Big Lebowski but I'm so sick of man-boys walking around in bathrobes drinking white russians and calling themselves The Dude.

5: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV). I can't count the things I say or the ways in which I say them that have been affected by Buffy. But it's a lot.