Lucas has excellent taste in classic movies, and I’m sure my boyfriend is going to make me watch them all. (This is the boyfriend who asked recently if it was possible to have cable but only pay for Turner Classic Movies.)

Some of us, however, prefer our movies

1. In color
2. In English
3. Audible (meaning with audio tracks from the last 20 years)

Also, I need montage sequences set to music that reminds me of my own life, not French folk songs from the 1930s. This helps a lot when you’re trying to salve fresh recession wounds.

Now, my original premise was that Lucas’s highfalutin old timey films are going to require a NetFlix account, or even a Mondo Kim’s purchase — and neither option abides by the spirit of the recession diet. But then I looked them all up at the Brooklyn Public Library, and it turns out that four of the five are available for the price of a free library card.

And yet, my argument defeated, I’d still like to plow forth with my proposal that the IDEAL recession film is within arm’s reach of the couch: the movies you (and your roommates) already own, but never watch. So reader, I give you:

ANDREW’S RECESSION FILMS ON THE CHEAP (AND LAZY)

1. Me and You and Everyone We Know (sort of melancholy, much like a recession)
2. Clueless (forgetting your troubles by California Dreamin’ dates back to the Joads)
3. Marie Antoinette (added benefit of taking the bloom off the boom-time rose, recessionites!)
4. Marc and Liz’s Wedding (my sister’s wedding, where almost everything was made or donated by friends. Not sure if it’s any fun to watch, but recession chic, non?)
5. Annie Hall (hm, not recessiony at all, even though I think the oil crisis was happening or was just about to)
6. Mother (a short my friend made that won something at Cannes, paid for through donations from friends. Très recesssion!)
7. Letters from Iwo Jima (I have no interest in watching this, but my dad gave it to me, and maybe someday it will come in handy)
8. Russian Ark (Russia is a permanent recession for most people, right?)
9. Etc.

You get the point. This recession is going to be all about nesting and making-do over here in my world. Add movies you own to the comments list, and maybe we can swap!