Harold and Maude

Claire drove a hearse on Six Feet Under, but she wasn’t the first teenager to have that idea. The death-obsessed Harold in Harold and Maude is the prototype for today’s soft-spoken, brainy hipster boy. In the delightful cult film from 1971, backed by an invigorating Cat Stevens soundtrack, he fake-hangs himself right into the loving arms of a septuagenarian firecracker with a revolutionary outlook on life. Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon are wonderful as the quirky May-December lovers, but Vivian Pickles, as Harold’s rich and nosy mom, is a truly brilliant work of art. If you have somehow managed not to have seen this movie yet, it could quite possibly be a revelation for you.