Groundhog Day (1993), directed by Harold Ramis.
Notes, just as I wrote them down:
Why no hot water at the B&B? Because it's funny.
I always wonder: is anyone else aware of the time loop, living it with Phil but not letting on? I sometimes suspect the bartender at the hotel, but the person with the most invested in getting Phil out is Rita. She admits to déjà vu so is aware of something odd.
It's like an extended Twilight Zone episode.
First film for Michael Shannon, age 19, as the newlywed groom: "WrestleMania!"
Is it important to the plot that the phone lines be down? It is not as if Phil could change anything by calling out. But yes: cutting off Punxsutawney turns it into a little world isolated in both time and space.
How much sleep is Phil getting? He sometimes tries to stay up all night but I don't know if he ever makes it to 6am for the "reset". You'd think staying awake in jail would not he hard. And what would the reset be like if you were conscious of it?
I really want to try the sticky buns at the Tip Top.
He starts with coffee to cope; that is eventually replaced with booze until he turns the corner.
In a darker, sadistic version of the story he could have done a lot of violence. Here he kills only himself, repeatedly. And the groundhog. Punches Needle-nose Ned. Uses his time loop skills for strategic dating and sex.
Ned's whistling belly-button act: how did that work exactly?
Heidi II: no such film, even if it is Phil's favorite that he's seen a hundred times.
What is that paperback Rita is reading in the hotel bar? She has the cover folded so we can't see. 19th century French poetry?
Phil turns the corner the night Rita stays with him. And another when he can't save the old man. He looks up into the night, asking: why?
My favorite moment: sitting at the quiet diner counter, reading, just looking around and marveling at life.
Does he never eat the chocolates by the clock radio?
Sonny Bono couldn't sing, could he?
A lot of people estimate that Phil must have been in the loop for decades, which sounds right to me.
Photographed by John Bailey -- Cat People (1982), The Big Chill (1983), Silverado (1985). Score by George Fenton -- The Company of Wolves (1984), The Fisher King (1991).
Available on Blu-ray. The director provides a light commentary track with shout-outs to cast and crew.