I’ve written and now re-written this posting about 4 times. I’m not one to be so indecisive but as I was first moved to write based on a movie that I had just seen, I wasn’t able to finish my thoughts in one sitting. Subsequently I’ve seen about a dozen other movies and each one has shaped my thought process and moved me in another direction.
While my initial intention was to recapture my feelings from during my viewing of the movie Beginners (great film: http://focusfeatures.com/film/beginners/prestitial - check it out) as well as to convey them to my (small) audience, I then realized that doing so was taking away from that movie experience, limiting it to only those moments that I was writing about, and potentially I may have ruined the movie to any future movie-goer. Often in high school the essays that we as students had to write about the books we were reading were given the critique that they were full of plot and synopsis instead of thoughtfulness and analyzation… Similarly, in hindsight, that is exactly what I had done in my first draft. Upon further review, my new intention is to convey the way that movies in general make me feel. Each film has the potential to bring me to a new mental space and shape my outlook and thoughts. Each time I sit and watch a movie, it is a like a small little life experience happening for that given period of time. I’m not too dense to realize the difference between life, or ‘the real world’, but movies can provide a setting that we may not actually experience in our own lives and that exposure can be enlightening.
I remember in college the time that I realized that I was choosing TV/movie world over my own life experiences – it was a real turning point for me. I think it was a Wednesday evening (America’s Next Top Model night) and someone had invited me to do something (don’t remember what it was) and I gave up the opportunity because I couldn’t miss watching my show that evening. That was a really sad time for me! It’s no wonder I can’t remember what that’s nights invited activity was because I didn’t participate in it! But I grew from that moment and that’s certainly influenced why I now have a DVR – no more enslavement to TV schedules. On the flip side though, I still watched a lot of movies when I was in college. At one point my roommates joked that I was majoring in movies because I was watching so many of them. One time we were watching the movie Cellular (silly movie but still entertaining) and the fire alarm went off in the building for a fire drill. Instead of evacuating as we should have, my roommates and I plowed through the beeping noise and continued watching the movie while complaining that the alarm was a nuisance. But movies, or anything on DVD for that matter, are good because you can watch them on your own schedule. But I digress…
In general, I am lover of movies. Some say that I am easily entertained, but I don’t think that is a bad thing. I don’t need a movie to be an academy award winning film to enjoy it. To me, ‘Bring It On’ and ‘An Education’ (2 movies that I have seen recently) each served an entertaining purpose in my life while the feel for each and what I got out of each were completely different. And that’s the beauty of movies – that they are all so different! There are times when I want something silly on so that I can ‘shut down’ and give my busy brain a rest. Other times, I’m in the mood for something thought provoking and smart so that my ideas and creative juices can flow.
A little while ago I started tapping into a beautiful resource to watch movies… the LIBRARY! In the past couple of years I’ve visited the library plenty of times to take out books as I was honing my relatively new found interest in reading. But the Library is a great place for media as well! My office in the city is right around the corner from the Mid-Manhattan branch and I literally go in there at least 3 times a week…. All the guards there know me! The best thing about the NYPL system is that you don’t have to pay anything to request an item that you can’t find on the shelf. I’ve currently maxed out my limit for how many items you can request at a time (its 15), and I’ve also learned that maximum number of times you can renew something (assuming there is no hold on the item) is 9. I highly recommend the Library to movie (and book) enthusiasts.
To end, I just want to share a handful of the movie titles that I’ve seen recently that are worth recommending:
- An Education
- Never Let Me Go (both of these are with Carey Mulligan, who I think is fantastic – I kind of want to be her…)
- Vitus (this is a foreign film but well worth the subtitles… this may be one of my favorites ever)
- X Men: First class (a fantastic prequel that really shed light on the others in the series… also surprisingly intertwined with history)
- Beginners (I referenced it before, but it really is worth recommending)
For the record, I would like it to be noted that I am extremely excited for the last Harry Potter movie to come out, and I’ll be sure to write all about it because it will be surrounded by Harry potter Movie Marathon Weekend including all the HP movies and lots of good food.
Happy July 4th! Celebrate your independence with a good movie! (Independence Day maybe?)
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