7 movies to watch while you have time.
And how they can benefit your quarantine by Maju Cancella for Suck My Chic.
For me, it’s self-isolation day 57. As a writer, my office has always been my home and I’ve been working hard, perhaps more than ever, both because I fear the economic recession and because an occupied mind worries less about unsolvable problems. But even though I’m keeping myself busy, without social or professional gatherings, with all commercial establishments closed, and with my outings reduced to germaphobic visits to the grocery store, I’ve been dealing with some extra time in my hands. Yes, I’ve used it to greedily consume my social media feeds, to eat the entirety of my 2-week food stock, and to lower my long-accumulated sleep debt; but after I’ve done it all repeatedly the need for a more meaningful pastime seemed overdue. Luckily enough, I have found the perfect combination of movies to do just that.
Don’t get me wrong, I still find pleasure in — and need to — alienate myself every now and then to survive the insane amount of pressure we’re all under, but contrary to what I feared at the beginning of this madness, watching good thought-provoking films not only didn’t increase my anxiety, but it also provided a good source of long-lasting distraction from the vicious cycle of unanswered questions and bad news and gave me extra fuel to seek and provoke the changes I want to see in the world. So I made a list of seven movies that will warm your heart, touch your soul, shake your mind- and that you should definitely watch while you have time.
1 — “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (2019)
To open the list, a stunning French masterpiece, written and directed by Céline Sciamma and winner of both the Best Screenplay Award and the Queer Palm at Cannes Film Festival. The film, which was still in theaters when the lockdown began, is now streaming on Hulu and it follows the love story between Marianne, a painter commissioned to do a wedding portrait, and Héloïse, a young woman who is not at all interested in getting married or painted. This heartfelt, passionate — and often hot — romance beautifully explores the duality within the feminine, combining a seductive delicacy with an incomparable strength — a combination frequently missed by male storytellers and perfectly captured by Sciamma, which only ratifies the well-discussed, though often neglected notion that the more diverse the voices telling the stories, the more unique they are.
This must-see piece of art will bring to your home the landscapes of an isolated island in Brittany, in the late 18th century, through astonishing cinematography and a carefully crafted dialogue that won’t lose a moment of your attention, but will freshen your thoughts and take your COVID-related worries away for 2 hours. It’s a great film to catch on a day when you’re feeling passionate and artistic, maybe in search of some inspiration.
2 — “I Lost my Body” (2019)
The second movie is also French, but that’s where the similarities end. This drama fantasy animation set in Paris follows the quest of a severed hand in search of its owner, in parallel with a sea of childhood memories and the story of young love. This magnificent film directed by Jérémy Clapin and based on the book “Happy Hand”, by Guillaume Laurant, won several awards worldwide, got an Oscar nomination for best feature animation, and it’s available to stream on Netflix.
“I Lost my Body” escapes the conventional expectation within an animation feature in many levels: from the nonlinear narrative to the combination of different animation techniques, from a more somber color palette to a heavier tone. The theme of loss, both physical and emotional, is explored in its purest form and culminates in the alleviating freedom found in acceptance — a message very current and necessary to a world forced into re-adaptation.
3 — Moonlight (2016)
“Moonlight” is an LGBT drama featuring an entirely African American cast and the 2017 Academy Award winner for Best Picture. So if you missed it, take this chance to catch up — it’s streaming on Netflix. Written and directed by Barry Jenkins, the film follows Chiron’s journey to adulthood through three different stages of his hard life within the Miami black community, and it explores a multitude of themes (like homosexuality and toxic masculinity) we don’t usually see sharing the screen with gangsters and drug-dealers.
Based on the unpublished semi-autobiographical play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue”, by Tarell Alvin McCraney, it is a touching report on the hardships of a boy navigating a world that only accepts a very narrow and tough version of masculinity. The cinematography is breathtaking, the music score is engaging, the acting is on point — it is a story about accepting who we really are and whom we really love. If this quarantine has filled your mind with self-doubt, “Moonlight” can help you find the courage to find and choose who you want to be from this moment forward.
4 — Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)
Beautiful and raw, this movie follows Autumn, a teenager who secretly goes to New York with her cousin to get an abortion. After premiering in January at the Sundance Film Festival and hitting the theaters a week before the coronavirus shutdown, writer-director Eliza Hittman’s film was forced to change its distribution strategy to accommodate the pandemic; it has been released on video on demand since April 3rd.
“Never Rarely Sometimes Always” brings an intimate gaze on the solitude of a young lady’s journey to abort an undesired pregnancy while having to deal with the dangers of the constant and unwanted attention from men. The movie is an accurate portrait of the rape culture we’re stuck in, and it wasn’t easy to watch the two 17-year-old girls suffer persistent predatory abuses; it caused a sharp pain of recognition — all women have been there. But the film goes beyond the injustices of gender disparity and it takes the audience to explore friendship, compassion, unity, and endurance. It’s a great reminder that there’s still a long way to go with the feminist fight, but together we can do anything.
5 — Booksmart (2019)
Olivia Wilde’s feature directorial debut will keep you laughing from beginning to end — and that should be enough for you to watch it during a stressful global crisis. However, there are many other reasons why you’ll love this coming-of-age comedy about two overachieving best friends who decide, on the eve of graduation, to have the fun they missed throughout High School.
The script brings to the screens a fresh sense of humor that perfectly captures the modern generation of both teenagers and grown-ups, and makes fun of everyone and everything with no rated boundaries. It depicts a truthful and powerful female friendship, something surprisingly not that common in pop culture, touching on subjects of girlhood that are often forgotten — or avoided. It portrays young women with as many layers as they come in real life, without containing their ambitions to only one aspect of adult life. It treats the discovery of female sexuality with the same normality — and awkwardness — as the male, and on top of everything else, has an amazing cast featuring Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein, Jason Sudeikis, and Lisa Kudrow.
When it came out, last summer, “Booksmart” got a lot of attention and praise from the film industry, but it may have escaped your radar. If it did, take this time to remediate! It is available on Hulu and it’s a great choice for a day when you’re feeling down, in need of good laughter and a trip down joyful memories lane.
6 — The Platform (2019)
This Spanish dystopian thriller is set in a vertical prison in the future; with two prisoners per each cell and countless floors, the only thing all the inmates have in common is the limited amount of food, served once a day, through a descending platform. The whole setup can easily be seen as the perfect metaphor for how modern society is socially and economically organized; written by David Desola and Pedro Rivero, and directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, it’s hard to digest the film’s necessary critique on organizational systems we’ve long accepted as the only possibilities. The film has shoved in our faces both the cruelty of allowing few to accumulate more resources than needed, while others struggle to survive with sometimes nothing, as well as the high death count when any kind of change is enforced by violence.
“The Platform” is a slap on our bubble-stuck faces. The world needs change and we can’t stay curled up in our cells, oblivious to others around us anymore. This movie is a great instigator for a day you’re feeling energetic and in need of some food for thought.
7 — Groundhog Day (1993)
And to close the list, the 1993 classic fantasy comedy featuring Bill Murray and Andie Mcdowell, which tells the story of the egocentric reporter Phil who is forced to re-live the same day over and over again until he gets it right. Chances are, you’ve seen this gem a long time ago, so how about taking this opportunity to watch it again? And if you’ve never seen it, count yourself lucky to be able to experience it for the very first time.
“Groundhog Day” can feel extremely familiar in a time when we’re all stuck at home dreaming of the day our lives will get back to normal — but that’s what makes it so appropriate; there are a lot of things we can learn from Phil’s journey, and it’s comforting to know that, by the end, we’ll be left reinvigorated and uplifted. In the film, as the same day repeats, we see Phil try many different approaches to his confinement (can you relate? Anyone?). He does everything right, everything wrong, he takes advantage, he suffers from it — but it’s only when he accepts the reality, does his part to take care of the people in his community, and stops fighting his true desires that he finds peace in his mind.
And these are the biggest lessons we can take from it: let’s look beyond our own bellybuttons, we’re nothing if we can’t share our lives with others, but let’s also accept who we truly are because we don’t need to be perfect; it’s Ok to make mistakes as long as we learn from them. Soon, life will get back to normal and we’ll be stronger and better equipped to be the best version of ourselves.
Long-distance hugs to everyone!
xoxo SMC!
