I guess it’s time to say goodbye…well…in give or take 500 words, really.

For my final blog post on “Academy Award Analysis”, I wanted to do something a little bit different. Instead of rating and reviewing movie’s I haven’t see before, and ones that won “Best Picture”, I wanted to keep it a little more short and sweet and simply talk about my favorite movies, and why they’re my favorite!

As you might be able to conclude, I like movies! A lot! And I’ve seen so many! It’s hard to narrow them down, but luckily for all of us, my trusty and favorite app Letterboxd has a feature where you pick your four favorite movies to display on your profile! I haven’t changed mine in a while, but I think it’s still pretty accurate.

 

My four favorite movies are Dead Poets Society, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Sing Street, and About a Boy. These movies probably could not be any different from one another, but oh do I love them so!

 

 

I think I might save the best for last, so I’m gonna talk about them in reverse order.

About a Boy is a 2002 comedy drama about a bachelor named Will who realizes that he’s a grown man with no adult responsibilities, no solid relationships, and quite honestly a lonely life. He comes up with the brilliant idea to fake being a father in order to go to these meetings for single parents in the hopes of meeting women. Instead, Will finds himself wrapped up in the life of troubled 12-year-old Marcus and his equally unstable mother Fiona. Will and Marcus form an uncanny relationship, as Marcus helps Will realize that he doesn’t want to be alone anymore, and Will helps to improve Marcus’ self-esteem and provides a relatively positive adult role-model for Marcus as his mother struggles with her mental illness. Will soon gets invested in the lives of this family, eventually being invited to their Christmas dinner and meeting Marcus’ dad and his new girlfriend and such. At the same time, Will meets Rachel and takes a liking to her, but she doesn’t seem interested until Will mentions Marcus, and he leads her to believe that Marcus is actually his own son. Eventually, though, she finds out the truth, and ends their budding relationship. Marcus tries to talk to Will, but he lashes out at him because he’s still upset about the situation with Rachel, and Marcus decides to leave him be. Will finds himself completely alone again, and realizes that he took his relationship with Marcus for granted. Will finds out from Fiona that Marcus is going to perform in a talent show and, believing he’s going to embarrass himself, Marcus attends and joins him on stage to play guitar with him, so at least he’s not alone. Rachel is in the audience, as her daughter was also performing in the talent show, and this wins her over again. The movie ends with Marcus and Will at Will’s apartment for Christmas, panning out to find that Marcus’ family as well as Rachel and her daughter have joined them, showing that Will has finally allowed people in his life and Marcus has a stable support system.

I don’t remember the first time I watched this movie, but it’s always been a favorite of mine. I’m a sucker for a good “found family” trope in movies and TV shows, and this is especially good because Will originally didn’t want a family, he didn’t want to have people in his life to care about (“All men are islands” being his titular saying), but Marcus was able to change that for him and I find it very endearing. I think that most people truly crave love and affection from others and, similar to Will, they just don’t want to run the risk of hurting them or getting hurt himself. Him realizing that he can, in fact, let people into his life is incredibly meaningful to me. This is one of those feel-good movies for me, despite some of it’s dark subject matter surrounding Fiona and such. I like to make those fleece tie blankets a lot, and this is the perfect movie to put on in the background.

 

Sing Street is a 2016 comedy, drama and musical mashup. It takes place in 1985, in Dublin, Ireland, and surrounds 15-year-old Conor, whose family is strained and struggling, as he moves to a new Catholic Irish school. Between the insane rules, fascist teacher-priests, and bullies, it is a daunting place for him. He meets a beautiful girl, Raphina, who was smoking on her stoop across from the school, and Conor is immediately smitten with her. To try and make an excuse to see her again, Conor says he is in a band and that they need a model for a music video. He asks if she would be interested, and she agrees. The only problem is that he doesn’t actually have a band. He recruits some of his schoolmates and they hastily form a band in order for Conor to impress her. He and his bandmates create original songs and music videos to accompany them. Raphina and Conor grow closer, as well as Conor forming strong friendships with his bandmates, and he grows more confident as he has a distraction from his home life and school troubles.  There are multiple sources of conflict, between Conor and his parents, his older brother, his classmates, and the teacher-priest Brother Baxter, but the biggest source of conflict comes when Raphina starts to pull away from Conor. In a final attempt to woo her, the band performs at the schools dance, and Raphina shows up right at the end. Conor and her choose to run away together, away from all the troubles facing them in Ireland. The movie ends with Conor’s brother Brendan helping them borrow the family boat, and they sail away to England to start a new life.

This is another classic example of me loving the idea of found family, and finding an escape within the people you choose to surround yourself with. I’m someone who’s big on story-telling and I love when a movie has a good, natural progression of events. Obviously there are going to be some time skips in order to advance the story and show relationships developing at a faster rate, but I think the movie does it really well, without me feeling like I’m missing a lot of important information between the scenes, if that makes sense. Like, they fill in the gaps really well, especially with Conor’s family as he finds out his mom is cheating on his dad, and his brother struggles with depression and such. There’s really nice subplots that go along with the main plot, which I always enjoy. Most of all, I LOVE musicals! They’re definitely a guilty pleasure of mine, and this movie features a lot of original music that I genuinely enjoy listening to outside of watching the movie. It’s not like a musical in the way that the songs are the plot, but they relate to the plot in subtle ways. It genuinely feels like Conor is writing these songs as he deals with life’s events and such. It makes it so that people can listen to the soundtrack without needing to watch the movie to understand how the songs fit. If you aren’t going to watch the movie, I highly suggest that you listen to a couple of the songs (“UP” is my personal favorite). The movie also has songs by the Cure and Duran Duran, which I feel really fits the 80s aesthetic. Anyway, the point is that this is just another feel-good movie with a phenomenal soundtrack and amazing characters and all the good stuff.

On a separate note, I just saw an article about the creator (I think writer?) of the movie talking about all of his movies. The interviewer asked him if Conor and Raphina get a happy ending once they get to England and, I don’t want to get to into it, but the short-answer is no, unfortunately. I choose to ignore that aspect. In my mind, they lived happily ever after in England with Conor starting another band and Raphina becoming a famous model!!!

 

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a 2002 romantic comedy that revolves around Toula Portokalos, a Greek-American woman who feels trapped within her family’s traditional Greek values. She works at her family’s restaurant but yearns for more out of life. Toula decides to break away from her routine and she chooses to enroll in college to pursue a career, much to her traditional fathers chagrin. She studies, and begins working for a travel agency in the meantime. There, she meets Ian, a non-Greek man, and they fall in love. Their relationship faces challenges as Toula grapples with introducing Ian to her big and tightly-knit Greek family, who all hold dated views of marriage and family. The cultures clash as Ian tries to adapt to Toula’s exuberant family dynamics. Despite initial resistance from her family due to Ian not being Greek, Toula persists, and eventually, her family comes around. Ian proposes, and the pair, really Toula’s family, plan an elaborate wedding. It becomes a beautiful blend of Greek traditions and modern elements, showcasing the importance of love and acceptance amidst cultural differences.

This movie is a favorite of mine because it was something my mom introduced to me when I was younger, and it’s just one of those movies that is silly and ridiculous, but you can’t help but fall in love with Toula and her family’s dynamics. I also can’t help but giggle every time Joey Fatone comes on screen. He’s Toula’s cousin in the movie, and he kinda steals the show every time. All of Toula’s family members are endearing and really want the best for her, even if they don’t express it in the right ways. I also think I like the movie because it proves that the black sheep of the family, being Toula in this case, can still find happiness and love and eventually realize her place in the world and within her family. I’ve seen comments that the movie is a little excessive with the cultural aspects, highly emphasizing the odd nature that is white-on-white racism, but I think it works because by the end, the whole point is that Toula’s family was overreacting because Ian is a perfectly fine guy, despite his lack of Greek heritage. Again, it’s a little ridiculous, but it holds a special place in my heart due to all the memories I have surrounding this movie and how I can even relate to it, in some ways.

 

Finally, my favorite:

Dead Poets Society is a 1989 comedy drama that focuses on teenager Neil Perry as he starts the school year at New England’s most prestigious all-boys boarding school in 1959. He rooms with Todd Anderson and soon the two of them form close bonds with a lot of the other boys on their floor. The boys attend this one English class with an unorthodox professor John Keating, who was once a student at the school himself. (Keating it played by Robin Williams, too, which makes the movie so much better. I love him so much, don’t even get me started). Keating is especially odd because he tends to undermine the more conservative beliefs the school teaches, in the way that he goes against the traditional norms one would expect of a professor at a religious boarding school. He introduces the students to the power of poetry, and encourages them to think independently and embrace their individuality like some of the greats, Walt Whitman being one of the ones they emphasize. An important phrase Keating introduces to them is “carpe diem” or seize the day, as is a theme in Robert Herrick’s poem, “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time. The boys really take this to heart, and start to rebel slightly. Neil especially rebels against his father who expects him to become a dignified, respected scholar, but Neil enjoys theatre and writing. According to Mr. Perry, those interests cannot coexist, but Neil continues pursuing his more creative passions in secret. When the boys are looking through an old yearbook to find out what Mr. Keating looked like when he attended, they discover an image of a club Keating had founded. The boys confront Keating and he tells them about the Dead Poets Society, a secret club where the boys would gather together to read poetry, share their thoughts, and explore their identities beyond the schools strict rules. Against Keatings word, the boys reanimate the club and start to have their own meetings at night, and they all start to get closer to Mr. Keating as he teaches them more about the power of free-thinking and encourages them to pursue their passions. Neil especially forms a bond with Keating, going to him for advice about whether he should pursue acting in spite of his fathers wishes. Neil eventually does, and he gets the lead role in the local towns play ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’. There’s some subplots going on, but ultimately the climax of the movie arrives when Neil performs at opening night, and all of the boys plus Mr. Keating come to support him. Unfortunately, his father found out about this endeavor and takes Neil home to yell at him, talk about how disappointed he is in him, and saying he’s going to pull him out of the school and confront Mr. Keating for inspiring rebellion in him. Neil takes this harshly, and he ends up taking his fathers gun and killing himself. It’s the darkest point in the movie, and the boys finding out the next day is absolutely heartbreaking. The Dead Poets Society is brought in by the administration to investigate the matter of Neil’s death, and come to the conclusion that Mr. Keating is to blame, and he’s ultimately fired. Not before, however, the iconic “Oh Captain, My Captain” scene, where the boys stand on their desks and pledge allegiance to Mr. Keating because he truly changed their lives for the better.

Sorry, that went on for a lot longer than I intended. I just love this movie so much and I could talk about it for hours. I watched the movie only a couple of years ago, but it was during a time in my life where it really resonated with me deeply. A common theme within my favorite movies is that they tend to be pretty feel-good and overall positive with a happy ending, but Dead Poets Society is quite literally the exact opposite. This movie leaves me inconsolable for about 30 minutes before I can even think about wanting to move on with my day. I don’t watch it often for that exact reason, but I probably think about this movie once a day at LEAST. It’s my roman empire if you will (lol callback to a trend that hasn’t been talked about in weeks). In my senior year of high school, we had a poetry section in my AP Lit class, and a lot of the poems we talked about were featured in this movie, and I know I got emotional even hearing these poems in a different setting. I think I really appreciate the themes of individuality and free-thought/expression, but also the inclusion of society’s (the schools) consequences for going against the norm. I think when I say individuality, it kind of comes off like I’m talking about “American individuality”, where everything is focused on the individual in the way that it’s everyone against each other, if that makes sense. Like, that people should consider themselves an individual before being apart of a collective. But I think this movie addresses individuality in a much different way. It’s more about finding out who you are and what you’re passionate about SO you can be a better member of a bigger group. I don’t know if that makes sense, I’m just kind of spit-balling. But anyway, this movie just really means a lot to me and I will love it forever.

 

So that’s it! My four favorite movies! These are obviously just some of my favorites, there are other very big contenders that I shouldn’t even start listing or we’ll be here all day.

And, this, my friends, comes the conclusion to this blog. I’ve had a great time reviewing some movies I’ve never seen, as well as talking about my favorites. I think I’ve mainly just learned that I need to broaden my horizons a little more and watch movies I wouldn’t typically watch just by looking at their posters or synopsis’.

Thank you all for reading!

“Carpe diem, seize the day. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.” – John Keating