Of course, I recognize that the Academy of Motion Picture Sciences is a deeply flawed and outdated institution, and that what happens at the Oscars shouldn’t hold much personal weight for me. However, as someone who spends a great deal of time thinking about movies, it’s hard to resist the pull of Oscar night, and feeling invested (and usually, ultimately disappointed) in who is honored at the ceremony. So last Sunday (after squeezing in the final three Best Picture nominees I had yet to see) I parked myself on the couch and soaked in the almost 4 hour telecast. Here are my takes on the evening (which for the sake of brevity, I will boil down to who won, and who I think should’ve.)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Winner in my heart: Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
Real winner: Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri

In a better world, Best Supporting Actor wouldn’t be the only nomination Sean Baker’s The Florida Project received at this year’s Oscars, but as it is, I was thrilled to see Willem nominated for his role as Bobby, the surly (yet soft) manager/father-figure of the Magic Castle Motel. Watching him lose to Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards was quite a blow– not because I don’t like Sam Rockwell (I do) or because I think his performance wasn’t good (it was fine.) Mostly, I just thought Three Billboards was an incredibly misguided, bad, film– especially in the manner it treated Sam Rockwell’s character. He plays an angry cop whose history of unfairly arresting and literally torturing black people is brushed off as a character flaw in one of the worst redemption arcs I’ve ever seen in a film (that otherwise sidelines its few black characters as props, and treats its women and other minorities just as poorly, save maybe Frances McDormand.) My annoyance with Sam Rockwell’s win raises some interesting questions about what factors should be taken into consideration in this category– just performance, or is the movie/writing itself relevant too? But ultimately it doesn’t matter– I believe Willem Dafoe’s performance was just better, regardless of those factors.

BEST ACTOR
Winner in my heart: Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
Real winner: Gary Oldman, The Darkest Hour

It was pretty disheartening and frustrating to see Gary Oldman, a man accused of domestic violence (not to mention with a history of racist, anti-semitic, and misogynistic remarks) be awarded one of the Academy’s highest honors in the era of Times Up. Even more frustrating was that he wasn’t even (in my opinion) the first, second, or even third best of the nominees in his category that night, which included Daniel Day Lewis, Daniel Kaluuya and Timothee Chalamet. While good enough, I don’t think Oldman brought anything very interesting to the table in his portrayal of Winston Churchill– especially when compared to his fellow nominees. All you have to do is watch this scene to know that Daniel Kaluuya deserved that Oscar.

BEST ACTRESS
Winner in my heart: Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water
Real Winner: Frances McDormand, Three Billboards

To be entirely truthful, Frances McDormand is probably just as deserving of the Oscar as any of the other women– she is by far the best thing about the atrocity that is Three Billboards, and has had a long career of great performances. (Plus she gave a great speech!)It’s because of my distaste for her latest film, and my absolute love for Sally Hawkins, that I wish the Oscar had gone to Sally.

BEST PICTURE
Winner in my heart: Get Out
Real Winner: Shape of Water

I can’t be too upset about this category either. Though I think Get Out was certainly the best and most important movie of the year, Shape of Water came a close second in both of those regards. It’s a magical story about the people who live on the margins of society, and contains a pretty potent criticism of toxic masculinity. Plus, it’s infinitely more interesting to me than traditional “Oscar movies” like The Post and Darkest Hour, that while well made, are infinitely predictable and not pushing filmmaking in any interesting direction.

 

Most of my favorite movies have some level of humor in them, but always mixed in with a bunch of different genres. I rarely find myself watching movies primarily described as comedies, that pile on joke after joke, written entirely for laughs. This is not to say that I don’t like these types of movies, because I certainly do. Anytime something can make me laugh for 90 minutes straight, I’m quite happy. This is somewhat rare though. While I appreciate the attempts, few blockbuster comedies feel very innovative– often relying on gross out humor (not always bad, sure, but can get boring) or fat jokes or sexism– things that feel kind of lazy to me. Despite this, however, there are some shining gems of comedy that have stood up for me over multiple rewatches– many of which I believe deserve much more recognition than they’ve been given. Here are some of my favorites:

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

Music documentaries have been around for a while, but around the time we were in middle school, there began a barrage of a new breed of music documentaries– what I will refer to as the Pop Doc. Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, Katy Perry: Part of Me, One Direction: This is Us– very shiny, clean representations of the worlds’ favorite pop acts brought to a Theater Near You. They play mostly like 2 hour commercials, but in my experience are actually quite fun for fans and skeptics alike. In Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, the men of The Lonely Island (made popular by their musical sketches for SNL, and their lead man Andy Samberg) satirize the Pop Doc, in an almost perfect (yet humorized) recreation of the form. It’s astute as hell, and gets funnier with every rewatch. Plus, like the rest of their discography, the songs The Lonely Island wrote for their movie still kind of go off despite their ridiculous lyrics.

Drop Dead Gorgeous

I’m noticing now that most of my favorite comedies take the form of a mockumentary. They always hit home for me– probably something about the (sort of) 4th wall break and the talking heads aspect, or that I’ve spent the last decade watching The Office and Parks and Rec. Drop Dead Gorgeous is no exception. It’s a mockumentary following a teen beauty pageant in rural Minnesota. The cast is exceptional– Kirsten Dunst leads, with Allison Janney, Amy Adams, Denise Richards, Brittany Murphy and Kirstie Alley supporting. The dark humor, physical comedy and Minnesotan accents really make this one shine. It’s not uncommon for comedies about teenage girls to turn the teenage girl demographic into the punchline of every joke. But Drop Dead Gorgeous elevates itself with rounded, multi dimensional characters and by avoiding lazy jokes at the expense of young women. I wish this movie got more recognition– it at least deserves status as a cult favorite. Check out the trailer here.

What We Do in the Shadows

The mockumentary pattern continues with this bizarre entry from New Zealand, What We Do in the Shadows. In What We Do, a camera crew follows a group of vampires (Deacon, Viago and Vladislav)  that share an apartment in Wellington. If you like deadpan, absurdist comedy, I highly recommend this one. It gets a little slow at times, but the good beats make everything worth it– they’re so good. Since I can’t really explain it all that well, I recommend checking out the first scene of the movie. One of the co-directors and stars, Taika Waititi, is one of my favorite filmmakers and comedians. If you like What We Do, I highly recommend checking out The Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Boy, or even the latest Thor movie, which he made watchable (even enjoyable) by some miracle. But it’s not really a miracle. He’s just a very funny guy.

With Oscar nominations released, and the event less than a month away, the awards season is finally in full swing. Almost every year, there is at least one controversial, polarizing element of the Academy’s nominations, but 2018 seems to be the exception. Neither I nor many of the commentators I’ve listened to or read have found much to be displeased about this time around. To commemorate the occasion, I’ve compiled a list of some of the films and creators I hope to see honored in March.

Best Picture

I have tremendous admiration for each of this year’s best picture noms, but it was not a challenge to decide who I would be rooting for at the Oscars: Jordan Peele’s Get Out. As a campy horror comedy, Get Out definitely breaks the mold of the kind of film typically honored for these awards. But just because it’s not a “traditional” pick does not mean it should be overlooked. As anyone who has seen it knows, Get Out is much more than any of the many genre labels ascribed to it– it’s a searing, incisive look at the experience of black Americans in the 21st century, and the insidious racism (from the annoying to life threatening) that comes not from slave owners or evil white southerners, but white liberals. This is by far the most important film of the year, and on top of that, it’s impeccably made. Jordan Peele’s vision is clear from start to finish, and the film only gets better upon a second and third viewing. It’s really a masterpiece, and the fact that it’s not seen as a “serious” contender by most is criminal.

Best Director

While Get Out is at the top of my list for this year’s movies, Lady Bird is not far behind, and is definitely closest to my heart. Lady Bird is a simple coming of age story about the complexities of mother-daughter relationships. Saoirse Ronan plays Christine (self-nicknamed Lady Bird) in her final year of catholic high school. Filled with wry humor and scattered with heart wrenching moments, Lady Bird is somehow simultaneously immensely familiar and unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. There are so few films that really pay full, loving attention to the female experience.  First time director and seasoned actress/writer, Greta Gerwig has been one of my favorite names in Hollywood for a long time now– her films like Frances Ha, Mistress America and 20th Century Women are some of my favorites. Greta really shines as a director, bringing out wonderful, honest performances from each of her cast members, and telling a story that (from studying her previous work) I can tell comes entirely from her heart. Greta Gerwig is only the 5th woman ever to be nominated for Best Director. If she wins, she will be the second to ever do so.

Best Actor/Actress

As for this year’s performances, I’m definitely rooting for Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya as best actor. He’s subtle and funny and executes the role perfectly. He shines especially in his scene with Katherine Keener, when we’re first introduced to the sunken place. Timothée Chalamet puts up a good fight for the award in his film Call Me By Your Name, where he plays a French/American teenager in Italy who falls in love with the grad student visiting his home. His performances are routinely the best parts of the movies he’s in, and I think we’re going to be seeing a lot more from him in the years to come.

In best actress, I hope to see Sally Hawkins take the award for her performance in The Shape of Water, where she plays a mute janitor at a government facility in 1960’s Baltimore, who falls in love with a fish monster in captivity. She is incredibly charming and expressive, and makes carrying a movie without speaking look easy.

If you’re one of the people who are convinced subtitles make a movie boring, I am here to change your mind. Here are some of my favorite foreign language films.

Amelie

One of the most intoxicating, whimsical, and surprisingly hilarious movies of all time, Amelie certainly has a place in my top twenty films ever. It is the (often meandering) story of a peculiar young Parisian woman (our titular Amelie) who goes on a series of small quests to help the people in her life find happiness. Silly and surreal, the two hour runtime will fly by quicker than you’d ever expect, and if you’re like me, you’ll want to start it all over again and keep living in Amelie’s world forever. Check out the trailer for a quick taste.

Mustang is the only Turkish film I’ve ever seen, but one of my favorite explorations of girlhood and sisterhood. In a small, conservative oceanside village, five teenage sisters are seen playing in the water with boys from their school. Rumors begin to circulate and the girls begin their initiation into adulthood as punishment. It is a dreamy, hazy and sometimes tragic exploration of the lack of autonomy that many women in the world still encounter, and the relationships that support them throughout these tribulations. Beautiful mediterranean scenery and a wonderfully minimalistic but still heart wrenching score elevate the great performances from the five sisters.

About Elly

About Elly is an Iranian film from acclaimed director Asghar Farhardi. Despite my love for movies, I still often struggle to stay focused on a movie whenever I’m watching outside of a theatre. Even when I’m watching my favorite movies, I have to resist temptation to check my phone every now and then. When I watched About Elly for the first time, I didn’t think about my phone once– my eyes barely even left the screen. The film is a deceivingly intense thriller, artfully crafted to create incredible tension despite using none of the traditional elements of a thriller– no weapons or bombs, no chase scenes or jump scares or even bad guys. The story follows a close group of friends from college, now mostly coupled off, and with kids, who go on vacation to the Caspian Sea. One of the friends, the well meaning Sepideh, invites along her daughter’s kindergarten teacher Elly, in hopes of setting her up with their divorced friend. When Elly goes missing mysteriously, tension begins to rise and relationships begin to crack. I haven’t been so enthralled by a movie since 10 Cloverfield Lane.

The Host

You may already be familiar with the work of Bong Joon Ho– his two english language films, Snowpiercer and Okja are highly acclaimed and some of my favorites. After loving those movies, I was eager to check out his previous work, and the Korean director did not disappoint. In The Host, frightening river monster sightings in Seoul become personal for a lazy snack-bar owner Park Gang-du when his daughter, Hyun-seo, is captured by the monster. He must rally together his broken family to fight the bureaucracy and eventually the monster to rescue Hyun-seo. The Host is a monster movie, but primarily it’s a movie about family. It is a mixture of funny, sweet and sad, that when mixed with the monster genre is utterly singular. Though different from Snowpiercer and Okja, it’s easy to see Bong Joon Ho’s fingerprint on The Host.

Waitress

One of the funniest and sweetest portraits of female friendship onscreen is that shared between Becky, Dawn and Jenna in the 2007 movie Waitress. Waitress stars Keri Russell as Jenna, a young waitress and baker trapped in a terrible marriage and an unwanted pregnancy in the deep south. Jenna is coached through her pregnancy and an affair with her gynecologist by her two best friends and coworkers, played by Cheryl Hines and the late Adrienne Shelly, who also wrote and directed the film. While not the main plot element, the love between these three women is really the core of the film. Their chemistry, and the ways in which they care for each other is such a delight to see. The movie jumps back and forth between tragic realism and very goofy, almost surreal moments, resulting in a really singular movie unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Learning about the murder of actress/writer/director of Waitress, Adrienne Shelly, shortly before the release of the movie was really devastating to me. This film was her debut, and an extremely promising entry into the world of movies by and about women. I wish we had more from her.

Pride and Prejudice (2005)

Though the source of this friendship/sisterhood is of course not a movie, but a book, this adaptation certainly has one of my favorite portrayals of said friendship. For those somehow unfamiliar with Pride & Prejudice, I must heartily recommend it as one of the greatest stories of all time. Literary badass Jane Austen wrote this deceptively simple story about love, family, pride, and of course, prejudice in 1813, but it’s so universal that she might as well have written it last year. It is sharp and sweet and infinitely endearing. If you’re too busy with classes or just hate reading, I recommend Joe Wright’s film adaptation from 2005– he is a truly beautiful filmmaker and the cast is spectacular. (Many–including my mother– will scoff that I’m ignoring the much more thorough and faithful BBC miniseries from ‘95, but I stand by my choice!)

Of course, P&P is primarily about the relationship between Lizzie Bennet and William Darcy, but my personal favorite dynamic is that between Lizzie and her older sister Jane. Keira Knightley and Rosamund Pike do a wonderful job conveying the amount of love and admiration the sisters share, and the best scenes in the film are the ones where they are spotlighted together.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

At the recommendation of my sister, I watched Gentlemen Prefer Blondes over the summer. I’m not quite sure what I expected but certainly it was not what I found. While old slapstick classics are often funny, it’s rare that they make me laugh out loud like a modern comedy. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a deliriously funny technicolor fever dream, and one of the funniest movies I saw last year. GPB is the story of two friends and performers– one (Lorelai, played by Marilyn Monroe) who prefers men for their money, and the other (Dorothy, played by Jane Russell) for their looks/personality. The two embark on a cruise, followed by a private investigator hired by the father of Lorelai’s fiancé to prove her gold-digging nature. The two fall into a series of hilarious high-jinks with the various men on the ship, punctuated with amazing musical numbers like “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” and “Bye Bye Baby.” Though both women have their own separate romantic arcs, the men are largely incidental to the plot, and the most entertaining bits of the movie come when Dorothy and Lorelai are together. Despite their different tastes and occasional cracks at the other’s expense, it’s clear throughout the film they will do anything for each other. I dare call it the Bridesmaids of its time.

Last semester, I wrote a blog post about one of my favorite State College gems– the State Theatre. Though the State Theatre has tons of great programming throughout the year (concerts, musical theatre, comedy, even opera,) my enthusiasm for movies draws me towards their Monday Movie Series, where they screen a wide range of movies– classics, foreign films, recent awards contenders, and even silent films. Every Monday is a new movie, shown at 3 and 7pm. The best part is the cheap ticket price: just four dollars with your student ID.

This series is a great way to expose yourself to movies you might not otherwise seek out, and to get a chance to see some of your favorites on the big screen. Some of my favorites from last semester include 20th Century Women, Sing Street, and Frances Ha. This semester, I’ve seen much fewer of the films on the program, but I’m looking forward to the chance to broaden my perspective and see some new movies.

Here’s a rundown of what I’m planning to catch this semester at the State Theatre. If you’re curious, you can find the whole list with dates here.

Loving Vincent premiered in early 2017 to a great deal of buzz– and deservedly so. Telling the story of the life, art, and death of Vincent Van Gogh, this film is the first feature length film animated entirely by oil paintings. Taking the better part of the decade, over 100 trained artists collaborated to produce by hand the 65,000 frames/paintings that would become Loving Vincent. The result is a spectacular (though slightly stilted and bizarre) visual delight, certainly unlike anything I’ve seen before. You can get a taste of it in the trailer. A voice cast of Douglas Booth, Saoirse Ronan and Chris O’Dowd bring the film to life. A consistent complaint I’ve seen from critics following the film’s debut is a plodding and contrived narrative, so beware of those shortcomings if you decide to go see it. I will be going, but certainly not for the plot. I guess in this case, style is substance.

Belle is a movie that’s been on my radar for awhile, but I’ve yet to see. A period drama, Belle is the story of an illegitimate mixed race child raised in an aristocratic family. It is a story of love and discrimination and pain of never fully belonging, no matter where you go. If you follow the dystopic anthology series Black Mirror, you might recognize the film’s lead, Gugu Mbatha-Raw from her role in the season two episode San Junipero. What’s crucial about Belle, is that it is the story of a black woman, written and directed by black women. Nuance and true understanding in these stories of identity are crucial, and I trust that director Amma Asante won’t stumble into the same traps and tropes that her white counterparts might.

Though not technically part of the Monday Movie Series, I’d be remiss if I didn’t plug one of the coolest film-oriented events the State Theatre puts on each year, coming up in February. When we think of the Oscars, best picture, actors, directors, and writing tend to take up the spotlight. We pay much less attention to the documentaries, the foreign films and short films up for awards each year. Rarely have I ever seen more than one of the nominations in each of those categories. The State Theatre remedies this lack of attention (at least for the short films) with a three night event over the course of a weekend leading up to the Academy Awards. Each night, they showcase the short films from one of the three categories: live action, animated and documentary. This year, the screenings take place the 16th, 17th and 18th of February. Be sure to check them out so you can feel smart and cultured when they announce the winners March 4th! (If you want an idea of what you might expect from a short film festival, check out my previous post on some shorts I’ve been loving lately.)

Though the beginning of the new year is normally a time for the entertainment industry to reflect on the past year of music, TV and film with awards shows, it’s also an excellent opportunity to look ahead and get excited about what’s coming next. Here are some of my most anticipated films of the year.

If the trailer for Black Panther hasn’t sold you already, I don’t know what will. I feel solidly ambivalent about near everything Marvel has done for the last 5 or 6 years, but I will definitely be in line to see this movie come February. Without doubt, this movie will break box office records, and hopefully prove to Hollywood studios that audiences are desperate and eager to pay for stories not helmed exclusively by white men. Ryan Coogler (director of Creed and Fruitvale Station) takes the lead on this movie, directing what can only be described as a star studded cast– Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Angela Bassett, Daniel Kaluuya, Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis. To top it off, it was recently announced that artist Kendrick Lamar will be curating the soundtrack. Even if superheroes aren’t your thing, you’ll probably want to check this out.

I always forget how much I love heist movies until I’m watching an Ocean’s film. The quick pace, nerve wracking close-calls, and magician-esque twists consistently excite me and put me in a great mood. When I heard they were making Ocean’s 8 with an all female cast, I wasn’t exactly thrilled. Though I’m excited to see any film where women take the lead, I frankly would prefer to see original stories, instead of all-female rehashings of old “male” stories (To be fair though, Soderbergh’s Ocean’s films were also remakes of a 1960 film with Frank Sinatra, so those aren’t exactly originals either). Either way, the trailer changed my mind. It carries all the same snap and charm I loved in Soderbergh’s movies, and just from the trailer I’m already impressed with the chemistry between leads Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett, whose repartee certainly meets the standard set by Pitt and Clooney in the last films. The rest of the cast is just as fun: Rihanna and Mindy Kaling are favorites, as well as Sarah Paulson and Helena Bonham Carter. Most importantly, the heist in Ocean’s 8 takes place at the Met Gala– one of my favorite (and certainly one of the most mysterious) celebrity events to happen all year. The star studded nature of the Met Gala means celebrity cameos will be a dime a dozen– iMDB tells me among them will be Kim K, the Jenners, Zayn Malik, and of course, Anna Wintour.

Annihilation is the sophomore directorial effort from Alex Garland, the man who helmed Ex Machina in 2014. Ex Machina is one of my favorite sci-fi movies, so I’ve been eagerly following production on this movie for a long time. Adapted from a book by James Vandermeer I have yet to read, Annihilation is a story of a team of female scientists on an expedition in the mysterious Area X. The trailer looks complex and heady, and I’m sure whatever expectations or predictions I have for the film will be shattered when I finally get to see it in February (assuming it will get a wide release.) Natalie Portman, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson and Jennifer Jason Leigh star, as well as Oscar Isaac, who worked with Garland previously on Ex Machina.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Mamma Mia, hands down the most joyous movie ever made that will make you want to travel to Greece, sing ABBA and call your mom is getting a sequel! A flashback to Donna’s pivotal summer in the 70’s intercut with Sophie’s life in the present, Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again will certainly be a movie I watch upwards of a dozen times this summer alone regardless of its actual level of quality.

I was disappointed to hear that production on Bohemian Rhapsody— a Freddy Mercury biopic starring Rami Malek– was put on hold, but it’s not surprising because it’s d-bag director Bryan Singer has been accused of sexual assault a bunch of times. Here’s hoping they find a new (non-predatory) director and can wrap up in time for a 2018 release.

Like short stories, short films are something that I really struggle with creating and conceptualizing. I’m so used to thinking of stories as standard three act structures over the course of an hour and a half (or a novel) that it’s hard for me to imagine a story that takes place over just 10 minutes or a couple pages. Despite my troubles with creating them, however, I absolutely love movies in this format. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Night Stalker

Night Stalker is equal parts music video and short film. It’s an unconventional love story, following a couple who eat mysterious Chinese take-out that lands them in an alternate dimension. The wild premise and world building is fascinating, and it creates an absolutely electric tone. I’ve come back to this one over and over for the amazing neon color, weird animation, and music that captures the mood perfectly.

Curve

I saw Curve a couple weeks ago and immediately showed my roommate, I was so impressed. A horror/thriller short from director Tim Egan, this nearly non-verbal story follows a woman who wakes up on a curved ledge above a dark abyss. It’s so steep that she can’t crawl up, and can barely keep herself from slipping off. It’s incredibly suspenseful and gripping– my heart was in my throat and I couldn’t help gasping through every almost-fall, even upon re-watch. This one is extremely likely to end up in your dreams, so watch with caution.

Dawn of the Deaf

Another favorite of mine from recent memory is Rob Savage’s short Dawn of the Deaf, which catalogues the beginning of an apocalypse where all hearing people are killed by a “pulse” and become zombies, leaving just the deaf to survive. It’s a really cool look at deaf culture and a fresh take on the zombie apocalypse movie. Of all of these shorts, I think this one has the greatest potential to be turned into a feature length film. The character building is excellent, and the suspense and atmosphere are extremely well crafted. I would love to see how the story and the characters play out over an extended period of time. (The New York, I Love You episode of Master of None this year also did a great job of representing the deafness onscreen, if you enjoy this one!)

If you like these shorts and want to explore some more, check out this website, which does a great job cataloguing the ones available to watch on the internet for free.

 

Though not necessarily a genre within itself, another subset of movies that I love are those that take place in less than 24 hours. I love the idea that movie-worthy stories can happen in such a short time, and I love the extra detail and focus that these movies have, and that they feel much closer to taking place in real time. Here are a couple of my favorites from this genre:

Tangerine is special for a lot of reasons. The two biggest for me are that it was shot on an iPhone 5, and that it stars two black trans women. Sean Baker is one of my favorite filmmakers because his approach is so humanist and honest and kind and nonjudgemental. Tangerine is the story of a trans sex worker best friends Alexandra and Sin-Dee. The latter realizes her boyfriend has been cheating on her while she was imprisoned, and sets out for payback. It is funny and electric and has a really powerful, forward moving energy. The fact that it takes place in one day gives a fuller, fleshed out picture of each character, whose daily routines we have a chance to follow. This one’s on Netflix, and is actually a Christmas movie, so check it out over the holidays.

Before Sunrise is a pretty classic example of the 24 hour movie. An American man (Jesse) and a French woman (Celine) meet on a train going through Europe. They connect over coffee, and when the train stops in Austria, Jesse asks Celine to get off with him, instead of continuing on to Paris. He has a plane home to catch the next morning, and nothing planned. Celine agrees, and the movie follows them as they wander around Vienna all night talking. Like a lot of Linklater movies, there really is no typical plot here; instead it’s mostly a character study of these two people as they kind of circle each other romantically and get to know each other. Sometimes it feels cheesy, but there is a lot of honesty in the storytelling. It is actually the first of a trilogy following these same characters, each sequel being shot about 10 years apart. I still haven’t seen the final movie, which came out two years ago, but the second, Before Sunset is one of my favorites.

The honorable mention goes to: Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing, which is a portrait of the hottest day of the year in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn, 1989. It’s frighteningly relevant to the last couple of years of news in terms of police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement, and should really be required viewing for every American citizen.

When people ask me what my favorite movie genre is, my answer is always coming-of-age. It’s kind of a cop-out because coming-of-age stories are so versatile that they really can exist in almost every other genre– sci-fi, romance, drama, mystery, comedy– and they’re so broadly defined you argue that really any movie is a coming of age story: they’re not just about kids. Regardless of the cop-out quality of this answer, it remains my choice, and if I ever get the chance to make movies someday, these are the kinds I’d want to make. Within the breadth of the coming-of-age movie, one subset of the genre stands out as my favorite, and that’s any movie about a group about kids running around outside. They remind me of my childhood and make me feel nostalgic and adventurous and thankful for my friends. Here are a couple of my favorites that fall in that category.

Stand By Me (1986) is like the holy grail of coming of age films. Based of the Stephen King novel The Body, Stand By Me is about a group of young boys in 1959 who go on a search for a dead body. Over the course of their weekend-long trip, these boys begin to come to grips with the end of childhood and start to grapple with the pain of living in an adult world. It’s nostalgic and heartbreaking and funny. I feel so lucky that some adults in my life had the wherewithal to sit me down at age thirteen and make me watch it.

Super 8 follows in a similar vein as Stand By Me— it’s also a period piece (this time made in 2011 but taking place in 1979) that follows a group of kids around the same age as the Stand By Me boys. They’re amateur filmmakers, and one night when they’re shooting, they capture a massive train collision on film. The movie is about aliens and government conspiracy, but still tackles the same issues of growing up and grief. Like Stand By Me, the charming and hilarious interactions between the kids in the group are what wins the film, but it’s a great sci-fi story even on its own.

The most recent of these films is Kings of Summer, which came out in 2013. This one is about three teenage boys who, because of troubled relationships with their families, run away from home to live in the woods, where they can control their own destiny. It’s really funny and touching and it always gets me in the mood for summer. I definitely recommend!