A space to rave about my favorite films! Short or long; i'll always make time for great cinema.
Here are a few of my favorites:
My Letterboxd Top 4:
Past Lives
Quietly one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I feel like i've been waiting for this film my entire life.
I'm a firm believer in the idea that everything happens for a reason; that every choice we make holds such distinction in our timeline. Regret feels okay knowing that every decision you've made has led you to where you are now, has made you who you are now.
Past Lives forces you to look back and ask what if? What if everything doesn't happen for a reason, what if I was meant to go to another city, maybe meet another person, or even turn left instead of right? How different would my life be? Would it be full of color? Who would I meet? Would I be happier than I am now?
Meditative and contemplative. This film makes you think about your own decisions made over the years and wonder if you can make peace with them. Can you? I left the theater thinking about what the Dillon in another lifetime looks like.
It is a miracle that we fall in love with the people we do, that we have them in our lives as long as we do, and it is terrifying to consider all the loves we'll never know. What's even more haunting is that in the film Nora gets to explore one of those 'what ifs' deep in a 7 year marriage. Love was lost to time and all they can do now is put their lost time into their past lives. Who knew a series of quiet stares and small personal gestures could send my heart soaring and sinking over and over again.
I'm so impressed by how Celine Song is completely unafraid to allow a moment to just...breathe. And how her characters convey so much with just a look or a gesture, negating the need for dialogue.
It was obvious that Past Lives was going to make me cry but very little could’ve prepared me for how it made me feel. Months later I keep listening to the score thinking about the delicate moments they shared as if it was me in their story. The third act is something i'll hold with me for a very long time.
If you leave something behind, you gain something too.
HER
"Oh God, she's so many things. I guess that's what I love most about her, you know? She isn't just one thing. She's so much larger than that."
We are all hard to love. We are all complicated, always wanting more, all in a pool of emotions. We are all difficult. But that's okay, because love itself is difficult. Being with somebody and having to live your life being another person's half, being the other end of their breath, is hard to do and can easily overwhelm us and become too much of everything because we are always changing and becoming new people. You will disappoint. You will struggle. You will fight, and you will fall in and out of love over and over again. You will change. But it's fine, because the moment you know you've found the one is when you've found somebody you love, and who loves you, despite the changes. When you can change and still find reason after reason, day to day, to love them and hold them just as tight and just as warmly. That is romance. That is what Her encapsulates.
I love how Theodore laughs and dances around with indifference to the world around him when he's in love. I love how Samantha uses mesmerizing music to substitute photographs they could never have together. Spike Jonze, and his film, and its color!!! They all give me tremendous warmth. Heartache? Yes, but I'm also healed at the same time.
I fell in love with this film right after my first watch, I was balling my fucking eyes out; it really hurts. This movie will make you upset. A beautifully terrifying movie. Not scary, just haunting. I love using that word and this movie fits right into it.
We now live in a world where AI is more prevalent then ever, and the potential for this concept of Samantha is right at the edge of now. Her's relevancy lies in it's exploration of loneliness and human emotion. It acknowledges the preciousness of human connection and how messy life is; that's a pretty timeless message even if the movie itself never really offers any answers.
Her is larger than what we can comprehend. Her is that feeling even a philosopher would find hard to describe. Her is a compilation of hand-written letters of love. Romantic, soulful, witty, bittersweet and smart.
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Everything Everywhere All at Once is an indirect metaphor to generational trauma re-shaped into this science fiction illusion of a multiverse; I think that's why mom really disliked this film... At its core, this movie is simple. It's typical good versus evil, but who the movie points out the villain to be changes throughout the film.
Bare with me here...
Joy plays the angsty, Americanized, gay, first generation daughter who has aspirations beyond her mother's strict expectations; simply put, she is a disappointment. And it's easy to paint her as the antagonist, when the film literally depicts her as the villain; the villain causing danger and irregularity in this multiverse, a multiverse we are thrown into from the perspective of her alphaverse gong gong. Where this film shines is in repositioning Evelyn's perspective of success, a perspective handed down from her father like generational tradition.
Evelyn's world is black and white. There is no room for her own higher potential, creativity, aspirations, and warmth. She was raised around constant rejection, disappointment, and the wrong ideas of being successful. We even get to hear the doctors say to her dad "i'm sorry it's a girl" when she gets delivered as a newborn. Now that she has the chance to raise her own daughter, she finally gets to project those ideas and feelings back onto Joy; it sort of makes the playing field even and relatable. Even now as an adult and mother, she is still looking for ways to not disappoint her own father. We forget that Evelyn too, was once a child living in the same shoes as her own daughter.
The real villain of this story is Gong Gong, the man who disowned Evelyn for pursing the one thing she ever really wanted, Waymond. In the movie, Waymond serves as a living metaphor to all the potential Evelyn could be. Waymond is Evelyn's inner-child, yet, her fathers disappointment and disapproval of Waymond inevitably ruins what could have been with him. Opening up a laundromat or starting a family together isn't fulfilling until she gets her fathers approval, and a little spoiler, she never does get it.
This film is funny, vibrant, and action packed too! I'd like to thank director Daniel Kwan from pulling inspiration from our favorite childhood Asian YouTube channels, Rocket Jump & Nigahiga. It's crazy, but I felt seen and related to in a way? I felt my inner-child.
Noothing Matters!!!
The Shawshank Redemption:
"The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry".
If you ever feel down, if you ever feel like giving up, if you ever feel like nothing is gonna workout, if you ever feel hopeless, if you ever feel like dying, watch this film. It is a medicine. It is a wonder!
The courage of hope! A reminder to slow down in our busy ass lives. The Shawshank Redemption is a film built on the power of friendship. Somehow life in Shawshank provides comfort in routine.
We constantly see the outside world's harsh reality trying to make its way into the prison doors. Brooks’ final suicide letter, the guards W2 forms as they file their yearly taxes, and the greed of the governments tax on a $35,000 will the captain guard gets from his dead brother.
It’s beautiful really; moments spent with your brothers with absolutely no bother from the outside world. For Brooks and Red, they lost hope trying to conquer freedom and were never able to enjoy it. They lived the same life in the outside at the same job and the same bedroom. The only difference Red had was that he had something to chase; someone to chase! He had Andy, he had purpose.
This film serves as a reminder to cherish the small things we are so privileged to overlook. Italian opera music being broadcasted from a record player, a poster of Raquel Welch hung up in your room, or maybe drinking a cold beer on a warm summer day while fixing the roof of your home. However this film also deals with greed, regret, and disparity. It portrays the evil in power, and the injustices of a broken and cruel system. It’s an emotional ride that holds you to the edge of your seat...
If none else, I believe that two and a half hours of a Morgan Freeman voice over will provide you peace and a sense of calm.