The Movies That Got Us Into Movies
The Movies That Got Us Into Movies
Movies are a big part of my teenhood, partly because I have allotted a great chunk of my adolescence to watching it; partly because the work I do now is informed greatly by my love for it; and partly because teenhood, after all, is just one big coming-of-age flick. Melodrama, in its actual definition, is visceral, appealing to emotions. Melodrama, in Lorde’s definition, is a transitory period of pain and growth and change, but also feelings that are fuller, clearer. Melodrama, in my definition, are films. I feel and I change and I watch movies to feel and change some more, and I know I’m not alone. I spoke to some of my fellow young film lovers, and here are the movies that got us into movies.
La La Land (2016, dir. Damien Chazelle)
I started watching more movies when I saw Girl, Interrupted when I was 14, but the watch-a-movie-a-day, perpetually-angry-at-the-Academy obsession didn't really start until I saw La La Land. I saw an ad for it and went to go see it, and I knew it would be good, but what I saw was nothing short of absolutely breathtaking. When the first song finished and the title flashed on screen, I literally—and quite dramatically—whispered,”Holy shit”. I've never seen anything like it before, and when it finished, I realized that there is a whole world of film that I'm missing out on, and that I had a lot of catching up to do.
— Andrea
The Silence of the Lambs (1991, dir. Jonathan Demme)
In 2013, I was really into my Hannibal phase and began reading the Thomas Harris books. When I finished The Silence of the Lambs, I immediately watched the movie. What I didn't expect was to be so blown away by a movie in its entirety; to feel such a love and yearning for cinema. I wanted to look for that feeling forever.
— Alison
Frances Ha (2012, dir. Noah Baumbach)
I remember it really stuck with me because of how female-led it was. It was a film that perfectly captured my sense of humor. It also motivated me (and still motivates me) to strive to be a director/writer. It’s still to this day one of my favorite films of all time.
— Kennedy
Lost in Translation (2003, dir. Sofia Coppola)
I've been watching movies since I was very little. I’d watch Matilda and Hocus Pocus three times a day until my sister would scream at me for hogging the TV. Then I discovered Lost in Translation and The Royal Tenenbaums. Something about the themes of loneliness, alienation, and the search for human connection really resonated with me, and I was so taken aback by the cinematography, music, and dialogue. I didn’t know movies could be this beautiful and profound and I’ve been searching for movies that made me feel like that ever since.
— Gela
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993, dir. Henry Selick)
Up until then, I'd only been exposed to Disney and Pixar, and I just remember being completely floored by the different style of animation and how the world, the score, the characters, everything, just fit together and how it had such a unique sense of authorship. I also got super into Halloween after that as I discovered my birthday is the day before and little old me thought it was fate or something!
American Honey (2016, dir. Andrea Arnold)
Ever since I was little, it's been my dream to live nomadically and drive around the country with all of my friends in a huge van. When I first saw the trailer for American Honey, months before the movie even came out, it was like Andrea Arnold had reached into my brain and found my number one fantasy and decided to make a movie out of it. No theater within an hour of my house was playing it so when the movie finally ended up online, I watched the whole thing at 1:30 in the morning on a school night. Everything about it is warm and gorgeous and real. Seeing characters that looked, talked, and acted like the people I grew up with was amazing. It's still the only time I've ever hyped up a movie so much and had it be even more perfect than I imagined.
— Alyssa
Stranger Than Fiction (2006, dir. Marc Foster)
I've been raised on the movies my dad likes, so I just realized one day that I already was "into" films. But I realized later on that I want to be a screenwriter, and the movie that did that for me was Stranger Than Fiction. I have problems with depression and anxiety, and one time I was admitted into a psychiatric unit for it. We were allowed to bring movies and watch them during the day, so my mom brought some of my favorites, one of them being this film. One day I was watching it with some nurses and other patients, and at the end I just started rambling about how I love the type of "wow" lines, where everything you need to know is culminated in this one sentence. I love movie speeches, and I love when you see something happen on screen and the whole experience of watching and hearing and feeling this moment completely changes you. One of the nurses said, "You really like the writing of movies. Have you ever considered being a screenwriter?" and it started to open something up in me. I already knew I love to write, and I wanted to find a way to integrate that with my love for movies. I thought about it for the next day, and by the time I left the unit, I knew I wanted to be a screenwriter. Someday I want to write a film about my experience at the psychiatric unit and dedicate it to the hospital I went to. I owe my life and my future to that nurse.
Drive (2011, dir. Nicolas Winding Refn)
The way every character is framed and every color is used so deliberately to show the state of mind that each person is in throughout the film without having to use words was so fascinating to me. This was the first film that I genuinely thought of as a piece of art, and the first film I thought truly took advantage of the fact that film is primarily a visual medium and what we see is more powerful than what is said. The soundtrack is also my favourite of all time. I love this film so much that I based my entire application to study film at university around it and I got into the best university for film studies in the country!!
— Ciara
Lady Bird (2017, dir. Greta Gerwig)
I'm seventeen and come from a small-ish town in Germany. I want to go to Berlin once I finish school to go to university and maybe go into film. I have a really complicated relationship with my parents due to that and being trans; I love them but they don't accept me. This film just hit so incredibly close that I feel like when I talk to people about it, I'm showing them a part of myself.
— Joshua
Spirited Away (2001, dir. Hayao Miyazaki)
When I was 10 I saw Spirited Away for the first time then I went to my room and cried. It was partly because I realized I had a crush on Haku, but also because I felt really overwhelmed by the feeling of what I now realize was melancholy. My 60-pound preteen body was unprepared to handle such emotions, so instead I just cried while saying, "It was so beautiful", and that's the day I got into cinema.
— Nina