between movies and the supreme court, which one impacts us more?
take your time in your answer it truly is a tough question to respond to and i didn't really give any of you any warning
Starting this off with a tweet that made me laugh so hard:
It’s true; that is Reba.
This week’s Circle Back has a theme to it, my friends. I watched a really good movie the other day, so all we’re gonna talk about tonight is movies and the impact they all have on us. Anyone wanna go first? Actually, I’ll start.
I will watch literally any movie someone tells me to watch. You could tell me to meet you at the Alamo Drafthouse to pay $20 for a ticket to see Marry Me, starring Dame Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson, and I’ll fricken do it. I’ll have wasted $20, but I’ll still do it. When I was living in Dublin (name drop lol yea u know me just livin in dublin & talkin bout it all the time), I went to a movie every week. I saw Lady Bird there twice and then once in Cleveland, Ohio, and then once in Chicago (way 2 b different & original, kerry). My brother watches Marvel movies every time he blinks (i do not condone this, but he is his own person and we all have to learn from our mistakes) (sean this is a joke don’t punch me). I watch so many movies that I’ve become that annoying person who tells you what movies every actor in the movie we’re currently watching is in; I watch a lot of movies by myself for this exact reason.
Besides the Supreme Court, movies are probably the biggest things that impact us most. They make us laugh, they make us cry, they make us leave a theater early, and they even make us watch the same one twice within 24 hours. Movies are so powerful that they become part of our experiences and memories. Sometimes they’re so good that we always remember where we were and how we felt when we first watched them. I mean … High School Musical? When Troy Bolton sings, “yEaH yEaH YEAHhhh.” Goosebumps. Julie Andrews proving to us that the hills are in fact alive? We learn so much.
This happened to me the first time I watched Bridesmaids. I was in eighth grade (yikes, sorry for age-dropping now you all know that i’m 14 years old) and had to have a guardian come with me to see the movie because I was much too young. I had never laughed so hard watching something in my life. And right then and there, I knew I wanted to make things that would make people react the way I did — by laughing at everything because everyone else around me is laughing and I don’t actually understand what was going on. Just kidding of course I knew what was going on I’m a freakin genius. That movie has had such an impact on everyone who’s seen it that it’s always in the top five on a list of the best comedies of all time.
The next movie that impacted me the SECOND time I watched it was School of Rock. I’m not even kidding. When I was really tiny and small and watched it for the first time, it was just a movie I watched and liked but never thought about again because I was so busy and was always in meetings and had companies to build. But when I watched it AGAIN as a 14 or 15-year-old, I discovered that it was one of my favorite movies ever. School of Rock is one of the best movies ever, and I’ll tell you why: it was one of the first movies of my generation that showed an adult talking to kids like adults (I’m not getting these facts anywhere they’re just facts in my heart). Jack Black’s character wouldn’t treat those kids like kids; he would speak to them like they could make their own decisions and discover their own skills and talents without their parents telling them what they are. And it was so funny. Stick-it-to-da-man-i-osis? That’s comedy. It’s one of those movies that never gets old.
One genre that I feel is so hard to make feel original but can move your audience to tears if you do it right is the coming-of-age story. It is SO hard to make a coming-of-age movie feel new and unique. It can be the worst kind of movie if you do it wrong. But it’s also one of my favorite genres because when it’s done super well, I literally sob. So many tears. Taking out my contacts because they dried up from all the tears I shedededed. Two very good examples of unique coming-of-age are Little Miss Sunshine and Lady Bird. I know there are some people who didn’t like Lady Bird, and maybe I love it so much because I related super fuhreakin hard to it, but those are both movies that are completely their own. A whole family driving across the country to take the youngest family member who also happens to be Abigail Breslin to a children’s beauty pageant? A girl who goes by Lady Bird in 2002 who wants to chase dreams she doesn’t fully understand yet so quickly that she forgets to appreciate everything she already has? And the DIALOGUE in those movies ugh just take me straight to the emergency room because honey my heart is broken. God, these movies were so good. Those were two of the first movies I ever cried watching more than once. Usually, if I cry while watching a movie, I don’t cry again the next time I watch it. These two broke that glass ceiling. This excludes Marley & Me I don’t even wanna talk about that movie don’t even bring it up.
Now, I bet you’re wondering what movie I watched this week that made me want to write a whole newsletter on movies. Oh, you think it was Minions: The Rise of Gru, don’t you? Nice try, suckers. I’ll actually be at the movies watching this, though, when this newsletter drops. The movie I watched this week was Cha Cha Real Smooth. My name is Kerry, and I cried four (4) times watching this movie. This was a coming-of-age story done right, folks. Imagine a world where a recent college grad goes back home and needs to make money so he can be a person, and the way he makes money is by being a party starter at bar/bat mitzvahs. I’m not even gonna say anything else because that should be enough to convince you to watch this movie. I will say, though, that I have never seen a movie where the male lead is a genuine and kind character throughout the entire movie. There’s always a catch, but somehow, Cooper Raiff (the 25-year-old writer, director, and star) was able to create this type of character and not make it feel forced. If this doesn’t convince you, let me just say that our favorite Ellen DeGeneres call outer, Miss Dakota Johnson, also stars in this lil masterpiece. Still not convinced? How about Leslie Mann as a MOM? Never seen that before, am I right? STILL NOT CONVINCED? You can see yourself out.
It really does say something, though, when you can make a movie about a recent college grad figuring out what they’re supposed to be doing unlike all of the other movies about recent college grads figuring their shit out. Movies are something that everyone all over the world watches because we need to. Sometimes, movies make more sense than real life, and so we watch them over and over and over because they’re more real than anything else. The memories we have from watching movies are as real as the memories we make outside of them.
There’s a line in Cha Cha Real Smooth that made me cry: My memories aren’t going anywhere. I can’t stop thinking about that line, girlies! I think about all of the things that have happened in my life that have ended, and I have a hard time figuring out how I’m supposed to move on from them. But then I watch a movie like this one, and I learn that I’ll always have those things from my life. I’ll always have those memories. And sometimes, that has to be enough.
Obviously, the movies that changed my life the most are Sister Act and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, but I don’t need to tell you why. Those f i l m s speak for themselves. Oh, you don’t believe me? Unsubscribe.
Watching movies is one of my favorite activities ever, so I’m gonna try to remember to recommend a movie at the end of each newsletter every week. And then once I write my own movie, I’m going to exclusively recommend that one every single week. This is something we will all have to be fine with. This week, I am recommending Cha Cha Real Smooth.
PS speaking of movies i have a letterboxd account where i write very exciting and emotional and detailed reviews of movies that have nothing to do with the movies if that sounds appetizing to your movie watching soul then you can follow me my username is @whoopigoldberg i’m not even kidding about that