A (very) late christmas gift
the best movie recommendation list made by my faves + december RECAP
If you know something about me, it is that I love films. I am that insufferable friend who complains about the lightning, scene continuity, and poor line delivery. The one who gets mad if you pay more attention to your phone than to the masterpiece I am showing you. The one who is obsessed with Criterion and their Closet series. But today I am stepping away and letting my friends take over the control room.
I had this idea of asking some of my favorite writers (who are also film enthusiasts) to collaborate with me in an attempt to create a list of diverse films. I wanted to make a specific list of movies people could come back to whenever they are feeling or want to feel a certain way.
So, I created a prompt list of situations and gave it to them to choose from. They are good friends and agreed to it, and I couldn’t be more grateful to have them featured in one place.
These are their closet picks:
Valerie from Club Reticent
For when you are missing home
Shoplifters (2018) by Hirokazu Koreeda
Such a beautiful, poignant story on chosen family—the film has everything i like. nuanced storytelling, strong performances, and a quieter, more secular side of Tokyo. I feel like it deserved Past Lives-level praise here in the west, but oh well.
For when you are in the mood to watch something good that you’ll never revisit again
I Used To Be Funny (2023) by Ally Pankwin
Rachel Sennott, whom i love beyond words, gives one of her strongest performances in this. PTSD is never easy to convey in a visual story, but Ally Pankiw nails it. I don’t think this film is for everybody; it’s uncomfortable and bold with its “show, don’t tell” approach, but honestly? 10/10
Amanda from Certified
For when you want to watch real-life play on your screen
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) by Chantal Akerman
This movie it’s one of the most powerful pieces of cinema ever created and it says so much without actually saying anything. It’s something that you watch once and never forget it. You just can’t. To be a woman is to be invisible; that’s the moral you take with yourself after watching this movie and seeing the enduring agony of existence. The daily routine can be a trap for us, as women, and it reminds us that there was a time when our entire existence was summed up by being a housewife. We were just another piece of furniture. Brilliant women, with talents we never got to see. Trapped. It’s a must-watch for everyone.
For when you want to see something technically perfect
In the Mood for Love (2000) by Won Kar-wai
So, I’ve made a lot of filmmaker friends this year. Shoutout to y’all. And one thing they all have in common is that they love Wong Kar-Wai movies because of what they call the cinematographic orgasm. So OF COURSE I had to check it out, because, as a woman, we ain’t getting a lot of these…. well, when it comes to LIFE. We might as well feel something when watching a technically perfect movie. The first one I’ve watched is the one about to be mentioned on this list: In the Mood for Love. I mean, it’s a classic for film nerds and I’ve watched it plenty of times after discovering it. Yes, it’s technically perfect. Yes, I have no criticism towards it. Yes, it destroyed me. But speaking of technically perfect IS speaking of In the Mood for Love in terms of… everything. Can’t recommend it enough.
Something I also can’t recommend enough is finding me on letterboxd! (@amaaandaaa)
Inigo from Yours, Inigo
For when you want to watch something unknown
The Fits (2015) by Anna Rose Holmer
The Fits takes place almost exclusively in a Cincinnati community center. Typically, coming-of-age stories happen in more determining places—like school grounds; fated to shape fond or harrowing adult memories. Or like the bedrooms of classmates; whose friendship won’t make it out the event horizon of a uni campus. Those are the little worlds that kids think last forever.
But the ephemerality of Lincoln Community Center is understood a priori. The boys box and go home, the girls dance and go home, and no-one thinks about it too tough. Everyone’s aware they’re just passing through.
Toni – our stoic, 11-year-old tomboy joins her older brother in the boxing gym. She trains with an exacting focus that makes it clear she belongs there. One day, she finds herself magnetised to the girl’s dance practice.
To call what follows a film is either misleading, insufficient or both. It is more a lyrical visitation by a gentle spirit, a poetic ode to a young Black girl trying to contort violence into grace. During her transformation, a mysterious epidemic spreads through the girls of the troupe—the eponymous fits, an ungovernable bout of convulsions that can strike any girl at any time; a terrifying but ultimately benign one-and-done phenomena.
From the boys’ locker room to the girls’ recital hall, a mythology ripens around “the fits” and Toni is at the heart of it all, simply trying to make sense of the rhythm.
I’ve seen this film over 20 times and man, the ending. Jesus. The ending moves me to tears every single time. I have no idea why more people don’t know about this film but I also couldn’t tell you how I found it. I just know that there is a way the The Fits captures Toni’s floatation through the world with such tenderness; a little Black girl who has leant into her masculinity searches for a home in her femininity through the mesmerising rituals of dance. She tries. She fails. She tries again. There’s a breathwork to it. The Fits is a meditation, intimately focused on the poignancy of movement, and all its little ambiguities leave the movie open-ended in the most cosmic way.
For when you want to be surprised in a good way
Mignonnes (2020) by Maïmouna Doucouré
Mignonnes was impaled by a controversy that left me deeply concerned for the general public’s media literacy rate. Prior to the release, the marketing campaign by Netflix flung the film into the jaws of a ravenous outrage machine, irreparably wounding Maïmouna Doucouré's promising directorial career. It’s a tragedy because Mignonnes is not the abhorrent piece of work that Google reviews, Imdb and the Rotten Tomatoes Popcorn Meter would have you believe.
I see Mignonnes as a spiritual sequel to The Fits. Both films negotiate Black girlhood’s experimentation with movement. If Toni’s journey is about transitioning from her masculine to her feminine through the rituals of dance, then Amy’s is a cautionary tale about how dance can be a conduit for femininity’s mutation into being hypersexualized.
Mignonnes incites a fascinating portrayal of male pressure. Despite spending much of its runtime concentrated on female social life, from Amy learning twerk routines alongside her girl friends to the religious gatherings with female elders, there is a grotesque omnipresence of the patriarchal gaze always lingering beneath. This is complicated further by Amy’s locale as a second-generation Senegalese immigrant in France, which tightly nestles her between the modest, Islamic traditions of her Senegalese heritage and the hypersexualized secularity throbbing through Western life.
I think one of the reasons people react to Mignonnes so viscerally is because the film dares to explore the realities of children’s hypersexualization from the vantage point of an actual child. We express such fervent outrage when it comes to protecting kids, but culturally, our society is barely able to recognise their autonomy beyond a compulsive need to control them.
By witnessing Amy’s internal world, we are met with all the curiosity, mistakes, joy, and mess that comes with seeing her freely. We are privy to how Amy adultifies herself. With her friends, we see the mischief they get away with in the hidden passageways of their day. We witness the failures of neglect by all the girl’s guardians. It is often unsettling. But it is a reality that needs to be confronted and taken seriously if we actually want to protect children.
When I first saw Mignonnes, I expected to be disgusted but as the film drew on, the scene, moment, or image that would instigate my nausea never came. There were some provocative moments, sure, but they were embedded so deeply in service to the film’s overarching intention that any vulgarities made sense. They carried narrative weight. They worked so harmoniously that by Mignonnes’ final act, when the harmonies reached a fever pitch, the gentleness that washed into the film’s concluding sequences massaged a cathartic exhalation of relief from my lungs. I felt so moved that I wept.
There is a clear conviction in Maïmouna Doucouré's voice that meant Mignonnes surprised me in the most bizarre and beautiful way. I am sad that so many weren’t able to, or didn’t allow themselves to, receive her pensive work. I would’ve never believed a film that had been maligned so aggressively was going to turn out—for me—to be one of the most urgent pieces of cinema of our time.
Sarah from People’s Princess
For when you want to feed your hopeless romantic delusions
La La Land (2016) by Damien Chazelle
I think there’s only one movie that completely captured my heart, made me swoon, and later tore it out: La La Land. The love story between Mia and Sebastian is one that I’ll never forget, I think about the scene where he walks her to her car almost on a daily basis. It actually pains me to rewatch this movie, but any time I’m brave and I do, I leave feeling deeply moved by how intense their love was. It’s also essential to note that they understand each other so deeply, they believe in each other in a way that no one else around them does, and they want the best for each other, even if it means they can’t be together, and I find that so deeply romantic. It’s a love story 100%, but it’s also a story about loving what you do, finding the passion in your life and following it.
For when you want to watch something resembling the irl
Before Sunrise (1995) by Richard Linklater
Before Sunrise is one of my all-time favorite films. The story follows Jesse and Celine, two twenty-somethings who meet on a train, strike up a conversation, and spend just one day together. I thought about picking this movie for the one that fills my hopeless romantic delusions because yes, the love story between the two is beautiful, and watching them bond through their deep conversations is such an incredible experience– also the record store listening booth scene changed the trajectory of my life. I chose this category for this film because the plot of the movie takes a backseat to the simplicity of two complete strangers just wandering around Vienna and asking questions, telling their life stories, and sharing what they believe in. The Before trilogy is stunning, but I think this is one of those movies that just holds so much meaning in all of the little words.
This section is part of the RECAP series. A space where I share with paid subscribers what I've been loving, hating, and obsessing over every month. But because you have been the most giving and supporting group I wanted to make it available for everyone today. Enjoy!
R. For someone who prides herself on being self-aware and emotionally intelligent I tend to ponder about all the wrong things. I let 2024 passed me by. A fallacy of my own doing. But as the year comes to end I have Reflected on what I want to leave behind and what I want to keep for the new year.
Valerie, who is featured on this and whose writing I adore, asked me to be a part of one of her projects, in which she asked some people to talk about their biggest lessons from 2024. I am not only thankful that she asked me to be part of the assembly of amazing and talented peole but that she led me to the next reflection:
In 2024 I shed my old skin multiple times. It was painful unfailingly, but very transformative in many ways. For once I learned that letting go of ideas, people, vices and bad habits wasn’t a linear process. I thought I could let go once and never think about what I was breaking free from again, but I have never being able to leave proudly and with a head held high.
As someone who loves to wear her old gowns as brand new, lay down with my demons, savor the pain of past memories, and indulge in the sanctity of emotional pain as a distraction from real life, I learned (the hard way) that self sabotage is an excuse for change. Maybe a part of me still believes that a known evil is better than an unknown good. But, these last months I have come to the conclusion that trying to avoid change doesn’t stop it from coming. Change is like the ocean. It comes in waves, some are so soft you barely register them going through you. Other times they are so strong they shake your entire core. No matter what they never stop. As long as the world and humans exist the sea will be there, and so will change…
Read the full piece here.
E. If I could choose a word to describe December I would say it’s been Exhausting. I think I’ve done more activities these last two weeks than I did the last two months, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I got to spend almost two weeks with my sister who lives in the states, and who I hadn’t seen since december of 2021, eat lots of tasty food, visit family, and socialize. It was painfully lovely.
C. We all have Clutter. Digital or physicial, you are probably holding on to things that are occupying unnecessary space. I am not an overconsumer, so I didn’t have objects to get rid of, but when I got the notification that my iCloud (even with the extra space I pay) was full I knew I had to go over my gallery and delete everything I didn’t need. Old screenshots, blurry pics, notes from past semesters, bad selfies. I got rid of so much stuff that it took me around three days. But I’m glad I did it. I feel lighter somehow.
A. The later weeks of this month I have felt an immense of Acceptance. Over the past, the future, the things I can’t change and the ones I can. I am embracing all of it. I finally took the gloves off. Not every fight has to be fought. I can tap out.
P. I’ve been thinking a lot about Privacy. This past year I kept asking myself; how can I keep writing what I love the most, which is personal essays and diaristic rambles and mantain a sense of confidentiality? I finally found the answer; think less and create more. I have a Phd on overcomplicating and overthinking but this is such a waste of time and energy. I’ll write when I want, what I want. I’ll post what I want, when I want. Nothing else matters. In the end, this page is all over the place, and so am I.
Thank you for choosing to be here.
this is everything. everyone's picks are so good?!
It was an absolute honour to share my movie recommendations with you! Thank you so much for asking me 🫶🏾