Prompt #1-A low budget movie

Clerks (1994)

Clerks follows Dante (Brian O’Halloran), a convenience store attendant, as he gets called in on his day off. While at work, Dante is confronted with many problems that he alone must solve and he’s terrible at it.

Next door to the convenience store is a video store ran by Dante’s friend, Randall (Jeff Anderson), who can never be bothered to do his job. He’d rather read Playboy’s, spout philosophical nonsense that makes literally no sense in the context of this movie, and deliver his lines in a way that makes me believe he never really knew them.

Randall and Dante also loveeee to use harmful stereotypes about a lot of marginalized groups throughout the film, but mostly against women and queer people. That brings me to my next point…

None of these characters are likable…at all. Dante least of all. He may be the worst character to ever exist and that’s coming from a person who willing read “It Ends with Us” by Colleen Hoover. All he does the entire movie is complain about his personal problems but he does nothing to fix them. Randall even tries to offer solutions and tough love in hopes that maybe Dante will listen. Instead, Dante straight up tries to beat Randall’s ass in the middle of the store (tell me you’re emotionally immature without telling me).

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On top of that, Dante gets into a major argument with his girlfriend, Ronnie (Marilyn Ghigliotti), because he learns of her sexual exploits before they started dating. He quite literally screams and belittles her because she’s given a handful of blowjobs to other guys when he has a body count of 12 himself. Not to mention, he emotionally cheats on her the entire movie with his ex-girlfriend that just got dumped.

He’s sooooo aggravating I almost couldn’t finish the movie.

All in all, I mostly hated this movie and everyone in it, but there were two things that made me stay until the very end.

First, this movie is shot entirely in grayscale which was the only thing I enjoyed about it because it adds to the 90s, indie vibe and it was broken up into sections which moved the story along nicely.

Second, I really enjoyed seeing the variety of customers Dante and Randall encountered while working at their respective stores.

Rating: 1/5

Prompt #2-A movie nominated for Best Cinematography

Poor Things (2023)

This film follows Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a woman who was resurrected by Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), as she navigates the world with the mind of a child. This film acts as a feminist retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in the best way and takes place around the same time as that of Shelley’s novel.

Emma Stone did an outstanding job of portraying Bella and her childlike tendencies and mannerisms. None of her performance ever felt forced, out of place, or wrong. It just seemed so natural and seamless in every single scene.

The first half of the film is shot in grayscale while Bella is still living with Dr. Godwin or “God” as Bella so lovingly refers to him throughout the film. This signifies how closed off Bella’s world is. God never lets Bella leave the house because of her childlike naivety and he hires Max (Ramy Youssef) to watch over Bella who eventually falls in love with her and they become engaged.

Enter Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo). Duncan comes to the Baxter home to have a business meeting with God and he’s immediately taken with Bella and her unique way of looking at the world.

Long story short, Duncan convinces Bella to come away with him to see the world and though God knows Duncan is bad news, he lets Bella go because he loves her too much to keep her hidden. This is when the film becomes color.

This is where shit starts to get wild. Buckle up, folks.

Duncan and Bella travel to Lisbon and this is where Duncan and Bella begin their sexual relationship. Yes, it’s super weird with a pedophilic undertone.

Eventually, Bella’s brain develops past the childlike state and enters into a young adult state and she becomes harder for Duncan to control. In a last ditch effort to regain control, Duncan sneaks both of them onto the weirdest cruise ship i’ve ever seen where Bella befriends two passengers that open her mind to philosophy.

One of my favorite scenes happens when one of her new friends shows her the worst of humanity while they’re docked ashore. It’s a civilization of people that are starving and so without resources that many babies are lying dead on the ground while mothers cry over them.

Bella becomes overcome with such emotion she tries to get to the people in order to help in any way she can, but her friend pulls her back and reminds her that parts of the world are ugly like this. Bella refuses to except this and takes Duncan’s gambling earnings and unwittingly gives them away to a ship worker that promises to give the money to the people but instead robs her blind.

All the while Duncan is slipping deeper and deeper into alcoholism and gambling which eventually gets them thrown off the ship in Paris.

Bella then becomes a prostitute and is introduced to socialism by the Madam and another prostitute, Tionette (Suzy Bemba), and Duncan is institutionalized because Bella has abandoned him (good for her).

Eventually, she’s told God is terminally ill and returns home where her husband, Alfie (Christopher Abbott) from her old life finds her, kidnaps her, threatens to cut off her clitoris and get her pregnant. Alfie shots himself in the foot and she gets away. God dies in her arms and she’s able to live happily ever after with Tionette and her almost husband, Max, and a goat brained version of Alfie.

Bella quickly became one of my favorite fictional characters of all time. When she’s shown the worst of humanity, she immediately wants to help and feels an innate urge that she MUST help in any way she can. Because she was good and kind, she made the world around her good and kind.

Additionally, no matter what happened to her or what circumstance she was in, she ALWAYS found good people who cared for and protected her in some way. This further cemented the idea that humans have an innate desire to be good and kind.

Love was at the center of EVERYTHING.

This movie was a love letter to humanity and I enjoyed every second of it.

Rating: 5/5

Prompt #3-A movie from the 70s

Superman (1978)

Everyone knows the story of Superman so I won’t bore you with the details.

There’s a reason they chose Christopher Reeve to be Superman and just kept making Superman movies. Every aspect of his Superman was phenomenal.

From the comic accurate suit with the signature blue, red, and yellow to the subtle acting change between Clark Kent and Superman. Where Reeve’s Clark Kent is nerdy and mousy, his Superman is confident and charismatic and this is shown with nothing but a posture shift and a voice change.

I hadn’t seen this movie in over a decade and remembered almost nothing about it. I was hooked from the very first scene to the very last.

For this movie to be from 1978, the special effects were way ahead of its time. The flying scenes were believable as well as the threat that a rich, white man posed on the safety of the world.

Christopher Reeve doesn’t get near enough credit for his work as this very iconic Kryptonian. He very rightly deserves the title of the best portrayal of Superman ever (David, you’re a very close second <3).

The nostalgia of this film was enough to receive a four star rating.

Rating: 4/5

Prompt #4-A movie that has won best picture

Moonlight (2016)

This film follows Chiron as he navigates life as a closeted, African American man in the late 1980s.

This film is special because it follows Chiron throughout his entire life and is broken into three parts — i. Little, ii. Chiron, and iii. Black. The casting director of this movie deserves every award imaginable because every “new” Chiron resembled the last so well.

Part one named Little after Chiron’s nickname given to him because of his small size. Little (Alex R. Hibbert) is bullied very severely by his peers and is chased home every day after school. One day as he’s being chased home, Little hides in what he believes is an abandoned house but in reality, it’s a place where drug deals happen and drug dealer Juan (Mahershala Ali) stumbles upon him. This interaction gives Chiron a friend for life in Juan and his girlfriend, Teresa (Janelle Monae). The couple gives Chiron a home to escape to when his mother, Paula (Naomie Harris), is too cracked out to care for him.

Part two named Chiron shows Chiron (Ashton Sanders) aging into a teen who is confronting his sexuality and his mother’s severe drug problem all the while still being ruthlessly bullied. He has one true friend named Kevin (Jharrel Jerome) who always looks out for him even though he’s considered weird and they eventually have a sexual encounter on a beach that send Chiron spiraling even more about his sexuality. Chiron also still has Teresa in his life though Juan has been dead for a few years. This chapter is all about Chiron learning to stick up for himself which he eventually does when Kevin is forced to jump him in the parking lot after school.

Part three named Black after Kevin’s nickname given to him back in high school. Chiron (Trevante Rhodes) is now a young adult who has become a drug dealer who knows how to fight. He eventually reconnects with Kevin and Black goes to the diner Kevin works at to have dinner. In this chapter, Chiron has fully come into himself and who he believes he is. He’s grown from a scared little boy who the world is happening to into a confident man who is influencing the world around him. Though it seems he has not fully come to terms with his sexuality, he seems to finally let himself give into what he’s known to be true about himself his entire life when he goes back to Kevin’s apartment at the very end of the film. The ending scene of the movie changed me fundamentally as a person and I think about it once a day.

Movies like this are so needed because it provides representation to those who may never see themselves in characters or media. I am in awe of how poignant this film is. Nothing about it was in your face and the director never spells anything out for the audience. Everything is up for interpretation with a very open ended ending.

It’s definitely one of those films you have to really sit with and digest it. It needs viewers to really give it space to really comprehend and break down what’s going on in the story and Chiron as a complex character.

All in all, this film felt like if poetry was given a camera.

Rating: 5/5

If you’ve read this far, thank you so much. You’re attention and time means so much to me <3

Please subscribe if you haven’t already! We have 11 more months of movies to get through together!!

I did one of the hardest things I’ll ever do.

I packed up my childhood bedroom and all my memories and I moved ten minutes down the road.

I was fortunate enough to move into a family heirloom home by myself which is something I’ve always wanted — the space, the freedom to do whatever whenever, the quiet.

The quiet.

The silence.

I learned very quickly that I really don’t like it.

I immediately began filling the space with music, YouTube videos, audiobooks, TikTok, tv shows, movies, house guests, and whatever else seemed to fill the void.

All this noise did what I wanted it to. It distracted me, but that’s all it was.

A distraction.

Not a solution.

Because with the silence came something else…

Loneliness.

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I’m the middle child of five so my childhood home has always been filled with noise, people, and so much laughter.

Between the mounting loneliness and the worsening politcal and social climate in the United States, I felt that I DESPERATELY needed something that gave my life a little more hope and enjoyment.

Thus, I was catapulted into my “romanticizing my life in 2026” era. I began scouring YouTube and TikTok for recommendations and ideas.

Finding nothing that appealed to me, I began to catalogue my interests and hobbies — reading, watching tv shows and movies, writing, gaming, etc.

Out of all of those, there was one I kept coming back to.

My love for movies.

An idea sparked.

What if I watched a movie i’ve never seen every Wednesday until 2027?

With my crazy work schedule and mental exhaustion, a movie a week seemed the most doable way to add a little pizzazz to my life as well as give me a mid work week pick me up.

Thanks to Pinterest I have an entire vase full of movie challenge slips that give me a different movie prompt every week.

I’ve already watched my first movie of the year and it was a doozy so be ready for that post at the end of January.

If you’ve read this far, thank you so much and I am very excited to hopefully be a little glimmer of hope in an increasingly dark world.