Have Some Rather Unique Questions You'd Like Answered While Watching a Really Good Movie? This Blog Post is For You!

Ruan Gosling (left) in Half Nelson

You want to learn something and watch a movie at the same time? Good idea. Go for it. But stick around here for a second because I’m going to give you ten suggestions. I’ll make sure there’s a variety to suit all manner of tastes and moods. I’ll name a film and tell you what you can learn as I brilliantly (with all due humility) anticipate your desires. Sound good? Here we go.

Half Nelson (2006) Fleck. Learn what it’s like to be a dedicated young middle school teacher in the inner city while also battling an addiction problem. See Ryan Gosling star in one of his best roles (for my money his very best). Half Nelson is an underrated gem that I totally related to. Realistic as hell, believe me. The teacher's totally appropriate with an African American female student will be a lesson in itself.

Melancholia (2011) von Trier. Want to learn what it might be like to be around someone who suffers from clinical depression as the apocalypse approaches? Look no further. Kirsten Dunst here stars as a woman who exhibits classic signs of clinical depression, including emotional withdrawal, fatigue, inability to experience pleasure, and difficulty functioning. But as the end is nigh she’s the one who holds it together while everyone else is freaking out. Great stuff. 

Cabaret (1972) Fosse. Ever find yourself wondering what it must have been like to be a bi-sexual English teacher in Berlin who's involved with a self-possessed Cabaret singer shortly before the Nazi takeover? Check out Michael York’s character in this cinematic classic based on the Christoper Isherwood novel. You’ll also get to hear and see some amazing song and dance productions which is what you'd expect from a Bob Fosse film. But those damn Nazis are looming. Yuck!

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) Coens. I’ll bet you're curious about what it must have been like to be not-quite-good-enough-to-be-famous folk singer in the early Sixties. See Oscar Isaac as the title character in this terrific film from the Coen Brothers. The incredible frustration and hurt of realizing that you’re good, but not good enough, is one of the themes running through the picture. It's also a bit of an Odyssey as exemplified by a cat. At the end you’ll hear the voice of one of the lucky few who did make the breakthrough.

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) Milestone. I’ll just bet you’ve spent some time trying to imagine yourself a soldier in the Great War. Wonder no more. This, one of the great war pictures and certainly one of the better anti-war pictures of all time, will give you much more than a clue. For one thing you’ll learn that a lot of your mates will die. You’ll also learn that you’ll be expected to kill. You’ll also see how those sitting it out on the Homefront  have no real sense of the horror soldiers go through.

The 39 Steps (1935) Hitchcock. What would it be like to be accused of a crime that you didn’t commit? How would you feel having to go on the run to both evade the law and prove your innocence? Frankly there are several Hitchcock films with this theme but why not go with my personal favorite of that particular sub genre? Gorgeous black and white from London to Scotland and back. People who aren’t what they seem. A pretty blonde who reluctantly helps our hero. Hitch at his best.

Beau Travail (1999) Denis. I get the sense, dear reader(s) that you’d love to get a sense of life in the French foreign legion. You also are probably the type who would like to see a film set in Djibouti. I’ve got just the thing from director Claire Denis. You’ll discover that it was not all glamour and rollicking fun in the legion. Indeed you’ll see what a brutal and unforgiving time it could be. What’s that, you ask, is this a highly regarded film? How’s this: it ranked at number seven in the most recent Sight and Sound poll of greatest films. 

Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton in Reds

Reds (1981) Beatty. So you’ve probably found yourself contemplating what it would have been like to be John Reed, the journalist and communist activist from the early years of the 20th century. I guarantee you’ll wonder no more after seeing Warren Beatty’s self-directed portrayal of Reed and his pals and wife and fellow journalist Louise Bryant. You’ll meet such noted figures as Emma Goldman, Eugene O’Neill, Big Bill Heywood and…more. Indeed you’ll learn about the Greenwich Village Bohemian radicals of the 1910s and get a lesson in the early days of the Russian Revolution. It’s a long movie, but whattaya expect given the richness of content?

Some Like it Hot (1959) Wilder: Has this ever happened to you? You’ve witnessed a mob hit and the gangsters want to shut you up — permanently — so you go on the run disguised as member of an all female band? It hasn’t!? And I guess that you’ve never lived in Chicago or been in Miami in the 1920? Before your time, I spose. Well then pal you’re going to have learn about that particular experience from this classic directed by Billy Wilder with a cast that includes Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis. Not too shabby.

The Exterminating Angel (1962) Buñuel. I’ll wager that you and your company have been able to leave every room you’ve had a dinner party in. In fact, I’ll go one further and say that you’ve likely made it successfully out of every room you’ve endeavored to exit. But in so doing you’ve doubtless speculated at what would happen if — for inexplicable reasons — you couldn’t. I’ve just made a pretty darn strong argument for you to watch this iconic film by Luis Bunuel. Watch as people struggle to do the ordinary, can’t figure out why and wrestle with the consequences.

See how much you can learn from moving pictures? Watch one today!