The Student News Site of Harvard-Westlake School

The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

The Student News Site of Harvard-Westlake School

The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

The Student News Site of Harvard-Westlake School

The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

Relating movies to life: enduring quarantine through film

Relating+movies+to+life%3A+enduring+quarantine+through+film

Growing up, I was always a TV show kind of gal. My parents never encouraged me to watch movies as a young child. My first PG-13 movie was actually at age thirteen and it was “The Devil Wears Prada.”

Although a classic in the eyes of a 13-year-old girl, it was no quintessential cultural learning experience.

Alas, I was soon 17-years-old with little to no experience with quality film. Of course,  I’ve been to countless movies at the theater and I’ve seen my fair share of Netflix romcoms, but I had never truly been exposed to “old” movies.

So, on Jan. 1, I made it my New Year’s resolution to become more cultured in film. As it commonly does, my eagerness to fulfill this resolution fizzled away pretty quickly. I really wanted to achieve it, but school and the rest of life got in the way of watching countless movies a week.

Now, picture this: The world gets struck with a global pandemic. In a world that feels like a science-fiction movie itself, one positive of this quarantine has been the perfect opportunity for my long desired, very necessary, ultimate classic movie binge.

Since quarantine has started, I have watched 47 movies. To some, this may seem like a major waste of time, but to me it’s a game of catch-up from the years of never having seen a truly classic movie.

I started my binge with “Annie Hall.” I had never seen a Woody Allen movie. Can you believe it?  It was funny, very picturesque. I watched a few more Woody Allen movies, including “Bananas,” my favorite from Woody Allen so far.

I also dove into Quentin Tarantino movies, another filmmaker I had yet to experience. I was never big on violence movies before, but I adored every single one, and couldn’t seem to get enough.

As for the rest of the movies, they included some black-and-whites with Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant and more classic actors and actresses. Of course there were also some Steven Spielberg, Alfonso Cuarón, Frank Darabont and movies from about thirty more writers/directors.

I even explored some newer must-watches, like “Good Will Hunting” and “Serendipity,” and some enlightening documentaries like “Generation Wealth.”

This massive movie-binge experience has been a wonderful way to spend  my quarantine.

Whether the societal comparisons between “Children of Men” and our coronavirus infected Earth, or the subtle teenage relatabilities in “Swingers,” I learned that even a high school senior like myself can compare film to their life and the world around them.

And luckily, I am in no way finished. My remaining list of movies to watch stands at around 85 movies.

Oh, the lessons I will learn. Wish me luck!

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Relating movies to life: enduring quarantine through film