Booksmart (2019)

I'm a lifelong believer in crushes. I believe that a crush is how the deepest friendships often begin. I think they're the lifeblood of youthfulness regardless of any "hyphenated age category," which in my case is a little (lot) older than high schoolers. Still, you cannot tell me I'm not a kid again when I'm crushing out. I believe a crush is not just about romance; it can be platonic, familial, or even vocational. However, the boss/employee crush is ill-advised, especially if you're the boss. Nevertheless, a crush in its purest form is just what the doctor ordered for what ails any and all of us—and perhaps a way to even achieve world peace. 

Now that I'm through with my Senior Class President campaign speech, I'll get to the movie. 

I'll admit watching Crush made me a smidge jealous. My days at Glenn Hills High don't remotely compare to that of Crush's Miller High—nor did most of my friends' experiences compare. I'm not even sure my niece, a current junior, has this same openness; we live in the South. But it's Hulu, and I love to lose myself inside the possibility of what life would be if it were normal that 60% of the population were Queer.

There is no such thing as watching too many movies. I know that since my family and I have enacted social distancing, the amount of movies we’ve watched has skyrocketed. And if there can be a silver lining in the messiness and ugliness of the situation we’re all in right now, it’s that we have an opportunity to watch a lot of the movies that we’ve been meaning to watch and re-watch a lot of the movies that we’ve been meaning to re-watch. I know the other day I was looking through my Blu-ray collection and picked out the 1933 King Kong, a movie I’ve owned for about a year but never watched. It’s one of those movies I always said to myself, “Not now, I’ll watch it another time.” But because we’re stuck indoors with nothing to do, I finally said, “Screw it, it’s time to watch King Kong!” And I loved it!

With the popularity of my previous list (you can check it out here), I wanted to recommend another 19 movies for people to check out across Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, and Hulu. So here you are; go watch some movies! You can’t really go wrong with any of them.

1 | Apocalypse Now (1979) | Amazon Prime

Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola

Moxie, based on the novel by Jennifer Mathieu and directed by the excellent Amy Poehler takes on intersectional feminism in a way that seems inspired by pop-culture and current socio-political issues. Arguably, Moxie takes on A LOT of current socio-political issues in a way that is digestible for audiences of all ages. Moxie tells the story of Vivian (Hadley Robinson) and her Feminist Awakening. Being the daughter of Amy Poehler’s Third Wave Feminist mom character, Vivian takes on the responsibility of a local feminist leader, yet she stays anonymous. Vivian, in desperate need to have something she is wildly passionate about, turns to her mom’s box filled with Bikini Kill CDs and protest gear to find a passion standing up for the women of her school. Cocky harassing white boys, teachers who turn a blind eye, and a principal who is too lazy to do her job and fill out title 9 paperwork are what make this stereotypical high school in need of a feminist makeover. Vivian, in a Bikini Kill-induced rage, creates a Zine called “Moxie” as an anonymous call to action for the women at her school to start taking a stand.

 The women lead ensemble cast for this film brought so much life and intersectionality to this story, so let’s talk about them! Vivian’s BFF Claudia (Lauren Tsai) takes on the shy and smart trope and is generally anxious about the Moxie movement. Regardless, Claudia supports Vivian before she formally reveals herself by helping make Moxie an official club so they can’t get in trouble for hanging posters. Strangely, when Claudia gets in trouble for something that Moxie does, Vivian hangs her head instead of protecting Claudia. Other important members of the inner circle of Moxie include Lucy (Alycia Pascual-Peña), a fierce leader and organizer, Kiera and Amaya (Sydney Park, Anjelika Washington), excellent support and leaders in their own way, and Sean (Nico Hiraga) not only the male ally but also Vivian’s love interest. The character Sean stood out to me as significant in the Moxie movement because he refused to choose to side with his gender and supports Vivian and Moxie instead. Sean, to me, served as a male defense for the film to keep it from seeming like the message was “anti-men” but rather anti-misogyny and anti-rapist. Sean is kind, supportive, and in on Vivian’s secret. What are powerful women without support from a loving partner? I thought they were still pretty powerful, yet Moxie claims otherwise.

Vivian starts out the film believing that if she just keeps her head down, the men who harass women at her school will simply leave her alone. When Lucy looks to Vivian for support, she passes on her perspective and Lucy responds

From start to finish, Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart (2019) is a wild (wordplay unintended) ride. Wilde’s coming-of-age comedy directorial debut is simultaneously hilarious and entertaining, and remarkably heartfelt and relatable. The movie is really just a joy to experience, and as I watched it for the second time this past weekend, I found myself smiling throughout it.

The film’s plot is quite simple; the majority of it takes place over a single night. School-focused best friends Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) come to a striking realization on the final day of their senior year: they are not the only people in their school who have managed to get into good colleges, but they are the only students who have spent all of high school focused solely on school rather than having fun. They decide that they can’t allow themselves to have gone through all of high school without partying, and they set out to spend the night celebrating with their classmates. This leads to fun, some trouble, and ultimately, new conclusions about themselves and the people around them.