This year’s totally been one hell of a one. There’s been this never ending pandemic situation which was locked all of us up in our homes disrupting all sorts of daily activities and normal lifestyles. Then there were cyclones: super cyclone Amphan which is the worst of the kind seen since 1999 and Nisarga which again has broken all records in the history of storms and cyclones. There are earthquakes shaking the country, people are getting killed for their skin color(know more here), communalism is being forced into every last thing existing on this planet(even killing elephants is a communal debate) and just today morning, a massive oil spill in Siberia has coerced the Russia government to declare a state of emergency. Moral of the story? The world isn’t really the most ideal place to be in and in the most recent times, its been a little too worse and not always can everybody help even if they want to and that inability to help sometimes more than often gives rise to a feeling of helplessness and frustration. So, here is a list of movies you can watch when you’re sitting home. If nothing, they’ll help you understand that the fight we are fighting now is not a new one. Its been fought before against deadly diseases, homophobia, racism and the most important which no one looks at because its subtle, the phases of love. I don’t know where all these films are streaming right now but you can always use Google for that, can’t you?
1. Contagion: The most relevant movie of the time award goes to this. Made in 2011 starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet and several other known faces, this movie is about an infection breaking out in several parts of the world which spreads through close contact with the infected person. The situation depicted is closest similar to the situation we are caught in right now. Its honest to the point of scary due to the uncanny resemblance it draws to the current world and gives a glimpse to the almost dystrophic place this world can eventually become if the pandemic doesn’t end soon enough now.
1. Contagion: The most relevant movie of the time award goes to this. Made in 2011 starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet and several other known faces, this movie is about an infection breaking out in several parts of the world which spreads through close contact with the infected person. The situation depicted is closest similar to the situation we are caught in right now. Its honest to the point of scary due to the uncanny resemblance it draws to the current world and gives a glimpse to the almost dystrophic place this world can eventually become if the pandemic doesn’t end soon enough now.
IMDb RATING: 6.7/10
2. Wall-E: the world as we see it doesn’t exist anymore. Its basically become this huge landfill. The humans have outlived their wits in every form, overused every resource on the planet and now, they cant survive on the planet anymore. So, they've been shipped off to space in this colossal spaceship while the Earth is being cleaned by some robots. One of these robots is Wall-E diligently doing the job its been assigned: clean the world up. Come to Earth, Eva a robot of the spaceship that is now the home of humans. Eva is sophisticated, intelligent and has been specially sent to the Earth to bring any life form its can find in Earth back to the spaceship. But when Wall-E sees Eva, he falls in love with her. On the surface, the movie is essentially a love story between two robots but even if you care to look deeper, this movie tries to warn humanity of the kind of life they’ll have in say hundred or two hundred years if they continue to be as reckless they are. Pixar has done an amazing work with animation fetching Andrew Stanton an Academy Award in 2009 and the message communicated through these robots is priceless.
IMDb RATING: 8.4/10
3. Blue Valentine: If heartbreak had a face then it would definitely be Dean and Cynthia’s in this movie. In all its entirety, this movie will always hold a place in my heart. Played by the brilliant Ryan Gosling and gifted Michelle Williams, this movie is an insight in modern day marriage. the movie advances in two different timelines, one of them showing how these two people met as youngsters, full of hope and life and dreams they want to fulfill and the other looks into an older Dean and Cynthia, suffering mid life crises choking in the world of love they created for themselves, desperately trying to manage their marriage that is slowly falling apart. They know the fate is almost sealed but they try to hold on. Watching the same people making promises to each other they wanted to fulfil to the same people buried under the weight of those promises, this movie is not an easy watch. And its climax will rip your heart apart. The important question it asks is not if you love your partner, the question asked here is will you be able to love the same way in another twenty years? A few tissues will come in handy if you are to watch this film, Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
IMDb RATING: 7.4/10
4. Moonlight: America has always made movies about racism, movies that try to show the circumstances Black people have to bear with because of their skin colour. With the brutal murder of George Floyd at the hands of a policeman on duty while others just stood and watched, the angst of the Americans have overflown. As citizens run about wrecking stores and firing up patrol cars, you have to know that racism has not begun today. Its embedded in the society and every now and then, an attempt to uproot it is made. Moonlight is one such attempt and a brilliant and brave one. Its divided into three segments and in each one, the lead character Chiron, a Black American assumes a different nickname. The same character is played by three different actors in three different sections and each of these reflect on how the outlook of the society changes when they see a Black man do same things a White man does. With themes of homosexuality and a touch of police brutality on Black Americans, this film is as messy as it can possibly get. The pain in this film is so glaring that one just can not look away. Perhaps, that was the reason this movie received eight Oscar nominations and won three out of those eight. If you care about the conditions around you now, its a must watch.
IMDb RATING: 7.4/10
5. 2001, A Space Odyssey: Created in 1986 by the revolutionary director, Stanley Kubrick, this movie is perhaps the best in the sci fi genre. Its considered to be one of the most greatest and influential films ever made. One of the most important aspects of this movie is its eerie silence. It runs a 142 minutes long and over 90 minutes of it has an overwhelming stark silence with no verbal communication and an ominous music. The plot is very simple if you try to break it down: an alien monolith is trying to send in some message to the life in Earth in some form. Its been trying to do for millions of years but the technology developed by humans cannot record this message. As the tech gets fancier and fancier and sentient computers are created, mankind slowly is giving power of destruction to their inventions. This movie has its own Frankenstein moment and its awful but again, that's where we are headed. So, we might as well watch it. The best thing is that the movie was created so long ago and yet, it correctly predicted the road we’ll go down in another 50 years.
IMDb RATING: 8.3/10
I hope you are enjoying your days at your home. We are all very bored but before we complain about that, we should all know how lucky we are to be with our families in a safe place at this time. Which of these movies have you watched and liked? Which other lists would you like me to make? Share in your opinions at the comments below.
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