It's year end.......so mood for recaps. Recaps can be really interesting, and pretty telling too. We can do the real serious and deep ones..... like through the diary, or looking inward and such......or the light & fun ones...movies, books, travel and such.
I'm just back from the theater (Arrival), so thought I'd start with movies, movies watched in 2016. I toyed with picking my best ten, but then the entire list itself is not too long. So I thought I'd try and make the recap more meaningful......maybe a one line for each, like what comes to mind when I think of this movie. Will go chronological, so starting Jan 2016:
I'm just back from the theater (Arrival), so thought I'd start with movies, movies watched in 2016. I toyed with picking my best ten, but then the entire list itself is not too long. So I thought I'd try and make the recap more meaningful......maybe a one line for each, like what comes to mind when I think of this movie. Will go chronological, so starting Jan 2016:
1. Vicky Christina Barcelona
Most Woody Allen movies are pretty quirky......at a fundamental level bold and honest. After hearing that most of his material comes out of his own psychoanalysis sessions, it all so fits.
2.Kung Fu Panda
3. Still Alice
The portrayal of Alzheimer's .....of what happens when your own mind lets you down, the realization that you can't trust yourself, and the effort to live around that. Even above that, what stayed with me was the empathy..or rather the relationship between the mom and one of the daughters.
Beautiful representation of the inside of the mind. And a couple of things that stand out; one, how when one memory is shaken, a lot of related memories too get shook up, and two, how there are times you need to experience sadness to be able to experience joy. (in other words grieve to be able to move beyond)
Brings to mind the beautiful song 'let it go', through which the princess lets go some old beliefs and finds her own freedom and independence. Also how... the all powerful kiss of love that revives the princess is from her sister. Beautiful stuff.
The beautiful possibility ( through an incredible diversity) of peaceful co-existence. Also how the other perspective at times needs to be experienced in order to be understood
7. Shashawnk Redemption:
Apart from the spontaneity, lack of pretense and easy flow, I also loved the fact that it inspired a road trip to Coonoor for diksha and me
9. Listen Amaya
A wonderful mother daughter relationship....and how your true mettle is known only under situations of stress
The spirit of human resilience...... of hope, of commitment, of friendship, of integrity, of patience, of courage, of life.... it's all there...a movie that I'd say is really philosophical, and maybe even spiritual.
Apart from the spontaneity, lack of pretense and easy flow, I also loved the fact that it inspired a road trip to Coonoor for diksha and me
9. Listen Amaya
A wonderful mother daughter relationship....and how your true mettle is known only under situations of stress
10. How to train your dragon
How they can make an ugly gawky tough looking dragon look so cute was amazing, and whats more, even respond to love
11. Jungle Book
A forever movie I guess, at story level, and at personal nostalgia level
12. Sabrina
A 1954 movie one can still so enjoy, a quintessential romance with an honest heart
13. Waitress
A journey of self discovery, and how she finds her strength through accepting and expressing her vulnerabilities
14. Australia
A sweeping drama, but what stayed for me was also how it revoked my first novel reading experience which was also set in the Australian Bush
15. Tamasha
How our conditioning creates situations that makes the default space of 'the role as bigger than the self'
16. Cinderella
A line I love...'when there is kindness, there is goodness...when there is goodness there is magic'
17. Dil Chahatha Hai
The camaraderie and issues between friends, exploring different relationships, and the exotic dimple kapadia
18. Julie & Julia
Beyond Meryl Streep and the cooking fancy of both protagonists, guess what stayed is how a blog enables her discovering of herself
19. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
I liked that Indian cinema is getting off the beaten track and exploring varying textures and facets of relationships.
20. Doctor Strange
Super hero movies moving into the realm of energy healing, out of body experiences, astral travel, mandalas, time portals, space time continuum...fascinating
21. Dear Zindagi
It's a serendipitous release. It happened just when we were working on a project on 'barriers to seeking counselling in the Indian context'. So apart from loving the movie, I guess an underlying gratitude for timing.
Twenty one for an year seems like a pretty short list...my wishlist would be forty atleast. Hopefully next year :)
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