Story and You

Even as I delve deeper and deeper into classic cinema, my love of modern films has not waned; what has changed is that I'm increasingly partial to films that are, as I call it, cinematic . What does that mean? To me, it means films that are conscious of film history, that know they're building off of a long-standing tradition of film-making, and not only pay homage to that but also actively try to improve on what came before rather than just stick to the status quo. 2017 is a great year for film because it's full of pictures that do exactly this, but none does it better than Baby Driver .

At the beginning of this month, I announced that I had quit my job and was looking for another one. Well, the turnaround ended up being much faster than I ever would have expected: just a few days later I was called in for an interview, and this week I'm working my first shifts at--can you guess?--a movie theater! I've always thought that working in a theater was a rite of passage for any young cinephile just getting into the job world, and now I have the chance to try it out for myself. In celebration of my new position, this is a list of my best experiences seeing movies on the big screen.

What makes a movie magic ? I'm sure everyone has a different answer to this question, but my personal definition can be summed up by a viewing of A Matter of Life and Death . It's a flawed film with a convoluted mess of a plot, yet it manages to capture images and ideas about love and the afterlife that are absolutely breathtaking, and more than that, true movie magic.

Once you've seen a lot of films, it becomes difficult for them to surprise you. Romantic films especially get so bogged down in cliches and tired tropes, making it a noteworthy occasion when one does break the mold. The Heiress is just such a film, the rare romance that abandons convention and does justice by its characters, even if it makes its audience unhappy or uncomfortable.

"It shouts and sings with life!" proclaims a tagline for 1961's The Misfits . While I wouldn't say this was an accurate description of the film at any point in its existence, it's especially ironic now, with a contemporary viewer's knowledge of the tragic fates that befell Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and Montgomery Clift. It now plays as a haunting swan song for the trio: each actor plays a character whose struggles are reminiscent of the star's own, making the film a study in the often hazy line that exists between real life and cinema.

It's Audrey Hepburn week! At least in my house. I've spent the last few days watching through the majority of her 1950s filmography, and in the midst of it I discovered a magical little masterpiece, the perfect film to serve as the first technicolor picture I highlight in this series: Funny Face , the most fun and stylish musical this side of Golden Age Hollywood.

This month has truly been an emotional roller coaster. I had my high school graduation ceremony,; my apartment building had a fire, luckily with no damage to any suites but still a pretty harrowing experience; and, most importantly of all, I finally quit the truly terrible job I've been working since January. I was planning to stay until the end of the summer, but I finally had enough and I've now officially completed my final shift there. I'll be on the lookout for another job very soon, but in the meantime I'm taking a little vacation, which means lots of time to relax, and more importantly, watch and write about movies. I'm pretty exited! Despite all the busyness, I managed to see a lot of movies, including more catch-ups from 2016, a few Gable stragglers, and lots of TCM's Noir Alley series. It was a rough month in real life, but overall a pretty great one for movies--see a breakdown of what I watched and some highlights after the cut.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of the rare cases where I made myself read the book before seeing the film. I finished the novel several months ago, and finally just got around to seeing this classic Hollywood adaptation of it--and to my delight, it turned out to be a pitch-perfect film version, capturing all of the qualities I appreciated in the original novel.