Ultimately, do I think movie characters shaped me as a human? No, not entirely. That honour belongs to my parents, siblings, teachers, boyfriends, and tons of reading. But I do think that what we see on-screen shows as possibilities. Movies give us the lesson of what life might look like if you were like someone if you acted as they did. I took a hard look at some movies that shaped my teens and movies that I watched over and over again. There are way more than three, obviously. To me, anything Woody Allen is classic, for example. You either love or hate him. And my all time favourite Howl, a movie about Allen Ginsberg and his famous poem Howl. So, here are my three picks for this article.
You’ve got Mail.
Anything Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are in together rocks. Anything! In this movie, Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) is trying to run the children’s bookstore she inherited from her mother while dating the world’s most boring man alive when she starts up an internet flirtationship with Joe Fox (Tom Hanks). Just- Call- Me- Joe is a very New York piece of shit who owns a book “superstore”. Unbeknownst to Joe and Kathleen, they are rivals in real life even as they’re falling in love online! Can you believe it? I can! The writing is, as per usual in a Nora Ephron movie flawless, but Kathleen is a bit of a sweet dope. Perhaps the best part of her character is that Joe Fox brings out the worst in her instead of the best, which is very fun to watch, if problematic in real life. Of course, as they spend more time together, Joe becomes a better, kinder person (the journey seemingly every single man ever must go on because they all suck before a woman helps them realize they need to not suck) and Kathleen stops having to be biting and mean; she submits to the grief of losing her business and tries to make a full life for herself, which weirdly includes a friendship with Joe before she finds out that she’s been cyber-dating him. Verdict: Supringsingly harmful? A lot has been said about this, much of it by my boyfriend every time (I force him to watch it with me) I try to watch this lovely, perfect film, but Joe Fox is less than ideal. He is a multimillionaire, first of all, and a dick to her. Plus, this movie gave me the idea that you could viably own a bookstore in New York and afford to live. She should have ended up with Patricia Eden. Or just single with Birdie.
Notting Hill.
This movie was groundbreaking because it featured an unlikable female lead! I have multiple friends who don’t like this movie because Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) is kind of a bitch and I am like… that is the point of the movie! Do you know how many unlikable male leads there have been? Come on. This woman gets to mess up and be powerful and be harmful and end up with a bangin’-hot bookstore owner who lives in Notting Hill? Are you joking me? Verdict: I want to say helpful because I am in love with a movie having an unlikable lead woman, but ultimately this was harmful because I am not a famous actress, I don’t have sex with 1999 Hugh Grant, and I am not getting to be a little bit of a bitch about it. Unrealistic expectations: set. And, obviously I identify mostly with a female Spike because I love eating my cereal with a diving suit and goggles on while smoking a cigarette.
When Harry met Sally
Nora Ephron said that this was her favourite movie and that she watched if fifteen thousand times and guess what? Nora Ephron is never wrong. I mean, she wrote the script!!!! This is obviously the big daddy of movies; the apotheosis. And it could never get made today. Why? Well, because it is mostly a movie of people sitting around talking. Very little “happens” in the way that Hollywood people want things to “happen”. (As sleeping with your best friend is not a thing happening). Regardless, the movie is perfect; there are some lines that are so brilliant they make me want to scoop out my eyes with a spoon. Anyway, this film brought to the mainstream the question of whether straight women and straight men can be friends. Most people think that the answer the movie gives is no, straight men and straight women cannot be friends, because sex always gets in the way (as it eventually, delightfully did for Harry [Billy Crystal] and Sally [Meg Ryan]). This is nonsense! The two are friends for years. They are excellent friends to one another. Anyway, one of the most key moments of Sally’s characters is when she is crying about an ex, Joe, whom she thought she was over, and she cry-yells, “I am difficult!” It’s hilarious and raw and real and every woman I know can relate to feeling like you are simply too much work to love. Verdict: Sally Albright is a gem. Helpful depiction of a “difficult” woman being loved. Altough if you think Sally Albright is difficult, God help you.
Just hang out with me for a while.
