By Lotus Qu, Stentorian Staff Writer
As the days grow shorter, you may find that you are often where the cold cannot be found. If you ever catch yourself indoors, with a bit of free time and feeling that, perhaps, the most difficult part of watching a film is picking which one to watch, here are a few (plus one animated miniseries) that capture the season’s beautiful atmosphere.
Over the Garden Wall (2014): Two half-brothers, Greg and Wirt, travel through a strange, mysterious forest looking for home. It’s a bit Ghibli, a bit Burton, based on Dante’s Inferno, and it manages to be spooky and silly and emotional and beautiful all at the same time. I’ve personally always found quiet, quaint stories difficult to emotionally land, but this one works because its cast is just so likeable, and the world is built with just the right amount of details for you to fill in the gaps.
Little Women (2019): Four sisters grow from girls into women in the years after the Civil War. The film visualizes the epitome of warmth and coziness, in its colors, environments, and the camaraderie shared between the sisters. Meryl Streep telling Florence Pugh’s Amy to marry for money, Timothee Chalamet draping himself over European furniture, and Saoirse Ronan laughing and saying “that’s capital!”, is beautiful and instantly classic material—but the way the movie captures family is really what makes this film memorable. Maturity comes little by little; it doesn’t come all at once. And throughout all of their trials, family remains.
Adrift in Tokyo (2007): A student and a loan shark go on a leisurely stroll through a Tokyo autumn. Plot-wise, the movie is slight, even boring, and if you think about what’s going on, it’s really quite odd. But the value of this film lies in its cast, characters who are interesting and fun in a mundane sort of way. As the two main characters develop an almost father-son relationship and meet strange characters on their walk, it exudes a beautifully quiet and gentle amusement.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014): The distinguished concierge of the Grand Budapest Hotel and a lobby boy navigate a battle for a giant family fortune, the theft of a Renaissance painting, and the political turbulence of twentieth-century Europe. This movie is the most classically “Anderson-esque” film, with distinctly symmetrical and flat shots, vibrant pastels, eccentric characters with dry, silly dialogue who are also surprisingly emotional, and a hint of loneliness. The ability of Ralph Fiennes, as a flamboyantly pretentious concierge, to be funny but also to make you care so much is the only proof necessary: if there is just one more movie you watch this year, make it The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Carol (2015): Therese, working in the toy section of a department store in New York, meets a blonde woman in a mink coat who leaves her gloves on the counter, prompting a phone call to return them, subsequent visits to her house, a road trip, and a love affair. Set in 1952, Therese and Carol are lonely women in a time where the world does not accept them. This movie can be a bit hard to watch–it all depends on if you’re convinced by the subtle sensuality of the glances and touches, and the subtext behind them. Even if you don’t, it’s a pretty film all the same.
The Ascent (1977): Two Soviet Soldiers venture into Nazi occupied territory to procure supplies for their starving group, fighting their way through the freezing Belarusian winter and the pursuing Germans. They are changed by the death, destruction, and despair they witness, and adopt opposite ways of thinking that mirror the biblical Jesus and Judas. It’s a hard watch. Many war films are explosive in their spectacles; this movie is quiet but no less devastating.
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