My Top 10 Movie Experiences

Though these are not necessarily my FAVORITE movies of all time, this is a list of my most memorable experiences as a movie lover. This list is based off of my very first experience watching them and how I felt afterwards. We all know that we sometimes leave a theater and immediately forget the movie we saw. However, these movies, for me, lived rent-free in my mind days afterwards. They are reminders of why I love film, and why cinema should be appreciated.

#10 - Spirited Away (2001)

This is actually my most recent watch. I've been seeing this movie pop up on "greatest animated movies of all time" lists for years and I finally decided to discover why it won the 2001 Oscar for best animated picture. I don't really know how to describe how I felt after watching it, but I laid in my bed most of that night listening to its atmospheric soundtrack and pondering life itself. The story is relatively simple and is like Alice in Wonderland, but even weirder if you can imagine that. The messages in it were so powerful and the way Hayao Miyazaki portrays the personal growth of Chihiro was a masterclass in how to write a protagonist. One scene in particular really got to me. It has Chihiro, our protagonist child, silently crying as she eats in a garden, just letting out her emotions after realizing how far she has yet to go to save her parents. Nothing is said, just her crying in a garden as she eats lunch. I read a movie critic site this scene as a way of teaching her children that there is such a thing as healthy crying. I thought that was kind of neat for a movie meant for kids to show that, ya know? This movie really emphasizes emotional growth and maybe it's just me, but in today's trying times, it was something I really needed to hear.

#9 - The Truman Show (1998)

Hands down, this is Jim Carrey's finest performance. The story follows Carrey's character, Truman, who is a worldwide phenomenon because his entire life is a tv show broadcasted 24/7 to the entire world. The thing is, he doesn't know it. His entire town is a tv set, every person he's ever met and loved has been a paid actor. The movie follows him as a series of events cause him to question his reality, and how the studio that owns him will do anything to keep him from discovering the truth. I think about this movie so often, especially now. Not only is the premise extremely clever, but it echoes some very deep themes regarding our society's obsession with other people's lives, being watched, and our versions of utopia. The movie was so convincing and well-executed, that it has given way to an actual psychiatric phenomenon called The Truman Show delusion, where people who watched the movie are actually convinced that they are also the star of a tv show and that their friends and family are paid actors. Haha, what a bunch of idiots! *suspiciously side-eyes my roommate*

#8 - Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

As someone who absolutely ~loathes~ the sequel trilogy, allow me to make a case for this movie as an an incredible movie experience. The hype leading up to this movie was unbelievable, rivaled only by Avengers: Endgame. I grew up a hardcore Star Wars fan. I had seen all the movies a thousand times and I had played almost all of the video games. I had three toy lightsabers, each in a different color, and like 50 different toy clone troopers. Up until this movie, Star Wars had not been given much of a modern update. The prequel trilogy ended on a great note with Revenge of the Sith, but besides that, the games were never very good and the special effects of the previous movies were getting lost in translation as more and more movies were showcasing incredible visual effects. I was nervous this movie was going to fumble the bag...because how could you ever live up to this movie's hype? Well, when I saw this movie in theaters on Christmas Day, I was transported back to a simpler time in my life. The characters were so promising (before they ended up being disappointing), the story seemed like it was going to be epic (whoops), and I was fascinated with who the villain was (D'oh!). Even though it was basically a remake of A New Hope, it was something I really needed at the time. Now...not so much. At least I still have The Mandalorian.

#7 - Life is Beautiful (1997)

I remember when I first saw this movie. It was Mr. Corkill's 10th grade history class and I'm pretty sure Mr. Corkill was hungover and didn't want to teach that day, so he threw this on. What started off as a silly foreign family film suddenly switched into an intense and extremely emotional film about the holocaust. Just the plot summary alone brings tears to my eyes. A Jewish man and his son are taken to a concentration camp during WWII, but in order to preserve his son's innocence and shield him from the horrors of the holocaust, the father treats their time at the camp as a game using a mix of sheer will, wit, humor, and imagination. It's horrifying, yet sweet. You'll laugh before getting choked up. To the child, he was at a weird summer camp, but this is thanks to the father cleverly doing things like playing "hide-and-seek" whenever the guards try to round up children for gassing. I won't spoil anything, but the ending gets me every damn time, man. The best father-son film ever made, it really makes you think about life, our relationships with our fathers, and how unimaginable the horrors that occurred during that period of time were.

#6 - United 93 (2006)

When I first watched this movie, it was on 9/11 a few years back when our local theater was playing it. I was an absolute mess afterwards. It was one of the most powerful and haunting movies I have ever experienced. Based on the true story of when terrorists hijacked flight 93 on 9/11 and intended to crash it into the US Capitol Building, until a group of passengers decided to take the plane back for themselves. Dude, I cry every time I watch this movie, I don't care. It's so powerful. You become so attached to these people, especially because you know they are were all real people who lost their lives. The single most badass last words in human history is when Todd Beamer was making his last phone call to a telephone operator trying to get in touch with his family and said the words, "Tell my family I love them," before putting his phone down and saying to the other passengers, "Are you ready? Okay, let's roll." What an absolute badass. They then proceeded to beat the ever-loving shit out the hijackers and foiled their plans to kill even more Americans. I was pumping my fist in tears. This movie is a testament to the fighting spirit of the American people. Ordinary men, ordinary women, refusing to surrender.

#5 - The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)

For context, when you watch the extended-cut versions of each film back-to-back-to-back, it takes a whopping 11 hours and 26 minutes. I take one day during the holiday season each year and watch it. Like fine wine, this trilogy ages so well, it just gets better and better every time I watch it. The music, the special effects, the acting, the dialogue, the battle scenes - everything ties together into what I can only call a spectacle. This would be higher if I had been able to see these films in a theater when they came out, but because I don't remember the first time I saw these films, I had to dock it some points. However, each new time I revisit these movies, I am taken to a whole new world and that's something not a lot of movies can do. These three films are the very definition of movie magic.

#4 - Parasite (2019)

Arguably the most pleasantly surprised I've ever been in a theater, this movie changed my opinion about foreign films for the better. I didn't necessarily think foreign films were bad, but I definitely overestimated how much cultural barriers and language barriers would impede a movie experience. When the movie began, I was slightly annoyed with the subtitles. I mean, I fell in love with movies because I hated reading - books were for NERDS. All of a sudden, almost as if something in my brain clicked, I was enjoying the film while reading the subtitles simultaneously and it didn't take away from the experience. It was so odd to me, but it gave way to such a great experience that I won't forget anytime soon.

#3 - Interstellar (2014)

I don't think this should come as a surprise to most. Rather or not you liked the ending to this movie, you definitely remember your first experience watching this in theaters. This is the kind of movie that was MADE to be experienced in an IMAX theater. The wave scene with Hans Zimmer's swelling score in the background? I barely breathed. The docking scene with Hans Zimmer's organ getting faster? I was sweating through my shirt. One of the only movies that I saw three separate times in theaters, it was one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen. I still think about it often, but that's mostly because the soundtrack is on my study playlists.

#2 - 1917 (2020)

This film was near perfection. PERFECTION. Shot to look like one continuous shot, this film follows a WWI soldier as he treks across a war-torn countryside to deliver a message in order to prevent his fellow soldiers from running into a German trap. The plot is so simple, but this film was an achievement on every front. The cinematography was the greatest I have ever seen, with several scenes making me feel like I was in a dream. The music is one of (if not the) most beautiful soundtracks I have ever heard. It was the most realistic war movies ever made and I felt like I couldn't breathe throughout the entirety of the film. Even when our protagonist finally got to rest, I felt like I had to look over his shoulder for him. I was THAT invested in his mission. It perfectly ended with the final shot of the protagonist slowly walking to a tree in an open field against Thomas Newman's masterful score before laying up against it and taking out a picture of his wife and kids that has one note from his wife that says, "come back to us." Oh my god, I sat in the theater for like 10 minutes afterwards and was just lost in my own thoughts.

#1 - Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Remember, I said that this isn't a list of my favorite movies, but a list of my favorite movie experiences. With that being said, you are either nodding your head and snapping your fingers at this or you're rolling your eyes. As someone who had seen every MCU film since Iron Man in theaters, this film was an absolute cultural phenomenon. How was Marvel going to wrap up 10+ years of films and iconic characters into the perfect final ride? With an absolute bang, that's how. I saw this on the night it came out, so everyone in the theater were all on the same page in terms of die-hard fandom. Each time a character we liked came on screen, we cheered together. Every time someone said something funny, we laughed together. When all our favorite characters were reuniting on the screen at the same time, we all went absolute nuts together. And when Tony Stark's light went out and we saw his funeral, everyone (and I mean everyone) cried together. I don't think I'll ever experience something like this ever again. This was over a decade of experiences that all accumulated into one final ride with a theater full of mega fans. This was not simply a time I went to the movies, but the time I had the greatest theater experience of my life.