February: Film Recap

The month is over, so it's time for a summary of the films I watched this month. February was very busy, so I unfortunately found myself with very little time to spare on movies. That being said, I'm overall satisfied with the quality of the films I was able to enjoy–I think having limited free time made me think more carefully about how I spent it. 

During February, I watched the following films:

- Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003)

- The Secret World of Arrietty (Hiromasa Yonebayashi, 2010)

- East of Eden (Elia Kazan, 1955)

- EO (Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022)

- Bridge to Terabithia (Gábor Csupó, 2007)

- 21 Jump Street (Phil Lord/Christopher Miller, 2012)

- 22 Jump Street (Phil Lord/Christopher Miller, 2014)

- Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)

- Flavors of Youth (Yoshitaka Takeuchi/Xiaoxing Yi/Li Haoling, 2018)

There were three that particularly stood out for me (as I express in my Letterboxd reviews): 

1. Spirited Away: embodies children's innocent, amusing, and optimistic attitude towards the world

2. The Secret World of Arrietty: reflects on the beauty of kindness and empathy

3. East of Eden: explores the consequences of kindless righteousness and the power of forgiveness

There were some terrible ones as well, but the biggest disappointment was Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation. It was a film with a promising plot, interesting characters, and the perfect setting. Unfortunately, it tends to place itself in a pedestal of intellectual elitism, with a we know better than them type of tone that completely undermines its message. 

In all, while I wish I had been able to watch more movies, I think most of the ones I got to see were worth my time, and particularly memorable. The corners of film that I'm yet to explore are countless, so all I can hope for is to be pleasantly surpirsed by March.