With the current coronavirus situation in the Czech Republic, we are kind of forced to stay at home for the sake of us and our co-citizens. So, some of you may be running out of what-to-do-next ideas. You’ve cleaned the whole apartment twice, you disinfected every surface, you did your laundry for the whole month, you emptied your fridge, you’ve possibly gained a few kilos lately and now you are sitting there on a chair thinking “What now?” Well, if you are not planning on working out to lose the extra kilos, just continue reading.
Movie night is one of the options on how to spend a free evening.
Lately, I noticed that I’ve been watching a lot of movies. Maybe I have a lot of free time and I don’t know what to do with it (especially now with the quarantine), maybe I haven’t settled down in Brno yet cause I’ve been living here only for a couple of weeks now, maybe it’s because of my new account on IMDb that made me kind of obsessed on rating movies. Rating movies is not a piece of cake you know, and I take my job -as a random viewer that just happened to watch a movie- very very seriously!
So now that we’ve made that clear, we can proceed on the main topic of this article, which is “Movies you HAVE TO watch”, in case you haven’t guessed it already.
First of all, you need to check every item on this “ESSENTIALS’ LIST”. Don’t try to skip any steps, because I warn you, the recipe’s not going to work!
So you’re going to need:
- A comfy bed or couch
- A pillow, preferably a fluffy one (so fluffy you’re gonna die)
- A soft blanket
- A cup of hot cocoa or chocolate, either work
- A bucket full of buttery and salty popcorn (I hope you are not one of those who prefer sweet popcorn, we wouldn’t get along well). And if you can’t leave your home you can still order it online and just microwave it.
There’s no movie night without popcorn!
The last two steps are vital (even though I skip them every time and just drink water instead)! Trust me, you need this combo in your life! Now that we’re done with the ritual, it’s time to pick an actual movie to watch. Here you go:
Tarantino for the feet (sorry I meant win)
I think we need to start this journey with some Tarantino, the master of nonlinear storylines, splatters, the aestheticization of violence and of course the exposure of bare (sometimes dirty) feet.
My personal favorites are:
- Inglorious Basterds, please be extra careful while typing the title! You don’t want to make the same mistake I did and lose 1,30 hours watching “The Inglorious Bastards”, a completely different and kinda nonsense war movie from 1978.
Now that we clarified that, we can actually talk about the movie. Inglorious Basterds takes place in Nazi-occupied France during World War II, where a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner’s vengeful plans for the same.
- The Hateful 8 starts in the dead of a Wyoming winter, a bounty hunter and his prisoner find shelter in a cabin currently inhabited by a collection of nefarious characters.
- Django Unchained is a movie about a freed slave, who, with the help of a German bounty hunter, sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.
- Pulp Fiction. The lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.
There’s no Tarantino without a reference to this masterpiece, an all-time-classic that you need to watch at least once.
If you like plain unfiltered violence mixed with the humor epitome, then these movies are tailored for you.
Watching movies is both relaxing and educational.
I insist on plot-twist
Next on my movie-night list are movies that got me thinking a lot! You know, movies that left me mind-blown with unexpected plot-twists or ambiguous endings that even made me research the subject afterward. This category has several entries, so please be patient with me.
- Invisible Guest (original title: Contratiempo). A successful entrepreneur accused of murder and a witness preparation expert has less than three hours to come up with an impregnable defense.
I watched this one pretty recently and I just couldn’t be more surprised by the all-of-a-sudden plot-twist it provided in a rather cohesive narrative. Exactly what you want and probably more than what you’d expect from this genre.
- The Hidden Face (original title: La Cara Oculta). Shattered by the unexpected news of their irreversible break-up, an aspiring orchestra conductor is puzzled by his girlfriend’s mysterious and seemingly inexplicable case of disappearance. But, can he look beyond the facts?
Another similar Spanish movie, not as great as the first one I mentioned, got to admit that, but still a decent one. This one promises to keep your senses heightened.
- Te3n is a movie about a grandfather, a priest, and a police officer investigating the case of a kidnapped child.
I included this indie crime story because, for me, Bollywood is a different world and it fascinated me how different scenography and directing can be.
- Gone Girl. With his wife’s disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it’s suspected that he may not be innocent.
This movie, based on Gillian Flynn’s novel, is far from the ordinary. Like, woman, I want to pay my respects to that plot you came up with. Well done!
- Fight Club is about an insomniac office worker and a devil-may-care soapmaker, who form an underground fight club that evolves into something much, much more.
In my opinion, Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden was brilliant, providing a whole new approach and substance to his character.
- The Wolf of Wall Street is based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, from his rise to a wealthy stock-broker living the high life to his fall involving crime, corruption and the federal government.
A film providing us with great cinematography and editing, thanks to the one and only Scorsese. But I also need to add here that there’s a lot of nudity and drugs in it. Since it’s a huge movie if that’s not your thing, you should probably skip this option.
To be continued, so stay tuned!!!
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Sources used for this article:
IMDb, for the movie summaries
Pixabay, for the photos
