5 Movies I Highly Recommend Watching

In January 2021, these five films captivated my eyes.

1. Soul (2020)

I didn't expect it to be this good to be honest. I was a little suspect when I watched the trailer because I thought it was going to be another animated Black story where the main character turns into an animal for 98% of the time and back to human at the end. But this project was absolutely beautiful. It taught an impactful lesson on the subject of purpose, using Joe Gardner as an example of struggle to figure that out. Pete Doctor, (His Disney catalogue is off the charts. He directed Monsters, Inc. and Up before this.) Mike Jones, (No, not the legendary rapper from Houston) and Kemp Powers write a brilliant feel-good story on appreciating the simple things in life while enjoying anything you're passionate about. Casting is legendary! Not only does the film have Jamie Foxx, but it also co-stars Tina Fey, Questlove and Angela Bassett, just to name a few. I've never seen a Disney family movie with such a philosophical theme about the appreciation of life like this one. I have no doubt kids will relate to Joe Gardner. However, this film will definitely strike a chord with teens and adults.

2. Fallen Angels (1995)

I was blown away by the cinematography of Christopher Doyle, Mark Lee Ping Bin, and Joe Chan. Wong Kar-Wai originally intended this to be the third plot to his masterpiece Chungking Express (1994) but decided to conceive its own separate story instead. It is an intense pairing of two stories with deep themes on love, business, connection, and lonliness. The handheld camerawork, direction, and editing was simply engaging. It made the point of view exciting and real. You could watch this on mute and still be mesmerized by its aesthetic alone. Although, the score adds a high essential quality to the film as well. Every time this film comes to my mind, I cannot seperate it from the music.

3. Beastie Boys Story (2020)

This is an engaging live documentary about one of the best hip hop groups of all time. Mike D and Ad-Rock narrate their story to a live audience at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, NY. Produced, written, and directed by their friend, Spike Jonze, (who also directed “Sure Shot” and the iconic music video for their iconic song “Sabotoge”) the audience gets the privilege to ride along memory lane with plenty of laughter and nostalgia full of pictures, videos and songs from back in the day. MCA would’ve been proud. R.I.P.

4. Masculin Féminin (1966)

I first heard about this film when I was watching a YouTube video of Flying Lotus’s closet picks for Criterion. I placed it on my watch list and checked out the movie shortly after. Written and directed by the head honcho of the French New Wave, Jean Luc-Godard, this coming-of-age piece is a self-reflecting love story dealing with contradiction, commonality, and complexity. You want to know something else crazy? This movie didn’t have a script. Godard apparently used his notebook composed of sketches, dialogue and thoughts that he came up with the night before shooting the project. Like numerous French Wave films at the time, the movie was shot with natural light and minimal equipment. It focuses on modern youth during that period, political views, sexual desires, and rebellion. This movie will certainly make you think. The pop music added a nice touch as well. Jean Pierre Léaud added another classic to his shelf of classic French cinematic roles.

5. Tongues Untied (1989)

“Brother to brother brother to brother…” I sometimes say that to myself like a song that is stuck in my head. It is so catchy to say. The experimental documentary features the late Marlon Riggs, Essex Hemphill and other openly gay artists on this project addressing their identity in Black homosexuality while facing homophobia from a heteronormative patriarchal white supremacist society - especially within the Black community-using powerful poetry and imagery. It also touches the subject of HIV/AIDS and the dark amplifications of the virus. I can only imagine the kind of courage it took to develop this work of art in the 1980s. This project embarked a vast amount of national controversy accompanied by distribution issues. The prolific editing of this film equips the message of anger, fear, pride, prejudice and respect. The sound of drums dressed like heartbeats within the film also stimulates the attention to the viewer as well. This is a brilliant project with subject manners that carry high relevancy to this day.

I will be doing more lists similar to this one in the future. Be on the lookout!