Greetings, reader!
I'm turning 26 tomorrow, so I figured I'd celebrate my birthday week with a top 26 -list. Now, while all my lists are subjective, as they should be (attempting to rank films only based on objective greatness is a silly idea that flies in the face of art), this week's list is even more grounded in subjectivity than my usual ones: I'm ranking the films that I have the most personal relationship with. The exact criteria is hard to put to words as it comes more from my intuition; but I've looked at my abundance of favorite films, and left out the ones that I like only/mostly for less personal reasons (appreciation for the work done by the actors, production values, et cetera), and ranked the remaining films based on how much completely subjective and personal love I have for them. Whether it's because of a story or themes resonating with my life/worldview/values, or because of positive memories relating to the film, or just a movie touching me in that very specific way that only a great work of art can, these are some of my favorite films, not ranked based on overall cinematic greatness but purely based on the more subjective side of what makes a movie buff like a movie.
Here are my honorable mentions: 21 Jump Street (Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, 2012), Bowling for Columbine (Michael Moore, 2002), Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989), Tolkien (Dome Karukoski, 2019), The Simpsons Movie (David Silverman, 2007).
26. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
Yeah, most of the films on the list are going to be famous and mainstream ones - I could've made this list even more personal-looking by choosing underground/underrated favorites, but that would've felt forced and against today's premise. The fact that millions of other people also love the same movie doesn't make my relationship to the film any less personal, because no one else has the same exact relationship. Now, films like The Godfather aren't on today's list, because I reckon that the main reasons why I love that particular masterpiece are quite identical to what the most usual listed reasons are, and I don't have any particularly personal or individual memories relating to the film (other than watching it and repeatedly going "Man, this is great cinema").
But with 2001, it's not just a great film, but one that hit right in the vein of my taste in cinema (and art in general). The first time I watched it, I was locked in, floored and speechless from the beginning - it was overwhelming to comprehend that I was watching a film that felt so handcrafted for my movie taste, as I had never seen such a Veikko-coded film before. Yes, I'm sure that tons of sci-fi nerds have the same experience, but I don't feel like that makes my experience any less special. The second time I saw 2001 was from a big screen on my 19th birthday during my civil service training, the third time was with my best friend, and the fourth time was with my fiancée - so 2001 has really been there throughout the major milestones in my life as well.
25. Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985)
Like quite a few of the flicks on today's list, my personal relationship with Back to the Future has to do with a specific memory. In my fourth year as a university student, I was the Vice President of our student organization, and had more or less taken an unofficial post as point-person for cultural affairs, as we didn't have a designated post for that. So, when it came to our attention that a local venue that has been moonlighting as a movie theater for a long time was reaching out to student organizations with the idea of hosting student movie nights, I immediately became enthralled.
A few months later, it came to fruition - our organization and the venue arranged a movie night, showing the original Back to the Future at this local cinema - and I got to be the host. For a movie buff, that was an absolute dream come true, from getting briefed on how to use the projector and other machinery to welcoming everyone with a little speech about the beauty of cinema. It was a special experience in itself, and the fact that our choice of film was such a beloved classic was really the cherry on top. Since then, Back to the Future has been intertwined to that memory in my mind.
24. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Aaron Sorkin, 2020)
Cinema played a big part in the awakening of my strong political views and activist spirit. There are several films that I could've chosen to represent this side of my relationship to cinema - but one that hits especially hard is Aaron Sorkin's The Trial of the Chicago 7. Rarely (if ever) has a movie been released at such a perfect time - this historical flick had been written and shot well before the murder of George Floyd, so it's a massive coincidence that the film (that was going to feel quite relevant regardless) became extremely relevant for anyone with a heart living through 2020.
It was a time when I was learning a lot about the world and wanting to learn more, and this film really inspired a further dive into U.S. history and the ways in which the evils of past tie into the evils we see today. Socially charged movies, at their best, are the kind that just might send you to the barricades, and this is one that certainly inspired me to up my active-citizen game.
23. Wicked (Jon M. Chu, 2024)
Again, it feels a bit silly to put one of last year's biggest mainstream blockbuster hits on a list about individual, special and personal relationships to movies. But again, it's about my experience, and I didn't only enjoy Wicked on the levels on which I enjoyed my other favorite movies from last year (both Dune: Part Two and Challengers didn't make the list, no matter how obsessed I was about them). For a multitude of reasons, I felt a deeper connection to Wicked - even though the musical wasn't familiar to me beforehand!
It started when I saw the trailer for the first time, while in the cinema to see something else. The trailer moved me in a way that is difficult to describe - the story and characters weren't familiar (except for the bits and pieces I remembered of Wizard of Oz lore from my childhood), but I was moved to the point of tears, because something about the combination of visuals, music and dialogue in the trailer just really got to me. It felt magical, absolutely magical. And oh boy, when I finally saw the film - I don't think I've been in tears for as much of any other film's duration as this one. Wicked spoke to me, and once again, it doesn't make it any less special that it also spoke to so many others - that just means that the people behind the musical and its film adaptation really know how to get a story and its themes across in a powerful manner.
22. The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)
I swear, it's an unplanned coincidence that these two are in consecutive order! The Wizard of Oz is here for a specific reason, as it has to do with a specific memory - one of the most important milestones in my journey as a movie buff.
You see, I had never seen the film until this year. I was aware of this being a glaring hole in my cinematic street cred, and I had been meaning to get around to it forever, but somehow it kept evading me. That is, until I started to notice that my list of watched movies on IMDB was nearing the 1000-film milestone.
I knew that I wanted my one thousandth movie to be something special, and after a while of consideration, I made a choice - out of all the famous and iconic 'must-see' films that I hadn't seen yet, there was no other that felt as appropriate to be the 1000th movie I watch, as The Wizard of Oz. Finally, the time came, and honestly, it was everything I expected. You can just feel the cultural heritage, the groundbreaking artistic value, and the impact that this absolute classic had on the world of cinema, when watching it.
Oh, and I have to mention - this happened quite recently, and I've been working on my ultimate list throughout the spring and summer: a ranking of every movie I have seen. It's almost finished, and it will be dropping on my blog on June 17th 2025, also marking my 300th post.
21. Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice (Zack Snyder, 2016)
Admit it or not, we all have it - that one generally hated movie that you have an undying love for, and will die on the hill of defending it. For me, there are many such cases, but the ultimate #1 will always be this profoundly misunderstood piece of superhero cinema.
I have spent a large chunk of my life debating fellow nerds about Batman v. Superman. I have heard every possible argument for why it supposedly wasn't good. But, here's the thing: you're all wrong, it's a borderline masterpiece within comic book movies. Whether it's Hans Zimmer's spine-tingling score, the 4-in-1 balance between 'Batman reboot' / 'Man of Steel' sequel / 'Hero vs hero flick' / 'Justice League setup' actually working, the intriguing God complex take on Superman's character arch, or any number of things, I just love this movie.
Having spent so much of my thought process regarding the film on the defensive, due to the popular opinion being what it is, really helps me analyze just why the movie hits so hard for me. Turns out, the reasons are many, and my relationship to the film feels naturally personal because it often seems that me and Zack Snyder are the only ones who like it.
20. Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001)
The musical genre is very dear to me, and rarely has a musical spoken to me as much as this one. It's not even the plot, per se, that got to me on such a deep level - but the vibe, and the way in which the song arrangements, visuals, choreographies and aesthetic helped the film's themes come across in a way that's perfect for a viewer like me.
It's a special feeling when a work of art really speaks to you, and there was something about Moulin Rouge! that I felt deep in my bones - the leading performances, coupled with Luhrmann's zany directing choices and the creative production elements, felt like visual expressions of love and passion in the exact way in which I experience those feelings.
19. Wes Craven's New Nightmare (Wes Craven, 1994)
Most of the horror films that I consider to be among the scariest I've seen are the typical choices - The Grudge, The Blair Witch Project, the original Nightmare on Elm Street et cetera. But, the film that I'd choose as the #1 scariest I've ever seen - I've gathered that it's a very uncommon choice, based on the many bewildered reactions I've gotten from telling fellow movie enjoyers.
It's the Nightmare on Elm Street meta reboot/pseudo-sequel from the 90's.
Yeah, I can't fully explain why, but this weird-ass cult film had a much bigger impact on me than it clearly did for many fans of the franchise. Not only is the film's premise genius and creative, but the way in which it utilized 'meta horror' just really got to me - it's pretty much the only case where I've seriously lost sleep due to a horror film, as the idea of Freddy Krueger not being contained to the fiction of the previous films but rather escaping into our reality had me f**king spooked. I get why that premise is merely silly to many viewers, but with my love for meta storytelling and my ways of becoming immersed in good pieces of fiction, this film caused something impressively dark in my mind.
18. Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986)
First of all, David Lynch is my favorite filmmaker of all time - none of his films are in today's top ten, because my love for him comes more from the tapestry of all his films as a collection than from any individual one (not to mention that the greatest thing he ever did was very much a TV show, not a movie). That being said, my favorite Lynch flick has to be on today's list - it showcases so much about what I love in Lynch's filmmaking style, and the film just really resonated with my taste in art.
The opening shot, with the red roses in front of the white picket fence to the backdrop of a blue sky, is just the most aesthetically pleasing way in which any film ever has started. From thereon out, Blue Velvet does most everything in its power to be exactly my kind of film - down to the fact that a young Kyle MacLachlan's performance as protagonist Jeffrey Beaumont is something that I felt personally. It's not exactly that I relate to the character or see myself in him, but something similar yet even more profound. The way in which Kyle plays the character feels like it unlocks something in my brain, causing a strong sense of "everything the character does is exactly in lockstep with how I'd write and/or play that character if I was making this film".
17. The MCU Spider-Man trilogy (Jon Watts, 2017-2021)
When Tom Holland's version of Peter Parker / Spider-Man was introduced in Captain America: Civil War, a friend of mine saw the film before me and told me I have to see it because the new Spider-Man is "exactly like me". I did indeed come to see a lot of myself in him, especially when his first solo movie Spider-Man: Homecoming came out. For that stage in life, the awkward high school kid felt a bit too real, and the way in which his eventual romance with MJ (Zendaya) is teased and set up felt very shivers-down-my-spine (I was single and immediately as much in love with Zendaya's character as Spidey himself).
When Spider-Man: Far From Home came out two years later, it was a different stage in my life. The character had seemed to age in a pace similar to my own, and the progress of Peter and MJ's love story felt happy and right (it was around the 'peak' of the relationship I was in back then).
Then, two more years went by, I did a lot maturing and was single again - and out comes Spider-Man: No Way Home. Now, I see Peter and MJ's romance in these three films as one of the all-time greatest love stories in cinema and I'm not exaggerating - and for that stage in my life, the events of this film hit like a ton of goddamn bricks. Following the growth of this version of the character, with so many parallels to my own growth despite the outlandish nature of the superhero genre, was really quite something.
16. It (Andy Muschietti, 2017)
Stephen King is probably my favorite author of all time, and I have this movie to thank for the beginning of my obsession. While I had seen other films based on King's books and had meant to read his stuff before this, there's no question that It was the turning point. It's such a great horror movie, and the atmosphere was so uniquely haunting and beautiful that I just had to read the 1200-page behemoth it was based on.
Well, It was so awesome that it left me with a festering need for more - until it all culminated in my insane project of only reading King books in the year 2023. This brought with it some unforgettable elements, such as finding my all-time favorite book series (The Dark Tower), reading the scariest book I've ever read (Pet Sematary), and getting inspiration for pretty much every creative project I've done post-2023. And all of this was sparked by this horror film being so f**king good. Still, re-watching it after reading the book, I retain my love for the movie and consider it the best King adaptation (the plot takes a bunch of liberties, but the atmosphere is a perfect match).
15. Tag (Jeff Tomsic, 2018)
I have a best friend. Over the years, we've engaged in the sorts of shenanigans that really only the best of friends can come up with. When we heard that there was a movie coming out, loosely based on a true story, about a group of friends who have been playing the same game of tag ever since childhood and well into their adulthood, we immediately felt that this was the movie for us. It just had our taste in various hijinks written all over it. We went to see it together, and it was awesome. In addition to being a hilarious comedy with a heartfelt message of retaining one's inner child, it's also a film that will always be tied to my friendship with Atte and our whimsical worldview in my mind. So, points for that.
14. I'm Not There (Todd Haynes, 2007)
I love weird movies even when I don't entirely follow the plot or get their point. It's always fun to have one's brain challenged by artistic cinema, or to have to analyze and search for clues. That being said, it's a very special feeling when every now and then you find a movie that's weird as f**k - yet you feel like you get it perfectly. Of course, who's to say if your interpretations are right - no one can really know what the filmmaker means apart from the maestro themselves. But sometimes it just feels like you're locked in with the filmmaker's vision, and in addition to making you feel smart and good about yourself, it just makes for an enjoyable, immersive experience. That's what happened with me and I'm Not There.
If you're looking for a conventional Bob Dylan biopic, last year's A Complete Unknown has got you covered. But if you're looking for the perfect unconventional Bob Dylan biopic, good news - that exists as well! Because Dylan is such a complex, larger-than-life figure that a normal narrative wouldn't do him justice (at least that's my theory on Todd Haynes' motivation), his story is told here by following six separate narratives about six different people, all of whom represent different facets of Dylan's life and persona. There's a 19-year-old nihilist being interrogated by the police, a folk rock star called Jack Rollins, a Hollywood actor playing Jack Rollins in a fictional biopic, a godlike poet and musician, a freighthopping boy by the name of Woodie Guthrie, and the legendary Wild West outlaw Billy the Kid. Many criticize this movie calling it an incoherent mess, but man, the pieces of the puzzle fit my brain in a very satisfying manner.
13. Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)
I just really f**king love this film. Yes, I know, that's a universal experience for millions of people - but still. I became obsessed when I read a Star Wars -parodying Donald Duck cartoon as a kid, thought about it 24/7 until I got to see the actual film, and it was somehow even better than I had fantasized.
While the massive cinematic universe built around it is awesome, nothing will ever beat the original for me personally. That's also a part of why it's on today's list - I'd estimate that over 90 per cent of Star Wars fans rate Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back as their favorite, so I've always felt like a bit of a rebel (heh, pun intended) putting the OG ahead of it. There's just something about the pure sense of epic adventure here.
12. Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich, 2003)
Finding Nemo was a massive childhood favorite, and one of the films that really started to shape my taste in cinema early on. I've always found the terrifying, awe-inspiring depths and mysteries of the world's oceans to be one of the coolest concepts to contemplate - and I think a lot of that stems from watching this film as a kid. To the worldview of a young Veikko, the visuals and music in this movie created an atmosphere that made the ocean feel like something mythical and larger than life. And that sense never really went away. That's the magic of cinema right there.
11. Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986)
I'm guessing we all have that one film - the one you saw as a kid, but that wasn't a kids' movie (in fact, I may be one of your first 'grown-up movies'), where the film's style just hit your brain with a strong sense of "WHAT IS THIS, I HAVEN'T SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS", which in turn becomes a high you chase as it becomes harder and harder with age and movie-watching experience to find anything so magically fresh and unique. For me, that was Top Gun.
I mean, the soundtrack and general atmosphere go so hard that the movie would rock in any case. But really, the power of how cool and exciting this film felt as a kid will always be a major part in why Top Gun is so very important to me. It's extra impressive when considering my current worldview and values - I'm a pacifist, strongly opposed to pretty much everything the U.S. military has been doing worldwide for decades, so for a film about fighter pilots in the U.S. navy to be one of my all-time favorites...it's real testament to just how f**king much the soundtrack rocks. Ah, the magic of cinema.
10. Star Trek: First Contact (Jonathan Frakes, 1996)
Of course the Star Trek franchise, my all-time favorite fictional universe, had to appear on this list. While the franchise famously does TV shows even better than movies, the Trek movies are as magnificent at their best as they are ridiculous at their worst. I cannot overstate how much Star Trek means to me, and while many of the movies play a part in that (J.J. Abrams' 2009 reboot was very close to making the list), First Contact has got to be the one I go with.
This movie represent so much about what makes Star Trek great. The ideals of the franchise - Gene Roddenberry's vision for a utopian future, a call for humans to get their shit together and put an end to war, discrimination and poverty and fulfil our potential as a species - are on full display, making for some of the most powerful moments in the whole franchise. I already loved Star Trek before I saw First Contact, but this film took that love to another level yet.
9. Adaptation. (Spike Jonze, 2002)
This is one of those films that feels just made for my brain. I can't think about this film without picturing Charlie Kaufman's writing process when creating it, imagining how it all must have gone down and feeling a degree of relatability (obviously I'm not comparing myself to Charlie Kaufman - I'm just saying that I'd like to think that our writers' brains work with a similar style, but his are simply lightyears more advanced and in a league of their own). But, yeah, I feel like I understand why he made this film in the bizarre-ass way that he did, and I respect the hell out of it.
You're writing a script for a book adaptation, but you get stuck on not wanting to be cliché, so you add an extra layer and turn your script into a film about a writer called Charlie Kaufman who is writing a script for a book adaptation, but then it feels like it's going to have too much inner dialogue, so you invent a fictitious brother for yourself, and make the movie about these twin brothers writing the movie, and you get Nicolas Cage to play them...ah, perfection for my peculiar taste in cinema.
It's probably my all-time favorite movie fun fact that the fictional Donald Kaufman was credited as a co-writer for the film despite not existing, so the Academy Award nomination for screenwriting was addressed to Charlie and Donald Kaufman, and Nicolas Cage got nominated for his performance, making him the only actor to have gotten an Oscar nomination for playing the double role of two writers who got nominated for writing the same movie even though one of them isn't real.
8. tick, tick...BOOM! (Lin-Manuel Miranda, 2021)
Before he passed away, Jonathan Larson wrote a semi-autobiographical stage musical - and years later, it got adapted to the big screen by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The narrative here is very unconventional, as a lot of the story is told via stand-up comedy -style philosophical ramblings, while the emotional story deals with the stress of grappling with a creative mind in a grounded existence, seeing pain in the world and being unable to help everyone. Andrew Garfield plays the lead role, and Brad Whitford of The West Wing drops by to play the legendary Stephen Sondheim.
Now why do I - a huge fan of musicals, movies, Lin-Manuel Miranda, unconventional narratives, stand-up comedy, philosophical ramblings, emotional stories, creative minds, empathy and activism, Andrew Garfield, The West Wing and Stephen Sondheim - like this movie so much? Hm, haven't figured that one out yet.
7. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Peter Jackson, 2001-2003)
On one hand, my love for The Lord of the Rings doesn't even feel personal, because I struggle to comprehend how these movies (not to mention the books they're based on) could not be felt deep by any human. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that everyone has their own taste and it's totally fine if you're not into these movies - but I just don't get it.
But, yeah, I've spent such a big chunk of my life obsessing over Tolkien's works and their film adaptations, that the greatest movie trilogy of all time was quite a no-brainer for today's list. It's a viewing experience you can go through again, and again, and again, and again, and always feel refreshed by the relentless sense of magic, utter epicness, and themes of loyalty, friendship and the little guy standing up to evil. The music from these movies is some of my all-time favorite music, the actors in these movies are some of my all-time favorite actors, and the quotes from these movies are some of my all-time favorite quotes. We're now really starting to get to the portion of the list where it's hard to imagine my relationship to cinema without these films.
6. School of Rock (Richard Linklater, 2003)
Forget cinema - it's hard to imagine how different my life might be if it wasn't for School of Rock. Now, I'm not saying that I became a music teacher because of this film - but I'm not ruling such a chain of events out either. I'm serious - I was a little kid when I saw this with my family for the first time, and we would re-watch it time and again, and the film's lessons about education, rock n' roll and everything in between really stuck with me. The film's soundtrack affected my developing sense of music, Jack Black's shenanigans in the lead role affected by sense of humor, and the inspiring character archs of the kids in the movie affected the kind of person that I wanted to be.
When I first started to consider that teaching music might want to be what I do in life, I don't remember if I thought about this movie right away, but I'm damn near positive that it was at least a part of the equation in my subconscious. And you better believe that during my six years of studying to be a music teacher, key moments from School of Rock would play in mind a lot from time to time. It's hard to estimate exactly how big of a part this film played in my journey, but in any case, I sure as hell am glad that it was there to guide the way when needed.
5. Home Alone (Chris Columbus, 1990)
It's hard to pinpoint exactly why a certain film becomes one's childhood favorite out of a bunch of candidates - but whatever the reasons, Home Alone was always it for me. I just loved this film, wanting to watch it over and over, and that love gleefully transcended into adulthood - Christmas just isn't the same without this absolute gem. Something about the atmosphere in Home Alone just always hit me in a larger-than-life way, and the feeling was so magical that watching it still brings out my inner child and makes me feel the scenes in pretty much the same way as they felt when it all was new.
For example, the opening sequence with the spooky music and the "WANTED" poster for Harry and Marv flying on a rainy night - if I saw it now for the first time, hundreds of horror films into my cinephile journey, it might not feel like anything, but because it left such an impression as kid, I still feel a chill down my spine because I remember how creepy the scene was to me back then.
The same goes for all the big emotions, whether it's the anger Kevin feels when arguing with his family, the ultimate chill vibe in the montage of him horsing around in the house, the absolute adrenaline-charged hype when he starts to set the traps (this is made infinitely better by John Williams' pitch-perfect score), and especially the mega-emotionally-charged ending. Man, when Kevin reunites with his family to the backdrop of the heart-melting main theme, only for the music to modulate just as he looks out of the window to see that Old Man Marley has reunited with his son - I've seen that moment tens of times, and I always cry like a baby. It's just a really special film, okay?
4. Love Story (Arthur Hiller, 1970)
This one is on my list, and so high up, for a big and meaningful reason: appropriately enough for the film's title, it ties into my own personal love story. I remember Martta telling me about this being her all-time favorite movie on our very first date, just as I remember having to admit that I hadn't seen the film but would very much want to watch it. Later that summer, we watched it together, and I cried my eyes out because it's a damn beautiful movie and it makes so much sense that it means so much to Martta (and her entire family).
The following year, the title song of this film was playing in the background when I asked Martta to marry me. The wise words from this film, "Love means never having to say you're sorry", have played a big part in our journey together. Martta is the love of my life and my single favorite thing to ever have existed, so the movie I associate the most with her is bound to be among the films most important and personal to me.
3. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (John Hughes, 1986)
I watched this film for the first time at the best possible moment. It was my freshman year of university, and man, I was veering on burnout. I had left school early that day because it all just felt like too much, and I figured that sometimes you gotta prioritize your mental health. I pulled a piece of paper from a box where I keep a shortlist of must-see films I haven't seen yet, and as fate would have it, out came the one movie better suited for that time in my life than any other.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off is best remembered as a silly comedy about cutting class, and well, it is that. But it's also so much more. "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it" - those words of wisdom touched my heart possibly more than any other movie line has. It wasn't just a soul-healing lesson for that individual moment, either - those words and the sentiments around them, about not taking life too seriously and remembering to stop and smell the roses, became etched into my subconscious. It's funny how those lessons aren't all that uncommon and I've heard them from plenty of directions - but having the peculiar kind of undiagnosed autism where the literary and dramatic arts often function as a language I understand better than the ones we humans speak in our everyday lives, I think I needed a movie to tell it to me.
There are many such cases, where an important life lesson seems to have eluded me until a piece of cinema (or a play, or a book) conveys it in such a way that something clicks in my brain. It might seem weird and trivial for someone for whom movies mean less, or are just a form of entertainment - but trust me, for people like me, the right movie can mean everything. And Ferris Bueller's Day Off was the right movie, at the right time, and it will always be a part of me.
2. Dead Poets Society (Peter Weir, 1989)
I can't really even find the words for this one. Watch the film and you'll understand. Big, big, emotions. Important stuff - bordering on life-changing - for me as a creative spirit and writer, an enjoyer of poetry and literature, a teacher, and a human.
1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky, 2012)
#1, and it's not even a contest. From the first time (out of many) that I saw this film, it was clearly the GOAT in the category of films that I feel on a visceral level. Much like the book that it's based on, Stephen Chbosky's story about Charlie (played by Logan Lerman in a performance so real it hurts) resonated with me to a soul-healing degree.
Funnily enough, the story isn't all that similar to my life, especially when looking at specifics. But the way in which the characters are written, the protagonist is portrayed, and all the elements from score to cinematography are used in order to convey his journey - there's something profoundly familiar there. I may not have been through the same things are Charlie, but his arch contains a lot of themes and emotional experiences that I'm familiar with, and watching this film always makes me feel seen and understood in that magical way that a really special work of art can. The words spoken in the final monologue, one of my favorite movie moments of all time, are permanently etched into my soul:
"I don't know if I will have the time to write any more letters because I might be too busy trying to participate. So, if this does end up being the last letter, I just want you to know that I was in a bad place before I started high school. And you helped me. Even if you don't know what I was talking about, or know someone who's gone through it - it made me not feel alone. Because I know there are people who say all of these things don't happen, and there are people who forget what it's like to be 16 when they turn 17. I know these will all be stories someday, and our pictures will become old photographs, and we'll all become somebody's mom or dad. But right now, these moments are not stories. This is happening. I am here. And I am looking at her, and she is so beautiful. I can see it - this one moment when you know you're not a sad story, you are alive, and as you stand up and see the lights on the buildings and everything that makes you wonder. And you are listening to that song on that drive with the people you love most in in this world. And in this moment, I swear...we are infinite"
Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for an ambitious post in honor of Andor's second season - a ranking of all the episodes in the Star Wars TV shows (minus the few ones I haven't seen).
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