Some of my favorite movies I have watched just stumbling across Netflix. If you really take the time and look through you’ll just find something and it’ll maybe change your life. There’re so many low key Indie films on Netflix, and some that weren’t so low-key but I just happened to discover via Netflix. The one’s that I will mention shortly, are some movies that I’ve gotten the opportunity to find over my Netflix watching career, and really made an impact. Also, I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone but there are possible SPOIL ALERTS within this post so you’ve been warned.

Blue is the Warmest Color

I know a lot of people know this movie. I think I came across is two years ago, in 2014. I believe I had heard about it through one or two people, but I don’t think it was that big of a thing though. I think what I liked about it the most was the ending, (SPOIL ALERT) when it wasn’t so much of a happy ending for Adéle. Seeing them still have that attraction and passion for each other, but knowing that they can’t ever be together again because despite those remaining feelings there’s just too much damage to the relationship. I think that hit me a lot, because I had never seen that in a movie before, and I never really imagined people loving each other and not being together, it just didn’t make sense to me (I’m also very much a romantic). However, after seeing that, I realized that it was a very real thing that actually happens to a lot of people, and later it really applied to my life and it became something that I always remembered and reflected on.

Horns

I think I saw this as an advertisement on Netflix for a week, before I finally watched it. I just found it very interesting, and after watching it I had to watch it with a lot of other people just to get their takes on it. SPOIL ALERT: It was just him turning his back on God and then being given these mystical demonic attributes, which would originally be seen as a negative thing, but ironically he uses those abilities to get justice for himself as well as his lost love. So really, at least for me, it makes me question what society deems as “bad”. It makes me want to see the whole store, and review all the variables before making judgements.

Don Jon

I believe this was also another popular or known movie, even before I stumbled across it. I had heard about it, but never actually knew what it was. So when I clicked play I really wasn’t expecting the movie that I got. SPOIL ALERT: It was when he found everything he ever dreamed of in a woman and then still fell short, I really related to that on a really deep level. Then in the most the most unexpected way, with the most unexpected person he finds that overwhelming happy feeling that he’s been dreaming about forever. The ending wasn’t so much a bad one, but it wasn’t necessarily a happily ever after either. It was just one of those realistic endings, which kind of break my hopeless romantic ideals.

Beyond Clueless

This is one of my favorite documentaries ever. There’s been this stigma forever about how the movies aren’t real, and life never really happens the way movies portray. However, in this documentary (SPOIL ALERT), it goes over every single popular teen movie over the last couple of decades and dissected them to where through the movies you see how they touch on everything that a typical high schooler goes through; jocks and geeks, high school cliques, sexual awakening, social conformity, emotional maturity and so on. I just really found it interesting and very intriguing to discover the underline messages in films.

A Room in Rome

Another movie I watched years ago, but have never forgotten. (SPOIL ALERT) Perhaps, it’s just me being a hopeless romantic, but the idea of two people falling in love even if only for one night was so magical to me. Not only did they spend the night as lovers but they learned almost everything there is to know about one another, in one night, and so you would think they’ve been together for years. Crazy to think a night like that can happen in real life, but it can, and it does. A single night like that can really change your life, and maybe your perspective on things.

Sexy Baby

Another really good documentary I came across. (SPOILER ALERT) It was filmed during the late 2000s to the beginning of the 2010s, surrounding the coming of age of a young girl into her teens. Social media being on the rise, the pressure of young girls to desperately need to fit society’s beauty standards. As I watched her get older, mature, and come into her own person, it was like watching my life all over again, but it made me sad. Watching her, at such a young age, assert this forced sexual nature. Not saying that it’s bad for women to express their sexuality, more power to the woman who do. However, when it’s derived by social pressures and forces a desperate need to conform no matter what, that’s not genuine and it reminded me of myself as a thirteen year old. Taking bra pictures for Myspace and Facebook, and trying to show off my tiny teenage cleavage, because I thought it was cool. It was like watching myself grow up all over again, and those cringe worthy moments were very much relived. Something I hope my daughter won’t, but probably will somewhat, go through.

Pumpkin

This movie was one of your typical love is love movies, but not in the sense of LGBTQ. It was (SPOIL ALERT) a built relationship between a typical sorority college student, and a developmentally- challenged man who is nick name is Pumpkin. An unusual pair that most people don’t see every day, and wouldn’t really imagine could or would happen, becomes a reality. At first, I thought that this would be one of those movies where two people become friends and she learns to accept him despite his disability. However, I was taken aback when these two actually engage in a physically intimate relationship, but I’m glad that they did that. It forced me, and whoever else has seen this movie, to see Pumpkin as an actual adult human being, which we should anyway. It’s unfortunate that our society still sees those who are mentally challenged as forever children who are just incapable of functioning as a normal adult. Overall, I just really liked the positive message of this movie.