Gainesville’s monsoon season is in full swing, and that means it’s time for indoor yoga, time to curl up with a decent book or time to induce cerebral atrophy by being sucked into a Netflix marathon. This article is for those interested in the latter.
With the onset of incoming college freshmen and the melancholy of returning students, now is the time to pay tribute to our squandered youth. What better way than with a coming-of-age movie marathon.
What to watch: “Happy Together”
Why to watch: “Happy Together” is the story of two men who leave China to reconcile their turbulent relationship on holiday in Argentina. The movie’s themes focus on the nature of destructive relationships between people who are intellectually and emotionally incompatible but sexually irresistible to each other.
To the jilted college senior, this motif is entirely relatable. If you’re a bright-eyed freshman optimistic to find love within these ivory towers, let this be an indicator of warning signs you’ll inevitably encounter.
The film’s lovers try again and again to reconcile their relationship to no avail. The film’s appeal is its ability to bring the viewer to question how much we are able to endure for another person in the name of sex and love. Who, after all, will respect us if we can’t respect ourselves?
What to watch: “Young and Wild”
Why to watch: College is a time for experimentation and an opportunity for some to realize who they are. What better way to do that than by exercising your sexuality as an extension of your identity? “Young and Wild” follows the life of Daniela — a teenage girl living in Santiago, Chile — after she is expelled from her religious high school for having premarital sex.
The film explores how our budding consciousness is shaped as we navigate the contentious relationship between sex and religion and how our most basic human impulses clash with societal expectations of what is deemed “acceptable.”
Daniela understands herself as a sexual being capable of happiness with either sex. The film’s appeal lies in what happens in any relationship after the initial appeal of sex has worn off and compatibility comes into play.
What to watch: “Submarine”
Why to watch: “Submarine” is a bit more formulaic, but why do we feel the need to escape into film if not for the occasional need for comfort and reassurance?
“Submarine” is the story of Oliver Tate, a 15-year-old boy obsessed with losing his virginity to his high school crush, a dark and sardonic girl named Jordana. The film’s charm lies in Tate’s sincerity, as his naivety is a welcome departure from the insincerity that clouds his daily life in the dreary British backdrop. Tate comes to understand that infidelity and compulsion is not restricted to just adolescence. The movie’s comfort lies in the fact that, in spite of life’s inevitable obstacles, if we really love something, we’ll find a way to make it work despite any and all complications that ensue.
