The 5 best movies to watch on “one of those days”

Life can be harsh. There will always be those days when everything seems to go wrong.

There will always be those days when you wake up at 6 am to have a decent hot shower and style your hair before going to work, just to leave the house and find yourself to be in the middle of a storm.

There will always be those days when you have a very important thing to do, yet you will miss our tram, or break your bag, or simply trip into something and make your clothes look like a mess.

There will always be those days when you don’t feel great, but you don’t feel that bad either… until when someone shocks you with news you expected to hear, sooner or later, but that you were not ready to receive just yet.

Sunny days, rainy days, spring or winter days. It does not matter. Those are the days you just want to hide under a blanket and forget about the rest.

When it happens to me I like to go home, turn on my laptop, and find refuge in movies. A cup of tea usually helps too (who am I kidding, I’m a tea-addict, a cup of tea always helps me…).

Depending on what happened you may want to watch a comedy, a horror, or one of those long British costume films. However, regardless of what is the occasion, I am confident of the fact that a gloomy mood can be alleviated (if not even cured) with the following selection of cinematographic items:

1. Amelie – because the overtly-saturated filters used by the director will make you love the awkward main character even more. She is one of those people who sometimes is too afraid to act, too afraid to enjoy love, but not too afraid to play. We should all be like Amelie Poulain every now and then. Bonus: the movie is set in Paris. Who doesn’t love Paris?
2. (500) Days Of Summer – because if you are having a crappy day, be sure that poor Joseph Gordon Levitt is having a day that is at least 10 times worse while trying to be loved back by the most hateful version of Zooey Deschanel. Enjoy the soundtrack, it’s the right combination of indie, commercial sounds, and comforting noises.
3. Inglorious Bastards – because Quentin Tarantino surely knows how to take revenge over someone who did something bad… like the Nazis! If you are in one of those moods that make you freak out about the smallest thing your neighbor does (as closing the entrance door slightly louder than usual, or walking too often to the toilet), it’s time to invest some energy in watching a relatively long movie, where there is blood, shootings, explosions, an evil plot, and Brad Pitt. All seasoned with a juicy soundtrack that should have been available during WWII because is way too perfect for the settings.
4. The Lives Of Others – because if messed up politics, sucky economic situation, or just a bad argument with your friends made you lose faith in humanity, this film will not only teach you something about the situation people were facing in East Berlin during the Cold War, but will also make you feel grateful for what you have right now.
5. Toy Story 3 – because sometimes the best thing to do is let it all out. Hug your pillow and cry, Buzz and Woody will not judge you.

 

Federica Romaniello

“Do or Do Not. There is No Try.” Was Yoda Wrong?

It’s the early 80s (or a long, long time ago in a galaxy far away), and Luke Skywalker is having a training sesh with the Jedi Master Yoda on planet Dagobah. Our hero Luke is frustrated that his T-65 X-wing is stuck in the swampy mess of an uncharted planet.

When confronted with the task of the force, Luke admits that he will try. Yoda, in his infinite wisdom, exclaims, “NO!  Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.”

 

And then you need to watch the movie to see what happens next, obviously.

But from the moment those words were exhaled through Yoda’s vocal chords, they rang not only through Luke’s ears, but spilled into the realm of reality. Stamped across motivational posters, printed on saavy t-shirts, and tweeted by thousands, Yoda’s words spell out a philosophical certainty 30 years in the making.

But what if he was wrong?

Yoda frolicked around the Star Wars world as a Master Jedi until the ripe approximate age of 900. So we can assume he knew a little bit about life.

Yet, all great philosophies must be questioned. Even the ones as simple as “do or do not.”  

If we break it down, Yoda is essentially saying you either accomplish something, or you don’t, and if you aren’t going to accomplish something, then there is no point in trying.

So, we got two things going on here. The positive connotation: absolutely 100 percent achieve something without failure. The negative connotation: absolutely 100 percent do not do something whether or not there is a chance of failure.

The negative connotation is a tad overwhelming and a little bit depressing.

So here’s my question. Why not try something, even if there is a slight chance of failure? Or massive chance of failure? Or even if you know you are going to fail? Don’t we learn more from trying than doing nothing at all?

Yoda believes you either do it, or you don’t. Simple as that. But he is not human, and we are… so, ya know, we humans err on the side of uncertainty. We humans feed off failure. That is how we improve.

If we actually did listen to Yoda, there would be so many things left untouched. Forgotten. Undone. Failure would keep us from trying. J.K. Rowling would have never published Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone because if she would have known how many times she was going to fail, she wouldn’t have sent the manuscript to any publishing companies.  

I mean, eventually she “did.” But at the cost of trying. And then she made millions. And then people started mixing up Yoda with Dumbledore, as this Google search I typed resulted:

If we want something, we should go for it anyway, even at all cost of failure. If we don’t get it the first time, we try again. We don’t just “do not.”

Well, maybe some people choose to opt for Yoda’s “do not.” But not you. Not Luke Skywalker; he knew what was up.

See, Yoda was a smart guy. When he says “do or do not, there is no try,” maybe he’s actually saying accomplish whatever you set out to do, because the option of not doing something really isn’t an option at all. He’s an ironic little fellow.

But we still got to try, regardless of Yoda’s backwards grammar.

So, when faced when the possibility of accomplishing something,  there is more than just “do or do not.” Maybe we should really be telling ourselves: “Try until you do.” **

Michelle Hand

** I can’t guarantee that this new quote will ever become as famous as Yoda’s spoken words. But hey, they are making a new Star Wars movie so maybe I can ask them to squeeze “Try until you do” into the script somewhere.