Fair warning – this blog contains many spoilers!
One of the things I love about the Netherlands is that you can get a cinema membership that lets you watch ** as many movies as you want ** each month. I am talking about unlimited access to movies here, helloo! The current rate for this 22 eur a month (in Vue), which would otherwise get you about 2 tickets.
I have to admit that some months are quite deserted in terms of the number of interesting movies on screen, but overall, it is an investment with a high return for me:) I know, I know, it sounded like an advertisement, but bear with me, I will get to the movies I have seen this month.
I started with the animation, King of Kings, mostly because the graphics looked so cute! I mean, look at them:
The story is a religious one, so I do not want to comment on it much, but overall, the enthusiasm of little Walter (the boy on the poster:)) and the charming graphics made it a pleasant experience. Well, I said I do not want to comment on the story, but, who am I kidding? So,….let us talk about the moment when Jesus knew that people would turn against him and told them so during their last supper. Just like he said, people did turn against him – when facing authority and power, or in one of his followers’ case, when a bribe was on the table. Ganging up on one person as a group is not an uncommon human behavior, even though, luckily, it rarely results in murder these days. I have also seen that in another movie this month.
Yes, you guessed it right, Downtown Abbey. Here, Lady Marry gets divorced and suddenly she becomes a social pariah. No one wants to attend the events she organises, no one wants her at their events either. They have no personal issue with her, she has done nothing to offend them, but that does not matter. Later, her sister uses her social connections, manages to bring American celebrities to their event, and just like that, Lady Marry’s divorce is forgiven. So, these people turned around — not because they understood that Lady Marry did not deserve to be ostracized– but because they had a social gain.
In both cases, they (Jesus and Lady Marry – ok weird association, I know) chose untraditional paths and shook authority/tradition, and the others ganged up on them. I understand the evolutionary reasons for this; following the crowd likely increased survival. I also understand people’s tendency to choose the familiar over the uncomfortable. But….especially with Lady Mary’s story (which is very similar to what my mother in the 90s with her divorce went through by the way), I expect people to overcome their instincts to blindly follow the crowd — without getting an external reward (such as dining with famous people). And of course, I am let down. Anyhow, despite my irritation with the very realistic plot of Downtown Abbey, it was a fabulous movie. The only thing that I missed was seeing ‘Granny’, Maggie Smith on screen with her witty yet elegant comebacks.
Anyhow, moving to the third movie I have seen this month: Perfectly Imperfect. Well, no one is perfect but should we not feel any regret, judge ourselves a bit, and improve our behavior for the next time?
The lead female character is an aging model. She wants to get one job but there are setbacks and her solution? Sleeping with her boss. She also has a boyfriend who is unaware of the situation. She does not sleep with the boss once, by the way. She does that whenever he wants it, because he starts reminding her how she got the job. You would think that is the moment she would stop, but no. She goes on. Then, she gets pregnant. By her boss. But she leads her boyfriend to believe that the baby is his. Remember, he has no idea about what is going on. At any point during these mistakes, she could have just stopped and come clean. But no, she does not. Then, she miscarries. That is when she told her boyfriend that he was not the father. From that point on, she turns her life around. Obviously, I simplified the story here to give you the gist. The thing is, we are supposed to consider her perfectly imperfect. What she did though, was beyond being imperfect. So, I could not really emphatise with her. While we should not turn anyone into a social pariah like Lady Marry because they do not follow the societal norms, the solution should not be considering a woman – who cheated on her boyfriend for career ambitions and then misled him into thinking that the baby is his – as a perfectly imperfect character. We need to, maybe find a middle ground here? Okay, maybe the middle ground is too boring and would not make for a movie? But, still…
Anyhow, without further due, let us move on to the fourth movie that I have seen this month: Augurk Aan Zee.
This was a comedy and a light movie overall, and admittedly, I had very low expectations (yes, I was biased because of the poster). However, I was pleasantly surprised and I liked how resilient Patrick (the guy on the poster) turned out to be. He thought his father was dead, only to find out that that was not the case. He travels to Bonaire to see him, but sadly, his father passes quickly after that. He inherits the resort, with its debts (which we learn about later). In the end, he managed to find happiness and showed us how resourceful he is when facing problems.
Just when I thought I’d seen enough movies this month, the mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, recommended Zwijgrecht (which could be translated as “the right to remain silent”). I had seen its advertisements but wasn’t in the mood for a film about drug gangs—I wanted something lighter. But after Halsema recommended it on social media, curiosity got the best of me, and I went to see it.
The movie features two major drug gangs – one Turkish and the other Colombian – with intense tension between them. Not surprisingly, I heard many Turkish swear words throughout, and at times I wondered if the movie was really in Dutch. The main character is a guy who helps a gang smuggle drugs; he wants to quit when the girl he sees gets pregnant, but threats force him to continue. In the end, he dies. Then, we found out that most of the actors in the movie were former smugglers themselves and the film shares a helpline for those wanting to exit smuggling. We also see that smugglers are usually chosen from poor boys with non-Western migrant backgrounds.
I understand why the mayor recommended it. The film is impressive – especially knowing how real the story feels – and it helps spread awareness about support for these young people. As a Turkish migrant myself, though, I have mixed feelings. The main message isn’t about migration, but I couldn’t shake the gut punch. Part of me wanted to scream, “Not all of us are criminals!” I get the situational factors, like lower socio-economic status, that contribute to crime, but not every kid in those circumstances chooses that path.
I guess the movie triggered something in me, as perhaps expected for a non-Western migrant. Every time I introduce myself as Turkish, I get surprised reactions. I know I’m not alone; it’s a shared experience for many non-Western migrants in Western countries. “Oh, but your English is so good?”, “You have a Ph.D.?” We fight so many stereotypes, which ultimately affect our hiring chances and social mobility, to be honest.
Anyhow, I can talk about this for hours on end, but I will stop now. The last 2 movies that I wanted to write about are animations! Hopper 2: Het Geheim van de Marmot and Zootropolis 2.
I have not seen the first Hopper animation, but that was not an issue, I could follow the whole story and I so loved it! Friendship, family, and adventure meshed with super cute animations! What more to ask?
Zootropolis was also similar, except I felt like the adventure part was dragged a bit too much (I think it could have been a shorter animation). We watch how the friendship and (work) partnership between the fox and rabbit evolves and improves over time and it is beautiful. We found out that – much like the King of Kings- animals come together and gang up against snakes (but at least, in their defense, they did believe that snakes were guilty). Then, the snakes turned out to be innocent and could claim their lands back. Yey!
Overall, thanks for bearing with me this far, I know it was not the shortest blog I have in the era of short attention spans and if you happened to live in the Netherlands, get that cinema subscription, friend! (No, this is not an advertisement, I am a paying customer like any other).
Cheers,