Three of the Most Unintentionally Magical Films of the 2000’s

The Magical Movie Feeling. If you’re reading this, you’ve had it. It comes in different shapes, expressions, and emotions, but it’s something even the most casual movie-viewer has felt. It’s the intensely personal and often hard-to-describe feeling while watching a movie and realizing that a whole group of people have worked together to say what you always wish you could. The sense of inspiration that comes with the hope that not everything in the world is ugly, unjust, and trying to wear you down until your eventual lonely and miserable death. So, next time you’re jonzing for a spiritual pick-me-up, look no further than these the three films from the past decade for some perspective.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). Directed by the Coen Brothers, and is loosely based on the epic Homer’s Oddesy, (which some of us missed the first time by being late to the theater). The reimagining of the story everyone had to read in high school follows three men in their mostly disastrous attempts at finding a treasure.

Why you should watch it:

This film is the full package, never wavering for a moment. It creates a sense of awe through the detailed portrait of the era and deep south setting, as well as giving you the ability to play along, spotting the themes from the story, such as John Goodman’s Cyclops, and many homages to other films. This is a playful look at a dark time in American history, where The Great Depression and Dustbowl were wreaking havoc on the country, and many people wished they could leave their own hard lives in order to seek a treasure. From the costuming to the lighting, you are thrust into another world full of mysticism, wisdom, history, and adventure. It’s escapism in the purest form, opening up the vision of a new world, punctuated with intelligent, subtle humor and insights that could only come from a Coen production. As the last scene of the film pulls away and fades to black, I always feel like I’ve learned something.

The Royal Tenebaums (2001). Directed by Wes Anderson, this piece offers the tale of a group of people, living in the shadows of their prodigious childhoods. Tragedy, boredom, and loneliness bring the three grown Tenenbaum children back to their family home, where their estranged father Royal, fakes a case of stomach cancer to get back in their good graces.

Why you should watch it:

There is so much depth and layers to this film, that all types of people are able to relate to it. The fear of becoming a failure, the dread of responsibility, and the complicated emotional back-and-forth between a pack of wounded adult-children and their absentee father. In words, the story seems heavy and depressing, but a stellar script co-authored by Anderson and cast member Owen Wilson, manage to make the problems many of us face in one form or another charming, endearing, and relatable. It will inspire you to allow yourself to be who you are, love who you want, let go of your troubles, and to forgive, but not forget. The film is a fully-rounded experience in which you feel like you’ve grown in the same way that the characters have. It will leaves you with a bittersweet feeling of togetherness, peace, and beauty that can come out of messy circumstances. This movie is so detail-oriented that each time I watch it, I notice several new things that I never saw before, a universe unto itself.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). Directed by David Fincher, this deep and often emotionally jarring film, based on a peculiar short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is set in New Orleans, ground zero during Hurricane Katrina. As an old mother lay dieing in a hospital bed, unable to be moved, she knows she must use the last moments of her life to tell her grown daughter of her true heritage, and the very curious story of her father’s life. A film that was years in the making, walks the line of both absolute beauty and the very real-seeming saga of a man who ages in reverse.

Why you should watch it:

This movie is a masterpiece, in every since of the word. The only other film I have been able to compare it to would be the epic 1939 film ‘Gone With The Wind’. Visually stunning and filmed and edited beautifully, the story transgresses Benjamin’s (Brad Pitt) adventurous life during the first half of the 1900's. Where by all rights, he should not exist, but insists on experiencing all that he can, while facing the constant thought that he could die at any moment. It deals with themes of fate, The Butterfly Effect, love, and the struggle to find one’s self in a world full of unsympathetic faces. As Benjamin regresses through his life, there is an ominous feeling that eventually, the story will take a dark turn, and make you face the loss of a character who you have bonded with. Compared to the previous two films, this movie is low on comedy, and high on emotionality, but by the end, you feel as though you have gotten the chance to share in his unique life, like being let in on a secret. Complicated yet simple, beautiful yet dismal, inspiring yet saddening, this movie has gone mostly unappreciated because of the technological advances it employed, but will still hopefully receive its dues as time goes on, and looked upon as a true classic.