Movie: Beginners


Scrolling around Netflix can do the heart some good, Fangirls. I love choosing random movies or shoes to watch, things I’ve never heard of. I went to do this one day this past weekend, and accidentally ended up at a movie I had wanted to see, I just didn’t know what it was. I had heard about Beginners, though I hadn’t remembered the name, and after initially choosing the movie, was delighted that “Oh! This is that movie!” However, this was more than “that movie”, Fangirls. This was an incredibly directed and creative film that had me feeling all sorts of feelings.

Beginners is a sad sort of tale, but with so many lovely pops of witty humor. Which, is exactly the type of thing I love to love. In the film, we meet Oliver, and his father Hal. Hal has just died at 78, after going hog wild embracing his homosexuality. He had been married for years & years to Oliver’s mother, until she died. Hal then revealed to Oliver that he was gay, and known the whole time. Hal then lived a fully out life until he died five years later. Beginners is a tale of that time, and the months after.

BeginnersOliver is left with his father’s things, his dog, and his own feelings. He forms an incredibly close, adorable, and hilarious relationship with his father’s dog, Arthur, who occasionally has some lines himself. Really, they’re just a lot of the extra sad thoughts Oliver is thinking. But its such a funny twist that shows up every so often in the movie.

Beginners5Along the way, Oliver meets a lady. I didn’t expect this movie to have a lot to do with romance and love, but in the end I was very happy that it did. Oliver’s falling in love with Anna is a lovely thing to watch. If you’re a sap like me, it’s so easy to love how they’re portrayed. It’s a very quirky and attractive love. They’re very goofy and intense. I ended up feeling so much toward they’re relationship, and where it headed. They’re love felt very realistic to me, in the dreamiest way possible.

But my favorite part of this movie is just how it’s put together. It’s brilliantly directed, and every so often featured these narratives from Oliver, talking about the time and people and feelings, but in this very “listy” way. For example, it opens with him explaining the time in which his father was born, when his parents met, and when he was born. He lists the same sort of categories, but they’re differences throughout the two years. “This is the president” “this is happiness” “this is a family” Pictures of typical “happiness” and representation of the times scrolls on the screen, like it’s being shown on a projector. These also get spliced with more specific memories of Oliver’s. In one where he’s talking about the time in which he fell in love with Anna, he says “This is what it looks like when she cries” “This is what it looks like when she tells me …” It’s just all such an interesting method of narration and moving the plot forward. I loved watching the little interruptions so much.

And I loved watching this film so much. It was emotional, but it delighted my heart and wooed my brain. It was exciting to watch, and made me giggle a lot, but also got the gears in my brain moving. I can appreciate a movie that makes me laugh and makes me cry. Then I know that’s it’s very well done.

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