BY KAILEY TEDESCO
Lately, I’ve had a bit of the winter blues. I’m unmotivated, sleepy, and all I want to do after work is cuddle up with my dog and watch movies under the blankets. I find myself drawn to films that are marketed as absurdist or surreal or quirky, but that end up making me feel a little sad, but in that kind of releasing, cathartic way.
The following are films that inspired me to get out of bed and create something over the past few months. They made me laugh, cry a little, and get wide-eyed in all the best ways. Also, all three of these films are directed by extremely talented women, so all the more reason to watch them ASAP.
Voices (2015)
I was recently watching an interview where actors discussed their favorite roles. Anna Kendrick talked about how she loved working with Ryan Reynolds, who plays a serial killer, in Voices, a dark comedy directed by Marjane Satrapi. There were just a lot of buzz words here for me. In the film, Jerry (Reynolds) tries to live a normal life despite his childhood trauma and detailed conversations with his beloved pets and *ahem* victims. The film covers some pretty intense topics related to mental health, but in a way that is unsettlingly whimsical and colorful. There’s even a musical number!
Watch the trailer here:
May (2002)
Self-conscious about her lazy eye, May (Angela Bettis) tries to overcome her feelings of loneliness and self-hatred by befriending her neighborhood crush, Adam (Jermey Sisto), and co-worker, Polly (Anna Faris). She struggles socially throughout the film and ultimately realizes that no one is a better friend than her childhood doll.
There’s a lot of abjection, body horror, and heart (disembodied or otherwise) in this film. Also, I watched this and Voices back-to-back and it’s super strange, but completely delightful to see Just Friends (okay, you caught me — Just Friends is a problematic fave of mine) co-stars (Reynolds & Faris) playing such unexpected roles.
Watch the trailer here:
Greener Grass (2019)
I don’t even want to tell you much about this film, because I went in knowing very little and was surprised every step of the way. It’s marketed as a comedy/thriller, but to me, every scene was tinged with palpable emptiness and melancholy. Imagine if the town from Edward Scissorhands was a lot weirder and full of hyper-suburban, millennial parents in 2019.
Watch the trailer here:
Kailey Tedesco is the author of These Ghosts of Mine, Siamese (Dancing Girl Press) and the full-length collection, She Used to be on a Milk Carton (April Gloaming Publications). She is the co-founding editor-in-chief of Rag Queen Periodical and a member of the Poetry Brothel. She received her MFA in creative writing from Arcadia University, and she now teaches literature at several local colleges. Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. You can find her work in Prelude, Bellevue Literary Review, Sugar House Review, Poetry Quarterly, Hello Giggles, UltraCulture, and more. For more information, please visit kaileytedesco.com.