By Brittany Ashley
The two lessons that have been forced upon me in recent times are: it’s okay to not be okay & potholes don’t ensure termination. Anxiety likes to preach that if a mistake is made in a friendship or a trip doesn’t start out as fun as one had hoped, that those things are over and never to be revived. But that’s not true! Life is misery and life is exuberant joy. It’s rough and tumble and flying high.
This is a list of movies that remind me that bad times aren’t forever, are survivable, and don’t mean the end of something good. Some are a bit on the nose, others may be too specific to my comfort-watchlist to be of use to you. Some are film hoe A24 level vibes, others are disney-channel knockoffs. Their one commonality: shit happens, and whether or not shit gets resolved, they come out okay.
Advisory: At least a handful of these are Greta Gerwig movies. I refuse to apologize; that wonderful woman knows how to direct/write/star as endearing fuck-ups as they stumble through life in beautiful and oh-so relatable ways.
Someone Great (Netflix)
Frances Ha (Netflix)
While We’re Young (Netflix)
20th Century Women (Netflix)
Marriage Story (Netflix)
Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse (Netflix)
Lady Bird (Netflix)
The Social Network (Netflix)
The Half of It (Netflix)
Moana (Disney+)
Zootopia (Disney+)
Booksmart (Hulu)
The Missing Link (Hulu)
Interstellar (Hulu w/ Live TV)
Mistress America (rent)
Little Women (rent)
Good Will Hunting (Showtime)
Zombieland & Zombieland 2: Double Tap (Hulu & Starz respectfully)
Mamma Mia & Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again (Starz & HBO respectfully)
And a special shoutout to The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia (Netflix). It’s a tv series and it is most definitely a drama of the Disney-channel variety, but it got me through the earliest days of quarantine & the second part drops in July!