Club Skunk

perfection beyond words, of course. to finally see this in theaters after so many years of loving and rewatching it obsessively was magical in a way i haven't even begun to process yet. i fucking love this movie. i fucking love lord of the rings. i love these movies and the miracle that they are, the phenomenal, unbelievable labor of love that they are. i cannot wait to see the rest in theaters.

Very very likely the most perfect movie ever made. It moves like nothing else. Top to bottom a staggering achievement in filmmaking in every single way. It truly cannot be overrated or overhyped. It's THAT movie. As an action, sci-fi, romance, and adventure film it is perfect. As a film about identity and the self, it is second to none. Beautiful, personal film. The more I watch it, the more I see and the more I appreciate the little details. It will never cease to amaze me. It's easily one of the most popular movies of all time and it's also, explicitly, an incredible allegory for being trans. How fucking cool is that? Every time I watch it I love it even more. I always trick myself into believing that this time, I've really maxed out how much I can love it. But I prove myself wrong time and again. It's so romantic and so hopeful. Anyone who has ever struggled with their identity or with feeling Other in some way can see themselves in this. It's so blessedly human. Broken mirrors suddenly coming together. Neo repeatedly seeing warped reflections in sunglasses, spoons, screens, and his own skin. The Alice in Wonderland references. It blows my mind. The wonders of The Matrix never ever cease. Loving movies this much feels like touching magic with your bare hands. Happy International Women's Day to all of my sisters.

Even though I’ve seen this many, many times before I’m gonna write more on this later because fucking wow. I love Beatrix Kiddo with my entire being. This is the shit.

today is my 20th birthday (though, technically I won’t be 20 for another 8 or so hours). and no single movie has defined my teen years the way this one has. so, because I’m incredibly dramatic, I want this to be the last movie I watch as a teenager. it’s so perfect. it’s just absolutely everything to me. heath ledger in this is so beyond perfect. julia stiles, too. every single thing about this movie feels like it’s part of me and part of my actual being. the music, the clothes, the actors, the characters, the sets, the screenplay. every. single. thing. I just really don’t think we talk enough about how unbelievably, genuinely romantic this movie is. I think this is the greatest, the most romantic teen movie of all time. it’s so full of little, loving moments between kat and patrick. •patrick smiling so big while watching kat dance at club skunk & the way he just loves watching her•patrick watching kat play the guitar at the music store without interrupting her. he just observes her and lets her be and it’s so beautiful.•patrick smiling and laughing and realizing he totally for sure loves this girl when he watches her wreck joey’s car•patrick getting kat’s favorite band to play at prom•patrick sitting next to her, not saying anything, just sort of playing with her hair and rubbing her head after she throws up on his shoes•the intensity of his voice and face when he belts out that final “let me love you”•patrick refusing to kiss her because she wasn’t able to give consent in that moment•patrick ignoring everyone and everything around him at that party to protect kat heath was just so talented. he fills every little moment with so much earnestness and love. oh god, I just cannot emphasize enough how much this movie meant to me when I was 13 and I was so angry at the world and I was discovering myself as a feminist. I literally was kat. I will always be kat. this movie made me who I am.  growing up scares me. it always has. but I’m so grateful to exist. I’m so grateful that I feel everything so intensely and that art makes me cry and laugh in equal measure and that I have something I’m passionate about. I’m grateful for a billion other things too, of course. but I thought my fellow letterboxd users might get what I mean about how grateful I am to feel the way I do about film in particular.