The Departed

When I tell people that movies are my thing, naturally, their follow-up question is: "What's your favorite movie?" My answer has been pretty much the same since 9th grade: "The Departed". When they ask why, I simply respond that it has everything. I've had this conversation so many times, but today when I had it, I wondered why I hadn't watched it since 2015. It's probably just because I've seen it so many times and I know every musical cue, every story beat, and every inflection in every line. Watching it today wasn't the same experience I had when I saw in for the first time 7 years ago. It's still a perfect movie, about real people struggling with tough choices, surrounded by cops and robbers, a stunted class system, and the crumbling Boston landscape. It's funny, it's smart, it's jam-packed with memorable quips and performances, but I stopped noticing new things. For the first time ever, I didn't get anything new out of it. The recurring 'X' imagery is old news, and I've figured everything out. If I have complete mastery and understanding over any movie, it's this one. This Best Picture Winning, Martin Scorsese directed, 2006 release. And that's a really cool thing for me, but at the same time, it's kind of sad because it just doesn't have that same effect anymore. It's still in my Top 10 and I'll probably still tell people that it's my favorite movie because it probably still is, but I don't know when I'll sit down and watch it again. But is it really my favorite movie? Maybe.Maybe not.Maybe fuck yourself.