my month of movies

29 Jul, 2025

This past month I stumbled upon a desire, or really a fixation, on watching a movie every single day for the entirety of July. Initially it was a coincidence - we just happened to watch a movie for the first 3 days of July and as someone that averages only about 4 movies per month for the past few years, it spurred a single stray thought that changed the entire month's trajectory.

Movies 1-3, not including the special In The Mood for Love 2001 short that followed the screening.

Here are a few things I learned, about myself or in general, throughout this month of watching a movie every day.

• It is actually extremely hard to watch a movie every single day for an entire month. Maybe this isn't news to some people. Maybe it's not even news to me, given that I'm not a huge movie watcher in the first place. What I mean is, it is actually very logistically difficult to watch a movie every single day for a month. I had to plan my days much more purposefully: movies had to be something I had to actively make time for, as opposed to something I could turn on if there was nothing else I wanted to do. I paid much more attention to my watchlist on Letterboxd, knowing that I would need to find something every single day.

• Concessions had to be made. Not every day could be feature length film. There was some disagreement in my household whether or not a short film could count as the movie of the day, but realistically there were days where I came home at 11:30pm and just simply could not watch a 2 hour movie. (Thank you, Wes Anderson collection of shorts!)

• It is hard for me to focus on multiple endeavors at a single time. I was so locked in watching movies this month that I barely felt the energy to make things, whether that be sketching, painting, or even going to the ceramics studio. I also felt that it cut into the available time for other hobbies - I haven't touched a book in weeks, and even my time on the Switch was limited because I had to weigh everything against what movie I wanted to watch. This was maybe a disappointing side effect of this month, but ultimately I don't regret it.

• In contrast to the above, I feel inspired to paint more. One of my favorite things to paint is movie stills. I've gained a running list in my head of movies I've watched this month that I would love to paint. For that alone, I feel this month was one of collecting inspiration rather than production, which is possibly just as valuable, especially in a world where it feels like inspiration is force-fed through repetition and algorithms, rather than an active seeking and finding of things that make you feel anything.

Various movie still paintings over the years in watercolors and gouache: 'Still Walking', 'Eat, Drink, Man, Woman' (not ever finished, and also the first time I thumbnailed underpaintings to see how they might affect mood), 'Ratatouille', and 'The Red Shoes'

• New favorites were found: these are all the movies that I gave 5 stars, or hearted thus far. In The Mood for Love and The Fall are the only 2 that got both.

In order of date watched

More than anything else, the best thing I've taken away from this month (which isn't over technically, so I guess I have 3 days including today to mess it all up and not watch a movie on any one of these days), is a fixed attention span. At least, a little bit.

For the past few years, I have had the hardest time watching a movie without a secondary activity. Sometimes this is my phone, it used to be my phone more often pre-Sung, but in the past year or so that secondary activity is usually crocheting or knitting. Something to keep my hands moving while we sat down to watch something. On the one hand, it felt nice to continue feeling "productive" while sitting and watching something, but it also became something impossible to shake. We would sit down to watch a movie, any movie, and I would immediately bring my little bag of yarn and hooks, and start working on a project.

After the first 19 days of watching a movie every day, which at that point did not include short films, while we were watching The Fall, I didn't need to pick up a secondary activity at all. At first, we were quick to dismiss it as the product of watching that particular movie, which features "one of [my] boys" to quote Sung, and is also the best movie I've ever experienced (not just watched - experienced!) in my life¹. But after that turning point, I didn't find myself reaching for anything when we watched movies after that day either. I suddenly felt like I could sit through an entire movie without literally itching to also be doing something else.

I learned, and I am loathe to admit that I was wrong and Sung was right, but this did actually impact how much I'm paying attention to the movie. Sung, if you're reading this, pretend I never wrote it. I'm paying attention to the movie. Please let me still knit while we watch things sometimes. <3 It was if a switch in my brain had been clicked.

I can blame this tendency on so many things that are neither original thoughts nor surprises - the proliferation of short form content, the idea that I always need to be productive at all times, the over valuation of "efficiency" etc etc etc. All I can say is, I'm glad I'm out of it. And somehow, movies feel fun again. I remember when I was younger, and sitting to watch a movie meant time spent with my family. We would eat dinner, also a family affair, clean up, and flick through channels until we found something we (read: my parents) wanted to watch, and we would sit side by side by side by side and do nothing but watch. Well, nothing but talk through the whole thing. This is also how I ended up watching a lot of movies I shouldn't have watched and gave me reoccuring nightmares into adulthood, but that's neither here nor there.

It would be ridiculous for me to say that I will never multitask again while watching a movie, and some movies do feel like they were meant to be on in the background, rather than deeply watched. But I feel excited to watch movies, and to engage with them deeply, and to focus my attention on one thing at a time and for that to be okay. To not try to optimize my hours in the day so that I have "something to show for it" on the other side of it. But there is joy in basking in just the one thing. And as Sung brought up in our friend movie club discussion of Taste of Cherry, there is value in boredom. There is value in letting your mind wander, and maybe the point of some movies is not to provide immediate, instantaneous entertainment that is easily processed and forgotten. Maybe some movies are meant for meditation, for creating space to think about yourself and your life within its duration. To ask yourself how you feel, what it means, and to let your mind wander, to imagine what it might feel like to be in the backseat of this car, listening to two people talk in the front, drifting slowly asleep in the glow of warm afternoon sun against the window.

Taste of Cherry, 1997

If I'm honest, it's unlikely I'll embark on this kind of endeavor ever again, or at least any time soon. But I'm glad I started it on a whim, and am finishing it with determination and an intention I hope to carry on.