Over the course of 2020 and 2021, I watched at least one movie every day. I did this for me. I did this to challenge myself to start the year with a somewhat ambitious, but achievable goal. But in the process, I found that there were days where something positive happened to me even on the worst of moments.
So, I went into 2022 with the goal of continuing to spread joy. But also adding the additional goal of watching movies more consciously and purposefully. So here I am to tell you about some of the best things I watched each month in order to help give you something to look forward to, something to think about or just something to help brighten your day.
This is how I found a Little Joy in September.
I watched at least one movie every day in September. I documented 30 of those movies. 25 of those documented I had never seen before.
These were the 3 I found the most joy in:
- Imperium
This movie came out in August of 2016. It started filming in 2015. It was inspired by a book published in 2008 from a former FBI agent who left the agency in 2004 after 16 years undercover in terrorist groups, meaning his career started in 1988. The fact that this movie feels like it could have come out yesterday and still been just as relevant and real in 2022 says so much about our country. It is sad that the world of domestic terrorism, white supremacy, and xenophobia are still a battle being fought with no end in sight, and this movie shows it brilliantly.
- Four Lions
A comedy film about jihadist terrorists is not something you would expect to be made mere years after 9/11. And for that movie to both be well made and funny is a phenomenal thing. Riz Ahmed leads a cast of bumbling incompetent terrorists through twists and turns of farcical nonsense that shows another side to the stories being told during the early 2000s. You’ll feel bad for laughing as much as you do, but you will laugh nonetheless.
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2
There has never been a better movie, based on a video game, than this movie. It gets the tone of the characters perfectly. It makes incredible jokes about the world in a way that are both relevant and meta without breaking the movie too much. And the fun that this movie allows itself to have just shows that video game movies should learn to not build these deep and sincere stories but embrace the story in a way that is fun, exciting, and joyful, just like Sonic 2 is.
And that is how I found a Little Joy in September.
Ploominate 