Looking for magic in movies

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Morning Update

Saturday, April 24, 2021

By Ken Tingley

When I go into a movie theater - even now after a half-century - I am looking for one simple thing - magic.

I want to be moved, to have my spirit raised, my mind educated while being bedazzled by Meryl Streep all over again.

I want to be taken to a galaxy far, far away, consider the possibility of an extraterrestrials among us while considering a world where making someone an offer they can’t refuse makes sense if it means justice.

I want to bust a gut laughing when Sir John Gielgud tells Dudley Moore he will “alert the media,” fight back the tears when Debra Winger says good by to her children and leap to my feet when holds up that sign.

Movies can move us.

They can give us hope.

They allow us to consider the possibilities.

I want to be scared to death of that shark, grab a tissue every time Lou Gehrig says he is the luckiest man on the face of the Earth and nod in approval when a two-bit fighter from Philadelphia goes the distance.

Yeah, the movies can do all that, and even if it seems rarer and rare these days, I keep going because each time the theater goes dark, there is a chance I will see something I have never seen before or perhaps understand the world just a little better.

They will honor some of the those movies Sunday night with Academy Awards.

As I write this, I have just about all the movies, but the movies that moved me, that taught me something that opened a world I knew nothing about are not the ones nominated for Best Picture.

I found the magic with animated, international and documentary features. And if you can handle reading a movie, you can find it, too.

I also found the magic in the shorts where I sat in a movie theater with one other person and applauded after the credits for each of the five films rolled. Two made me weep (Colette and The Present) and one horrified me (Hunger Ward).

I put those 20 movies together and easily came up with a Best Picture list that not only rivaled the Best Picture with, but I contend is far superior.

From My Ocopus Teacher where we I was left in tears because I cared about the main character so much - the octopus - to Collective where I was left cheering great journalism from Romania.

Quo Vadis Aida reminded me that genocide - this time in the Balkans - is still an ever present danger even with the United Nations vowing to protect the civilians.

The Mole Agent, reminded me of my newspaper’s work with nursing homes, only the undercover reporter in this film was an 84-year-old novice who comes to a startling realization about the care for the elderly.

The Present allowed me to see the Palestine-Israeli conflict in human terms I never expected.

Soul and Over the Moon provided the technical magic first started all those years ago with Mickey Mouse and made me realize these animated features are as much for us adults as the kids.

And Crip Camp reminded me of a world before our country insisted on ramps and handicapped parking places and how organized protests can make a difference for millions.

The Best Picture films that will be celebrated Sunday night is week, but I you need to know there is still plenty of magic out there. You just have to look a little harder. Sometimes you have to look a few fathoms beneath the ocean.

Here is my own Best Picture list:

My Best Pictures

1. My Octopus Teacher (Documentary Feature)

2. Collective (Documentary and International Feature)

3. Quo Vadis Aida (International Feature)

4. The Mole Agent (Documentary Feature)

5. The Present (Short Subject)

6. Soul (Animated Feature)

7. Over the Moon (Animated Feature)

8. (Three-way tie) Crip Camp (Documentary Feature), Another Round (International Feature), Two Distant Strangers (Short Subject).

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