I’m currently covering the Godfather Trilogy over at Catholic Movie Club (which, if you’re like me and hadn’t watched those movies before, begins with the line I made the title of this newsletter). This week I’m covering The Godfather Part II, a horror movie about the American Dream, which feels unfortunately appropriate on this Fourth of July (read my column on it here). I considered making a watchlist of other nightmare visions of the American Dream (Nope, There Will Be Blood, a bunch of Scorsese and Spike Lee stuff), but that’s not actually what I’m in the mood to watch and, I imagine, you aren’t either.
So, instead, I submit this list of movies that encapsulate what I see as the best of America: the ways that people from many different origins come together to create community and beauty. I see all of these stories as hopeful, though not necessarily optimistic; several of them are full of tragedy, violence, and sorrow. The point I’m trying to make isn’t that everything is going to be okay, because it’s not. But I have hope that we can make things better, if we can recognize, nourish, and protect what’s best about us. This list is an argument about what’s worth fighting for.
(I also didn’t mean for most of these to be movies I’d already covered in Catholic Movie Club, but that just means you can read a little more from me on each of them if you’d like)
Rocky (1976)
Wanted to include one fist-pumper on here. In Rocky, the American Dream isn’t about money, fame, or victory; it’s about a guy (and a neighborhood, and a city) that’s already burned through several second chances achieving a sense of his own dignity against all odds. Rocky is (as I wrote for America) first and foremost a resurrection story, an affirmation that something new can grow even from the most abandoned and overlooked places. Streaming on Amazon Prime and AMC+. Read my Catholic Movie Club reflection.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
I genuinely believe that one of America’s greatest contributions to humanity is our musical tradition. O Brother, Where Art Thou?’s vibrant folk soundtrack shines a spotlight on one part of it: the voices of several diasporas coming together to form a distinctly American sound rooted in the hopes and sorrows of the common person. And what could be more American than watching three idiots overcome insurmountable odds, and seeing a burning cross fall on a Klansman? Streaming on Hulu. Read my Catholic Movie Club reflection.
Summer of Soul (… Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (2021)
Speaking of music: Questlove’s extraordinary documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival celebrates Black culture, style, and liberation while also offering live performances by some of the greatest American artists of all time. Coming a little over a year after MLK’s assassination, the Festival was a bold cry for Black Americans to claim and protect their human dignity, to recognize their beauty in the face of a culture that vilified and marginalized them, and to join together to work for a better future. Featuring footage that was lost for decades, Summer of Soul allows that cry to ring out again in the here and now. Streaming on Disney+ and Hulu. Read my Catholic Movie Club reflection.
Asteroid City (2023)
In a way, Asteroid City doesn’t happen in any real place: the Southwest town where most of the film takes place exists under two layers of fictionalization (it’s the setting for a play, which is the subject for a television special, which is the subject of the movie). But in another sense, Wes Anderson’s hyper-stylization elevates Asteroid City (the town) into an even more-real version of America than the one in which we live. Here is a place where the existential questions that trouble us take on startlingly-real forms, and where the American urge to politicize, weaponize, monetize, categorize, or otherwise exploit the newly-discovered is overcome by a deeper, human desire to not face life’s stubborn mysteries alone. It’s also really funny and moving and there’s a roadrunner who goes “meep meep.” I haven’t written about this one for Catholic Movie Club yet, but it’s only a matter of time. Streaming on Amazon Prime.
Support the Girls (2018)
I almost didn’t include this one because it’s about the dismal state of American work, especially on the lower end of the wage scale (and how that interacts with race and gender). But Andrew Bujalski’s film is such a tender, honest look at trying to care for others (and yourself) in an essentially inhumane system that it somehow glimpses America as we wish it was, while remaining rooted in America as it is. The film also has a talented and very funny ensemble cast, led by an absolutely staggering performance by Regina Hall. Streaming on Hulu, library apps Hoopla and Kanopy, and free with ads on the Roku Channel.
Have other ideas for movies to add to this list? Feel free to leave a comment! I hope you all have a fun and safe holiday, and that our country’s 248th year brings good things (or, at least, better things). See you next week!