Whole Wide World: Living in a Film

Charlie Kaufman once said, “I do like escapism. I like going to the movies on a Friday night…” Who else but someone as imaginative as Kaufman to say this, the creator of such seemingly real and tangible worlds like the ones in Being John Malkovich and Synecdoche, NY. It’s nice to disappear into that world for a couple of hours, to be entirely immersed with those people in those places and around those things. So, I asked my fellow Balconians, what film would you want to live in for a day. How amazing would it be if we could, just like Buster Keaton, walk up to the screen and then become a part of the magic. Whether it’s something seedy and pulpy like the heightened high school world in Rian Johnson’s Brick or a romantic vision of Detroit in Only Lovers Left Alive, the movies have so much to offer as far as disappearing into a completely different universe, and these were the worlds the writers wanted to be in. – Kyle Turner

The possibilities for what film you could choose to spend one day inside are endless. The Godfather is a rich story featuring one of the strongest casts in history, but you’ll likely catch a bullet. Groundhog Day would be a blast, if just to hang out with Bill Murray, but who wants to deal with Ned Ryerson for potentially hundreds of years? Riding around Gotham vanquishing crime fighters as Batman would realize a dream my 10-year-old self had, but a shared universe with Green Lantern makes this decision a hard pass. Looper might be exciting, but there are far easier ways to kill yourself. Maybe Aliens? Having so many options to choose from is proving more difficult than anticipated. I’ve got it! The Lego Movie. Experiencing life in brick-form would be truly awe-inspiring and I would never get tired of listening to “Everything is Awesome”. In what other world could you hang out with Batman and Han Solo in the Millennium Falcon while building your own combination sofa/bunk-bed? The only problem now is that one day may not be enough time to do everything I want in The Lego Movie universe. – Colin Biggs

Moulin Rouge! is Baz Luhrmann’s most brash, mashing seedy 1800s Paris with the 21^st century through song, melodrama and outlandish characters. To date it’s the best example of Luhrmann’s intent of celebrating life and its wonder. At its core is a forbidden romance, true love hindered by a slimy villain – which plays on the fantasies of many women and delivered effectively (albeit in a hauntingly sad way).

To live through a day as Moulin Rouge! would be hectic, crazy and overall an amazing spectacle. While there is plenty of sadness hidden behind the debauchery, the lesson of accepting good and bad times is strong and a necessity to know. On a personal note, any entry into the world of Baz Luhrmann and to know the love and euphoria of the time would be amazing – being plunged into something different to the regularity of today is an intriguing invitation. To also be given the chance of performing on stage with talent would be an accepted challenge. – Katina Vangopoulos

The problem with questions like these is I often don’t have any predisposition towards the world building or the transportation of science fiction or fantasy pictures, and my own favourite films tend to line up with either the lovesick or horrific. No answer for this question can be perfect, but I recently watched Adrienne Shelly’s Waitress, so I’ll say that. Keri Russell’s character is trapped in an abusive relationship so this isn’t something I want in full, but there are a couple of things in this movie I want. Shelly shoots the scene of Russell becoming a mother with pure beauty. The rest of the world loses focus as she focuses entirely on the little girl in her arms. This is her life now. I’d give anything to experience that specific feeling, but it is impossible for me. My answer is Waitress for that reason. – Willow Maclay

I recently watched John Cassavetes’ Faces (1968) and was deeply shaken by it. To want to live in that film is kind of depressing, considering how its characters are constantly out of steps with one another. They try to communicate but instead, all they can do is make jokes and tell funny stories that somehow vaguely resemble the desires that they never dare say out loud. Yet, I’d love to be in the middle of that energy, that emotional tug of war that everyone seems to be the loser. Even though the relationships in Faces are plagued with frustration, entrapment and infidelity, at least its participants try their best to analyze their feelings and figure out what goes wrong. A world where every one tries to match their outside with their inside, where people act crazy because they are going crazy inside, well who would not want to be a part of that? Honorable mentions: The Red Shoes (1948), Design for Living (1933) – Phuong Le

Watching Rian Johnson’s Brick for the first time was a transcendent experience, because it brought to life the kind of world that I wish high school would have been exactly like. I realize that living in that world would require a lot of terrible things to happen – my ex-girlfriend would have to die, I’d have to get repeatedly beaten up and get betrayed at multiple turns – but I’d happily pay that price. The concept of the high school detective has always fascinated me, and was something I would fantasize about daily while I was in high school. The cliques acting as their own underworlds, the principal acting as the pissed off police chief, a lonely outsider student as the renegade detective – seeing high school reinvented as a detective noir just made perfect sense to me. My only regret each time I watch this film is that I can’t live it.  – Dylan Griffin

“Today’s schedule: wake up around nine-ish, scuttle around the kitchen and scrounge up a feast of cheese, bread, and wine, set foot outside, gambol around densely gorgeous woods, eat a larger second breakfast, get into mischief with friends, eat an even larger lunch, while away the hours by smoking some Old Toby, eat yet a larger dinner, and then head off to the pub before retiring for the night and doing it all again the next day. Life in the Shire is sweet, and comes with the added benefit of occasional jaunts to answer the adventurer’s call. Middle-earth is a magical place filled with wonder and awesome sights that’ll leave you slack-jawed, and among the half-dozen films dedicated to bringing it to life, it’s Fellowship of the Ring that’s most inviting.”– Andy Crump

Amongst my stranger proclivities is perhaps that I’m extremely attracted to people who either smoke or people who speak in heightened, stylistic dialogue. I feel that this particular idiosyncrasy really narrows down the pack for me as far as film worlds I would live in. And so, why not dive into the wacky world of Howard Hawks’s Bringing Up Baby, where you’ll find rapid fire lines, a leopard, and a much funnier iteration of the crisis of masculinity than anything True Detective could ever dream of busting out. There’s something delightful and effervescent about this very artificial world of Connecticut and New York, so driven by a looney lady, her pet leopard, and the ineffectual paleontologist caught up in their antics. I’m a fan of a screwball romance and a manic mindset to match my own, and, hey, it was either this or The Big Sleep. Honorable Mentions: Heartbeats, Clue. – Kyle Turner

A Jim Jarmusch movie is an easy answer to this question, for one automatically becomes cool by living a day inside one of his movies. And none is cooler than Only Lovers Left Alive, as sexy centuries-old vampires Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston wax poetic about various art forms and artists, going full hipster about how dull the art scene is and mostly just chilling out. I could’ve spent hours just listening to them talk (someone set up a TV show, please), and to live inside the cold, cool, darkly-coloured world of inspired visual choices that merge gothic elegance with artful desiccation would be a most perfect day, indeed. – Jake Pitre

Throughout this final day of summer camp, we’re guaranteed food from a Vietnam-haunted chef, hilarious awkwardness from a big-nosed counselor, and a weirdly awesome talent show from the group of eccentric campers. The counselors are clearly jaded after working there the whole summer, as they discipline the children with monotone dialogue (“You’re in trouble,” “Take a shower”), and the campers are weary of carrying out camp activities, as depicted through their forfeit of a kickball competition against a rival camp. This laidback environment’s conflict is sexual tension, behind-the-back middle fingers, the verbal pressure of waspy talent-show directors, and a drowning camper. The conflicts at Camp Firewood are either quickly resolved or apathetically left alone, conveying an atmosphere that lacks consequences and concerns. If something so problematic happens, like a camper witnessing the counselors’ negligence leading to the death of a child, just take that camper in a van, promise him a secret pizza-party, then push him out to the side of the road. Tonight, we’re partying around the campfire to late-70s, classic rock!  – Nick Mastrangelo

When I was young, I stumbled upon Larry Clark and Harmony Korine’s Kids. The movie, needless to say, changed my life and my entire view of what film could accomplish as a medium. If I could live my life as any movie for an entire day, it would be as one of the miscreant misfits meandering mindlessly around New York City in the ’90s. Kids is supposed to be a forewarning of the dangers of teen culture, but it also felt so realistic that I always imagined it would have been incredible to break into a pool at night, hook up with one of your closest bros, and fulfill this sensationalized teenage wet dream. That being said, as a twenty-three year old adult with responsibilities, a job, and bills, I would never want to be a teenager again. Honourable mentions: Hackers, Se7en. – Julia Alexander