In this article, we will be looking at 2019’s book “1001 Movies to See Before You Die” and going through each film in a random order that I have chosen. We will be looking at what constitutes this film to be on the list and whether I think this film deserves to be here at all. I want to make perfectly clear that I won’t be revealing details from this book such as analyses by film reporters who have written about the film in question, so if you want the book itself you’ll have to buy it. But I will be covering the book’s suggestions on which films should be your top priority. I wouldn’t doubt for a second that everyone reading this article has probably watched many of these movies anyway. But we are just here to have a bit of fun. We’re going to not just look at whether it should be on this list but we’re also going to look at why the film has such a legacy at all. Remember, this is the 2019 version of the book and so, films like “Joker” will not be featured in this book and any film that came out in 2020 (and if we get there, in 2021). So strap in and if you have your own suggestions then don’t hesitate to email me using the address in my bio. Let’s get on with it then.

"And business unfolded automatically. Automatically. Difficult? Anything! If they get on the tracks, they rotate which is a beauty. If they don’t, cross your arms. But if you see that you are lucky, stick it out: the foolishness you practice turns into wisdom. I've seen creatures that work too hard and don't progress. I know lazy individuals who have a nose: when the occasion comes, they unscrew themselves, open their mouths - and swallow everything."

In this chapter of ‘the filmmaker’s guide’ we’re actually going to be learning about literature and film together. I understand that many of you are sitting in university during difficult times and finding it increasingly hard to study and I understand that many of you who are not at university or not planning on it are possibly stuck of what to do, need a break or even need to catch up on learning film before you get to the next level. This guide will be brief but will also contain: new vocabulary, concepts and theories, films to watch and we will be exploring something taboo until now in the ‘filmmaker’s guide’ - academia (abyss opens). Each article will explore a different concept of film, philosophy, literature or bibliography/filmography etc. in order to give you something new to learn each time we see each other. You can use some of the words amongst family and friends to sound clever or you can get back to me (email in bio) and tell me how you’re doing. So, strap in and prepare for the filmmaker’s guide to film studies because it is going to be one wild ride.

In 2018’s Black Panther, in the beginning of act 3 when T’Challa was presumed dead after Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) beat T’Challa and threw him off the waterfall as Killmonger is crowned to be the next king and went in to the cave where the garden of the heart shaped herb were planted and set them on fire. To recall, these heart shaped herb is what gives any one who ingest it enhanced strength, durability and speed. It is tradition for this herb ingested to the ruler and protector of Wakanda, Black Panther, but when these herbs were set on fire and was destroyed, this could be the end of Black Panther. Of course, Erik Killmonger never thought of T’Challa little sister, the genius Shuri.

Coming of age as a Fat brown girl in a white Connecticut suburb is hard. Harder when your whole life is on fire, though. Charlie Vega is a lot of things. Smart. Funny. Artistic. Ambitious. Fat. People sometimes have a problem with that last one. Especially her mom. Charlie wants a good relationship with her body, but it's hard, and her mom leaving a billion weight loss shakes on her dresser doesn't help. The world and everyone in it have ideas about what she should look like: thinner, lighter, slimmer-faced, straighter-haired. Be smaller. Be whiter. Be quieter. But there's one person who's always in Charlie's corner: her best friend Amelia. Slim. Popular. Athletic. Totally dope. So when Charlie starts a tentative relationship with cute classmate Brian, the first worthwhile guy to notice her, everything is perfect until she learns one thing--he asked Amelia out first. So is she his second choice or what? Does he even really see her? UGHHH. Everything is now officially a MESS. A sensitive, funny, and painful coming-of-age story with a wry voice and tons of chisme, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega tackles our relationships to our parents, our bodies, our cultures, and ourselves. Fat Chance, Charlie Vega, is an impressive debut novel with a strong voice and powerful message about loving your body and yourself.

This book opens as most beautifully written books open unfortunately, with loss. The book opens with a funeral and it is actually really upsetting. I mean, it is written so beautifully, so calmly and yet there is something whilst you are reading it that feels like the narrator is about to break out and scream. Just check this out:

Just now, I almost started this by talking about how I was once a kid with hopes and dreams and things just didn’t work out and I turned to crime. I could slap myself, what an idiot. Anytime an ex-con or a thug or a henchman gets a chance to tell their story, they slop around some mess about how they once were wide-eyed, innocent little kids who looked up at the stars and had big notions about what the world was, they were slightly more perceptive and special than the people around them, but all the same things went wrong in the end, oh woe is them. Boo-hooing for their lost path and how things didn’t work out too great. The ol’ leg-breaker with a heart of gold and the world let me down routine. Shut the hell up already. We all thought we’d be superheroes when we were kids.

“Fake live is expensive.” It wasn’t too long that Nollywood actor, Mike Ezuruonye made headlines when he called out not only his colleagues but also people in general who choose to spend their money acquiring goods and things in a bid to impress onlookers while not having much money themselves.

I’m kind of obsessed with the idea of a spoiler alert. That thing that one declares like a siren of warning, a fire alarm beeping before you can even smell the smoke. (Wait, did I say fire? Sorry, I think I spoiled the ending.)