Terrible play on words, I know. In my defense, it was May 4th when I started writing this, but it’s obviously not May 4th now. And to make matters worse, I’m not a Star Wars fan.

*dodges punches and plugs my ears from all of the gasping*

I’ve been working from home for about 7 weeks now, and my family and I are in quarantine. And along with everyone else during this time, I am watching a lot of movies and TV shows. Something that I realized during my movie and series-watching is that I have a deep-rooted appreciation for the actor Ethan Hawke. This appreciation first started about four years ago when I first saw Dead Poets Society. Yes, I realize that as a writer and previous English major, watching it for the first time only a mere few years ago is quite looked down upon. But, I have since made up the time by watching a few others by him, including: Sinister, Juliet, Naked, Reality Bites, Stockholm, and The Purge. Since everyone is wondering, here are my favorite roles of his, in order:

Before Sunrise. Not only did it receive 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it takes place in Vienna. And it’s heavily focused on the dialogue, which is possibly more beautiful than the setting.
Reality Bites. AKA, Ethan in his absolute prime, alongside Wynona Rider and Ben Stiller.
Dead Poets Society. AKA baby Ethan and Robin Williams talking about the importance of poetry. I’m done.
Boyhood. It took place over the course of 12 years, and I need to watch it again ASAP.
Juliet, Naked. It’s a quirky little film adapted from the seemingly multi-hit author Nick Hornby, co-starring Chris O’Dowd and Rose Byrne.

There you have it, people, a list of Ethan Hawke movies that you didn’t ask for but I delivered.

May has already been and will continue to be a great month for movies and shows. I had been counting down the days until May 1st, the day The Half of It premiered on Netflix. This semi-autobiographical movie is about a girl named Ellie who writes papers for classmates in her high school. A jock whom she’s never met comes by and offers to pay her to write a love letter to a girl he has a crush on. Little does he know, Ellie also has a crush on the love letter-recipient. There were a few plot points that I believed were mentioned way too late in the film, thus not giving them the time they deserved to be fleshed out. But overall, the story was an interesting one, the relationship between Ellie and her jock friend was adorable, and the dialogue coming from high school students was pretty believable. I’m going to give myself a few days until I re-watch it with fresh eyes.

Those who know me know my love for A24 films, so I am quite excited to re-watch Uncut Gems by the Safdie brothers. It’s coming to Netflix on May 25th, and I will say that I strongly disliked it at first. There were some disturbing moments, and I was a little too tired and too stressed to fully immerse myself in and enjoy the film. Due to my love of most A24 films and also the Safdie’s other film, Good Time, I want to give Uncut Gems another go-around. PS: Good Time is currently on Netflix in the States.

If you want a more light-hearted yet extremely stressful teen drama, Outer Banks is the show for you. It came out in April, but I’m including it in my May lineup because not only does it feature Charles Esten from Nashville, but it also features a bunch of teens with heart-wrenching backstories—my kryptonite in a show. I’ll give you a few hints as to what the show’s about without giving too much away: buried treasure, love triangles (and also squares, actually), and family drama. I watched it with one of my friends through Netflix Party, an add-on for Google Chrome to watch Netflix movies and shows with friends, all while messaging each other through a chat side-bar. Because of how stressful the last couple of episodes are, it sounded like I was typing a research paper. Episode 1? A little cheesy. Episode 2? Prepare to finish the entire season then and there, because it’s weirdly addicting.

Being in quarantine can be an extremely lonely and oftentimes boring time for us. So, I thought that I would share some tidy bullet-point lists of some of the things I’ve been seeing and reading.

Movies

The Before Sunrise trilogy — yes, this Ethan Hawke gem is indeed a trilogy!
The Farewell, because I love love love learning about different cultures, it’s A24, and Awkwafina is incredible in it.
The Place Beyond the Pines. Oof. Great storyline.
Waves. One of my favorite A24 films.
Set It Up. Even if you’ve already seen it, just see it again. The protagonist is an aspiring writer, and it inspired me to write more.
Late Night. Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson make an unlikely yet funny pair.
Stuck in Love. I haven’t seen it in years, but I remember loving it. The same director directed The Fault in Our Stars, if that’s a selling point. And if it’s not, Stuck in Love stars Logan Lerman, Lily Collins, Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly, and a few other noteworthy guys and gals.
A Marriage Story for if you want a good cry. Because when Adam Driver cries, I cry.
Short Term 12 — I will never stop recommending this movie. And it’s also for if you want a good cry.
The Edge of Seventeen. Hailee Steinfeld, Haley Lu Richardson, and Woody Harrelson. Just a really fun, feel-good movie.
Any of the IT movies. Reviewers be darned because I loved them all, including It: Chapter Two.

TV Shows

Community, if you haven’t seen it already, when it came out over 10 years ago.
Atypical. Again, if you haven’t already.
The Outsider. (Not The Outsiders, although that’s both an incredible book and movie.) It’s based on the novel by Stephen King which I’m reading right now and loving.
Fleabag. I was extremely late to the game and can only assume that everyone’s already seen it when they popularity was at its highest. But I laughed out loud so many times while watching this, so I had to go ahead and put it on the list.
Hunters—wow, incredibly addicting. And again, Logan Lerman.
Love is Blind. I was cringing the entire time.
Sex Education. It’s really funny and I finished both seasons in an embarrassingly short amount of time.

Books

Untamed by Glennon Doyle. I have never been so inspired and so uplifted by a single book.
The Harry Potter series. Even if you’ve read it already. I mean, why not?
The Outsider by Stephen King, as I mentioned earlier. So far, it’s very similar to the show, so… if you don’t mind reading what you just watched or vice versa, have at it.
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. My all-time favorite book, and it’s also a wonderful movie.
What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera.
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. This one and #5 are fun and light-hearted books that you’ll probably fly through in a few days at most.
Just Listen by Sarah Dessen. It’s the Dessen book I tell everyone to start out with. She recently came out with a two-in-one book containing Just Listen and The Moon and More, which you can find here.
The Most Beautiful Thing I’ve Seen by Lisa Gungor. This and Untamed are my top inspirational books of the past few years.

Reagan Fleming