You are a 42 year-old man. You are perfectly content in your life. You have a family, a well-paying job and enough fun hobbies to fill your free time and be "happy".
Until November 23rd 2025, you had never cried because of a movie. Then that changed.
BUT FIRST, YOU DISCUSS LOOSE TOPICS
Let’s talk tv first:
While we’re waiting for the new and last season of The Bear, a surprise prequel episode popped up on Disney+, Gary. It’s a beautiful and heart-wrenching window into the dynamics and inner lives of Richie and Mikey that enriches the viewer’s understanding of the characters in the show.
Not new, by most measures, but after watching it, I feel The Lowdown is criminally underrated. Or well, at least underhyped. From the co-creator of the also excellent Reservation Dogs, this series deals with a citizen journalist uncovering a criminal plot that he’s maybe not terribly equipped to deal with. It’s very funny, tense and at times even wholesome.
Not directly tv (though it was once aired on Japanese tv), this old conversation between Hayao Miyazaki (of Studio Ghibli fame) and Akira Kurosawa (of being one of the greatest film directors of all time fame) is great. It’s lovely to hear two master creatives talk about their craft, and the things they share in common.
Finally, apropos of nothing other than my YouTube algorithm thought it’d be funny to show me this video again, here is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Lost Woods theme played by someone on an accordion while they’re riding a unicycle through the woods.
And here’s the master Daniel Day-Lewis talking about how he’s hesitant to rewatch favourite movies, because you can only be blown away by it once.
Some new music, then:
Hundreds of AU put out a tribute to Jeff Guerriero, singer of the Black Kites, to raise funds for him and his family while he battles ALS. Have a listen, it’s excellent as is expected of this band, and get a tape to help out.
New Koyo! If you miss your Taking Back Sundays or the Movielifeseses, Barely Here is a great listen.
And how about some vidya games?
You know what’s a great feeling? Paying €3 for a game, having a great time with it, managing to finish it in about 10 hours and then just feeling good about the whole transaction. That’s what Tower Wizard is for me. A great and pressure-free tower building/resource management/idle/clicker game that’s chill and creative and fun.
Not a particular game recommendation per se (though you should play this game, it’s a classic), but here’s the original pitch document for Myst. Remember Myst? Traipsing around an island, picking up a book and watching a postage stamp-sized video? Classic. But the document is beautiful and already contains so much of what made the final game so great.
THE WORST CLOTHES DROP EVER, neatly dissected by Antwon.
The old Mac black-and-white pixel art aesthetic is just sick, no matter what, but retro computer enthusiast HyperTalking has been recreating some classic Hokusai works using some original hardware and software of the era. Check out Great Wave and South Wind.
Finally, here’s something for you.
It’s not for lack of trying that you haven’t cried because of a movie. You consider yourself a person that’s fairly in touch with his own inner life. His emotions. You’re not someone who’s afraid to cry. You have cried, in your adult life. Just never because of a movie.
It’s not just that you have trouble crying at any piece of art, either. A song has done it. A book, too. But a movie?
You have many theories on why specifically a movie, a film has not managed to elicit a tear or two. Perhaps the actors you’re watching are just too detached from your life, never mind how much you find the story moving. It’s something that happens elsewhere, to someone else. None of your business. Don’t get involved. Keep your nose clean, kid.
And then, Train Dreams. You’ve read the Denis Johnson novella, absorbing the story and appreciating it, but then not fully internalising it. When news comes that Netflix will be putting out a movie based on the book, starring Joel Edgerton and Felicity Jones, your interest is piqued.
On November 23rd 2025, two days after the movie debuted on the streaming service, you figure you give it a go and watch it while you’re on your exercise bike. It’s not the best way to watch a movie, but it’s when you have time. It is, as they say, what it is.
And so you watch it. And realise it’s good. And find that this is a movie that touches on the human experience in the broadest sense, with the deftest touch. Love, loss, friendship, enmity, pride, grief, the fullness of a life. A complete life. A connected life.
This, in particular, is expressed in complete fullness in its climax near the end. When Robert Grainier, beaten up by a life well lived, takes flight and has the realisation of what his life has amounted to.
And this is the way the feeling finds purchase inside of you, filling up your brain, your heart, your soul and it’s simply too much to contain inside of a physical person and you feel it just needs to get out.
And so, the tears come, they flow freely.
Because it’s not tears of sadness. It’s the joy of realisation that a full life means a connected life. Connected to those around us, and through them, to everything.
You are on your exercise bike and crying because a movie on the small screen of your iPad has filled your heart to overflow with joy and beauty.
It is a blissful moment and you still think about it often. How beautiful art can be.