Find Your Joy: Not a Review of Movies with Mikey
Amélie (2001) - Movies with Mikey
Go watch it. I'll wait here. Or go watch any of his videos. You'll enjoy them.
What Amélie means to me?
Amélie is a waitress in Paris who sees the world in a unique and beautiful way. I have loved Amélie for years. It introduced me to Michael Sowa's artwork. It's a beautiful, quirky, dreamlike world. I wanted some of that dream for my life.What Movies with Mikey means to me?
Movies with Mikey is a celebration and analysis of film. I started watching Mikey Neuman's show when I came across his episodes on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Demolition Man (two favorite films of mine when I was kid). His celebrations of film and the meaning he finds in the films are inspiring to me.
His show is a good influence. I have a habit of dissecting movies to their constituent parts in my brain. His show reminds me to enjoy the experience of an entertaining story.
What matters to me?
I don't always feel joy. I've dealt with emotional numbness. It's an impossible thing for me to explain to the people around me. The experience of not being sad, not being anything hurts in a visceral and terrible way. But on the other side of that numbness, there is joy but it's obscured by a vacancy.
I'm going to get back to work making my joy.
How? I write. It's what I do when my fingers are not otherwise occupied. It's a habit, a release, a way of processing the world, a communication, a pleasure. I draw with varying levels of success but constant satisfaction. I document my efforts on instagram.
My small joys? Finding a treasure, a great "bad" movie, music synchronizing to my life, being the passenger in a car during a deluge.
