.png)
I am asked sometimes, because I yap about them so frequently, what my favorite movie is. I waffle, but not because I am unsure of my answer. It seems to me that the answer they want is Apocalypse Now. If I were to answer any question about a specific element of filmmaking, especially post-Hayes Code, and which film demonstrates a mastery of that element well, I would say Apocalypse Now. Every time I watch the movie, an experience I try to reserve for special occasions, I am blown away and left genuinely speechless. It is a totalizing work of art, a grand project on the scale of Inferno or the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Yet it is not the most honest answer I can give.
My honest answer is The Graduate, which may seem just about the same to some readers. When I tell them what the movie is, because no one ever knows, “old” is the primary response I get, which really makes me lose faith for the majority of people I encounter. If 1967 is a year that produces work which is so “old” that it is outside of your ability to understand or relate to it, I am terrified for your ability to think critically about anything at all. I certainly don’t think you’re capable of a judgement call on much of anything if any information older than 60 years must be thrown out. The Graduate is funny and timeless. Its real charm for me sits in Dustin Hoffman’s performance. I don’t think I can use the language of film analysis to defend the movie anymore because it isn't always about the form here. It is also about the humor, the horror, and the vibes.
Although it is one of the two well-framed full-size movie posters in my apartment, I haven’t rewatched The Green Knight since high school. Freshman year I spent a whole afternoon on the fourth floor of Ekstrom library reading the poem. The library’s only copy was not Tolkien’s translation, but that’s all I remember. It was at times a difficult read, and my rewatch that evening was easily interrupted by more interesting plans. I never got back around to it. Lowery, who also directed 2017’s A Ghost Story and Disney’s CGI-remake of Pete’s Dragon, is a poetic and interesting director. The Green Knight was almost incomprehensible to me in high school, and yet it was captivating, mysterious and seemingly profound. Great vibes.
On Sunday, 8th of March, 2026, I was hit with a particular neurochemical combination which greatly resembled nostalgia. Entering an empty apartment (roommates gone for Spring Break). and staring at a fridge whose contents can be cleanly divided into hangover causes and hangover cures gave me a dreaded impulse. This impulse was to open a bottle of wine and sit on the couch with a romantic drama. The Graduate is often my pick for this feeling, but I was also thinking of Jocham Von Trier’s The Worst Person in the World. I thought of it so much that I put on the song used in the film's closing. And then I put it on again. And once more. A great tune, but over the speaker it lacked the impact which the film was able to give it. I needed something personal, raw, emotional, romantic, and importantly new. So instead of turning to those films, I went to The Matrix. It is a faint hope that my 20s will resemble these romantic comedies. Instead, it seems much more likely they will resemble the plots of The Matrix, They Live, or Brave New World.
We live in an age where the computer is the dominant metaphor, which in part is why the Matrix trilogy can cover so much philosophic ground while also being about 40% dialogueless fights. As Donald Trump tells us, “Everything is computer.” I’d like to think that this meaningless march forward can be stopped, halted, or altered. I am not sure. I do know that whether or not humanity makes it much further as the dominant intelligence on this planet, or whether we make it much further at all, we have produced some great art along the way.
Bradfield is a McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville in the class of 2026. He is studying philosophy and political science.