Processing Grief -- With Movies

This has been a time when things were hard and films have been there as a comfort blanket and psychological reset. I have watched many films during this lockdown that have offered this: Booksmart, What We Do in the Shadows, Game Night to name three. And it has led me to dwell on how cinema has helped me process grief.

It does not have to be a "great" movie and it does not have to be about grief. Here is what he has to say about the dumb action movie about a prehistoric fish, "The Meg."

The Meg is a dumb film. It’s surprisingly bloodless and clearly has had an edit or two to reshape it before it reached cinemas. But as I watched a giant shark decimate the waters of a packed beach I knew this had been the right choice. There is not an ounce of our reality in this Jason Statham vs. prehistoric shark flick and it helped me detach from the day and the news we had received. Cinema helped me when I needed to, as it would many times again.

Sometimes grief helps you to experience a film as the film helps you process grief.

"Parasite" is a much sadder watch when revisited. Maybe I was emotionally raw but you feel the pain and anguish that is at the film’s core, the rage that seems to course through it is more potent than ever.

Cinema and Grief