Fall Favourites
Gilmore Girls
Francesca Sylph, Screen Editor, on why Gilmore Girls is the best Autumn watch
Image: IMDb
EVERY single year, without fail, September comes around and I am overcome with a need to begin my annual rewatch of Gilmore Girls. As the nights become colder and darker, all I want to do after a long day of lectures is to come home to my favourite comfort characters, a fluffy blanket and a hot cup of tea (please don’t tell the Gilmores that I actually hate coffee). The pure serotonin and nostalgia that I receive from those opening credits is honestly unparalleled; autumnal leaves and Carole King. What more could a girl want? Seasons one to three will always hold a special place in my heart, but if you’re looking for some inspiration for Hot Girl Semester, you can’t go wrong with the Yale Years (there is a distinct possibility that loving Rory Gilmore and Hermione Granger from a young age may have fuelled my need for academic validation). After so many years, Stars Hollow has become a home away from home. I know, I know, it’s a fictional town that doesn’t actually exist. However, there is something magical and escapist about a small town filled with quirky, loveable characters that are always getting into various hijinks and misadventures.
Over the Garden Wall
Charlotte Black discusses why Over the Garden Wall is the movie for you
FOR my fall favourite, I’m recommending Peter McHale’s Emmy Award-winning animated miniseries Over the Garden Wall. As the seasons turn over and we all take up our creature comforts once again, I have consistently looked to this show. The series captures a unique blend of comedy, whimsy and horror under the simplistic guise of a quirky cartoon universe. Contained in the 10-part story are characters and events which become increasingly bizarre, but each oddity is developed through rife metaphor, implication, and disturbing truths. All of this contributes to creating a slightly off-beat backbone to what could otherwise be a more straightforward, quest-driven plot. The janky soundtrack put together by The Blasting Company has gained much of its own acclaim apart from the show. Its folksy Americana theme perfectly matches the show’s atmosphere which, if only in one word, can be described as ‘weird’ – but I can almost guarantee that you’ll be humming the tunes after just the first watch. Overall, whilst perhaps more complex than a background noise-type cartoon, the series is still an easy watch and marries perfectly with a hot chocolate and some fluffy socks for those nights you just want to stay in. I couldn’t recommend a watch more!
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Amber Hogan argues for Fantastic Mr. Fox as the ultimate autumn flick
Image: IMDb
YOU knew that Fantastic Mr. Fox would be on this list. Wes Anderson’s stop motion movie is the embodiment of autumn. Every scene is cast in luxurious gold and rusty orange light, the characters chatter in a rhythmic near-festive fashion, and the story unfolds over the shift into the wintery darkness we now find ourselves facing. The wild animals live and grow in a crisply cold and autumnal world, where everyone wears knitted, cosy clothes and eats warming meals (when things go to plan, at least). Mrs. Bean’s famous nutmeg ginger apple snaps look mouth-watering, and her husband’s apple cider is good enough to drive a rat mad. Everything in this film is artfully handmade and put together with patience and care, from the candlelit underground burrows to the thunderous paintings of Mrs. Fox’s anxieties. I mean, if you’ve never seen this film, then what the cuss are you doing? Go grab a warm drink and settle in for a lively and quote-unquote fantastic film about family, feasts and instinct. It’ll leave you warmed through and excited for the leaves to turn fox-fur red and in awe of its dedicated, truly expert production team.
Columbus
Adam Simcox discusses why Columbus is a must watch
KOGONADA’S achingly peaceful debut – soon to be followed by his next effort, After Yang – is a tale of the coincidental meeting and subsequent growth of two strangers. One, is a man steadily approaching middle-age, trapped in the shadow of his father. The other, a young architecture-enthusiast, too consumed with concern for her struggling mother to allow herself to move away from her hometown – the eponymous Columbus, Indiana (not to be mistaken with the Ohio state capital). Perhaps tellingly, the latter half of the film’s double-helix is concerned with a young woman grappling with her decision to fly the coop and all the anxieties such a decision entails; yet a key undercurrent of the film is its apparent aimlessness, its meandering late-summer pace. The quiet life unfolding in Columbus is transitory and warm and for the many of us just now moving to Exeter and starting an exciting, terrifying new chapter, at the end of what has felt like one interminably long summer, will do much to calm the nerves and affirm this next step. For me, it’s a must-watch and one I’m sure to be bundled up in bed watching many a night this autumn.
