With the festive season in full swing, I thought it best to find us some chill, relaxing films to soothe our minds and hearts with. This year has been a rollercoaster ride. So, to relieve all the stress and deep clean your mind, body and soul, here are the best big screen treats to cuddle up with.
Genre: Romance, Drama, Comedy, Action
6. Heartbreak High
Imagine being in college and everyone at school knowing your deepest, darkest sex encounters. Everyone you've ever slept with. Everyone you've ever kissed. There's basically a map where you can pull up all the hidden sex related information you'd want to know about your crush or nemesis. That's Heartbreak High in a nutshell - High school kids waking to find their dirty laundry hanging out to dry. Oh, I also love that it's Australian. It's good to explore movies besides Hollywood.
5. My Life with the Walter Boys
Despite ranking fifth, I quite enjoyed My Life with the Walter Boys. It's pretty out of this world yet somehow an everyday concept I couldn't believe hadn't been explored till now. So, a teenage girl loses her entire family in an accident. She's forced to travel across States to rural Colorado to start over. But, as soon as she lands, she's bombarded with all the crazy boys tend to get up to when young. Eight boys, was it? I lost count, all living under one roof. Oh, there was a girl, who must have felt so lucky to have found a sister. But her presence is hardly felt in an often chaotic house.
I loved this show for its twists and turns too. Each episode explores an almost entirely new concept about living with so many boys. Then, the part we all expect to pick up where you fall for one of your step brothers. Scratch that. Two of your step brothers because who said you can't have it all.
4. Everything Now
Eating disorders, I feel, are hardly given much thought in Kenya and Africa. I would love to debate about it sometime, but moving on. Everything Now features a teenage girl struggling with anorexia. More specifically, the struggle friends around you go through to help hide it from your parents, to talk you down from falling off the cliff, to hold you down when it comes to dating and crushes. Friends go through the most too, especially when you have a close knit group you've known since forever.
Sometimes it feels like you can't possibly find wrongdoing in a person suffering from a mental illness. But Everything Now is the kind of show where you really want to punch the main character in the face. She can get so frustrating to be around, even as you consciously stream the show from home. I love it. Makes me feel things beside sadness or happiness. Make me angry. Make me doubt and tense about the ending. Rollercoaster of emotions is how I'd describe this show.
3. Obliterated
Action moves have become so boring because they always follow the same story arc. But Obliterated completely threw me, and in a surprisingly cheeky way. Take away the nudity and profanity and you might just have one of the most creative shows I've seen in a very, very long time.
The concept is simple. An elite task force goes out to celebrate a successful mission. They do every kind of drug, knowingly and unknowingly. It's an insane party that comes to an epic standstill when they're called back on the job. Apparently, they confiscated a fake bomb - the real one's still out there. As predictable as you may think it gets from here, I was still constantly at the edge of my seat, with the bomb seemingly always slipping away. Each episode builds to a grand finish - I couldn't have wished it any other way.
2. Classified
I love Classified for including references to the myriad cultures in the African continent, even though its setting kicks off in Oakland before moving to Johannesburg. A 15 year old girl is facing serious criminal charges. So, her parents organize for her to relocate to SA until things calm down.
When she gets to her new home, she's stoked how her father and stepmother have been living like Kings while she and her mom have been struggling to make ends meet in Oakland. She swears to find a way to return to her actual home, but ends up caught in a fight against terrorism. Literally caught up, going undercover at her new fancy school and all.
To my Kenyan readers, Classified has an Ethiopian-Kenyan character who speaks Swahili, along with his family. I got goosebumps seeing my country shine, even if for a few episodes.
1. XO, Kitty
My passion for movies is partially owed to its freedom to see how other cultures live life. I have a relatively good idea of how the American lifestyle is, for example, even if sometimes skewed to the filmmakers way of viewing things. Still, I live for the day every country is releasing myriads of quality movies, just so I can live vicariously through them. XO, Kitty explores South Korea. It's about an American-Korean girl who enrolls in a Seoul summer school to learn more about her late mother's upbringing.
It's almost like a synergy between Kdrama and Hollywood - part of the reason it stands out. And of course, great writing and film.
Hurry now, stream these shows on Netflix, and tell me which one you like best. I'd love to hear your favorite Netflix shows this festive season too. Sharing is caring, you know, so, hey, why not check out "Netflix's The Stranger,
Sworn to Turn Your World
Upside Down" while at it?