An election celebration, sort of

I can remember very clearly the first few movies I watched after Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election. They would not have been good movies anyway, but under those circumstances, they were awful.

The first was the Christopher Guest mockumentary Mascots, which my wife and I tried listlessly to watch on actual election night, Australia time, when most Americans were already asleep (or not asleep, as the case may have been). Just terrible.

The second was a Hank Williams Jr. biopic starring Tom Hiddleston, I Saw the Light. I didn't see any light.

It wasn't until the third movie, which I had to both watch and review before I want to bed after a night when I slept very little, that I saw a movie I liked. That was Arrival, a movie that most people liked a lot more than I did. 

In 2020 things started out feeling very similar. In the gloomy middle hours of the night America time, which was the 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. timeframe in Australia, I again listlessly tried to watch something, though had the smarts not to ruin my potential enjoyment of a movie this time. I watched an episode of Schitt's Creek, the most optimistic show on television, but felt like I had basically ruined that instead -- one of the final half-dozen of the whole series, at that.

But then things started to get better.

And things have continued to get better since.

Last night, even though the presidential election had not yet been called for Joe Biden, I was feeling in a sort of celebratory mood. 

So I overdosed on that optimism. 

I didn't write about Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga when I first watched it back in June. What usually happens is that when I review a movie for ReelGood, it takes some of the steam out of any potential post on The Audient. 

But I loved it. Nine out of 10, 4.5 stars. It was like an injection of pure joy into my heart. You can read my full review here. 

I knew I'd probably watch it again before the end of the year, to figure out where it truly shakes out in my year-end list, so I figured, last night was as good a night as any. I liked it a little less this time, in part because comedy benefits from your first exposure to it, in part because I recognize there are ways that it's a bit lumpy.

But the reasons I chose it were twofold:

1) I love the sense of inclusion it promotes. The song-along in the center of the movie, its clear high point, is one of the most racially and LGBTQ positive five-minute segments of any mainstream movie I've ever seen. It gives me chills even to write about it. That is the America I hope to see under Joe Biden. That may be naive, but this is the kind of movie that celebrates naive hopes about our better angels.

2) There are no villains in this movie. There are characters who are presented as antagonists, and would be in a different movie. But by the end we realize those were red herrings. This movie is comprised of good people just trying to do the right thing.

I suppose my second point is a bit simplistic. There is, of course, a moustache-twirling Icelandic businessman who is responsible for some heinous crimes and is the most clear presence thwarting our heroes. But even this guy is worried primarily about the potential hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest as bankrupting Iceland. Even the Trump in this story has objectives that are understandable on some level.

I'm hoping a real celebration will be forthcoming at some point in the next, jeez, month? I don't know what I will watch. I know that I will drink. Happy drinking, not sad drinking.

But I do know that I'm glad for the existence of movies like Eurovision Song Contest, which show a vision (if you will) of the world that I hope we can achieve, maybe not as far from now as we may think.