Self-Care Sunday
Watch a movie
This is the latest in my occasional series on the importance of engaging in some self-care in order to help you deal better with the fight against worldwide authoritarianism and fascism.
When I was composing my latest Self-Care Sunday post, I could have never predicted that it would go live one day after an alleged assassination attempt against Donald Trump. With the way that the US election is literally going off of the rails, engaging in a little self-care has become even more important now than ever before.
Two years ago I was shopping at Target when I came across a special store display that was selling DVDs of the films in the Despicable Me and Minions series which, at the time, included Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2, Despicable Me 3, and the first Minions movie. Each DVD in that series was on sale for only $5 each.
I had never seen any of the movies in that series but I've long seen images of those yellow pill-shaped Minions slapped on toys, clothing, and various food products. I think I may have even seen Minions balloons that were walked down the streets of New York City during the annual broadcast of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on television. I thought that spending $5 on buying just the first Despicable Me movie was a good way to see what the fuss was all about since it was cheaper than actually paying the matinee price at the local movie theater. If I ended up not liking that movie, I could always put the DVD in one of the Little Free Library boxes that are up in my neighborhood.
So I watched Despicable Me and I ended up loving it. I went back to Target and paid another $5 to buy Despicable Me 2. I watched it and I ended up loving it as much as the first one. I went back to Target again and paid another $5 to buy Despicable Me 3 and I loved it as well as the other two. I went back to Target and paid $5 to buy the first Minions prequel and I loved that one just as much as the others.
By that point the second Minions prequel known as Minions: The Rise of Gru was just released on DVD. This was the newest movie in that franchise so the DVD price was around $15 instead of $5 for the other films. I purchased it anyway, saw it, and I loved it just as much as the others.
This summer the movie Despicable Me 4 has recently been released in the movie theaters, which, as of this writing, is currently the only way you can watch that movie. I decided to go see it but I wanted to re-watch the earlier movies first. So this past week I watched that whole series in story chronological order: Minions, Minions: The Rise of Gru, Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2, and Despicable Me 3. I watched one movie each evening until I finished watching the last movie that I currently own. I enjoyed re-watching that series just as much as I did two summers ago. Then I went to the local theater where I saw Despicable Me 4.
There was a benefit to watching so many movies in one week. This week was Week 2 of the aftermath of Joe Biden's abysmal debate performance and the mainstream media was sounding the drum beat for Joe Biden to drop out of the race now. Even the fact that President Biden gave an excellent speech at this week’s NATO summit wasn't enough for some naysayers like Michael Moore, who was claiming that having the 81-year-old Biden continue his campaign was “elder abuse.”
Of course the mainstream media's constant obsessive focus on Joe Biden's debate performance at the expense of covering the more recent news has spilled over into social media as so many people were debating whether Joe Biden should quit the race or not. If I hadn't decided to spend some time this week watching the Minions and Despicable Me movies, I probably would've spent precious time and sanity reading all of the nasty arguments about Joe Biden.
I previously wrote about the wisdom of stepping away from social media every now and then. I think you're going to be more successful if you replace viewing social media with another activity. Watching a movie is the perfect alternative to losing your mind over other people's social media posts.
I'm not saying that you have to watch any of the Minions and Despicable Me movies like I did. I know that my taste in movies may not be your taste in movies and that's okay. In fact, that's why I decided not to recommend any movies in this post for you to watch. Instead I'm going to tell you where to watch the movies.
The local movie theater is the logical place to watch movies. Many of the newer theaters have plush comfortable seats where you can adjust your seat with the push of a button. The main downside is that going to the movies at a movie theater has become so expensive, especially if the theater is part of a corporate-owned chain like AMC or Regal Cinema. Not only do the admission prices begin at $12 but even buying a small drink and a small bag of popcorn together cost $15.
There are other alternatives to watching movies that don't entail spending a huge amount of money at a corporate movie theater chain. There are some movie theaters, especially locally owned ones, who show second-run movies (these are movies that had been first released a month or two ago) for a lower admission price. There are local non-corporate owned movie theaters that may have special showings of older movies for a low admission price. It was how I was able to watch the classic 1944 movie Gaslight on the big silver screen.
If you still subscribe to cable TV, there are plenty of channels to watch movies. Yes, there are the premium channels like HBO that costs extra on your cable bill but if you choose to stick with just the basic cable package, you can watch movies on channels like Turner Classic Movies (TCM), Syfy, Arts and Entertainment (A&E), Lifetime, and the Disney Channel. You would have to put up with watching ads but you can at least watch movies.
If you’re someone who has long since cut the cable cord, there are a few other options to watch movies. One is to check out the various streaming services like Hulu, Disney+, Paramount+, Max (formerly known as HBO Max), Netflix, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime. The downside is that if you like watching—let's say—the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises, you would have to subscribe to two different streaming services while paying monthly fees for both. Another downside is that there are times when a streaming service will arbitrarily remove a movie from its servers. (Netflix is especially notorious for doing this.)
Which probably explains the reason why more people are embracing physical media like vinyl, CDs, and DVDs. The good news is that you can buy DVDs for dirt cheap prices at thrift stores, yard sales, dollar stores, and other similar outlets.
Sometimes you could get lucky and find a DVD in a Little Free Library box. Which means that you can watch a movie for free.
The local public library also provide a free option for watching DVDs. Many of them have DVDs that you can check out just like a book, view in the privacy of your own home, then return it to the library for the next patron to check out.
If that's not enough, the public library also has an online streaming service called Kanopy where you can stream movies for free as long as you have a currently valid library card.
YouTube has movies that you can stream as well, and I'm not just talking about amateur homemade movies made by individual users (although you can find plenty of those). You can view major Hollywood films and foreign films without having to purchase a subscription like you would with Netflix or Disney+. (You can subscribe to YouTube Premium where you can view the same content with no commercial interruption.) Some films are completely free to watch but you have to put up with ads. Some films have a rent or buy option where you can rent or buy a film without watching commercials. It depends on the individual movie and how old is that film.
If you want to watch movies online for free but don't want to put up with ads, you can stream movies on the Internet Archive, which is a nonprofit site that is dedicated to preserving the Internet as much as possible. They have a variety of films, especially major Hollywood movies that have since fallen into the public domain. You can watch movies on the Internet Archive right here.
Other Self-Care Sunday Tips
Contact current friends and make new ones.
Step away from social media for a few hours.
Cultivate a sense of humor and laugh.
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