Behind the walls or remote monasteries lived people who were distinguished by their intelligence and education. They followed different rules than the majority of the dark world, they knew truths inaccessible to others. But behind the curtain of religious devotion, they hid their sins and corrupt minds, committing carnal deeds and making use of those whose power they held in their hands. Behind the walls of remote monasteries, convents, and chapels there are still scandals and crimes just waiting to be discovered. Would you like to take part in a criminal investigation run by two monks and discover truths hidden by the facade of God's devotion? The Name of the Rose.
One way is to finish your education boasting a proud graduation diploma, smiling from the photograph, equipped with a pricey gift from your parents. One way is to find a respected, well-paid job and contribute something to the society by working from nine to five and paying taxes. This is one way for millions of people. There are other ways, which don't involve money, tight ties which connect you to a system of interconnected vessels: banks, offices, governments, borders, and shops. Very few choose another way: that of freedom, uninhibited dreams, but also fear and danger of the unknown. There are individuals willing to leave everything behind: family, rules, schools, and prospects to gain a different education and push themselves into the wild. One man's life story and a shift of perspective for us all.
When we are on the verge of adulthood, they delude us that dreams are there to come true, that our plans, hopes, and wishes will be fulfilled no matter what. We jump on the bandwagon of adulthood wishing for something better, different and happier than was offered to our parents. Then we find ourselves among rules impossible to overcome, we repeat the same patterns: men stuck in boring jobs to support the family, women stranded between nappies and spatulas to balance work, home, and life. No one told us that dreams and ambitions die on the way to the rubbish bin and dishwasher. No one told us about the frustrations of adulthood, failed expectations, lack of prospects, fear, insecurity, and helplessness. But no one told us that it's too late to learn. One unhappy marriage, which is to say what would happen if Rose had really saved Jack on this floating door raft. Revolutionary Road.
Imagine that you live in a bubble of happiness. You don't have to work, you float on the flying carpet of luxury among designer goods, jewelry, parties and equally successful and wealthy friends. You share the fairy tale fate of Cinderella, who finally found her Godmother and Prince Charming with castle and gold. Quite unfortunately, nothing is given forever and you might soon be left with nothing. How to build your life anew after a traumatic experience and why going mad is actually an option? The hard lesson of life for every seemingly fortunate woman who had her rose-tinted glasses shattered to pieces. Blue Jasmine.
You know these suburban areas. Seemingly, they are a perfect place for cultivating family values, relaxing after a hard day at work in the city. There's a spot for a barbecue with friends, safe children games, there's a driveway for your car and a lawn to mow. It's a great place to make friends, to enjoy the space of your mortgaged house, to lead a happy and peaceful life among trees, bushes, and white fences. Unless you watched Desperate Housewives and the curtains of naivety were raised from your eyes soon enough. Who'd have thought that the suburbs could be the base for a failed murder plot, which twists and turns in a hilarious way? Real America with real people and real memories of racial segregation in the background. Highly entertaining, Suburbicon.
The only valuable things in life that we need are food, water, shelter, work, and healthcare. You don't need diamonds, fancy clothes, designer goods and cars. Trust me, you really don't. But why, even in the richest countries in the world, it's still easier to buy a designer bag than to pay for cancer treatment? Why it takes years to pay off your mortgage, to educate yourself and why does it cost so much to treat a disease? Only selected few have enough money to grant everybody the right to long and healthy life. Sicko, a documentary shedding some light on the healthcare system in the USA, proving that the richest countries in the world don't really have the best of both worlds. Food for thought and a trigger to the bullet for future reforms.
Best way to find a friend is to be sad, miserable and in despair. Then you know that friendship is real and yours is the one to trust. Your sexless soulmate doesn't want anything from you apart from these bits and pieces of misery to help him heal his own lost soul. But how to deal with your best friend's happiness when none of this happiness concerns you? How to survive the separation and deal with a loss of the closest and most trusted person in your life? How to build your own life if you're struck by loneliness and why are we so often betrayed by those we love the most? Bitter-sweet but true. Life Partners.
Don't you think that you work too much to buy too many unnecessary things? Don't you have a feeling that you waste your life on unimportant material possessions, failing at your relationships, life goals, and dreams? We all fall into the trap of consumerism once we start earning money. We earn more to spend more; not earning enough, we buy more than we can afford, flooding ourselves in debt. Is there any solution to stress and frustration? Does having less ultimately means having more? Two guys climbing the corporate career ladder experienced a moment of crisis to come up with a very tempting philosophy. What is really important in life and why does it cost so little? Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things. Enjoy.
Our brains are extraordinary. They allow us to remember images, sounds, smells, numbers, and bring back memories from years before. They make it possible for us to learn, speak, write, communicate, and survive. Their individual structure put us in categories of predispositions, making some of us science and maths-oriented, others: artists, soothing our senses; skillful parents and teachers, bringing up generations of the future; businessmen, creating jobs for millions; doctors, immune to the disgust of blood and guts, and engineers, building everything from nothing. Our minds made us survive millennia and push our civilization towards the better, healthier and stronger. For some, being a genius means failing at other aspects of life adjustments, as you cannot achieve anything without sacrifices. Temple Grandin, a woman who revolutionized the cattle industry, despite being a woman in a man-dominated world and in spite of suffering from autism. Enjoy.
It's difficult to have a healthy relationship with food when the tastiest treats are the most unhealthy. If you want to eat what you like the most, you're going to end up in fast food restaurants and binging on chocolate bars and soda. On the other hand, if you switch to clean eating, you might kill yourself from the 'healthy' amount of nutrients. But our relationship with food is far more complicated than that, it ranges from starvation and not eating enough to overeating and using various means to get rid of the excess e.g. vomiting and laxatives. Anorexia, bulimia, mortal obesity, stomach surgeries, fad diets, diet pills: we are the only species in the world which haven't managed our nutrition yet, even though we claim that we are the most intelligent. At times, food or the lack of it can lead you to a simple suicidal path towards death. A story about a complex problem of anorexia and psychological factors which have an influence on a person's life. Teaching empathy, To the Bone.
Imagine that you can take a trip to the future where everything you know is different from what you're used to. Imagine that the things available in your time are no longer available in another time, the work that you used to do is impossible, as there are different services required. What was free is now considered a luxury and what was taken for granted is hard to find. Times change, you no longer feel free and comfortable. The only thing that doesn't change is the fact that you are a human being and you are subjected to the same spurt of emotions. Despite the time, despite technology and change. A love story, which in the loveless surroundings of our offices, hard chairs of conference rooms, and cities crowded with anonymous individuals, can happen to us all. Enjoy.
It's difficult to achieve something when life from birth places obstacles before you, making it difficult to even stay alive. It's excruciating to run away from pathology which operates as a norm and is the only known reality to a child. Our parents build us in a way that we are not entirely aware of. Whether we have them or not, whether they are perfectionists or extremely neglectful, they leave an impact on our adult lives. Their fears become our targets to overcome, their insecurities push us to have a certain lifestyle, their deficits make us work harder for something we want but failed to have as children. But without them, we would be nothing at all. The Glass Castle. How strong do you have to be to stand such rough upbringing and why running away from it all may not be all it's cracked up to be?