Selma has a movie that will leave many audience members clapping as the film concludes. It’s a feel-good movie and an important one for all generations to see. Older generations maybe we have forgotten some of the critical details over the years. Younger generations may be being exposed to this for the first time, or at least the first time outside of maybe a textbook or one of those dry 45-minute, made-for-education documentaries. I am happy this movie received a PG-13 rating rather than an R one. It is an essential movie for everyone to see. I am not one who will ever cheer or hoot and holler at the end of a movie. That isn’t my style. I was talking with my mom the other day, and she said people stood and clapped at the end of Unbroken. I found Unbroken to be one of the most overrated, bland movies. Selma certainly isn’t that, and I was happy there were some cheers at the end of this movie. I think I’m just seeing it at a time in my life where, outside of a select few movies (including none in 2014…still some hope for American Sniper, though) where I am just not going to be moved in the same things that a typical audience might be. My favorite movies these days are dark, psychological thrillers (Foxcatcher) or movies about either wrecked relationships/less than perfect relationships (Blue Valentine, Take This Waltz, Revolutionary Road, All the Real Girls) overcome diversity to find a way (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Painted Veil). So just where I was with my mental state, I had sort of had a mental block going in. I was confident I would like the movie, but I was by no means ready to see it was going to win all of these Academy Awards for which it will likely receive nominations. The nominations it will receive. The wins, I think, could become hard to find.
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