5) The Graduate
The uniting theme in these movies to help deal with life’s bleakness is I guess approaching life’s inevitable existential ennui with a good-humored shrug. One of the best films ever made on this feeling, this sense of purposelessness overcome by a passion that turns out to be temporary and ultimately unfulfilling, is The Graduate, brought to us in 1967 by director Mike Nichols, screenwriter Buck Henry, and star Dustin Hoffman.
Protagonist Benjamin Braddock is not unlike the aforementioned characters, not knowing what to do next, feeling pressure from everyone around him while wanting to remain in control of his own life and decisions despite feeling as though the power to do so is slipping away from him. There’s a sense that even at age 21 that he’s running short on time, like Caden, and alienated from everyone around him, like Bob Harris. It’s a real punch in the gut when he finally commits to something, to Elaine, specifically, and finds there’s a certain hollowness to this pursuit, though not until after he steals her away. Pat from Silver Linings would probably call this a happy ending, and cut it at that final shot before the despair sets into their faces. But the sense that Benjamin is back where he started is a touch that the Coen brothers would likely find appropriate.
If you want to stick with the silver linings of these 5 titles, go ahead and close the tab now. For those of us looking to go deeper into the void, to face things about the world that are irresolvable and desperate but, you know, probably good to be wary of, we shall proceed with 5 more.
