Editor’s Picks: to Be Watching

Beautiful Losers 

Directed by Aaron Rose and Joshua Leonard

It wasn’t too long ago that kids didn’t sit on their phones all day watching someone make a chocolate lion out of several types of chocolate, tied up nicely in a 10-second, fast-forwarded video for all you, attention-deprived youths. Fortunately, we have this documentary to remind us of what life could have been like, or what could be. Beautiful Losers, a documentary directed by Aaron Rose and Joshua Leonard, follows the lives of a collective group of New Yorkers, captured by L.A artists and creatives. The collective single-handedly defined a generation of creative, young adults and inadvertently affected international art spheres for decades to come. Featured in it are some of our favourite mischief-makers that went on to have highly successful careers—namely: Harmony Korine, Ed & Deanna Templeton, Mike Mills, Barry Mcgee and more. 

Fallen Angels

Directed by Wong Kar-Wai

Set in steamy bars, bedrooms and full of spicy romance—Wong Kar-Wai takes us deep into the intimate lives of two young, dumb lovers navigating the destructively sodden world they live in—or so they thought. This journey through the streets of Hong Kong follows two young romantics that are each other's bad influence.

Wings of Desire 

Directed by Wim Wenders 

Wings of desire… one of the greatest films of all time (arguably). One of those films you wish you could watch with fresh eyes over and over. This film is a classic, yet hidden away all the while. A film student's little secret. Shot in 1998 with German subtitles, the story follows two guardian angels placed on earth to protect human beings. Set in Berlin, the two shift in-between the divided city as they watch, listen and compare people's inner thoughts, guiding them through the world order. Throughout the film, the angels meander through the streets conversing over their memories of the world transforming, from the beginning of time—recalling the glaciers forming and rivers finding their paths. Here’s a still from an iconic and melancholic Nick Cave and his band in a show scene in Berlin.

Natural Born Killers 

Directed by Oliver Stone Written By Quentin Tarantino

This 1994 film was controversial upon release. An absurd glorification of sex and homicide combined—a canny symbol of the toxic symbiosis between homicide, the media and a mockery of the American police force. This film literally made every kid in America want to go out and inaugurate anarchy. Written by Tarantino and directed by Oliver Stone, the story follows a homicidal central couple, Mickey (Woody Harrelson) and Mallory Knox (Juliette Lewis) whom set out on a seductively-blood-thirsty-road-trip-rampage killing and mocking everyone and anyone in their midst. Shot intertwining both colour and black and white, this film marked a stylistic turning point in filmmaking for its successors. A must-watch. 

Chungking Express 

Directed by Wong Kar-Wai 

One of the defining works of the 1990's, Wong Kar-Wei captures the loss of innocence. Every day, protagonist Takeshi Kaneshiro, buys a can of pineapple with an expiration date of May 1, symbolising the day he will get over his first love. The story follows a story of two characters, one a drug dealer and one a cop, navigating romantic pain and infatuation through a dizzying, candy-coloured mashup of daydreams and divinity.