Eat Your Vegetables: “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”
“I use this film to talk to my students about… the unknown knowns that orient our behavior in ways we’re never entirely cognizant of.”
Eat Your Vegetables: Beowulf
“The poem reminds us of a culture’s fragility, not only through its contents but by its very existence.”
Eat Your Vegetables: “Out of the Past”
In film noir, you never win: you just see how long you can stave off losing.
Eat Your Vegetables: “Singin’ in the Rain”
“Singin’ in the Rain” is glorious because it revels in its own artificiality.
Eat Your Vegetables: “Citizen Kane”
Let’s work with the assumption that “Citizen Kane” says something essential about being an American.
Eat Your Vegetables: “Gulliver’s Travels”
Jonathan Swift’s satire helps us see what’s wrong not only with the world but with ourselves.
Eat Your Vegetables: “The Ambassadors”
Holbein’s painting warns us against seeking complete knowledge as well as succumbing to fatal pessimism.
Eat Your Vegetables: “Days of Heaven”
“When you watch this film, you keep falling back on particulars because its scope seems so grand. You think things like: ‘God allowed train trestles to exist so Terrence Malick could film them'”
Eat Your Vegetables: “Paradise Lost”
“It is the story of humanity: the fall. Its style is suitably grand, and its chief character represents not just one race or nation but all people.”
