Movies that inspire.. and make us jealous

An observation from Jeff Kirschner, one of the writers in my current Pages I: The First Draft course:

“What types of movies do I like? Those that leave you impassioned yet speechless: American Beauty, Good Will Hunting, Slumdog Millionaire, Crash, and anything Pixar. The stories that make me feel simultaneously jealous and inspired; jealous that I didn’t come up with the idea, inspired to create something as meaningful.”

Haven’t we all been there: As a movie ends, sitting there in the dark, balancing those two feelings — inspiration and jealousy.

Actually that would be a great movie list, especially if we focused it on the writing: Movies that both inspire us and make us jealous.

I’ll break the ice: I’d put Shakespeare in Love in that category. As the credits rolled, I remember being agog at that movie, how it was both funny and sad, wonderfully structured plot and subplots as well as delightfully crafted characters, plenty of physical humor balanced out with dialogue that at times soared. A fantastic homage to Shakespeare himself.

As a writer, It inspired me… and it made me jealous as hell!

How about you? What movies would you add to the list: Movies that inspired you… and made you jealous.

Comment Archive