This time of year is my favorite, but not for what you might think. When I was younger, the end of year excitement was definitely in the back to back holiday celebrations. The back to back holiday celebration isn’t fun when you’re the adult making all the fun happen. So the fun for me is all about the movies that are released during this cold season. Who doesn’t love snuggling up on the sofa in their coziest noshing on good snacks to watch the latest cinematic sensation? The first time I saw a movie on Christmas Day was for The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Up until that point I thought it was pretty much shameful to go to the movies on Christmas Day because you’re supposed to be with family thinking about baby Jesus and all. I guess you can say I bailed on baby Jesus for Elijah Wood. It was pretty spectacular! Cue memories of me in the theater, devastated that the trilogy was over. I went with cousins so I didn’t completely bail on all holiday traditions. Plus, the titas and Inay were glad to be rid of us for a couple of hours.

Once I gave into this commercial and secular Christmas tradition, movies have since been a part of my holiday celebration. The day after Christmas in 2019, I saw Greta Gerwig’s Little Women. After all the festive commotion, I needed some me time as well as an artist date. Cue the memory of me walking out of the theater to a gold and orange sunset and feeling all the feels. Little Women was the last movie I saw in theaters before the shut down. I couldn’t tell you off the top of my head what movies I saw this time last year (maybe it was Soul or Hamilton?). A Google search would help jog my memory, but I think it says a lot about what a hectic time that was. So this year, I needed to change that and I took the risk to see a movie in theaters. A matinee movie during the weekday allows you to keep to social distance regulations. It was before Thanksgiving and I saw Pablo Larraín’s Spencer the day it was released.

Likewise with seeing Little Women, I needed time to be alone and most importantly, I needed an artist date to reboot my creativity. Sure enough I got the creative boost I needed. Like any good nerdy artist, I had brought my sketchbook with me. No, I didn’t sketch in the theater. It’s too dark — otherwise I would have. I really would have. Instead, I took mental notes of my favorite scenes and the costumes that Kristen Stewart wore. As soon as the movie end (I did take a moment to pause and soak it in), I went to my car, pulled out my sketchbook and with a pen and I sketched out the scenes and Diana looks I took note off. It was exhilarating doing that and I plan on doing the same when I finally have a moment to chill this holiday. I’m sure I’ll find time after the gift wrapping and cooking for Noche Buena and Christmas.

Taking time to recenter my creativity has been the thing I needed during the pandemic. It just took me a while to realize how to do it. I’ma do my best to remember that as I enter 2022 and I’ll be sure to share my creative journey here cause we all could all use creative support.

Now here are my thoughts on Spencer. Be warned, there are spoilers.

• The movie opens with the line, “A fable from a true tragedy” which let’s you know straight away that this isn’t a movie that will give you all sorts of facts that Diana fanatics crave. So searching on Google if Diana ate her pearl necklace was real is well, silly and besides the point of the entire movie.

• For me, this movie speaks on the mental health struggles of someone who has an eating disorder and how an unhealthy environment can cause severe anxiety. It’s definitely a movie that puts you in someone else’s shoes.

• And that someone else’s shoes isn’t particularly Diana’s, but women. Throughout the movie I saw themes that are tied to how a woman is perceived in society: the food she eats/doesn’t eat, the clothes she wears, how she uses her time, her actions associated with her safety/well being, her relationships, and how she mothers. There were pain points for me for sure which not only makes Diana relatable, but encourages compassion for women.

• Okay, enough with the seriousness, can we say a big WTF to that weighing tradition!

• LOL to it being cold and Diana asking them to turn up the heat. That is fact as told by You’re Wrong About.

• The scene of Kristen Stewart breaking the necklace and the pearls spilling into the soup. Love the color palette: red, green, and cream. I also love Stewart’s acting in this. I did laugh a bit and thought, “All her looking-pained-acting from Twilight did come to good use!” Read my Twilight Saga thoughts here and watch how Kristen Stewart did that scene here.

• I may not have sketched in the theater, but I did take notes on my phone! I know I broke the no-cell-phone rule! Thank goodness for dark mode! So here’s a note that helped inspire one of the illustrations: “Scene in the kitchen refrigerator. Diana in jeans, black belt, beige silk with lace trim tank top, and baby pink cardigan (very pink and cream colored scene). That’s an exclusive look into my creative process.

• Major saying, “I watch to make sure others do not see.” So the paparazzi don’t see or Diana doesn’t see?! Who you talking about Major!?!?!?!?

• That scene of Diana with her boys on Christmas Eve and all the other scenes of Diana’s playfulness with her boys. My momma heart melted!

• Chef Chef Darren saying, “If it weren’t for the gun the birds wouldn’t exist.” The comparison of the birds and guns to Diana and the photographers throughout the movie. . .so good.

• And that brings me into Diana’s line, “I’m going to take my place among the pheasants.” Just. So. Good.
  

• All the elements that make you, the viewer, paranoid about control:

  • The army – WTF the army at your family holiday?! 

  • The cooks opening the food boxes one by one in an orderly fashion.

  • Diana’s clothes all labeled.

  • Not eating until the queen takes her first bite. And that queen was mooooving slow! I was hangry just watching her.

  • The curtains sewn shut.

  • Last but not least, Major putting the Anne Bolyne book on Diana’s bed! I audibly gasped!

• Diana’s mom style at the end. We all gonna be dressing like that. I know I will!

What movies are you looking forward to watching to recoup from the holidays? I have Tick, Tick, Boom, Silent Night, Licorice Pizza, and Don’t Look Up on my must watch list. If you’ve seen any of them, let me know what scenes or looks you’d like to see illustrated.