The Witch Who Builds Her Own Ladder

Hey witches, 

Another day, another post where I share the infinite wisdom I learn from movies. Well, what I sometimes learn from movies. A large way humans learn as a collective is through experience and sharing stories, the modern method of this being through movies. I’ve found that sometimes it’s not about the message the movie is trying to convey, but instead what you can take from it, a compromise between their message and your perspective.

Recently, I finally watched the movie Together, with Dave Franco and Alison Brie. I’m not going to go much into the plot but it’s about a couple that is forced together, literally. While it’s about two becoming one, the relationship ideal, you would think they’d be happy to begin with. That fusing together would be the problem, but it’s part of a larger clusterfuck that is their lives. This couple seem in this “will they, won’t they” relationship throughout the whole movie. While they deal with their situation, it becomes an internal struggle for the viewer on whether they’re going to stay together. Whether they should stay together.

Even without watching the movie, you can correctly assume the movie poster gives the ending away. You don’t combine eyelids and then get to live life afterwards the same as it was before. There’s definitely a pre-and-post life around the event that is the eyelid acquisition merger. They eventually reach a decision on what to do, but it’s so late that it doesn’t truly feel like their own and more so a way to wrap up the movie. The movie itself felt like the message was “it’s okay to settle, you’ll grow together.”

The ambivalence on whether they decide to stay together is frustrating but it’s a good reminder that not making a decision on your life is equal to making a decision. Life will make a decision for you if you can’t decide or sometimes if you do decide and you’re meant to go in another way. The passage of time can give its own closure to a situation. 

Sometimes you’re forced to go with the flow of life due to circumstances. That’s not to mean you don’t have any agency at all but it can feel like there’s a compromise that comes with choice. Like you can go in the direction you want in whatever you decide to do, but it’s different from how you expected it to be in your head. 

Overall, I felt the movie to be meh, but one of the things this movie reminds me of that’s worth sharing is the concept of radical acceptance. Sometimes you are forced to accept the things you can not change, but you still have the power to make your situation better, no matter how small. Maybe it’s finding enjoyment or finding something to improve your quality of life. Either way, it’s finding the balance of your situation and changing what you can as you work towards what you want. It’s a step in the right direction and a more actionable step than doing nothing.

Until next time, witches. Take care of yourself and look out for each other.