"F" is for Friday, and Filmophelia

Star Wars geeks, when they find out
that someone "doesn't get" the movies.

My life would be an entirely different one had I not been raised by a film and journalism student.  Unlike other children, who were saturated with Disney princess films and karaoke discs, I spent my infancy on Beatrix Potter and Mazzy Star and the rest of my youth talking about books like Watership Down and movies like Stalker (the depressing 1979 Russian film, not the horror flick).  I'm also a first-class Star Wars geek (I took one of my middle school yearbook pics wearing a Princess Leia-inspired hairdo. Fandom! I'll post a tutorial on that soon!).  I don't entirely know what us fans are supposed to call ourselves, though--I've heard "Star Warriors," which I guess is a sort of play off of "Star Trekkies," but it's not as universally acknowledged.  Fortunately the lack of a fan group name hasn't seemed to be an issue for me--most people see that I have a doll house with Anakin and Padme figurines and the truth about the obsession surfaces on its own.
But where am I going with this? Maybe I'm just trying to say that film/lit/music have had a profound influence on my existence, and, chances are, your opinions on them have done the same thing to you.  Some may say that fiction doesn't impact us, but it does, and the characters that unfold before our eyes--be it on the screen or on the page or in the lyrics--have the capability of making or breaking our day. They become real people, and their struggles become ours.  And then we end up wanting to buy the pint of Ben & Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch (whoever invented that flavor is both horrible and insane in the best way possible) so that we can binge-watch while eating it and drinking coffee.  (However, if you're feeling this way due to some film you saw or book you read, then your timing is perfect because it's Friday.  TGIF!)

<3 Frances