Regina Alongi
Connector Editor
We thought this would be an appropriate way to open the school year. For the first few papers, we’ll be highlighting some of the best college-themed pieces of entertainment! This week will be movies, followed by albums, then finally onto video games. In no specific order, here are a few college-themed movies that we think you should check out (we left out “Animal House” because it’s a given):
“Accepted” (2006)
Our last year in high school was probably the most terrifying one, right? Applying to schools, anxiously waiting the acceptance or denial letters, the terrible bouts of incurable senioritis… When Bartleby Gaines, played by Justin Long, learns that he hasn’t been accepted to any of the schools he applied to, he creates a new college in order to make his strict father happy. He enlists the help of his friends and other classmates who hadn’t gotten accepted to make his fake school as realistic as possible.
“22 Jump Street” (2014)
The boys are back and it’s… nearly the same as before, but just as enjoyable. The charming partnership of Schmidt and Jenko (Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, respectively) return to go undercover as, not high school students, but college students. Their attempt to uncover a drug network at a local college brings them through both physical and emotional challenges, testing their relationship as friends and partners-in-crime-fighting.
“The Graduate” (1967)
Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson. Aside from being one of the most iconic movies of the past 100 years, The Graduate is basically a what-not-to-do guide for college grads. Having just graduated from an unnamed college in the northeast, twenty-year-old Benjamin Braddock has no clue what he wants to do with his life. He returns home to the west coast, falls in love with his dad’s business partner’s neglected wife, and then falls in love with her daughter. Moral of the story: find a nice job after college, not a nice somebody else’s wife. And watch this classic film.
“Legally Blonde” (2001)
Elle Woods has it all going for her – she’s a senior at UCLA, majors in fashion merchandising, is the president of her sorority, and is in love with her boyfriend, Warner Huntington III, who will be attending Harvard Law School. Instead of proposing to her like she thinks he will, Warner breaks up with Elle because he wants to be with someone more serious, or as he puts it, “a Jackie [Onassis] not a Marilyn [Monroe].” In attempts to prove that she can be serious and isn’t just a ditzy blonde, she applies to Harvard Law and is accepted. In her attempt to win back her ex, she finds that she has more legal understanding than she ever thought.
“Good Will Hunting” (1997)
It’s necessary that we include an iconic Robin Williams film somewhere in this paper. Written by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, the film is about Will Hunting (Matt Damon), a twenty-year-old math genius who hides his gift behind a mop and bucket, working as a janitor at MIT. Hunting gets into a fight with a former childhood bully and ends up assaulting a police officer in his attempt to break it up; in order to avoid jail time, an algebra professor at MIT sets up a plan for Hunting to study with him while seeing a psychiatrist for behavioral health treatment. His psychiatrist, played by Robin Williams, helps him realize his true potential and encourages him to make his life meaningful.
