Recently, the film industry has strayed from focusing on the journey that everyone goes through: self-identity. How do you identify yourself and how do you know who you are? How do you learn to be who you are? It’s something everyone can relate to. I think self-identity movies are essential in today’s culture and display lessons about life that many people can understand. Here are five movies that do focus on stories of self-identity, that hopefully, you can resonate with.
1. Black Swan
An obsession with your art tends to make some people either lose themselves or find themselves. In the case of Nina, her passion for ballet and getting the role of the swan princess pushes her to do things she has never done. As her life begins to spiral out of control, we see the affects it has on her health, mentally and physically, as she becomes to shift into the “Black Swan.”
2. Spirited Away
Young Chichiro travels to the Spirit world and seeks more than she’d ever thought she wanted. Taking on a different name and going through different tasks that put her own life in peril, she must takes risks in order to help the others around her flourish.
3. Youth in Revolt
Michael Cera plays Nick Twisp, a young man that develops a crush on a neighbor and develops a split personality to gain the confidence to do things he could never do before. But his other personality begins to take control and things get out of hand when he begins to take chances on his future life.
4. Taxi Driver
In Martin Scorsese’s infamous film, Robert De Niro embodies his character, Travis’s, issues with identity as he struggles on determining whether or not he can control his future, or if it’s already predestined. Travis begins to do things that are out of his comfort zone, like attempting to establish a relationship with a young woman, as well as trying to help a fourteen-year old prostitute out of the streets. When things don’t work out as planned, Travis ends up taking matters into his own hands as he handles the issues of higher authority.
5. American BeautyIn one of my favorite movies of all time, Kevin Spacey plays Lester Burnham, a man who decides to give up his boring, suburban life for his daughter’s beautiful friend. Risking his relationships with his daughter and wife, Lester takes control of his life as he tries to discover his true self by abandoning his societal façade and eventually ending up in a very dark place. Throughout the film, Lester is not the only one that struggling with his identity; his wife Carolyn defines her self worth by her appearance causing her to lose her true self. His daughter, Jane, struggles to understand identity because everyone defines their worth by their image, and she eventually learns to ignore the exterior to find herself. This movie has taught me so much about identity and living life to its fullest. This can all be summed up by Lester’s final words:
“I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me… but it’s hard to stay mad, when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst… And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life… You have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m sure. But don’t worry… you will someday.”