“Beautiful and interesting stories”: Natalie Morales names her favourite movies of all time
Among the many institutions damaged by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic was Hollywood, with the movie-making machine grinding to a dramatic halt in 2020. Not only were movies not being made, but movies weren’t being released either. Indeed, only a few filmmakers and opportunistic studios found success in this era, with the director and actor Natalie Morales being one such person.
Despite having been active in the industry since 2006, it has taken Morales many years to reach the very top, having appeared in such TV hits as White Collar, 90210 and Parks and Recreation along the way. Yet, now Morales has found herself as part of some of the contemporary industry’s greatest feats on the big and small screen, appearing beside Jennifer Lawrence in the raunchy comedy No Hard Feelings, as well as Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Anniston in The Morning Show.
This was only possible thanks to her rise in 2021, helming the underrated coming-of-age comedy Plan B with Victoria Moroles and Myha’la shortly before filming Language Lessons during the height of the pandemic herself. Working alongside the mumblecore and independent cinema pioneer Mark Duplass, Moroles demonstrated her versatility as a filmmaker, creating a movie that harnessed the distance forced by the pandemic rather than seeing it as a boundary.
Maintaining her artistic spirit and, in part, her sanity during the Covid-19 pandemic, Morales sat down with A-Frame to discuss five of her favourite movies that kept her going through the days of lockdown.
The first of which is a film that gripped many people during the pandemic, with Bong Joon-ho’s ‘Best Picture’ and Palme d’Or winner Parasite gripping the world in 2019, shortly before Covid-19 was on our radar. “Rewatching this movie is almost a better experience than watching it for the first time,” Moroles says of the film’s “mastery”, with the South Korean director creating one of the 21st century’s many masterpieces.
Elsewhere, Moroles opted for another film released in 2019 that perfectly caught the mood of the contemporary zeitgeist, Ari Aster’s brutal breakup movie Midsommar. Starring the “incredible” Florence Pugh just before the peak of her fame, Aster’s film tells the story of a young woman who, after losing her family, goes for a retreat into the Swedish wilderness with her friends, only to discover something entirely sinister.
Clearly a lover of cinematic romance, Morales also named the entire Before trilogy among her favourite movies. Helmed by Richard Linklater, many consider the collection of films to represent the very best of independent American cinema, so it’s no surprise that the actor and director states: “I think these are the kind of movies that have a different effect on you depending on where you are in your life, and I feel maybe that’s their intent. Language Lessons is perhaps the 2021 platonic version of this?”.
In the same realm of filmmaking is the 2016 romance drama Blue Jay by director Alex Lehmann with a script by her own collaborator, Mark Duplass. Watching the movie to prepare her to work with Duplass on Language Lessons, Morales calls the chance meeting of childhood sweethearts: “one of my favourite movies and one of the more beautiful and interesting stories I’ve seen”.
The last film to grace her list is a total departure from the norm, opting for the 100-year-old Buster Keaton comedy Sherlock Jr. from 1924. A lover of the great physical comedian, Morales admits that she watches anything by Keaton before taking on a project of her own because “It reminds me of all the things I love about getting to make movies,” with Keaton engaging with some of the riskiest physical comedy ever seen on screen.
Take a look at the full list of Natalie Morales’ favourite movies of all time below.
Natalie Morales’ favourite movies:
- The ‘Before’ trilogy (Richard Linklater, 1995-2013)
- Blue Jay (Alex Lehmann, 2016)
- Parasite (Bong Joon-ho, 2019)
- Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924)
- Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)