The pragmatism of Capricorn Season is gone, and the radicalism of Aquarius Season is ramping up. As the sun shifts into the water-bearer sign on January 20, we enter a time of resistance, rebellion, and revolution. The ideal movies to watch during Aquarius Season include a mixed bag of political activism, social commentary, offbeat romances, and hallucinatory headtrips.
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022)
Aquarius filmmaker Laura Poitras is known for her politically charged documentaries. In 2022, she turned her lens onto activist Nan Goldin. Poitras follows Goldin’s past as a burgeoning artist in the queer underground art scene in 1980s New York, her advocacy during the AIDS crisis, and her current fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for their role in the opioid epidemic. As the sign of activism and advocacy, this documentary is a no-brainer to watch this season. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed will open your eyes to the myriad intricacies of corruption, greed, and inhumanity that course through the veins of capitalism.
Silkwood (1983)
Continuing the theme of activism, you’d be remiss not to celebrate one of our greatest living actresses’ best performances as a real-life whistleblower. In 1983, Meryl Streep stepped into the boots of Karen Silkwood, a worker at a nuclear plant in rural Oklahoma who famously fought the system to expose unsafe company practices. Just skin and bones under a choppy mullet, Streep leaves it all on the laboratory floor in Silkwood in her portrayal of a woman killed by the very factory that contaminated her.
On top of a career-best performance from Streep, strong supporting turns from Cher, cast against type in the serious role of Karen’s closeted roommate, and Kurt Russell as the burly yet sensitive boyfriend, make Silkwood’s infamous ending all the more devastating. Under Mike Nichols’ direction and a provocatively sharp script from Nora Ephron, there is an uncanny sense of desperation yet determination in Karen Silkwood’s fatal fight to uncover the truth.
Akira (1988)
As the rebel of the zodiac, Aquarius Season is as good a time as any to relish in your favorite cinematic radicals. The 1988 anime Akira stands out as a behemoth of a narrative that highlights rebellion, radicalism, unchecked power, industrialism, and more. In a post-war, futuristic Neo-Tokyo, corruption runs rampant from its streets to its high rises.
When two biker gangs clash, the young Tetsuo — voiced by Aquarius actor Nozomu Sasaki — collides with an escapee from a covert government operation, who possesses supernatural powers. When Tetsuo starts experiencing powers of his own, his best friend attempts to save him, but there are greater, sinister forces at play. A landmark of animation, storytelling, and adaptation, Akira is an immersive sci-fi with themes that ring true today.
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Over one hundred years ago, an Aquarius got to work researching one of the most iconic figures of the Middle Ages, resulting in the 1928 silent film, The Passion of Joan of Arc. Director Carl Theodor Dreyer brought the patron saint of France back to life by reenacting her historic trial and execution. Everything Joan of Arc has come to symbolize — freedom, feminism, and defiance — is apropos inspiration for Aquarius Season. Dreyer’s stunning and pioneering use of close-up shots captures one of cinema’s greatest performances: Maria Falconetti as Joan of Arc.
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Things get weird in January. Time moves differently. One film that embraces all things weird and time-defying is the Best Picture Winner, Everything Everywhere All at Once. Aquarius is a sign that involves expansion, unconventionality, and unlocking new realities or ways of thinking. This film sparked something in the collective consciousness during its early 2022 release, and again in early 2023, when it broke records at the 95th Academy Awards for the most above-the-line nominations for a single film. Brought to life by a directorial duo that is one-half Aquarius, the film’s existential themes, analysis of intergenerational trauma, and overall sense of absurdism make for apt viewing material this season.
Space Jam (1996)
When “let’s get weird” is a zodiac’s mantra, it’s high time to rewatch a ‘90s camp classic that blended a decades-old slate of beloved animated characters with the NBA — starring one of the most prolific athletes (and Aquarius) of all time, Michael Jordan. Space Jam is about as weird as a mainstream movie can get, conceived initially as a Super Bowl commercial and eventually spawning zany marketing tactics, including one of the earliest internet webpages that still functions today.
Ruled by the planet Uranus, Aquarius is the sign associated with innovation, technology, and societal shifts. Space Jam represents the nexus of early internet culture and the marketability of existing intellectual property. It marked a pivotal moment in an evolving landscape where cinema intertwines with brand awareness, marketability, celebrity, and iconography. Plus, it introduced another addition to the growing canon of sexually charged anthropomorphic rabbits: Lola Bunny. If all of that doesn’t scream weird, Aquarius, off-the-rails energy, I’m not sure what does.
Daisies (1966)
On the flip side of Space Jam is a 1960s Czechoslovak avant-garde film — a sentence I never anticipated writing. Daisies, directed by Vera Chytilová, an Aquarius, subverts all expectations in its story of two young women wreaking havoc on society with their whims and follies as they frolic among the bourgeoisie of Prague. The film embodies the rule-breaking tendencies of the water-bearer sign. Incorporating innovative cinematic techniques such as collage and tinted filters, Daisies breaks all the rules and creates its own filmic language to comment on societal standards and politics, cementing itself as a landmark text of the Czechoslovak New Wave movement.
Sorry to Bother You (2018)
Another nonconformist story: musician-turned-director Boots Riley creates an uncanny, slightly more dystopian world than the one we live in now in Sorry to Bother You. A young black man, Cassius Green (LaKeith Stanfield), looking to move up in a predominantly white corporate world, discovers a secret to success that involves code-switching to an extreme. His voice changes to that of a white person (specifically David Cross) when cold-calling potential customers at his telemarketing job.
After mastering this bizarre skill, Cassius climbs the ranks higher than he ever expected. When he reaches the very top, an elite group headed by a crazed, cocaine-fueled CEO, Cassius begins to lose sight of his underground roots, including his activist-artist girlfriend, Detroit (Tessa Thompson). When racial tension rises at a corporate rager, the film takes one of the wildest, zig-zagging plot twists in cinema. Sorry to Bother You is the bizarre, anti-capitalist headtrip we all collectively need right now.
Jules and Jim (1962)
Of course, Valentine’s Day falls under Aquarius Season. While many Aquariuses probably shun the holiday for its money-grabbing undertones, it’s still a great time of year to watch a few romance movies. Before we had Challengers or Y tu mamá también, legendary French auteur, and Aquarius, Francois Truffaut expertly explored the nooks and crannies of the infamous love triangle in the 1962 film Jules and Jim. The French New Wave romance stars Aquarius actress Jeanne Moreau as Catherine, a free-spirited woman who bounces back and forth between the two titular men for decades. A heartbreakingly raw performance from Moreau, coupled with unmatched on-screen chemistry with her costars, results in one of Truffaut’s most moving works and a timeless meditation on the traps of love and time.
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
Another romantic film from an Aquarius director with an Aquarius lead, Only Lovers Left Alive is anything but your typical love story. Indie auteur Jim Jarmusch directs Tom Hiddleston as Adam, a brooding modern-day vampire working as a musician in Detroit. When his lover, Eve (Tilda Swinton), suspects Adam is depressed, she visits him to cheer him up. Soon, Eve’s reckless younger sister, Ava (Mia Wasikowska), crashes their good time. The pale, gangly trio of Hiddleston, Swinton, and Wasikowska is a feat of impeccable casting. It breathes life into the typical lackadaisical Jarmusch-style, making for a fun, offbeat vampire romance.
Harlan County U.S.A. (1976)
Once Valentine’s Day is over and you want to go back to being angry at the world, consider another eye-opening documentary about the struggles of the working class. Barbara Kopple’s Academy Award-winning film Harlan County U.S.A. is an up-close look at a 1970s coal miners’ community in rural Kentucky. Documenting their ongoing strike against Duke Power Company, Koppel captures the determination of the coal miners’ wives, the company’s inhumane acts, and the importance of unions and labor organizations in America.
In a time when unions have all but disappeared and are increasingly harder to form, this seminal work is more poignant than ever in emphasizing the power of the masses when we band together. The film ends with an earworm of a coal miner’s song: “Which Side Are You On?”
The Holy Mountain (1973)
Let’s end this watchlist on a weird note. Let your freak flag fly with the trippiest film from a tried-and-true Aquarius filmmaker: Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain. This kaleidoscopic journey to a mythical land is doused in surrealism. Appropriately, the film also dips into the occult and mysticism, including astrology and Tarot, the latter of which is a topic Jodorowsky has written books on and studied for decades. Jodorowsky even admitted he doesn’t go anywhere without a deck in his pocket.
Featuring Tarot-inspired characters like The Fool, the travelers meet seven personifications of the planets. Each person represents the areas of life that the planet rules over. For example, the character of Uranus, which rules the zodiac sign of Aquarius, embodies all things dealing with corruption, power, and politics — a timely reminder for the themes that can run rampant during Aquarius Season. It just might have you asking: Which side are you on?
Article and Cover Image Courtesy of Kasey Dunifer