About

Moral of the Movie

Created by: Jaime A. González-Hernández

      My name is Jaime A. González-Hernández and I started writing these reviews on Instagram in the summer of 2020 (peak COVID-19 quarantine times). I minored in Media Studies at Pomona College (Class of 2021) (Chirp Chirp!) after taking at least one course related to film every semester to supplement all the science courses I was taking (I'm pursuing a career in medicine). I am a movie-lover (not in a weird way) (last set of parentheses, I swear) and I'm deeply passionate about learning from every experience that I face in my life in order to further improve as a person.

      This philosophy was born after I saw Slumdog Millionaire (2008) (okay, THAT was the last one) around ten years ago. The story follows a protagonist who uses his memories of previous life experiences to answer questions and win a million dollars on an Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire . That film showed me how important it was to learn from every experience in my life regardless of whether it was a "good" or "bad" one. In my case, however, I don't get a million dollars for doing so. Instead, I get something a little less superficial and materialisic: a sense of self-fulfillment. Noting that the main source of inspiration of this philosophy was a film, I have tried to extract similar life lessons from other films and forms of storytelling since then. Yet, it was only until I was stuck within four walls because of a global pandemic that I decided to start writing about what I'm learning and sharing it with others. And I haven't looked back. You might note that there will be a gap of no reviews between 2021 and 2022. The main reason is that building this website from scratch took me a lot more work and longer than expected. I vowed that I wouldn't write a review until I finished the website. So, since you're reading this... it means I finally finished it! Woohoo!

      Anyways, back to the point. Overall, films and other forms of storytelling offer different perspectives on life that allow me to learn lessons that I might not have learned otherwise. This leads to an expansion of my own perspective and a heightened sense of empathy for others who come from different backgrounds and walks of life. Having said that, it's imperative to note that this is all incredibly subjective. Understanding this, I was intrigued to see if others would have similar interpretations of a film under the Moral of the Movie framework. You'll see that all reviews have a comment system in which you can write your own interpretations and I'm very excited to read them! In the end, I started Moral of the Movie when I was doing a lot of reflection on how I could grow as a person through my passion for storytelling. I hope you can learn, interpret, and grow along with me, so that we can be the best versions of ourselves! Hope you enjoy!