Top 5 Well-Written and Organic Character Arcs
For the next few weeks on the podcast, we are talking about character categories (the basic ones…for now). This past episode (that I still need to edit and upload, check tomorrow night 12/18) was about antagonists. The next two upcoming episodes will be on antiheroes and tradition protagonists, respectively. In partnership with these themes, I decided to make a list of five (or Top 5, for the SEO) organic and well-written character arcs in films that you should watch. These are stories in which a character grows or devolves naturally due to the forces of the plot. Their stories have motives and realistic reasons that make sense and the progression seems natural and inevitable. Whether they are good, bad, or both is irrelevant for this list…and up for you to decide!
Chihiro—Spirited Away (2001): Children’s movies seemed like a good place to start with this list since they usually focus on a character’s growth and/or ability to overcome struggles. I could have gone with any number of them, including most Pixar stories. However, I chose Spirited Away because it is a clear and beautiful personal journey accompanied by impeccable world-building and true heart and soul.
Minnie Goetz—Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015): In addition to children’s movies, there are a host of coming-of-age films that demonstrate character growth (or in the case of The Basketball Diaries, decay) linearly and clear-cut. This film, which centers around a girl who has started an affair with her mother’s boyfriend, shows a wide-eyed (yet still fully realized) protagonist learn that all actions must have consequences and that the world can be a cynical place, yet at the same time learning to love and put faith in herself. I chose this one because it shows this stage in a woman’s life through the writing and direction of women and that clearly shows, as well as because it the most nuanced way I have ever seen a girl’s early sexual choices (good or bad) displayed on screen; I cannot recommend this one enough.
Daniel Plainview—There Will Be Blood (2007): Paul Thomas Anderson’s mid-aughts masterpiece has widely been considered a metaphor for the rise and fall of capitalism through the lens of an early 20th-century oil tycoon. I wanted to make sure that at least one of these entries centered on an adult and that at least one centered on the fall of the protagonists (there wound up being two of those, though). There Will Be Blood satisfies both of those requirements as a story about a man who sets up a facade that begins to crumble as he grows wealthier and wealthier and money poisons his life.
Chantal Mitchell—Just Another Girl on the ITR (1992): Another teenage girl coming-of-age film for the list! Though, this time the experience is very different. Instead of a white girl being raised in 70s San Francisco by an “alternative” single mother, this film focuses on an ambitious NYC African-American girl striving for early college in the 90s. However, what both films’ young ladies have in common is a romantic awakening and a lack of a true support system. Throughout the film, Chantal is subject to doubt, lectures, and zero support from the closest people in her life. As the narrative progresses, however, she grows personally and reaches a new understanding about life without compromising who she is or her ambitions. This movie is tragically underseen and I don’t want to spoil any plot points, though, so that is all I will say besides PLEASE take the time to watch this one.
Bobby and Helen—The Panic in Needle Park (1972): Much like the previous entry, this is a tragically underseen movie. The plot centers around two young adults, Bobby and Helen, and their descent into heroin addiction in the early 70s Needle Park. Both start as a happy couple, mostly (or in Helen’s case completely) clean but as they dive further into addiction they begin to fall apart and turn on each other. Again, I don’t want to spoil this one, it’s one of my FAVORITE movies, but it’s a great example of taking two different characters from decent to their absolute rock bottom in a natural and non-sensationalist way, and it is extremely effective.
There are plenty of movies, SO MANY, that do character narratives well. These are just five that really struck me while I was thinking of them today at work, and I hope you take the time to watch any of them that you haven’t seen. They’re all great films.