Hello and welcome back to Kat’s Catalog but in 2025! Here I will be sharing films I conceived into a list of the top ones from multiple sources recommended for people to watch while they are in their twenties. Since I am freshly in my twenties and studying film, I wanted to delve deeper into these films and explain my take on each of them. Please be aware that there are spoilers integrated into this post.
The fourth film I will be discussing is StudioCanal and SunnyMarch’s We Live In Time. Released in 2024 and with a budget of 10 to 20 million USD, We Live In Time was nominated for two of the Irish Film and Television Awards, which included Best Director for a Film for John Crowley and Best International Actress for Florence Pugh. Crowley is going up against Damian Mc Carthy for Oddity and Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor for Rose’s War. Pugh is alongside Angelina Jolie for Maria, Cynthia Erivo for Wicked, and Emma Watson for Small Things Like These for the best International Actress category. This is her second time being nominated for an IFTA. The last one was for her film The Wonder (2023) where she was nominated for the same category.
Crowley also directed Brooklyn (2015), Boy A (2007), and Intermission (2003). He also directed an episode in season 6 of Netflix’s Black Mirror back in 2023. He won two British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards for his films Brooklyn and Boy A. Born in August of 1969 in Ireland, Crowley earned a bachelor’s degree in English and Philosophy and a master’s degree in Philosophy from University College Cork in Ireland. He soon began to direct plays in London and Dublin before making his film directorial debut in 2000 for the adaptation of Come and Go, a play by Samuel Beckett. It was a film series of works by playwrights that was launched on the Irish Film Board. He also brought a production of Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman to Broadway which earned a Tony nomination in 2005. Crowley often discussed his own experiences with grief and loss which connected him with the story’s themes of loss and passage of time. He was drawn to the deep emotional complexities of the main characters due to his own resonance with the deeper meanings of life themes this story portrayed.
We Live in Time is a story that explores the complexities of life through the in-depth emotions portrayed by Andrew Garfield and the held back reactions given by Florence Pugh. The story illustrates the challenges of what life truly has to offer when one is faced with the chance to be in a relationship. Almut (Florence Pugh) and Tobias (Andrew Garfied) are brought together by an unlikely encounter that changes their lives for the better. The movie follows a non-chronological narrative as it jumps between different moments in these characters’ lives of both when they were together and when they were not. It shows the different phases relationships experience – falling for each other, creating a home, becoming a family – and a difficult diagnosis causes there to be more turmoil in these character’s lives. As Almut and Tobias tread through these difficult moments, they learn how to cherish what is right in front of them and portray what it is truly like to live through these hardships.
Life has a strange way of not giving us enough time. It throws things at us that we do not quite expect: a cancer diagnosis, a pregnancy, a loss, a love. It honestly sometimes becomes difficult to march through these days. When I was a baby, my father was diagnosed with cancer and I still see the ripple effects of the toll it took on my family. My mother had to step up to raise three children almost on her own since my father had to go through treatment. I remember growing up and seeing the difficult conversations my parents would go through to tackle each hurdle, like the recession, and when my father lost his job. Same with when my sister became pregnant and had to move back home, or when they sat me down to talk through what needed to be done when COVID19 ran rampant. I was sixteen when they had a long and hard discussion saying it is almost inevitable that they were going to get COVID since my mom worked at a retirement home. Both of my parents have complications that caused their symptoms to be worse than the average person and they were both lying in bed for two weeks unable to move.
Accepting that there are those who have our backs is what I feel is one of the most difficult things to accept in today’s world, especially for young adults. From my experiences, being that I was part of the first generation to fully grow up within the digital world, I have noticed that there are all these rules when it comes to dating and finding the one to the point where it no longer feels attainable. There is this other side of social media, especially posts on TikTok and Instagram, has these posts about these horror stories that people have from their dating experiences such as cheating, manipulation, and sexual assault. It causes there to be this belief of what is considered normal for relationships, especially if this is the media constantly being shown to us. I am still working through figuring out what is normal and what is not while also keeping in mind that we are all human. I like to follow this rule of thumb for myself and I think that this movie embodies both of them. The first one is that humans make mistakes but patterns define them. There are of course exceptions to this, but when it comes to relationships, people are going to make mistakes, whether it is a joke that gets taken too far or a comment that does not sit well, it is going to happen. Which leads me to the next rule I try my best to follow: Communication, no matter how hard the conversation is going to be, it is the utmost important thing when it comes to having a connection with people. You have to have difficult conversations and let yourself open up, especially if you want to make it work with someone, no matter what the outcome is.
It is always better to be able to say that you gave it your all than ask yourself what if. What if I told them that this bothered me? What if I told them that this is hurting me? What if I just said there is a reason that I said the same words Tobias did when he wanted to get an answer from Almut about what their relationship was going to become? Sometimes, all you have to say is that the reason for the rush is, “Because I’m worried there’s a very distinct and real possibility that I am about to fall in love with you.”
Katharine Svehla – Asst. Managing Editor, Prose Editor, Art & Design Editor & Blogger: Katharine is a Junior at Lewis University. She is majoring in English with a concentration in General Writing and minoring in film studies. In addition to her academic pursuits, she is on the Lewis Women’s Bowling team and loves to work out, read, watch movies, and write contemporary fiction. After graduation, she hopes to get her master’s degree and aspires to find her place in the film industry and publish personal works. Some of her favorite authors include Markus Zusak, Michael Chrichton, and Alexandra Bracken.