This week’s question was suggested by a reader in comments, though they have since deleted their comment so I can’t link to it, and I won’t name them. (Though if they want to identify themselves, I’ll happily update this post to credit them.)
What movies depict introverts well?
Introverts are in some ways the opposite of the sorts of characters we typically see in movies: we tend to be quiet thinkers who prefer to stand aside and observe. Of course, we are the heroes of our own lives, as everyone is… it’s just that we may present particular challenges when telling our stories in a visual medium.
My pick is 2018’s The Bookshop, which has its issues as a movie but in which star Emily Mortimer and director Isabel Coixet do a beautiful job of capturing, as I wrote in my review, the essence of its bookstore-owner protagonist:
the sort of grace that comes from self-possession — Florence is a determined woman, and has no time for petty nonsense that wants to thwart her — and yet also with the sort of awkwardness that comes from being someone who prefers the company of books over that of people.
very belated replying here, but my first thought was The Hobbit trilogy! Yes, a quest story is an odd story for its portrayal of an introvert, but nevertheless it’s my choice. Bilbo is completely content in his life, and when he first gets guests does not want to let them in, much less go with them. Even as his sense of goodness compels him to go, and he does recognize a certain level of excitement for the journey itself, he does not have some sort of transformation into the central mover and shaker here; he is merely along with the dwarves, observing them from the side, and trying to do what he can to help when he has to. And he is motivated BY his introversion; his home, his own space, is so precious to him, that the dwarves losing their own home and trying to get it back is why he agrees to go. and at the end of the quest, he goes back to his own home, and settles back in to his contented, quiet life.
Overall I just have great fondness for Bilbo’s grumpy goodness, and how his love of staying in his comfortable space compounds his compassion to send him out of it. also, the acorn bit. goshhhh the acorn bit.
A Quiet Passion. Emily Dickinson is not pining or sad in this film. She wants to be left the fuck alone, and she's happiest when she's alone (as I am), so I love this portrayal. She's not "secretly unhappy" or psychotic or deviant. She just wants to be alone.
Depends on whether you mean "well" as "effectively" or "in a positive light." Travis Bickle in TAXI DRIVER is definitely an introvert; he is an observer and certainly the hero of his own life. Of course, he evidently has PTSD and some other mental health issues compounding this nature, so his world internal to the point that he has extreme difficulty relating to anybody else at all.
Yet Scorsese and De Niro skillfully insinuate the viewer into Bickle's distorted perception of himself and the world, through voice-over and carefully selected camera work. This is effective to the point that we almost find ourselves, horrifyingly, grasping his rationalizations for his own extreme anti-social behavior. (Shout-outs as well to Marcia Lucas' masterful editing and Bernard Hermann's dreamlike score in creating the isolated world of the film.)
So I'd say that's a very effective portrayal of an introvert, and also the farthest thing from a positive light (the misplaced affection of some incel types for Bickle notwithstanding).
very belated replying here, but my first thought was The Hobbit trilogy! Yes, a quest story is an odd story for its portrayal of an introvert, but nevertheless it’s my choice. Bilbo is completely content in his life, and when he first gets guests does not want to let them in, much less go with them. Even as his sense of goodness compels him to go, and he does recognize a certain level of excitement for the journey itself, he does not have some sort of transformation into the central mover and shaker here; he is merely along with the dwarves, observing them from the side, and trying to do what he can to help when he has to. And he is motivated BY his introversion; his home, his own space, is so precious to him, that the dwarves losing their own home and trying to get it back is why he agrees to go. and at the end of the quest, he goes back to his own home, and settles back in to his contented, quiet life.
Overall I just have great fondness for Bilbo’s grumpy goodness, and how his love of staying in his comfortable space compounds his compassion to send him out of it. also, the acorn bit. goshhhh the acorn bit.
A Quiet Passion. Emily Dickinson is not pining or sad in this film. She wants to be left the fuck alone, and she's happiest when she's alone (as I am), so I love this portrayal. She's not "secretly unhappy" or psychotic or deviant. She just wants to be alone.
Depends on whether you mean "well" as "effectively" or "in a positive light." Travis Bickle in TAXI DRIVER is definitely an introvert; he is an observer and certainly the hero of his own life. Of course, he evidently has PTSD and some other mental health issues compounding this nature, so his world internal to the point that he has extreme difficulty relating to anybody else at all.
Yet Scorsese and De Niro skillfully insinuate the viewer into Bickle's distorted perception of himself and the world, through voice-over and carefully selected camera work. This is effective to the point that we almost find ourselves, horrifyingly, grasping his rationalizations for his own extreme anti-social behavior. (Shout-outs as well to Marcia Lucas' masterful editing and Bernard Hermann's dreamlike score in creating the isolated world of the film.)
So I'd say that's a very effective portrayal of an introvert, and also the farthest thing from a positive light (the misplaced affection of some incel types for Bickle notwithstanding).
Would you say Joseph Gorden Levitt's character in Brick is an introvert? Or just outside of his desired community?