Last month I had a bit of a revelation about movie-watching thanks to, of all things, Lord of the Rings.

Prior to this year, I hadn’t really been into watching movies. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy film. In fact, I wrote a screenplay for my first independent study project in college. The problem was that my discernment had reached the point of near total exclusion. I was convinced that most movies are terrible, so disappointment was inevitable. I considered it a waste of time.

But over Christmas break, gathered with my boyfriend and his family at their home near Lysekil, that changed.

It was -8C (the coldest it’s been in years, I was told) and we were looking for something to do that didn’t involve venturing outside. After we’d tired of board games, we turned to the DVD collection. The first Lord of the Rings movie seemed like a good enough fit, so in went the extended version as we settled in with tea and sweets.

Most of the family floated in and out, since we’d all seen it before, but I was surprisingly entertained and engrossed — much more than the first time around. We had to see the others in the trilogy the next day.

By the end, we had been in front of the TV for nearly 12 hours total. It seemed a bit unhealthy, but I had no regrets. It was fun!

- – -

Somehow, that little marathon changed my view. I realized that movie-watching didn’t have to be such a serious endeavor. Maybe if I stopped being a miser with my time, I could open up to the possible joys of movie-watching. Even if it was bad, hey, it was just a couple of hours. Would I really have accomplished something brilliant in that span?

When the new year commenced, we set out to watch some films by Swedish director Lukas Moodysson. They were hilarious and well-done. I wanted more. So the at-home festival continued.

- – -

It’s now the end of the month, and I’ve managed to watch 24 26 films in 31 days.

Some are classics, some are mainstream, some are indie. Some are new, some are old but new to me, some are favorites I hadn’t seen in a while. It’s an odd selection, really, but almost all turned out to be flicks I’d recommend.

Only one, District 9, felt like a waste of time — an interesting twist, since it was directed by Lord of the Rings mastermind Peter Jackson.

- – -

Though I didn’t give it the highest score, my favorite (not counting those I’d seen before) was Fucking Åmål. It’s set in a nowhere town in Sweden, and focuses on the lives of two middle-school girls. It was shot in 1998, which is when I was about that age.

It’s the first movie I’ve seen that accurately captures what that time was like. The frustration of being trapped in a boring town, the tense relationship between you and your parents as you near the age of liberation, the jokes and gossip about others’ budding (or not) sex lives, the practice of loitering in packs because there’s nothing else to do, the clothes, the novelty of cell phones.

It’s also honest, funny and cute.

- – -

Here are all the movies I watched in January, with ratings (1-5):

• Tillsammans [aka Together] (2000) The dynamics of a 1970s commune change when the leader’s sister, nephew and niece move in. 4/5

• Fucking Åmål [aka Show Me Love] (1998) A taunted teenage girl begins an unlikely romance with a female classmate. 4/5

• Away We Go (2009) A couple (Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski) travel through the U.S. looking for a new home for their growing family. 2/5

• Kopps [aka Kops] (2003) Small-town police go to great lengths to save their station from being shut down. 4/5

• Jalla! Jalla! (2000) A Lebanese immigrant must marry a family friend to prevent her from getting sent back home. 3/5

• Little Miss Sunshine (2006) A family is determined to get their young daughter to the finals for a beauty pageant. 5/5

• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Cannot be explained in one line. 3/5

• Big Fan (2009) A serious New York Giants fan (Patton Oswalt) remains devoted after he’s beaten up by his favorite player. 2/5

• Masjävlar [aka Dalecarlians] (2004) A woman returns home to her tiny town to celebrate her father’s birthday. 2/5

• The Graduate (1967) A recent college graduate trapped in an affair with an older woman finds himself falling in love with her daughter. 5/5

• Moon (2009) An astronaut working alone on the Moon discovers strange secrets about the nature of his work. 4.5/5

• Bringing Up Baby (1938) A mismatched pair (Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn) can’t stop running into each other. 5/5

• Rear Window (1954) A wheelchair-bound photographer (Jimmy Stewart) spots some suspicious behavior while spying on his neighbors. 5/5

• Sunshine Cleaning (2008) A woman (Amy Adams) starts a crime scene clean-up business so she can send her son to private school. 3/5

• The Life Aquatic (2004) Oceanographer Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) goes on a mission to kill the shark that ate his best friend. 4.5/5

• Christmas in Connecticut (1945) A magazine writer (Barbara Stanwyck) must fake being the homemaker she purports to be. 5/5

• Chocolat (2000) A woman (Juliette Binoche) shakes up a small French town when she opens a chocolate shop. 3.5/5

• Bass Ackwards (2010) A wandering aspiring filmmaker travels across the States to move back in with his parents. 4/5

• Whip It (2009) A high school girl (Ellen Page) leads a double life as beauty pageant contestant and roller derby star. 4/5

• District 9 (2009) A government agency attempts to relocate an alien race to a camp outside of Johannesburg. 2/5

• Welcome to Macintosh (2008) The rise of Apple, as told by some of the company’s earliest members and devotees. 3/5

• Man on Wire (2008) A documentary about Philippe Petit’s tightrope walk between the Twin Towers. 4/5

• Word Wars (2004) A documentary that tracks four contestants competing in the 2002 U.S. Scrabble Nationals. 3/5

• Stranger Than Fiction (2006) An IRS auditor (Will Ferrell) finds himself the subject of narration only he can hear. 4/5

UPDATE 02/16: I forgot a couple of great ones!

• Walk the Line (2005) The biography of Johnny Cash, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. 5/5
• Taking Woodstock (2009) A comedy based on the true story of the makings of Woodstock. 4/5