Philadelphia

Despite its classic western films cliches, Philadelphia is a wonderful film that presents the viewers with a controversial discussion that is still relevant today. This movie was released in 1993 during a period when HIV/AIDS and homosexuality was extremely stigmatic and shunned upon if someone was either gay, had HIV/AIDS or was/had both. The film had a great cast including Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington as the main actors, also Antonio Banderas, Jason Robards and many others. The film's tone was set really well, allowing its viewers to truly understand and feel what Andrew Beckett is experiencing, putting the viewers in his shoes. The film's controversy breaks down walls of homophobia through sympathy and compassion one may get from watching Philadelphia.

Babel

Watching Babel, a film directed and written by Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu brings a great emotional suspense. The film connects 4 different perspectives through different characters settled in 4 different continent. Each side of the story has their own set of challenges which intertwines the different perspectives together. The film starts off slow presenting each culture as accurately as possible, the Mexican culture, Muslim culture, Japanese culture, and American. That is one aspect of the film that I really enjoyed is how the director connects different cultures and merges them into one big plot, with their own side stories which creates a great suspense for the viewers.