Club Spotlight: Movie Club

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Courtesy of Movie Club. Movie Club members wait for “Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse” to start at their first meeting on Friday, the thirteenth of September.

Have you ever gone to a movie theater with your friends, sunk into a comfortable chair, and been immersed by the sounds and bright colors flashing all around you? Well, this year, we are pressing play on one of Wilcox’s newest club: Movie Club! Led by students here at Wilcox, Movie Club is a place where Chargers can hang out with people that have similar interests. Movie Club was founded in 2018, but its first official meeting was this year on Friday, the thirteenth of September.
Last year, three girls, Beril Gurkas, Ninal Erdagi, and Bengisu Yildiz, founded this club with one goal in mind: to bring students together to bond over movies. The idea was to have a safe space to watch movies and to get to know people with the same interests. As you walk into a movie club meeting, the members are immersed in conversations with each other, but when the movie starts, they direct their full attention to the screen.
Gurkas, Erdagi, and Yildiz always watched movies on their laptops at lunch, and one day, they had an idea; Gurkas asked, “If we enjoy movies so much, why not get other people to enjoy them with us?” The problem was, interest was high, but attendance was low. There were no meetings last year, but this year, Gurkas and the others plan to change that. Yildiz graduated from Wilcox in 2019, so Gurkas, Erdagi, and other members of the club are running it in her place. Currently, Movie Club has about fifteen members consisting of students from all grades and an advisor.
“The movie types are going to vary,” Gurkas says, “but there’s a heavier emphasis on movies that are more recent.” She is referring to movies that have come out in 2018 or 2019, ones that are relevant and popular. For example, at the first meeting, they watched “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse.” Potential picks for other meetings include “Alita: Battle Angel” and “Avengers: Endgame.” The Movie Club chooses movies based on surveys that club members fill out, which are available on their Instagram page (@movieclubwilcox) and on Snapchat (wilcoxmovieclub).
The goal of Movie Club is to bring students together and educate people about movies. In Movie Club, you can watch popular movies for free, and if you do not go to the movie theater, then this is a great way to see movies in a theater-like setting.
The most important part of the meeting is after the movie. Students rate the movie and discuss its plot. Questions like, “What did you think?” and “How could character A do that to character B?” float around during these discussions. “Movies bring people together,” says junior Brooke Beadell.
Sadie Rodriguez, a senior, says that she likes to come to Movie Club, “Because I often don’t go to movies in theaters. I can see them here with people I like.” If you want to watch movies for free, and get to know new people, Movie Club is the place for you. Movie Club is held in Mr. Beadell’s room, S103 on Fridays after school.