Dear journal
Choosing a movie to watch should be simple. You sit down, browse through a collection, and pick one. But with so many options, the paradox of choice takes over, and suddenly, what should be an easy decision feels overwhelming. Enter Movie Roulette—a game my brother and I created to introduce a little randomness into our movie nights.
Whenever one of us buys a new movie (usually a 4K), it gets added to the wheel. We keep all our physical media together in a shared collection, which means when we spin, we never know what’s coming. A classic Hollywood monster movie might be followed by something like Kill Bill, reflecting our different tastes. To keep things fair, we trade a mulligan back and forth—one re-spin per round, just in case fate serves up something we're not in the mood for.
At first, Movie Roulette was just a way to avoid the dreaded “What do you want to watch?” conversation. But over time, it became something more. Some of the most memorable pairings have come out of sheer randomness. One night, we watched American Psycho followed by Groundhog Day, and it struck us how both films explore themes of feeling trapped—one through a violent descent into madness, the other through an existential comedy. Another night, The Others and Arrival landed back-to-back, both films grappling with communication and death in deeply emotional ways.
These accidental double features add a new dimension to movie-watching, creating connections we wouldn’t have noticed otherwise. But more than that, Movie Roulette is a way for my brother and me to stay connected. It turns our shared love of movies into an experience, something we look forward to together. It’s a reminder that sometimes, the best way to choose is not to choose at all—to leave it to chance and embrace the surprises that come with it.
Always,
Dave