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Top 10 Fall Movies to Watch During the “Ber Months”

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The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at FIT chapter.

We have reached the “Ber Months” Which is my favorite time of the year. If you don’t know what I mean when I say “Ber months” I will explain it to you, it is any month that the spelling ends with “ber” so September, October, November, and December. This is the time of the year when the weather gets colder, the air gets crisper and sweaters come out of retirement for fashion. Another great thing about fall is the sense of comfort and warmth. When the weather gets colder outside it makes you want to stay inside and curl up on your couch with a hot latte in hand watching movies. If you love fall and want to watch movies that take place during the fall time that gives off that fall aesthetic. This is the blog post for you. I am a big fan of movies and have curated my top 10 fall movies that are perfect to watch during the fall.

  1. When Harry Met Sally (1989)

The first movie I am starting with is my favorite and a beautiful nostalgic classic. I watch it every year. This is my top recommended choice to people when they ask me for recommendations. When Harry Met Sally is a rom-com about two characters Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) and Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) who have known each other and have been friends for years, they have dated other people while being friends but have never dated each other. The reason is they don’t want sex to ruin their friendship. The film is beautiful, timeless, funny, and relatable. The film takes place in New York City in the 1980s during the fall time. For the romance fans out there, this is the perfect enemies to friends to lovers trope movie you are looking for.

2. Mystic Pizza (1988)

The second movie on my list is for the girls. Mystic Pizza is a coming-of-age movie about three teenage girls Kat (Annabeth Gish), Daisy (Julia Roberts), and Jojo (Lili Taylor) growing up in their small town in Mystic Connecticut, working at a pizza parlor called Mystic Pizza. The film shows the girls working at the pizza parlor while also dealing with the trials and tribulations of romance and boys. If you’re looking for small-town movie vibes this is your go-to movie. P.S. You will crave pizza while watching this movie so I suggest eating pizza to be on theme with the film.

3. St. Elmos Fire (1985)

The third movie on my list is for all the Brat Pack lovers and anyone who loves John Hughes films. While the film is not written, directed, and produced by John Hughes, almost all of the cast members who are in this movie are also in many of John Hughes’s coming-of-age movies. The cast includes Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Andrew McCarthy, and Mare Winningham. St. Elmo’s Fire is another great coming-of-age fall movie. This movie is about a group of friends who are fresh out of college and are struggling with adulthood and the real world. The movie takes place in Washington D.C. near Georgetown University. If you’re looking for Brat Pack, John Hughes, and big friend group this is your movie.

4. Dead Poets Society (1989)

The fourth movie I had to mention on my movie list is Dead Poets Society. The amazingly talented and late Robin Williams’s performance is incredible, He plays the free-spirited Mr. Keating who is the new English teacher at New England’s all-boys boarding preparatory school. Mr. Keating attended the school in his youth and was known as a “star student” during the time he went to school there. Mr. Keating teaches the boys in his classroom about poetry, and he encourages them to be themselves and not live by the status quo. The boys become inspired and decide to create a secret society club called the “Dead Poets Society.” The film represents boyhood, and remembering having that one teacher in your youth who you will never forget and who made an impact on your life.

5. Good Will Hunting (1997)

The fifth movie on my list is Good Will Hunting. This is another Robin Williams movie about a boy named Will Hunting (Matt Damon) who is a genius. He works as a janitor at MIT and one day Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan SkarsgĂĄrd) posts a complicated math problem on a board outside his classroom for his students to solve. Will Hunting ends up solving the math problem after hours. The Professor learns that Will was the one who solved his math problem and realizes the young man’s potential. Will has a troubled past and gets sent to jail for fighting, the professor bails him out and has him work with him while seeing a therapist Sean (Robin Williams. The therapist ends up changing his life in so many ways and guides him on the path to a better future. Both Robin Williams and Matt Damon’s performances in this film are phenomenal.

6. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

A Wes Anderson classic film about a fox named Mr. Fox voiced by George Clooney who raids human farms which are very unsafe. His wife asks him to stop raiding the farms and to be there for his family. So he stopped and kept his promise for twelve years until he started raiding again. While he is raiding the farms he learns that the farmers have plans to destroy the animal’s home and put a development on top of it. Mr. Fox bands together with other members of his community to save their home. This movie is perfect around the fall because of the orange color that is shown throughout this movie. The film has both humor and underlying messages. One message that sticks out to me is individuality and accepting that we are not all the same, each person or in this case animal is different, they have a funny quirk about them and that is what makes them different, or standout amongst everyone else. One of my favorite libnes of the movies sums it up, “We are all different…but there is something kind of fantastic about that, isn’t there?”

7. Practical Magic (1998)

This movie is for all my witchy sisters or anyone who has a Fleetwood Mac obsession. Practical Magic is about two sisters, Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian Owens (Nicole Kidman), who are born and raised by their spiritual aunties, Aunt Frances (Stockard Channing) and Aunt Jet (Dianne Wiest), in a small town in Massachusetts. The Owens family are witches, and the witch lineage has been in their line for decades the one thing to know about them is the Owens women have had a curse on them for centuries where they are not allowed to fall in love with a man and if they do something bad happens to them. Sally ends up staying in the small town and ends up falling in love with a local merchant and they get married and have two beautiful girls, unfortunately he is killed by a truck. Gillian’s love life on the other hand is filled with failed relationships, she has never found the one. Sally and Gillian must find a way to save their love life and the future generations of Owens women to come. Make a midnight margarita and enjoyed this witchy cult classic.

8. Stepmom (1998)

This movie is so underrated, and I’m surprised that when I mention this movie to people, they always say they’ve never seen it. Stepmom is about two women: the mother/ex-wife Jackie Harrison (Susan Sarandon) and the stepmom/new wife Isabel Kelly, who are trying to raise the two children, Anna and Ben. Both have different methods of parenting. Jackie, the biological mom, is a stay-at-home mom, and her parenting methods are more strict than Isabel’s, the stepmom still has a full-time job and doesn’t plan on giving up on her job anytime soon, her parenting methods are more laid-back. Both moms clash over what they think is best for how they raise the kids but in the end they learn to embrace each other parenting techniques and develop a great friendship. This movie is beautiful and a tearjerker so make sure you have a box of tissues on standby while watching this movie.

9. You’ve Got Mail (1998)

When I think of fall rom-coms that take place in New York City, Meg Ryan comes to mind. You’ve Got Mail is about a small bookstore owner, Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan), and an owner of a large bookstore chain, Joe Fox (Tom Hanks), who are competing bookstore rivals. They can’t stand each other in person, they are enemies. Joe ends up meeting a woman online, and Kathleen meets a man online, and they start emailing these people back and forth, but the plot twist is they have been emailing each other, and the audience knows this, but they don’t. As they are emailing each other they are starting to fall in love with one another. Will they ever find out who is their soulmate who is emailing them behind the computer screen?

10. Knives Out (2019)

The last movie on our list is for all the murder mystery fans. Knives Out is about a novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) who is found dead at his estate after his 85th birthday. His entire family is all suspect in his mysterious death. Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is enlisted to investigate. He has to talk to the family members and the staff and work through who is telling the truth and who is lying while uncovering who the murderer is. The casting in this movie is full of big name actors and actresses with amazing talent with Ana De Armas, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Colette, Don Johnson, and the list goes on. This movie is one of those movies where you can’t scroll on your phone and watch at this same time you have to devote your full attention, because the amount of details, hidden clues and foreshadowing in this movie is insane and it’s all connected and you will never expect who the killer is. If you played the board game clue all the time as a kid you will 100% love this movie.

These are my top 10 recommendations for the best fall movies to watch during the “Ber Months” If you have seen all the movies I just listed it doesn’t hurt to rewatch them during the fall to get the feeling of comfort, and for those who haven’t seen any of the movies I just listed grab your favorite hot drink beverage of choice, a nice comforting fall time snack/treat, get into comfy clothes and start your fall movie marathon!

Hi, my name is Natalie Ciejek and I am doing a 3+1 program with Mercyhurst University and Fashion Institute of Technology. I was born and raised in Rochester, New York. I have always had a passion for fashion from a very young age. Growing up, I loved recreating looks my favorite fictional characters or celebrities, which I still do. My friends would call me a pop culture enthusiast because I know a lot of fun facts about celebrities, movies, television, music, and books. During my free time, I love to hang out with my friends, go on endless shopping trips, watch movies, visit record stores, or explore new places.The reason I choose to go to school for Fashion Business Management is that I have always been in awe of the artistic world of Fashion. There is so much beauty within the industry and I want to be a part of it. I am still unsure of what career path I want to follow but all I know is I want it to be fashion-related.