You have eaten something vaguely dinner-shaped because finding the kitchen utensils required too much archaeology.

And at some point, usually around 9 PM, you look around your half-unpacked apartment and think:

Right. I live here now.

Excellent.

Now you need a movie.

Not necessarily the greatest film ever made. Not something that requires three hours, subtitles, a notebook and a post-screening discussion.

You need something that can keep you company while you sit on the floor surrounded by boxes. Something warm. Something funny. Something that makes the new place feel a little less unfamiliar.

So grab the blanket you haven't properly unpacked yet. Here are ten.

01. When you want your new life to feel like a movie

The Holiday

Two women. Two homes. Two wildly different lives. A lot of beautiful interiors. And somehow, the houses are almost characters themselves.

This is the one to watch when you're still arranging furniture in your head and imagining what your apartment could become.

It's cozy without being sleepy, romantic without demanding too much of you, and aesthetically dangerous if you're currently trying not to spend money on home decor.

Tonight's mood:  I absolutely need a reading chair.

Warning: You may start browsing lamps.

02. When you want to feel like life is beginning

Julie & Julia

There is something lovely about watching someone make a life out of ordinary days. Cooking. Writing. Trying things. Failing. Trying again. Eating.

The movie has that particular comfort of watching a person slowly build something that didn't exist before.

Which is rather appropriate when you're sitting in a new apartment surrounded by boxes thinking: Okay. What am I going to make of this place?

Tonight's mood:  Maybe I should learn how to cook.

You will probably end up order pasta. That's still progress.

03. When you want to be alone but not lonely

Lost in Translation

This is the quieter one. The city is unfamiliar. The characters are disconnected from their usual lives. Everything feels slightly suspended.

Which makes it oddly perfect for a first night in a new place.

There is something comforting about watching other people exist in that strange in-between state while you are experiencing your own version of it.

You're not quite settled. You're not quite unpacked. You're just… here.

And sometimes here is enough.

Tonight's mood:  I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm beginning.

04. When you need to laugh at the chaos

The Intern

Your apartment may be a disaster. Your laundry may be threatening to achieve sentience. You may have absolutely no idea what you're doing. That's okay.

Watch someone else have a complicated life for a couple of hours.

The Intern is warm, funny and reassuring in that very specific way where nobody is particularly perfect and yet everybody seems to be figuring things out. Also, Robert De Niro in a beautifully organised house while you sit beside an unopened moving box is an experience worth having.

Tonight's mood:  Perhaps I should get my shit together.

No promises.

05. When you need something gentle

About Time

This is your rainy-evening movie. It has romance, family, ordinary domestic moments, humour and that lovely reminder that a life isn't made entirely out of major events.

Sometimes it's breakfast. A walk. A conversation. A familiar room. Someone you love sitting across from you.

Which is exactly the kind of thing that makes a new apartment eventually stop feeling new.

Tonight's mood:  I should probably call my parents.

Go on. Do it.

06. When you want to romanticise your own life

Amélie

Your apartment currently looks like a storage unit. You have not found the box containing your mugs. The bathroom light is questionable. None of this matters.

Tonight, you're the protagonist.

Amélie has that particular ability to make tiny observations feel magical. A stranger's habits. A little ritual. A favourite object. A quiet afternoon.

It makes ordinary life feel worthy of attention.

And that's a pretty good thing to remember when you're building a home.

Tonight's mood:  Everything is slightly strange, and I like it.

07. When you want pure comfort

The Princess Diaries

Sometimes you don't need emotional complexity. Sometimes you need Julie Andrews. You need awkwardness. You need a makeover montage.

You need a castle!!

You need someone discovering that their life is about to become considerably more interesting!

Your first apartment may not come with a royal title. It does come with significantly more responsibility.

Still counts.

Tonight's mood:  I, too, am waiting for my transformation montage.

08. When you want to feel ambitious

The Devil Wears Prada

New apartment. New chapter. New version of you.

Maybe you're starting a new job. Maybe you're trying to figure out who you want to become. Maybe you simply enjoy watching beautifully dressed people move through Manhattan while making terrible decisions.

Either way, this is a very good movie for the evening when you are feeling main-character-adjacent.

Tonight's mood:  Tomorrow I am going to be extremely competent.

Tonight you are eating cereal from a mug tho.

09. When you want something beautifully strange

Practical Magic

This one is for the person who thinks a home should have a little personality. It has sisters. An old house. Magic. Romance. Food. Plants. A kitchen that makes you want to immediately start cooking something complicated.

And a very strong argument for making your home feel like your home rather than a showroom.

Tonight's mood:  Maybe I need candles.

You definitely don't need candles. But… understandable.

10. When you need to remember why home matters

Little Women

And now we're ending somewhere softer. Little Women is full of rooms that become meaningful because of the people who inhabit them. The writing. The arguments. The dinners. The music. The growing up. The leaving. The returning. The complicated ache of having somewhere to belong while also wanting to become your own person.

Which is, really, a pretty good description of moving into your first apartment.

You're not just changing where you sleep. You're beginning to build a life that belongs to you!

Tonight's mood:  Maybe home isn't a place you finish making. Maybe it's something you keep making.

Now turn the lights down.

Your first night doesn't need to be perfect. You don't need every box unpacked. You don't need matching furniture. You don't need the apartment to look like the photographs you saved on Pinterest.

You need something comfortable to sit on. Something to eat. Something to watch. And perhaps one tiny corner that already feels unmistakably yours.

The rest can happen tomorrow.

Or next week. Or whenever you finally deal with that one box. You know the one. It's been following you around for three days.

Leave it alone.

Press play. 

And if tomorrow brings the inevitable "wait… how do I actually run this place?" moment… That's what Home, Finally is for. A little home-management system for the move-in lists, bills, maintenance contacts, adulting questions, food, basic needs, brain dumps and all the other tiny things nobody thinks to teach you.

Meet Home, Finally →