Adam Driver’s lunchbox in Paterson
Everyday Adam Driver as Paterson, a New Jersey bus driver and poet, has the same routine. He wakes up, showers, get dressed, packs up his lunch and leaves for work. The lunch is packed in a classic, green metal lunchbox and it’s his only companion at his lunch break, where he eats from it while composing poems. The lunchbox itself is not remarkable at all. However there’s something about how lovingly and carefully Driver handles it. It looks used but well maintained as if it’s always been handled with much love. It must be really special.

Sonia Braga’s record shelf in Aquarius 
Clara, played by Braga, is fighting with all her might to hold on to the apartment that she’s lived in most of her life. At the center of the apartment is her records shelf. The majesty of that shelf. Full of records that tell us about the memories and the good times that Clara had. It’s a life that we know was well lived, even though the movie only gives us a glimpse of her past. That gorgeous shelf, and how she handles the records, is how we know. It’s easy to imagine all the fun, dancing and laughter that can be had playing these many records.

Lily Gladstone’s horse in Certain Women
Some seduce with humor. Some with gifts. How about a horse ride? That Lily Gladstone’s rancher appears out of nowhere with a horse at her crush’s, Kristen Stewart, workplace is such a surprise that it jolts both the audience and Stewart’s character. It’s a big gesture that shows us how big but also tender and tentative Gladstone’s feelings are. Then we savor the beautiful scene as they ride the horse together on a gorgeous cold Montana night, getting warm from each other. Who wouldn't want that?

Trevante Rhodes' grill in Moonlight

 The grill is part of the armor Black (Rhodes) shields himself with. It comes along with the muscles, the posture, the swagger. So when he takes the grill off to eat, his vulnerability appears, poignant and palpable as he sits across from the one man who means so much to him. Plus he looks damn good wearing it.

Isabelle Huppert’s garden in Things To Come
This is more of a state of mind than the actual garden, which is only fleetingly shown. When we leave a place or a relationship, sometimes we miss them in strange specific ways. Like Huppert’s Natalie in Things to Come. In a pivotal scene with her soon to be ex-husband, she launches into a monologue about the many years she spent tending to the garden at his family’s summer house in Brittany instead of talking about their divorce. The garden and the time she spent tending to it is what she’ll miss. You feel the hurt, the regret but above all the love for that little place, for the years invested in that relationship that she thought would be forever. She reminds us of things left behind that become bigger for what they represent more than what they are.

What are some of things you desired most in 2016?