Survey: My favorite film

Written on April 5, 2026

Share this article with curious people.

Skip to comments

tl;dr

Watch this movie (YouTube). Despite the misleading title, it’s not really about religion, it’s a philosophical treatise on art, beauty, communication, and purpose, in the form of a play, written in the 1940s by a Polish philosopher, adapted into an artistic film in 1997. And skip 6:26 to 7:29 if you’re squeamish (graphic amputation scene). If you love this movie, we are now best friends.

Fun fact about me

This movie is why I started smoking cigars, about 5 or 6 years ago. It’s the only vice God will have to pry from my cold dead hands. Not that the movie glorifies or recommends it, but Adam smoking one while monologuing about art in one of the first scenes is what initially gave me the idea.

Prelude

Blick was closed, so I almost didn’t do a survey today. But I found one of my old surveys, by the cardboards! It was the “do you feel loved?” survey, so I took it to St. Peter’s and got a few answers there. Someone coming out of Mass recognized me from my State St surveys! That was cool.

In general, Catholics coming out of Mass don’t seem to look up at my surveys. They just tend to walk past and keep looking forward, disproportionately more than random strangers on State St. My theory is that Catholics are generally a cowardly breed, terrified that a dragon lurks around every corner, waiting to steal your phone and wallet, scam you out of your bank account details, or call you evil for being pro-life. And I say this as a fellow Catholic, as constructive criticism, a sort of tough love I suppose. If God is on your side, shouldn’t you have at least a little courage?

Then I came over to the State St. spot, put posterboard down blank side up, and began thinking. But before long, a young man I know came over, and we talked about all sorts of things, including a few Catholic saints who have lived very unusual lives. One of them was Adam Chmielowski, the subject of my favorite movie for the last few years.

Prologue

After he left, I stared at my poster for a while, imagining ideas. I wasn’t in the mood to do any religious topics, even though it was easter. And the movie Our God’s Brother (1997) had just been on my mind. So I had the idea to “advertise” it to people I’ve met out there. It seems like a providential coincidence that there happened to be an art school nearby, and my favorite movie for the past 5 or 6 years has been hugely about the nature and purpose of art.

The only problem was I didn’t want the title to scare people off like it did with me, thinking it was a boring religious movie. First of all, it’s far from boring if you’re even slightly similar to me. And despite it having a vaguely religious subplot, the movie is actually just the philosophical ruminatings about art, destiny, purpose, life, love, and everything in between, by the Polish philosopher Karol Wojtyła, who later became Pope John Paul II. I will die on the hill that this is truly a movie about art, beauty, purpose, and communication as I explained in that article.

I went through like 5 different iterations in my head, trying to get as much information as I can on the sign, with a few words as possible.

Eventually I chose the Polish name for my survey, but I think that may have been a mistake, because it will probably make it much harder for people to find than needed. But I still think it was not a mistake, because putting Our God’s Brother would have definitely made every single eye roll, and nobody consider watching it. And adding “english full version” makes the correct video become the first result.

This is the correct YouTube video! But if you’re squeamish, skip 6:26 to 7:29, it’s a graphic amputation scene.

Results

There were no Yes answers, as expected. But one person added a third No category.

It was fairly close, with 54% no and 41% no, with a few outliers for No and Cat Drawing.

Early on, two young guys wanted to a do a selfie with me, and I instinctively mogged for the first time, which gave me the idea to randomly mog and looksmaxx throughout the day just for fun, which of course I did.

Overall, no, people have not seen my favorite movie, which was expected. This is a good thing, though! It means I get to be the one who first introduces them to this movie!

Events

It was all relatively uneventful, since I started around 2pm and ended at 6pm, so I only did 4 hours today. And also because it was an extremely niche survey.

One homeless woman came up and asked why I do these surveys. While I was answering her, a fairly drunk lonely guy came up and offered her his food, but she couldn’t because it was spicy. She left and gave me the rest of her cigarette, and he left after drinking a tiny bottle of wine and chatting for a while with me.

Someone knew Polish and understood the sign! Then he said something back to me in Polish as he walked away, and I couldn’t respond. I’m such a fraud lol.

Epilogue

On the train, I looked it as “Our God’s Brother full version” and found it right away. Then I looked it up as “Brat Naszego Boga full versio” and found a Polish dub. Hopefully people figure it out.

Rewatching it was enthralling to me. It’s been a few months, maybe 5 or so, since I last watched it. The dialogue is so dense, yet so comprehensive and full of philosophical imagery. I forgot just how very much of it is related directly to art, at least the first two acts must be.

Fun fact about me

I have for years wanted to act as Adam in this play. But first it has to be brought back to stage. And there’s no indication that I’m a good actor. But for this one purpose, I’m willing to become one.

I’m fairly excited to see what people think of this movie. Whether you love it or hate it, agree or disagree with me about it, I don’t care. I just want to hear what you think.

Feel free to email me with your thoughts. With your permission, I’ll include them in a follow-up article.