I only want to see greatness! Movies that say something! Rare, I know, but that's what I'm after.
Feel free to recommend stuff. There's so much I miss, probably because I'm in a cinema watching 'Ted'.
A Hollywood director said to me recently,"it's impossible to make good movies here", that's how dire it is. He's part of a system that sucks the life out of creativity. Whenever Hollywood makes a good movie, it's a fluke. Most movies are shockingly bad.
I'm not one of those guys who reviews every movie that comes out. Credit to those bloggers who watch everything and write lengthy reviews of them, and often for tiny readerships. I'm in awe of your patience and hard work, but I can't do it!
Life is short. I know a guy who died a few weeks back suddenly, he was 26. Same thing happened a week before to a guy who was 29. That's how it goes; life is fast and it ends. I choose movies, they're my love, but not the bad ones. We don't have enough time to be watching the studio dross.
I want to see magic. I want to see genuine connections between characters, and endings that are earned, that honour the rest of the story; I've had enough of hacked together bullshit. It's like those recent Sandler and Stiller films, even the kids think they're a bag of shit. These guys were once comedic geniuses, now their job is just to turn up.
It's like all of Hollywood thinks the job is just turning up. They turn great screenwriters into studio hacks. Their ideas quickly quashed by executives who think they know better. And they do know better -- they know how to make money.
The films are awful. The ticket prices high. The popcorn extortionate. The screens in disrepair.
The problem isn't technology, it's that the product they're peddling sucks. And sure, people eat up the superhero movies, and lucky they do, because the studios have squeezed out the in-betweens. Their indie-divisions shut down, their $80million dollar movies lacking in imagination and relying on names to get them ticket sales.
It really is an assembly line. We sit there and get duped by the trailers, we think we'll see something original.
Great films still happen, I know they're out there, but there are precious few coming out of Hollywood. We've become so content that we claim films are great when really we've been swayed by the hype. It's unlikely anything you saw in the last few years really stuck.
The King's Speech anyone? The Artist wasn't even that great, it just reminded us of what a story is. And they told us Cabin in the Woods was the greatest horror in years, but that's because there's hardly any competition!
Films are not always an art form. Often, they're just a turd on a screen.
I'm after greatness. The stuff that makes you so excited you have to tell EVERYONE. It happens to me maybe once a year. If you've had that feeling recently, please tell me about it, tell me why you loved the film -- we need those stories.
So much of this is true, but against hope I try to stay positive with the hope. But, is it Hollywood specifically which is hurting creativity. Bad films are just as apt to come from elsewhere it'd seem - or maybe because so many movies are made today there are bound to be more bad ones?
ReplyDeleteThe film from this year which made me excited to tell everyone (even though I suspect it's not *for* everyone) is Terence Davies' THE DEEP BLUE SEA. It's such a sensitive rendering of the 1950s world (it seems more like a film made in 1950s and shown today than a contemporary made depicting the era) but more than that it so beautifully observes the fickleness and sadness of human emotion.
Also a masterful turn from Rachel Weisz.
I agree with every single word!
ReplyDeleteim a romance junkie. they make terribly, horrible romance movies these days. its once a decade if i can find something that i can really respect. the 2011 Jane Eyre adaptation...was incredible. Mia and Michael were amazing. there was such verbal foreplay sparking the darkened scenes that i could barely take it. i never warmed to the actual book (im a Pride and Prejudice freak) and so i was leery of this adaptation (ive seen a few others). the director (Cary Fukunaga) absolutely needs to be given more money and time and creative space to create another such beautiful thing. i hope i dont have to wait another 10 years for something to truly sweep me off my feet, but im not holding my breath.
ReplyDeleteaside from my cheesy, undying love for The Notebook (2004), the only other romance that really brought me deeper feeling was 2004's Dear Frankie. i still think about that one. it pisses me off that Gerard Butler has not done anything remotely close to that performance since. in fact, he's put in so many embarrassments that if you didnt know about Dear Frankie, youd think that he was a regular piece of crap body guy.
regardless, im looking forward to others comments. im happy to indulge in the movies that make your brain feel like a vegetable but the reason i always come back to movies are the same reasons you do.
This is a bad comment i'm going to write because i have nothing to criticize. you just wrote what i have always wanted to express, but when i try people say 'you are a critic and pessimist and cinic'.
ReplyDeleteAs for the film i recently always try to show to other people, is "North Face" (orig. Nordwand).
Whenever you are interested or bored from mountains, you just can't ignore the vividness of the charachters and the beauty of nature (and incredible camera work, i don't know the correct name for it) and reality of life and all about the human will. I already watched it 5 times
regards
So much of this is true, but against hope I try to stay positive with the hope. But, is it Hollywood specifically which is hurting creativity. Bad films are just as apt to come from elsewhere it'd seem - or maybe because so many movies are made today there are bound to be more bad ones?
ReplyDeleteThe film from this year which made me excited to tell everyone (even though I suspect it's not *for* everyone) is Terence Davies' THE DEEP BLUE SEA. It's such a sensitive rendering of the 1950s world (it seems more like a film made in 1950s and shown today than a contemporary made depicting the era) but more than that it so beautifully observes the fickleness and sadness of human emotion.
Also a masterful turn from Rachel Weisz.
(Apologies, I didn't realise it had been deleted. My internet connection was being weird and I thought I'd posted the comment twice.)
Adding to the initial comment above, I'll also say I'm worried that over time there's been this weird thing where liking "smart" stuff has become somewhat snobby so in an effort to be be all-inclusive and have that "everyone's a winner" mentality sub-par films are trumpeted or excused because of their intent. Which is a shame. Not because you have a good or praiseworthy idea or reason to make a film means that your film is good.
I admit. I saw Ted, too. :(
ReplyDelete