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Author Topic: Random Movie Thoughts/Questions (2009-2016)  (Read 1228666 times)

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Random Movie Thoughts/Questions
« Reply #13400 on: November 15, 2016, 11:29:24 AM »
Weird. Hope they iron out those issues soon since I want to pick it up in January. Having apartment internet, sites that do that are almost unwatchable. The main reason I dropped my Hulu subscription after I moved.

Corndog

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Re: Random Movie Thoughts/Questions
« Reply #13401 on: November 16, 2016, 12:06:57 PM »
To the other Beta testers out there...We have free access to Filmstruck through the end of the year, but then can we also just use the free trial after to extend our freeness that much more?
"Time is the speed at which the past decays."

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Random Movie Thoughts/Questions
« Reply #13402 on: November 19, 2016, 09:08:15 PM »
Watched The Tree of Life again and it struck me while much of the movie takes place during the peaks of life, the entire film is framed as this coming to terms with death, especially in that final lengthy sequence. And it really hit me a lot stronger on the emotional front this time.

I still find myself checking out for the creation sequence, but, like most Malick, coming back only makes for a better and better experience.

verbALs

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #13403 on: November 21, 2016, 03:08:19 PM »
I don't care to get into the flaws. I love the world and the imagination. This took me back there, which The Hobbit (for example) never managed to do, so I was able to just enjoy whatever they wanted to present to me.
You have a highly developed critical faculty; which, by its continual use and application, must be second nature by now. So when you don't apply it to Marvel or Pixar or kids magic movies it leaves an easy assumption that you know something's wrong with these films but you don't care to analyse it the way you normally would. What isn't said is as informative as what is said.
I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don't do that so much anymore. - Banksy

1SO

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Re: Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #13404 on: November 21, 2016, 03:22:26 PM »
Something is wrong with all films. There is no such thing as a perfect film. Years ago when I rebuilt my Top 100, I was pointing out things that are wrong with Die Hard, Silence of the Lambs, The Incredibles and The Godfather. I know something is wrong with every film. With those, what's right had the overwhelming advantage. With Fantastic Beasts, Marvel and Disney animation what's often right is that it gives me a ton of entertainment. That translates to rewatchability, which I can't say about Shoah and Grace of the Fireflues.

verbALs

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Re: Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #13405 on: November 21, 2016, 03:44:42 PM »
By which we understand that neither entertainment nor intellectual depth nor emotional insight are generalities because they would exclude each other and this isn't a question of generalising about films but about why you can't generalise your critical senses. Or rather when do you switch off those senses. Is it when the film is childish? The idea you would go in with your senses switched off seems equally wrong. So can we assume there's a point when you think "I can't hold this to the standard I would normally apply to a film" and turn those standards off so you can be entertained. Again we know there's more available in any film so the implication is these films are bereft and "entertaining"'becomes "merely entertaining".
I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don't do that so much anymore. - Banksy

valmz

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Re: Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #13406 on: November 21, 2016, 04:51:14 PM »
My senses aren't developed in ways which inhibit my ability to enjoy life. Quite the opposite, in fact. No matter how many ways there are to negatively criticize a film, the ways of appreciating a film are what determines who much I value a film. I think negative criticism is an exercise in creatively engineering your own misery.

The extent that my "critical faculty" is developed in ways which inhibit my ability to enjoy a film that I would otherwise enjoy is the extent to which I have more work to do to translate analysis into value, appreciation, enjoyment, and enrichment. Where none of these are achieved, my critical faculties have failed.
« Last Edit: November 21, 2016, 04:54:30 PM by valmz »

MartinTeller

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Re: Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #13407 on: November 21, 2016, 05:11:11 PM »
valmz, I love your take on it. I find these days that I enjoy almost everything I watch, which I see as an evolution of sorts.

"negative criticism is an exercise in creatively engineering your own misery" -- yes! I want this on a T-shirt or something

PeacefulAnarchy

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Re: Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #13408 on: November 21, 2016, 06:05:43 PM »
That's a really weird way to look at criticism. I don't go into a movie with a checklist of things I want it to do and then negatively criticize the things it doesn't do. I go into a movie hoping to be engaged, and if I find things distracting my engagement then those become the things I criticize, just like I praise the things I enjoy or find engaging or enlightening. All criticism, positive or negative, comes from how the film interacts with my tastes and values, when I express it I am expressing that interaction. Negative criticism doesn't make misery any more than positive criticism makes joy. The joy/misery/indifference/etc feelings are there, criticism is a way of trying to discover and express why they are there.

valmz

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Re: Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #13409 on: November 21, 2016, 06:53:27 PM »
That's a really weird way to look at criticism. I don't go into a movie with a checklist of things I want it to do and then negatively criticize the things it doesn't do. I go into a movie hoping to be engaged, and if I find things distracting my engagement then those become the things I criticize, just like I praise the things I enjoy or find engaging or enlightening. All criticism, positive or negative, comes from how the film interacts with my tastes and values, when I express it I am expressing that interaction. Negative criticism doesn't make misery any more than positive criticism makes joy. The joy/misery/indifference/etc feelings are there, criticism is a way of trying to discover and express why they are there.
I like to look at those things that may immediately bother me, think about them, and see if there is another way of thinking about them that may provide insight or appreciation for their existence. Sometimes it works; sometimes it works and I come to think that it would be worse any other way; sometimes I realize that I missed the entire point by being bothered instead of engaging and understanding this element. This isn't theory, as I can provide many examples of each. Sometimes I fail, but I still find the effort worthwhile.

I disagree with your assertion that criticism is an expression of the interaction between the film and my tastes and values - that is merely my un-critical reaction. Where you say (film) criticism is a way of explaining my reaction, I would instead call that self-reflection or self-criticism. Film criticism is, to me, essentially, "A close examination of a film in order to overcome, expand, and approve my initial uncritical experience and reaction." If it wasn't meant to improve my life through the film, but merely categorize the state that the film put me in, then I would call it something else, and I wouldn't do it. I do think that this is all that negative criticism is, and this is why I don't do it, because I don't care to understand why something failed to produce something worthwhile in lieu of using the same time, faculties, and processes to reclaim that time that was initially sub-optimal and squeeze more out of it.

I'll provide a ridiculous squeezey example: Let's say I find a lemon which happens to be the biggest pain to eat because it has so many seeds. You can barely take a nibble without spitting out 3 seeds. But why would I even want to eat a lemon? They're so bitter! Well, this lemon happens to taste like lemonade without adding any sugar, and I'm somehow magically certain that I'm not setting myself up for diabetes. Anyway, there are many ways to approach this issue. I could say that this is a pretty worthless lemon because it's such a pain to eat, and if I'm honest, the skin is a bit too thin and it also doesn't feel amazing to touch. I could go on describing the issues with eating it, and why it's various qualities cause issues to me and I could investigate these frustrated feelings, but I won't, because I'm going to squeeze it and have the most delicious and healthy lemonade ever, and I'll probably come to realize that while this lemon is terrible to eat, you probably shouldn't eat lemons anyway and my life is now forever enriched by this amazing new way of ingesting the contents of a lemon. In the future I will continue to squeeze fruits of all shapes and sizes, to varying results. In the fruit game of life, the squeeze isn't always the best method, but the best method is to figure out the best way to ingest the fruit, not to lament the ways in which the worst way doesn't work.

All of my philosophy can be traced to fruits of various types, for what it's worth.
« Last Edit: November 21, 2016, 06:56:12 PM by valmz »

 

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