Well Duh!

[AmaiStina]

Has this or anything similar to it ever happened to you?


You: I saw Winds of My Sore last night & it was brilliant (and then you proceed to explain what you thought was so brilliant. ie. story, acting, ideology, etc).

the next day.


Cyrano: I saw Winds of My Sore today & yeah. i liked it a lot. yeah, you were right about the visual symbolism. absolutely gorgeous.


Stacy: Oh my gosh...it was horrible.

You: (trying not to smack her) What didnt you like about it? or rather, what did you think was so awful?

Stacy: it was so boring. and there was like no dialogue. and the camera was so dizzying. gah.

You: what kinds of films do you normally enjoy?

and then by the time youre done with the impromptu interrogation, you realize that Stacy hated Winds of My Sore b/c she never likes films like that. in fact, shes the anti-Winds of my Sore kind of gal. but b/c you dont want to insult her out loud, you refrain from asking "well then why did you see it in the first place?"


here are some possible reasons:

A. stacy was really really bored.
B. theres so much hype surrounding Winds of My Sore that Stacy wanted to give it a chance
C. A & B


i guess i just dont understand why you would see a film if it isnt the sort you normally go for & would enjoy. maybe you didnt have time to read up on the film. maybe you were curious, maybe you thought you would like it.

but still. when they think a film is horrible for precisely the reasons it is amazing, i keep asking myself "then why did you see it?"

above scenario based on fact....though i didnt actually feel like smacking anyone.

[El Duderino Diablo]

I can relate to the aforementioned scenario. I firmly believe that if one is going to invest the time, effort and money to see a movie then one should have enough of a working knowledge of the movie to know whether it is in fact their kind of movie.

Does everybody remember the David Cronenberg movie based on J.G. Ballard's novel, Crash?
After all the media attention the movie got for it's special prize for audacity at Cannes, the outrage voiced by (some) national and international critics and those guardians of our moral standards and reviews by local critics I ask: How could one attend a screening of Crash and not have certain expectations as to the film's content? How could one not have an idea of what Crash was about? People who fetishize and get off on motorvehicle accdents and their after effects. That description alone is enough to engender a certain expectation as to the film's content.
So, I went to see Crash at a second run theater. There were maybe a couple dozen people in the audience, mostly couples. By the time the movie had hit the midway point half of those people had left. Each couple left as the sexual mores of the film's characters were revealed and explored in depth.
So, were these audience membes not expecting to see such aberrent sexual behavior on the screen or were they expecting an epsiode of Melrose Place?

It's one thing for someone to go see a movie based on a subject matter that interests them yet is poorly executed and as a result they dislike the film intensely. It is another matter altogether if they attend a movie whose subject matter they know nothing about and really could'nt care less for and as a result end up hating the movie.
A viewer should dislike a movie for it's poor execution, not because it's subject matter wasn't to the viewer's interest. It's the viewer's responsibility to see films that interest them, not because everyone else is going to see the movie. That's herd mentality.

[mruzick3]

Originally posted by AmaiStina
i guess i just dont understand why you would see a film if it isnt the sort you normally go for & would enjoy. maybe you didnt have time to read up on the film. maybe you were curious, maybe you thought you would like it.

but still. when they think a film is horrible for precisely the reasons it is amazing, i keep asking myself "then why did you see it?"[/B]

Wow....I haven't even heard of this film....but more importantly, who cares?! Most of the films that I see are based on little to no knowledge of what it's about before I see it. Seeing a film like 'Read my Lips' without any knowledge of it beforehand can be quite an amazing experience and one that can only happen one time. I would recommed this, it could be liberating without reading a PR'd summary or some pretentious critque. It's called being surprised....or revolted....or bored. Basically, it's an opinion and like shitters, everyone's got 'em. I consider my taste pretty diverse when it comes to film preferences and I would hope that many other movie goers' tastes are as diverse....well, hell I'm an optimist. Just because someone didn't like a film doesn't mean their a moron for not liking it. They may be a moron for many other reasons, but for goodness sakes give them their bad taste.

As far as people going to see films that they're "in to"---well, that seems pretty limiting. Taste is a subjective matter....just like this entire medium (including documentaries.) If people just saw what their particular taste defined then what would be the point in trying to make anything new or inventive. Filmmakers would just follow a cookie-cutter formula and stick to whatever people demanded to see....much like today's industry....but again, I'm an optimist. Give your friend the credit for shellin' out the clams to see the darn thing. At least they didn't look at the poster and say, "Blech!!."


_______________________________
Mike Ruzicka

[El Duderino Diablo]

I agree with not paying too much attention to critics and ignoring pr/media releases is probably for the best and I am a firm proponent in taking chances with movies. What I'm saying is that it's best to at least have a general idea as to what you're about to devote your time to.

For the most part all of us on this bb are hardcore movie lovers (as opposed to lovers of hardcore movies or maybe some of us are, who am I to say). We're fanatical, we're obsessed, we attend festivals, we drive our friends and family crazy telling them which movies they have to see (and occasionally end up hating) and we all insist on taking chances. We'll watch just about anything. Yet, maybe AmaiStina's friend Stacy isn't the obsessive-compulsive, fanatical, movie freak that we all are. Or maybe she is and just hated the movie and I just don't know what the hell I'm talking about.
Generally, we see movies that contain subject matter that interests us so if one were to go into a movie blind and sit through a film that didn't contain subject matter interested us in the least then as an experience it would probably really, really suck. So it's probably best to avoid that sort of thing. :shrug:

[AmaiStina]

Winds of My Sore isnt a real movie. i made up the title. Stacy isnt real, neither is Cyrano. sorry for not clarifying that. ^*^


If Philbert only likes to watch action-flicks, he wouldnt choose to or even think about watching a film like "The Hours."

If Jovita loves most mainstream hollywood films but absolutely detests films where you have to think (as in philosophize about not the figure-out-who-the-killer-is type of thing), and she decides to go see a "thinking" film, she'll probably hate the film. and she'll say she hates it b/c it had no plot & was a thinking film.

and then its like a vicious cycle.....why did you see it if its the kind of film you hate? not that theres anything wrong with giving other films a chance....but...Jovita isnt going to hate the film b/c of poor execution. shes gonna hate it b/c its the kind of film she avoids like the plague.


if youre not a size 8, dont try on the size 8. its not gonna fit. if you can be a size 8, depending on the cut of the article of clothing, sure give it a shot. maybe itll look better than you thought.

but if you a size 2, dont even bother. keep right on walking until you find at least a size 4.

[mruzick3]

Well, I guess that rules out any film trying to trascend their genre. Sheesh...what's the point?!

And please don't compare choosing a movie to choosing the size of a dress. Give me a break! I'm not going to stand at a theater, rental shop, or DVD retailer and hold the film up to my face to see if it looks good on my mind. How superficial. Why don't we just have an intellectual guard at the door and filter everyone into the newest art-film or, if they can't cut the mustard....the new Rob Schnieder movie would be a perfect "fit."

__________________________
Mike Ruzicka

[AmaiStina]

Originally posted by mruzick3
Well, I guess that rules out any film trying to trascend their genre. Sheesh...what's the point?!


it was just an observation. i wasnt suggesting that everyone do a book report on a movie if they might want to see it. or think to themselves if theyll like a movie as they stand in front of the box office.

i was merely describing a situation & wondering if anyone had been through it before. i was just trying to get some input as to why it happens.

[El Duderino Diablo]

Well, I see the point you're making in the copmparison and find it a valid one.

As to why it happens maybe it's just because we tend to oversell a movie a little too well sometimes. I've ranted and raved about how phenominal and utterly fantastic a movie is in every regard, imploring friends and family to see it regardless of the fact that it may not be their type of movie only to have them come back to me and say they hated it.

I think we, as movie obsessives, seek out the new, the different and the challenging where most people (so it seems to me) see movies as an excuse to shut off the grey matter for eighty or ninety minutes. We may not like it but that's just how the majority think. :shrug:
Kinda helps to explain David Spade and Rob Schneider's careers.
;)

[mruzick3]

Ok, so maybe I flew a little off the handle. I just get so tired of the social elitism that independent/art-house films indirectly over-emphasize. There's an almost unintentional alienation between those that "get it" and those that don't. That's why I can't stand filmmakers like Solondz and Haynes putting out showy diatribes of their senior theses about the ills of the suburbs.

But I digress. Movies, I would like to think, are not approached with a pre-determined and permanent taste in mind but a mood that is evoked before, during, and after the presentation.

______________________
Mike Ruzicka

[AmaiStina]

Originally posted by mruzick3
There's an almost unintentional alienation between those that "get it" and those that don't.

Movies, I would like to think, are not approached with a pre-determined and permanent taste in mind but a mood that is evoked before, during, and after the presentation.

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Mike Ruzicka

everyone takes something unique & will react differently to the films they watch. maybe movies are an exception. maybe a person will watch something they normally wouldnt just b/c they can...and all their friends are going or what not.