Wednesday, July 16, 2003
(1:24 AM) | Anonymous:
Doesn't It Feel Good To Think Less
I just watched "The Legend of 1900", and it got me to wondering...why is there a general conception that all feel-good movies suck?
"1900" was an exception to this rule, a glaring one. It was a movie so very good at its purpose that it got a coveted 5 stars in my Amazon ranking. I didn't even give "Clockstoppers" 5 stars!
Please don't fail to understand what I mean by "feel good." Don't rent this with your family and expect to just be gushing about it and giggling while quoting lines for days afterwards. My sister cried at the end, there's a lot of swearing at times, and you don't really feel all that much better about life when it's over..so feel-good is a horrible term for it, but I could think of none better.
What I mean is this: the movie wasn't really that intellectual..there is one monologue with some "weighty" subject matter, but mostly, you aren't pondering questions long after. There aren't any real twists. What's more, the art of the movie isn't all that great. The acting of Tim Roth is, of course, outstanding, but the music, direction, cinematography, and general feel of the movie isn't really anything above plain. The acting outside of Roth is decent at best.
Again, don't misunderstand me, all of these things are good and don't detract from the story at all, they are far from stand-out. What does make its mark is the very story itself. It's pretty original, extremely well told and makes the movie thouroughly one of the more enjoyable experiences I've had in a while.
I just am wondering, I guess, why the movie industry, movie critics and reverse-elitist movie goers seem to regard good storytelling as a faux pas? Art and intelligence and original twists are all great, and I'm not downplaying movies that feature any of those for their own sake. I just wonder why amazing storytelling seems to be hustled into the same category as films the likes of My Best Friend's Wedding or The Air Bud Trilogy
Is it so very wrong to simply tell a story without it being an amazing feat of art or a revolutionary new way of communicating a thought?
I'm not really sure what the point of this post is, except to say that I am tired of feeling guilty for liking movies that don't always end up with a closing scene in a flash of brilliant colors, perfectly framed through a jungle gym or some other commonplace yet terribly poignant object, revealing that all along the monkey's uncle really was the monkey himself and making me think about the true resilliency of the old catch phrase "he was a monkey's uncle" and what it might mean for our society today.
Right here, right now, tonight at 1:30 A.M. Central Standard Time my only hunger is for entertainment, dangit! Alright, entertainment and sleep...and maybe the ability not to have the time of my post shown. But mainly entertainment, and I shall not be denied any longer!
Alas, as they say, Qui Dort Dîne, so who knows what tomorrow will bring.
-Robb
(yeah..I worked the whole time to fit Qui Dort Dîne in there somehow, sorry it shows so badly.)
