GUEST POST | Are film critics an endangered species in the new digital media ecosystem?

by Brandon Engel

Even though it’s a lucrative field for some, let’s face it -- there have always been but a few paid film critics in the world at any given time. In some ways, the internet is helping to propel professional film criticism closer to obsolescence. While the major studios used to pander to critics in the hopes of optimizing their presence in mass media outlets, social media has complicated this arena considerably.

While it would be foolish to suggest that critical opinion and popular opinion are always divided, it does seem fair to assert that when it comes to populist fare, the major studios are going to benefit the most from word-of-mouth spread by the general public, and not by film scholars.

Social media, and the ever expanding blogosphere itself, shares an interesting relationship with the film industry. Social media is helping to create a situation where members of the general public inadvertently serve as surrogate brand ambassadors for major corporate entities, and provide unofficial endorsements through their Tweets and status updates. This is as true of film distribution as it is anything else. And the studios love it! They’re saving money by cutting down the number of critic screenings held (and screener disks dispersed). All this boosts the value of focus-group driven pop cinema by devaluing the role of academics who have traditionally helped shape public discourse.

The major studios always held private screenings for critics, and in even more desperate situations, the studios would host press junkets, wherein the most influential members of the press are wined, dined, and maybe even put up for a night in a resort as part of the promotional campaign for the film. It was all glorified bribery.

However, if the studios were to further reduce their PR tours, it’s the student press that might be harmed the most significantly. Students in commercially vibrant, urban areas have historically had the distinct advantage of milking student publication connections to attend screenings and other press events for newly released films. This writer proudly recalls attending a Chicago screening of what was, at the time, the latest Sam Mendes film with maybe three other patrons present for the screening -- one of them was Rogert Ebert himself. Future generations of students may not be able to take full advantage of such opportunities in the future.

But this isn’t to say that social media hasn’t also provided film critics and scholars with an outlet. Roger Ebert tweeted fervently right up until his death, and now, his widow Chaz, who would frequently accompany him to screenings, and is herself something of an important figure in the contemporary film criticism world. A.O. Scott from the New York Times also uses his account to discuss everything from the films he’s reviewing, to other items circulating amongst critics.

And there are situations where the critics and the public do seem to see eye-to-eye. The social media monitoring tool ViralHeat reveals both the dissonance and the harmony between what the critics say versus what the general public says about new releases via their Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram feeds. For instance, opinion was clearly divided on Baz Luhrmann’s interpretation of The Great Gatsby. The social media data largely echoes the “freshness ratings” posted on RottenTomatoes -- 49 percent of critics liked it, as compared to 68 percent of the general viewing audience who liked it. For example, among the countless Twitter users who had nothing but praise for Luhrmann’s Gatsby was user @ShazGhaF, who tweeted:

This was obviously a sharp contrast from what countless other critics and public intellectuals said, including author Bret Easton Ellis who tweeted:

One film where we can easily see a smaller disparity is The Lego Movie. In this case, the Rotten Tomatoes “freshness meter” shows that the critical response was actually more favorable than the audience response, with 96 percent of critics liking the film as compared to 91 percent of general viewing audiences. User @Cynicbats tweeted:

The film also received warm praise from Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times, who even went as far as to tweet a picture of himself wearing 3D glasses at a screening, and wrote:

The implications for mainstream cinema seem quite clear, but the real question now is: can the independents figure out how to harness social media in a way that gives greater visibility to independent cinema, or will the independants nestle into their own little echo chambers in the far corners of the internet? It will be interesting to see what the true long term consequences of social media are, not merely in terms of film criticism, but filmmaking itself.

Seriesly: 9 Reasons to Watch The Escape Artist

IT'S THE DAY PEOPLE!!! By the time you read this, I'll be in Insane Fangirl Mode, which is why I'm writing it on beforehand. I can't promise to prevent Insane Fangirl from misbehaving at least a bit in this post though, but bear with us...

So the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who aka The Real Reason Why Television Exists is happening today and we're all slightly exited (ALLONS-Y!!!). We are going to see the above person (David TEN-INCH) returning to his role as the 10th Doctor when we'd just finally accepted the fact that he was gone for good after three seasons (He walked those 500 Miles for good, didn't he?). So excitement aside, the 50th Anniversary is worse than christmas itself - we've waited for it (not it, him!) for so long, but it (HE) is never going to come back again. And as if that's not enough, Matt Smith will be leaving the show in the upcoming Christmas Special. Time to buy a storage of tissues then. As for long-term consolation, there is but one option: find a Plan B. No chance of seeing David Tennant as the Doctor again (re-watches and the possibility of Mad Moffat finding some way to revisit Tenth aside)? Well, there's plenty of other high quality material to choose from.

Well, I don't know about you, but Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger is currently 2nd on my new-holiday-movies-to-watch-this-holiday-season-list. Since, despite what supermarkets are telling us, christmas time hasn't started yet though, I will recommend a watch that is well-suited for any season of the year. Except for summer of course (anybody knows that watching David Tennant movies or shows in summer is highly dangerous and may result in a considerable raise of blood-pressure and body temperature). Here are my...

The duration. 9 seasons of Supernatural? Sounds frightening. Not because you're in danger of making it through all of those episodes, but because it is going to ruin your life to some extend. You'll be slipping into that addiction everyone who's ever watched a whole show knows so very well, characters holding you in a comfortable yet grim headlock and not letting you go until you've finished what you've begun. Something like Sherlock can be even worse, driving audiences crazy with insanely long periods of silence and incomparable cliffhangers that will haunt you for months following. I think this has exterminated (yeeeee-haaaa) all doubts on whether one should bother to sit down for 3 hours and watch a definite mini-series.

The BBC argument. Ever since TV was invented, British television has marked the ideal way to go for European television. While America has gone the commercial way, the UK believed in national quality entertainment. Right now, I can't say which one is better, I only know that German television sucks at both ways. But the BBC has never produced anything I've disliked. On the contrary, their output of the last few years has been amazing and thus they've managed to spellbind audiences from all over the world with shows like Sherlock, new Doctor Who, Downtown Abbey and many others.

 The intelligence. The Escape Artist doesn't try to gloss its ruthless material up in any way. From the title sequence to the editing, everything is kept on a calm, quiet level which is going to detract people looking for CSI-ish sensation but is ever the more rewarding for an audience interested in story and psychology. 

Two hot dudes. Another kind of reward, but you'll only get it if you can stand the rest. Also, one of the dudes is sort of sick - actually very much so - which makes this even more interesting. It raises questions like "How pretty are a psychopaths teeth allowed to be?" and "Why isn't the good-girls-only-fall-for-bad-guys working?".

The cruelty. The Romans watched people fighting lions, we watch actors pretending to commit cruel actions and fight each other in ways that we'd never want to fight ourselves. We think it's entertaining, don't we? Problems are entertaining, action is entertaining - cruelty is, to some extent, entertaining. And The Escape Artist is very cruel. Which is, oh well, you see where I'm going.

David Tennant wears suits. Like a famous poet once said, "nothing suits the undisputed/ oft-saluted/ suitor of repute/ like aaaaaaaa" and so on. 

Law. Boring? Unimportant? Dry? I personally think that law is very interesting. And why do so many people watch Judge Judy anyway? Or CSI? Because it matters! Sure, there are boring law films and boring law shows - but The Escape Artist isn't one of them. It's not The Escape Lawyer for a reason, folks.

 The twist. Spoilers *winkface*. Not that you're going to get any here. No, no. I'm the last person to spoil anything to anyone (apart from Torchwood and some bits of Doctor Who - but my sister can take it). Seriously, I hate spoilers. And I love twists. But they're hard to avoid once you've become a part of that crazy thing called Fandom and joined tumblr as well as liked several of those weird pages on facebook. Luckily, as I can't stress enough, The Escape Artist is a rather small show (so far) with a rather small following. So you're not in danger of spoilers - yet. But if you want to find out what happens in the end, hurry up and watch it, because one can never be safe enough.

David Tennant talks Scottish. Any further questions? 

And now, let's just appreciate that this exists:

Happy 50th Anniversary everyone!

My Heroes: Ellen "Get-away-from-her-you-bitch" Ripley

A Bechdel test rating for movies has just been approved by the Swedish government, I finally have the chance the catch a screening of the hyped sci-fi epos Gravity tonight and Halloween is just around the corner - what better to write about these days than one of the coolest female characters that has ever kicked cinematic asses, first appearing in 1979s groundbreaking sci-fi/ horror flick Alien?

Percy Jackson and the Sea of Perdition

Do you remember back at the beginning of summer, when I wrote one of those rambles you're hopefully not missing so much (or should I hope you do?) on the Percy Jackson series? If you've read it - and you should, if you're going to stick around to read about Sea of Monsters - you've probably figured out the following: Percy Jackson is not my favorite fandom, the books are not one of my favorite series of all time and neither is the first movie. But I enjoyed the material for what it was. Simple yet very intriguing entertainment. Yes, there's a lot of Harry Potter in this, yes the first movie is very different from the first book - and yes, it's trashy. But it knows what it is and hence works perfectly well.

This month, new material was finally released in the shape of a sequel movie to The Lightning Thief. I'm writing movie because - like every fan should know and/ or finally realize - the movies and books are two very damn separate things. Sea of Monsters starts where the first movie ended, and like the book it centers around a new quest for Percy and his friends; the tree that guards Half-Blood Camp is slowly dying and can only be saved by the Golden Fleece, which is currently owned by a blood-thirsty Cyclops living in the middle of the dangerous Sea of Monsters. There are a lot of details that are similar to the story in the novel, actually more than in The Lightning Thief and the tone is typical Percy Jackson. Everything's very light-hearted, propped with one-liners and the cast seems to be having fun. Now that's all I expect from the Percy Jackson series by now. Fun, just plain fun. I don't need accurateness or plausibility or award-winning performances. This is not the place for stuff like that. As long as I get Logan Lerman being absolutely lovable (and talented), Alexandra Daddario sporting her incredible eyes and everyone else being either funny or hot, I'm fine. And the acting isn't even terrible. Douglas Smith owned the role as Percy's Cyclops brother Tyson and Anthony Head was a far better Chiron than Pierce Brosnan. Even the CGI was fine this time (keyword: adorable rainbow ponies aka Hippocampi).

I understand why some people didn't like Sea of Monsters. 6.5 on IMDB is an understandable average, because clearly this isn't a critic's movie - nor a universally appealing entertainer. 38/64 on Rottentomatoes? Fine with me. What I don't get though is the shit that this movie gets from the people that were supposed to back it up. The ones that knew what they were getting into, knew the source material and enjoyed it. The worst thing is, they don't even tear Olympus apart by pointing out all the things that went "wrong" technically - directing, soundtrack, editing, whatever critics could probably argue wasn't all that great from an objective point-of-view. No, the Percy Jackson fandom, or a big part of it, is pissed off by the fact that Riptide isn't the cursed blade from the prophecy (it's still a cursed blade and you don't know how they're going to continue that plot). Because Kronos was defeated (as if). Because of stupid details. Just chill, people, and accept the fact that a book and its cinematic adaptation can be very different from each other, okay? Just saying. Because if nobody goes to watch Sea of Monsters, or at least buy it, we're not getting The Titan's Curse. We wouldn't want that, would we? 

PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS

2013 • USA • English

dir. Thor Freudenthal

authors Marc Guggenheim, Rick Riordan

★ Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario, Brandon T. Jackson

Final Frame: STRAWBERRY

[18!!!] The Upcoming Adult Presents: My Life in 18 Movies

When you read this, I will be celebrating and hopefully having a great time, and I will be 18 years old. 

I could spend my time talking about life, the lessons I learned, the ups and downs I went through, my plans for the future and other stuff that has been said enough in this world. Some may argue that you can't talk about it often enough, and that people need to continue thinking about it. Life. 

Truth is though, I don't want to analyze life too much anymore. Perhaps I will read some philosophic books - always been wanting to check out Nietzsche - and I will certainly watch some philosophic movies, because you never know when you're going to watch one. But I don't want to... I don't want to think about philosophy too much anymore. I want philosophy to just happen and to let it happen instead of trying to control it and put it into every single part of my life. 

Because life's not only philosophy - it's also survival, reasonless happiness and reasonless sadness. Nothing ever happens the way you planned it - and once you realize that, you're happy. At least that's what I think. And that's what I know from my own 18 years of life. I'm not praising passiveness or just-going-with-the-flow-ness here, not even mainstream - so many people don't have the job they want, don't date the people they want to date and don't watch the movies they want to watch. While some of these things can just kind of happen once in a while, we have the power to change them. You've got to fight for the things you care about - but don't try to control the things you can't control, because it will make you unhappy when they don't turn out like you "planned", because in fact, you never planned them.

Did it again - perhaps I can't let go of philosophy. Nevertheless, perhaps I just want to approach philosophy in a different way - a curious, natural, easy way - instead of trying to account for and explain all the things I do and think. 

I may blog on, I may stop blogging. I may become a journalist, a biologist or an actress - but why ruin my youth trying to figure that out, when there's no point in figuring something out that is just going to happen? If I find that I chose the wrong thing, I can just choose  something else, right? It's never too late for anything I think.

And therefore, let's raise our glasses to a year full of laissez-faire, without pressure or bondages as far as that's possible. Cheers!

So, this is my life. My life in 18 movies.

A Journey in Kubrick or: Kubrick's Cube

January 2012 marked my first visit to the violent, ruthless and magic world of Stanley Kubrick's movies. 

„Here you are, sir, main level please.“ were the cold welcoming words that drew me into a film that I have declared to be one of my favourites - without having seen it another time since then. And now, almost a year later, I happen to have seen all there is to see of Kubrick's work, my journey ending with a word equally precise as the welcoming ones: „Fuck“.

The two quotes are, as you might know (if not, you've missed two great films), from the movies 2001: A Space Odyssey and Eyes Wide Open - respectively. The ironic side of this is that they share the rank of being my favourite Kubrick films. 

"Kubrick". Just listen to the sound of that name. It's a name I've associated with crazy brilliancy even before watching one of his movies. And each movie I saw before accepting the challenge of watching his whole filmography, confirmed this association. The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon - all great films. All favourites. 

It shouldn't come as a surprise then, that I wasn't able to develop the same feelings towards the remaining Kubrick films I watched in the last few weeks. Out of 13 feature films and three shorts, some must be less brilliant than the others. Indeed, only three of those recently watched films are ones I consider to be exceptional or brilliant; Eyes Wide Shut, Full Metal Jacket and Lolita.

Has my picture of Kubrick being some kind of holy God-like film master changed? Yes, it has. I've seen his (not very impressive) beginnings, development of an own style and voice, as well as I've seen his brilliant side. But while my admiration may have faded a little, my fascination has grown. For Kubrick is one of the most fascinating filmmakers I know - and so are his films.

Perhaps every filmmaker becomes fascinating or interesting once you dig a little deeper - I think this is true for many things in life.

What you should know is that I haven't been researching a lot on Kubrick's personal life. I know that he wasn't good in school, and that he was a friend of Kirk Douglas, until they had a big fight. He also became more independent through his career, but that's not very unusual. And he disappeared for many years.

I'm sure all these things and many more are interesting, but what I want to focus on in this post is really Kubrick's work - his films - not his private life.

Those who haven't seen many of Kubrick's movies and want to be surprised, beware of spoilers, while those who have seen many of Kubrick's movies might think I'm just repeating stuff I've read on the internet - which I haven't. I intentionally haven't researched on the movies, because so much has been written about it and I am afraid of just repeating some of that massive material. 

Whatever, bla bla, here's what Kubrick's movies have touched, moved or provoked in me.

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW and THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER

Emma Watson playing Sam in

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER

playing Susan Sarandon playing Janet in

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW

So, what is this post all about? That's a good question.

I think what made me write the above and find the above picture was a vague feeling of "I need to write about a great movie". And I honestly think that The Rocky Horror Picture Show is one of the best movies I've ever seen. As usually, those are the movies I find it hardest to write about (coughDrivecough).

Why do I mention Perks again here, then? Obviously, as those who have seen the movie know, there is a strong connection between the two movies, as the gang from Perks are big fans of Rocky Horror and make a kind of show of the movie. And without Perks, I'd probably never have seen Rocky Horror... or I guess I would, but not that soon.

Another connection between the two are the soundtracks. What lingered with me after both movies were the songs, the melodies that made my heart jump and dance with joy. Bowie's "Heroes", The Smiths's "Asleep", and that one special line; "Don't dream it, be it". 

I often find myself day-dreaming about it, ironically. Although I don't think it's about not-dreaming, but about doing what you want, not what others want - like Janet and Brad, who are probably just what their parents and society wants them to be in the beginning. 

The message therefore also resembles that of Perks in many ways - don't dream it, be it. Be what you want to be. If you want to be a dreamer, be it, if you want to write, write, if you want to be gay, be gay.

So, two paragraphs and I think I've written all there is to write. But perhaps there's nothing more to be written. Perhaps all you can do is to get out (of here) and just watch the movies. 

Kind of "Just do it". (Another of my favourite mottos).

Rediscovering the amazing feeling of having watched something new and great

FISH TANK

THE FILM THAT BROUGHT SOMETHING BACK TO ME

„You know that thing when you see someone cute and he smiles and your heart kind of goes like warm butter sliding down hot toast? Well that's what it's like when I see a store [good movie]. Only it's better.“

- My version of the famous quote from Confessions of a Shopaholic 

Re-watching is essential to the art of movie-loving. I wrote about this (The Magic of Re-watching) a few weeks ago, when I realized that I needed to re-watch some movies in order to fully understand my feelings for them. Or just to maintain or re-aflame my connection to them.

However, after having re-watched not-so-few movies these last days and weeks - especially all Harry Potter films - I had the feeling I was losing interest in watching new and unknown films. After all, how can you be sure to like them? How can you be sure not to be bored? How can you be sure you won't be wasting your time? Well, you can't. You can be disappointed.

BUT the possibility of you becoming enlightened, wiser and also entertained, is probably just as high. So it's a 50/ 50 chance. I figured this out, however I still couldn't bring myself to watch many new movies, except from two Indian ones I didn't really like that much. This caused me to stick with season three of True Blood. But you know, there's probably someone out there or up there who knows there's still a movie enthusiast inside me, someone who's craving more and more, new, raw movie meat.

This monster inside me then realized there was still a copy of that Fish Tank on my DVD shelf.

Fish Tank is pretty much the film my monster had been waiting for. After it had seduced me to watch it: "Don't be one of those series junkies. - Just a bite, it's not gonna hurt you!", it knew it had won. I was on the hook, once again. And I still am. 

Watching the film was in itself a great experience, because I didn't know what was going to happen and there were many unusual twists, characters and so on, and it was challenging. But the main thing that convinced me and truly got me on the hook was today, the day after watching the movie. It's the pictures, dialogues and also questions that pop into my head every now and then - actually quite often - that remind me of what it's like to have that amazing feeling of having watched something new and great.

How could I miss this for such a long time? I know I didn't have many spare hours and also I re-watched Harry Potter which was an amazing event, and I watched a very interesting series, but how could I be so unwilling to see new films? 

Perhaps it's got to do with the saying that you only truly value what you had when you don't have it anymore. Could be that inside I knew this and therefore was keeping away from the movie meat. Anyhow, I am super glad to have learned my lesson and excited to get back to movie wonderland. 

Although I am gonna have to watch season four of True Blood too, somewhere in between. But that's not going to change things at all. 

I'm back!

(Ahem, this should not be related to the blogging situation. But it might count as I'm probably going to see some great movies again which will inspire me to stay up late and write about them...?).

A History of Boredom

Firaaq (2008) Nandita Das, India

Somewhere (2010) Sofia Coppola, USA

"Boredom". A feeling of nothingness paired with the need to either fall asleep or start exercising/ screaming/ laughing (anything that's physically challenging). 

Boredom is one of the biggest fears of the movie buff. It is able to ruin 1,5 to 2,5 hours with its wasted nothingness, and that is definitely not what you're looking for when trying to squeeze in movies between ballet class and side job. Sadly, boredom is not a seldom thing. In fact, there are moments of boredom in not most, but many films and other works of art. 

Surprisingly, when you think about it, even great films include moments of boredom. But in this case we're not talking about the empty, "wasted" kind of boredom. No, we're talking about nothingness that means something. Nothingness that enlightens. You could also say, valuable nothingness.

That's because there are two kinds of boredom, which I will explain now.

A Journey in Wes Anderson Land

My journey in Wes Anderson Land started about two months ago, when I went to see a movie I was very excited to see - the name of the movie was Moonrise Kingdom.

Moonrise Kingdom is a film about a little scout that escapes scout camp with his newfound girlfriend who wears blue eye shadow and likes to read fantasy novels with female leading characters. It is also, and this is what made me pack my things and go into Wes Anderson Land, my present favourite movie of the year 2012.

I took seven longer stays at the seven grand cities in Wes Anderson Land, and three smaller ones in the three smaller towns, and I will tell you about these ten places in this travel report, but firstly I would like to evaluate the things that I was particularly puzzled and/ or intrigued by in Wes Anderson Land.

Yes, there are many surprises and gems to be found out there, and the ones I name here only represent a laughably small portion of them. Although I've been all around Wes Anderson Land, it's obvious that I was incapable of noticing every little corner of it - so if you have been there yourself and seen anything of interest, please share it with us in the guest comments' section on bottom.

The Magic of Re-Watching

Re-watching is much like growing up. 

When you're a child, everything is bare emotion - hatred and passion, coldness and warmth. But as you grow up, your emotions start to become more refined and varied; you sense the layers of things and you're able to understand the relations between them.

Did you know that one of my favourite films as a child was Barbie in Swan Lake? Anyhow, it's a pinkish film with a pinkish story. As a child, I loved this film, and the reason was "Well, because it's awesome!". Now to a confession; I still like this film, and I still own the DVD. But the reason I like it, is because I adore indulging in the thoroughly kitschy and pink story along with some of the greatest classical music I know. I see myself, the child, watching the film - and I see myself, the teenager, watching the film. I'm somewhere in between, and I enjoy this.

A different and more recent example, is that of Sean Penn's extraordinary drama Into the Wild, which I borrowed from the library last winter. I watched the film one lazy Sunday afternoon with my mother, and we were both awe-struck by the drowsiness and enlightenment the film caused us to feel. Into the Wild is currently on rank 20 of my favourite films list, and I know that this is just the right place for it; nevertheless, I was utterly surprised by its greatness when we watched it in class the other week.

The feeling of greatness was always in my mind when I thought of Into the Wild, but there was no way for me to pinpoint the exact reasons for this. And now that I could see the reasons, I just couldn't believe that I had been so right about the movie - because normally, most movies turn out to be not as great as I thought when I re-watch them.

Having said that, the best and most favourite movies I know are the ones that have held up for many, many re-watches. Especially the ones I watched before I was old enough to have a real side job, the time when I didn't know how to get movies for free (I'm talking about the library) and when the price of a DVD was that of three months' pocket money. We re-watched a lot back then. And that's for example why I like movies as Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, or Mohabbatein. My re-watching wasn't the same as it is now, and the more I watched these movies, the better they became. They couldn't get worse, because I didn't even know they could. 

Of course, there are also always those movies that don't change status after re-watching. Take Adam's Apples. It's a very fun dark comedy that just doesn't get better than "good". It's not great. It's cool and something else (in comparison to American comedies), but just good. And I can live with that.

Then, there are also the movies that change just slightly after re-watching, as Happythankyoumoreplease. I don't know if I want to call it "great" but it's one of my favourite films, and remains one of my favourite films. Only, when I re-watched it a week ago, I saw several sides of it, or several points-of-view of looking at it. There was the common point-of-view: fun but nothing more, a sweet idea but not daring enough. The haters point-of-view: hipster, doesn't tell us anything. And there was my point-of-view: a beautiful collection of snapshots that add up to an enchanting and thought-provoking collage. Furthermore, a film that reminds me to be happy and thankful sometimes. Examining the other points-of-view helped my realize how confident I felt with my own, which I hadn't been so sure of after reading a couple of not-so-enthusiastic reviews.

What one must remember concerning re-watching, however, is that no matter how insightful and revealing re-watching may be, it's also a question of the right dose. In this case, we can compare it to Coca Cola. I don't like drinking that sweet sugary stuff too often, but at the right moment, when my body is screaming for it, it's like an explosion of happiness that flows down my throat.

The magic of re-watching may not be overexcited, for then it will not work.

... And you wouldn't have time to watch new films that will put your re-watchings into context.

Confuzzledness as a Side Effect from Intense Movie Watching

It is a mixture of being confused and being puzzled.

It was invented by a film character, a fantasy person that doesn’t exist, a person that was created through words, computers and a voice. 

And when I think about this, I feel confuzzled. When I think about the fact that I’ve seen 40 films last month, I feel confuzzled. And when I try to understand and get hold of all the value in these films, in form of emotions, experiences, wisdom, I feel not confuzzled, but very confuzzled. 

Have you ever been confuzzled because of movies? If you are a movie blogger, I bet you have. Ever since I started this blog in October 2010, my confuzzledness has been growing, as I have been watching more and more movies. I just topped 1,000 ratings on IMDB – a pretty confuzzling experience, I tell you. I feel glad, because I know I’ve seen many movies, and that my knowledge of this art is growing steadily. I have seen many wonderful films, incredible works of art, and I have gained insight in many things. 

On the other hand, I have been entertained. This may sound positive at first, but there is a tiny part of myself that feels bad about this, bad about spending hours being entertained – and that alone, mostly.

Movie watching is an unsocial hobby. You can go to the cinema with your friends and family, but just how often do you actually do that? Personally, I go to the movies about every second week with my mum or friends, but that leaves two weeks in which I watch movies myself mostly. I sometimes sit at a party and think, „I wish I was at home watching a movie“, and then I have a bad conscience. 

But I have been thinking this through. And it’s not like I spend less time with other people due to movie watching, is what I’ve found out. What would I do if I didn’t watch a film almost every night? I’d probably be reading. Because, let’s face it, you don’t really meet your friends at night (except weekends). So I think, I hope, that I won’t feel bad and unsocial anymore – though maybe I exaggerated a little, I don’t feel bad very often actually. It’s just sometimes, you know, in between. 

What furthermore confuzzles me, is the fact that I spend a big part my time writing about movies and then sharing these writings with lots of people I don’t know online. And the fact that people respond, and that I’m happy about every comment. And the fact that I get a little addicted to checking if there are any comments, and checking my blog stats. 

I don’t even know if you’re people or just computers. Maybe you’re stalkers.

But you could think the same thing about me, commenting on your blogs. I’ve read so often that people want to stop the stats-checking and comment-addictedness, so I don’t feel alone. I’m still confuzzled, but I am getting better at seeing this whole project as a way to express my love for the art of film. 

You might think this is easy, but there have been times when I’ve been considering to close this blog, because I don’t see the point. I see that it makes me happy to read comments and discuss films with people, but I don’t see why I write stuff and spend hours on designing a ratings system or polishing the blog design or whatever. I should be thinking about what I want to do with my life, which career path I want to take, find out whether I'm better at acting or writing or calculating.

But as I said: I don’t want to stop. I know the point - there is a point - just sometimes I forget it. And then I see a great movie and I remember.

Confuzzling, isn’t it?

"But what's it about?"

My latest rentals/ borrowings. Thought the Great Gatsby is a mafia-film.

I often wonder how people decide which movie they're going to watch. It's much of a coincidence I think, considering what a vast amount of "must-sees", "classics" and blockbusters there already is - increasing each year.

So what we watch is more or less destiny - even though, of course, in the end we decide. But what do we decide from?