This is the whole “style over substance” point. The implication is that if a movie focuses too much on its style, its tone, its visuals, then it tends to sacrifice themes or ideas or something. A movie like Pulp Fiction or really almost anything Quentin Tarantino has made attracts this criticism from a number of viewers and reviewers. Movies that operate more like poetry like The Tree of Life get this same line thrown at them. More recently, Anna Karenina and Killing Them Softly were two examples of movies whose visuals were praised but were blasted for a “lack of substance.”
I reject the notion that style and substance are two different things. People also describe this as form vs. content. I don’t think of these two entities having a versus aspect to them. I think they often work in conjunction, complementing each other, enhancing one another and working together to achieve something powerful. But I disagree that they’re separate. I think image itself is substance. I think creating something beautiful or interesting on a purely visual basis is valid and worthwhile. I think something that is “cool” could just as easily be described as “beautiful” if that word didn’t sound so uncool. There are ideas to images that express more than a didactic theme can. And sometimes there is simply immense value in experimenting with how we see, or how we hear, how we view specific things when juxtaposed with other things, and so on. What I’m saying is that “looks great but lacks substance” is an oxymoron and annoys me when I hear people appeal to it as a clichéd criticism.
Continue reading on the next page…
