Really serious movie people, like the kinds who write for newspapers and magazines and want to be taken really really seriously when it comes to opinions on movies (which they would of course refer to as “films”, or “cinema”), prefer movies that are serious so they can talk about them in a serious way and demonstrate how serious they are. If you take a look at the yearly top ten lists for most critics, they’ll be comprised of many serious dramas. I’m guilty of this.
Most often, the moments we remember in movies consist of catchy one-liners we can repeat with our friends over and over for days, weeks, months, even years after seeing a particular movie for the first time. Sometimes, though, a character is memorable for what they don't say. These are sometimes referred to as mute characters, even though they're not technically, like, physically mute. They just don't say much. They speak more through their actions, reactions and body language. And in some cases they steal the show.
If, like me, you have thoroughly enjoyed any or all of his movies that have come out in the past couple of years, the announced retirement of director Steven Soderbergh comes as a real bummer. Given his prolific filmmaking pace, completing 26 movies over the past 24 years of work, it's understandable why he might be a tad burnt out. Apparently he wants to devote more time to painting and other projects. He has an HBO movie about Liberace airing soon, but after that he plans to take at the very least a long break from filmmaking.
It seems safe to declare Jennifer Lawrence Queen of the Internet, for the past few weeks at least. By far the most linked-to moments of last month’s Academy Awards revolved around Lawrence and her propensity for turning mundane star obligations into unpredictable exchanges, usually leading to her saying something inappropriate.
Just as there are movies that affirm or strengthen people's faith or spiritual inclinations, there are a number of tremendously thoughtful and compelling movies that dismantle religious faith as we know it. Naturally, in an industry driven so heavily by American filmmakers, the majority of movies dealing with religion, that I've seen at least, target Christianity and Christian dogmas primarily. Given that it's the most influential religion, and one of the most influential forces period, in America, this is understandable, and probably appropriate.
Good on HBO for pushing Girls into the forefront of topical culture discussions. It's quite a clever publicity tactic: get everyone weighing in on your Sunday night show, from James Franco to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (seriously), and then all of a sudden it seems like everyone is talking about it, and your ratings soar. Even better is if there's backlash and controversy, so that not having an opinion on the show is a sign of really being out of the loop. Whether or not you like it, you have to at this point be aware of Girls. Right now it's probably the most talked about television show, although Enlightened is starting to enter more and more conversations.
Movies have a unique ability to make something that's normally invisible or intangible more immediate and real to us. The entire conceit of film as a medium is that we as viewers must suspend our disbelief, forgetting the possible preposterousness of the images moving before us, and just go with it. So it's perfectly understandable that something like movies, which require a great deal of faith or at least a diminished level of skepticism, are so profoundly steeped in faith. In some cases, this has been translated into stories meant to take this faith and insert religious themes and messages into the faith-based activity that movie-watching entails.
So I have this theory. One way to be a brilliant actor is to be so insane and deluded that you actually believe yourself as a completely different person. When you believe yourself to be something, that’s how you present yourself to other people. And when actors believe themselves, that’s when they can make the part they’re playing truly real. Naturally, this is hugely advantageous for people who are actually crazy.
We should probably just admit that by their nature, the Academy Awards are an inherently unsatisfying entity, and it’s likely that no ceremony will ever make anyone happy, let alone everyone. That’s the nature of these types of self-congratulatory jerkfests that feature upper crust blowhards who moralistically decry world problems like poverty and hunger all while wearing literally millions of dollars worth of diamonds on their person. There’s a certain quality that dictates they essentially fail before they even have a chance to be enjoyable.
Movies possess a power over popular culture, one that is diminishing but nevertheless impossible to ignore. They have the ability to broadly influence people in a way that perhaps no other form of art/entertainment is currently able to do. With that great power, it is said, subsequently comes great responsibility. So for as long as it has been culturally significant, film has for many people been the subject of a certain moral requirement, that it should teach its huge audiences how to be righteous while it entertains their attention.
