Entertainment Forum General Chat Thread [ARCHIVED] • Page 811

A good watch

 

More good Ebert stuff

 

Kind of ties in with this discussion that had been going around. Truly believe the world and society would be a better place if people as a whole watched foreign and arthouse film and films about people different from them.

 

This is generally how I feel. I enjoy big blockbusters as much as anyone, but if they’re all I ever watched I would get so bored. I enjoy watching movies made by people with completely different life experiences from me because it’s more interesting. Those types of movies have changed my perspective on social problems or allowed me to recognize parts of myself that I want to change.

 

I think with that Amazon thing that came out we're seeing that if people only watch what they're comfortable with (only things in English, or only things with cishet wypipo), anything with representation will get canceled. I think it's important that Marvel/Star Wars/etc have good representation because they already have that big built in audience, it's only the loudest of fans that are super annoying about it.

But no, I'm personally not watching old foreign films, sorry.

 

What is really important to me is the ability to compare those vast differences with universal experiences.

Take a film like Tokyo Story. The specifics are very different from my own life - the language, the time period, the locations, the references. However, whether you are living in 2023 America or 1950's Japan you can appreciate the details about family and love and regret and loyalty. It makes the world feel less foreign.

 

Watching superhero movies alone doesn't make you stupid, but I would bet that overall people who watch arthouse films are more intelligent than people who don't. I can't imagine someone watching a Tarkovsky film and then going to vote for Trump.

 

Artists from diverse backgrounds have been making powerful, beautiful, and thought provoking work for over a century. Corporate media has consolidated to cater to the broadest possible audiences and is inherently averse to providing platforms to stories from marginalized identities. All I hope is that people venture outside of their comfort zones from time to time, at least.

 

Unless they're Vincent Gallo

 

I think this is the main thing for me. Not everyone is gonna care about film as a medium in the same way, or have it serve the same role in their lives, or have the same tastes, etc. There’s value in a person understanding their personal wheelhouse. But, full stagnation and lack of curiosity is pretty depressing, imo!

 

It's funny to bring him up around Ebert talk because Ebert had one of his best insults at Gallo's expense. Gallo called out Ebert for his weight and Ebert said something like "one day I could be thin but you will always be the director of the Brown Bunny".

 

I know it has been proposed multiple times, but what if we had a weekly film thread? This would be a great way for people to see some of these classics and have a way to talk about them. It wouldn't all have to be Citizen Kane.

 

I’d be down.

 

Also down, hopefully someone links to it in here cause I’m only ever checking followed threads these days lol

 

If enough people want to do it I will make a thread. Each week the next person will pick the movie. It has to be something that is reasonably easy to access through streaming or rental.

 

I'm down. I'm not huge on verbose, deep analysis or anything, but I've been retreating to familiar/comforting things since the pandemic and am ready to get back on the horse and explore stuff I've been putting off.

 

I’m very in for that

 

I'm already doing a movie a week with my irl friends over Discord, half the films pushing their limits with horror and the other half something light to balance it out

 

Irl friends... Humble brag

 

i'm in

 

I only have like five friends I interact with on a regular basis. The number of Facebook friends you have that you met irl is not indicative of social life

 

I would like to join the movie club

 

I’d be down for a movie thread if we can also include some queer classics and important films from BIPOC. A decent amount may be more recent but still worth it