[originally written 11/20/11]
Okay, so I get interested in a bunch of movies. And, because friends ask about things that friends are interested in, I usually get asked what I’m thinking of seeing. And once I say something, the next question is inevitably, “What’s it about?”
And then it gets awkward. Because, a good amount of the time, the best I have is some half-remembered basic summary I read on wikipedia. So then, why would I be interested in something I can’t even describe?
#1: The director
There are some directors that interest me enough that I’m interested in almost anything they’re working on. Some other directors I’ve heard good things about and what little I know of the plot sounds like something they’d do something interesting with. For example, a while ago I was on a huge Aronofsky kick. I had realized that I wanted to start expanding my horizons on what films I watched, so I had seen Pi and Requiem for a Dream (in addition to The Wrestler). Usually when I’m into a director, I look to see what they’re up to next. At the time, the only information about Black Swan was that a) it was called Black Swan, b) it starred Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, and c) it was about competing ballet dancers or something?
Knowing what I knew about Aronofsky, this sounded really strange, but that was enough to get me interested in it.
#2: The actors
Like directors, I also follow actors. Sometimes an actor makes an impression on me in a movie. When I saw An Education, I was really impressed by Carey Mulligan, and so I decided to try and follow her next projects. The same thing happened with Michael Fassbender; he really struck me as Archie Hicox in Inglourious Basterds, and same thing, decided I wanted to see what else he was up to. Coincidentally, both of them are starring in Shame, and I’m excited to see them work together.
#3: Intriguing trailer
Everyone says trailers always spoil, which is usually true, but sometimes I’ll see a trailer that really makes me interested in a film. Sometimes it gets me interested in something I previously wouldn’t be interested in, or like The Skin I Live In, it just sorta comes out of nowhere and bowls me over.
I mean, look at this trailer. Look at it. I saw it in front of Drive, and had absolutely no idea what the fuck I was looking at. Except that it was fascinating. It’s a great example of a trailer that gets you interested and yet doesn’t tell you much of anything about it.
#4: …film people said it was great
Okay, okay, okay, I know everyone says that awards shows in general are shams and, as many say, they don’t reward as “best” whatever as much as they do “most” whatever. A lot of people distrust critics too (though I should write at some point why I think that’s dumb), and people can think that film festivals are pretentious and more hollywood back-patting bullshit (also not quite true!). But, but, sometimes, it’s really worth following these, and I’ll see something just because there’s buzz around it, even before a trailer comes out.
A good example is The Artist. While I did see the trailer recently and now really want to see it, I first heard about it when it won Best Actor at Cannes, and I vaguely knew that it was a black and white movie about the old movie era. I didn’t know how interested I was in it, but I kept it in my mind until NYFF, when I heard it was a silent movie. I couldn’t see it there (film festival prices are insane), but it’s coming out now and I’m definitely going to see it.
Honestly, I think people should try some of this more often. There are a lot of complaints that Hollywood is out of ideas and only does remakes and blah blah blah, but the thing is that nobody bothers to look around for something new. It really seems like people separate movies into the stuff that gets advertised, Oscar bullshit, and pretentious stuff, and that’s completely myopic. Prestige movies have a reputation of being overfluffed Oscar bait, and while sometimes that’s true, other times they’re genuinely good in their own right and are worth checking out.
But the movies that get shafted the most are the smaller movies. They get branded as either pretentious, too artsy, too precious, or just plain boring. But there are genres just like in mainstream Hollywood; if you’ve got an indie theater around, it’s worth just looking around and seeing something. A lot of the not entirely huge stars will show up in them, and these films are a whole new world of film.
Also, then you can be the one who has actually seen a bunch of the movies that show up at awards shows (not going to lie, I do like being the person who knows that kinda stuff and has INFORMED OPINIONS). It’s a wee bit smug, but who doesn’t like being smug every once in a while?
…ok maybe just me.
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