Watching movies at my house is very much a communal activity. I love nothing more than sitting down with my mom and sister on our couch in the basement watching a movie. Give me a bar of chocolate, a cup of tea, a few friends, and a good movie to achieve the best party. But of course, the biggest variable in this situation is the film. How do you find out if a movie is good besides watching it yourself? Though there are a wealth of sites and magazines that provide movie reviews, I know few people who can consistently trust one source’s opinions. Some reviews focus only on content, others only originality. Between the big-newspaper critics and the somewhat smaller Christian ones, the world of film criticism is torn apart by widely divergent views on whether a movie is worth the seven and a half dollars, or so,for a matinee movie ticket or five dollar for a movie rental. Such conflicting views confuses most potential audiences, and leaves them wondering, “Is this movie funny? WIll it give me peace from the fast-paced life I’ve been living?”
This is, however, really the wrong question. I have come to feel that watching a movie should become more than a mere escape from reality; rather, I believe that movies are an art form which attempt to shape our views of reality. Thus when trying to discover if a film is good, we must look at it artistically and ask, “What reality is this film asking me to live in? What is it asking me to do, to emulate?” I began to see that movies should be analyzed, just like art or music or literature, in order to be seen for what they really were, and that a movie which has not been analyzed cannot be truly enjoyed. After I began to see movies as an art form, I often thought of writing down my ideas, of sharing my analyses with others, but I never actually put my pen down on paper.
Then the film Leap Year came out. I went to see it with my mom and sister, and found a beautiful piece of art that I wasn’t expecting. We loved it. But we soon found that the world of movie critics felt quite differently than we did. I watched as film critic after film critic tore it apart, and then I began to feel that someone should defend such a good film. So, I have decided to start a blog to share my thoughts with anyone who will listen, or, rather, read. Here I will attempt to see a movie as a work of art and to understand that art’s meaning.
My methods shall be rather unorthodox. I will assume that readers have seen, or at least read a synopsis, of the film I am analyzing. Thus, there will be many “spoilers”, but I believe that this is in accordance with my purpose, since my goal is not to retell the story, but to explain my reading of it.
And so, without further ado, I invite you to join me in examining films to discover their true, artistic worth.
I love that question you posed - "What reality is this film asking me to live in?" I think that is quite possibly the best way I've ever heard someone put the question of analysis to a story. When we analyze a film, we don't actually judge it, say whether it is good or bad. We just try to determine first exactly what it's doing so that we can make an accurate judgment. Many film critics don't bother to move past their stereotypes, which is equivalent of saying that Beowulf is epic poetry, and not bothering to look into any further subtleties (that is not a hypothetical situation - read some criticism, and you'll see it happening everywhere). You are an excellent reader - I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts and to seeing your skills as a reader develop.
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