I'm generally not interested in big 90s-era special effects pictures. I
let them go by, and thereby avoid having my intelligence insulted, most of
the time.
What am I looking for in a movie?
First, I suppose you could say that I often go for the intellectual,
"pretentious" film. When Chinatown came out, I loved it. Still do.
Like many have said, I want a movie to take me into its world. This could be
a world of heightened emotion, or a different culture, or a fantasy land,
or a different time of life, or just a world of shadows and light. But I
want to use my imagination, too: I want to meet the movie halfway. I don't
need Dolby sound and Cinerama to force that world onto my retinas
and tympani.
Therefore, for me, a movie ought to work well transferred to video, or at
least most of it ought to. The essential elements haven't been lost in the
transfer to the little screen.
Am I going to want to see this movie in 10 years' time? That's my measure
of movie excellence. Better yet, is this a movie that that brings me to a
dead stop when I'm channel-surfing, something that I have to watch at least
one scene from? This has happened to me with movies like The
Conversation and Double Indemnity.
One of the aspects of art is that it is made in the context of what has
gone before: there is a dialogue with the past. The context of most
moviemaking seems to be "What got the teenagers in the seats last summer?
Do it again." That's commerce, not art. (Not that there's anything wrong
with commerce.)
As you are a writer, I fear you discount the contributions of other
designers on the picture. Movies are essentially a medium of images in
motion. You can tell a lot of story with just one tracking shot, without
dialogue.
The paradox of plot is that the ending should feel natural and inevitable,
and yet there must be a twist, an unpredictability. No twist, and the
picture is a boring cliche. No inevitability, and the narrative feels
arbitrary, and there's nothing pulling the story forward.
Enough rambling: here are some examples of what I've hated and loved recently.
I sat in the theatre watching Wag the Dog and wondered what everyone
found so damn funny. I thought Jerry Maguire was a hateful little movie.
I didn't believe for a moment that Jerry had acquired a conscience.
The Sweet Hereafter made me cry (not a requirement for a good film, but
it helps). Ian Holm rocks my world. The complex narrative structure,
which I feared would be difficult, was "just right" for me.
I've only ever seen Atlantic City on video—a really great picture. A
love letter to the end of an era. And lest you think I have no sense of
humor, I liked The Big Lebowski.
PS: Even though I'm a Mamet geek, The Spanish Prisoner left me cold. I
think the fault is Rebecca Pigeon's.
PPS: I've always thought that You Can't Take It with You is ripe for
updating to the 90s onstage. Say, Donald and Rheba become a gay couple;
Essie practices Tai Chi. Maybe there's a movie in that. Maybe not.
