My Love-Hate Relationship with Hollywood

I had a great realization yesterday [edit: two days ago, as my computer cord completely died as I was still writing this, and now I am finishing it at work] as I watched the classic romance Underworld. Big shocker here--it's a terrible movie. Please take into account my love of all things vampiric. I realized then and there why I like some movies as opposed to disliking others. It's not a huge shock that I'm not really fond of Underworld if I actually think about it. However, vampires fighting werewolves in a movie filmed with genuinely pretty colors will probably make me shut off thinking parts of my brain, and watch it anyway.


I guess I figured out why I actually like movies, and it has nothing to do with what is considered "conventionally good." I'm getting to the point where I actually don't like many movies that win Oscars. In fact, I often like movies that are not objectively good at all (coughDEBScough). I like them if they're successful in what they mean to be. Let's go back to DEBS. It's a bad movie--cliched, bad acting, and just plain ridiculous. But I love how much the movie embraces that. It knows it's bad, and just runs with it. But in a very realistic and innocent way. The movie works, because it's got incredible heart, and simply exists to be cute. And it's successful. I guess I was surprised how much I liked the movie, because it is just so bad, and I'm supposed to be a snob. But you know what? I can't handle traditional romantic-comedies anymore. They're just way too formulaic, and for movies which are supposed to just be fun, the formula makes them kinda dull and boring. It takes me out of the world. I really disliked Knocked Up, and not because of the quasi-feminist rants against it (Katherine Heigl biting the hand that fed her). I just never believed it. The movie never grabbed me, and I really wasn't rooting for the leads. This is my main issue with the Judd Apatow movies--they do have good gags, but I can never relate to the characters. I'm sure other people can, and do relate to these characters, but me not so much. The only one I really liked was The 40 Year Old Virgin, and that's probably due to Steve Carell and Catherine Keener. I really love Steve Carell, because he always adds a really nice innocence to all of his characters--even in their most jackass moments.


Oh, and I hated Wedding Crashers. Sorry, I did. It was just annoying and one-note (also, went waaay too far with jokes, which is another pet-peeve), and COMPLETELY UNBELIEVABLE. Sorry, fans, it just didn't work for me.


My main issue with many of the movies that win Oscars is very similar. Like many of the blockbuster romantic-comedies, it's almost like Hollywood tells us we have to like these movies because of their subject matters and "big ticket celebrities." Big dramas are supposed to be intense and amazing, because of their huge budgets and overpaid celebrities. Attach Steven Spielberg or Ron Howard, and the chances of the movie being nominated have been tripled. That's just dumb. I'm sorry. I've noticed that the big wins recently have either been for movies that I have no desire to see, or movies that I don't think are as good as others in the year. The most salient example for me is Crash vs. Brokeback Mountain. Crash just didn't do it for me. I don't really know what it was about the movie--the intensity of subject matter that verged on preachy, the intertwined story-lines that were a little too coincidental, or the general self-satisfaction of the filmmakers, evident in the storytelling. It's like the director is saying "if you don't like this movie, you obviously don't understand it, so we can make it as over-the-top as we want. Screw subtlety. Racist." Traffic and Syriana were both similar. Intense and controversial subject matters with big-name celebrities and directors, a few good performances, but kinda ridiculous (and convoluted) plots. Just because it deals with a serious issue does not mean it's actually a great movie. Brokeback Mountain, on the other hand, is a wonderfully subtle movie for all the spoofs and controversies surrounding it. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal acted the hell out of the movie. So did Michelle Williams and even Anne Hathaway. Ang Lee directed it wonderfully, and the plot and dialogue were actually believable to me. I admit, I cried at the end. It got to me the way that a good movie should, by making me feel for the characters and live with them in their world. I never got the world of Crash. I just think Brokeback Mountain was a better overall movie. And this has nothing to do with my support of gay rights--I am no more supportive of gay rights than I am anti-racism (or anti-drugs, etc). So don't go there.

Whatever happened to subtlety? I mean this in terms of cast of characters, plot, and direction. Some of my favorite movies are bit more "out there" in terms of plot, but the things that keep them simple are the acting and relationships between the characters. Juno may have pissed me off a little, in terms of unbelievable dialogue (Aaron Sorkin, I'm also looking at you with this.), but the movie had such incredible heart that I still love it deeply. I felt for all the characters, and I thought it had a wonderful message. Homeskillets aside.

Joss Whedon is masterful at this, even though all of his shows have involved quite a bit of suspension of belief. Buffy had a wonderful message and was acted well by all the characters, with appropriate drama and lightness to draw me into that fantastical world. It may have gotten a bit too intense, but I still felt drawn to each and every one of the characters. Even Firefly, in its all-too short run, managed to draw me into the (complicated) world, and the lives of each of the main characters. Pretty impressive, Joss. Alan Ball is guilty of making his worlds (American Beauty, Six Feet Under, etc.) too overly dramatic, and a bit heavy-handed. But I still feel for the characters, even if I hate most of them at the time. They're usually well-acted, and involve simple moments that really make me feel for the characters. Six Feet Under goes between drama of annoyingly soap opera proportions, and simple little moments that are absolutely beautiful. I've already mentioned this (I think), but the final montage of the last episode was probably the most beautiful ten minutes of TV that I've ever seen. So it was worth the over-the-top intensity. I cry every time.

So yeah, while watching crappy Underworld, I realized where my cinematic priorities lay. Stop holding our hands, Hollywood! We don't need red flags to tell us where we should pay more attention, and big gags to tell us when to laugh. We don't need convoluted plots to make us think about deep issues, or big-name celebrities to make movies funny. Trust the people to think for themselves. Or is that too much to ask for?