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~~MicShazam~~ · 08-22-2018, 01:10 PM

Just watched Demolition.

It's a bit strange. The ending is a slight cop out by way of resorting to conventions where the movies was really quite unhinged up to the last few scenes. I don't really mind. What this movie made me think about was something that's been sitting in the back of my mind for a while. I read a Sunsan Sontag essay by the name "Against Interpretation" a couple months ago and it never really left my mind.

Basically, I think that the common way to discuss the merits of a movie is overly contrived, intellectualized bull****. A movie is a series of impressions that can't be boiled down to some "message" that is then judged in it's coherence or lack thereof. I felt very mentally engaged by Demoltion. It was rich in all sorts of small mental reactions, like empathy, finding a character interesting or offputting or likeable, liking the music, striking imagery, etc. The sum of these experiences is what the movie really is. Everything else is an attempt to rationalize the film and boil it down to some neat little intellectually explainable package that isn't actually what the movie was like when I watched it.

I'm basically saying that I don't need to understand why I liked it even if it's somewhat poorly rated on Metacritic and RT. It's like how I can't tell you why I loved Spring Breakers so much. It seems like it should be a dumb movie, but it felt somehow like it touched upon some great truth. Something that you ruin if you try to explain it. I realize that I simply feel a movie - like a piece of music - and that I have no interest what so ever in the traditional way of rationalizing the experience and analyzing what the "message" might be.

The message isn't the movie.

08-22-2018, 01:10 PM	#21964 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,636	Just watched Demolition. It's a bit strange. The ending is a slight cop out by way of resorting to conventions where the movies was really quite unhinged up to the last few scenes. I don't really mind. What this movie made me think about was something that's been sitting in the back of my mind for a while. I read a Sunsan Sontag essay by the name "Against Interpretation" a couple months ago and it never really left my mind. Basically, I think that the common way to discuss the merits of a movie is overly contrived, intellectualized bull**. A movie is a series of impressions that can't be boiled down to some "message" that is then judged in it's coherence or lack thereof. I felt very mentally engaged by Demoltion. It was rich in all sorts of small mental reactions, like empathy, finding a character interesting or offputting or likeable, liking the music, striking imagery, etc. The sum of these experiences is what the movie really is. Everything else is an attempt to rationalize the film and boil it down to some neat little intellectually explainable package that isn't actually what the movie was like when I watched it. I'm basically saying that I don't need to understand why I liked it even if it's somewhat poorly rated on Metacritic and RT. It's like how I can't tell you why I loved Spring Breakers** so much. It seems like it should be a dumb movie, but it felt somehow like it touched upon some great truth. Something that you ruin if you try to explain it. I realize that I simply feel a movie - like a piece of music - and that I have no interest what so ever in the traditional way of rationalizing the experience and analyzing what the "message" might be. The message isn't the movie.