Films are everything to me. There is something magical about going to the movies and seeing a film play out on the big screen. If it weren't so expensive and I had nothing else to do, I would probably want to stay there all day long.
For me, what makes films so special is their ability to transport a person from their own reality and allow them to forget about their troubles for a couple of hours. I've been obsessed with films for as long as I can remember. When someone asks me what the first film I remember seeing was, I simply cannot respond. It is almost like asking me if I remember taking my first breath. I live for films. I love films and appreciate so many of them.
Over the years, my taste in films has matured. For example, I really appreciate documentaries. Robert Kenner's "Food, Inc" and Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" are two of my favorites. The messages behind these films make them what they truly are.
The unique use of music and cinematography in "Food, Inc." and "Bowling for Columbine make them successful films as well. In "Bowling for Columbine," Louis Armstrong's haunting rendition of "What a Wonderful World" accompanies clips of the United States' unique history of violence. The irony in the music choice makes it extra powerful. If none of this makes sense, go check the film out - you won't regret it.
One film genre I cannot get enough of is the dark comedy. I like to think it takes a bit of intelligence to understand some of these jokes, but that could just be the fact I am such a fan myself. A few years ago, my sister showed me the film "Pretty Persuasion," starring James Woods, Evan Rachel Wood and Jaime King. This film is more like a social commentary on the consequences of lying, racism and American culture as a whole. It potentially has some of the most uncomfortable one-liners in the history of film - but hilarious nonetheless.
"Running with Scissors" is another dark comedy that focuses on just about anything and everything you can imagine in 1970s suburbia. I love this film. It is truly powerful. Annette Bening delivers one of the best performances in her career as a mother who loses herself under the guidance of her Svengali psychiatrist, who keeps her medicated to the point where he robs her blind of her money. He gets her to sign over the parental rights of his teenage son, who is forced to live in the doctor's dysfunctional household. Alec Baldwin plays Bening's alcoholic ex-husband and also gives an excellent performance.
Lately, I've been concerned with the state of the film industry. There are so many remakes, and it seems as though Hollywood's creativity has run out. For every film like "The Artist" (which recently won the Best Picture Academy Award), there are probably ten films like "The Three Stooges." While the latter is surely comical, nothing about it makes me want to run out and pay to see it. When I first found out about the film, all I could think was - why? It seems like there are more remakes than original films.
As for every "original" film, many of them are based on books. Now, that is not to say that films adapted from a book are bad. In fact, "Running with Scissors" is based upon the memoir of the film's main character.
But I wish there were more original ideas for films. In the future, when people look back at films of our day, I am worried people will see them as a bad period of time for films. Today, we look back at films from the "Golden Age of Hollywood," and most of them are considered cinematic classics. Truthfully, most of the films that are being produced nowadays cannot even begin to stack up to films from the past.
I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that we as a society have become so jaded. Nothing scares us. Nothing shocks us. We have seen pretty much everything, and it seems as though there is no room to grow in the film industry. The Alfred Hitchcock classic from 1960, "Psycho," terrified audiences with the shower scene featuring Janet Leigh's character being stabbed to death. I'll never forget in high school, my sociology teacher showed us this film, and people actually started laughing. Our teacher explained how over time, this fear doesn't last.
Unfortunately, we need more and more stimuli to even get a reaction out of an audience. This lends itself to the sad reality that films today are relying merely on gimmicks, rather than actual quality.
