# Am I too picky about movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 14, 2008, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428 "2008-01-14T00:12:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428/1 "2008-01-14T00:12:17Z")
I’ve been renting movies like crazy lately, as I’ve been trying to bone up on my classic cinema. I’ve enjoyed some of my picks, but I’ve turned off several apparently universally-loved (by the “serious movie buff” demographic, anyway) films midstream in the last few days. _My Best Fiend_: It was interesting for a while, but, having never seen a Werner Herzog film (I plan to fix that today or tomorrow, FTR), I felt like I was watching someone explain an inside joke I wasn’t in on for an hour and a half. Plus, I really wanted to see footage of Herzog and Kinski duking it out, and at the 1:15 mark I was a little ticked that I hadn’t seen any. I fast-forwarded through the rest just to make sure, and was awfully disappointed in the end. _Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios_: I loved the cinematography, I liked the characters, I loved Almodóvar’s surreal little touches, I liked the general idea of the story, and I really liked the protagonist, but by the time they were racing to the airport it was just too much of a stretch. The plot started feeling more and more contrived as it went on, and the instant-knockout gazpacho really made me roll my eyes. It just felt too _deus ex machina_ to me. That and the overemotional mambo taxi driver gave off such a cheesy-80s air. I turned it off right as the protagonist started chasing the old hag to the airport. _Boccaccio 70_: I turned it off halfway through the first feature and I didn’t feel like giving the other three a chance when I had a long list of other movies I wanted to rent instead. The plot just seemed mundane and too attached to the Italy of that time. It seemed lacking in universal characters and situations that would still be relevant today. _Mulholland Dr_: I know I’m going to catch a lot of flak for this, because it’s such a crime not to fellate David Lynch at every opportunity, but all the overacting (especially by Naomi Watts) popped me right out of the story and I was getting more irritated the more I watched it. I just returned the favor and popped the DVD out, after about 20 minutes. How the same director could elicit such overacting from this cast and such nuanced performances from the cast of Eraserhead baffles me. Am I setting my standards too high? Am I not giving these films a fair shake? Should I be less picky? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428/2 "2008-01-14T00:55:16Z")
Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428/3 "2008-01-14T01:19:47Z")
Personally, I detest David Lynch, so I’m with you there. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428/4 "2008-01-14T01:24:43Z")
You worry too much. None of the films you cite were universally loved. They are all rated between 7.0 and 8.0 on the IMDb. Except for the first of them, I would call them films with a significant cult fan base, but none of them are usually considered among the best films ever made. I’ve never even heard of the first film you mention, and I know cult films very well. Don’t worry about occasionally disliking some films that are recommended to you. _Everybody_ dislikes some films that most other film buffs rave about. That’s how taste works. It isn’t universal, and not being enthusiastic about every film that you’re recommended proves nothing about how good a film fan you are. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428/5 "2008-01-14T01:52:55Z")
Be less picky? What the hell for? Who are you watching the movies for, anyway…yourself or a bunch of people who think THEY know what art is? Sure, a serious aficionado should be aware of the “great” films…but critical acclaim should inform your viewing, not dictate it. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428/6 "2008-01-14T04:29:25Z")
I haven’t seen **Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown** or **Boccaccio 70** , but based on your other two examples, I’m sure you didn’t give them a fair chance. **My Best Fiend** will mean NOTHING to anyone who’s not familiar with the Kinski/Herzog on-screen partnership. At the very least, one must have seen **Aguirre: The Wrath of God** AND **Fitzcarraldo** for it to even begin to make sense. A viewing of **Nosferatu** is recommended too. There are other Herzog/Kinski movies, but I haven’t seen them. [QUOTE=Hostile Dialect] _Mulholland Dr_: I know I’m going to catch a lot of flak for this, because it’s such a crime not to fellate David Lynch at every opportunity, but all the overacting (especially by Naomi Watts) popped me right out of the story and I was getting more irritated the more I watched it. I just returned the favor and popped the DVD out, after about 20 minutes. How the same director could elicit such overacting from this cast and such nuanced performances from the cast of Eraserhead baffles me. [/QUOTE] How Betty (Naomi Watts) acted during the first part of the movie, all fresh-faced, perky and Nancy Drew-ish, was part of the plot, and was thoroughly explained in the last part of the movie, when the REAL Betty comes into play. It was one of the finest acting performances of the '90’s and quite rightly got Watts the attention she deserved, turning her from obscure nobody to A-list even without an Academy Award nomination (which she deserved too). [QUOTE=Hostile Dialect] Am I not giving these films a fair shake? [/QUOTE] No. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428/7 "2008-01-14T04:40:30Z")
You can never be too picky about movies, since 99% of them are crap. But each movie also has its context. _My Best Fiend_, more than most movies, depends–critically–upon that context in order for you to appreciate it. All the other movies are also, in my opinion, worthy of attention, but again, different movies benefit from varying degrees of contextual familiarity. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428/8 "2008-01-14T07:26:22Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > I haven’t seen Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown or Boccaccio 70, but based on your other two examples, I’m sure you didn’t give them a fair chance. Well, no, I didn’t give _Boccaccio 70_ a fair chance; it’s a series of four almost-feature-length films by different directors. But frankly, I was champing at the bit to grab some other rentals, I could only take out three at a time, and I decided to just bring _Boccaccio 70_ back and try the rest of it again later. As for _My Best Fiend_, I wouldn’t say “nothing”–I got a fair bit out of it, and I watched an hour and fifteen minutes of the ~1:30 runtime, so for being a little misguided about what it would be, you’d have to say I gave it a fair shake in the end. But for some reason (based on a misreading of one of your posts, actually, IIRC) I thought that there would be more footage of Kinski and Herzog, and I was disappointed that there wasn’t. I saw _Aguirre: The Wrath of God_ tonight and I had planned to rent _Fitzcarraldo_ next (I already had _Killer of Sheep_ out and I also picked up _Leon_ tonight), and yeah, I definitely wished I’d reversed the order of that. Having seen _My Best Fiend_ actually took away a little bit away from _Aguirre_ for me, which was nevertheless an awe-inspiring piece of cinema. And I watched a pretty damn long stretch of _Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown_. I didn’t turn it off without letting it offer me a couple of twists of decent magnitude. > [@Equipoise](#): > > How Betty (Naomi Watts) acted during the first part of the movie, all fresh-faced, perky and Nancy Drew-ish, was part of the plot, and was thoroughly explained in the last part of the movie, when the REAL Betty comes into play. It was one of the finest acting performances of the '90’s and quite rightly got Watts the attention she deserved, turning her from obscure nobody to A-list even without an Academy Award nomination (which she deserved too). Maybe I’ll give it another shot, but cliche irritates me, so I might not. I know he probably ended up lampooning the cliche, but I have a lot of movies to watch before my month-long membership expires. 😃 Anyway, the other acting performances irritated me too. > [@lissener](#): > > All the other movies are also, in my opinion, worthy of attention, but again, different movies benefit from varying degrees of contextual familiarity. Given what I said about _Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios_, is there another Almodóvar film you think I should try? ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428/9 "2008-01-14T07:45:31Z")
[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect] Maybe I’ll give it another shot, but cliche irritates me, so I might not. I know he probably ended up lampooning the cliche, but I have a lot of movies to watch before my month-long membership expires. 😃 Anyway, the other acting performances irritated me too. [/QUOTE] Lynch wouldn’t know “cliche” if came up and bit him on the ass. Everything you saw in your 20 whole minutes of one of the best movies of 2001 (my mistake for calling it a movie of the 90’s) was geared to set you thinking one thing when the reality (of the movie) is something very different. Maybe that’s a cliche in itself, but it’s Lynch, man! Everything you see is not at ALL what it seems, and that includes Rita (Laura Harring’s character). If you want me to spoil it for you I will…better that than you go on thinking that you just know exactly what **Mullholland Drive** is all about based on 20 freaking minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428/10 "2008-01-14T07:50:20Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > If you want me to spoil it for you I will…better that than you go on thinking that you just know exactly what Mullholland Drive is all about based on 20 freaking minutes. I don’t think I know what it’s all about. I’m well aware that there are more twists and bizarre things in store. Do you think I’ve never heard anyone discuss that movie before? I don’t need you to spoil it for me, no. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428/11 "2008-01-14T15:14:38Z")
I didn’t notice in my first post that you hadn’t watched these films all the way through. You should always watch a film all the way through if you want to state your opinion of it. However, you shouldn’t be too much bothered if you disagree with film buffs about it once you’ve seen all of it. See a lot of films (all the way through), read the opinions of other film buffs, and don’t worry too much if you disagree with them. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428/12 "2008-01-14T16:00:39Z")
[QUOTE=Equipoise] If you want me to spoil it for you I will…better that than you go on thinking that you just know exactly what **Mullholland Drive** is all about based on 20 freaking minutes. [/QUOTE] I sat through the whole thing and I don’t know what it’s all about. I do know that it irritated me mightily and ended up on the list of Lynch projects I feel no need to see again (along with Wild at Heart and Lost Highway). ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428/13 "2008-01-14T16:20:09Z")
David Lynch is a very special case and I do feel that you need to watch a movie all the way through to judge it. With Lynch I either love the movie or hate it. But I always watch it. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428/14 "2008-01-14T16:21:33Z")
[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect] _Mulholland Dr_: I know I’m going to catch a lot of flak for this, because it’s such a crime not to fellate David Lynch at every opportunity, but all the overacting (especially by Naomi Watts) popped me right out of the story and I was getting more irritated the more I watched it. I just returned the favor and popped the DVD out, after about 20 minutes. How the same director could elicit such overacting from this cast and such nuanced performances from the cast of Eraserhead baffles me. [/QUOTE] You subjected yourself to the crap that is **Mulholland Dr** and you didn’t even hold out until the extended lesbian sex scene? For shame. [QUOTE=Equipoise] Lynch wouldn’t know “cliche” if came up and bit him on the ass. Everything you saw in your 20 whole minutes of one of the best movies of 2001 (my mistake for calling it a movie of the 90’s) was geared to set you thinking one thing when the reality (of the movie) is something very different. Maybe that’s a cliche in itself, but it’s Lynch, man! Everything you see is not at ALL what it seems, and that includes Rita (Laura Harring’s character). [/QUOTE] Not exactly. The first 20 minutes of Mulholland Dr was the first half of a pilot for a TV show that didn’t get picked up. All it did was set up some far reaching “mystery” that would have been resolved over a few seasons of said show. And because Lynch tacked on some it was all a dream ending, it most certainly is pretty cliched. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428/15 "2008-01-14T21:32:26Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > You subjected yourself to the crap that is Mulholland Dr and you didn’t even hold out until the extended lesbian sex scene? For shame. Eh, I can get all the extended lesbian sex scenes I want for free on the Internet. I’m glad I read your spoiler, BTW. I am definitely _not_ giving the movie another chance, so **Equipoise** , you can go ahead and spoil it more thoroughly for me if you like. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428/16 "2008-01-14T21:36:05Z")
[QUOTE=Justin\_Bailey] it was all a dream [/QUOTE] No it wasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428/17 "2008-01-14T21:38:41Z")
[QUOTE=Equipoise] No it wasn’t. [/QUOTE] Fine, if you want to get technical… masturbation-induced hallucination. You say to-ma-to, I say stupid. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428/18 "2008-01-14T22:53:07Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] I didn’t notice in my first post that you hadn’t watched these films all the way through. You should always watch a film all the way through if you want to state your opinion of it. However, you shouldn’t be too much bothered if you disagree with film buffs about it once you’ve seen all of it. See a lot of films (all the way through), read the opinions of other film buffs, and don’t worry too much if you disagree with them. [/QUOTE] I agree. You’re not obliged to sit through every movie all the way through, but the fact that you couldn’t sit through any of these movies says more about you the viewer (restless, impatient, quick to judge) than about the–IMHO–high quality of films you chose. I’d say anyone who can so easily turn off a movie (particularly one that’s both challenging and critically lauded) is someone who’s more interested in having a film approach him on his particular terms, and not those of the filmmaker’s. Your crack about the month-long deadline also suggests that you’re trying to get the most “value” for your membership as you can; however, by writing off so many films based on what sounds like a series of kneejerk reactions, I’m inclined to believe that that membership is going to continue to yield nothing but “disappointments”. It also seems like you’re picking movies without doing even a modicum of research. You pick _Boccaccio_ but complain it’s too Italian. You pick an Almodovar but dislike the camp. You pick _Fiend_ without knowing a thing about Herzog. And you sat through barely 10% of one of the most critically praised films of its year simply because you were unwilling to even wait around long enough for the director to establish his premise (Justin Bailey’s gross oversimplification of its “ending” notwithstanding). Again, not every movie is for every person. But given the information you’re provided so far, I’d say the answer to the OP is a resounding **Yes**. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428/19 "2008-01-16T04:04:51Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > I’d say anyone who can so easily turn off a movie (particularly one that’s both challenging and critically lauded) is someone who’s more interested in having a film approach him on his particular terms, and not those of the filmmaker’s. Is that so wrong? Taste is subjective, and I don’t feel I have an obligation to every single filmmaker to appreciate their films when they’re finely made but still fail to satisfy me. > [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > You pick Boccaccio but complain it’s too Italian. How many times do I have to explain this? I didn’t feel like watching it that day, and wanted to return it for some films that I was actually excited about watching, leaving it for later. I was just Italianed out at that point. > [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > You pick an Almodovar but dislike the camp. I know that I’m finicky about camp, so I figured I’d just give his work a shot. As a Hispanophile, I’d actually done plenty of research on Almodovar’s work, and I knew it might turn me off, but I decided to give him a try. Am I now too open-minded? FTR, I plan to give him one more shot to win me over (Talk To Her). > [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > And you sat through barely 10% of one of the most critically praised films of its year simply because you were unwilling to even wait around long enough for the director to establish his premise No, I was unwilling to sit through saccharine-loaded cliched crap. The fact that it was part of a clever process of setting up his premise doesn’t change it _for me_. I’m willing to accept that lots and lots of people love that movie, and that that’s perfectly valid. But it’s not for me, because I can’t stand those cliches. Before I get piled-on even more, let me make it perfectly clear once again that I understand that those cliched scenarios are part of Lynch’s elaborate setup. But I don’t want to see it, because I can’t stand the cliches. That said, a sincere thanks for your input. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2008, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428/20 "2008-01-16T04:18:12Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] You worry too much. None of the films you cite were universally loved. They are all rated between 7.0 and 8.0 on the IMDb. [/QUOTE] I don’t have hard proof for this, bur ISTM that a rating between 7 and 8 on IMDb is pretty respectable. In the IMDb Top 250, #168 (it’s _Kill Bill Vol. 2_ right now) has an 8.0 rating, and everything else on the entire database is rated at or lower than that, including a ton of movies widely considered to be classics, if not masterpieces. Even the #1 movie, _Godfather_, tops out at a 9.1 (with 250,000+ votes). So, I’d say, while not universally loved, an IMDb rating over 7 says to me that the movie was quite well-liked by the thousands of people who rate movies on the site. For whatever that’s worth to you… to me, it usually means the movie probably doesn’t suck too badly. That doesn’t mean you have to like it. \*Mulholland Drive \*, though I liked it a lot, wasn’t for everyone, though I tend to enjoy David Lynch. YMMV, though I think it’s worth seeing until the end; it goes a lot of different places than you think it will based on the first 20 minutes. A movie has to really badly suck for me to stop watching it in the middle, though. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-too-picky-about-movies/433428.md?page=2)