I’m sure there are many wonderful movies out there. I have probably watched some of them, but maybe did not recognize it.
Movie watching is something I just can’t get into, as an adult. As a kid and adolescent, I loved 'em. It was a time that I was broke and I didn’t have a car, and even went through some phases when I didn’t have a lot of friends. Watching movies was a great way to pass time back then.
Some would say that I lack imagination, but I am into role-playing, video games, and writing. You need imagination to enjoys those hobbies.
I guess the main thing I dislike about movies is that I view them as such passive forms of entertainment. Movies are visual representations of stories that have absolutely nothing to do with myself. I can’t influence any outcome, like a video game or a sport. They almost always involve characters that I cannot relate to nor do they remind me of anyone that I know, like relatives or friends. The settings are almost always involve a coastal city (which I’ve never been to) or a foreign country. As for timing, it’s common to be set in the future or before 1980. They often center around relationships, straight relationships, I would like to see some movies that involve homosexual relationships, not just the “gay movies”. The characters are either all black or all white, making them “mainstream” or “black movies”. For the few movies that do have a racially diverse cast, seldomly the minority is the main hero. As for the plots, I find them either cliche and boring or completely outlandish, no where in between.
Those are just a few complaints that I have about movies.
Is there any hope for me? Am I just watching the wrong kind of movies? Or, maybe I’m watching the right kind of movies, but perhaps with the wrong mindset?
I think your watching the wrong movies. ISTM like you’re watching very mainstream summer feel good type movies. I think you’d do well to check out the indie section of your local movie rental place or Netflix.
If you’re looking for movies that center around gay relationships (but not gay movies?) maybe you could try Brokeback Mountain, Gia, Priscilla Queen of the Desert. If you want it a little more ‘out there’ I’d suggest Hedwig and the Angry Inch or Shortbus (but that boarders on porn).
Also
The Birdcage
RHPS
Any other genres you might like? What are your thoughts on old movies (All About Eve, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, The Odd Couple) ?
Yeah, it sounds like you’re watching Hollywood fluff – movies that are intended to be mindless diversion instead of something that makes you think.
You may not be able to influence the outcomes of a movie, but you can influence your *interpretation *of the outcome. There’s a lot of fun to be had once you start looking past the immediate action on the screen to the deeper themes that the movie is trying to address.
Do you read or watch tv shows? If so, do you have these same sorts of issues with those story-telling media? If you do, you just don’t like passive story-telling, and there’s not a thing in the world wrong with that. Some folks are just wired that way.
If you don’t have those issues with them, I think it’s probably worth exploring why you feel differently about them.
Do you not like reading either? It might be that you have a problem with suspension of disbelief. One characteristic is the inability to relate to someone in a story. For example, lets say you like to play games. In a story, there’s a character who plays games but he’s the prince of a magical kingdom. Would you be able to relate to that character because of the playing games, or would you reject him out of hand for being a prince and you aren’t?
If so, it’s not uncommon. There’s quite a few people that hate fiction in general and only read/watch non-fiction or documentaries. However, this tends to reflect a lack of imagination or the inability to put yourself in an imaginary situation, which is generally considered a negative trait.
Imho, I have two bits of advice:
Forget about it, enjoy your life the way you want to live it, and don’t waste your time/money on things you can’t enjoy.
Try to overcome it by loosening up a little and not judge everything through your own point of view all the time. You’ll be able to enjoy more things and be able to enjoy experiences from all over the world from people and situations you might never be able to experience, ever.
From what I’ve seen, it’s not considered a negative trait if you’re looking for employment in Standards and Practices.
Anyway, back to the OP—I’d like to ask what movies you liked as a kid and adolescent? Any titles that stood out, specifically? And what about them was it that you liked?
And—at the risk of prying—what’s changed about you since then? Anything big, fundamental? Hell, or just memorable—what’s the first thing that comes to mind if you try to think about how you’ve changed as a person since then? Having a car and more money can’t be all, can it?
Not really. I know some startlingly unimaginative roleplayers. I’ve read books written by people who clearly had no facility for placing themselves outside the familiar. And I’m not even sure where the logic behind saying you need an imagination to enjoy video games comes from. How much imagination do you need to enjoy Call of Duty 163, or the fourth yearly new Madden game?
I don’t mean to suggest that this is evidence that you’re personally unimaginative. I just don’t agree with your reasoning, there.
These are some rather odd complaints. Like, the who non-interactive thing. That pretty much describes the majority of all art forms. Books, paintings, sculpture, music, comics, dance, poetry - none of these are interactive. Do you not enjoy any of these things? If you do, why do you enjoy these non-interactive (and, for the most part, visual-based) mediums, but not film?
You enjoy video games. But the vast (and I mean vast) majority of video games are set either in the future, or between the years of 1939 and 1945. Or they’re set in some utterly fantastic world that bears a passing resemblance to medieval Europe, except with dragons or something. The vast majority of movies are set during the present day, although for most of movie history, “present day” did mean “sometime before 1980.” Still, you’re far more likely to find stories intended to relate, in some way, to real people living in the real world in film then you are in video games or RPG source books.
I’m also seeing a bit of a contradiction between your feeling that you don’t like movies because the characters in them aren’t like you, and your feeling that there aren’t enough minorities in movies. I mean, you say you can’t identify with characters who aren’t like you or the people you know. Which isn’t really that uncommon a sentiment. Except that it’s pandering to this sentiment that results in so many movies about straight white people. Most folks in this country are straight and white, so movie studios tend to make more films about straight white people than they do about other groups, because that’s where the most money is. And, again, the exact same complaint can be made about video games. How many video games (excluding those that allow you to craft your own character’s appearance) have non-white protagonists? And if you include the ones where you can edit your character’s looks, how many of them default to a non-white face? Games are every bit as whitewashed as movies. More so, even. I recall reading a blog about GTA: San Andreas where the reviewer was stunned to realize that he was watching a cutscene in which every single major character, including both the protagonist and the antagonist, were black. He’d never seen that in a game before. This was in 2004, mind.
Sorry, I guess I haven’t really addressed the actual point of the thread, which is convincing you to like movies. I’m not sure that’s really possible - most people don’t develop a rationale for liking something and then apply it to what they see. Rather, they see something they like (or don’t like) and then try to figure out a rationale behind their reaction. From your post, I’m not sure you’ve quite figured out why you don’t like movies, as the reasons you give don’t really work as criticisms of the cinema in particular.
Did you ever see Personal Best? The protagonist enters a lesbian relationship but that’s not really the point of the movie. It’s mostly about her being a student athlete.
It’s a good movie. Admittedly it’s set around 1980 but that’s when it was made.
I don’t watch TV. I read but it is all non-fiction, information that I can put into immediate use, or explains something that is happening in the real world.
It depends, not being able to relate to a character is usually a turn-off but not always. An additional factor for me would be if I find the character interesting or not. I don’t find most characters in movies interesting. More so in literature, I don’t read literature anymore, but when I had to for classes, I wanted to reach into the book and slap many of the characters.
Most of the movies I liked when I was youger was hit comedies. I find most hit comedies too cheesy these days.
The biggest change about me is that I have a good social life now. I wasn’t blessed with such in my younger years. I’d rather go out dancing, drinking, playing a sport, participating in some active hobby, or just sit around talking with my friends instead of watching a movie by myself.
The funny thing is that most of my friends love movies, and I watch a lot of these movies with them, and enjoy them (but not enough to watch them on my free time though). Thankfully they aren’t the mainstream Hollywood type, but like more obscure stuff.
Wow, I think my mind just broke a little. You roleplay, but you don’t read fiction? I don’t think I’ve ever found two hobbies that I thought were more inseparable (Well, roleplaying goes very tightly with reading fiction. Not necessarily the reverse). Of course, now that I’ve said that, I’m going to get swamped by people claiming that they roleplay all the the time but don’t read fiction either.
I find it odd that you place such value on imagination, but don’t seem to want to sample the results of anyone else’s. I suppose that could be because you’re entirely happy with what your own comes up with, but I can’t help but think that would be all the broader with some cross pollination.
Anyway, that digression aside, I agree with Miller - I don’t think you’ve successfully identified why you don’t like movies, because the reasons listed don’t really hold up under analysis. They sound more like symptoms. Now it’s possible that you simply don’t like any sort of passive entertainment, but that, too, sounds like a symptom - inability or disinterest in immersing yourself in imaginative worlds would cause that, but again, we can’t find the source.
I agree with some of the other posters who commented on your choice of movies. Saying you don’t like movies is like saying you don’t like books. There is a wide and varied selection to choose from. Each country has their own story telling traditions that influences the movies those countries make. Okay, we get that you don’t like mainstream American movies (I’m guessing based on your post). No problem. I don’t really care for a lot of the fare that comes out for the mainstream audience either. Now I do like some of it, but I find it’s like ordering food that’s been pre-chewed for you. There’s no substance to the films. Again, there are exceptions, but the majority of films coming out are throw away films IMHO. Sometimes I’m in the mood for stuff like that and so I do own quite a few mainstream movies. However there’s a whole world of independent and foreign films out there. Before you condemn all movies as uninteresting, I think you should give them a try. Also, if you list books and other things you like, someone on the board might be able to suggest something.
