How to Love a Movie : An Ode more than a Guide
The Oscar nominations for this year were recently announced. If you aren’t chest deep in the trenches of the film loving community, this might be of only slight interest to you. Perhaps you glanced at the nominations and scanned to see any movies you recognized. Perhaps you didn’t see any of the nominees but it’s okay because you saw Encanto or Spiderman: No Way Home, and those win the prize for you anyway. More power to you.
On the other side of the conversation, however, it is a cluster fuck of nonssense. From articles, to podcasts, to youtube videos, to tweets, everyone’s ready to stand up for their favorite films. Everyone’s up in arms about what wasn’t nominated, everyone disagrees with the decisions made, and absolutely everyone is clenching their favorite film of the year to their chest while screaming “They don’t understand it!”
I’m not excluding myself from this spectacle. But I’m not here to talk about what I think should have been nominated (Titane / C’mon, C’mon / The Green Knight / The French Dispatch - seriously? Not even production design???).
The week after the nominations I was scrolling through twitter, listening to my favorite movie podcast, and even talking to some of my friends about their favorite movies that week. I got to thinking about how funny it is that everyone can have such wildly different interests in movies. We can all sit watching a beloved classic at the same time, all over the world, and depending on certain factors, we will all react very differently to that film.
I think that’s quite beautiful.
So what are these factors that can cause some people to rant on twitter about the injustices of their favorite not being nominated, or others to use a movie to test if their relationship will hold on for the long run, or others to put a cherished dvd through the ringer whenever they have a bad day? It’s all about how you watch it. Allow me to break it down.
The Timing
Timing is probably the most important of the four factors I will mention. You know how people say that when it comes to love, timing is everything? Well, if you want to love a movie, I believe that sentiment applies as well.
First and foremost, when you watch a movie, you are taking the time to engage in art, even if that art is called Sausage Party. Think of it like taking time out of your day to go to a museum or read a book. Are you focused on what you're watching? I watched Inception with my dad once, and he was on his phone for most of the movie. When it was over and I asked what he thought, he said he didn’t like it, there was a lot of talking and he didn’t understand it. Bruh. It’s Inception, if you miss something... it’s unlikely you’ll enjoy the experience.
Also, are you in the mood to watch what you are watching? I have made the mistake of coming home late from work, exhausted, and playing a slow burn movie. I will fall asleep halfway through. Beyond that, if you aren’t in a good mental space, then I don’t recommend watching a dark psychological thriller like Prisoners. Don’t do that to yourself. (But if you can handle it, highly recommend it!)
And of course, take into account where you were in life when you watched your favorite movie? I bet it felt like the perfect thing to watch at that given point in your life. Maybe it even felt like the character was a weird embodiment of you or that the story matched up with an experience you just had or were about to have. One of my favorite movies, Frances Ha, I watched years after its release. I watched it on the evening of my 25th birthday, alone in my nearly empty studio apartment. I was a week from moving out to live with my parents for a couple months while working on the courage to move out of state. I felt frustrated that my goals in life didn’t seem to align with my present. And I felt frustrated realizing the world was pushing me aggressively towards the adult responsibilities I was resisting. When I watched Frances Ha I felt understood. It created a sort of magic that inspired me to move forward. And I played it almost bi-weekly after that point for at least three months. Had I watched that movie when it was released in 2013, I feel sure I would have not understood it fully, perhaps even have found it boring. I was graduating high school and had a naivete about what life would be like as an artist in this modern world. So for me at 25, the timing was perfect.
The Setting
Every story has a setting. Shrek and his swamp. Batman and Gotham. Harry Potter and Hogwarts. Where you watch a movie matters too. I’m not necessarily talking about the size of the screen, though let me take the time to say, please don’t watch movies on your phone. It’s just not right.
The setting of where you watch a movie for the first time matters in terms of lending an opportunity for you to focus and to build on the emotions of a community. The focus is self explanatory. If you’re watching a movie in a place with a lot of distractions, that love is not gonna flourish. If anything, you might turn it off a few minutes in and do something else. That’s why oftentimes the movie theater is an ideal place to watch a film. Lights off, sound amplified, and screen reaching across your eyesight. Need I say more?
When it comes to watching it to build community, you don’t necessarily need to be in a theater. However, if you’ve ever seen a mega blockbuster in theaters, you would have experienced something special. Movies like The Fast and The Furious franchise or superhero movies, were created to watch with people. I always find I like watching those movies more with a collection of strangers or friends who will only magnify the emotions and thoughts I experience as I watch. And theaters don’t only apply to these massive commercial movies. I am always grateful when I get to watch indie passion projects like Swiss Army Man and The Lighthouse in theaters. Getting to witness that cinematography on the big screen and feel the scores amplified through the room, while slightly tipsy on a cider or whiskey, has astronomically projected me into falling deeply in love with those movies alongside other people who had no idea what to expect.
You can create a similar community feel if you watch it at home with family, friends, or by yourself. You can watch a feel good animated movie like My Neighbor Totoro in the comfort of your own home during a rainy morning. Or watch a wild buddy comedy like This is the End at your best friend's apartment after a drunken night out that continues on. Or you can watch a classic horror movie like Nightmare on Elm Street at your partner’s place under the safety of the covers. Anything goes, except for watching a movie on your phone.
The Taste
Ah, taste is something that can be so personal. This might be the factor that really makes the difference between whether your friend likes your favorite movie. What are you most drawn to? When you line up all the movies that you love, what is the through line? The one or two or even three constants. What kind of movie would you appreciate being recommended?
Yes you can base it off genres. Maybe you’re not much of a horror fan, but you love coming of age movies. You can base your interest off a look or a setting, I personally gravitate towards movies that incorporate nature and natural lighting heavily within the cinematography. Maybe your taste has to do with a theme that you are very interested in discussing such as feminism, family dysfunction, or ambition. Or even tropes that you can’t help but get excited about like unlikely hero stories, or “will they won’t they” love plots, or finding hope in a dying world. Whatever it is I guarantee you that you have taste. And it’s okay if it doesn’t mesh with everyone else’s.
For example, Taxi Driver is a very well known film that can cause a bit of a divide with people that view it. Regardless of whether people understand it or not, it comes down to the fact that it doesn’t work for everyone. I watched it for the first time not too long ago and I enjoyed it. But I can’t say it will stand the test of time for me. And maybe it’s because the timing wasn’t right, but more than that, it didn’t align with my personal taste. But ask my friend why he loves Taxi Driver and can go hours recounting the symbolism and the inner ache caused by loneliness and masculinity at the time. Granted he’s at least a decade older than me, and he watched it at the right time for it to hit just right.
The most wonderful thing about your personal taste is that it changes along with you. The more you expand your cinematic palette, the more open you will be to falling in love with any movie or at least appreciating something in each movie you watch.
The Behind-the-scenes
This last factor is more of a deep cut but I can say with certainty that it adds value to experiencing the movie, whether before or after you have already watched it. Learning about the making of the movie through interviews with anyone who worked on the film: writers, directors, actors, production designers, cinematographers. This can really lend a deeper understanding and appreciation for the creation of the film. What did it take? I want to know and obsess over it for weeks on end.
Often if you are watching behind the scenes or interviews before the movie it can get you excited to sit in the theater and watch. If you watch after the movie it can get you excited to watch it again or you can pick up on things you might have missed while watching. A great example of this is the movie Get Out. After watching that movie for the first time, in a theater with an engaged crowd, I was so hungry to know how this phenomenon of a film came to be. I poured over every interview with the director, Jordan Peele, and the cast for the entire month after. I watched fan theories and analysis. I watched it a couple more times in theaters afterwards. I now own a book version of the screenplay with Jordan Peele’s notes on the script that I cherish. To this day I can’t get enough of talking about Get Out, in part because I learned so much about making the movie after watching it that I find myself needing to purge it out of my system to the nearest unsuspecting victim.
I think it says a lot that a movie that can impact you so profoundly at first watch that it just stays with you days after. Especially in this age where we have an unlimited amount of ways to stream any movie at any time. Oftentimes movies can be played and as soon as it’s over there’s a new thing to watch. Netflix gives you 20 seconds to digest it before it’s ready to play it’s next recommendation! A good movie can cause you to come back to the world through knowing more about the making of it. Just sending you into a deeper appreciation of the story you liked, and an appreciation for your own taste that got you there.
This was my long winded way of saying I love movies, and I think I’ve cracked the code to loving more movies in the years to come. If you want to appreciate cinema you don’t have to go to school or read books or even read this blog. You just have to watch movies, listen to the greats through their work. Give it the time, the place, and don’t be shy about including your own personal experience in the conversation. Because in the end, movies are individual stories from people like me and you and that’s what keeps us all connected.
