I can no longer tell if movies are being serious. I used to be able to watch trailers and say, “This is clearly a parody” or “This is just a bad movie.” But, these days, the gap between the two has become so blurry and thin, I’m like Nathan Poe, looking for some kind of winking emoticon that let’s me know what’s what. So many people will say that they love movies like Machete and Drive Angry and Snakes On A Plane “ironically” which is absolutely meaningless to me because A) I’m kinda dumb, B) irony as a concept was murdered by the Internet years ago and C) I only know how to like movies or hate movies genuinely. Some filmmakers are embracing this idea of movies being designed to be consumed ironically, while other filmmakers are just making shitty movies. And the frustrating thing is that there is no observable difference between the two. Once upon a time, I could finish watching a trailer and my only thought would either be “That was good” or “That was bad.” Now, I watch most trailers and I just scratch my head, thinking, “Hey, filmmakers: Did you really mean that? Do you think shooting a movie where Nicolas Cage has sex on a motorcycle while he shoots machine guns is a genuinely good idea, or a patently ridiculous (and therefore ‘ironically’ good) idea? Is any of this a joke?
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I Can’t Tell If Movies Are Being Serious Anymore.
This man knows my soul (and this article couldn’t BE more dead on) (via starsgowaltzing)
I’ll be blunt here: I hear this same thing a lot, and I kind of think it’s a bogus frustration. To begin from a strict logical standpoint, it doesn’t really make sense. The author says “I only know how to like movies or hate movies genuinely.” All well and good. But if that’s the case, why should it matter whether or not a movie is intended “ironically”? If your sincere gut reaction is truly your guide, why do you need anyone’s permission to like or not like something? Can’t you just, you know, like or not like it?
I’m also sick of this attitude of exceptionalism with people saying “Yeah, I only like things sincerely.” Good for you! I think you’ll actually find that’s true of most people! People who claim to like things ironically either A) actually like something and are too embarrassed to admit it or B) don’t like it at all and are complete schmucks. But believe it or not, I don’t here too many people these days talking about liking things ironically. What I do hear a lot are people ascribing ironic appreciation to strangers and friends. This has a lot to do with universalizing your own taste. “I would never find this entertaining, so clearly anyone who does (particularly anyone intelligent) is somehow faking it.”
But to address the issue the author is actually describing: genre pictures are becoming self aware (like Skynet!). The author makes the mistake of needing to divide everything between “ironic” and “unironic,” but those distinctions are really becoming less important. Smart people are making dumb movies. And they are having fun doing it. It’s not about irony at all so much as it is about big, dumb, fun. About realizing that these kinds of movies were always funny and doing it on purpose this time.
“Hey, filmmakers: Did you really mean that? Do you think shooting a movie where Nicolas Cage has sex on a motorcycle while he shoots machine guns is a genuinely good idea, or a patently ridiculous (and therefore ‘ironically’ good) idea?”
BOTH. “And,” not “or.” The whole argument here seems to be “I’m mad that the people making these movies are smart enough to realize that they are making a silly movie because it confuses things for me.” I don’t see anything arch or distant (in the way that “ironic” has come to mean) in movies like Machete and Piranha 3D—I see people having a good time indulging in stupid things while having a sense of humor about it.
I’ve written about whether artistic intent should affect interpretation before, and increasingly I think it doesn’t matter. I find a lot of bad movies as interesting, challenging, and thought-provoking as the thoughtful, well-crafted movies that go on to win Oscars. And sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I just want to be entertained. But I don’t see any percentage in trying to define which movies are and aren’t acceptable to like.
(Source: littleorphanammo, via starsgowaltzing)
