(thank you Dingboard thank you Yacine)
This is short, but mostly covers my thoughts on film. Despite what real cinephiles will tell you, there are actually many ways to enjoy movies. For some it’s the plot, other’s it’s the writing and characters, and for a select set of midwits (like me) it’s about the camera work. You can appreciate just one of these features individually in a film, or all of these. It’s mostly up to you and your tastes. Ultimately that’s what this whole journey is about – the acquisition of TASTE. Regardless of what you decide you like about movies, the single most important lesson of being a film enjoyer is this: be extremely disagreeable about it.
You might think this is a joke but it isn’t. A large part of really getting into film is developing your own personal sense of taste, and then finding ways of imposing the will of your curated perspective onto others. It’s what makes the whole thing fun. It takes time to develop a sense of taste, but it can be discovered by being just a little more intentional about how you watch movies.
It starts with selecting the right movies. Some brief principles to be in mind as you decide what to watch.
Pay attention to who the director is. If you enjoy a movie, you should try to watch other movies by the same director. My personal experience is that I tend to enjoy <50% of the movies I watch, but >80% of the movies I select based on the director alone.
Avoid movies featuring actors you think are bad. This is obvious, but people tend to fail at this simple task a lot. They will say “I hate Tom Cruise” then watch Top Gun: Maverick and wonder why they dislike the movie.
Disregard sites like Rotten Tomatoes. In general movies that appeal to the widest audience, like Disney, Marvel, etc will have the highest ratings because the RT score is simply a % of people who give a movie a thumbs up or thumbs down. 90% rating on rotten tomatoes doesn’t mean that the movie is an A-, it means that 90% of people gave it a 51/100 or better. You will end up watching a lot of pig slop this way. Do you think that’ll help you acquire taste?
Track what you watch using Letterboxd. It’s a personal movie review site. As you rate more movies, it will start suggesting things to you that other users rated similarly. It’s a nice way to find movies.
Watch who is nominated and wins awards at film festivals like TIFF and Cannes. These tend to be hidden gems that won’t splash much in the US, but are kino. If you’re seeking the frontier, this is where you can still find alpha before some of the international big hitters go off and win things like Academy Award for Best International Film.
Awards to Google for: Palme D’Or (Cannes Film Festival), BAFTA Awards, Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival)
Cheat code to developing taste in film quickly and ascending the meaningless ranks of hipster normies – watch classic Russian film in the original language. The older the better. If you can rattle off like 4 Tarkovsky movies, you basically win the hipster Olympics.
Things I pay attention to when watching movies.
What is this movie about? Yea yea obvious, but as you watch weirder and weirder things, deriving the plot becomes a full time job.
Am I noticing a certain structure? Film structure refers to the way a movie's story is organized and presented to the audience. The way a movie is structured can sometimes give you an idea of where things are going. Taken to the furthest level, it actually enables you to eventually know exactly who will do what, or what might happen, or how a character will change. It’s a fun little game to play while watching a movie.
Note: the most common is the Three Act Structure (Setup, Confrontation, Resolution) but more artistic directors will mess with you a lot. It’s why films like Momento have stuck around for so long – they shatter this and do something completely new.
Note 2, from my other friend Nick: “you know how in third grade you learned about how stories have an introduction, inciting incident, rising action, climax, and resolution? that's true in big boy stories too, except we call the introduction "exposition" and laugh at people who do it poorly, and we call the resolution "denouement" because fancy french words are kino and resolution makes it sound like everything has to get neatly tied up in a bow. structure is how the story makes you crave the answer to a question, edges you a bit, and then satisfies you with the answer”
Who are the main characters? Clocking who matters is a nice way to identify who you should be paying attention to as a story progresses.
How is the dialog framed? This is a weird one, but a hallmark of mediocre camera work is what’s called Over The Shoulder Dialogue. It’s ok to do this every once in a while, but if every interaction between characters is just Shoulder Over Shoulder, it’s probably boring camera work. If all of the dialogue is over the shoulder, there’s an outside chance that you’re watching a terrible movie.
What’s happening in the background? More artistic filmmaking leaves clues for the viewer that you need to actively look for. Examples include posters in the background, books lying around, maps, NPCs doing odd things, news stories playing on the TV etc
Is the lighting telling me something? The answer is overwhelmingly yes – you may not have noticed it, but your brain certainly did. For instance, bright lighting behind a character tends to highlight them as the good guy, dark lighting as the bad guy. Other lighting…up to you to figure out!
More broadly, what do I like about the mise-en-scene? This is just a French term for what is going on in the shot. At the most basic level, you can appreciate good filmography based on how characters are blocked out in a shot and how much empty space there is, for example. Others include things I’ve noted above (lighting, dialog framing, etc). This is how a mood is established. At the same time, it’s how we’ve developed the Piss Filter whenever something is being portrayed in Mexico. Sad world.
The most important thing to do is keep a log of movies you watch, and record your feelings within a day of finishing the movie. If you’re reading this I likely don’t need to explain to you the benefits of keeping a record of what you do or think. It’s a necessary step in your (hopefully not lifelong) journey towards achieving a sense of what you enjoy in a film.
Now here’s a list of movies presented in a few different ways. Italicized movies are ones that I find are a blend of great stories, acting and camera work. Note you might see recommendations highlighted under multiple categories here. Take this as a sign that I like the movie a lot.
Directors I like.
Coen Brothers (dark, mildly comedic American films). My favorite movies from the pair: A Serious Man, No Country For Old Men, Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Hail Caesar
Paul Thomas Anderson (he does it all, great current American director). There Will Be Blood, Inherent Vice
Ingmar Bergman (old, dead – classic). The Seventh Seal, Persona
David Robert Mitchell (up and coming). Under the Silver Lake (MY FAVORITE MOVIE), It Follows
Michael Haneke (foreign stuff, very tasteful and artsy). Cache, Amour, Funny Games
David Lynch (weird but cool shit). Mulholland Drive
Martin McDonagh (Irish director and playwright with an incredible body of work). In Bruges
Nicholas Winding Refn (Danish, weird artsy movies). Drive, Only God Forgives
Elite character writing. I enjoy these movies because it’s less about some character arc building someone out to become a different person later, they are mostly exploration of who a person is and how they engage in different environments. They basically don’t evolve as people, but things DO happen.
There Will Be Blood – Daniel Day Lewis actually becomes the character in this movie. You can completely believe that this person exists.
At Eternity’s Gate – The whole thing is about Vincent Van Gogh, and Willem Defoe kills it.
Bronson – Tom Hardy becomes the guy. Great stuff.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl – I’m not kidding when I say no character has ever had a more perfectly presented character introduction than Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow.
Cinematographers I like. Just a list of a few, if you want artsy look out for these guys.
Roger Deakins. Probably the camera GOAT.
Favorite work: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
Larry Smith. He’s worked with the legends of film for like 40 years.
Favorite work: Cavalry
Newton Thomas Sigel. Done some kinda cringe ones but I like his stuff in general.
Favorite work: Drive
Movies that make me laugh very hard.
What We Do In The Shadows. Mockumentary about a group of vampires living in New Zealand.
Inherent Vice. Weird movie about a private investigator caught up in a whole thing.
Under the Silver Lake. Touches on Hollywood/LA culture, neo noir, funny side stories, conspiratorial. It also made me appreciate Andrew Garfield as an actor – the kid’s got acting chops for sure.
Airplane. This is a classic, you should watch it. The greatest parody movie of all time, kicking off a thousand clones for the next 30 years.
Beeltejuice. Another classic.
Actors who can carry meh movies.
Amy Adams. She can turn a 2/10 movie into 8/10 through her acting alone. I would watch anything she does, and in fact, I have. I maintain that she is the best actor of the 2010s decade.
Daniel Day Lewis. This one’s about taste. Yeah he’s won a bunch of awards but he tends to also mostly do historical pieces, especially recently. Has to be your thing. Lucky for me it is.
Philip Seymour Hoffman (RIP). Incredible actor, enough said.
Joaquin Phoenix. He’s a little weird but I love his movies. Not Napoleon, though.
Meryl Streep. A lot of people would say she’s the greatest actress of the 20th century, and I’d probably agree.
Daniel Radcliff. Yeah, Harry Potter can act, go figure! Watch Swiss Army Man.
Things I hate and stay away from. Now this is where it gets interesting. Here’s a mixed set of things I despise and won’t touch, because it offends my developed palate.
Christopher Nolan. He’s a hack and a fraud, and I can’t stand him. He’s the film version of a burger with way too many things going on – it’s got 3 patties, like an egg, maybe avocado, bacon, onions, like 4 different cheeses, just a mess and way too much. You leave feeling disgusted with yourself having put your body through that.
Marvel. It doesn’t make you cool to hate popular things, but in this case, it does. Disney has fixed the formula for these movies to generate as much shareholder revenue as possible, so they tend to all be basically the same movie, with swapped out characters. Trash.
Blumhouse Productions. They do a lot of the gimmicky horror movies you will see ads for. They are lower-budget, and found a formula for printing revenue at the expense of good filmmaking.
Wes Anderson. I don’t know why, but he offends my sensibilities. I’ve avoided anything he’s done since about 2019 onward.
K-dramas. I really tried to do it, but I simply can’t get into it. Trained Korean actors use different techniques to convey emotion than what we’re used to in the West, and it just feels like over-acting. This doesn’t mean it’s empirically bad, it just means it wasn’t made for me.
Quentin Tarantino. I don’t know why, but the whole super violence stuff doesn’t do it for me. I’ve skipped his productions for the better part of a decade.
OK, but why should I care?
Many would wax poetic about why film is a beautiful medium and an opportunity to engage with new perspectives on life and the world, but I won’t do that. The real reason you should want to become an intelligent audience member is so you can start to identify just how bad things have gotten around you, to see the world with true vision. A lot of fun of movies is not in finding the hidden meaning of life but realizing what a hellscape we’ve developed in our media. To quote my friend Nick: “Personally I think the biggest payoff is noticing how bad a lot of media is, and having a chance to get the biggest possible laugh out of it.”
The other reason you should want to watch movies is because arguing film taste is one of the fastest ways to connect with others, especially if you’re super disagreeable about it. If this appeals to you as a worthy objective, then you’ll fit right in.
Appendix
Some things you can now say, since you have taste
“Christopher Nolan is a hack and a fraud”
“Why does Zach Snyder have a gray filter on every movie? I can’t believe people watch that garbage, Justice League sucks”
“Did you guys watch the Justice League Snyder Cut? It was amazing.”
“Actually the word actor now refers to anyone regardless of gender.”
“I haven’t watched a Marvel movie and I never will” (you should say this even if you’ve seen a Marvel movie, it gets the people going).
“Oh nice you like horror movies too? What did you think of 奇妙なサーカス ?” (yeah you might have to learn some Japanese to pull this off, but it might be good for you).
“I prefer practical effects over CGI, so I’d prefer not to watch the LOTR TV Show. The frame rate gives me a headache.” (it doesn’t, but I don’t care).
"Solo is the only good movie from the star wars universe" if you say this to the right person you will guarantee to eat up at least 2 hours of your day, good work team!
Note: if they agree with you, you can pivot with this – “I think I preferred rogue one if I had to pick from the disney ones so far.” Remember, be disagreeable.
"Anyone who doesn't like the Fly episode in breaking bad doesn't understand pacing"
You get the picture.
Miscellaneous recommendations of movies you probably wouldn’t otherwise watch
My guess is, if you’re just getting into movies, these would not come across your radar which is why I’m including them.
Everything is Illuminated – personal favorite, though I might be biased because I’m Ukrainian. A beautiful balance of drama and comedy.
Under the Skin – If I told you that Scarlet Johannson acted in an indie movie about an alien sent to earth to abduct men, you probably wouldn’t believe me, but she did in fact star in this and it’s fantastic. One of my favorite sci-fi movies of the 2000s.
In the Mood For Love (Cameron if you’re reading this I know it’s a famous movie but not at the entry level) – a beautiful Chinese film. I’ll leave it there.
Synecdoche, New York – Watching this movie will probably test your sensibilities when it comes to style over substance, but it’s a kind of crazy movie with lots of depth.
Mandy – Horror movie starring Nicholas Cage. It’s gory, but very artistically shot. Just don’t expect to really understand what’s going on the entire time…roll with it!
Dredd – If you like action, watch this movie! Very fun.
Dear Zachary – I hesitated to put this one on here, but Dear Zachary might be my favorite documentary. The filmmaker set out to capture, through interviews and home movies, the life of his lifelong best friend Andrew after he was murdered by his ex-wife, with the hope of giving Andrew’s son Zachary a way of understanding his father. I could not recommend this more highly, but it is heartbreaking.
Hard to be a God – Russian sci-fi movie about a group of scientists sent to the planet Arkanar to help the local civilization, which is in the Medieval phase of its own history, to find the right path to progress. It’s shot in black and white, but filmed in 2013.
Biutiful – a Spanish story about redemption and family, starring one of my favorite actors Javier Bardem.
The Act of Killing – one of the most fascinating films ever created, the director convinces the perpetrators of the 1960s communist purges in Indonesia to act out the mass killing they performed in their youth, 50 years after it happened. What you get out of it is maybe the most bizarre and terrifying film I’ve seen.