I've kind of fallen out of love with movies...

Most of the time, if you asked me if I'd rather do anything else than see a movie, the answer is yes.

Shouldn't this be in the gay thread?

maybe invite another couple to join in?

Oh, I've been doing that for decades now.

And I'm not out of love with gays yet.

I get this. Maybe it's (ex-) professional ennui? I'm big into episodic TV right now, and the movies I watch are comforty sub-Altman pap from the mid '70s.

The problem for me is that, as you get older, you internalize a kind of resignation that you've already seen 97% of the movies that are going to have a huge impact on you. I can't go back and see Mean Streets again for the first time, and the odds of anything having the same effect on me today are miniscule, and becoming more so every year. This is less of a problem with music; songs zip by much quicker.

I get this. Maybe it's (ex-) professional ennui? I'm big into episodic TV right now, and the movies I watch are comforty sub-Altman pap from the mid '70s.

― a serious minestrone rockist (remy bean), Tuesday, 13 March 2012 13:31 (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

movies definitely got reshuffled, for me, in terms of the texture of my evenings. if it is ten pm there is a freedom afforded by watching something forty five minutes long, with the option to watch another, that films kinda deny. a sense of knowing you'll then obediently have to go to bed, after. or maybe just the attention span thing. the cinema is different, though.

No wait, I think it's just talking about movies that I've fallen out of love with.

i wrote a long thing about margaret, recently (i am not a writer), it is probably the only film i have seen in a while that i felt compelled to expand on at a length that exceeds the constraints of twitter.

This happened to me with new music about 10 years ago. And then I came to ILX, and I was relieved it happened.

The only movies I can think of from the past five years that have had any significant and lasting impact on me are Inland Empire, There Will Be Blood, and The Tree of Life. It doesn't seem like filmmakers are terribly ambitious these days. I have the same problem with music, though. Luckily in both cases, there's still a rich vein of history to mine.

movies definitely got reshuffled, for me, in terms of the texture of my evenings. if it is ten pm there is a freedom afforded by watching something forty five minutes long, with the option to watch another, that films kinda deny. a sense of knowing you'll then obediently have to go to bed, after. or maybe just the attention span thing. the cinema is different, though.

this is so true. I just feel like sitting down to watch a movie is a gigantic commitment of time in the middle of a working week, whereas if i watch an ep of a tv show i can do lots of other things, plus i can be more sure of at least some entertainment from it if it's something i'm already into.

i went through a huge movie phase in about 2009/2010 and watched tons of great stuff, but i am in a total drought now and have maybe watched 2/3 movies in the last year. shameful.

i hate watching movies with others in general though, it's something i do alone, if i want to spend time with people i'd rather do something where we are talking.

This happened to me with new music about 10 years ago. And then I came to ILX, and I was relieved it happened.

― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius),

haha, otm

It doesn't seem like filmmakers are terribly ambitious these days.

countries other than america have film directors, apparently

world 'art' cinema - currently v v strong/interesting/ambitious (whatever that means), imho

gotta admit tho, its been YEARS since i've been excited by a horror movie i haven't seen before, sometimes think i've seen all the really good ones

It doesn't seem like filmmakers are terribly ambitious these days

This is and always was BS, there are always ambitious filmmakers, it's how accessible their work is to you that is the obstacle.

My impression is that Eric is talking about something that happened TO HIM, which is why he now feels comfortable elevating Good Burger over Keaton, Chaplin and Tati.

xpost It doesn't really have anything to do with not liking new stuff, tho. I have loved a bunch of new movies during this ramping down period (yeah, Inland Empire and The Tree of Life, but also Fantastic Mr. Fox, Tetro, Weekend, Certified Copy, et al). It's being into movies on the whole that I'm sort of done with.

Once I start actually climbing outdoors, I suspect I won't even be wringing my hands about it anymore.

(i.e. new hobbies, never look back, et al)

I feel like this is generally a healthy thing? i think, ultimately, that (for me anyway) the period in my life where I was really into movies was about "curation" of my taste and the backlog of movies or other cultural artifacts i was able to claim knowledge of. I suppose I was pursuing a certain sensibility, and eventually it just seemed hollow and boring.

it doesn't help that i find reading film criticism (as a practice and in general) less and less enlightening.

My entirely subjective and personal view is that it is neither healthy nor unhealthy.

it doesn't help that i find reading film criticism (as a practice and in general) less and less enlightening

This too, though not as unenlightening and non-fulfilling as I now find the practice of writing it.

yeah i want to be clear that watching and loving movies is awesome, i think im just trying to separate my own sort of obsessive cataloging and curating of my taste (like my own personal museum of movie experiences) that was (you could say) an adolescent phase in my own life. it never seemed to go anywhere, and i abandoned it, but that was perhaps just a part of growing up.

it's funny this thread came up, because i was just the other day thinking about how the movies of the mid to late 90s were so formative for me and it's like my own personal golden age. i remember seeing Eyes Wide Shut and The Thin Red Line and Boogie Nights all about 4-5 times in the theater (and stuff like Apocalypse Now at home). it was incredibly blinkered but to me each of those movies was like a brand new "thing"--whereas now it's hard for any movie to obtain that.

Subtract 20 years, and exactly the point I was making earlier. (Although one of the movies you mention, Boogie Nights, recaptured some of those formative encounters for me.)

Yeah, and I am on the other side of that coin. I still love some individual movies, but the overall cinephilia has dissolved.

i can relate to this a lot. i was a huge film buff for most of my post-HS and college years -- watched several movies a week, read as much kael/farber/rosenbaum/etc as i could get my hands on, even wanted to be a film critic for a while -- but my interest has fizzled quite a bit over the last few years. a lot of it is just shifting priorities: when i have free time, i'd usually rather spend it reading than watching a movie.

Michael Musto, lurker:

Why I Hate Movies!

http://www.villagevoice.com/2012-03-14/columns/Michael-Musto-why-i-hate-movies/

When I think I'm about to fall out of love w/the movies I think I'll have to start to go to plays more regularly and that isn't fkn happening!

The only movies I can think of from the past five years that have had any significant and lasting impact on me are Inland Empire, There Will Be Blood, and The Tree of Life. It doesn't seem like filmmakers are terribly ambitious these days. I have the same problem with music, though. Luckily in both cases, there's still a rich vein of history to mine.

― Alan Hale's Corn Casserole Recipe (Family Circle, June 1976) (Deric W. Haircare)

You should see Melancholia and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford if you haven't already. I think they fit in well with the others you listed.

I like plays - for the time invested they pay back better. I like episodic TV 'cause it's more like my beloved novel and you can pause it and watch a handy hour's worth and then look forward to next week, just like you look forward to picking a book back up. When movies work, they're like a novella or a poem and it's rare that those forms stick with me unless they're very, very exceptional. Also I hate having to go to the cinema.

Theatre I find it so...celebratory. Liked some of what I've seen. Just not learning enough.

A lot of people point to how exceptional TV has been in the last few years but the topics are often narrow: cops, criminals and politicians -- and told straight for the most part -- but that is changing and the photography is improving.

I can only point to a handful of films from the last few years that fall into the 'exceptional' but that's not why I go to films -- they tend to fail or fall short in all sorts interesting ways. They are also more international in terms of storylines, more is done with narrative elements, and the photography is often gorgeous. And often you don't have to go to the cinema.

I think this is often to do w/how they are funded -- they are 'cheap' but still cost so there are more risks but somehow never falls into a corner, unlike some music which you can make and distribute to 15 people, I believe...I mean I love a lot of that, but its so damn invisible, its incredibly frustrating.

Oh, thanks, tanuki. Just saw your recommendations. Both of those have been on my to-see list for a while (Melancholia for a bit shorter while, obvs, but still). I'll give them a bump up the queue.

with movies I feel like I can see the strings moving the puppets too clearly now - I tend to prefer more 'fun' and consumable movies over Big Statements of Art, now it's about the beauty of the visual and the spectacle

there's a scene in the wizard of oz about this isn't there? going behind the curtain and seeing how everything works?

that's actually about voting

there's a scene in the wizard of oz about this isn't there? going behind the curtain and seeing how everything works?
― young drometheus (dayo), Monday, 19 March 2012 02:13 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

singin in the rain imo

8mm imo

Most of the time, if you asked me if I'd rather do anything else than see a movie, the answer is yes.

― Eric H., Tuesday, 13 March 2012 09:20 (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is has basically been me like, my entire life. and i love movies!

and tree of life isn't that good

Sure it is.

I get this. Maybe it's (ex-) professional ennui? I'm big into episodic TV right now, and the movies I watch are comforty sub-Altman pap from the mid '70s.

― a serious minestrone rockist (remy bean), Tuesday, March 13, 2012 1:31 PM (6 days ago)

As someone for whom a big fraction of his DVD collection is devoted to 70s Altman, I'd like to request a handy list of the movies you've been watching lately...

movies>>>someone's dj night

I don't see how you can become bored with an entire medium — there are more movies than you could ever see in a lifetime!

And Tree of Life was awesome and your taste in movies sucks.

buzza and morbius made me lol

Someone watching a lot of comforty sub-Altman pap from the 70s sounds like someone in love with the movies.

Yeah, as an Altman Superfan, I wanna know what this entails, too. Like...a whole lot of Alan Rudolph stuff, or what? Spill, brah.

c'mon, everyone knows after '77 Rudolph was better

Most of the problems in this thread have an easy solution: WATCH MORE AVANT-GARDE MOVIES. I can think of at least 200 avant-garde masterpieces that zip by much more quickly than Mean Streets, a TV/cable episode, or, gad, Tree of Life. Hell, you can watch Brakhage's Nightcats, Black Ice, and Mothlight and still have time for The Simpsons before bed. Name to remember: Luther Price.

also, order all the DVDs of Vitaphone shorts from the late '20s.

Aren't a bunch of them on The Jazz Singer box?

an initial batch, yeah, but there are more.

ooh! I just got an idea. Thanks, thread.

:: jumps off roof ::

(put the Vitaphone disc in my queue)

xpost LOL

was gonna say that the problem w/ avant-garde stuff (like Brakhage et. al.) is access -- i don't think there's a huge backlog of that sort of stuff on Netflix. but recently, i've been pleasantly surprised about what i can get via my local public library's network. not everyone has such access, either, but hey give it a try.

Also, I've seen my share of a-g and 'toon shorts, and that hasn't helped rekindle much lately.

I get tired of how formulaic movies are. Last week, I was rocking the boy and watched Cedar Rapids. Told myself, "well, when the conflict happens that the movie spends its second act trying to clean up, I'll stop it and go to bed." Sure enough, the protagonist got into a swimming pool in his underwear right at the :45 mark.

So you say, "How 'bout watching something other than Cedar Rapids then?" And I'll tell you that I'd love to go see Tree of Life in the theater, but it's not worth the money or time spent in a dark room with strangers on their iPhones to go through it.

i wonder if a small part of this problem is simply exhaustion. too many movies, too many stories. (what's that old cliche? there's only 7 kinds of stories...)

honestly not caring so much that i see every noteworthy movie, or taking my sweet time about seeing things, and only watching something when i really want to...all that has made the occasional movie a lot more fun.

there's literally nothing less appetizing than whatever is at the top of my netflix queue

Ha! That is so true. I watch a lot of the criterions on hulu, but as soon as I add a film to my list I am basically assuring myself that I watch it

Kinda doesn't help that this is undoubtedly the worst year for movies since I started scoffing at people who say "this is the worst year for movies since..."

have you seen once upon a time in anatolia

*scoff*

then go watch it

then watch it again

http://blogs.suntimes.com/scanners/2012/10/movie_culture_the_dead_the_dea.html

i think the secret to enjoying movies is to not care whether or not there are any good new ones

true of any artform really

my main argument with ilm