How do you feel about arthouse movies?
So the discussion at https://tildes.net/~movies/1ar2/martin_scorsese_says_fight_back_against_comic_book_movie_culture_by_supporting_directors_like made me think about mainstream Hollywood way of movies versus - well everyone else? I am not even sure I like the term "arthouse" movies, because movies are movies regardless of the boxes we put them in, but for the sake of the argument movies that don't fall in the category of traditional mainstream storytelling. Is it just French artsy fartsy pretentious weirdness or is (quote) real cinema (unquote)?
I think my movie habits have been pretty average. I am not American, but most of what I have watched during my lifetime have been Hollywood productions. By a huge margin. In recent years I found myself going more and more bored with both movies and tv series from whatever the algorithms at the streaming services were pushing to me. Not that it was bad, just felt more and more like a product designed after a specific set of criteria aimed at my taste demographic. So I forced myself to break out of the bubble and watched movies totally outside my comfort zone with something I am sure the algorithms would never have recommended me. Started with movies by Kieslowski and Wong Kar-wai. And since then I feel like a whole new world of movies has opened up for me. Not that everything is magically great. There are still pretentious French movies that make me roll my eyes, but most of all it is something different. Story telling rules I thought couldn't be broken are thrown in the air and something completely unexpected appears on screen instead.
It takes some getting used to. I really struggled with a good deal of self-doubt whether I could actually understand these movies, because I have studied film theory or went to art school. At the end of the day it is really just about watching things intuitively and trying not to analyze everything or thinking about what things are supposed to mean, and be curious to why the movie does things that maybe the complete opposite of the film techniques I was used to from more mainstream movies.
This is not to bash at the Hollywood blockbuster way of filmmaking, because when that formula works - it really damn well works. But so can something completely different like Hlynur Pálmason's Godland, Haneke's Funny Games or Bujalski's Computer Chess - just to name a few of my recent very compelling movie experiences.
I am not a cinemaphile, so I don't have a whole lot to add to your main point (other than that I think everything comes down to execution). Just wanted to note that I had the same experience re: discovering a different ruleset in foreign cinema and loving it.
Netflix recommended me an Indian film called RRR. It was awesome. I don't typically like musicals, but I think it's so cool that the directors were just like "do you know what this movie needs? A sweet song and dance number. But just the one."
While not a Hollywood movie (obviously), RRR is a pretty far from an indie or arthouse production and had a big budget. With 67 million dollars it isn't as much as the marvel movies costs (100-200 million), but it's about the average for a Hollywood movie from what my googling skills tells me. It's also both one of the most expensive and highest grossing Indian movies of all times.
Not that it's not an interesting addition to the discussion, just adding some context for those not aware.
Just to clarify, RRR has one director, S. S. Rajamouli. The title RRR was originally just a working title that stuck. RRR stands for Rajamouli, Rama Rao, and Ram Charan; the director and the two lead actors.
There is technically also the dance routine for the end credits scene.
I've watched countless weird movies, but after pirating were brought down and streaming services took over, they seem to become harder to find. I don't have any streaming services at the moment—most of what I discovered when I had just didn't seemed worthwhile.
Where does one go for alternative movies? Are they still produced?
A recommendable strange movie is The Cube (1969) a TV-movie by Jim Henson (Muppet Show, Labyrinth) which were commisioned to be about the TV medium, but is more inspired by the concept of Virtual Reality. Equally hilarious and horrifying. It can be downloaded here (the .avi version is best)
You are the only other person I’ve ever encountered who has heard of The Cube. I saw it when it first aired and I was 10 years old. I watched it again a few years ago, and it holds up quite nicely.
The Criterion Channel and Mubi are good streaming services for alternative movies. And if my assumption is correct that you are also Danish, then Filmstriben. What I like about all these is that they have human curated list and recommendations, usually around a theme. I think with a world driven by algorithmic recommendations, we need knowledgeable people guiding through all the noise. In addition, HBO is one of the few bigger streaming services that seems to have a bit wider catalogue as well.
I like a bit of variety, although I see a lot of Hollywood movies I also see a bit of other variants. I think Hollywood movies have a higher average "satisfaction" for me, while other movies vary more, they both go higher and lower.
To me, one of the most important things a movie can give me is a good discussion afterwards. It doesn't even have to be the movie that introduced a concept or taught me something if I get new insights discussing it. Case in point, a recent movie that made me think was Barbie, the movie doesn't really introduce any new concepts to me that I didn't know before or say anything that I felt was revolutionary. But it gave me and my spouse a very good discussion about how we think the world works and how we relate to that.
One of the reasons I like to not only watch movies made in Hollywood is too broaden my views. At home we watch a fair amount of hbtq movies from all over the world and it's interesting to see what people care about in different places and something about what it is like to live there.
This post became a bit of a ramble based on both your question and thoughts I had after reading "the other thread". I hope it gives you something of what you were after.
Sorry, language confusion, I mean lgbtq. In swedish we have h for homosexual instead of separating it to l(esbian) and g(ay).
I don't watch them to often, but I'm open to them. I love storytelling, especially movies. I rarely go by recommendations, for better or worse. Often times I just stumble on things and give them a shot.
One I can think of recently is Enemy starring Jake Gyllenhaal. I really liked it. I didn't fully understand it until watching a YT video breaking it down. But that made me like it a little more. I like that there's a lot of depth beyond what I might catch. Enough so that someone would need to break it all down.
To me, it's all about the story and the best place for good stories is outside of Hollywood. Hollywood movies are just garbage writing and story telling filled with easier to do features made for the masses. They shoehorn the latest social movement into their shows and get praised for it, despite how obvious and poorly done it is. Copying each other to the point I'm sick of the game of thrones theme in what seems like every show. There is little real creativity anywhere, most of them seem to have shared check lists of things to shove into their movies (one of them is drama, so much %$^#!%& drama in everything).
I'd rather watch Eega (The Fly) or Rubber than whatever is called a blockbuster atm. Even if it's terrible, at least it's different. Cartoons seem to be a good place to go for creativity, like Howl's Moving Castle & Spirited Away.
Just a random thought: "A Trip to the Moon", is 121 years old and has no sound, yet it's still a great movie. More so when you remember it was made 67 years before we made it to the moon.