Why does "Everything Everywhere All at Once" repulse me so much?
I have never seen "Everything Everywhere All at Once". I know only a few details about the story. I know it was hugely successful and is widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best, movies of all time.
I know so very little about it, because somehow everything about it repulses me. And I have no clue as to why.
There are very few movies that provoke such a strong negative reaction in me. As a matter of fact, the only other movie that comes even close is “Ad Astra”, a movie I despise on a very visceral level. But for that one, I know exactly why I hate it so much. I can talk about my reasons for hating it for hours on end and have done so in the past (very much to the dismay of my friends on the other end of the voice chat).
But with "Everything Everywhere All at Once", my reaction to it is a complete mystery to me.
It’s not that I find it simply unappealing, I’d say that I find most movies unappealing. But in those cases I just say “eh, not for me” and look for something else.
I also don’t think it’s bad. I know so damn little about it, how could I even make that judgment?
But whenever I read something about it, see clips from it, or hear other people discuss it or its themes, I get this very strong feeling of repulsion. Think of it like holding a glass of holy water under a vampire's nose. If I force myself to continue reading or watching, I get angry/agitated, complete with quickened pulse, fight-or-flight impulse, the whole enchilada.
But I don’t understand why. Why is my negative reaction so damn strong when I know so very little about it?
Sure, its philosophical take about absurdism isn’t really my style, but I’ve seen plenty of trailers or snippets of absurd comedies and usually my reaction is just “meh, not for me”, maybe even a “damn, that looks like shit” if I find it particularly unappealing.
And yes, it’s flashy style, quick cuts and overdone lighting-effects are just downright too hectic for me, but why would that make me hate it so much?
So yeah, I deeply dislike everything about "Everything Everywhere All at Once" despite me knowing very little about it and I have no clue as to why my reaction is as strong as it is.
Has anyone experienced a similarly strong negative reaction to this movie, or know someone who has?
Does anyone have an idea as to why/how it essentially triggers me, even though I have had way to little exposure to it or anything like it that would merit such a reaction?
I think it’s probably the fan base that’s turning you off. I’ve often described EEAAO as Rick and Morty in live action. And I believe the same applies to the fan base. I think they have a similar “actually you have to have a really high IQ to understand…” mentality.
It also being over praised (what I believe anyway) and being called one of the best movies of all time (it was being called that during 2022 but I don’t really see people call it that anymore) probably makes you go “yeah whatever.”
I’d say your repulsion is more about the reaction to the movie than the idea of the movie itself.
Yeah I enjoyed the movie and found it entertaining, but to call it the best movie ever is insane. It is nothing close to that. I had no idea that it had such a vocal fanbase. I literally haven't thought about it once since I watched it.
I think it's pretty impressive given the complexity of the plot, and the "low" budget compared to other films. A lot of Hollywood films these days have 100 million dollar budgets and turn out pretty average or bloated. You can feel that there were multiple people working together to try to make a product more than a movie, trying to add in elements to appeal to as many demographics as they could. And in the process, the movies just lose... something.
Compared to those, EEAAO feels pretty refreshing. The plot is surprisingly tight and intelligent, they don't shoehorn in any unnecessary romance subplots, and it's a well-told original story. I wouldn't call it the best film ever, but it's got heart, which I feel like we see less and less these days.
Towards the end of 2022 when critics top 10 lists were coming out, EEAAO fans were going on the offense on anyone that omitted it. It got so bad that the directors themselves had to make a statement.
Again, wild. I had no clue, not that I was paying attention.
The Oscars season hyped up the movie so much since media went wild over Ke Huy Quan comeback and whole asian respresentation. I loved the movie and how much I connected with the characters (coming from an Asian American).
But I hate the term best movie ever in general? I hate these hierarchical or ranking list for any subjective medium, instead of appreciating what made the movie unique and good. For me, "the best" or "better than" it's such a lazy way to appreciate art.
That sounds like a completely reasonable reaction to a movie recommendation from friends...
Nothing about that relationship sounds healthy. Get new friends, and watch what you want to watch.
I think it wild to make assumptions on someone’s friendships from this one comment lol
That sounds like a completely reasonable reaction to a pushy movie recommendation from otherwise fine friends...
Oh, totally! But usually that's where my reaction stops. There are definitely some very highly praised movies (or other works of art) where I just scratch my head and think "I really don't get it..." and even some select few where I go so far as to think "How can anybody like that?"
But for my reaction to grow so strong as to cause a physical reaction is highly uncharacteristic for me, and after watching (or rather, attempting to watch) a video about it yesterday, I decided to get to the bottom of my feelings/reaction to EEAAO once and for all.
While I can certainly resonated with the feeling of contrariness of disliking things simply because they are widely liked, that usually just makes me less likely to watch it, not cause such a strong reaction.
At least it hasn't in the last decade since I've done some maturing ^^
And I think Notcoffeetable may have cracked it with his opening jest.
If you literally haven't even seen the movie, why are you having any feelings about it whatsoever other than either curiosity or non-curiosity? Why are you developing these thoughts and feelings, that literally aren't based on anything except passing perceptions, secondhand accounts, and advertising, by writing them down? You could just watch the movie, or you could stop thinking about it?
How is this supposed to be remotely actionable advice, especially if it gets recommended yet again?
It's possible for something to be in one's head too much. A common example is a memory of personal cringe. If someone fixates on it for a long enough period of time, it can start to cause a physiological response. Like watching a scene in a movie that reminds you of that memory and suddenly you find yourself reacting badly, like yelling a curse word out loud in a way that feels random to other people.
One of the practices to mitigate this is to identify when you're dwelling on something and force yourself to think about something else. Catch it early and often enough and that memory won't embed itself as deep, or at all. As someone with a strong emotional memory, I use this practice a lot.
That is indeed the point of the entire post: by all accounts, I shouldn't have any strong feelings about the movie. And yet I do have a strong aversion towards it that I don't understand at all. And it's not like I'm constantly thinking about it. It was only on my mind since a video about it popped up in my YouTube recommendations. I've started watching it, only to find out my aversion is still there and strong as ever.
Since I try to be in touch with my feelings and try to understand where they are coming from, I decided to get to the bottom of it. And I think Notcoffeetable may have cracked that mystery with his opening jest.
I liked the movie well enough, but yeah, I could have easily done without the hot dog fingers and googly eyes.
My oldest friend used to dislike movies that the rest of the friend group liked. Which they commented on and ribbed him on his pattern. This turned into a vicious cycle, because the more he perceived the group making him conform, the more viscerally he reacted to the liked movies. Later he said he got out of the pattern by not being so attached to his opinions or the opinions of others. Hope this helps!
"Hype backlash." I "hated the Beatles" for a long time when I was an angsty teen, until the day I got around to actually sitting down and listening to them.
I have a similar mindset, I viscerally react to anything I feel is mass recommended and feel more inclined to avoid it the more it's brought up.
Case in point, I'm sure the Prestige and Shutter Island are great movies, but after reddit has endlessly brought them up as "underrated classics", I have absolutely no desire to ever see them. Before I saw a clip of Shawshank I'd have thought the same. I'm not sure why this deeply contrarian sentiment is within me, but any time I hear a movie lauded, I am first moved to see it, the as the praises grow moved to avoid it.
Probably burnt out by stuff being endlessly overhyped to the point where they couldn’t possibly live up to it. I swear some the Star Wars movies and shows might actually be great, but they are venerated way more than they warrant so I never found one to be particularly good.
This is how I feel about SO many things. Even worse than Star Wars though... Well, I'm an anime fan. The amount of shows that people will HYPE only for them to be average or even ultimately become terrible (let me tell you about something known as Wonder Egg Priority and why it now makes the anime community cringe HARD)... The more people HYPE something- or more accurately, talk nonstop about it- the more I'm likely to say "ok... If I ever have time for it and remember to watch it".
Been burned WAY too many times by the HYPE train only for it to fail to meet expectations. Or even worse, the fans that absolutely REFUSE to acknowledge that the thing they love isn't a masterpiece for the rest of us ... Makes me hate fandoms these days.
I fricking loved Wonder Egg Priority. It was a breath of fresh air… at least until it shit the bed. It could have been legendary if they managed to stick the landing. But even then, it’s not nearly as disappointing as the second seasons of The Promised Neverland or Aldnoah Zero.
But hype is the reason why I limit myself away from pretty much every fan community. The only Anime fan I tend to listen to is the Mother’s Basement channel on YouTube because he watches basically everything and has pretty similar tastes to me. There’s too many fans of Shonen stuff, which is a pretty big turn-off for me; I need more complex feelings and less screaming. My husband watches the dubbed version of My Hero Academia, and my god I swear they never stop screaming, and it’s somehow worse in your native language.
I have the same issue. It good at least to be aware of it, because it means you're open to being wrong, since you know it's just your contrarian nature. At least, that's how I feel about my own contrarianess.
Honestly I don't think it's a bad heuristic. I have something similar and in my experience it's correct more often than not and these true classics are a minority.
It's an ego/pride thing. I just recently went through the same thing myself with a friend of mine. He's been recommending I play the game No Man's Sky for probably 3 years now.
I actually tried it a bit when everyone said "it's actually good now", made it halfway through the tutorial, decided it was dumbed down console port trash, and that I hated it. My friend would bring it up a couple times a year, and I would just insist that the game sucked and wasn't for me.
Recently I gave it another try and I'm actually enjoying it so far. I had to swallow my pride a bit and put my ego to the side to do that though. There's a natural inclination to form an opinion and stick to it, and instead of reconsidering based on the opinions of people you otherwise trust, you dig your heels in.
NMS definitely fits in this discussion. It had such a rough start, and has come so far that a lot of buzz is generated about it. The team at Hello Games for sure deserve some praise for what they've achieved, but this often translates to the general public as "OMG best game evar!" and it's off-putting.
EEAAO suffers from something similar, where an enthusiastic group wants to share the love of something that means a lot to them, but that is poorly translated to "OMG best movie evar!"
While I can certainly resonated with the feeling of contrariness of disliking things simply because they are widely liked, that usually just makes me less likely to watch it, not cause such a strong reaction.
At least it hasn't in the last decade since I've done some maturing ^^
I actually think Notcoffeetable may have cracked it with his opening jest.
Hating something is fine. Hating something you haven't experienced is arguably fine as well. I just don't know what we're supposed to do here? You're not being forced to watch the movie, you have no interest in watching the movie, you're not going to randomly encounter a situation in your day to day life in which you're going to some how passively consume the entire 139 minute movie the way some of us have to listen to songs we hate while at the store.
I understand the need to get something off your chest? I understand (but don't personally experience) being bothered by not liking something that others do. I kind of get the need to just talk shit out in "public". But outside of armchair, speculative psychology or getting a sense of validation, I'm not sure what a group of internet strangers can really do better than a group of friends who know your preferences and hopefully care about your well being. To me hating something that has and will have zero impact on your life, to the point of a physical reaction, is pretty extreme given how innocuous EEAO is.
edit : my grammar sucks
I actually disagree with that. For me, hate is way to strong a reaction for something you have practically no experience with. Dislike sure, but hating something for no reason is a rather dark/dangerous path to follow.
I was mostly looking for some outside perspective (and I think I've found the one I'm looking for in Notcoffeetable's opening jest.).
It's also not like EEAO is on my mind all the time. Until yesterday when I stumbled over a video discussing it, I haven't thought about it at all in ages. I was merely perplexed as to why my strong aversion to it still exists and wanted to see if I can't find out what caused it. No bashing of the movie, not trying to get anything of my chest or trying to get validation. Just some an attempt at introspection via external perspectives.
Oh, don't worry, I'm perfectly fine not liking something that the majority of people like. As a big nerd, that's been the default for most subjects for most of my life, including the reverse. ^^
It's simply that I don't (or rather, didn't) understand my strong aversion to EEAAO. It's also not the case that it is on my mind all the time, I basically don't think about it at all. It's just that a video about it came up in my YouTube feed, I gave it a shot to see if the reaction has dulled a bit over the years, only to find out that it hasn't that has given me the impulse to post this.
It's the hot dog fingers isn't it?
I jest. Though I would say the marketing didn't appeal to me. I watched it based on the critical consensus a year after it came out. I'd give it something like 3.5-4/5 stars. What hooked me was the relationships and the emotional journey the main character had with her husband and her daughter. It definitely drew some tears from me at the end. But also, I wouldn't call it a "can't miss movie."
To answer your question, The Last Duel triggered me pretty hard. Rape and/or cucking makes me extremely angry. I couldn't get through the movie with how uncomfortable and upset I was.
You know what, that could actually be it, or at least the crystallization point where everything started…
Usually I'm pretty unphased about Body-Horror stuff (coming from a medical family has its benefits), but I do remember seeing that scene in a trailer and finding it surprisingly disturbing.
Couple that with my dislike of the philosophical take and visual style and it's entirely possible that all that developed into an aversion to everything related to the movie.
Thank you very much, I think I now know where that damned disgust is coming from!
Believe it or not, disgust towards the hot dog fingers is actually part of the point of the film.
It’s been a couple of years since I saw the film, but I don’t recall picking up on that at all. How do they relate?
A big recurring theme in the film is the difficulty of understanding, relating to, and empathizing with people who are different from us. Evelyn has trouble understanding her depressed lesbian daughter and her non-Chinese girlfriend. Gong Gong has trouble understanding his immigrant daughter and her family. And the IRS agent Deirdre has trouble understanding Evelyn and her family. (Actually, in each case, we could maybe say that each doesn't even try to understand the other until the end of the film.) The hot dog fingers make the audience feel the kind of revulsion that a bigot might feel (and I don't think it's a coincidence that the hot dog fingers universe is one in which Evelyn is in a lesbian relationship).
Mostly curious, but what do you believe is the philosophical take?
Oh The Last Duel was very triggering for me as well. However, I think they pulled it off presenting the rape from each person's POV. I definitely would not watch it again. I felt the same way about The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I was so pissed at the rape scene, it took me a bit to reconnect with anything in the movie.
Is there someone you know (or are otherwise exposed to a lot on social media) who really likes it? The only times I've felt so strongly about something I'd never watched was when someone who I found really annoying was a big fan of it. They only posted about it occasionally, nothing absurd, but the association with them was enough to put me off watching it for a while and I found myself really irritated whenever I saw anything about it because it reminded me of them. Later on, when I hadn't interacted with this person in a few years, I watched it and ended up liking it, but by then the association with them had waned.
In any case, there's nothing wrong with not liking a movie even if your dislike is based in irrational revulsion for reasons you yourself don't even know. Sometimes people just get "icks" and this is a pretty damn harmless one. As it becomes less and less recent, you'll probably hear about it less and less over time. Best of luck finding movies you feel the opposite way about in the future!
Not, really, no. Me and my friends group weren't really the intended audience, at least I don't think so. And social media wise the exposure wasn't any worse as it is for any other successful movie. But I also very carefully moderate my social media use: enough that important developments and the general Zeitgeist (eventually) trickle through to me, but not so much that it affects me negatively (getting off Reddit last year in exchange for Tildes was the best thing in that regard).
Totally agree with everything here! I simply came across a video about it yesterday after not thinking about it for ages and was surprised to find out my aversion to it is still as strong as it once was.
But I think Notcoffeetable may have cracked that mystery with his opening jest.
I've seen it twice. Adored it the first time, still loved it the second time but it definitely wasn't feeling quite as magical.
I think there's something to be said about expectations here? Generally, the movie is really just popcorn action-sci-fi. It's produced by the Russo brothers. I personally despised The Avengers, and for everyone who saw the blockbuster of their generation I saw a pretty soulless CGI-fest with little character movement and too slick of a script. Sometimes I see the same DNA in EEAAO, and up front all the action and crazy CGI is there. But behind that, I still see a heart and intention. There's a neat use of wildly sliding scale, between the lampshaded multiverse ridiculousness and a very tight family drama. It also has the meta-aspect of Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan's careers getting mixed into their characters' arcs that give their performances some more gravity.
What I ultimately love is that it's a big box office entertainment movie that had, even if it doesn't work for you, some pretty identifiable artistic purpose behind it past making money. If you look at it and you can't get past the popcorn bits, though, I don't blame you.
This is biased, but I think there's also a bit of overreaction where the internet has to support projects like this because people want to see the water rise on smarter movies. Like someone made the Rick and Morty comparison, that doesn't mean it's the smartest or most artistic thing, but being bombarded by praise can inflate expectations...
To me, the thing I love about it is how well it puts together all of the things I love about movies, and all in what I consider to be pretty much the perfect amounts. The artistic intent and drama is a big part of it, yes, but a lot of it is also the visual filmmaking arts and techniques used in it; it unironically has some of the best fight choreography in a Western-produced film, it's got effects that are largely practical, and it's got gonzo costume design and tons of compositing/editing effects. All of them are put together with a very cheesy and somewhat adolescent sense of humour which somehow gives it an amazingly sincere feeling aesthetic that makes the drama shine through. To me, the title really matches what's in the tin: it's a movie that has everything.
I think this is a big reason reason it got stanned as hard as it did. A similar phenomenon occurred with Barbie and Oppenheimer. The glut of soulless CGI action fests has left many people craving anything else. Or perhaps it's just lowered peoples' standards for artistic merit.
I think another big reason is that it came pretty much at the definitive end of COVID (or, at least, at the end of the time when most peoples' daily lives were altered). So it may have been the first movie many people saw in theaters for a long time, and also its message may have resonated more for that.
The fact that it came shortly after the Trump presidency might also have something to do with it.
Also, it has to be acknowledged that the movie did make some genuinely out-there and weird choices. People make comparisons to Rick and Morty, which isn't entirely off-base, but it's one thing to see that sort of thing in a cartoon and another to see it in a mainstream live-action film. It may have been the first time that a lot of people were exposed to some of those ideas.
Yeah, the message of the movie resonated with me pretty hard at the exact time I needed it, which is part of the reason I loved it so much. It seems a bit silly typing this out, but it really did provide some much needed hope and perspective in a very turbulent time. I also have ADHD, so quite a bit of the movie was relatable in that way as well.
Generally that's a good take, but I don't think that's quite it in this situation, at least not any more than it would be for any other successful movie that I haven't watched yet.
For example, I also haven't seen "The Shape of Water" either, and I'm pretty sure that by now at least some of my reasons for still not watching it is some form of contrariness or "praise fatigue". But that mostly manifests in some kind of apathy towards it, not a strong aversion.
But I think Notcoffeetable may have cracked that mystery with his opening jest.
So you haven't seen the movie at all, right? I'm a bit confused with all the comments talking about the movie itself and why people did or didn't like it because it seems like your issue doesn't even involve the movie itself. Rather it seems like an issue that has manifested with anything about this specific movie. This could have probably been any movie at all.
It feels like there's a major puzzle piece missing here. It doesn't sound like this happened overnight but something that built up over time. But it also seems like it happened subconsciously if you can't hazard a guess as to what may be causing it.
Am I wrong? Is there more that you don't want to divulge? Because that's fine. But if this is a true response that you don't understand but want to, then unfortunately I don't think the internet is the right place to seek answers on this. This seems like something that should be addressed with a professional. I don't believe this is a normal response to a work that you haven't even seen.
You're pretty much right on the money with most of your points, including how most comments kinda miss the point.
But I think Notcoffeetable may have unintentionally found the missing puzzle piece with his opening jest.
I think it all started with me first seeing the sausage-fingers in a trailer or other clip, being surprisingly disturbed by them (I mean, those things are just wrong) and over time it subconsciously developing to a general aversion to everything related to the movie.
I mean, if you haven't even seen the movie and know almost nothing about it, you're pretty clearly reacting to the hype/discourse around it and not anything in the movie itself.
Given your (literally) prejudicial reaction, it might also be worth considering the role of latent prejudice -- not in the sense of "I don't like Asian people" but more that Asian actors don't have a lot of representation in mainstream American film so it might evoke feelings of skepticism or incongruity to see a highly praised film centering them. For example, how did you feel about the buzz around Crazy Rich Asians or Parasite? There is a LOT of subtle (and not so subtle) backlash online to media pushing for greater diversity, and it's easy for that to color one's perceptions indirectly even if you don't nominally agree with the racist sentiment; sort of like how reaction to The Last Jedi became a sort of culture war proxy, or how so many voters had a vague dislike or mistrust of Hillary Clinton after decades of misogynist attacks. It's totally valid to have a negative reaction for non-superficial reasons, ofc, but that kind of requires engaging with the thing substantively.
FWIW, I also absolutely loathed Ad Astra on virtually every level (it's in my bottom 10 on Flickchart), but I loved EEAAO for its energy, style, and central love story. OTOH, when I rented it while visiting family for the holidays, my parents gave up watching 2/3rds of the way through (though my younger brother loved it).
I won't draw any assumptions about OP having such a visceral dislike of EEAAO without even seeing it. Bizarre, but not necessarily indicative of racism.
As a half-Asian guy though, EEAAO hit the sweet spot for me. Over the last few years, I have noticed and appreciated Asian-American moviegoers being treated as a target audience for a change. However, many of the offerings left me feeling flat. Crazy Rich Asians kinda left me feeling flat, as did Shang-Chi. I enjoyed Minari as a quiet slice of Asian Americana life. Parasite was great, but I consider it a foreign film since it doesn't feature America as a part of whole story.
EEAAO, on the other hand, hit every nerve of my id. I'm generally inclined more towards to weird, philosophical, sci-fi plots. EEAAO has this, along with plenty of martial arts action, which makes it a win for me.
Michelle Yeoh was an actress whose works I've loved since seeing Wing Chun at a midnight movie back in the mid-nineties. Stuff like Supercop, and Tomorrow Never Dies were my bread and butter. I was joyed to see her slowly breaking into western cinema.
And Ke Huy Quan was many 80's Asian kid's hero from his roles in The Goonies and The Temple of Doom. When I was a little, I wanted all the gadgets that Data had, and went so far as to try and create crazy plans for them. Seeing him again, when we are both approaching middle age, was fucking great.
Obviously, I have a cultural attachment to EEAAO that OP does not have, but the film struck it hard for me.
I agree that star wars has been a popular target for shitty YouTubers with mildly alt right leanings, The last Jedi really was just a terrible movie that deserved every ounce of criticism it got. It broke virtually every convention in writing just to break it. It's the kind of movie I'd expect from a second year film student trying to be experimental while somehow also having a $300m budget.
It also pushed me over the cliff, solidified my cynicism and jaded me on big franchise movies, because somehow a movie can come out that's that awful, which so many people absolutely hated, and still make 1.3 billion dollars.
Everything everywhere all at once is basically the exact opposite of the sort of thing TLJ stands for, both in principle and execution, which is why I think so many people connected with it so much. It came from an independent studio, not Disney. It featured an original story in an original world, not yet another star wars film, it had a very unconventional story with unique ideas, told in a very conventional, grounded way, versus TLJ which told a very conventional story with the same ideas we've seen for 50 years at this way, which was told in a way to constantly confuse the audience. It had a tiny budget and featured mostly actors that weren't household names.
I don't think the movie got as popular as it did because of sheer quality or anything, although personally, I think it's a very well made movie. I think it got popular because it was a breath of fresh air. For once, everyone was talking about a big, popular movie that wasn't superhero movie #288227, or the new Star Wars, or the latest Christopher Nolan movie, and it had fresh, interesting ideas.
The Last Jedi is not a perfect film, but it's not remotely as bad as the criticism it got. Different people are obviously going to have different opinions on how good it is cinematically (I think it's a mixed bag personally) but to act like all the criticism it got after release is justified is absurd given the sheer quantity of bad-faith nonsense that was thrown its way, including a lot of really racist stuff and inundating actors in the film with online hate. You're absolutely free to strongly dislike the film but at the very least acknowledge the disproportionality of at least those segments of the "criticism".
Absolutely. I actually think it’s massively better than any of the other movies in that trilogy, by leaps and bounds. It’s a movie that respects its characters, and while it has problems with pacing and plot, it takes them seriously and does the best at actually developing those characters and the world they live in. On the other hand, the other two movies felt like they were just trying to take parts from the old movies and fit them into the framework of a sequel. The bad guys literally spring up out of nowhere with massive oppressive armies to match, no explanation for them in sight! They invent story elements, plot contrivances, and even magic mechanics out of whole cloth just to fit the narrative they would prefer to tell.
Yeah, I'm pretty "meh" on the sequel trilogy as a whole. The Rise of Skywalker is so bad that it's comedic. I definitely have criticisms of The Last Jedi, but it did at least try something new in certain ways, even if I don't think every choice was perfect or that everything was executed perfectly. It's certainly the most visually-interesting Star Wars film on a cinematography level (though that's unsurprising given that Steve Yedlin was the cinematographer). And I don't even understand criticizing it for being too experimental. It's a very conventional Hollywood film in terms of its storytelling -- the criticisms that some people had (once you ignore the bevy of racist and misogynistic ones) were of plot choices and were heavily influenced by the film's presence within Star Wars as a franchise. Even the people I know who disliked the film didn't criticize its structure or storytelling on a fundamental level, because it's not particularly noteworthy in that respect even among Hollywood blockbusters (to say nothing of actually experimental films).
Not a fan of the implied accusation of racism, but I get that it is part of the American Zeitgeist to blame latent prejudice and similar things for a lot of things (completely ignoring intend and also making the accusations impossible to either prove or disprove). Living in Europe, I've never fully understood that part of recent developments of US culture.
But anyway, in regards to your specific examples: Crazy Rich Asians went straight past me, I don't know if I ever really heard anything about it. Parasite I've watched I thought it was alright, really didn't understood all the hype around it, to me it was just an mostly enjoyable movie.
Interestingly enough I've really enjoyed the SW sequels, especially Rise of Skywalker. I get they are flawed movies, but I still enjoyed Rise of Skywalker a lot and even rewatched it a few times. And considering how the prequels went from being meme-hated to widely liked over the last 10 years, I wouldn't be surprised to see the same happening to the sequels. Even with all their flaws (wich the prequels had in no smaller number, too).
In fairness, I said you were "clearly reacting to the hype/discourse", and that the role of that in coloring perception (not overt racism) was "worth considering", which is a reasonable thing to interrogate when talking about so viscerally disliking a film you admittedly haven't seen and know little about. (It's often a synonym for racism, but "an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge" is the literal dictionary definition of "prejudice".)
My advice: ignore the bad vibes and give the movie a shot. Best-case scenario, it becomes one of your favorite films. Worst-case, you find concrete reasons for your dislike -- and dissing a popular film is more credible and honestly more fun if you can talk about all the reasons you loathe it instead of vaguely handwaving. God knows my ranting about Ad Astra has been downright recreational.
I disliked this movie, finding it extremely overrated. Maybe that's why you're repulsed by it? Because you don't get why people like it so much?
I think I feel like you do about the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, a beloved classic. I hate it with the fire of a thousand suns.
It is pretty weird to feel strong dislike for something that you haven't even seen, though. Like, not unheard of, but definitely not common. Most movies or shows people haven't ever seen that don't sound appealing to them don't inspire such a strong negative reaction.
@sparksbet has it right for most of it. It's not that I think it's overrated (it may be, considering a lot of other replies here, but that could just be selection bias), and even if I did, that would just make me dislike it or make me less likely to actually watch it.
A reaction this strong despite my limited exposure to it is highly out of character for though, so I was simply wondering what caused it.
And on that front, I think Notcoffeetable may have cracked it with his opening jest.
You should watch Swiss Army Man if you haven't seen it already. Its an indie film by the same director before EEAAO blew up and made him popular. This might give you an idea if the director actually has something to say that you find worthwhile. If you like Swiss Army Man, maybe you'll decide to give his other film a shot, or maybe not!
Only thing I'd say is go into it blind, don't watch the trailer. Or do, if you want, I'm not your supervisor.
Ironically, I really hated Swiss Army Man and loved EEAAO.
For me, I loved the concept of SAM, and Daniel Radcliffe is absolutely doing some of his best acting work (incredibly dynamic and hard role to play), but the early teenage vulgarity of the comedy just didn't sit well with me.
But EEAAO, I heavily enjoyed, but then again, I consider Sorry To Bother You to be one of the greatest movies ever made, which EEAAO is incredibly "inspired" by.
In fact, @Landhund you should check out Sorry To Bother You, similar movie, but much better and might give you an idea going into EEAAO.
I could not get behind the absurdism of SAM. Honestly generally absurdism just does not work for me; I have a hard time understanding what I'm supposed to think is "real" in the universe of the movie.
But, somehow EEAAO just clicked for me.
Unfortunately "Sorry To Bother You" isn't on any of the streaming services I'm subscribed to, but I'll try to find some time to watch Swiss Army Man and should I like that one, maybe I'll hoist the black flag.
You might want to track it down on the used market. It’s the movie that made me fall in love with Boots Riley. It’s not quite the same, but you may want to try his series “I’m a Virgo” on Amazon.
Fair opinion. But either way, tonally you can definitely tell they come from the same director, and gives OP a chance to see if they jive with the filmmaker without the baggage of critical or audience acclaim.
I'll try to remember to watch it when I've got some free time after the weekend, thanks for the suggestion!
It sounds like your feeling is sort of generally directed at the idea of the movie, rather than any specific thing about it. Is there a moment in the trailer you can point to as particularly triggering? I'm trying to see if there's something visual in there that you don't like.
Is it the title? I don't like the title. Too wordy and try-hard IMHO.
Do you have multiverse fatigue? The MCU and Rick and Morty really overplayed that, and I can totally see other movies playing in the space to feel gimmicky or passé as a result.
I think Notcoffeetable may have cracked that mystery with his opening jest about the hotdog fingers.
I share your feelings about the title though.
Multiverse fatigue, I don't think so. I've stopped watching almost all of the MCU stuff after "Age of Ultron", only watching "Thor: Ragnarök" when it came out (was a fun movie at the time, but I doubt I would feel that again if I watched it again now). In that regard it's just a very strong MCU-fatigue. But that's fine, I just watch other stuff, it's not like there is any shortage of it ^^
What now?
I saw this movie for the first time a couple weeks ago and found it mediocre at best. Definitely not memorable and won’t rewatch or recommend to anyone.
Very curious who regards this as one of the best movies of all time, because it’s not rated that way on imdb or rotten tomatoes.
Not to throw shade at your point, but it won many Oscars, including best picture, best director, best original screenplay, and best actors for Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Ke Huy Quan.
Lots of people at the time it was released called it life changing, and it has been described as one of the first big mainstream movies intended for Gen Z. It was definitely a cultural phenomenon in its year, and while it might not have the staying power of other great movies gone by, it is widely recognized to be good.
That makes me feel a little silly.
Maybe my taste isn’t that great, if the movie is getting recognized then it must be me. Since it’s the humor that didn’t really do it for me, it could also mean I’m just becoming an out of touch old dude.
I don't think you're silly, and while I might agree that it "is you" in this case, I think that it's important to note that it's okay for it to "be you" and not the movie. But it's also the specific movie. Let me see if I can meander to the point. This may be our shared experience, but I'll write it from my own point of view. I guess it's maybe important that I like this movie a fair bit - I originally gave it a 9/10, though now I would probably say it's an 8.
This movie wasn't intended for you or for me. As I've gotten older, and as time has progressed, I've come across more and more movies which didn't have me as their core target demographic, and that has often felt a bit weird, because for my entire adult life, I have been the core demographic that most media seems to be aimed at. EEAAO is a movie that I think is solidly aimed at my kids' generation, and more than that it's for the adults of my children's generation, and that's a strange place to find myself. I've wondered if I am an out of touch old dude, and I think that I'm not, and similar I think you're likely not.
Some time ago (I started off saying "a few years ago" then "a decade ago?" then "oh my god how old am I for real") I made an effort to switch how I thought about movies and also art in general. I used to watch a movie, and if it resonated with me, I would usually say "this is good" and if it didn't I would say "this is bad". Now when I watch something, I try to look at it through a more personal lens; "did this work for me?" vs "did this work at all" and I think that has made a real difference to how I interact with art. There are some times when I will still make a categoric "this is bad" or "this is good" declaration about media, but for the most part I am mostly thinking about how the art works or doesn't work for me personally. I think this is pretty freeing, and also subverts a lot of arguments. You also did this - "the humour ... didn't really do it for me" - so you already get what I'm saying.
So I don't think you're an old out of touch dude. You have an opinion about the movie, and you wondered something about if people were actually thinking it was good, and when you were presented with information about it, you didn't double down or argue. You updated how you thought. That's an in-touch dude, no matter the age. I guess maybe there's an argument that could be made that not knowing the ratings of a movie makes you out of touch or something, but I don't think that's the case. To me it would be a lot more out of touch if you said, "the kids these days are wrong, and I'm right, this movie sucks".
Keep in mind that it won all those awards but released in 2022, which is the year that didn't have much competition because most of the movies that would have come out that year had to be delayed due to COVID.
Do you dislike other parallel universe movies?
Do you dislike other post-modernist movies?
Do you dislike other blended genre movies?
This might be a little off-topic but was Interstellar a parallel universe movie? I saw it when it came out and I don't remember any universe-jumping at all.
Nope, you are right, I disliked that movie for other reasons.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Haven't seen it. By the time it came out I was squarely in Superhero fatigue. But from the excerpts I have seen I can at least understand the appeal, even though I'm personally not interested.
Doctor Strange: I had fun when I watched, not great, not terrible, but fine.
Interstellar: Very much enjoyed it and still rewatch it from time to time (pun not intended ^^). Not sure I'd categorize it as a parallel universe movie, though.
The Grand Budapest Hotel: Great movie, loved every second of it! Also enjoyed "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More" very much!
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Only heard of it, never seen it. Don't think I've even seen clips from it.
Dogville: Don't think I've heard of it, sorry. (Generally post-modernism really isn't my thing, with Wes Anderson being a strange exception.)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Only seen a few clips from it, but I'm simply not a fan of the floating fighting style, I just can't take it serious.
Kung Fu Hustle: Also haven't seen it, somehow it went straight past me. Didn't even realize it came out just 2 years ago, somehow I mentally placed it as a Jacky Chan movie from the early 2000s.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: Thought it was fine, I had fun watching it the first time but I doubt I'll watch it again.
For the longest time I used to get that one mixed up with Kung Pow! Enter the Fist.
Not to be confused with the also excellent Kung Fury Weeeoooweeeoooweee
I feel much the same about Yorgos Lanthimos. His movies are just so incredibly off-putting. But I can tell you exactly why I find his movies so bad now from having seen a second film he made. They are comedies that I find painfully unfunny and are extremely pretentiously written and produced. When I saw The Lobster in theaters, it honestly took me a full day to even register that what I saw was supposed to be a comedy. I thought it was supposed to be focused on an artistic message, but it was fairly shallow given the presentation - it had that “I’m 12 and this is deep” energy to it. I tried to watch his last film but when I saw Emma Stone playing with a dead man’s penis I just gave up on everything.
But then again I also had a similar reaction to Darron Aronofsky, and have since come around to thinking he is a genius.
Came in here to write about Poor Things. Everything about the way it looks repulsed me in the manner OP described. The trailers were extremely off-putting, but I had really wanted to power through the bad bits because (1) Emma Stone <3 <3 and (2) I wanted to watch all the best picture contenders. The first shot of the movie already captured exactly that esthetic that I can't stand. Turned it off.
It's purposefully achieved, right? The juxtaposition between the old refinery period costumes/sets with ultra modern elements like body horror (hole in torso/torso out of neck etc) and aggressive makeup styles (thick unibrow, smeared blood red lipstick) is definitely trying to evoke a specific set of emotions. While that emotion might be fascination or intrigue in some, it evoked revulsion and disgust in me.
The reason why I brought up the two directors I did is because I see them as exacting filmmakers who know what they are doing and have specific things they want the audience to experience. They're very great at executing their visions. It all basically boils down to me not liking their visions most of the time.
The Whale is the movie that made me change my mind about Aronofsky. His other films simply were not close enough to me to to affect me the way they did others. But that film was way closer to me than anything I've ever seen, and I was absolutely stunned to see the amount of intimacy and sympathy he approached the characters with.
I wish I could say the same thing about Lanthimos, but he's got some very different goals in his filmmaking and it doesn't make much sense to me. I just have to assume I'm not his target audience.
I see what you mean, I think.
Sometimes, an art piece really is a grand achievement of someone's vision because of their exacting aim, specific methods and masterful execution. But it could also be that someone just sits on the opposite side of the result being pleasing to them. You're not the target audience. Maybe that's what's going on with OP as well
I wrote about my visceral reaction to Poor Things elsewhere on this page: it's the look of the movie. It could be a set of still images with my favorite story and actors and music, and I still wouldn't be able to flip through the book without my heart rate going up and feeling a slight pressure behind my eyeballs.
Others have guessed content, story, and hype. My guess is esthetics.
Example, this is an image from the movie where Michelle Yeoh is a world renowned film star and Ke Huy Quan is a successful business man. They are wearing what we would think are normal red carpet gown and a normal good looking suit, and they are in a grand theatre or opera house.
I'm going to venture a guess that this image feels okay to look at, in a way that the trailer or movie poster does not?
Yeah, that screenshot could be from pretty much any movie, almost even a period piece if you ignore is suit.
You may be onto something with the esthetics angle. Especially since I think Notcoffeetable may have cracked it with his opening jest, it's plausible that my mind has coupled the movies distinkt visual style with my distaste for it.
Nice!
Even as a big fan of the movie, that was one universe among all of theirs shown that I could have done without. I get what they were going for, and in context they made it work sure.
But watching movies is immersing ourself in someone else's world for at least a couple hours: sometimes we walk away with indelible images or concepts for the rest of our lives.
For someone to be willing to, no, intentionally chooses to, put something in their product that evokes a primal disgust within us, it can light a sort of danger signal flare that the overall tone or message or story of the whole thing could be also of that same kind.
I loved Rick And Morty initially, but eventually came to realise that the icky bits weren't one offs or accidental: it was the intent the whole time. The work then became unsafe, and I chose not to continue to consume it.
It's okay to not want to eat a cake decorated with chocolate crickets, if it's not your thing.
I wonder if this topic now triggers revulsion, as it is tightly tied to the movie.
I find your post highly amusing, I would love to read a paragraph or two about Ad Astra (which I admit never saw) and a list of movies you actually like, lol.
As for Everything Everywhere All at Once: I believe it is kind of a gross movie. It's by the guys who made Swiss Army Man, a movie about a person stranded on an island befriending a corpse (which I thought I might hate but ended up really liking, btw). Everything Everywhere All at Once doesn't lack gross moments, either. You have a whole joke about people with literal sausages for hands, which includes a sex scene of sorts. Also, on a more metaphorical level, you have Jamie Lee Curtis playing one of her most off-putting roles ever (IMO intentionally and brilliantly) as a cruel IRS employee. Michelle Yeoh's daughter becomes increasingly obnoxious and shrill throughout the movie, it's very in-your-face. Generally, there's often a weird mix of surreal plot and "realistic" levels of messiness, which can make you feel icky (I still don't know how I feel about her putting those googly-eyes on her bloodied forehead). On top of all of that, it's a movie that proudly, loudly (and, disclaimer, IMO successfully!) takes pop culture joy about fun, silly things like the multiverse and movie-kung-fu and takes it seriously, in a major production, with good actors and a script that is inherently consistent. That is rare and worth celebrating. Maybe you're put off by how aggressively corny it is on a surface level but IMO there is real passion in there, genuinely sweet moments.
And I've never seen it described as a "greatest movie of all time". Was that really the vibe? I remember it as the first movie since covid to get real hype and people maybe were a little too ready for something like it.
Oh boy, condensing all my reasons for my hate will be tricky, but I'll give it a shot ^^
In essence, it was the first (and so far only) movie where I felt insulted. Not just offended, but personally insulted. Like if you were to go to a Michelin Star restaurant expecting a well made meal, only to get served a finely garnished pile of literal shit and them expecting you to be grateful for it and digging in.
As to why I feel this way... well, as I said, I could talk for hours about how neither the story nor the actions of the characters make any sense at all, but I think the worst everything put together can be found in one particular scene (spoilers, technically, although I barely care about that in regards to this movie):
So in this scene, the main character has to get onto a spaceship (without permission) before it takes off from Mars. He does this by going through the blast-channels underneath the launch pad (again, the launch is imminent), getting to an auxiliary airlock at the base of the rocket (!) located slightly above the old-school chemical engines (!!) just as those engines fire up (!!!). Not only is he not killed by the blast, he easily manages to hold onto the rocket and to override the airlock. In fact, once he is inside the spaceship, he fucking floats around as if they where already in orbit and not currently launching!
Anyway, the crew (who are in fact just civilian contractors running essentially a cargo and passenger shuttle-service whose ship has been commandeered by the military) are ordered over the radio to stop the main character (in about as many words if I remember correctly). So one of the crewmembers gets up and starts to float towards the MC. Again, this is happening while the spaceship is still burning through its first stage! Just as they both enter a central compartment that's about 7m long along the ships axis, the first stage separates from the rest of the ship. This is the point where the screenwriters seemingly remembered that Newtons laws of motion exist, because the resulting jolt causes the crewmember to "fall" down the entire compartment and smashing their head against a bulkhead, dying immediately. Once the second stage starts though, we are back to floating around the ship. The rest of the crew reacts to this by blaming the MC for the death, grabbing a gun (that they just have for some reason) and trying to shot the MC. One more, all while floating around as if they where in orbit and not actively launching! I kinda mentally checked out at this point, so the details get a bit fussy, but I think the rest of the crew basically kill each other accidentally in the resulting kerfuffle (I think a fire-extinguisher is involved at some point?) and by the time launch is complete, the MC is the only one left alive. I can't remember if he ever actively killed someone from the crew or not, but it doesn't really matter anyway.
So yeah, Ad Astra: It may have great visuals but it's nothing more than a finely garnished piece of shit.
I just want more reviews. I'd be in favor of starting a weekly review thread with hidden spoilers just to read these on a more regular basis.
Watching the actual movie would probably give you a better idea as to why it mentally and physically repulses you. Taking some notes could help you unpack.
You wrote a few comments indicating that the way the movie is shot rubs you the wrong way. Idk maybe it evokes bad memories for you for some reason.
You know what, I have a friend who saw Oppenheimer and for a while after its release, would keep telling me how much he didn't like the last hour, and how he thought that part was bad and didn't understand why everyone else loved it. He linked me a few reddit threads of other people not liking that part.
And you know what? I don't know what the hell to tell him, and I don't know what to tell you, you haven't even seen the damned movie. Oppenheimer was fine, many people loved it, many people loved the last hour, everyone has an opinion, everyone's entitled to one. I watched Eyes Wide Shut the other day for the first time, after hearing all the acclaim over decades, and I found it "fine", actually I found it boring, sue me, not a fan of this acclaimed movie, I'm the one guy in the world who doesn't like that movie that everyone else loves.
Anyway my advice is the same I'd give to my friend and to myself: move on, who cares. It's a movie, a movie you haven't even seen, what do you want from the universe? Validation that you're right for not liking it? Many many more important things to worry about than a movie.
Nah, hard disagree. When there's media like this that I similarly don't attach to, I want to know why people like it. If there's a perspective that can shift my mind, I'd rather see media that way going forward than be stuck in a negative mindset without movement.
I consider media a fairly neutral ground to go harder on contention and discourse while trying to not take it personally or hurt feelings, though.
smoke a little weed and take it in. its a fun film.
FWIW, the combination of this topic and the fact that Netflix keeps telling me the movie is "leaving soon" caused me to actually watch it tonight. And I loved it! It wasn't the best movie ever, and I could definitely see how it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea. But it certainly is mine, and I'm glad this discussion nudged me toward it. :)
Maybe it's because you have good instincts?!
Brace yourself for the unpopular opinion here.
To me it's a genuinely terrible film, and I have no idea how it came to be so popular.
It's choppy, poorly thought through, intermittently gross, and even manages to be mawkish in a contrived way towards the end. Worst of all, it manages to be boring in places despite the hectic pacing.
You could have knocked me over with a feather when it became everyone's darling for the season, because to me it's just a huge conceptual error from start to finish.
Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to have liked it, because it has such a different premise - but there's just nothing there to like.
The movie didn't speak to you, and that's fine. I feel the same way about The Usual Suspects, and I know a lot of people who would burst from the walls to tell me how wrong I am about my opinions on that.
The Usual Suspects was one of my favorite films around the time it came out (probably a tie between that and Strange Days IIRC). So the urge to burst from the wall was indeed strong :D
My desire to support the movie has been somewhat dulled due to more recent truths about Kevin Spacey coming to light, though.
I think about this movie sometimes. I actually watched it. While I found it fairly entertaining, there was something that bothered me about how it ended - I think it was the closing scene in the office, when everything had gone "back to normal" and it seemed that nothing had really been meaningfully resolved in the day-to-day life, only made worse by the experiences that they went through over the course of the movie.
I think that's the point of the movie - we can't drastically change the reality we live in with the snap of our fingers, but we can change our perspective and how we react to things and treat others, which can in turn cause positive cascading effects on others, who may do the same thing.
Maybe a hot take, but EEAAO and Get Out felt similar to me. The more nuanced representation was neat (along with the language/cultural bonus), but it still felt like a Hollywood film and still leans on some tired tropes (not to the level of stereotypes though).
I definitely wouldn't say I dislike both movies, rather they are pretty meh.
Now do Outer Wilds. I think you might get the same feeling.
Related to your dislike of this popular film...
When I was in school, Milli Vanilli broke big. I mean huge. They were fricking everywhere, on all the channels all the time, all over MTV and VH1, they showed up in the news and in commercials, the whole nine yards.
And I hated them. I hated them soooooo much. They just rubbed me the wrong way. It seemed so flash and empty, rather than music with heart and soul. The hooks in their songs were like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Then the scandal erupted. Milli Vanilli wasn't Milli Vanilli! It was two models lip syncing. So many people were just crushed. Devastated. Felt deceived, tricked, taken advantage of.
I just laughed and laughed and laughed. It was petty, but I didn't care. I just felt so damn vindicated that this "act" that had been everywhere was suddenly redefining what persona non grata meant in the entertainment industry.
It also was an early learning moment for me, helped me understand just how damn shallow everything in entertainment and in how consumers consume entertainment was. And is. Because the actual singers, of these songs everyone had spent most of two years proclaiming they loved so much, basically flopped after the scandal.
The only main difference was they weren't being hidden behind a pair of models dancing and looking hot, but their album was not embraced by the listening public. Just came out and basically flopped, and they more or less faded back into studio obscurity. Meanwhile, Rob and Fab (the models) got chance after chance to "make it" in some new form. Even after Rob died, Fab was still getting deals and going on tours and maintaining a (much smaller than Milli Vanilli) entertainment career.
Remember boys and girls, it has absolutely nothing to do with how creative and expressive the content is. You have to have flash and charm or the public ignores you.
Hmm, I'm some combination of contrarian/cynical/luddite. But I think this personality trait need to be treated with self awareness. The alternative is I become smug, narrow-minded, out of touch and lie to myself through confirmation bias.
I took some history of art courses in college, a big part of that was being given a work of art and writing a critique off the cuff. That was invaluable because it forced me to adopt a particular process for critique:
Phase 1:
Phase 2
Phase 1 is primarily evaluating the quality of a product while phase 2 is more about how much I engage with the product. As laid out it might sound like I'm trying to provide completely rational evaluations, but that isn't the goal. The goal is to separate my own biases/tastes/preferences from the intent of the product. But I should be able to identify something as quality without it being something I like.
I should be able to talk with someone, understand what appeals to them and say "you know I didn't particularly enjoy ____ but I think you might." Conversely if someone likes something I don't want to blanket say "eww no." I'd rather say "I'm glad you like it. Here are three reasons it didn't hit for me."
I'm actually quite proud of my track record giving recommendations. Most people I know will take me up on a recommendation and I've had quite a few people say "If Notcoffeetable recommends it, it's probably worth checking out." I regularly try stuff that I'm cynical on to test my intuition. Usually it's better than I expected but maybe not as great as it's loudest proponents proclaim.
I disagree with this, in particular "absolutely nothing" is a very strong indictment. I think this statement presents a false dichotomy. Flash and charm are products of creativity and expressivity.