Movies like Dream Scenario need a warning
post contains spoilers for Dream Scenario:
I've become a big fan of the resurgence that Nic Cage is having, especially after watching Mandy, it was so wacky and surreal and just quite the mind trip.
Saw the trailer for Dream Scenario and picked up on that same vibe.
However, that movie really pissed me off. that story was pretty interesting and I really would have liked it but I kept thinking that they would find a way to wrap up the plot in a typical happy go lucky fashion that Hollywood typically demands. The closer and closer the movie got to the end, the more I was expecting the shoe to drop and for the writers to somehow find a way to end the movie on a happy note that makes everything OK.
It does not, the movie ends on quite a weird and sad note, which I would have loved, if I hadn't expected it to end in a typical Hollywood fashion. Makes me wish there was a way to get a warning when watching a movie to not expect it to end in a typical "safe" fashion. Cause if I had gotten that warning, I think I would've love it.
I loved that movie for exact that reason that it subverts the usual expectations. I would however find it very weird to know beforehand. Many great movies are great exactly because they don’t go were you expect them to. Great experiences rarely comes when you just get exactly what you think.
I understand where you are coming from though as wrong expectations can also get one to have the wrong mindset going into a movie. The only solution is really is to start watching any movie with as little expectations as possible and be open to let it go in both predictable and unpredictable ways.
I second this. OP said themselves they would have enjoyed the movie if not for their expectations, so the issue was in expectation, as expectation leads to disappointment.
(Isn’t that a foundational principle of the Buddhist worldview?)
Do you really do that though? It's the ideal but I don't think I approach any movie with no expectations.
For me personally, it's a little bit yes and a little bit no. Of course you're going to have inbuilt expectations and assumptions going into a work; I find that I can make them not matter by viewing everything under the assumption that the filmmakers are complete masters of their craft who know better than me and who have carefully calculated the minutiae of every formal quality to produce a specific effect/response on me. Often, you'll still watch a movie and be forced to ultimately conclude that no, it's pretty graceless and inept, but if you can maintain the assumption that every work is, or at least might be, a masterpiece while watching it, I find it makes me less dependent on my own expectations and preferences and more open to whatever the artists are trying to do.