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?)
Here for this. Frankly, a movie isn't doing its job for me if I know what to expect. Surprise me.
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.
Personally, a content warning like that for a movie would be an absolute horror for me. This would completely ruin the whole point of watching a movie like this.
So a feature like absolutely must be opt-in.
Dream Scenario is an A24 movie. That studio tends to greenlight unusual films. Maybe for a next movie check what studio has produced it?
Sounds like you might be able to get some help with that with Does the Dog Die? (that link is directly to the categories they list.) The two closest I could find were "Abandonment" and "The Ending is Sad" but there is a place to request more at the end. As far as I understand, this is entirely crowd-sourced, according to their About Page.
Different people, or even the same person at different times, need different warnings. I often need to check for various things like feet injury or sexual violence.
As @Narry mentioned, does the dog die
Specifically, scroll to the Spoiler section, 80 people supported the Yes answer to "Does it have a sad ending?"
Maybe ask a buddy to check, and give you a less directly spoiled heads-up :)
My take away from this thread is: both. I know the pure artist would probably not want to label their work like this. But the movie industry is an industry, and I think there's a reasonable subset of consumers on that industry who don't want to be surprised about certain things. Consumers who are ultimately not there to experience art, but to enjoy a movie and walk out uplifted.
I think it's good to offer warnings via a side channel that you can't land on accidentally. If a movie has a major mood twist, it'll become popular discussion once the movie releases, anyhow.
I'm also speaking as someone who isn't bothered by spoilers. I used to be, then one day it occurred to me that (for me) spoilers can introduce a different kind of anticipation. Like I'm about to go spoil this movie for myself. But I nonetheless do respect others and try not to spoil things for others.
[offtopic]
The last paragraph made me think of how "weird" I probably would be considered for "loving" spoilers. Not so much for avoiding topics that are triggering to me - for the most part I do not do that - but because I detest being surprised. I will spoil a whole movie, book, game, or whatever else to myself in order to decide if I'll actually invest my time into it, and I almost always base my decision strongly on this information.
If it makes you feel better, Jason Blum talked about how test audiences preferred when trailers spoiled the film.