Thursday 9 May 2013

But I Digress | The Limits of Cinema

It's been a while since I blogged about movies.

Truth be told, though, it's been a while since I saw anything particularly interesting.

When I was a much younger man, I'd watch a movie every night, almost without exception. Admittedly, a lot of the movies I watched during these grass-is-greener years were utter rubbish... but I knew that, even then. To an extent, I revelled in it, because I was also aware that I was living through a period of unequalled freedom; that it would be a long, long time before I had so many hours to spend on nothing of note.

That's very much the case these days, I'm afraid. 

When the opportunity to sit down with a film presents itself, the first thought that crosses my one track mind is: That's however many hours I could spend reading the next book in the review queue! And all too often, my nasty adult brain baulks at the prospect. Invariably, I end up doing something responsible instead. Mowing the lawn or preparing a class or rewriting a review.

I do realise that going to the cinema isn't in itself an irresponsible act, but I do feel like a negligent person when I follow my heart instead of my head. And perhaps that's played into my feelings about the occasional films I have seen this year. I thought Cloud Atlas would be awesome. It wasn't. Ambitious, absolutely, but really rather flat. Mama, meanwhile, is a singularly silly film.

I can't even remember what else there was.

These are films I would have watched quite happily when I was a smaller Scotsman. Enjoyed, even. Today, they feel like a waste. Of my time, which obviously there's less of than there was then.

I'm getting old, I guess.

On the other hand, I realise how self-fulfilling my attitude to movies at the moment is. If I won't give a film the time of day, then of course I won't see one that changes my mind. So for the last little while, I've been on the hunt for something extraordinary.

Today, I have likely candidate, the poster of which was recently released:


Fingers crossed it doesn't disappoint!

Not unrelatedly, I've just ordered a copy of Upstream ColorPrimer blew my mind back in the day, and though I don't expect that of this, something reminiscent is all I really need. A reminder that cinema can be as profound and affecting as the best written fiction.

Because it can, can't it?

1 comment:

  1. Its a shame Cloud Atlas disappointed - I've not seen it yet, but the book is one of the best I have ever read. I was worried that it wouldn't work as a film! heyho, I'll still watch it to see how I feel, but it looks like it's one of those 'the book was better' films!

    And yeh, that Gravity poster does look interesting!

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