If you asked me right now what my favorite movie genre was I would hands down answer, "Those gritty crime dramas with just the right splash of comedy." From the most recent con film "American Hustle" or the oldie "The Sting" to Martin Scorsese's career starting with "Goodfellas" to his most recent craze "The Wolf of Wall Street," they're all great on their own merit. However, especially the most recent two, they service a very particular audience which I think has brought rise to some overall flack and hype surrounding these two films.
Too often am I coming across reviews like, "Don't get hustled into seeing American Hustle" or in my most recent experience with Wolf, just having people leave the theater. Mostly due to the fact of not knowing the gratuitous amounts of drug use, nudity, and vulgarity the film entails. Blindly walking into a film because it appeared in an awards show or has that Leonardo DiCaprio fellow, or Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper and whatever line-up of all star actors isn't the best mind set. I'm all for movies being a great universal medium that any old guy or gal can enjoy, but film can't evolve if it's servicing the same boring demographic.
American Hustle wins a Golden Globe and suddenly reviews pop up everywhere bringing up it's every flaw from the story to it's pacing. Are they all valid points? Somewhat, but I think they miss the strong points of what the film was trying to convey; a study of several flawed characters and their interactions all of which were given a stunning performance. Flawed film yes; but did it fail in what it set out to do? Absolutely not.
Then comes the 3 hour behemoth that is The Wolf of Wall Street. I've got to be honest I was checking my phone for the time during this one. Does that make all 3 hour films inherently boring? No, it just means it failed to hold my attention for the material presented. Could it have been cut better to help pacing, maybe. How the final product is, is how Scorsese envisioned though. Did it accomplish capturing the life of a depraved stock broker? Certainly.
Whether or not an audience can shift their expectations based on what a film is trying to accomplish is still a question I ask myself. Is it bad conveyance, or are we bad movie goers?
I knew a lot of people who went to see American Hustle just because Jennifer Lawrence was in it and they were incredibly disappointed so I agree that a lot of people see certain movies for the wrong reasons but I don't agree with the idea that film can't evolve if it services the same demographic. There will always be innovative directors that make groundbreaking movies and there will always be people who see them solely because their favorite starlet is starring in it but that doesn't mean that film won't evolve, it means that audiences will evolve and people will be introduced to themes and ideas they might not have given a chance if they hadn't wanted to see Bradley Cooper with a perm.
ReplyDelete