Originally posted: 3/12/2010
I thought I'd write my first blog about what I love the most - the movies. I don't understand what qualifies someone to be a film critic. Are they people who have worked in the "business" before, as something else? Are they people who have film studies degrees? I can't fathom what it is that makes them worth listening to. Are they regular people? Do they have homes and families and bills to pay like the rest of us?
So I wonder, am I qualified to be a movie critic? Have I studied enough about film to be able to to critique the movies I see? Why not? I follow the celebrity gossip, I try to stay in the know about what's going on in Hollywood (or in the "business"), so I feel like I can accurately give people my opinion about what movies to watch.
I feel like most critics dislike many, many of the movies that we all go see every year. More often than not, independent films (or "indies" to the educated film-goer), are given rave reviews, and movies that are picked up by the main production and distribution companies - Universal, Warner Brothers, Paramount - are sometimes incredible flops. For example, I saw Land of the Lost (which spent week one at #3 and week two #5 at the box office), and I felt as though my IQ actually lost points during the hour and a half I spent watching it. But Universal jumped at the chance to produce a Will Ferrell movie. Will Ferrell is a Hollywood golden boy, meaning that everything he touches turns to gold. People love him, and with good reason, he is quite hilarious in most of his roles. The keyword here is "most." I'm personally a huge Will Ferrell fan, and I'm not here to tell you whether or not you should like him. I'm saying that if you're not big on spending an hour and a half being mystified and then thinking about how you'll never get that hour and a half back, don't see this movie. Unless you're high. Or on acid. It's a great way to pass the time that way, I suppose.
Why do I love movies? Because of the way they make me feel. They evoke such a strong emotional response from me, sometimes even to a point of not being able to describe these feelings. I live life every day, and feelings come and go, but I feel like sometimes movies are able to pin them down in a way that nothing else can. Fear, empathy, sympathy, joy, sorrow, clarity, jealousy, anger, terror, safety, confusion, and a thousand other feelings and combinations of feelings that have no names. But I'm able to experience these feelings from a safe distance, without actually having to experience the things that the characters are experiencing. My love of movies far surpasses my love for anything else in this world (people and dogs aside). I feel a connection to movies and everything about them, so perhaps, that is what makes me qualified to be a critic.
I thought I'd write my first blog about what I love the most - the movies. I don't understand what qualifies someone to be a film critic. Are they people who have worked in the "business" before, as something else? Are they people who have film studies degrees? I can't fathom what it is that makes them worth listening to. Are they regular people? Do they have homes and families and bills to pay like the rest of us?
So I wonder, am I qualified to be a movie critic? Have I studied enough about film to be able to to critique the movies I see? Why not? I follow the celebrity gossip, I try to stay in the know about what's going on in Hollywood (or in the "business"), so I feel like I can accurately give people my opinion about what movies to watch.
I feel like most critics dislike many, many of the movies that we all go see every year. More often than not, independent films (or "indies" to the educated film-goer), are given rave reviews, and movies that are picked up by the main production and distribution companies - Universal, Warner Brothers, Paramount - are sometimes incredible flops. For example, I saw Land of the Lost (which spent week one at #3 and week two #5 at the box office), and I felt as though my IQ actually lost points during the hour and a half I spent watching it. But Universal jumped at the chance to produce a Will Ferrell movie. Will Ferrell is a Hollywood golden boy, meaning that everything he touches turns to gold. People love him, and with good reason, he is quite hilarious in most of his roles. The keyword here is "most." I'm personally a huge Will Ferrell fan, and I'm not here to tell you whether or not you should like him. I'm saying that if you're not big on spending an hour and a half being mystified and then thinking about how you'll never get that hour and a half back, don't see this movie. Unless you're high. Or on acid. It's a great way to pass the time that way, I suppose.
Why do I love movies? Because of the way they make me feel. They evoke such a strong emotional response from me, sometimes even to a point of not being able to describe these feelings. I live life every day, and feelings come and go, but I feel like sometimes movies are able to pin them down in a way that nothing else can. Fear, empathy, sympathy, joy, sorrow, clarity, jealousy, anger, terror, safety, confusion, and a thousand other feelings and combinations of feelings that have no names. But I'm able to experience these feelings from a safe distance, without actually having to experience the things that the characters are experiencing. My love of movies far surpasses my love for anything else in this world (people and dogs aside). I feel a connection to movies and everything about them, so perhaps, that is what makes me qualified to be a critic.
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