As your faithful movie reviewer for The Pioneer these past three years, I’ve seen and written about a lot of different films. This week, however, I’m trying something different. This week, let’s play a game of get-to-know me. I am a 20-year-old junior double-majoring in math and film studies. It is a pretty weird combination, but I have a passion for math and am obsessed with media. Admittedly, I watch way too much television, but I can’t stop watching “my shows.” Up until the finale, I had “Breaking Bad” viewing parties in my room every Sunday night, and now that the fall lineup has started, there goes what little social life I had to begin with!
My sophomore year I decided to take a film class just for fun. I remember the first day of Intro to Film when Professor Sickels said something along the lines of “This class will change how you look at film.” He wasn’t kidding. After taking Intro to Film and a number of additional film classes, how I watched movies and television began to change. Now my mind is constantly analyzing the filming techniques, the plot structure, the underlying genre, the homage’s to the classics and on and on. Recently I began reminiscing about the days of simply sitting in my spot on the couch (yes, I always have “my spot” –– oh, I just realized I might be a clone of Sheldon from “The Big Bang Theory”!) at home to simply watching and enjoying a movie.
Every film class I’ve taken emphasizes the use of analyzing what we see and hear, and how to interpret film in different ways. Each minute we are supposed to think of what the director or actor was trying to express or of the angle of the camera or of so much more. Great stuff, but are we overanalyzing? I hear people talk about how movies like “Avatar” should be hated because it’s just a fancy version of “Pocahontas.” But to the naysayers I say, WHO CARES?!? All movies have flaws, but sometimes the point is to sit back, relax, have fun and lose yourself. The great movies are the ones that you can watch over and over again and analyze to learn or see something new in every viewing (hence the reason my favorite movie is “Ocean’s Eleven”). A movie doesn’t have to leave a lasting impression on the audience to be good (not great). If the viewer is entertained for an hour and a half, it seems like the movie has succeeded.
Now I may have come across as thinking that the critical analysis of movies is horrible. But I would not be a film major if I didn’t love to analyze! Although I do enjoy looking deep into movies, sometimes I prefer to shut off the film-major side of my brain and just sit back and enjoy the immense pleasure. Every Friday I go to the movie theater to do one thing and one thing only –– lose myself in another world. This past Friday for example, I saw the space movie “Gravity” starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. For 90 minutes I felt as if I was floating in space right there with them and loved every minute of this AWESOME movie. I would see it again in a heartbeat.
Sometimes the best treat you can give yourself is to turn off the brain. You just have to stop analyzing and lose yourself in another world. Then immediately after leaving the theater, turn your mind back on and have it start racing with meanings and ideas about what you just saw. I have found that there is a balance between enjoyment on a visceral level and of cerebral critical analysis in order to do what I love the most, watch movies.
