What's So Bad With the Undead?
Within a 60-day period, I have commercially consumed (i.e. actually paid cineplex theater rates) for 2 movies having to do with the undead.
Willingly.
Now that may not seem much. But if you consider how many "art films" I've seen within the same period and compare this to the 2 "commercial craps" I've actually paid for to see, you'd at least raise an eyebrow.
For the record, here's the tally:
Commercial Crap: 2
Art films: 0
Add to this the fact that CineManila was showing within this timeframe and one would probably ask "What da heck?!?!"
(which, when you think about it is more of an exasperated declaration, rather than a question... but i digress...)
Forget the fact that I have a degree in film and that I've written papers on Bergman, Eisenstein, Antonini, Lynch and whatnot.
If you look not too deeply, you'd find that I'm a profoundly shallow person.
I will confess, I have a certain distaste, nay, abhorence, for people who like parading around terms such as "existentialism", "deconstruction of iconography" and all kinds of cineaste-art-film-buff jargon as if that makes them certified "art film afficionados."
Personally, I think they're more like certified snobs.
So, okay, I like the occasional art film and I like to be able to enter a theater, experience a story told like no other person has and come out knowing even just a tad bit more about my world, or another person's world.
I will also admit I like to know a bit more than the common Juan and actually identify with the works of guys like Kurusawa, Goddard, Zhang, Wong Karwai and Fellini.
But honestly, I can do that with my "commercial crap" too.
Ever heard of Bartkowiak, Witt or Romero? What about Spielberg?
I'm not saying Doom should be called an art film, but in that same breath, I don't think anyone has the right to condemn any person who watches that movie and actually likes it.
My point is that, to those who dare label with "art" and "crap", keep your academic discussions, dissertations and all its alienating terminologies to yourselves and your little intellectual, coffee shop clique.
The movie I paid 130 pesos for may not "uplift" or "enlighten" me with a "deeper understanding" of the nature of man,
but hey, I got entertained.
And to me, that's as good as art.
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