By Eric Eisenberg
BOSTON - If you are an average American, this is a situation you can relate to: it is a Friday night and during a search for evening entertainment, someone suggests a trip to the movie theater. The only problem is that after searching through newspapers and surfing the internet, many are still left dumbfounded as to what film to go see. Whether this situation occurs to you bi-annually or every weekend, it is a problem that many find themselves faced with and it can be truly frustrating.
Fortunately, there are measures that can be taken to, at the very least, simplify the situation without being forced to obsessively follow films or research endlessly about the people who make them (you can leave that to me). Rather, remembering a couple names, clicking a mouse and doing some light reading can go a long way in ensuring an entertaining evening.
Who is in it? More than anything else, films are sold by their cast. For every Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese there are hundreds of Brad Pitts or George Clooneys. It is because of this stressed importance that many films live or die at the hands of their lead actors. Did Seth Rogen make you piss your pants in “Knocked Up” or “Superbad”? Then go check out “Zack and Miri Make a Porno”. Did the relationship between Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio make you cry in “Titanic”? Then you might enjoy their reunion in next month’s “Revolutionary Road”. There are many scripts today that are written with specific actors in mind for the part. Use this to your advantage.
The one caveat is that fantastic directors sometimes get a hold of bad actors and manage to squeeze some talent out of them. While this is rare, as good directors who have power over casting generally prefer to work with good actors, every few years Quentin Tarantino will reach out to a struggling John Travolta to make “Pulp Fiction” and Adam Sandler will get the opportunity to shift gears with Paul Thomas Anderson in “Punch Drunk Love”. Fortunately, this can be nullified by the next step.
Who wrote it? The unsung heroes of the movie business are the screenwriters. Can’t figure out who they are? Squint your eyes and look at the bottom of the film’s poster. You’re looking for the person with the “written by” credit underneath the massive blowup of Angelina Jolie and the explosion in the background. An actor can be as convincing as they want to be and can truly embody a character, but that character and its dialogue originated somewhere else. Sometimes actors, specifically comedians such as Vince Vaughn, will ad-lib a great deal of dialogue and add their own spice to a script, but see point #1 to solve that riddle.
Writers will never get the same recognition as actors but if you can find one that you feel consistently produces quality material, it can reduce the magnitude of your migraine.
Read the reviews. I have found myself on many occasions skipping on an evening out with friends because of film reviews, and, each time, I am always given the same argument: “It is just one persons opinion. How do you know that you won’t like it anyway?”
Too many people feel this way about reviews and reviewers and I feel a sense of duty to lift them from the mud and hand them a bar of Dove. Yes, some reviewers will have opposing tastes or, in some cases, no taste at all (I’m looking at you Gene Shalit.) How do you fix this? FIND A DIFFERENT CRITIC! Almost every major publication in the country has a section where films from the upcoming weekend are reviewed. Have a problem with Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times? Give A.O. Scott of the New York Times a chance. Is Anthony Lane of the New Yorker depressing you? Try reading Emmanuel Levy’s website.
Reading a critics previous reviews can give you a sense of what they where their taste lies in relation to your own. Websites such as Rotten Tomatoes (rottentomatoes.com), which accumulates film reviews from around the web and from various publications, or the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com), which includes both professional and member reviews, can help anyone find their soul-critic.
In comparison to money, quality ranks tremendously low in the eyes of production companies. “That movie did really well in theaters, right? Let’s make a terrible sequel that ruins everything everybody loves about the original.” “People like playing video games? Get me the rights and the worst director you can find. I smell a $100 million opening weekend.” Because of this, many of the films that are produced today are simply there to make money and leave audiences dead inside (perhaps an exaggeration). Knowing how to pluck out which films are of a good quality and which ones should be avoided can infinitely improve the outlook of a Friday evening.
I conclude this article with one additional piece of advice: avoid Michael Bay films like Ebola-infected lepers. Happy watching!
© Eric Eisenberg, All Rights Reserved