This column originally ran in the IDS WEEKEND on Thursday, April 26. As a senior, this is my final column for the IDS. I’ve been writing my column ‘Cine’cism for three years and have been writing for WEEKEND for all four years of my college career.
Why is my column called ‘Cine’cism?
When I started seriously reviewing movies for my high school paper, I had friends tell me I was being negative because I didn’t like certain films.
“Why can’t you just enjoy it? Why do you have to think about?”
That’s an argument I’ve defended numerous times, even then. What I took away from those interactions however were that somehow thinking made me cynical.
But now after four years of writing reviews for my blog, agonizing over my column, editing stories in WEEKEND and devouring the work of professional critics, I’ve come to realize there are people much more cynical than me.
When people first gave me the idea I hated things, I branded myself that way. I was the guy who had better taste than you and hung my head in shame at how awful things in Hollywood had gotten.
Except I don’t think my column has ever been so bitter that I wanted to give up on the movies or that I was too much of a pessimist to find anything I actually liked.
Sure, I had played devil’s advocate before, like when I said it’s about time for the Harry Potter franchise to end (around the release of the actually quite good seventh film) or that I thought we should stop buzzing about “The Hobbit” when Guillermo del Toro dropped from directing (it’s probably still one of the films I’m most looking forward to this year).
If anything, watching more movies has only made me want to watch more movies, not less.
In the process, I’ve discovered directors and entire genres that would never have been on my radar four years ago. The films I didn’t understand have become the films I love most, not because I finally did my homework but because I grew up and became aware of how many new ideas these films spark in relation to others.
It’s easy to say how terrible things are with the movies today. There are bad films, bad actors, bad franchises, bad theaters, bad technology, bad directors and bad attempts at making the movies more interesting and popular than TV.
What’s hard, and thus much more rewarding, is showing people that there are great things worth seeking out.
Critics have always made an effort to educate their readership to try something new. But now more than ever, the purpose of criticism should be to enlighten people to all the fantastic movies worth watching. Shouting to make your yay or nay opinion the loudest gets us nowhere.
Coldplay’s Chris Martin said, “The great thing about the Internet is everyone hates everything, so you might as well just go on and do what you want.”
Why add to that hatred? I love the movies, and I love talking about them, debating them and coming up with ideas that will push the movies forward. What I want to do is share that with as many people as possible. That’s not cynical at all.