Hyperreality

joined 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Almost all art is influenced by other art. But Tarantino very closely copies some scenes.

Think a literal collage, made up of photocopied bits of another work, rather than a painting inspired or influenced by another work. Tarantino is honest about this.

It's like Andy Warhol's Mona Lisa:

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Doesn't always work. Phones can turn themselves on. You can't remove the battery anymore either.

Personally, I just accept that my privacy will always be violated using a smart phone, especially because I'm forced to use google and whatsapp. But I leave my phone at home when possible, especially if I'm thinking of attending a protest or doing stuff, and chuck it in a muffled/closed draw when I'm not using it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Thanks for recommendation. I'll add it to the list.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Oh, don't get me wrong. You're not wrong to enjoy them. They're still fun to watch.

It's just that IME they're less 'great' if you've watched a lot of the movies they're based on.

Also, Tarantino is an excellent stepping stone to discovering some great stuff. He's a true film nerd, so he knows his movies.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

At a certain point you realize anime relies heavily on its perpetual fandom refresh, with new fans replacing the ones who “aged out.”

Very good point.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It's been a while, and he references dozens of movies, so much so that you're watching his movies and think "wait, I've seen this before" and then you're distracted by the next scene you've seen before. But off the top of my head Vanishing Point, Foxy Brown, Lady Snowblood, Bruce Lee movies, and the Dirty Dozen.

But don't watch those. I probably enjoyed Vanishing Point the most, Bruce Lee in Game of Death is also fun, but often they have a few good scenes, the ones that Tarantino copied (sometimes poorly), but the rest of the movie can be a bit meh. Instead watch Oldboy, Lady Vengeance, In the Mood for Love, Infernal Affairs, Unforgiven, and (why not) Enter the Void. Not that those are my favourite movies, but they're movies that shouldn't bore you.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Brand/name recognition + marketing.

It's part of the blockbuster model, which does everything it can to reduce risk. Before the 70s, studios would go bust when an expensive movie flopped. Studios became very risk averse, especially for the expensive stuff. So they make a sequel to a movie that's done well, or a plot similar to that of a movie that's previously done well, based on an intellectual property that sold well in another medium(comic, book, tv-show, ...), in a genre that's previously done well with audiences, starring actors people previously liked, preferably very attractive actors so that audiences like looking at them, pushed by a saturation marketing campaign that gets as many people to watch it on the opening weekend as possible, so that if it sucks they can't tell their friends not to go and see it. It's like McDonalds. It's not the best meal you'll ever eat, but you know what you're getting, so you won't have wasted two hours or your life, or shit yourself after eating it.

Also, video killed the radio star. It's rare to be incredibly beautiful. It's rare to be incredibly talented. It's incredibly rare to be both. If you have to pick one, pick the incredibly beautiful actor, who looks good on posters and in promotional material. Acting isn't that hard. Even a pretty moron can be a passable actor.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

This is probably true of Citizen Kane. However, this isn't true of all the arty farty, black and white, older, or foreign stuff.

Some of those aren't just 'good for their time', highly rated because they were/are innovative/interesting, or because people want to be pretentious. They're still fucking good.

Eg. I watched Tokyo Story (1953) when I was in my early twenties. Tops critics lists. Seems like it's just another pretentious movie. Black and white, boring, pondorous, gave up on it. Watched it a few years later when I had a bit more life experience. Hit me like a truck. Openly wept in the movie theatre.

Sometimes if you push through, you will be rewarded.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 11 months ago (17 children)

Tarantino is overrated. You have to watch a lot of movies to come to this realisation, because otherwise you don't realise his movies are often in large part a collage of other movies. Movies which did what he does better. That means that it doesn't actually matter that Tarantino is overrated for most movie goers. More generally, this is why critics' opinions don't actually matter that much. They've watched too many movies and likely know too much about movies, to tell the average audience goer if they'll enjoy a movie.

Once you've watched a few thousand movies, and especially if you've ever studied film or read a few books about it, you'll often find you enjoy interesting but shit movies more, than very well made but unoriginal movies. People who truly love film, invariably aren't snobs. They enjoy absolute trash, they enjoy arty farty stuff. If someone has a related degree or even a doctorate or works in the industry, the likelihood is high that they're also a fan of B-movies. They don't need to pretend to be knowledgeable, because they are. A film snob will bore you with the details of a Tarkovski movie. A cinephile is more likely to bang on about 80s horror movies, lesbian vampire sexploitation movies, Albert Pyun's Cyborg, or Troma's The Toxic Avenger.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

This is why the EU is sometimes called a regulatory super power. Because the market is so large and important, the rest of the world often adopts EU regulations. Whether it's GDPR or environmental standards, it's cheaper to make one EU compliant version of your product or part than different versions for different markets.

Not any other kind of super power though, we're far too busy squabbling amongst ourselves. Some still haven't learnt the lessons of the last two world wars.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Described well. Link to the relevant wikipedia article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines

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