film and community

[yippeecahier]

I saw a movie I really liked recently, called Let The Right One In. It’s really a phenomenal bit of storytelling, but I think what I like best about it (and this is saying something, because as I said, I really liked it) is the experience of talking about it with other people. It’s gotten to the point where I get really anxious to tell people I’ve seen it, because so often if they have seen it too their eyes will light up and they’ll start talking all fast about this or that part, or how they’re going to make an American version and won’t it suck because the movie works perfectly insofar as it escapes American film conventions. My point isn’t to talk about the movie, but about the community the movie engenders, which is really something special. It’s hard to describe. I talk a lot about movies I love, and quite often with people who share my enthusiasm, but the level to which people seem genuinely happy to have seen this movie, and to have an excuse to recall that happiness, is really something. To a lesser extent this is also true of the movie Happy-Go-Lucky, by which I mean I have found fewer people who have seen it, but they are still passionate.

I find all of this interesting because even in spite of the continued happiness these movies are giving me, something in me still wouldn’t rate them higher as movies than my favorite of last year, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. I have not met anyone who likes that movie as much as I do; in fact, I don’t like talking about it, because more often than not the person I am talking to has seen it and hates it, and hates very vocal opinions about it. Really, this is a community-destroying experience. So what does that say about my evaluation of film as a medium?