Danny ChaiI realized something talking to Dave about movies the last time he was around. In regards to movies. Have I talked about my new grading scale? I rate movies on a 5 star scale now. It’s actually more like a 4+ scale. Every movie is ranked on 4 stars according to quality. To make it to 5 stars, it needs to first be a 4 star movie, meaning, high quality, no big flaws, whatever. But it also has to change my thinking somehow, or just challenge me intellectually or philosophically.
So, Beautiful Mind. I dunno, others didn’t like it as much but for me, I thought it was great all around. Good acting, story, and everything. Nothing I would really change. 4 stars. But, it didn’t really challenge me philosophically.
But my 5 star movies, like Shawshank, Pleasantville, It’s A Wonderful Life, Memento, etc., they all engage me philosophically, in addition to being well made. So they’re 5 star movies. Dunno where something like AI would fit, which was extremely interesting to me philosophically but somewhat flawed as a movie. I actually think the philosophical elements were interesting enough to make it a 4 star movie for me. But anyway.
Anyway, what I realized was that my preoccupation with philosophical movies make me like movies that leave other people cold, like Dark City and maybe Memento. This is in contrast to Dave. And maybe I’m wrong about this, but what he likes in movies are relationships, maybe social dynamic stuff? That’s why he likes Casablanca so much. But yeah, I think I value intellectual engagement more than relational issues in movies.