Good Movies

Reviewing a movie like We Own the Night (see below) brings up an interesting issue: good movies- movies that are not great. They will not win awards. They may not even be terribly memorable. They are the kind of movies that one sees and enjoys, and maybe ten years later, he sees a copy in video store, remembers that positive experience, and rents it. Often, movie snobs (as I would classify myself, if only because I have been called one by friends) will forget or ignore the merits of a genuinely good movie.

If you do not know what I mean by "movie snob", think about the other forms of snobbery. They are the people who will not drink a wine that is not older than they are. They are those who listen to Mozart and dismiss The Clash as illiterate kids, punks, if you will. More relative to our conversation, they are the people who can not watch horror films because the films are silly or poorly made or any other various complaints. In short, they are people for whom subjective quality is paramount.

And, that is why there is a critical void when it comes to good movies. Great films and bad movies are similar in that they are both easily identifiable. It takes very little effort to recognize why The Godfather is one of the finest films ever committed to celluloid and that same little effort to see that the world would be a better place if Plan 9 from Outer Space never existed. Good movies, however, fall into that category of historical irrelevance that critics tend to forget.

Movies that fall into this category are dramas like Higher Learning and Less Than Zero, or comedies like My Cousin Vinny and The Jerk. Older films like An American in Paris or William Wyler's Jezebel. These are all movies that are unabashedly enjoyable. There is no reason to watch them other than to be entertained. I think the majority of people can go to movies like these and so many others and lose themselves for two hours. They can walk in, forget their lives, walk out, and maybe be a little happier than when they went into the theatre.

This is not a plea to the people or to the studios or anything like that. I think there are plenty of good movies being made. I think, and this is just mathematics, that the majority of movies released are proudly average. They will not stun, but they will entertain. This writing goes out more to people like me, people who may have lost the ability to enjoy a movie and can only focus on personal, subjective judgements.

To them, and to myself, I say:

go enjoy a good movie.