Recently I’ve been thinking about what makes a good movie. It began when we went to see “Little Miss Sunshine”, which, despite the appalling title, is well-made, very entertaining, and will probably and undeservedly be overlooked in the awards parade because of being billed as a comedy.
But what makes this one good?
For starters, it’s the characters. Critics of dramatic writing have long agreed that without character, there is nothing. Taking this concept way too literally, however, is Woody Allen (sorry if you’re a fan, but I never have been, so let’s just move on, shall we?). The problem, okay, one of the problems, with his films is that the characters don’t DO anything.
Which takes me to my next point: Conflict. Without conflict those characters don’t do anything, and it’s not interesting, however clever the dialogue (listen up, Woody), to simply watch people endlessly talking if they never DO anything.
And from doing something, from the conflict that arises in their lives, a good movie will show that the characters grow from this, they learn from this, they are changed by this.
Just. Like. Life.
Which means that someone is having a helluva time watching me right about now. Conflict! Drama! Yay! Watch her change! Watch her learn from this (uhhh. well, maybe that part comes later).
technorati tags: movies, metaphors, life as a movie
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