Herman's 6 fatal flaws of movie critiquing !

#1 Time Travel or Non-Linear Time Line

Yes. Even Back to the Future 3, in the old west. I know that's a bad movie but I'm a sucker for time travel.
Too much Twilight Zone, H.G. Wells & Star Trek as a young child.
That's why they’re fatal flaws. No matter how bad the movie is, I'm still going to like it.
[i.e.. Time After Time, The Time Machine, Back to the Future, Somewhere in Time, 12 Monkeys, the 13th floor ]
Or movies that time is played with or altered and is important in telling the story as to present another "angle" or perspective.
I like the multi-perspective aspect and/or non-linear time line.
[ie. Run Lola Run, Time Code, Highlander, Groundhog Day, Memento ]
[See flaws 2 & 5]
Or the entire film is set so far in the future or past that the whole film is contrasting it's world to our present reality / world.  I'm a bit of a futurist. Dreamer. Thinker.
[Brazil , A Clockwork Orange, Gattaca]


#2 Alternate Reality . There are at least 2 planes of existence in the movie.
Altered States.

There is reality & a dream world. And they blend somehow or both are represented.
There is sanity & insanity , Or split personalities or drug world existence or computer altered state of some sort .
Or some other dimension. Insanity.
A character is way out of touch with reality.
I was an abnormal psychology major in college.
Life is but a dream.
Questioning what is real , what is dream, & how do we know for sure the difference.
The key or doorway is here.
I watched too much of the old Twilight Zones as a child.
[i.e.. Lawnmower Man , Naked Lunch , Dark City, Fight Club, Altered States, Matrix, Until the End of the World, Frankenstein Unbound, Strangedays, Existenz , Carver's Gate, Trainspotting, Hellraiser,
Twilight Zone, Wings of Desire, Contact, the Fisher King, the Beat, The Truman Show , Pi , Brain Storm, The Last Temptation of Christ , The Game , Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas , Heavenly Creatures , Barfly , Tron , My Own Private Idaho , Buckaroo Banzai , Vanilla Sky , Being John Malkovich , Baron Munchausen ]

Or when the main character completely loses it. Transformation.
Goes postal. Goes crazy. Gets fed up & isn't gonna take it any more.
A slow [or all of a sudden] altering of the lead character's senses.
[ie. Falling Down , From the Hip, Heavenly Creatures, The Wall , Brazil ,
Taxi Driver , Fisher King , American Beauty , Requiem for a Dream ]

"Everywhere is a man about to explode."


#3 Psychic Powers.

I remember seeing "Escape to Witch Mountain" for the first time when I was little.
Man, did I wish I had telekinetic abilities.
I read all the books on "how to improve your psychic powers".
I'm a touch psychic in real life. It's touched my real world life in profound ways. The human mind fascinates me.
[i.e.. Dark City, Matrix, The Dead Zone, The Sixth Sense, The Gift, Dune ]


#4 Thought provoking nature. How long the movie makes me think.

This is touched on in several of the fatal flaws & a bit ambiguous.
No matter how bad the movie is , if the subject matter makes me think about something after I get home. The more I am provoked to think the better.
It might inspire me , or get me to think about the films ideas/concepts, or even just the potential of what the film could be and where it takes me to emotionally or mentally.
I like thinking. Being inspired. Provoked. Even confused .
Something for me to work out. The longer i think about the movie or movie ideas or the direction the movie led me the better. It doesn't matter what I think about , as long as I get ideas as a result of watching the film. The more ideas the better. Philosophical.
I don't like to be particularly spoon fed either. [see #5]
The longer I think about the movie the more I like it.
It's staying power. If it makes me think of things that have happened to me, or the future, or gets me to think of ideas it didn't quite get to.
Inspiration. Thought provoking. Gives us something to talk about.
[i.e.. Being John Malkovich , The 13th floor, Mindwalk , Housekeeping,
American Beauty, After Life, Character , Smoke, Pulp Fiction,
Dr. Strangelove, Ms. Parker & the Vicious Circle , Twin Peaks , Metropolis,
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, & lots of Peter Greenaway ]


#5 Double [or multiple] meaning ambiguity.

The movie gets you to question essential elements of the plot so you question the intent of the author to keep it open ended for multiple interpretations. Or the films rides the fence in such a way to make you consider opposing viewpoints, both as legitimate.
Sometimes mixing the literal with metaphorical interpretations.
I like the open endedness of possible multiple interpretations.

[ie. Lost Highway , Twin Peaks & all David Lynch stuff , Jacob's Ladder ,
The Rapture , Bergman's "Persona" , Jean Cocteau's "Orpheus" , Hedwig & The Angry Inch, and all those early surreal classics like Mya Deren's "Meshes in the Afternoon"]
American Psycho in the last 5 minutes - did he really ever kill anyone?
[ In Hedwig & the Angry Inch, Is it possible that Hedwig & Tommy are the same person all along, split personalities?
I know its not the main thing your suppose to get ,
but it seems to explore/present both as possible. It's Ambiguous.]

And as I said before, I don't really like to be spoon fed. I like to think.
And beyond that, these movies sort of explore how I think.
Dreamlike , stream of consciousness, psychological , sub-conscious.
I especially like the open-endedness because it seems to say "However YOU , the viewer, interpret the film , yours is a valid interpretations."
Whether you get one layer, or the potential [or ambiguity] for other layers/interpretations it seems to add to the depth or dimension of the film. I like meaning & depth quite a bit. I dig the deep end of the pool.
And this fatal flaw seems to build off that.
Multi-perspective. Multi-perception. More to it. More substance.
Is what is going on , really going on ?
It's quite thought provoking. [see #4]
There are multiple views of what's going on.
Open to interpretation. Sometimes controversial & misunderstood.
Your confusion is the point.
ok. Not really. Maybe I like to be challenged. Like to be made to think.
Like to wonder. Left in awe. Blown away.

#6 Meaning of Life.

This one builds off #4 on thought provoking nature (but not always the same).
Any movie whose characters examine the meaning of life, who strive for self-discovery,
a journey of self, or analyze the nature of their existence, or the story examines the meaning of life.
It's a Wonderful Life, Mind Walk, Before Sunrise, Character, After Life, Hedwig & the Angry Inch, American Beauty, The Celestine Prophecy, Truman Show, Contact, Waking Life, Groundhog Day,
Into the Wild, Fight Club, Butterfly Effect, Pi, Garden State, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Wings of Desire, Last Temptation of Christ, The Rapture, My Dinner with Andre, The Fisher King,
What Dreams May Come, SLC Punk, Dark City....



"The swirl of a blue dress.
The depth of water."