[ SECRET POST #3147 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3147 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 052 secrets from Secret Submission Post #450.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Artistic or pretentious media?

[(Anonymous)]

So, I just watched "Blue is the Warmest Color", which was supposed to be a super artistic and amazing film. I just found it pretentious, and I find a lot of films that seem like they are trying to be really deep to be pretentious. I think I'm just maybe a bit cynical, but I think most of this three hour movie could have been cut, and a ten minute long gratuitous lesbian sex scene isn't necessary to get the plot going (and I'm a lesbian). I think there's a certain type of film that I just roll my eyes at, the sort where there are really long shots of them doing nothing, followed by more shots of them doing nothing, then gratuitous sex scenes, then more nothing... yet that's the type of film that's supposed to be artistic. idk.

Are there any books/films/games/etc that you do find artistic, or any that you thought was supposed to be that way but just came across as really full of itself?

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[(Anonymous)]

Everybody thinks that these days. You're not allowed to take art remotely seriously without most people thinking you're a pretentious asshole. Or at least that the things you like are pretentious.

Or maybe I'm just in a grumpy mood today. That's also possible.

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[(Anonymous)]

I agree that there is a tendency to dismiss any art that tries to say something or takes itself seriously as pretentious.

On the other hand, people who dismiss any criticism of the art as being due to the critic "not getting it" immediately sets off my "pretentious" alarms.

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[(Anonymous)]

Everyone's relationship with a piece of media is their own. If it works for them, it can be artistic. If it doesn't, it'll come across as pretentious.

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[(Anonymous)]

Gone Home the video game. What a waste of money for such pretentious drivel.

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[(Anonymous)]

Gone Home's main storyline was terrible (it was probably something I would have appreciated if it came out when I was still a 14 year old lesbian struggling with my sexuality, but the cliched-ness of it made me roll my eyes hard as a 20 year old), but I did like all of the 90s references. The Uncle Oscar subplot (if it can even be called a subplot) was a lot more interesting than the melodrama going on in the main plot

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[(Anonymous)]

All of Christopher Nolan's stuff is pretentious to me.

It's not THAT bad, but my problem with it is that it seems as though, because it makes people feel intelligent, people actually think the work itself is objectively intelligent or meaningful.

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[(Anonymous)]

Oh I totally agree about Christopher Nolan. Some of it is okay, but a lot of it is way too tryhard, imo.

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[(Anonymous)]

I think his movies are deeply flawed - overly long, incredibly ponderous, generally really thematically obvious, relying way too much on formal tricks that aren't that impressive

I'm deeply uncomfortable making assumptions about whether people like it because it makes them feel intelligent. that's a lot of specificity and motive to assign there.

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[belladonna_took]

I enjoy some of his stuff, but honestly by the end of the movie I'm usually thinking it either needed to be a trilogy for all that fucking plot to go anywhere or questioning whether or not there was enough substance there to even justify one film. Or both.

I still keep watching stuff he does because he works with some of my favourite actors and his movies are very pretty to look at.

*shrug*

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[(Anonymous)]

Personally I loved Inception. It was so... visceral. The sets, every single detail, the universe. Work of art IMO.

But yeah, I can see how it might have crossed the line to pretentious for other people.

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[(Anonymous)]

I think he's bad at writing characters, IMO. His plotting isn't that good.

Some of the ideas, and the visuals, sure - amazing. Inception and Interstellar were eye candy.

But I think his brother is much better at writing characters.

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[(Anonymous)]

blue is the warmest color is a shitty art movie

this doesn't make art movies shitty, you just watched a bad one

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

I don't think all "art" movies are shitty at all. Though I do find a lot of stereotypically "artistic" filming techniques to generally be a turn-off. But since "art movie" doesn't really have a clear meaning to me as a genre, I could hardly judge every movie that qualifies. But if I watch a movie that I can tell is trying to be artistic in a way I personally find obnoxious, then yeah, I'm probably going to think it's shitty.

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[(Anonymous)]

American Beauty is shit.

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[(Anonymous)]

The movie "Her" was pretentious as fuck, imo.

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[dethtoll]

I'm going to start with the first part of your question, largely because it'd be a longer answer.

So, off the top of my head...

House of Leaves
Drive
MOON
Alien
Stalker
Marathon
Silent Hill 2
Metal Gear Solid 2
Kentucky Route Zero
Ico/Shadow of the Colossus
Journey
Spec Ops: The Line
Bioshock 2 (especially the DLC)
The Last Of Us

---

As far as the 2nd half of your question -- Dear Esther, hands down. Fuck that game. It's an environment artist's portfolio with absolutely no gameplay, set to too-loud string music and nonsensical poetry by a boring British hipster, all of it combining to basically pester you the whole hour or so saying "are you sad yet? are you? are you?" And they want $10 for the experience.

I'm also still pretty disgusted with Bioshock Infinite, which is a parade of half-formed ideas that weren't going to be anything amazing in the first place. (Let's talk about American imperialism! Let's talk about racism! Let's be as ham-fisted about it as possible! Let's throw the only sympathetic character under the bus to make a lame point about how revolutions are no better than the regimes they fight! That isn't glib, trite and ahistorical at all! Now let's chuck all that and play around with Baby's First Alternate Universe Plot!)

Gone Home is a weird middle ground. On the one hand I don't actually begrudge a game attempting to tackle queer issues, and the game certainly delivered on the primary reason I bought it (90s nostalgia) but none of the characters were likable, least of all Sam (who the game is supposed to be about!) and the player character is a cipher and therefore a weird void in the family.

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[(Anonymous)]

Well duh this film is bullshit. Read the graphic novel instead, it's a hundred times better, and done by a real lesbian as catharsis, not as fap material by a pretentious straight guy.

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[mekkio]

Anything by Terrence Malick. Everyone goes on and on how deep his movies are and I am just bored....just bored.

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[comradesmiler]

Artistically, I think perhaps Air.

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[(Anonymous)]

I agree with a lot of the games that other people have mentioned, but I would also consider Child of Light to be artistic. It's a gorgeous game (regarding both the art and the music) and the plotline is simple without being dull. While playing it, I never got the feeling that it was trying too hard. It's basically advertised as a playable fairy-tale book, and that's what you get.

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[caerbannog]

A wonderful life

(I think that's the title)

Gene Wolfe

[(Anonymous)]

Everything I've ever read by Gene Wolfe (which was the first 3 books of the New Sun series.)

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[(Anonymous)]

Is that film continental European???? European films tend to be much slower paced and more atmospheric than English Western ones, at least from my observations. For my tastes that's kind of booooring but I guess it's not generally pretentious for Europeans per se.

That said, I haven't seen the film, and three hours seems a bit much.

Hang on I googled it. It's French. Oh right. The blue haired chick is cute though. Oh well, if I'm desperate for a lesbian film to watch I might check it out and see what I think.

Re: Artistic or pretentious media?

[(Anonymous)]

Ugh, Blue is the Warmest Color is so shitty and the sex scenes are just...well, there's a reason that many people in the lesbian community constantly make fun of this movie. The sheer awkward hilarity of the sex scenes was almost enough to make the movie at least the fun kind of hateable but even that was ruined when I read about how the director was an abusive asshole to the actresses