A Commonplace Book

A less obvious way in which the corporatization of movies blunts our responses is to train us to see films only in terms of those we've already seen -- to such a degree that we don't want them to be different from those we've seen before. More alarmingly, when they are different, we don't recognize the difference.

As a culture, we always prefer our movies to tell us exactly how characters should have behaved, so we can stand in judgment of social transgressors. We are ill at ease with movies that give us moral fumblers rather than outright villains, movies that remind us that a simple twist of fate would land us in those fumblers' shoes.