The Great 'Boring' Movie Debate of 2011
"Thinking is boring, of course (all that silence), which is why so many industrially made movies work so hard to entertain you. If you're entertained, or so the logic seems to be, you won't have the time and head space to think about how crummy, inane and familiar the movie looks, and how badly written, shoddily directed and indifferently acted it is. And so the images keep zipping, the sounds keep clanging and the actors keep shouting as if to reassure you that, yes, the money you spent for your ticket was well worth all this clamor." Manohla Dargis nails it, though I won't lie: I'm still pumped as hell for Transformers 3. [NYT]
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That quote reminds me of a line in Richard Russo's novel Straight Man, where he says most people go to the movies not for entertainment, but for reassurance.
Me, I go to the flicks to stave off the overwhelming death anxiety that existence instils in every waking moment.
...that doesn't explain the success of No Country For Old Men, which, when one thinks about it, was pretty crummy, inane and familiar, yet didn't have any music OR shouting. It's just another "HOLLYWOOD SUKS KBYE" piece. Slow and boring isn't going to make idiotic screen events any less idiotic.