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Re: Miller; I prefer Miller of the recent half of his carreer than his material from ten/fifteen plus years ago. So, my enjoyment of him can in no way rest on his earlier productions. I'm just totally jazzed by his wavelength, I guess.
Re: the sardonic escape clause in fiction-crafting; the best example I can come up with is David Lynch, in 'Mulholland Drive' when the acting gets nuanced for the rehearsal bits and flat for real life. I can buy that Milligan's 'Elektra' or Morrison's 'Doom Force' were sardonic, because there's evidence of (a) talent and (b) that sort of humor, in their entire catalog of works.
And, to pull a routine from Rob Zombie, of all people, whenever someone says 'So you're a fan of bad movies, huh?' the only proper response is 'No. I'm a fan of really good movies.'
For some of us 'Split Second' is a really good movie. For some, 'Extreme Ops' (the only film I've ever walked out of a theatre to avoid having to keep watching) is a great film. People buy Danielle Steele novels all the fucking time. And love them, presumably attaining and absorbing some gorgeous and useful flux of energy and stimulation from them. And entertainment.
Someone the other night - managing a video shop, nonetheless, which means they should *never* talk down movies because then nobody rents them and they lose business - tried to convince me that both 'The Godfather' and 'Bonnie and Clyde' (henceforth known as that godlike thing where they rob banks and shoot people) were shitty movies. Movies that have an audience only because they had stars and famous directors. Which is inane. Because if all it took to make something sell super-duper-uber well, is having an 'artist' work on it whose reputation is solidified from previous works... well, shit: 'Howard the Duck', John Byrne's 'Doom Patrol, 'Stray Toasters', and Melville's 'The Confidence Man' (henceforth known as that godlike thing where the text bullshits forever and a day and makes you want to come back for another helping) would all be top-sellers forever and ever and ever. Now, some of those examples I like and some I don't, but I'm not going to pretend the ones I don't like, if they did do well, only did well because 'Person X is established and riding off his own fame' into bestselling status.
You're only as good as your last picture/comic/book/song.
Not to get all 'Death of the Author' here, but, yeah, it's pretty much whatever flicks your switch. Just don't expect me to like it, or watch/read/listen, et cetera. |
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