On Watching Movies Then and Now
So I've made a conscious effort this year to watch more movies. I keep postponing movies for so long and I don't even have a good reason for that, so I decided to finally sit my ass down and watch entire movies.
I must confess I have a serious YouTube problem. Maybe it's a mix of ADHD with Covid-brain and burnout (which one is which lol lmao) but I always end up in this logic of "not gonna watch anything that takes effort" but then spend 4 hours on YouTube between reactors and drag queens and video essays.
If I can do that, I can watch a whole fucking movie without dying, I'm sure -- that's what I told myself a few weeks ago.
And you know what? It's been super fun to watch a whole story instead of video-hopping. I think YouTube was the last threshold I had to cross after I quit social media scrolling. And I think it's working out. Now I'll watch it when I'm doing some house chore and during breakfast and/or lunch. But I won't spend 4 hours straight on it anymore (thankfully). Unfortunately for me, YouTube will never not have super awesome and interesting things to me; I love video essays and reaction videos and drag queens and sims building and house renos, and it was a real struggle to let go of guilt when I'm doing stuff "just for fun" -- YouTube included. So I ain't gonna stop.
But back to watching movies.
In my quest to hit the backlog list, I realized I have a bunch of horror/thrillers on it. And to my dismay but not surprise, all of them are basically unwatchable during day time.
I work freelance and sometimes I take the afternoon off and work nights. Well, I realized I can't watch movies in the afternoon apparently, because the screen will just become a black void of nothing for half the movie. And this pisses. Me. OFF.
I know this is an old complaint. I know. But man, does it still piss me OFF. I had to stop watching Heretic in the 20-30min mark one sunny afternoon because there was NOTHING to be SEEN onscreen. And you know what pissed me off even more? When I switched to The Two Towers (LoTR), where the enemy is a literal being of DARKNESS and they're fighting AT NIGHT in the RAIN on Helm's Deep... I could see every. Fucking. Thing.
My god, what changed in the past 20 years to make Hollywood folks hate lighting? Why do they hate movie goers???
Anyways, that's my rant about movies. I'll leave you with this cool video essay about how Severance is shot, which touches a little bit on this topic (spoiler-free!). And you can check out my 2025 watched list on my Listography.
See you in the next one.
P.S.: I'm afraid I'm one of those folks that are okay with not going to a movie theater to watch a movie. It sure is (supposed to be) a better experience with surround sound and whatnot, but unfortunately I find myself very cranky around noisy movie-goers, kids screaming and the constant crunch of food being consumed (and the smell...). Sue me.
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