For the last three or four years, I find myself wearing a wry smile every time spring rolls around. I do this because for three years in a row now I have covered the Hot Docs festival, which of course is dedicated to documentary filmmaking. Likewise, this spring I decided to branch out a bit and cover the Toronto Silent Film Festival.

So why the wry smile? Simple. I smile because during this stretch of coverage, my readership takes a bit of a nosedive.

In some cases, my posts for these events gets a whole different sort of reach. People who are attending the films come and read the reviews; likewise people thinking of seeing additional showings. Sometimes my posts are even seen by the filmmakers themselves where the docs are concerned as part of the press coverage. However for the average blog reader, who is more interested in early word on THE AVENGERS over what an Irish documentarian has to say about women in his homeland.

Spending three days this week discussing my experiences around the silent film festival was more of the same. Most of my readership are more apt to click on a post about the ups and downs of going to free movies than they are a post about a Valentino classic. To be crystal clear – I’m not hear to bemoan that.

What I want to know about is people’s thoughts on what I consider “Cinematic Brussell Sprouts”.

Those pieces of filmmaking that you might not necessarily want to consume, but feel like you should. Alternately, the bits of film that people tell you that you should consume because they are “good for you”. And yes, I am completely including myself in the people who tell you that you can’t leave the table until you have a few more bites of these bits of cultural nourishment.

I’m aware that not everyone who reads this space shares my tastes, and that some might reach for some titles with a weary conscience because they know deep down that they are in for a rough few hours. I’m curious about what those titles/genres are for my readership, and why they choose not to chow down but instead nudge them back and forth around their plate.

I’m not looking to judge anybody – I have my own bits and pieces that I approach begrudgingly. I’m curious about the intangible “why” that surrounds these selections for us. Going back to the food metaphor, I’ve recently been getting into eating sushi. Last week for the first time I ordered myself unagi (eel). I’d never had unagi, but yet was very curious and excited to try unagi. Now what is it about trying unagi that has me excited, wheras if you ask me if I want a side of parsnips with that I look down my nose?

I also know I can’t be the only one who feels this way. So before I lose some of you for a week while I talk about nonfiction you haven’t seen yet for ten straight days, weigh in.

What say you folks? What are your Cinematic Brussell Sprouts?

 

14 Replies to “Gotta Eat – The Films That Are “Good For You””

  1. I get you. There is a bit of excitement about stretching your catalog of
    “watched” and so, but sometimes when you’re finally staring at the dvd cover about to pop in that movie from 1930s that critics call “THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME” and in the corner of your eye you see the shiny box art for X-MEN you feel the twinge to just pop in X-MEN and forget you were ever going to bother “educating” yourself.

    Personally I take it bit by bit and tend to work off my 1001 Films list, but the IMDB 250 is a good place to start. When you eventually find a filmmaker that works for you then play with his work and move on from there.

    I guess some of my brusselsprouts for your readers are films like:
    THE RED SHOES, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, PATHS OF GLORY, HIGH AND LOW, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, ANNIE HALL, and so many more I can list off…

    one of my brussel sprouts that I ingested and at the end of the meal was still writhing from the after taste was CITIZEN KANE. Still, three or so years later, haven’t had the gall to revisit to consider if my tastes have changed.

    1. So, just to clarify, those titles you listed are ones you think others should stop pushing around their plate? Or ones that you yourself consumed begrudgingly?

    2. The ones I listed I consumed begrudgingly, and then discovered to be quite good for me, and I recommend everyone else take a try at.

      The KANE reference was with entire begrudging hatred :P.

    3. So for you the “steamed vegetables” are largely classics. That makes sense, because when it comes to styles like foreign, documentary, and the like, you seem to dig into them quite willingly.

  2. Well, first of all– I frigging love brussell sprouts. They’re delicious. Just prepare ’em, salt ’em, toss ’em in a bit of olive oil, and then stick ’em in the oven for a bit until they get all delicious. I like putting sprouts together with potatoes, carrots, and onions whenever I roast a whole chicken. They rock.

    So basically what I’m trying to say is that for me, there are no brussell sprouts– there are just films I want to consume relentlessly. I’ve caught a degree of shit for saying this before, but anyone who’s a film lover really needs to go out of their way to see anything and everything that they can; it’s how you become better rounded as a film lover and more knowledgeable about the craft. Sometimes that means watching movies that don’t appeal to you outwardly in one way or another, but that’s valuable (though I think everyone will have an Achilles’ heel of one sort or another, a category of film they will never want to watch; I won’t give anyone a hard time, for example, for refusing to watch something like The Human Centipede). At worst, you’ve just seen a movie you didn’t like; at best that movie actually turns out to be really good.

    I mean, I wasn’t pumped to see 21 Jump Street, and it’s one of the best experiences at the theater I’ve had all year. Conversely, I was very pumped to see Bridesmaids and it let me down. Point is, it’s hard to have opinions about things when you don’t watch them, and personally I think that extends to cinema as a whole. The task of reviewing movies becomes easier and easier when you’re more aware of the films that serve as precursors to today’s releases. (Going back to The Avengers, would you rather read a review from someone who’s seen all of the Marvel films that inform its plot and characters, or someone who hasn’t?)

    It might sound like this is just me coming up with a theory that gives me a feeling of superiority to other people, but that’s not really true; if anything the result would be a feeling of inferiority, since I know there are tons of films I haven’t seen that the critics and scholars I look up to have.

    If I have to come up with “good for you”, films, well, forgive me for the cop-out but I’m gonna say “anything in the Criterion Collection”. I’m going back to the films that fall under their release slate myself for the purpose of broadening my horizons and knowledge/understanding, which I think most film lovers– and any film writer– should think about doing.

    1. You like brussell sprouts? Alright, so it’s not a perfect metaphor…

      I’m with you in believing that one should always want to dig into a film with the hopes of enjoying it, but many don’t see things the way you and I do. The way I look at it, I’m going into a film that a lot of others like to extrapolate things that I myself enjoy.

      It’s funny, because for me sometimes I have to get myself more primed to dig into dessert than I do the entree. It doesn’t take much to get me to a neo-realist silent Czech film…but you need to really wrench my arm to get me to MEN IN BLACK.

      What I get most from your note is that you have an open mind – probably what led you to enjoying brussell sprouts! That’s a healthy attitude, hopefully others can follow your lead.

  4. I’ve been guilty of pushing around some brussell sprouts myself these last few weeks. Oddly enough, I don’t have a problem getting into the Italian neo-realist classics, or foreign films, but trying to get into some of Woody Allen’s work has been difficult.

    It really all depends on taste. And as Andrews mentions anything with Criterion Collection slapped on the front is a good start.

  6. There are a lot, but I honestly find that the more I’ve tried, the more I’ve expanded my tastes. It’s almost gone in the other direction. I’ll watch classics, silent, foreign, whatever… but I usually avoid your run of the mill action movies and rom coms, and blockbusters for that matter. And that’s not good. Trying to be a well-rounded movie watcher has only brought good things to my door step. (ok, I’ve seen some real crap, too, in an effort to be more well-rounded, but at least I tried)

    Musicals more than anything are my “brussel sprouts”. I’ve mostly refused them so far and I think that’s going to be one of my next barriers crossed.

    1. Hmmm…that’s one that I hadn’t expected, especially since how in this Glee-infested age we now live, that I consider musicals to be more mainstream that counter-current.

      Might I ask what it is about them you don’t take to? And is it both modern and classics that you can’t latch on to?

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