gen z's tryna what? gen z's- gen z's tryna cancel donnie darko?
I watched donnie darko a couple days ago and was less than impressed by it. it's often discussed as some sort of masterpiece and something so experimental and groundbreaking, so I went into it thinking it would actually be that. but it really, really wasn't.
I'm a baby of two gen x parents who have always been ride or die behind their generation's media, whether it be 80s-90s music, tv, or movies. so I do have an appreciation and understanding of the media of that time. but it's never been my favorite era for film or tv.
watching sixteen candles or back to the future from the standpoint of a gen z who lives in a completely different world from what once was just 40 years earlier is kinda jarring. everyone talks weird, and not even in a super understandable way. like, I can understand the transatlantic accent and its use in film way back when, I can understand why news anchors today are taught to use some middle America midwestern accent, I understand all of that. but in 80s-early 90s films, everyone talks like they're aliens.
like, there's nothing human about it. they genuinely sound like a bunch of aliens that were exposed to hours and hours of footage of average Americans and thrown on set to put on their best impression. it's not just the verbiage, it's the delivery as well. like, there's nothing smooth about it. it's all drama, all of it. and I love molly ringwald movies, but every word delivered from any character in those movies is delivered with so much drama and emphasis. maybe it's that cinematographers of that time just added in a ton of face shots while characters are talking, so all their line deliveries are given a weird amount of emphasis because we're seeing their faces so closely, but it's just not real.1
like, jake gyllenhaal is a total freak in this! nobody talks or acts like this! it's like he's playing the mask. every shot of him talking to Frank where he's doing that ugly smirk/grin thing just cringes me out like crazy. it's just ugly. and it's not even close to real. i feel like modern performances of characters battling mental illness and schizotypical symptoms do it much better, which, duh, obviously they would, but it's hard to suspend my disbelief when I've seen so much better.
obviously this was groundbreaking for its time and has inspired tons of films that have come after it, and has definitely inspired the films I think have done this subject better. but it's just bad. it's corny. it's cringe. all the close-up shots for the character's line deliveries throw off the pace of the film, the colors are drab and visually uninteresting, the practical and CGI effects aren't gag-worthy, the list goes on. but it makes sense! it's not supposed to stand the test of time because it was groundbreaking for its time, which is more than good enough. so through the lense of film history, yes, it's a good movie. but with modern eyes, it's so lame.
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like really, someone tell me, did people really talk like that back then? if you were young back then or even my parent's age at that time, did people seriously talk the way they do in those movies? it's just unbelievable.↩