Just realized why my friend stopped asking for movie recommendations

I was at a bar in Brooklyn last weekend and my buddy Mark told me he quit asking me what to watch because I always recommend stuff that's too slow or artsy. He said 'you suggested that French film about a snail and I fell asleep in 15 minutes.' He's got a point though. I keep forgetting not everyone wants to sit through a 3 hour slow burn just to get a payoff at the end. So what do you recommend to people who just want something fun and fast without it being dumb?

4 comments

4 Comments

wade_kelly7717d ago

Honestly you're WAY overthinking this. Your friend just has DIFFERENT taste, not a problem. Not everyone needs to appreciate slow cinema to be a valid human being. Most people watch movies to unwind after work, not to sit through a lecture on pacing. If you want to keep recommending stuff to him, just ask what he's been into lately and match that energy. Or just accept that you two have different movie brains and let him find his own stuff. This whole thing is NOT some deep friendship crisis. He's not mad at you, he just doesn't want to watch a snail crawl for three hours. That's fine.

simon_carr17d ago

5 movies deep into the same director's filmography is not "different taste" it's willfully ignoring what a friend is into. @wade_kelly77 I'd say if you can't sit through one slow film for a buddy who clearly cares about cinema, maybe you're the one not putting in effort. He's not asking you to watch a snail, he's asking you to watch three hours of themes and craft you clearly missed. That's not a lecture, it's just a different kind of unwind.

kai_chen217d ago

Lol @simon_carr that snail line got me, I read somewhere that slow movies are like jazz you either vibe or you dont.

the_alex13d ago

Nah I gotta disagree with that jazz comparison a little. Jazz is more about just letting it wash over you and feeling the vibe. Slow movies actually demand way more from you because you're following a story and reading character stuff with barely any dialogue. It's like the difference between zoning out to ambient music versus actually studying a complex painting. I get why people don't vibe with it, but calling it the same as jazz undersells how active your brain has to be. You're not just chilling, you're doing work to connect the dots. And honestly that work is what makes it rewarding for people who are into it.