Genres you struggle with

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Hi, I've been working my way through the Empire Magazine 500 5 Star films (its several years old). I have realised I really don't get on with:
  • Samurai films - They all seem overacted, but I LOVE the cinematography. I've tried Ran, Throne of Blood, Yojimbo, Seven Samurai. It's not an anti Japanese thing as I loved Ikiru and all the Ozu films I've seen .
  • Westerns (older ones) - Many of the old "classics" seem cliched and poorly acted. I have not yet watched Man With No Name trilogy - fingers crossed that is better. I do like the more "alternative" or "neo" westerns as they avoid the cliches in most instances.
  • Musicals (a couple of exceptions - I loved Dancer In The Dark; Umbrellas of Cherbourg; Singin In The Rain
  • LOTR etc - leaves me cold!

Anyone else struggle with such films, or other genres?



Found footage horror mostly makes me yawn, it might not all be poor but most of what I've seen of it is imo.



I think there are always exceptions, but generally speaking, I second found footage, and also dramas tend to leave me cold (the typical ones where things generally end badly and there is little action/plot). Musicals also really irritate me.



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
The antidote to coldness or indifference towards a given genre or type of film almost always is just watching more films from the genre.

You might not like a specific highly-acclaimed film within a genre. But if you dislike an entire genre, there might be something you're doing wrong. Maybe it's your expectations? It's fine to prefer one genre to another but not finding a single great film within a genre sounds like you haven't seen too many films from that genre.

Either way, some film types are your jam right away. Others, you need to get intuned to, so to speak. I used to be indifferent to classic American westerns. I watched many Spaghetti Westerns and subconsciously expected a similar kind of entertainment from American classic westerns from the 40s and 50s. But these films are just different. After watching more of them, I learned to appreciate them. And I think some of them are incredible. Sure, I still prefer spaghetti as a whole. But now I love me some classic Western now and then!

The Samurai films of Kurosawa may seem overacted because they're inspired by Noh theatre. It's their style. It's a conscious artistic choice on Kurosawa's part.
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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.



  • Samurai films - They all seem overacted, but I LOVE the cinematography. I've tried Ran, Throne of Blood, Yojimbo, Seven Samurai. It's not an anti Japanese thing as I loved Ikiru and all the Ozu films I've seen.

I can't help but notice (as Minio did) all of the samurai films you've listed are from Kurosawa, and he's incorporating aspects of Noh theater into them. Personally, I've never grown accustomed to it myself either, but I've also seen elements of that in his other non-samurai films as well.
Have you seen Mizoguchi's Ugetsu? It's been 20 years since I've seen it, so I can't remember if it breaks from that style, but I'd suggest giving it a go.
Unfortunately all of the other examples I can think of, I can't remember how much they might fall into this style.
Oshima's Gohatto doesn't, but it was a lot more recent.
It's been occurring to me I need to give Shura (1971) another go, it's been a while and I remember bits and pieces now, but it's doing some interesting things cinematically.
Sword of Doom will probably be a lot easier to track down, but I remember that being more of a, "I enjoyed it," I wasn't trying to think of it as a potential all time great.
I haven't seen Samurai I, II, or III, so I can't comment on them.



  • Westerns (older ones) - Many of the old "classics" seem cliched and poorly acted. I have not yet watched Man With No Name trilogy - fingers crossed that is better. I do like the more "alternative" or "neo" westerns as they avoid the cliches in most instances.
I can't tell if by "classics" you mean "classic Hollywood" westerns or Spaghetti Westerns. The No Name trilogy (aka the Dollars trilogy) is Italian (Leone). (and fwiw, from Leone, I preferred Once Upon a Time in the West more than the Dollars trilogy.


I struggle with classic westerns more, but as Mr. Minio said, the more you watch the more you're likely to acclimate to the style. Everything you watch has some artificiality to it. It's just an odd question trying to figure out why some types don't square well with a given viewer. That said, I still don't love The Searchers, but it has grown on me on rewatches (I don't expect to ever love Unforgiven).
Maybe give The Oxbow Incident a shot if you haven't. There are lists of classic anti-westerns that might be more your thing. Personally I keep meaning to check out western-noirs. *Stares at Blood on the Moon on his watch queue*
(I'm not mentioning McCabe & Mrs Miller because it's from the 70s and wouldn't qualify as a "classic Hollywood western.")


  • Musicals (a couple of exceptions - I loved Dancer In The Dark; Umbrellas of Cherbourg; Singin In The Rain
I finally got to some Bob Fosse musicals this past year (Cabaret, All That Jazz). My prediction is you'll end up liking them.


  • LOTR etc - leaves me cold!
I'm pretty sure LOTR isn't a genre.



Superhero films. Virtually all of them either do nothing for me or don't give me any desire to rewatch them. RoboCop is the only one I've watched that matters a great deal to me.

Biopics. I'm mainly referring to the ones which show up around Oscar season as those are nothing more than well-acted and (sometimes) well-shot piles of nothing. Not what I want to see in film at all.
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IMDb
Letterboxd



Indie dramas and comedies that are labeled as mumblecore, i.e., movies by directors like Noah Baumbach, Greta Gerwig, Lena Dunham, etc. I cannot relate to the characters in them and their problems do not interest me.



Modern horror films...yeah that's right, I'm completely 180 in my movie taste from most MoFos

My thoughts on OPs post:
  • Samurai films: I love Ozu's films too, but I also like classic period Japanese Samurai films. Mostly for the cultural drama but the actual sword fighting I don't care much about.
  • Westerns (older ones): Love these, many are really good, you just have to seek out the good stuff.
  • Musicals: If someone loves Singin' In the Rain they can love other musicals too
  • LOTR: Leaves me cold and bored too.



Rom Coms



I'm not sure I struggle with many, but I guess these are the two that came to mind when I read the title:

1. Horror. I want to be disturbed the right amount, but no more. A lot of modern horror veers into tasteless shock, even the well-made stuff, and if it goes a little too far towards outright doom or despair I turn on it completely.

2. Action-adventure. Just very hard to be effectively drawn-in to caring about an action sequence as opposed to a genuine plot or character development. This is largely because of CGI, I'm sure, and in particular the thing they love to do where they clearly just have an actor move around and animate the perils (boulders, debris from crumbling structures) around them to be constantly just missing them. It's aggressively boring.



I guess I'll throw in that musicals, like poetry, have such a fine line between Amazing and Terrible, and that even musicals I really like usually make me cringe with some forced rhyme or awkward number, just because it's obviously so freakin' hard to come up with half-a-dozen (if not many more) that are catchy, elegant, clever, and flow naturally from the story, all in one.



Musicals, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror. All of them really strain my ability to suspend disbelief. Also, I really dislike the style of singing I've encountered in most of the musicals I've seen. Plus I often hate the songs themselves (looking at you "Shipoopi").



Horror. I want to be disturbed the right amount, but no more. A lot of modern horror veers into tasteless shock, even the well-made stuff, and if it goes a little too far towards outright doom or despair I turn on it completely.

I am all for the doom and despair. The Rule of Raimi "The Innocent Must Suffer" is a good one. However, I am rather over cheap jump scares. I cannot abide grossout material. Also, hope is an important component of horror. The thought that the boogeyman might get you only exists because of the uncertainty (he might not). Horror takes us into the unknown, which means that outcomes should be, to some extent, uncertain. This is why I find rule-obsessed horror to be rather ridiculous -- enter the gimmick premise monster -- replete with silly rationalistic rules about who it kills and why.



Musicals and Westerns, oh and documentaries highlighting musicians I don't care about their life i just want to enjoy the music.


Horror i don't mind but i get bored by pretty easily don't know why..