+1
I am passionate about films largely because they can be an artistic expression that seeks to change things, present new ideas, tell an imaginative story with a message, etc. I can say the same things about both fiction and non-fiction books. What I get frustrated with is that potential is often wasted on films that will make the most money. It would be different if the film industry had no choice, however they are pitched dozens of movies for every movie they make. And many of those ideas are rejected so they can bring you some mediocre, or worse, film that costs tons of money so that they can squeeze as much profit as they can from it. Than those films seem to be nominated for, or receive all of the big awards. This is a somewhat pessimistic view I know but, when you think about what someone with talent could do with a third of the budget of Titanic, or any other big money film that is mediocre, it makes your skin crawl. As far as seeing non-commercial films the old "cinemas" are drying up.Watching at home with surround sound is nice, but I miss seeing a film in the theater.
The thing that is refreshing is that you are not limited to the movies in the theater, and there is access to some of the better peripheral stuff that is available. So with 100 years of cinema history and access to foreign films, I will never run out of things to watch, even if I have to wait for the cream of the crop of the current films to rise to the top. I do, on occasion like. check out a film for the purpose of checking out for a few hours, but there is always something good to watch if I dig for it. Another thing is I don't mind watching a good film several times. I'd rather do that than to watch something really bad just to have something to watch.