Films That You Refuse to Even Discuss

Too immoral, too gross, too overrated, too divisive, talked to death. What are the films that you cannot even?

I'm kind of over talking about Donnie Darko conspiracy theories. Even if someone had a new one, it's just, meh.


Also done with Human Centipede. It's just debased and gross.


Almost done talking about Star Wars OT, at least in the broad strokes of "how good is it?" It's great and Jedi is the weak sister. What's really left to say? Next.

At this point, due to fatigue, I think I would refuse to talk about The Shining. And honestly, I just want to enjoy it for its surface-level spookiness.

That Room 237 documentary was my official "I'm over it" moment.

"Well, in all my years I ain't never heard, seen nor smelled an issue that was so dangerous it couldn't be talked about. Hell yeah! I'm for debating anything. Rhode Island says yea!"

- Stephen Hopkins (from the play / movie 1776)

This kind of reflects my attitude toward everything.

That movie wasn't really so much about The Shining as it was about obsessions. We aren't meant to give much credence to these theories. We are meant to wonder what leads people to latch on to such things as if they are keys to some kind of deeper meaning. Even when they are clearly bullshit. Even when they lead nowhere.


That said, that documentary was garbage. But the idea is interesting.

More than anything else, that film was about the nature of obsession, not The Shining. We shouldn't put too much stock in these speculations. The audience is supposed to ponder the motivations of those who cling to trivialities like these in the belief that they hold the secret to life's mysteries.

I like to quietly love The Blair Witch Project without having to endlessly debate it's merits or lack thereof. Films like Willow Creek and Sleeping Dogs Lie - I'm just on Bobcat Goldthwait's wavelength. Freddy Got Fingered - that cult following and critical reevaluation? I'm part of it, but I don't want to debate it. Those are the films I refuse to even discuss. Love them or hate them, I don't think I'd be changing anyone's mind. I'd write about them, but not debate them.

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Probably Gravity. I like the film quite a bit, but having defended the film against so many shallow style over substance critiques wore me down to the point I don't have the energy to discuss the film anymore.

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Even after I'm dead, the coroner will still be picking words out of my mouth defending all the movies I know I'm right about.

Fair enough, however, we should also remember that that documentary was looking at a trend regarding the interpretation of that film. Around the time that came out, YouTube was saturated with The Shining conspiracy videos and overly-detailed analyses.

Exactly!

Yes, which is why they made a movie about it.

Right, and when the movie came out, even though it was more about documenting the nature of obsession using The Shining as its subject, I was really over the moment of interpretively squeezing ever more juice out it, because the theories in the film were BAD and reminded me that most of the discussion of the film I had seen before was such a reach. I didn't find the film to be all that interesting as an exploration of obsession (Grizzly Man is a much better documentary for that), and the vehicle (The Shining) wore out it's welcome with me when I saw it. Thus, at that moment, I'd had enough.

Me too, I'm tired of explaining why that movie was so powerfully effective for me. It just was.

I think that this is perhaps one that you had to see in theaters under the spell that this was, perhaps(?), truly a documentary. I remember the buzz in the city when this first came out in limited release. Years later I rented it from Blockbuster and it just didn't work for me.

The badness of these theories that these people are chasing and pointlessly collecting proof of (you know, like the minotaur skiing poster in the background of one scene) is where the sadness and the humor the films is circling around can be found. If they were actually all good theories, the movies wouldn't really be as marginally interesting as it is.




It's not. It might even be a straight up bad exploration since it never goes more than skin deep into what the rightful subjects of the documentary are: the weird fans of the film. Instead it approaches it all soberly as real critical analysis, detailing on theory after another, leaving the lives of what needs to be the films focal point, on the cutting room floor. At a certain point we are just going to throw our hands up and tell these people to stop. They are stupid and what they are saying is actually making the movie they are obsessing over seem even worse. They are the epitome of horrendous criticism masquerading as deep analysis.

In a technical sense...nothing. There are films I might not waste much time on, or might not want to watch, but I can't really think of anything I'm unwilling to discuss, provided "discuss" can include things like "mock" or "criticize as being ridiculous."

The closest I'll come, I guess, are the films that rationalize extreme depictions for their own sake under the guise of sophisticated boundary-pushing or whatever. I don't have a lot of time for those, but I guess I can't say I have none, because here we are.

Trick question. You will NOT get me to name a movie that I absolutely REFUSE to discuss. Arguably, I'm already discussing it, if just in spirit. I have not named it though, so technically I'm right.

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"My Dionne Warwick understanding of your dream indicates that you are ambivalent on how you want life to eventually screw you." - Joel

"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel

"I just can't get pass sticking a finger up a dog's butt." - John Dumbear

How about a non-technical sense?

The folly of youth is mistaking edge for audacity, crassness for courage.



I recall a review of Clerks II boasting that Kevin Smith "still has it" in terms of still being willing to have his characters use foul language, as if his authenticity as a creator was somehow intimately tied to his willingness to talk about various sex acts in scatological fau-mophobic bro-speak.



My general rule is, if you're going to slime me, there had better be a reason. The uncomfortable and the extreme should serve a legitimate purpose in telling the story.