What do you mean? I don't understand any way in which that scene doesn't work.
I thought it was one of the pinnacle bad scenes in the whole film. And mostly encapsulates why these characters are so unconvincing as anything other than West's props (not that all films need us to believe in the reality of the characters, but this film insists upon it)
She's witnessing this for the first time and it's something she's totally unacquainted with.
Yes, as we all know, as soon as we see something we are totally unacquainted with we decide to take off our clothes and **** in front of a camera, with absolutely no inkling of any kind of inner dialogue going on with the character. Just some kind of magic transformation happens while she is holding a boom mic over two strangers grunting and sweating in front of her. Then she announces she wants to be a porn actress. It's preposterous. It has no relationship to how people actually come to these kinds of decisions. It's just West conveniently using his characters to gin up a moment of drama between her and her boyfriend.
Does it have to be great art for that to happen?
No. But there has to be some reason beyond 'look, people ****ing'. And if, as you stated in response to Rocks' post, we as an audience we are suppose to recognize the folly of this filmmaking enterprise, this makes her decision seem something we should be laughing at her for. She was so impressed with the 'movie magic' that was happening here she wanted to join in. And yet we are left to sit their and wonder 'what the hell impressed her to such a profund level she now wants to be a part of it'. It is beyond the beyond artificial nonsense.
she sees the double standard he's playing
What double standard? Did I miss the part where he wants to **** a girl on camera and have her film it?
but I don't think she realizes at all that he's going to be so devastated because he was playing it so cool about the very thing she's wanting to do.
That character was anything but cool. And it's clear it more than irks him. Also, exactly what kind of bozo person isn't aware that this is something that is out of bounds in a relationship. The fact that she seems to think he should be totally coolio with it is, yet another mounting absurdity regarding this scene. It's one bad moment after another.
frankly I kinda enjoyed watching him suffer.
Again, maybe I missed something, but what is his crime other than being a pretentious doofus? Him making a porno would definitely would be a problem with some people in a relationship. But do we have any window into how this actually is affecting her. From what I recall, she seems to just passively be going along with helping him out. Maybe there are buried frustrations happening between them, but it's up to West to somehow articulate this to his audience and not just expect us to fill in the blanks with whatever information makes the scene not totally absurd.
And I guess I just don't understand where the idea that this was great art is even coming from.
The characters constantly talking about it. And unironically showing them ecstatic over the results as they watch back what they recorded. Maybe Wests intent is to make us believe they are deluded. But he does a horrible job of this if that was his intention.
The movie makes it super-clear that this is some fly-by-night shit and that basically no one is a real professional,
Since there are an bunch of examples in real life of non professional filmmakers doing exactly this and being successful at it, I had no reason to just assume that because this was a no budget, amateur production they were clearly headed towards folly. Especially when the director of this himself made his name as a low budget filmmaker making a film that extolled the virtues of trash 80's films that were also definitely made by non-professional weirdos with no money.
I mean, that was really the whole point of their story was that they were these silly, rank amateurs.
Maybe deluded and blinded by the notion of future stardom. But that doesn't exclude the possibility they were making something good. Which the film pushes and pushes and pushes on the audience without ever winking that we aren't supposed to be taking their efforts seriously.
And that Maxxine is just this kid who basically doesn't even know what she doesn't know, being told by her ultra-low-grade con-man boyfriend that she has "it" and that this is gonna be something real and special
I don't disagree with this. Maxine is definitely vulnerable to manipulation. And her boyfriend is a skeez. One of the elements of the film West could have done something interesting with. But instead just relied on her snorting coke to telegraph to the audience 'something is wrong here'. Maybe the prequel will add something to this, but as it stands, her character sucks.
Now obviously none of this means no one should like the movie. Even if I can (hopefully) convince you of some of the problems in this scene, one scene shouldn't sink a movie either. There were a handful of things that were done...okay...here. The first killing is shockingly brutal and upsetting. I liked the two nods to Eaten Alive. And I think the general idea of what he was trying to do could have born fruit. I've generally liked West's films, even that one about the religious cult which was ludicrously underbaked (but still fairly effective regardless of the fact that it wasn't that great).
But when I see a movie I think is enormously flawed, and likely even bad by my standards (and we haven't even gotten into what I find most annoying, this being the disgusting way the elderly are portrayed in this), and yet is getting piles of praise as some kind of revelation (or even revolutionary lol lol lol), I'm am always going to kick it right in the balls like I believe it deserves. And this one deserves a hard kick.