Draw your own conclusions.
As founder of The Warren Report, Warren Etheredge hosts over 250 events every year,
a podcast and television series. The Warren Report promotes "slow culture" through commentary, outreach,
events and education. Our principle: Smarter audiences make a better world!
I like to imagine that on his days off, Stephen Hawking likes to talk about micro-brews and midget mud-wrestling, really anything but black holes, quantum physics or how to speak thru a goddamned straw. Maybe I’m just trying to make myself feel better, though certainly not compare myself directly to the intellectual Ironsides.
I love movies and much of my work revolves around the analysis and evaluation of them. That said, beyond the classroom, the theater or the radio, I discuss films with very few folks as I sometimes need a break.
Yet [on Wednesday], I ran into a long-time Seattle acquaintance, teacher/writer/comedian Brian McDonald, a man for I have always maintained a healthy respect while aware of some philosophical differences in our approach to screenwriting and story-telling. (He’s a structure guy, I’m a character guy. Whatever.) We quickly moved from small talk to smaller talk, an impromptu dissection of kids films, particularly Pixar’s oeuvre and, whattayaknow?, I learned something. Brian suggested that the commercially underrated, critically-beloved studio/superpower has been going downhill since FINDING NEMO
What do YOU think?
I am grateful I can still be surprised by film criticism and thankful for my enlightening camaraderie with Brian McDonald. Happy Birthday! (Nice sweater, bro.)
February 18th, 2011 at 1:37 pm
It’s hard to comment when you don’t present the actual arguments he made.
People who fuss about “structural flows” are often people who think art is better when it adheres to abstract frameworks, rather than follows the threads and impulses of an individual story — which is why there are so many bland, cookie-cutter “hero journeys” coming out of Hollywood, some entertaining but most a threadbare skin draped over a generic skeleton. It sounds like Brian’s argument is more sophisticated…but you don’t give it to us, so.
There are plays by Shakespeare and Euripides that are “flawed”…which only makes the more compelling. Not to mention novels like ‘Moby Dick’ and ‘Huckleberry Finn’, both frequently taken to task by academics. The whole notion of “flaws” in art is questionable, as it suggests some kind of Platonic form we should all be aspiring to, rather than the infinite variety of actual life.
February 18th, 2011 at 1:46 pm
Fair enough and, as I stated elsewhere, I, too, believe most beauty is a consequence of flaws not in spite of them.
I also hope brian may be encouraged to state his case here, after he blows out his candles, of course.