I watched a movie on Amazon Prime where I could easily pick up on two influences: the style of the movie was trying to be like The Sopranos, and also borrowing some methods from a modern classic mob movie that I could recognize right away.
Then I realized the movie I was watching and the mob movie I was recalling were both directed by the same person. Ah! - there's the connection....
Being louder and dirtier does not make it a better film.
Sometimes I think what makes the difference between an outstanding movie and a movie that really isn't very good is something we can't even define -- cannot put our finger on.
There's a scene in The Sopranos where this phenomenon is discussed, only it's with music rather than a movie. Hesh (played by Jerry Adler) explains when you listen to a song, "There's good and there's not good. This [referring to a song by the knockabout band discovered by Adriana] -- is not good."
The interiors in the 21st century movie I saw on Amazon Prime: regular people's houses have some ugly decor; the super-rich people have some really ugly decor.
So -- that's the difference.
What is beautiful?
What is good?
How to invent a movie that is, itself, a star...?
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