An article on pretentiousness in movies.

Pretentious. This is a very commonly used term by critics, i'm going to explain exactly as I can what it is for a movie to be pretentious and I will give prime examples. In the dictionary pretentious is defined as making an exaggerated outward show; ostentatious. Basically it being self-indulgent. If a producer and director sit behind a film and say that their film will be the most important film alive, they are being self absorbed thinking they can accomplish such goal. Pretentiousness is seen primarily in films about life stories, it mostly appeared in these in earlier years. Forrest Gump was a life story, was it pretentious? I wouldn't use that term cause never once watching that film did I think "wow they are trying to hard." It was simply an extraordinary life of an extraordinary character. Let's move forward a couple years and hit on James Cameron's Titanic. James Cameron being one of the most self absorbed directors out there of our time. Titanic wasn't a bad movie necessarily however while watching it I got the feeling that Cameron was sitting next to me nudging me and saying "check out this scene I did it perfectly." Let's move forward to modern day film. The most recent film I saw that inspired me to write this article is Richard Kelly's Southland Tales. Richard Kelly earlier in the decade directed the independent Donnie Darko which his style was very unique and original. Southland Tales is specifically casted popular comedic actors such as Dwayne Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Mandy Moore. This film was NOT a miss for me. Most people think a floating ice cream truck, cars having sex, and mainly every scene in this film was too pretentious, I thought that was the point. It was attacking pop culture today, and the pretentiousness of today. To properly critique a film you must first know the directors intentions, then you can critique his film and his intentions. Southland Tales....bad reviews, of course. Let me give you a pretentious film. 2009's What Goes Up, limited release primarily so it could have that independent feel, scenes of slow motion falling while indie music mindlessly plays in the background. Ice skating around a coffin listening to Electrelane. Very pretentious in the bad way. I guess the main question i'm getting at is do you think pretentiousness in a film is a bad thing? I do not. Sometimes things are overdone, like when the movie has got its point across but continues flooding us with symbolism and personification that we practically choke, we get bored thus the film becomes a drag. However it is always nice to see something different, like in Southland Tales, Vanilla Sky, any David Lynch film, ect. Some films fail at this technique others succeed. Dodging the mainstream billing isn't always a smart idea.

You answer: Is pretentiousness in a film necessarily a bad thing?

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FILMS MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE

Forrest Gump 5/5

Titanic 5/5

Donnie Darko 4.5/5

Southland Tales 4/5

What Goes Up 2/5

Vanilla Sky 5/5