Quiplash

Or one of the many ways Marvel created a bad film trend. I made that the first line so that you didn’t have to read too much before considering my opinion pretentious, over intellectualized and wrong. To clarify, I’m usually focused on the artistic qualities of films and not whether it is well liked. They aren’t mutually exclusive so something being well liked doesn’t make it devoid of artistic merit and vice versa. There we go, the definition of good has been established; tell your friends and philosophy majors.

“Its whole purpose was for people to watch it so the network could sell ad time, so the show could make more money than it cost to produce. It did that well. It was a good show.” — my fav horse

Who hurt you?

David Leitch did. Specifically his movie Bullet Train with a great cast of Brad Pitt, the kid from Kickass, Paper Boi from Atlanta, the serious Japanese guy from The Last Samurai, Bad Bunny, Michael Shannon aka the evil looking dude in a bunch of stuff and some annoying kid named Joey King. The plot was actually interesting and the visual style was fairly exciting and unique. But it has a big big problem that made the movie borderline unwatchable; no one will shut up. They. Just. Keep. Talking.

And you can’t understand a bloody word they’re saying

Why do movies exist?

The goal of a film is to make the audience feel things and generally be invested in the characters. Everyone knows that for the most part, the hero won’t die and the villain won’t win. But it’s the job of the filmmaker to effectively create stakes where the audience gets swept up in the moment (a little something called suspension of disbelief). There is tension in every genre of movie. Will the drunk fisherman and the mayor kill the shark? Will the space kid with a crush on his sister beat up his dad? Will the little girl get rid of her demon? Will they, won’t they? The magic of film is that we still feel these things even though we already know the answers to all these questions.

Will there be blood?

Jokes are a great way to break dramatic tension. In fact they’re way more effective when in direct contrast with high stakes tension. They’re less effective when someone writes an article explaining the proper joke procedure for film making but I’m right goddamn it. There are jokes in all of the movie examples I listed above, but they are driven by dramatic tension.

The Marvel Epidemic

Besides ruining music, Marvel has created an action-comedy formula that has infected all sorts of movies and culminated in Bullet Train. Every single line of dialogue undercuts itself with a joke, resulting in the audience mildly giggling at a half assed joke they won’t remember in 5 seconds throughout the entire movie. Every time this happens, the audience is reminded that they are in fact watching a movie and that whole suspension of disbelief thing fades away. It is very hard to take the situation in a movie seriously when the characters in the movie itself don’t take it seriously. Also, every meta 4th wall reference reminds the audience that they are watching a movie and will cut tension down to zero. These are useful tools but need to be sparingly used.

As a great counter example, I’ll present Shaun of the Dead which is pretty much a straight up comedy with a zombie flavor. There are all sorts of visual gags, a Queen-Don’t Stop Me Now action scene and even the ending is a joke. At the same time, the threat of the zombies is taken seriously and Simon Pegg doesn’t say “She isn’t gonna be in Hot Fuzz” or “That was for marrying Phillip” or “You guys wanna get some shawarma?” after he is forced to kill his mom.

Unrelated image

So why is this happening?

We exist in the age of infinite content with the culmination of human knowledge being available to every person. Every story has already been told and everything has already been said and no ideas can be genuine anymore. How do I tell someone I love them without sounding like I’m auditioning for When Harry Met Sally? How do I inspire my sports team while not having the gravitas of Denzel Washington? How do I live a life that has already been lived?

I think this is especially hard for writers whose work will often get reduced down to a math equation. “Oh that author’s heartbreaking story about their childhood was basically Good Will Hunting + Room, 2/5 stars, unsubscribe.” So you make the joke before anyone else can; even if it diminishes the point you were trying to make. Genuine expression is vulnerability which is risk and cutting it with a joke is much safer. Post-ironic detachment is easy, useful and a natural reaction but that can’t be your entire value system. Things matter to you and the format in which you express those things reflects how much they mean to you. The joke is easy but making something real is hard.

So whether you’re writing a Disney product or taking a picture or talking to your best friend: Don’t let insecurity inhibit expression.