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The new literalism plaguing today’s movies

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231 points frogulis | 2 comments | 15 Jul 25 03:52 UTC | HN request time: 0.411s | source
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Duanemclemore ◴[15 Jul 25 04:32 UTC] No.44567845[source]▶
I don't know if calling it a "New Literalism" is helpful. I just don't know that a penchant for literalism ever went away.

Now, what IS relatively new is the "ruined punchline" phenomena that they identify (without naming) on the movie recap podcast Kill James Bond, which is that contemporary movies always ruin jokes by telling one, say... "x" and then having another character chime in with "Did you just say 'x' !?"

I think there's a fear of losing attention because you're asking people to think about something other than the eyewash happening right in front of them by inviting them to have to -think- about a movie.

Anyway, to close: "No one in this world ... has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people..."

- HL Mencken

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justanotherjoe ◴[15 Jul 25 05:02 UTC] No.44567959[source]▶
Can you describe more about the "ruined punchline" thing? Cause that sounds natural to me. Like in Jurassic Park, Alan Grant hears "We clocked the t-rex at 32 mph" and he goes "Did you just say 't-rex'?". Actually they repeat it like 3 times more to really lean into it.

And I guess my point is that Jurassic Park doesn't feel modern or clumsy in this particular execution.

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marcosdumay ◴[15 Jul 25 16:44 UTC] No.44573126[source]▶
Well, that's people repeating the line for confirmation in a scenario where communications weren't very reliable and the information was extraordinary.

That's close to the way the conversation would happen in real life.

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1. Duanemclemore ◴[15 Jul 25 18:04 UTC] No.44574091[source]▶
Sure! I would humbly suggest that we don't go to movies to see -real- real life situations re-presented back to us.

I mean, unless you have two comedic geniuses who can really sell yelling down the stairs to ask the partner what they want for dinner, getting met with "HUH???" inching a little closer, and having repeat this three times until you finally just go down and ask in a normal voice. In the right hands that could be comedy gold on screen.

But by in large, we don't consume media because it represents the banal reality of everyday life.

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2. watwut ◴[15 Jul 25 21:22 UTC] No.44575956[source]▶
That does not mean some amount of banal reality is an infraction or something bad. It makes movie feel less artificial. The weird thing is when people are so used to artificial, that they reject banal reality as "overdone joke" rather then "scene where people talk normally move on".