MetaCritical Post on Rotten Perspectives

History, they say, is written by the winners.  When I say written, I mean the original writing.  I am not talking about the bad rewrite/remix/remake of the original.  That is a whole different story (see what I did there?).  Rewritten history is like a lazy cash grab revisionist effort on a classic movie (when you combine the two, it's called pulling a Padmavat).  Anyway, so History.  Winner's perspective.  Or at the very least, the survivor's perspective.

While our history is being revised or messed with though, spare a thought for our present.  Our present is also a narrative that is being chronicled.  And the perspective being given to it matters.  A lot of our most historic and landmark judgments are being made, for better or for worse (usually for worse, but depends, as will be highlighted further, on who you ask), by a small group of homogeneous individuals.  I am of course, referring to movie reviews.  Oh, and I guess it applies to the highest courts of law in all the countries as well.

They bring a certain perspective.  A very specific, certain perspective, common to each or most of them. It's like ordering an assorted platter of steamed plain paneer, and steamed plain paneer, with steamed plain paneer and more steamed plain paneer. It's not just about documentation of the present.  Most times, they also have future implications.  By validating that which is comfortable to them, and often only them, they ensure that more such trends are prevalent.  Whether they be actions, laws, or artistic creations.

And so the marginalized come up with their own art forms.  Which is often great, as it gives them a speaking voice.  But there can often be an exclusion from true inclusion (Yes, I type the way Nolan directs).  Meanwhile, the various avenues of propriety and political correctness keep getting narrower, limiting the already narrow perspective that the evaluators (Auto-correct tells me that is not a word) bring (like wearing screen darkening 3D glasses to a shaky cam, low lit movie).  A lot of this is known.  And so doubts and aspersions are cast on the evaluation itself.  These are quite often justified.  But a lot of mediocre voices take advantage of this crises, pinning their poor reception and fallacy of the evaluation itself (I say evaluate and voices and art forms - But I'm thinking movies, reviews and Rotten Tomatoes).  Mediocrity also creeps into the marginalized art form.  But for those starved of seeing their own reflection, they gobble those up.  So we end up with massive over-hyped and decidedly mediocre efforts capturing the collective zeitgeist.

This post itself proves the point against limited perspective - I am unable to muster viewpoints across different platforms and am filtering everything through a movies and reviews lens.  I guess,the point I am really trying to make is, can we make it so that we have fewer of those horrendous Tyler Perry Madea movies?

Ultra-High Definition Resolutions

New Year trends to bring in a lot of resolve.   A lot of resolutions.  And a lot of quitting.  Usually the good kind.  But there are other kinds of quitting.  Where we tend to swear off something completely.  If you look at life like binaries, it’s shutting off one avenue completely, which could lead to near-infinite more possibilities.  In many cases it is justified.  There is logic and rationale behind it.  In some cases, a little more evaluation is required.

We tend to shut things off completely.  Out of anger, outrage, indignation, or it’s vocal and vehement support by opposing ideologies.  The more rabble-rousing done in favor of something particular, the more vehement is the opposition for it, by those who oppose the rabble-rousers themselves (Think about it, the shriller the alarm clock, the more likely we are to clock it with a sledgehammer).  And so we let other fools decide our paths for us (much like we let RottenTomatoes dictate our movie viewing).

We need to take a more informed call.  Not the ill-informed one we tend to make.  Learn about something before swearing it off completely.  We don’t need to burn ourselves to know that we need to avoid fire.  I don’t believe in the experience everything once mantra.  But we sure as hell need to know what the deal with Fire is.  Like when you googled to find out what the deal with Arcade Fire was (I know you did).

Here's a Little Tip

2017 was a year the world collectively stumbled.  In my opinion.  The stumble was probably a collective over-tipping.  A lot of things reached a tipping point, and then toppled over.  Crossing the tipping point, in socioeconomic terms has always assumed to be a good thing.  Thanks for nothing, Malcom Gladwell.  Tipping over, if physics has taught us anything, can be a frustrating phenomenon.  Specially when the key is moderation.  And Balance.  You don’t hear of shoes branded as New Tipping-Over.  Tipping over also occurs in innovation and gravitas, in movements and revolutions.  Rebellion when overdone, becomes whining.  Opinions, when overstated become trolling.  Not every gap needs to be filled.  We aren’t motorcycle riders in Hyderabad after all.  Silence and moments to absorb are essential.  As Claude Debussy (no clue, just googled his name) stated:  Music is the silence between the notes.  A constant cacophony like tinnitus ringing in your ears will eventually get tuned out.  

This leads to supposed “improvement” where things didn’t need them.  Moviepasses, higher resolution on tinier screens (a perfect metaphor for the digital age ego), Juicero, sleeping tents with legs etc.  The collective cyclic redundancy in shiny packaging was as if the world itself was a simulation sponsored by Apple.

The point of it all being, treat things like you’re making a smoothie.  Know what to add, know when to crank it up, but also know when to stop.  Not everything needs an over-saturated filter.  Flavor over spice.  Lucknowi Biryani over Hyderabadi Biryani.  Seasoning over dousing.  Stepping onto the treadmill is an important step.  But know when to get off, so you can go through the day and come back to step on again.  We need to remember not to let the things driving a better life to become or overtake life itself.  If we just took some time to step back and take in the larger view, there are other things that deserve some attention compared to the laser-like focus we tend to give a few particular things.  In 2018, be like a little master, a little Jack.

Lazo-pallooza

Laziness can inspire great inventions they say.  Shortcuts around mundane tasks, routes previously unimaginable and what not.  Great inventions that benefit everyone in the long run.  But not everyone has a Eureka! moment.  Some people just jump out in the privacy of their own bathroom, keeping their lightbulb idea to themselves.  The 'selfish' inspiration.  The kind that has given rise to a new kind of economy.

This kind of laziness hinges on the laziness of others.  It capitalizes on the herd mentality that brings people into the same cattle ranch, like good cattle (good behavior good, not beef good obviously!) who will stay there as long as they get something even absolutely bland, banal, mundane and milquetoast to munch on.

And so this trend of mediocre "entertainment" via lazy videos, memes, reviews, even reactions.  Yes, reactions to products, services and even other videos.  Their unsolicited inexpert stamp of approval.  And the only criteria to success is view count and eyeballs.  Like lazy toads we are fed one mediocre video, short enough to hold our attention, after the other.  They thrive because we are too lazy to navigate away to another attempt at potential mediocrity.  Or at best, average and mediocre stuff sandwiched between passable stuff stretched too far apart like some record setting sandwich with breads like estranged cousins.  Or like the subprime debts sandwiched between a few good ones to form a hideous imitation of a Collateralized Debt Obligation (smartypant reference, FTW!)

This entertainment constantly keeps setting the entry barrier lower and lower, and keeps our expectations grounded (always a good lesson for the real world).  No wonder then, we all turn into cynics.  This is a service industry based on entertainment and not joy.  Contrary to what we may have thought, joy and entertainment are not synonymous.  Delivering joy is a parameter and benchmark for the highest echelons of service providing industry.  Entertainment, well you could put Akshay Kumar and a dog together for 2.5 hours and call it that.  Literally.

That's what happens when you turn something to a 24 hour cycle.  Be it work, news, food or entertainment.  If it has to be non stop, the quality will suffer.  So in our vulnerable state after an extended work day, we have our guard down and laziness up for sub quality entertainment and sub quality food, occasionally flipping through "news" while completely unaware of and unaffected by important EVENTS.

Liberal Extremism

The conflict among the right and left has become more mainstream these days.  The difference of opinion that used to be a small part of most people's overall ideologies and beliefs has spilled to the forefront.  We wear our politics on our sleeves these days.  And madness seems to have the upper edge.  Well, it almost always does, but unreasonability, unwavering, staunch totalitarianism and near fascism seems to be winning the day. (As a side note, it is interesting how liberatiranism has blended into fascism as a means to justify an end, like a big budget studio justifying Transformers 20 to be able to use the revenues to fund some glorified art project).  The right wing nuts rule the roost these days, across the globe, with no pretense of compromise or even trying to take a middle road.

A big reason for this rise has to be attributed to a major failure of liberals.  It is more a fault of the liberals than liberalism per se.  Conservatives managed to get under our skin.  They became so annoying, so deliberately obnoxious that we felt justified in treating them with THEIR values and not OURS. Hardly any attempts were made to take the high road with them.  To offer a chance of dialogue or compromise.  Instead we chose to consider them beneath us.  Unworthy of a dignified response.  They were only to be mocked and ridiculed (quite deservedly so, in many cases).  Even our protests became as such.  One word of derision by them against something and we shoved it in excess, down their throats, flooding the streets lanes and by-lanes (and the gutters of the internet) with more of those.

We, in essence, became fanatics.  Taking unabashedly uncompromising stances against anything they chose or stood for.  We stopped examining right and wrong, stopped trying to look for common ground.  We mocked them incessantly in the name of satire.  But as it turns out, that didn't work.  We never provided the rationale, we stopped countering their ranting with rationale arguments, leading any newcomer to the fray to imagine, they were the rational ones and we were the jokers.  These newcomers will be influenced by the current dominant trend, not by what is right overall.  We rarely get to shape ourselves separate from our environment.  Case in point, all these millenials who will have the misfortune of being Marvel fans over DC purely based on the current state of blockbuster cinema.  Comedy is best when used for healing, not for hurting.  We used hammers where incisive blades were needed.  In gamer terms, we used rocket launchers in close quarters and took critical hits.  And now it is time to re-spawn.

Conservatives have of course, taken the upper hand to go on the offensive.  They never had any pretense for middle grounds.  They haven't lost their way because this was always their way.  There are a few wolves in sheep clothing though.  Seemingly calm minded rational people who claim to be neither conservatives nor liberals, but use the abusive libtards for liberals.  Who rationally try to justify every extreme measure and step taken, who cover every conservative excess as a need of the hour.

If we lose at times, let it be with dignity.  Let us at least remain the sane reasonable ones.  It is one thing to lose to right wing nuts.  It is completely another to lose our sense of identity and what we stand for.  Mocking is easy, but reasoning takes time and patience.  Comedy can be stand up, but philosophy needs to be a sit down affair.  A dialogue not a monologue.  Oh, and if you thought, I was talking about one particular place or instance, you're wrong.  It is happening all around the globe.

Loop de Loop

What we watch on loop, the songs we keep on repeat in our playlists, our go to books and passages to re read, tell a lot about us.  The best way to tell about a person isn't based on the places he has been, but the home he returns to.  Our comforts and the refuge we seek tell a lot about our fears and who we truly are.  But we would rather have people judge us based on the taste we want to have, rather than our guilty pleasures.  The one song that is so cool that hardly anyone has heard of, from a genre that few have heard of, or from the soundtrack of an art film;  that festival release, limited run art film that is praised by bloggers everywhere and which we forced ourselves to sit through.  We want people to believe these are the things that define us, that influence us to our very core.  But they are more influenza than influences.  They come and go but we keep retreating to our guilty pleasures, our happy place.

A big part of it is judgement.  People have always judged others.  Today it is much easier and there are more aspects of one's life made public for judgement.  So we become our own PR reps and image consultants.  We try to mold an image of ours, like vain people showing off that exact same profile and expression the moment a camera enters the vicinity.  A selfie pout of preferences, if you will.  The internet bio description is one big wide angle lens with Carl Zeiss optics and intelligent flash whatever.  But it can never define who we are.

Habits are formed by repetitive actions that ingrain themselves into our personality.  That habit is born out of repetition.  Our comfort food for the soul, on incessant loop, repeating, shapes us for better or for worse.  The ideal life is probably a good mix of healthy habits and new experiences.  Some habits are healthy, some are not.  Some experiences are pleasant, some unnerving.  The right experiences can convert into healthy habits.  So it is always good to try out new stuff.  Go check out that foreign film, even with subtitles.  Go read that genre of fiction that you always turned your nose on.  Go listen to instrumental classic.  And those who scoff at repetition?  They probably do it because they hate missing out on new things while re-watching and re-reading.  But repetition has its own advantage.  It frees up a portion of the mind to think and ponder in ways that we don't when we are absorbing new stuff or when we are completely idle.  It is like muscle memory.  Like putting your brain on autopilot so you can do other things.  Like any autopilot, best be the only one on the road when you do it.

Classical Dilemma

Steven Spielberg is adapting a movie version of the bestseller sci-fi, Ready Player One.  The adaptation, which had originally tapped Christopher Nolan, is well under production with the main casting having been wrapped up.  The USP of the book:  a treasure hunt featuring clues based on pop culture references based on the 80s.  Comedies like The Big Bang Theory have long decided to forgo good jokes, substituting credible jokes having good payoffs with lazy pop culture references.  They rely on cracks about other TV shows, comics and movies to do their heavy lifting for them. 

At one point, that is the only relevance that classics will eventually have.  So that we can be aware of the pop culture references based on them.  We will binge watch and binge read classics so we can binge watch other pop shows.  Besides, no one is going to ask what u grasp or understand or take away from each.  You only plow through to tick off lists on Goodreads and Facebook.  Going through the motions so that you can get in on the conversation.  Besides, who even needs originals anymore when you have re-imagination, rehashes, reinterpretations.  Which is basically taking one egoistic interpretation and forcing it upon the world.  Again, something we humans have expertise in (See: Religion, Classics, Philosophy, Star Wars)

Which, when you think about it, is a bigger crime.  Reading and watching stuff like cramming for an exam.  Its like visiting the landmarks and not soaking up the culture.  Which, by the way, is another thing that today's tourists are fond of.  Especially, Indian tourists.  It enables us to indulge in slugfests under the guise of commentators and experts.  We are all commentators in today's era.  Reacting to stuff rather than relating to them - a tinder swipe in lieu of a long term commitment that could alter and affect your perspective and life for the better.  Because this way, you can move onto the next TV show/movie that is crowding your DVR or taking up space on your hard drive.

My Friend, My Enemy, My Imagination

We have transferred our emotions and daily trauma to imaginary personalities and larger than life personalities.  We laugh and cry with them, feel anger and pain with them.  While we focus on a constant assault of overwhelming stimuli based on pop culture and work pressure, we have effectively outsourced the human side of things.

And so you have emotions that you experience during your day, that you may try to suppress with an influx of pop culture bombardment.  You let out your anguish and frustrations on imaginary villains and monsters, conjured up by someone's imagination, nurtured by your own.  Think yelling at the screen times thousand.  Lashing out at made up monsters that you can't punch.  Which perpetuates a circle.  Feel good movies, to make you feel better, video games to take pressure off, comedies when you have had a bad day.  All good in moderation, probably.  But we binge.  We binge work, we binge watch, we binge drink, we binge eat.  If someone recommended moderation to us, we would binge on it for a week and then give it up.

We all now move around with imaginary friends and ideal situations and so call ideal scenarios stuck in our head, trying to make up for the dissonance and disarray that abound our personal lives.  Relying on F.R.I.E.N.D.S. more than friends, hanging out in Leonard and Sheldon's apartment, weeping over Hodor's death with equal or possibly more fervor than thousands of others that perish in mindless violence around the globe.

Fantasy and escapism have become the mantra.  Which is ironic because most of these works have the reality and real world occurrence at their core.  Just that core taken and polished with idealism, blended with gratification and topped off with low calorie wit and banter.  Kind of like taking taking healthy stuff like wheat and barley and turning them into beer and scotch.  Or, for a more pop culture relevant analogy, using Superman's DNA to create Doomsday.

The Farce is Strong in this One

I love Star Wars.  It's one of my all time Fantasy/Sci-fi series.  Yes, from a sci-fi perspective people can point out loopholes and cite technological inconsistencies, but what the hell, I enjoy the hell out of it.  I'm going to state a ton of opinions here, so be very warned.  To paraphrase, the nastiest,dirtiest war is the one fought among nerds in the trenches of Reddit and comment section of gossip blogs.   And this will piss off a ton of those nerds.

I loved the star war prequels.  I never said they were perfect, but I haven't come across a perfect movie, yet.  The original Trilogy was just as flawed, but it is just as awesome.  Yeah so it is different.  Like Top Gun is different from The Matrix.  But I still love both those movies.  Yes, the drastic change in tone is not an issue for me.  I was always intrigued by the concept of exploring different themes in the same universe.  So yes, Breaking Bad may not co-exist with the screwball carefree world of Friends, but it's like music (I assume).  You use notes and instruments that complement each other, even if different, not those that contradict and throw each other out of sync.  So maybe not Spaceballs but maybe the next trilogy could have explored a different tone, maybe a little noir, maybe a new genre.  Given how much the prequels expanded on the originals, bringing new worlds, concepts, creating a rich background and history to the mythos of Star Wars, here was a chance for the sequel trilogy films to dive even deeper, explore new worlds and new themes.  After all, there was an entire galaxy at their disposal.

But they weren't making a new film.  They were just making something "not-prequel".  If only they had taken their time and energy and invested it into making a good movie.  But they were pursuing a far more important aspect of the movie than something as stupid as a story.  MARKETING.  Yes, we now live in an era where movies are the new Coca-Colas and Pepsis.  The manufacturing budget is just a fraction of the marketing budget.

From the beginning, The Force Awakens has banked on nostalgia and love for the Original Trilogy and purported itself as a return to glory for the franchise, going back to roots.  No divergence in tone, theme, effects, feel, hell even the same actors.  (speaking of diverging tones in the same universe, a fashion based mockumentary in C.S. Lewis' world?  Fashion in Narnia:  They Lying, The Bitching and The Wardrobe.  Sorry, rambling again.)  It masqueraded as a justice in Imax format, for those nothing better to do'ers who happened to be imprinted to their very soul with the Original Trilogy when they were young and had no space in their tiny minds for anything different.  Setting things right for those who had their "lives" and "childhood" ruined by the Prequel Trilogy.  Hell, even the first line of the movie is a giant middle finger at George Lucas (This will begin to make things right, says an old man).  It convinced people, this is what they needed.  Flashes of images, tone conveyed in brief trailers, the incessant harping on "practical effects" the original actors' return, all led people to believe this is what they had been waiting for.

People began to get pre-emptively positive and optimistic about the movie.  It snowballed into a movement that penetrated mass consciousness, convincing everyone in its wake of its imminent greatness, taking no prisoners.  And then they painted themselves into a corner.  By the time the movie rolled around, not liking it, or voicing their opinions about not liking it was not an option.  It was always going to be a box office phenomenon.  But it ended up high on critics list.  Critics who had already resolved to be in love with it.  It didn't matter that it recreated the tone of the original, had nothing new of note, except superficial novelties and basically rehashed the plots of the Original Trilogy.  It may take some time for the euphoria to wear off, and some people to realize that they've just been part of one of the greatest magic tricks ever witnessed.  The magic, sadly wasn't in the movie.  It was surrounding its release. Some of course, really did want just more of the same, and they will continue to like it.

So yes, the new Star Wars is perfect.  It has taken movie and event marketing to perfection.  It has elevated hype creation and buzz generation to an art form.  Such sad use of such an incredible power.  Like using the force to change channels on your TV.