Psycho. #53

What do you think about fanbases affecting your judgement of a film? I watched a bunch of Mission: Impossible movies recently. They are fun but I was surprised by how ramshackle everything that isn't a stunt is in them. 

This wouldn't usually bother me since it's a dumb dumb action movie and I know what I signed up for but a lot of the online reaction to the movies really seem to invent a compelling narrative and character arc for Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt (especially the most recent ones) that I just don't see evidence of in the actual films, which sours me on the movies a bit. Am I being needlessly contrarian?

Sounds to me as if Tom Cruise’s fanbase — or perhaps a looser fanbase of action films in general (or perhaps an even looser one still, of “films like they used to make ‘em”) — didn’t really affect your judgement of the Mission: Impossible series too much! Of course, the general view, that this is a gosh-darn thrill-a-minute series of movies, gave you something to kick against, so perhaps in that sense you were reacting in a way you might otherwise not have; but you maintained your own opinion of these films throughout, regarding with lucidity all the crappy non-action filler that makes up these movies. Well done!

I do know what you mean though, that sometimes a consensus or a fervour around a film can feel like it’s clouding your critical faculties: you find yourself scouring it for the thing that you’ve heard is in there, rather than exercising your usual discrimination straight off the bat. I found that to be the case relatively recently with Babygirl (2024), the erotic drama by Halina Reijn, starring Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson. Before I get into it, I should say: “Harris Dickinson innocent.” OK, now that’s over, let’s proceed. Going into the film, expecting a properly grown-up and horny consideration of a twisted relationship, I caught myself searching the film’s dialogue, images, performances, for some good scraps to feast on. I doubt that I would have extended that courtesy to the movie without, for instance, all the acclaim I had heard for Kidman’s performance, which of course came garlanded with the usual epithets: gutsy, unflinching, yadda yadda yadda. And yet I could not find very much to enjoy in the film: I tried to appreciate the examination of BDSM I was watching, but I found it, in the end, rather tame and not particularly revelatory of character. Whoop-de-doo, a man dominating a woman! And, what’s this? She’s crawling towards him on the floor?? Ye gods — the audacity! The subversion! I must try that out with my wife, Helen, the next time the kids are away at scout camp!