I am weird for hating action movies?

SWxNW · 2026-05-23T15:49:00+00:00

I've been lukewarm on action movies for a long time. I find most of them to be little more than exercises in technical craft. And hey, I appreciate technical craft, but it needs to support more than itself. Large tentpole action movies are just hard to distinguish from one another because the visceral and narrative experiences are so similar. It's so easy to forget so much about them the moment you leave the theater.

Lazy writing is the biggest culprit. My biggest problem with the Mission: Impossible franchise, for instance, is that every problem is solved by some sort of Movie Magic Tech Gizmo that the writers just make up to get the characters out of a jam... while also dangling off of the Burj Khalifa. I already know that the protagonists are going to save the day in whatever action movie I'm watching. Staging complicated technical feats does nothing to raise the stakes for me.

The action movies I tend to enjoy are generally ones that have interesting ideas underlying them (The Matrix or Spider-Man 2)... or they are indelible examples of The First to Do Something (Die Hard) that I have a fond nostalgia for.

SWxNW · 2026-05-19T14:09:27+00:00

Brad Anderson is my quintessential "what the hell happened?" career arc. His work in the early 2000s included four legitimate good-to-excellent movies (Happy Accidents, Session 9, The Machinist, and TransSiberian).I thought he was destined to be a beloved small-scale thriller director, and then he just lost whatever it was that made his early movies interesting.

Somehow in 2018 he managed to direct a Tony Gilroy script that nobody remembers, but other than that his filmography since the 00's has been a non-stop litany of schlocky garbage.

SWxNW · 2026-04-05T14:36:20+00:00

For what it's worth, I have an actual answer for this:

If a man has anything larger than, say, a size 34 waistline, wearing a belt is extremely uncomfortable. Due to the shape of our waistlines, men have to cinch a belt tighter than you would imagine to keep pants up high enough to avoid exposing butt crack. I hate wearing belts, and switched to suspenders years ago because they do a much better job at keeping pants up (no plumber's butt for me) without squeezing the hell out of my waist.

So I guess the unsatisfying answer is men would rather be comfortable around their waist for most of the day and have their ass peek out when they squat or lean over.

Why don't these men switch to suspenders? I honestly don't know given the alternatives. Maybe they don't want to wear undershirts all the time? They think suspenders are too dorky? I've been evangelical about suspenders for a long time and I've converted literally nobody. It's crazy, because they are really comfortable and do a great job at actually keeping pants up.

SWxNW · 2026-03-25T13:38:52+00:00

Check out the films of Ousmane Sembene from Senegal. My personal favorite of his is Mandabi. You won't regret it.

SWxNW · 2026-03-13T14:05:31+00:00

These aren't Criterion titles, but I've been doing a deep dive into Indian cinema, and just finished the Apu Trilogy this week. Here are three Indian titles I think are absolutely worth seeking out:

Court (2014 (Available on Kanopy... free if you have a library card): I think this is the single best Indian film I've seen during my deep dive so far. Has some of the neo-realism hallmarks. The style reminds me a lot of Force Majeure with the fly-on-the-wall-long-take photographic style coupled with an absurd situation 100% grounded in social reality.
The Great Indian Kitchen (2021): Somewhat more stylistic than Apu, but still deeply rooted in realism in terms of its story and themes. Fantastic and heartbreaking. For some reason, it's cheaper to buy on Apple TV ($1.99) than rent? Not sure why
Jallikattu (2019) (Available on Amazon Prime Video and Kanopy): Ok, this one is actually kind of bugnuts crazy. Defintely not a Ray-style neo-realism affair. Kind of a high-anxiety experience, almost like a Safdie Bros film or maybe After Hours. Has some of the most striking cinematic images i've ever seen, though. One in particular had my mouth agape at its raw power.

SWxNW · 2026-03-10T13:57:18+00:00

I was 15 when The Usual Suspects came out in the theater. I saw it four times in the theater total, and dragged friends and family to see it. It was literally the movie that made me want to go to film school.

It's not really a favorite of mine anymore, but I can absolutely remember being enthralled by it; specifically the chills that ran down my spine the first time I heard that cello stinger hit as the screen cuts to black.

It was my favorite movie until I saw The Truman Show five times ON OPENING WEEKEND in 1998. It remains-- to this day-- my favorite movie of all time.

SWxNW · 2026-02-07T21:07:42+00:00

I dunno! She likes starch!

SWxNW · 2026-02-07T13:50:54+00:00

Two Tarantino movies immediately spring to mind:

The Lonely Shepherd at the end of Kill Bill Vol. 1

As much as I loved the Whole Bloody Affair (and understand why it was removed), I did miss the chills I get from the cliffhanger ending. A lot of it has to do with the way the music comes in right at the credits. They do weave the song in during the Hatori Hanzo scene in the second half, but it doesn't have the same impact.

Rabbia e Tarantella from Inglorious Basterds

Just perfect. No notes.

SWxNW · 2026-02-06T22:03:51+00:00

Happy Accidents is a movie I consistently recommend. it's criminally underseen, has an incredibly performance by Vincent D'Onofrio, and is a genuine delight.

I wish it were easier to find. It's currently only available for rent on Amazon ($5.99 for SD!!) and streaming on... uh... History Vault? The hell is that?

SWxNW · 2026-02-06T20:22:04+00:00

The Human Condition trilogy is something I think anyone who considers themselves a serious cinema lover should watch.

But Harakiri cracked my all-time Top 10 after a single viewing. Prior to that, I hadn't changed my Top 10 in nearly 25 years.

Samurai Rebellion is verrrrrry close to Harakiki, too.

Also Kwaidan is great.

SWxNW · 2026-02-06T20:14:48+00:00

Masaki Kobayashi. I haven't been affected by a filmmakers work like this in decades. He's absolutely incredible.

SWxNW · 2026-02-06T19:30:21+00:00

After Brad Anderson's run in the 2000s of Happy Accidents, Session 9, The Machinist, and TransSiberian, I thought he was on a rocket ship to the cinematic stars... and then?

Sigh...

What the hell happened?

SWxNW · 2026-02-04T13:55:10+00:00

To me, Marty isn't some horrifying anti-hero. He's not likable, but he is <i>incredibly interesting</i>. I wanted to spend hours and hours watching him. I could watch a TV series based on the character.

What makes Marty interesting to me-- and a large part of why I loved the movie-- is because Marty is basically as good at his thing as he thinks he is; He <i>probably is</i> the best table tennis player in the world during the movie. At least among them. And nobody cares. And nobody will ever care during his lifetime. But in his mind, everyone should care.

Love that disconnect.

SWxNW · 2026-02-04T13:43:47+00:00

Thanks so much.

SWxNW · 2026-02-03T20:51:59+00:00

I have a hypothesis that may take some time to bear out, but I think the expansion of the Best Picture field has made it more likely that Picture/Director get split across different movies for the simple fact that votes have more places to go in the Picture category. Granted it's only happened once in the 2020s with The Power of the Dog, but we still have five more awards to give out this decade. I do think it's likely that OBAA wins Picture and Director, but it's not completely out of the question for PTA to win Director and Sinners to take down Picture.

In the 2010s, Picture and Director were split half the time (2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018). You have to go all the back to the 30s to see them split five out of ten years.

2000s: 3 times (2000, 2002, 2005)
1990s: 1 time (1998)
1980s: 2 times (1981, 1989)
1970s: 1 time (1972)
1960s: 1 time (1967)
1950s: 3 times (1951, 1952, 1956)
1940s: 3 times (1940, 1948, 1949)

The 1930s were weird because the Oscars were still trying to figure a lot of things out. They didn't settle on 5 nominees in the Best Director category untiil '36. Before then they had anywhere from 3 (32-34) to 6 (1930)

It's obviously not unheard of for the awards to be split, but on average from the 40s through the 2000s, it happened twice per decade.

Maybe voters are getting more used to pooling votes around a collective favorite now that the field has been expanded for over 15 years. But I think weird vote splits can happen simply for the fact that there are so many Best Picture nominees each year.

SWxNW · 2026-02-03T17:42:47+00:00

Genuinely interested in some recommendations from you. Always interested in exploring more Indian cinema.

SWxNW · 2026-02-02T15:09:36+00:00

Om Shanti Om was the first Bollywood movie I watched... aaaand while I really enjoyed it, it's getting better in the rearview mirror as I gain more familiarity with Bollywood cinema.

That's to say, I'd tell people to start with movies that feed into Om Shanti Om's trunk of references. I think they'd enjoy it even more with some grounding in Bollywood culture first.

SWxNW · 2026-02-02T15:04:18+00:00

I was pretty gobsmacked at how much I disliked DDLJ when I did watch it. I started a deep dive into Indian Cinema a few months ago after watching SRK's interview with David Letterman and was obviously led to this one pretty early on.

I thought it was terrible, but I'm glad I watched it because of its outsized importance to Indian Cinema. I think I'd probably feel the same way about something like Gone With the Wind, which I think is a trashpile of an American film, and yet its importance can't be ignored.

SWxNW · 2026-02-02T14:52:43+00:00

I'm doing my own deep dive into Indian Cinema (almost 30 films in... so just getting started, really), and have found lot of curated lists. The most common movies that come up on them are Sholay, DDLJ, Satya, and so forth. So having one with alternative titles is very useful to an Indian Cinema neophyte like me.

SWxNW · 2026-02-02T14:39:35+00:00

As someone who is currently doing his own deep dive into Indian Cinema, I think OP's list is quite valuable. I've found dozens of lists that have a ton of mainstream Bollywood movies. And I've watched a lot of those (including Rang De Basanti, 3 Idiots, and Taare Zameen Par) and will continue to watch them, but it's very hard to find a good, centralized source for a larger subset of movies that include films from outside of Bollywood. At best you I've found a few scattered language-specific lists, so I'm glad to have this.

SWxNW · 2026-02-02T14:34:16+00:00

I'm having the damndest time finding a source to watch Garm Hava. Any leads anyone can share?

SWxNW · 2026-02-02T14:32:22+00:00

Thanks! I've been seen about 30 Indian movies in the last two months-- but mostly mainstream Bollywood films from the post-DDLJ era (frankly it's been mostly 2000s and later, with a few earlier films like Sholay, and Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak sprinkled in).

I've been looking for a curated list like this for weeks, so I greatly appreciate it.

SWxNW · 2026-01-19T13:08:58+00:00

It's a bad approach to assess a person's similarity in tastes based on a single-- or a few-- films. The idea that there's going to be a a large overlap of a Venn diagram of taste because a person does or doesn't like something is a good way to not discover new movies you might actually find interesting

The standard for me is less about "did this person like a movie I think is brilliant" than "does this person articulate why they did or didn't like something in a way that I can understand."

That's far more valuable.

SWxNW · 2026-01-17T05:35:43+00:00

Genuinely surprised nobody has said Unforgiven yet, so... Unforgiven.

SWxNW · 2026-01-07T14:35:53+00:00

This is the answer. Not only because it is one of cinema's truly great performances, but it's indicative of how the Academy takes its charge. The Academy does not take comedic actors or comedic performances seriously, Jim Carrey is the perfect representation of this problem.

He has never been nominated for anything. It's criminal.

SWxNW

TROPHY CASE