What Makes A Good Movie?

Kylee is laying next to me watching Proof. It has Gweneth Paltrow in it and Jake Gyllenhall. I am supposed to be writing a story for my creative writing class right now, and I am terminally behind in Spanish and I surely could be doing that also. But neither will get done in the next hour or so. Proof has me thinking--what makes a good movie?

I think a good movie does one of two things: it entertains or provokes thought. A few examples will illustrate.

Provoking Thought

M. Night Shyamalan movies are the best example of this. I think he is brilliant because his goal seems to be to have people ponder over life issues. The Village is a good example. I didn't think the point of the story was to scare people with the creatures in the forrest. I think it was to answer the final question that the leader of the village asked, "well, we have the boy falling into the hole, we could use that to further the village, do we want to do that?" I left the theater with that question buzzing through my mind for the rest of the day, would I want to continue the village? I don't know the answer still, I still think about it. Therefore, it is a great movie. 

Entertainment

These are the I Am Legend (I think this movie could straddle both lines) kind of movies. Or the James Bond movies, and the many other movies like this that are purely for entertaining purposes. Even Dumb and Dumber gets a nod for being a great movie in this category, because although Dumb and Dumber doesn't offer much intellectually it does entertain in a serious way. There are many of these movies. Actually, these movies are probably about half of all movies there are. 

So those are the two good kinds of movies to me. There are great ones in each category. But the ones that make me think are, by far, my favorites. I love to have my ideas questioned, my foundations removed, and my viewpoints confronted. These movies are great. 

I am grateful for the really good movies in life. They are true art.