Go Back to the Beginning
A sure cause of movie fatigue is modern-day studio politics. Keeping your finger on trends, and trying to keep up with every single new film can be a hectic endeavor. Here’s something Roger Ebert once suggested: If you find yourself bored with modern movies, go back to the beginning of all movies. Drop all the newest, hottest films, and take a few days – or even weeks – to watching films from the 1910s and 1920s. Remember: silent films were all the industry had for decades, and there are thousands of silent classics in the world worth your time. Modern studio politics may seem like a morass, but they are definitely put into perspective by movies like The General or The Cat and the Canary. When you go back, the world of movies is now suddenly a scrappy upstart medium, full of new things to explore. And you may find yourself falling in love with the wonderment of this brand new thing. This might be why Martin Scorsese made an ultra-modern 3-D film all about the career of Georges Méliès.
Take a Week Off
I know it’s hard not to watch TV, use the internet, or watch movies in this ultra media-saturated culture, but sometimes it helps to take a vacation. We professionals don’t have this option, but you students do. You may feel like you have to see all the latest releases on opening weekend, but there’s no rule to this effect. You can wait a week on almost anything. There is a semi-big movie being released this week? It’s okay to fall behind on that one. Indeed, by taking a week off, you may be saving the world from a crappy sequel. Say there’s a film you are curious about, but you’re pretty sure it’s gonna suck. If you see that in a large group on Friday night, that movie has just proved its opening potential to Hollywood studios, and they greenlight a sequel right away – even if you didn’t like it. You vote with your dollars. A second week viewing will still allow you to see the film.
Go to a Second-Run Theater
Some cities still have second-run theaters, although I’m aware their an endangered species. Weeks, or sometimes even months, after a film’s release, it will eventually trickle into these inexpensive edge-of-town theaters where people like you – the people who couldn’t make it out in an entire month of release – can finally see it. There is a casual, slowed-down magic to these places. They are somehow less frantic than the usual theaters, a little run down, and always cheap. If you’ve ever wondered where you can still see a movie for three to five dollars, it’s here.
Go to a Repertory House
Repertory houses are also not common nationwide, but if you live in a big enough city, chances are there is a repertory house somewhere within driving distance. These theaters are truly the heart and soul of the moviegoing experience, and were built by and for lovers of film. As such, they resurrect classic films on a regular basis. Many of these houses may even show a new film every day. With new films, the thrill of discovery may be hard to encounter. At a repertory house, you can discover and rediscover all new facets of older movies that you may not have thought about before. If you’ve always wanted to see Freebie and the Bean, for instance, you may be able to see it on the big screen. Older movies provide you with more flavors than your palate is used to. Plus older movies have the additional perspective of history on them, making them more worthy of study. A quiet night at a repertory house, seeing a film made before you were born, is a sure cure for movie fatigue.
Deliberately Expand Your Options
I’m guessing the bulk of this article’s readers are American, and Americans tend to – in a general way – only see movies that were made in America with American money. And can you blame us? We do have the largest film industry in the world. And while there is an integrity to watching every single Julia Stiles movie, say, there is also something limiting about watching only movies that come from your home country. I encourage you, then, to seek out a movie in a foreign language. With subtitles. Not that foreign movies are all good (indeed, their success rate is about the same as American movies), but they do provide a new cultural glimpse into the way movies are made elsewhere. Have you seen a French movie? Then you know a little bit more about french culture. How about a Czech movie? Or an Egyptian one? Mexican? Russian? Filipino? All of these countries have made movies. Try a week watching nothing but movies from a single country. The mere sociological experiment of this action will be enough to redouble your cinematic enthusiasm. Heck, you may even become one of those gloriously obnoxious foreign-films-only types.
Or maybe there are genres or directors you don’t know about. Try cult movies. Westerns. Bollywood films. Nollywood films. Pre-Code musicals. War documentaries. What decades are you unfamiliar with? The 1940s? The 1970s? Break your own mold, and try something deliberately outside your wheelhouse.
Watch Movies for Children
Yes, there is the new wave of wholly obnoxious CGI-animated children’s films about screaming squirrels to think about, but in a general way, movies made for kids (or that are kid-appropriate) tend to have a touch of innocence about them. Movies for grown-ups don’t usually reach for “wonderment” (and how often I wish they did), but kid movies – at least the good ones – at least try to keep little kids in awe. The simplicity of kid movies, and the inherent wonderment of the form may allow you to slow down a bit. Think of the movie as something to be enjoyed. Watch The Wizard of Oz as if you were kid, seeing it for the first time. You’ll find that movies are great again.
Gather with Friends
Have you ever watched an old favorite of yours with a friend who has never seen it? Your own experience is a little different, isn’t it? You’re watching the film for the 100th time, but they are seeing it new. Their reaction may be different than yours, but, in a small way, you are projecting your eyes into their head. You are seeing that film for the first time again, even if you can recite it. Find a 10-year-old who has never seen Star Wars, and go to a repertory house with them. You’ve covered three bases right there.
Commentary Tracks
With the streaming revolution, the notion of a commentary track has become less a popular way to consume movies in general. I also agree with film director David Lynch’s assessment that commentary tracks tend to distract from a movie, transforming your experience into something less than what the movie itself could provide, were you watching it without the commentary track. I also believe that a good DVD commentary track has the power to redouble your faith in movies. If you get a good commentary track from an insightful director, actor, or film scholar (the film scholars tend to record better tracks than people who worked on the film, ironically enough), then, once again, you gain a new perspective on the movie. Indeed, if the track is good enough, you may find yourself in a new mind state. An analytical place where you begin to notice new things about movies in general. Start with the commentaries for The Criterion Collection. Those are the best.
Follow these simple steps, and you may find the fatigue wearing off, and the passion re-growing. We’re all faced with various existential fatigues over the course of our lives, and there is always a cure, usually within the very thing we’re fatigued by. Remember: There was a beginning to your obsession. That thing that drew you in is still there. Find it and embrace it.
Homework for the Week:
What are some techniques of your own to battle movie fatigue? Do you experience the fatigue often? Did you try any of the things I listed? What was the movie or the thing about movies that drew you in to begin with? Is that what keeps you interested?
Witney Seibold is a featured contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can read his weekly articles Trolling, Free Film School and The Series Project, and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
