When Darren Aronofsky's Mother! came out, I was genuinely interested in seeing it based on the trailer, despite how intense it seemed to be, and how many horror themes it seemed to have. Then (I think) the female star* outed the premise of the film that should've been explored within the viewing, not granted to you prior to viewing, and I had far less interest in watching it. By exposing its allegorical nature and giving me too big a clue to the underlying theme, you're effectively robbing anyone the chance to consider your film clever or interesting, because they're going in with the twist or conceit already in their mind.
Long before "spoiler culture" became a huge issue, a little movie called the Sixth Sense was out, and it was revolutionary (it's not), word of mouth really catapulting it into the public consciousness. The compelling twist of the film became infamous. So most people were respectful and didn't spoil this for anyone who hadn't seen it, even though most people after bragged they saw the twist coming anyway. I was sort of interested but not desperate to see it. Then I walked into my friend's house while they were watching it, and it was in the last twenty minutes of the film. So I spoiled it for myself, and I didn't care, I kinda laughed it off like pfft whatever. And when I bothered to see it, I thought the acting was overbearing and not particularly good, and the amazing twist wasn't even really interesting. I didn't particularly care this poor child was suffering from his affliction of seeing dead people, and Toni Collette seemed to be hamming it up. Bruce Willis was okay, he proved he could do a dramatic role. Haley Joel Osment is a better actor as an adult than he was a child, when I found him really one note and a bit too cutesy to really appreciate his abilities, so of course he kind of vanished and has only recently reemerged. Overall, I don't like the Sixth Sense because I couldn't get past those flaws just to praise it for an interesting twist, and as we've seen from M Night's recent output, his gimmick couldn't support future films, and he was woefully average and overhyped from this one movie. But the movie came out before Twitter, and when the internet was still so young you couldn't run to a device and just blurt shit out to have it broadcast.
Conversely, I spend time listening to more reviews than I do watching films, and a discussion on the Piano Teacher, with Isabelle Huppert (who I fucking adore) major spoilers included, didn't deter me from still wanting to see the film and judge it from the descriptions offered. In some case, an in depth discussion of a film might be the reason you go and see it. I've also read Wikipedia articles, like I did for Call Me By Your Name, but wound up watching it anyway. I enjoyed the Piano Teacher a lot more, to be honest, even considering thematically, they're quite similar films. Red Letter Media talking about Neon Demon got me to watch that too, and it annoyed the shit out of me, so I've been super reluctant to watch any more of Jay's picks, especially when Turbo Kid wasn't as great as he'd made it out and the Manic Pixie Dream stand-in was obnoxious as fuck. DNF.
I would want to tell you Ex Machina is a particular type of film, and a very powerful one at that, but I feel like that would genuinely spoil the ending for you. It's an amazing film that took a weighty subject and presented it in relatively simplistic terms without sacrificing its cleverness or intelligence. Aesthetically, it's quite stunning for the budget it was granted, so it made good of this by confining the majority of the story within one location, which seamlessly blended its two contrasting settings of the sterile interior and the lushness of the woods and mountains outside. I love movies that can combine near-future elements with modern ones, so you're not subjected to cliched futuristic costumes, and the CG won't get too dated, I feel like this might be on T2 levels of reasonably ageless graphics and effects. I had meant to see this based on the trailer and just kept putting it off, but the trailer doesn't spoil anything in terms of themes or story. Me telling you it's a great "fill in the blank" movie would definitely spoil it. I don't even really want to say anything about the characters themselves, it's better you simply watch it and make your own conclusions as you go, as it carries itself in terms of tension very well. There was a false ending I thought would've been justified however it would cheat you out of the fate of each of the characters.
My point is, don't ever think that telling someone what a movie is "about" in terms of themes won't effectively spoil the movie. If the trailer and the interviews of the cast aren't raising it outright, or feel it's not necessary for you to know, it's for the best. No wonder everyone can't decide whether discussing certain aspects of movies constitute as genuine spoilers now. To me, this one definitely is.
*Jen Lawrence has fallen out of favour with me from this and her general arrogance. Sadly she got a biggish enough ego now she thinks she can call out journalists translating their questions from their phones as "not paying attention", or she can rub her ass on a rock at a sacred site and not apologise sincerely for it. Granted, I think her copping shit for that and other things really made her turn on the audience but it was more that she seemed to "suffer" through public appearances like this shit was beneath her. And wearing blue paint was unreasonable. Whatever. We have Emma Stone now. She's a perfect replacement anyway.
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