I Follow My Own Model for Watching a Movie

List of titles of works based on Shakespearean phrases (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Remember yesterday when I took Tim Corrigan's list of tips about analyzing movies and highlighted a handful, saying that I doubted I could keep the whole list in mind? Since Word has suddenly died on my computer (and it's too wet to plow), I decided to put my list to the test by applying it to the short film we viewed in class.

1) Convince others why you like or dislike a film: As I said, "convince" is a strong word with the connotation that you are trying to convince readers to seek out or avoid a particular film. In the case of SMILF, I have no strong feelings about exposing it to a wider audience so the most I'm trying to do is explain why I feel the way I feel after having seen it. And that suggests that in the review I will need to explain myself to my readers. In other words, my views are personal and possibly eccentric, and, of course, it shows an attractive modesty to acknowledge that. A shorthand for that might be, "If like me you are xxxxxxx, then you might xxxxxxxx." So here it is for SMILF, "If like me you are a person in late - very late - middle age, inclined to accept the fact today there are more and more single mothers out there and that sexual desire - certainly the desire to be desired - can coexist with motherhood, then you might appreciate SMILF'S gentle comedy."

2) Make a connection between the movie and other areas of culture: I think I just did, though I might add this. "It is also a movie about the ease of connection in the internet age - ease of connecting with information and ease of acting on it. Our young mother is on her laptop inspecting images of women struggling with the toll pregnancy and childbirth exact on the beautiful bodies of carefree youth. You can see her think: Am I still sexually desirable. And how easy the smartphone makes it to act on that thought. Because of instant messaging, we live in an age where to think is to act. Hey, GIUTF - 'Guy I used to fuck' - she texts. Hey, SMILF - 'Single Mother I'd Like to Fuck' - he replies. Well, that didn't take long, I think."

3) Why does the movie start the way it does? Photograph of a woman and her cute baby shortly after it was born. Then the two of them on a bed, her trying to sleep and the baby - nine months, right? - reaching out, touching her. So - when soon after that opener she wants another kind of touching - maybe this sets it up? Or is it a beautiful scene of mother and child, suggesting a bedrock reality that is only briefly interrupted by her failed assignation? I don't know, but it certainly seems profitable to focus on an initial image and what the viewer's initial expectations - and emotional state - were based on the film's beginning. It's easy to forget what that initial image was, so good to make an effort to fix it in your mind. There is a famous phrase from the start of Shakespeare's Richard III - "Now is the winter of our discontent..." In SMILF, it's not winter, and at the beginning our protagonist seems .... not exactly happy - but content? That quickly changes but then resets at the end, right?  It is the movie's baseline, I would argue.

4) How does the movie make you feel at the end? Happy? Depressed? Confused? And why? Well, that is a good question because after first viewing, my initial emotion was a reaction to the movie filtered through external reality, i.e., "I can show this to the class without putting them to sleep." But on subsequent viewings - complete with pause and replay - I turned off pedagogical mode. And I thought: That cheered me up. It's well made and clever, and craftsmanship is always comforting. It's actually pretty traditional. Motherhood is good. The young people are all right! My world view is intact. I saw nothing that disturbed or frightened me. And I felt curious: What will the students say? Maybe this will be a window into their world??? I can't imagine how I would have reacted had I seen this when I was their age. Yes, I can. It would have been porn and terribly threatening and exciting.

5) Does the music have any special relation, etc.? Yes, but there were no music credits at the end, and I didn't recognize the songs or artists. Leave this bit of analysis to the class.

6) When you start paying attention to how the movie cuts from image to image... (Jump cut. An abrupt transition from one scene to another.) In SMILF the guy has recoiled from the bed, having noticed there's a lump and IT'S ALIVE. It's just the kid. He says he can't "do it" there. Jump cut to bathroom in mid sex scene. Viewer must quickly reorient to place and impending action. Many things in this scene are surprising, incongruous, shocking even. And the guy is vulnerable and ridiculous as he tries to get back in the mood. All these elements are the very definition of humor, and so I laughed.

Conclusion: Works for me, though these six perspectives are not, in themselves, enough to produce a review that would satisfy me. But they were a nice start.