Hello!With our Administrator’s kind permission, this is the first installment of a weekly column devoted to SF films. What makes me think I can write a film column? Two answers: (1) To paraphrase Faulkner, all you need is a PC, a modem, and the delusion that you have talent and (2) with Ebert and Roper on hiatus, somebody had to step up.My personal standard as to whether or not I like or dislike a movie is does it pass what I call the Curtiz Test. According to the story, Howard Koch, one of the screenwriters on Casablanca, told the director, Michael Curtiz, about a plot inconsistency. Curtiz is said to have replied, “Don’t worry; I make it go so fast, no one will notice.” So if you can watch a movie and not go, “Wait a minute—!” until after you’ve left the theater, the filmmakers have succeeded in suspending your disbelief.Sometimes I will look favorably upon a movie that doesn’t pass the Curtiz Test, if the filmmakers at least tried. However, sloppy filmmaking—or even worse, lazy filmmaking—will not be tolerated; saying “Well, it’s just a movie” is not a license to disrespect the audience. A movie can violate any of the laws that exist outside the theatre but it cannot violate its own internal logic.I may not catch everything (I entirely missed that “red means dead” thing in The Sixth Sense) but hopefully I’ll offer some insight or perspective that’s interesting. We’ll talk about new films and old films, big budget studio productions and low budget indies, films where black characters are integral to the story and films with no black characters at all (although there should have been some). We’ll talk about trends, movies that are SF only by stretching the definition to the limits, but most of all, we’ll talk—and have some fun.And I want to hear from you. Please feel free to contact me personally (cranston_b@hotmail.com) for amplification, clarification, or just to tell me what you really think, especially if you think I’m waaaay off targetThree things before I go:1. This column does not have a title yet; please let me hear your suggestions. You’ll win something (TBA, within reason) if your suggestion is selected—unless I come up with one first.2. I will not be reviewing Meet Dave. I saw The Adventures of Pluto Nash. I’ve suffered enough.3. My opinion is no more valid than yours, and we all know what they say about opinions. But I’m the one with the column.
You need to be a member of Blacksciencefictionsociety to add comments!
Replies