Movie-focused columnists obviously need to engage with films as often and fully as possible, and preferably without an attitude. (Hah!) Actually it doesn’t matter if I go in with a fuck-me attitude — if a film is good, it’s good. Even if an unseen film is generating toxic street buzz or worse, you still have to submit to the damn thing…tough it out, take the pain. (I certainly did this while watching The Housemaid.)
Except, that is, when it comes to pricey, cynical, corporate-funded, big-studio sequels, which I almost always despise. (Exceptions happen once in a blue moon…The Godfather, Part II, Ocean’s Twelve, etc.) So yes, I’m feeling a tad conflicted and a tiny bit guilty about my decision to avoid Avatar: Fire and Ash (totally sick of Cameron’s franchise), Wicked: For Good, Predator: Badlands, Jack Black and Paul Rudd‘s Anaconda and the fifth season of Stranger Things.
But I’m mostly (90%) at peace with with my decision. Especially in the case of Fire and Ash. I also feel this way about Park Chan Wook‘s No Other Choice.