Arts: The Movie Club

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The Movie Club The Movie Club Can you admire a movie without enjoying it? By Dan Kois Posted Tuesday, Jan 03, 2012, at 08:18 PM ET Dana! Stephanie! Michael! "Is there a difference between loving a movie and loving the experience of watching?" Stephanie asks in her excellent dispatch, and that's a question that's been much on my mind this year. In my experience, there is. That's why on my ballots in the Indiewire and Village Voice polls I named Kelly Reichardt (Meek's Cutoff) my best director. The austere, challenging (for me, anyway) Meek's, a sort of handmade Western starring Michelle Williams as a pioneer wife whose little party is lost in the Oregon badlands, was a fine example of a film that, in the end, I liked quite a bit, even though I had trouble enjoying the experience of watching it. I liked it because it has specific artistic ambitions and because it fulfills those artistic ambitions, in part, by frustrating the audience's viewing experience. It's a unified piece of work; Reichardt's accomplished something real that stuck in my head for a long time—that even forced me to wrestle, publicly and embarrassingly, with my own shortcomings as a viewer. So Meek's, like Melancholia, was for me a film that didn't offer enjoyment in the moment but did inspire affection as time went on. Are there films that work in the reverse? Films that offer enjoyable viewing experiences, but then afterward provoke disdain? Of course! How about apparent Oscar front-runner The Artist, a charming piece of work that never tires, never bores, never in its ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Weigel: How Ron Paul Diehards Plan To Keep His Campaign Alive After Iowa What the Iowa Caucuses Would Look Like if They Really Were a Horse Race Was Matt Flynn's Amazing Performance Sunday a Fluke?	Advertisement
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