critical generic analysis: romantic comedy

romance

you think that 'love'—much like 'quantum physics', 'spirituality', 'the internet' and, to some degree, 'gravity'—is a memetic coalescence invented by humans to explain something that is currently incomprehensibly abstract, and is persistently referenced to as a single conglomerate to falsely concretize—as an abstraction-trumping security mechanism—an intuitive phenomenon that may or may not exist as humanity understands or experiences it and will change as humanity better communicates mutual subjective experiences and also as scientific studies better explain the phenomenon in more concrete terms

you feel uncomfortable that 'love' is a defining aspect of human interconnectivity, because of its nature as a presumed universal and humanity's linguistic inability to define it, despite its ubiquitousness, and think that the memetic transference of the concept may have developed into a highly flawed rhetorical device, confusing and inaccurately assigning an 'umbrella term' to a complex series of emotional responses and 'desires' that might be better communicated through more nuanced differentiation

but you perceive that 'love' is 'marketable' as a primary theme in various 'artistic media', specifically movies, and that, based on your interest in movies, love 'requires' conceptual dissection

however you find the trend of foregoing all rational story arcs when culminating romantic experiences occur and the resulting sense of 'transcendent euphoria' at the end of movies ungratifying

you feel that this sudden breakdown of rationale is jarring, and 'fucks' the movie's 'suspension of disbelief', but because [most romantic comedies] are generically prescribed the title 'romantic comedies', you think maybe this designation is a device that 'justifies' the dissolution of the story's coherence as long as intense, emotional sequences are periodically present between the middle and end portions of the movie


comedy

you think—based on your preconceived ideas about death, suffering, and existential despair—that life has an inherently, consistently bleak quality that is somewhat alleviated by communication that results in intentional paradoxes

you think that the bleakness-decreasing human instinct considered 'humor' seems to be the simplest response and most difficult to induced subtly in order to prolong combat against bleakness

your are an advocate for combatting bleakness

comedy exists, inherently, you think, in everything, if juxtaposed against an appropriately absurd idea

the very mention of 'love', for instance, at all, ever


romantic comedy

you perceive that the generic concept of a 'romantic comedy' is basically a title given to a movie that's primary focus is to embody the concept of 'romance' by narrating a two-plus interpersonal and possibly sexual relationship and approach it with a certain optimism that will allow the movie to conclude with a sense of euphoric, perhaps existentially impossible 'success' in the context of either a romantic pursuit or a romantic trial

however the nature of relationships, you believe, is fluid and ephemeral, perhaps unknowable, so the creative choice to end a story, regardless of the theme, by indiscriminately leading to the 'happy ending', because [in context] it 'needs' to end that way (happily ever after...), is inherently disingenuous and missing the nuance necessary be considered a 'reflection of the human experience'.

therefore you relegate 'romantic comedy' to a non-art status, in your mind, and will not address the concept or genre again

internet cinema zeitgeist phenomenon coverage: sebastian sommer interviews molly soda

molly soda
sebastian sommer

movie review: 'the future'

miranda july directs
herself
and hamish linklater



you arrive home after living abroad for five months

your brother asks if you've seen 'the future'?

'the movie? by miranda july?' you ask

'yeah,' says your brother

'no, but i've been wanting to'

'it's really weird'

'yeah, she's crazy'

'i got it on redbox, it's in the DVD player'

you go downstairs to the den and wrap yourself in a blanket and use the remote to turn on the DVD player

during the movie you try to discern what the title of the film 'means' or is referring to,

then you remember the title of miranda july's last movie was 'me and you and everyone we know' and vaguely remember a character saying 'me and you and everyone we know' or something like that during the movie

you expect this to happen in 'the future'

after the movie you discuss the themes with your brother

he thinks that the injured cat, the 'soul of the movie' is the worst thing about it

you think about an interview with miranda july in which she admits to never having seen 'lolcats' and think this may have informed, in a way, the movie's overall 'non-self-awareness'

you 'go mad' and contemplate stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping time stopping

vimeo.com account review: sebastian sommer

you perceive 'an epiphany'

you realize that there is a high probability that more filmmakers are in the 'muumuuhouse school of experimental filmmaking' [for lack of a better term] besides ellen frances, adam humphreys, pirooz kalayeh, kacper jarecki, david fishkind and MDMAfilms

you feel compelled to look for 'similar artists' on the internet

'at some point' you find the vimeo account of sebastian 'sebsom' sommer, a student at NYU

on sebsom's vimeo account is a video asserting that it is a 'reimagining' of two of tao lin's short stories, found in his bear parade-published collection 'today the sky is blue and white with bright blue spots and a small pale moon and i will destroy our relationship today'




while watching the video titled 'happily drowning', you feel high levels of confusion re choices in characterization, location, and costuming

you think maybe sebsom had difficulty with use of 'narrative tact' and with his attempts at establishing a discernable 'mood', but you also perceive that sebsom, being a student, probably had limited resources, and made the video with fellow students, friends and perhaps SAG actors who [probably] can't communicate his artistic sensibility with palpable, disbelief-suspending clarity

or perhaps sebsom, you think, has yet to 'manipulate' the scenario in a manner that is 'definitively sebsom-like' and not simply unlike other student filmmakers

you watch the other videos on sebsom's vimeo account multiple times and feel similar types/levels of confusion







you think about 'revisiting' sebsom's work in the future, when his 'voice' is more developed/coherent/horrific

sebsom sends you a friend request on facebook

you accept

sebsom sends you a message via facebook:

'hey dude! lookin forward to dead midgets! i wanted to know if you could possibly check out my latest short film EIGHTEEN SLASH STAINLESS and possibly review it? but first, a little about me. I'm from Manhattan and I've been making films my whole life. I made an experimental film Mama Said Sardine Baby that played at the TriBeCa Film Festival. I've also worked with Tao Lin on adapting one of his short stories into a film. 

Here is the link to the short: http://vimeo.com/33370714 

Here is the link to my site: http://sebsom.com/ 

Please let me know! 

Seb'

in a mutually beneficial 'promotional agreement' you review '18/S'




you watch the video several times and feel consistent levels of an 'indiscernible confusion', like... you feel unable to discern the filmmaker's 'intent', which seems... like... 'jarring', in that you perceive that your ability to enjoy a video is solely dependent on your ability to discern the filmmaker's use of 'narrative tact' and/or 'spectacle', but due to the paradox caused by the video's high production quality, non-existant narrative structure and seemingly 'thrown-together' spectacle, you think '18/S' is like... naive... in its... projection of... like... life's horror... maybe

you decide to use a cliche to describe sebastian sommer's current oeuvre: 'shows promise'... in like a similar way to how the first short film you made in film school 'showed promise'

an essay by stephen michael mcdowell 'surfaced' on 'thought catalog'

POSSIBLE REASONS HOLLYWOOD CONSISTENTLY BUTCHERS BRET EASTON ELLIS MOVIE ADAPTATIONS