The worse an “artist” can do is conform and appease to popular trends. It’s no longer a mindful work of art. It’s a product. Call me analytical, call it whatever you like. Products are shallow things that only exist to make one feel good, like a hooker, or Pop Rocks. By and large, they’re all identical, like hookers, or Pop Rocks. And I don’t doubt that people like their hookers, or Pop Rocks. ‘Liking’ something doesn’t automatically make it meaningful.

It is not that I dislike movies that make me feel good. Of-fuckin-course I enjoy them (because I am educated and commit hours to learn about film, does that rule out my tastes as elitist and dismissible?). But films that take the extra step to make me feel *human* is an even greater feat, one that never fails to melt my heart. All commercial products are engineered to make it’s audience feel good. Micheal Bay does it. But a film that makes you feel more human, well, that’s a rare unicorn.

I have a deep respect for hard working artists, their independence, their courage to be their own trend and to not fall in line, unlike today’s commercial indie; they’re bankable sellouts that only pretend to be one of a kind. Though to some, looking pretty and acting cute is the definition of art; nevermind everything else. Those movies are exposed to a rash and unthinking public of consumers who do little to encourage discussion. I do consider what I say without diluting my words with empty disagreements. Hell, I’m sure it has occurred to you that I am defending the artists you speak of. What I am not defending is an apathy to what a layman may perceive as an “intellectual” or “challenging” film over an emotionally passive feel-good ‘entertainment’ that rolled off a factory belt. The studios obviously feel this way, and they want their audience (white males, aged 17-35) to feel this way too. Cha-ching.

(the word “intellectual” is a nervous layman’s word, the way “virgin” is for those who haven’t had their cherries popped)

But I am a sucker for those indie-commercial productions. It’s my genre of choice.

Come to think of it, do they have a name for those movies yet?

I was trying to apply a sense of irony to 500 Days of Summer—which to me has the gloss of a full-blown Hollywood release. But it’s really a part of a growing trend of selectivism. I applaud its release, and I do believe it will be good; I’m just weary of why it got wide distribution over others, and why we haven’t been exposed to other…genres/material from the indie market.

I think, like Ira Glass was saying, that we each have our own taste. And we know that that taste is good. My plan is to follow that taste and see where it leads me. My taste is RushmoreGardenState500DaysofSummer. That is my motivation. That is what I want to make.