What is all of this nonsense about directors?
I was thinking about seeing some movies. Specifically, it’s been a while since Return of the King came out, and I’m wanting to see it. Not so much wanting to sit in the theater for 4 hours for one movie, but wanting to see how the movie ends. It would be cool if Sam just stabbed Frodo and then handed the ring to Sauron. Oh, yeah… The sweetest double-cross. But I think that’s not in store.
Anyway, I was looking on MovieFone to see what was playing, and I saw this movie Bob’s been talking about, Bad Santa. I couldn’t remember exactly what it was about, so I clicked the link to get a description of the movie.
Blah blah, Billy Bob Thornton, blah blah, Santa Clause… and then, “An offbeat comedy from the director of Ghost World.”
What is this?
And I know you’re thinking, “Yeah, I didn’t see that Ghost World movie, but I understand the reference being made.” Well, ok, here goes the rant.
I own the Ghost World movie on DVD. I’m not saying I’m proud of that or anything, but it’s a fact. I’ve watched it. It’s not a good movie. It’s not bad in that way where you’d say, “This movie is bad,” but it’s not good.
It’s got Thora Birch (American Beauty, among other good roles) and Steve Buscemi (Pulp Fiction, among other good roles), and it’s based on a comic book by Daniel Clowes. Incidentally, Clowes wrote the screenplay.
So what does Terry Zwigoff have anything to do with Ghost World? He’s the director. The acclaimed director of whom Bad Santa is referenced. Well if the first movie was “not good”, what makes me want to see this movie directed by a guy whose name means nothing to me, but, oh yeah - He is “the director of Ghost World”?
All this means to me is that they needed to say that he directed a movie prior to this one to demonstrate that someone had placed some trust in his ability to motivate actors and place a camera and stuff.
Now, I’ll admit, I didn’t know who David Fincher was for a while, and maybe I would have been impressed if The Game had mentioned that he directed Se7en. But they didn’t bother. Why? Because The Game was good enough to stand on its own.
I have my doubts about this Bad Santa movie.
