I just subjected myself to what could be the worst movie I have seen.
Most cheap movie that are badly made at least understand that they are cheap and bad.
But Holy Motors is a movie that thinks it is bold and brilliant. And what drove me nuts was how most critics seemed to think the same.
I first read about Holy Motors on Ainitcool.com. The reviewer was hyperbolic in his praise. Of course in that same article he had similar words about Cloud Atlas. That should have been my first clue.
The movie is about a guy being driven around Paris putting on disguises and getting in weird situations. This plot actually sounds intriguing.
The result was not.
Nothing in the movie made sense.
Nothing.
The movie won several awards and received a 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
This movie is vile. I don't mean that it shows graphic nudity and violence (it does). It offends me not so much morally, but as a movie goer.
I want good art! I demand good movies. This is not the rant of petulant child. This is a plea from someone who LOVES movies.
Ultimately I believe that all art, if it serves the end of its nature, is a window into the the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.
Holy Motors felt like a window into the awful, the unreal, and the ugly.
For a little while I felt like I was the only one who saw that the Emperor has no clothes. But then I found a review of the film from Le Movie Snob. I highly recommend reading it (though the language gets a little salty at times) Click here to read it. (I am not endorsing the whole site, just this one article)
Holy Motors represents, to me, the biggest problem with not only movies but art in general. The powers that be, the art critic establishment have engaged in (to paraphrase Nietzsche) a transvaluation of beauty. Beauty is now ugly. Truth is now pretension.
And there is nothing good.
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