Films and Feelings

  Film has this weird thing called “emotionality” that sees itself at the center of a lot of haranguing in the critical discourse. Emotionality is, for example, one of the things that makes us cry watching Jack and Rose "flying" at the head of the Titanic as the ship steers into the sunset. There is a sort of classism in dialogue that privileges film as a purely cerebral space, detached from all things base and emotional. If your interests in film tend to err on the side of passion or elation, you have probably been on the receiving end of patronizing glances from those who consider themselves more discerning because their favorite movie is 2001: A Space Odyssey . Tyler Sage, another film critic I follow, said it best when he described emotionality’s close cousin, “sentimentality " : The Godfather (1972) “These days, if you are one of these types who likes to opine knowingly in the public sphere – say, a highfalutin film critic – it's one of the most powerful aspers...