Clara and I went to see “One Battle After Another” last night.
I went to the movie knowing nothing about the film. As we sat down in our seats, I told Clara, “I don’t even know if I’m about to watch a horror movie, a drama, or a war story. I know nothing.”
“Take a guess,” Clara said. “What do you think it’s going to be?”
I thought for a moment — basically about the title and what it could mean — and said, “Historical fiction,”
“Ojay, she said. “Let’s see if you ‘re right.”
I was wrong.
Though the movie is almost three hours long, it was excellent. It was also not historical fiction. It was actually difficult to define:
Action thriller with some comedic undertones?
Something like that.
The same thing happened when Clara and I went to see “Sinners” and “Weapons” earlier this year. In both cases, I knew nothing going into the movie. She had seen all of the trailers and read a lot, but I had seen nothing.
In both cases, it was so fun to know nothing as I sat down in the theater. “Weapons” was a fascinating thriller/horror movie, and Sinners…
I’m not going to give that movie away except to say the very best way to watch that movie is to know absolutely nothing when you sit down.
After knowing nothing about three of these movies in a row, I’ve become a huge fan of this type of viewing:
Know nothing.
Don’t know the genre, the story, the actors…
Know absolutely nothing.
Granted, you need an obsessive, hyper-informed eclectic cinophile like Clara to make excellent choices.
She is a person whose movie list for a week included:
“Michael Clayton”
“Lion”
“Idiocracy”
“Nightcrawler”
“Midnight Special”
“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”
“Capote”
Not your typical 16-year-old movie buff.
But if you have that person in your life, I strongly recommend going to films knowing nothing.
Romantic comedy?
Documentary?
Action?
Horror?
Biopic?
Not a clue.
It’s so much fun not knowing a damn thing.
It made every moment of that film more fun to watch last night.
Can’t recommend it enough.
Also, all three of those films — “Sinners,” “Weapons,” and “One Battle After Another” — are all worth seeing.
