Can a Netflix Movie Be Considered a "Real" Movie?

This implies that the theater is the place to go for undivided attention.

The last theater movie I went to included 30 minutes of commercials, me having to yell at a lady 10 minutes into the movie because she would just. not. stop. talking. Cringing at the next 20 minutes listening to some old fart next to be chew his fingernails, and then the constant sounds of CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP SLURP CHOMP everywhere.

All for $100 or so in tickets and food for the family.

When I want to watch a movie with undivided attention, that's what my sofa is for. I have the bonus of a PAUSE button if something MUST interrupt my undivided attention.

 

Again, couldn’t agree more. Sometimes you do get a quiet audience at the theatre, but, at home, there are never strangers texting and talking in the next row while we watch movies.

 

Fine with TV movie as a description.

 

We go to the last show of the evening, late at night, pick our seats in advance, sit in the dead center, and try to avoid sitting next to anybody else. And we occasionally available ourselves of studio & union screenings when we can get in. (Those have no snacks, which is annoying but understandable.) I love the TV Academy Dolby Vision/Atmos screening room.

 

I guess the answer depends on what the literal definition of what a movie is.

 

I’ve long favored going to the movies on Tuesday nights for the same reasons.

 

Do Hollywood executives still sit at the back of the screening room ?

Think of was the french new wave directors who went down the front seats to get close to the screen as possible, immerse themselves in the film.

 

I’m not a Hollywood executive, but I’ve always preferred to sit dead center in the last row.

 

I used to sit at the back myself ( delusions of grandeur ). But I usually sit down the front now, anything to get away from the phone flash /happy munchers.

 

Is "Duel" a movie?

 

They do, and sometimes enter just as the movie is starting and the lights are down, and they leave just as the credits start. They particularly do this at a preview screening, because they don't want the audience to know the director and/or stars are there.

 

Movie when I seen it in the cinema.
But a lot of seventies films look like seventies tv. Capricorn One for example.

 

Let me put it another way. Are Teuscher Chocolates not "Real" Chocolates because you can't find them in the candy aisles at grocery stores?

It's the process that matters, not the venue.

 

Damn, I planned to watch "Jaws" on Netflix tonight. Now I don't even know if I will be watching a real movie.

 

Go see Roma in a theater if you can. It’s an enveloping experience and I feel needs to be seen that way. I saw it transferred to 70mm film and it looked fantastic.

 

Were The Beatles not a "Real" band because they didn't tour?

 

Duel was a TV movie with a fairly modest budget and small cast, shot entirely for a TV aspect ratio under TV conditions for a TV network. It was expanded and shown in European theaters 45 years ago, but only as an afterthought. It would not have been eligible for any Oscars, because they require that it be shown in theaters first prior to airing on any kind of TV. I would not be surprised that when Spielberg goes to the Academy board of directors in a few weeks, he'll build in some kind of requirement that the movie go through at least a solid month of theatrical distribution prior to being on Netflix or Amazon.

There have been entire books detailing the live concerts the Beatles performed in the first 6 years of their existence. They really only stopped in August 1966. Music and music are different experiences with different rules.

 

Almost verbatim conversation with the wife tonight:

Me: Wanna watch a movie tonight?
Wife: Sure ... which one?
Me: Idano ... there must be something on Netflix. How about Coco?
Wife: Idano ... isn't that a kid's movie?
Me: It's Pixar but it's supposed to be good. How about Roma?
Wife: I've heard it's a good movie. OK.

So yeah ... Netflix movies are "movies" as understood by people who watch movies.

--Geoff

 

Musicians are releasing their albums exclusively on streaming more and more frequently, or at least initially on streaming. Should these not be considered for a Grammy? Like it or not, streaming is the most popular form of media consumption these days. I love going to the movies with my wife and daughter, but it’s incredibly expensive...so it’s become a luxury expenditure for a family on a budget.

 

Netflix movies are just the modern day equivalent of straight to vhs/dvd movies.

 

They are definitely not that.

To the OP, sounds like somebody put grumpy-old-man pills in SS's corn flakes. And it is disappointing that somebody who comes across as intelligent person is caught up in a things were better in my day spiral. But we're living in a time when many (MANY) people sit in their homes and watch perfect digital copies 8 feet away from 60 inch screens (which results in a much bigger image size than most multiplex shoeboxes), completely in control of their viewing experience. They can eat that they want to eat (without having to pay $5.75 for fifty cents worth of popcorn) and drink what they want to drink. They can stop it and start the film, they can - easily - watch it again. They can even - gasp - abandon it and watch something else. And it's a hell of a lot cheaper.

Don't get me wrong, I love watching movies in the theater - have been doing it for most of my 53 years - but everything is different now.

 

I'd look at it slightly differently: is anything from the overdub era (1960 or so forward?) real music? I mean, if it wasn't recorded with everybody in the room at the same time, isn't it just cheating? How is that fair?

 

This is all about money and competition, ie business. Netflix is just another studio that will be vying for theater going dollars, by preventing them (as Spielberg wishes) from receiving awards it would give the more established studios a leg up.

It is not really any more complicated than that. The stuff Netflix produces with the nominal 2 hr length are movies plain and simple and if they get released theatrically should be evaluated in the same way as any other film.

 

This has nothing to do with movies such as Roma not actually being movies, and everything to do with artificially propping up a dying monopoly technology and distribution system that apparently can’t survive on its own merits without having the rules rigged in its favor.

 

Full circle as a scene from Capricorn One is seen in Roma.