'Portnoy's Complaint' was very far out there, and movies have always worked when you have either a funny situation between two or more people or a very dramatic situation. There's not that much difference.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I have my own difficulty with movies in which the suffering of the characters is too real, and many find it difficult to watch comedies that rely too heavily on embarrassment; the vicarious reaction to this is too unpleasant.
I don't any longer make any quality judgement between theater and cinema. They are different experiences for the audience, and they also are for the actors - although they have a lot in common.
It's rare that movies can sort of capture the tone of life; movies always feel like they have to be one thing or another.
I've been in rooms where people are discussing films that have yet to come out and saying delightedly, 'Oh, I've heard it's a disaster!' The jealousy is unseemly.
I think it's always harder in a film to convey intimacy.
Films are big hits when they touch a lot of people. Things are not funny in a vacuum, they're funny because we respond to some personal dislocation, some embarrassment, some humiliation, some pain we've suffered, or some desire we have.
To me, what separates a funny movie from a good movie is something personal.
Films are artifice. We're telling stories on film. At the same time, when it works, there is a real tough immediacy and spontaneity to it, and a punch.
Every movie is wildly different. So many of the problems are the same, but they take on different guises.
There's an absolute prejudice that good movies are dramas and comedies are more dismissable. But I couldn't disagree more.