Well, here I am back at it again with another “True Life” article. This week, instead of telling you something that I’m addicted to, I’m going to do the opposite and hope that some of you can relate. Movies are something that people from all over and of all ages can bond over. Whether it is quoting lines from popular movies to start a conversation or taking someone to the movies for a fun date night, movies bring us together. That is, all of us except for me. I hate watching movies. I really don’t know what it is and I can’t explain it in a way that makes sense. I can binge-watch a television series like it’s my job and I have definitely watched half of a season of "Breaking Bad" in one day, but I have no desire to watch movies. I usually say that I don’t have the attention span for them, but I don’t quite know if that’s true either.
The thing is, watching movies that I have already seen over and over again is something that I like to do. "Wedding Crashers" is like my religion and my brother and I regularly quote "Talladega Nights." It’s watching new movies that I hate. With only two(ish) hours to introduce yourself to the characters, become familiar with the backstory, and follow along with the action, movies are a commitment! There is also that list of classic movies that it seems like everyone has seen. When I tried to watch some of these to catch up, I found that they aren’t even that great! I needed to watch "The Breakfast Club" twice to actually get why everyone liked it so much. I haven’t seen "Dumb and Dumber," "Zoolander," "Jaws," "Pulp Fiction," "American Pie" or any of the "Star Wars," "Star Trek" or "Hangover" movies.
At this point, not watching movies has become an ice breaker for me in and of itself. I have become the class clown in my Fiction Writing class because when the whole class relates someone’s short story to a popular movie, I’m usually the one who hasn’t seen it. It's awkward when my own short story gets related to a television series and two popular movies and I haven’t seen any of them. I’m usually met with promises like: “We have to watch that movie if you haven’t seen it!” Well, chances are good that I probably don’t want to. I think that if we stop relying on movies to start conversations for us, we can get to know other people a whole lot better. Knowing about people’s families or what they like to do is way more substantial than knowing that you can both quote the same movie. I don’t watch movies, but so what? I’ve read a lot of books, which is a lot more than I can say for some people. Movies are overrated anyway.
