Quality is not in numbers
(or, an indie art appreciation blabbering)
Quality is not in numbers, said the unknown writer.
But hey it’s true — one of the best, most heart-warming, punk-rock-blasting, soul-drenching movies I’ve seen in the past years is Dinner in America — which is not really a blockbuster.
(Coincidentally, I loathed the latest Dr. Strange — not for the performances of the actors, who were great, but for the bland and heavy use of CGI, the holes-ridden plot, the boring story, and the flat dialogues. And yet, Dr Strange fared much better — numerically speaking — than Dinner in America.)
Now, if you haven’t watched Dinner in America, please, just stop reading this and go watch it. Seriously.
It’s a love story with just enough sprinkles of social commentary, funny one-liners, profound dialogues and themes — all wrapped in a punk-rock ear-candy. For me, it was an instant classic (and even the first nausea-inducing 15 minutes are now the perfect intro).
But, I digress. This thing is becoming a DIA appreciation essay, and I’m ok with it. But the point is — don’t trust the numbers. Numbers will tell you that you need to listen to that song. To watch that movie. Numbers will tell you that the indie artist you like is not worth your attention.
Numbers will force you to sit through boring, useless 3-hour-long movies just because they’re set in a universe you once loved.
Numbers will make your Spotify homepage suggest you the same stuff everyone else is eating, watch the same tv show, and read the same books.
Numbers will, in the end, destroy your inner critic, so that the only thing you’ll consume is what the Number told you to. You will not desire anything else, and the Numbers will grow in power, until we’ll all live in a CGI world of purposeless plots, with 4-chord songs that don’t hurt anyone and don’t praise anyone but mediocrity.
Jack Kerouac wrote, in his less-read Dharma Bums:
“Dharma Bums refusing to subscribe to the general demand that they consume production and therefore have to work for the privilege of consuming, all that crap they didn’t really want anyway such as refrigerators, TV sets, cars, at least new fancy cars, certain hair oils and deodorants and general junk you finally always see a week later in the garbage anyway”
(which should remind you of Fight Club — clearly Chuck took inspiration from Jack — oh and if you haven’t read Fight Club, go do it, and possibly read On The Road, but don’t blame me if you want to leave your 9-to-5 and just travel with a rucksack on your back and visions of eternal freedom)
He also writes:
“You’ll see what I mean, when it begins to appear like everybody in the world is soon going to be thinking the same way and the Zen Lunatics have long joined dust, laughter on their dust lips.”
(the Zen Lunatics is the original name give to the Dharma Bums in the Eastern side of the world apparently).
I think you got my point, and if you didn’t so far, honestly there’s not much else I can say.
Next time you buy a book, listen to a song — next time you go to the movies, do yourself a favour and skip the blockbuster, go watch that one in the smaller room.
Even if it’s a shit movie, I promise you’ll talk about it — and from that talk, from that opinion about a horrible movie, your soul will be born anew, even if just a little.
(Dario is an Italian-born Irish writer, actor, and movie director. Find more about him at dariocannizzaro.com)
