I just saw Million Dollar Baby on cable. I didn't see it when it was out in theaters, because I'd heard it was a tearjerker and I'm not a huge fan of those, or women's boxing in general. As I expected, the movie was melodramatic and heavy-handed in places. But that's just my personal opinion. I fully understand why other people might feel completely different.
What really struck me was how incredibly well-made this movie was. It was in the style of an older film, so it was very slow-paced by today's standards. Nevertheless, there wasn't a single wasted frame. Every second of screentime was spent developing the characters, advancing the plot... basically telling a story.
I assume it won every award that exists. But what really bothers me is that this level of direction shouldn't be the MAXIMUM you can expect in a modern movie; it should be the MINIMUM. Don't get me wrong; I don't begrudge any YouTube poster who fails to produce a coherent product -- more power to them for trying their best. But any film that costs tens or hundreds of millions of dollars should be made with at least this level of care.
I know it might not sound like much to some high rollers, but I think of a hundred million dollars as quite a lot of money. That's not just enough to start a business; it's enough to start an entire INDUSTRY. It should be completely impossible to look at anything that costs that much and think: "Oh my God. What a gigantic, unmitigated steaming pile of crap that was!"
But that's what I think of by far the vast majority of what Hollywood produces today. How is that possible?
That movie was great...