After watching a recent Hollywood film lauded as one of the great achievements of the year (the year would be last), I did what I do when I can't seem to figure out the hype from the fact. At the very least, my facts against mediocrity.
So, I turned into some reviews to hear the voice of the critic. Now, I only do this after the movie. Mostly, just to gauge the critical zeitgeist and maybe to pick up on points that I neglected, or tuned out possibly due to bias. In fact, often, I want to be proved wrong. I want to be moved to believe that the movie was a masterpiece and I was just being an asshole, or plainly, ignorant.
So, after flipping through a couple of these eloquent reviews, one phrase stood out from the rest, breathing fire into the cultural void of existence. "Gritty handheld style" was this very phrase.
Everytime I read something so asinine, I want to stop and call out to my maker. But the fact that this was repeated in no less then 5 reviews in back to back succession makes me think, that sometimes, people are in a haze of automation, devoid of anything critical, analytical, or imaginative.
Gritty handheld style in this particular case was nothing at all gritty. What the fuck does this describe? Realism? Well, in this particular case, not at all. Does it describe fortitude or determination. No. 50 million dollars with the best technical minds around making fiction never ever fucking equates to GRITTY. Ever. (well, actually, there are a couple cases historically. this is not one. and I'm assuming, the budget never crossed the 25million mark)
What it does describe however, is that all these clowns picked up the same description from wherever the hell, like 10 years ago, and decided to use it again, and again, and again, and thus removing any descriptive quality about it, in favor of press releasing a review. In today's language, this just fucking blows.
I call for an indefinite ban, and personal banishment for any hee-haw that uses the phrase, "gritty handheld style" to describe anything related to a film. They can however, use it to describe their latest iphone video of there cat licking its nuts. As long as the phone is not locked down on a tripod, and that it is in fact, gritty by definition.