Movie Procrastination

I came across this in an article in The New Yorker about procrastination:

...people were asked to pick one movie to watch that night and one to watch at a later date. Not surprisingly, for the movie they wanted to watch immediately, people tended to pick lowbrow comedies and blockbusters, but when asked what movie they wanted to watch later they were more likely to pick serious, important films. The problem, of course, is that when the time comes to watch the serious movie, another frothy one will often seem more appealing. This is why Netflix queues are filled with movies that never get watched: our responsible selves put “Hotel Rwanda” and “The Seventh Seal” in our queue, but when the time comes we end up in front of a rerun of “The Hangover.

I have to admit this is sort of true for me as well - although I wouldn't choose The Hangover or a movie I had seen recently. I think the issue with Netflix is that there are too many choices at your fingertips and so rather than procrastination it is a frustration in having to choose from so many more serious films. It becomes easier to just give in and watch something that isn't filling in a serious art-house movie gap. Or more accurately it is instead filling in a lighter movie gap. So rather than watch a serious drama I might prefer a 1970's comedy that I missed along the way.

But I have seen enough movies to know that it doesn't necessarily take more effort to watch a Bergman or a Godard film than it does to watch a blockbuster comedy. The brain doesn't turn off when a movie is on.

Still interesting....