Different types of art can be enjoyed in different ways. 

And I’m a firm believer that these different ways of enjoying are entirely non-hierarchical.

Thinking about different forms of enjoyment can deepen our engagement. One movie is not the same as another, and as such, we enjoy them for different reasons. You can clump all movies under an umbrella of general enjoyment, but specifying types of enjoyment is all a part of the interesting fun (for me).

Personally, I consider what a movie seems to be trying to achieve — like, how it wants me to be enjoying it — and then I cross-reference that with how I’m actually enjoying it; the latter is always more important to me than the former, but the relationship between the two defines my conception of the movie

An obvious example: there’s a difference between laughing at and laughing with; the difference isn’t hierarchical, but there’s definitely a difference, and one worth mulling.

These thoughts brought to you by The Son.