Mickey Finnegan, Writer/Director: Just because your movie is about something important
doesn't mean that your movie is actually important.
Film Courage:
Would you say filmmakers today are more concerned with forcing a message or telling a good story?
Mickey: I definitely feel like more people now are concerned with forcing a message
versus telling a good story and you know say what you will I mean I think that that can be
it could be a good thing it could be a bad thing it's hard to say but I do feel like a
lot of movies I’d say overall have probably been hurt from being the best movie that they can be
when that when they're trying to focus mostly on a specific kind of message because trying to force
a certain kind of message doesn't always make for the most interesting story especially if you have
like a certain agenda that you know that you want to push and and it's a weird times a weird world
in that sense because on the one hand you can say well film is about storytelling we're just trying
to share the you know human experience with each other and and connect to each other in that way
and we do that through stories but on the other hand you can say that you know film is the most
powerful medium that there is and therefore it is extremely influential and therefore whatever
my agenda might be needs to be represented in that art form and therefore like I want that out into
the world so I understand why people feel like films need to have a certain type of messaging
i'm a little more in the camp that I think that we're just here to tell good stories but
I can understand why people have been indexing so heavily on that I mean when you look at
you know the academy awards and things etc or award shows it feels like they have to reward
movies that are important versus just movies that have great storytelling but a an a a person who is
a friend of mine in life had a great way that they talked about this where they said you know just
because your movie is about something important doesn't mean that your movie is actually important
and I think that right now there's a lot of movies that are made about important subjects but the
movies themselves aren't actually as important as they seemingly portray themselves to be so yeah
that's interesting so the the topic of the movie is important but the actual you know
story within it the dialogue the characters it's falls flat yeah the the execution isn't
actually doesn't live up to the importance of the actual topic so instead of making sort of filler
and and you know junk food type movies now we're doing it with a purpose in mind but
there's still the same filler that's there it's not that there's not a story that we can really
yeah I think that that's a a great way to kind of discuss it where it's like you know a lot of
people talk about oh well we should have movies like this to you know engage in the conversation
but a lot of the movies don't actually forward the conversation at all they're sort of a little bit
hollow yeah even if they have like a what you would consider an important message or dealing
with an important subject matter again that doesn't mean that the you know the messages that
they actually have in their film are as important as the matter itself sure sure I mean a lot of
deep topics can be covered in documentaries and a lot of those documentaries people unfortunately
sometimes don't want to see which often i'm attracted to ones that maybe take a little bit
of more of a serious turn but when you see award shows they do seem to shy away but but if it's
wrapped up with glam I guess we could say then it might be more acceptable yeah
maybe they don't feel as true maybe that's the thing like it's not that we don't want to see
certain issues and that certain issues don't definitely exist right but the way they're done
I think maybe it feels like it's disingenuous yeah well I mean because again being that this is you
know filmmaking as an art form I mean you know I have such a tremendous amount of respect for
you know people who have excellent craft and I think you know if you're going to do a movie
that has a very important message you know craft should be extremely important as well
because you know we're here we're in a theater we're going to watch your movie and I feel like
you know some of the some of the movies that index heavily on on messaging maybe try to
make the excuse of like or not necessarily they're not trying to make excuses nobody's trying to make
a bad movie but I think that they might some people might spend too much time focusing on
the message versus having excellent craft and being able to cleverly cleverly show that message
through through the art as opposed to just having a beef on the forefront as an audience member
today do you feel that movies are lecturing to you rather than entertaining you I feel like a lot of
movies can be seen that way but again it kind of relates to what we were talking about where it's
movies being focusing on storytelling versus being focusing on messaging and I have no problem
if a filmmaker or a movie has a certain type of message that they want to convey but
yeah it does become it does become it takes me out of it if if it becomes too heavy-handed or too too
much of a lecture because i'm trying to experience your world or experience you know this filmmaker's
subjective point of view and get a new perspective and learn through these characters but if if i'm
not organically getting that message through the art of the story and there's a lot of illusions to
say what's happening in the real world or there's a lot of like you know political topics that are
kind of being shoehorned on top of this story well essentially you're taking me out of it because
not i'm not just watching your movie i'm also thinking about oh this thing that's happening in
the political sphere while i'm watching your movie so I think if you're going to have you know
as you put it like if you're going to have a message or you're going to
lecture whatever that that message is it better be super super cleverly intertwined within the
point of view of the characters that that we're watching because otherwise you know then i'll
just go watch a ted talk instead like why would I want to experience this through the vehicle of
you know filmmaking as opposed to just listening to somebody talk about it right
are there any movies that you can think of off the top of your head where they do
weave in a message but it's done in a way where it doesn't feel overt I mean like I feel like a movie
like get out does an excellent job dealing with racism but in a purely sub-textual kind of way I
mean it's not it's actually pretty literal I mean it's right there in the film but through the craft
of the story that was being told in that film you know that's where it was really excellently
kind of weaved into the subtext and how racism exists within our current culture so that's a
movie that I think for instance does an excellent job having those issues and messaging service
the story that we're watching so that's a that's one that comes to mind what do
you love about the film Moneyball what do I not love about the film Moneyball I just think it is
such a well-crafted beautifully told movie that just comes together so well I mean I think that
just just the whole idea of like the romanticism around you know the game of baseball and how
that reflects you know just the human experience and our lives and everything I think was just so
poetic I mean Aaron Sorkin of course an incredible writer and just so the dialogue is always great
all the scenes are great just all the execution in there but again that's just a movie I feel
like you know referencing worlds that maybe not everyone enjoys you know you don't have to be a
baseball fan to watch that movie and still really really appreciate the art and the romanticized
poeticism that that comes from it who is your favorite character and money mom I mean I love
obviously I think Brad Pitt's character is great billy being Jonah Hill's character is great but
really it's their it's their dynamic together that that's it really to me makes the film work so well
and if we were going to do what I said earlier a commenter talked about psych evaluations
my characters on those two characters just a brief brief log line psych evaluation on both
I guess billy bean is you know he's he's dealing with just the the feeling of you know being being
someone who's cursed in a complete failure who didn't you know live up to what he was supposed to
which was to be this great star baseball player he felt like he was someone who
was a permanent loser who was cursed and Jonah Hill’s probably just sort of represents like the
you know the character who just doesn't fit into this world that is extremely
archaic and has a very specific way of doing things he's the you know the
the misfit amongst this this group of baseball elitists and players and and organizations
so yeah just those are my I guess my analyses of the characters but he's a misfit but does he
let that stop him is he is he hindered by it the way the hero is almost hindered by
sort of his achilles heel I guess he's not necessarily hindered by it I mean I think he's
I guess you know now that you're making me you know write a critical studies paper on it I think
probably billy bean just has more of a like internal hindrance with with everything and then
Jonah Hill's character is sort of an external hindrance with it just on how he looks and
you know he sort of reflects the fact that there's a line in the movie of like you know
people are mischaracterized and judged by a lot of superficial things like how they look
how they throw a ball how they run and Jonah Hill may sort of represent that in that kind
of way where it's like you know how is this guy going to teach me about baseball this nerd who
is obsessed with statistics and looks super goofy so I don't know that's his hindrance.
What is your opinion on this?