Movies Tuned to Our Brains
The Wall Street Journal:
Three seconds is just too long. If this sentence were a Web page and it took that long to finish loading, you’d give up and go get a pizza. In 2000, sure, we’d hang around for eight seconds before clicking away. Now we’re done at three. So how, then, are we still able to sit quietly in darkened theaters watching movies that routinely run more than two hours?
Since 1928, winners of the Academy Award for best picture have averaged 140 minutes. The longer the luckier, people say. Of this year’s nine nominees, just three are under two hours.
All must meet stringent criteria to get nominated, of course. Is the film based on a play or book so that we feel intellectual as we slurp a jumbo soda? (“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” “The Help,” “War Horse,” “The Descendants,” “Moneyball,” “Hugo.”)
Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal
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