JP

ok gonna go away again but this has been a fun couple days thank U

now where did I mention white people 😭

I consider most stuff from the past several decades slop! Didn’t mention AI for that reason

Alright I think with that, I will just say I respect your right to be annoyed, but I don't believe we're gonna get anywhere. I appreciate the feedback

oh come on lol now we're just being silly about it

I don't think respecting art, film, and kid's media is the same as respecting a poorly made film. A critique or even outright dismissal of a poorly made film can be executed out of respect for the form. My opinion is you're confusing these two things to justify a knee-jerk reaction

I sympathize. It goes to another instinct I feel, which is to try to smuggle substance into slop itself. The whole thing can be very depressing

Does Smurfs (2025) deserve respect (what you're describing here is more reverence than respect) by sheer virtue of being marketed to kids?

Yes, the piece portrays seeing the Smurfs as an act of spite, but it doesn't absolve the spiteful person! He loses in the end, his spite gets him nowhere, he still lives in a monoculture where even Smurfs is the Avengers, and he should have seen Superman, a movie for adults

the article portrays an ineffective act of sabotage: "I'm going to pay money to see Smurfs instead of Superman because I hate the cultural landscape I'm in!" is a ridiculous position held by an unwell person, and the piece exaggerates this to explore finding meaning in corporate slop

to pay close attention to slop is yes to look and feel a bit silly. it's ridiculous. attempts to use slop as a vehicle for substance can look incredibly awkward, but I think it's a worthy endeavor to underscore the way these things are at total odds with each other, to emphasize the nature of both

the problem with slop is that it's everywhere and unserious. slop feels beneath anything except passive attention. as more slop is made, and more of daily life is saturated with it, the more our attention is dominated by unserious things designed to be beneath notice (cheap, ephemeral, disposable)

I'm confused lol. Is my lack of deference to the Smurfs as intellectual property an obstacle to communicating my point? The footnotes you quote are humorous asides about how this film doesn't take Smurf lore seriously

I feel like I saw some pretty amazing art as a child! I don't want to be one of those "back in my day" types but I'm remembering idk James and the Giant Peach lol blew my mind! and I was a baby!

right, I'm not sure who can thoughtfully critique *any* children's media if adults can't! which I don't think is a super coherent view

it makes me really sad!

That said, if I ruin even one child's appreciation for the Smurfs, I will of course compensate them with a Ring Pop.

I actually think, in terms of the world I'd like to live in, it would be great if we could meet art in good faith, on its own terms. We have to deal with corporate agendas and many layers of marketing in this world, but I find it an act of optimism to engage with art not marketed for you.

Said with generosity! Not anger

I think we do a disservice to kids by believing stories made for them are beneath being appreciated as art. These movies (really, in this case, it's a corporate product) are made by adults to turn a profit. I think associating writing about a Smurfs movie with "hating kids" is many leagues stranger.

I feel kinda changed after reading this ngl

nuked from orbit by @jpbrammer.bsky.social on Smurfs (2025)

this is a huge mood

no it's not fun when I share something of my interior that makes me look bad and someone on social media is like "LOL you look bad!" but the alternative is lying to yourself and lying to your readers in a way that can briefly satisfy but never transcend. gracias

I never thought I'd see such an accurate explanation of depression in a review of the Smurfs movie...

when people blame social media for this or that, as I myself often do, I think part of it is resentment that they've capitulated to social pressure. I resent myself for self-censoring, and so I want to pretend that I was *forced* to do so rather than admitting I abandoned myself. WELL! be brave idk!

one thing that social media has done to make writing more boring is encouraging people to minimize the ways in which they're inconsistent, unfair, illogical, messy. to be clear, the responsibility of the boring writing this pressure inspires remains on the writer. you gotta just write it anyway

the piece points out a few times that I was being ridiculous yes!

this review of the smurfs contains such one of the most insightful descriptions of depression i've ever read

"who's doing it like me right now" I ask myself in the mirror as my beloved readers read my troubling Smurfs (2025) review