Why is Hollywood talking to me as if I'm stupid?

The other day I wrote about how there is a flood of low brow comedies coming out in theaters weekly. Today I want to expand on that and go into how film makers in Hollywood feel that they have to explain everything to us. Just because a particular item or theme in the film is important doesn't mean you have to beat us over the head with it. Give us some credit. We'll figure it out. There are so many examples but these are just a few.

Academy Award winning picture "Crash." A film about racism in our society. I loved the acting but thought that the message was forced. Every example painted each character strongly biased towards one ethnicity or another. I would have prefered and thought that the film would have succeeded more to show the shades of grey and different degrees of racism. It would have been more realistic to portray the elements from the subtle to the blatant.

"The Spanish Prisoner" by David Mamet. A few of my friends love this movie. Hey, I'm a fan of Mamet as well but I just thought it was ok. There is a scene when the main character, Joe, is standing on line and pondering the mystery that has unfolded over the past hour of my time. In the background a woman is scolding her child about a book. "Look what you did to your BOOK! You ripped your BOOK! Why did you do this to your BOOK?!?!!" All of a sudden Joe has an epiphany. It's the BOOK that's the key!! Why didn't I think of it before?! Is the woman referring to her child's book 5 or 6 times really necessary? Couldn't I have figured out that it was that important when you had multiple shots of THE BOOK earlier in the film?

"Invictus" is Clint Eastwood's most recent release about Nelson Mandela and his South African rugby team inspiring his nation to unify. Over all the story telling was decent but it was full of gimmiks to tug on our heartstrings meaning to inspire us. Jeez Clint, you are a great FILM director not a music video director. You don't need some country band singing over a particular moment of the film to inspire. Over use of slow motion as well. Is this the same person that made "Letters Of Iwo Jima" and "Unforgiven?" Both almost perfect films. Come on Clint! Let the story tell itself.

Hasn't the success of such films as "The Sixth Sense," "The Prestige," "The Usual Suspects" and more recently "No Country For Old Men" proven that subtly goes a long way? They may not be perfect but at least they make us, the audience, use our brains. Not everything has to be explained. Then if we haven't figured it out right away we'll come back for a second or third viewing to help process the storytelling. I love watching an intelligent movie over and over and seeing something new or different each time. That's what smart film-making is all about. Not talking down to us. Give us the benefit of the doubt. At least challenge us to figure it out.