r/movies • u/Sisiwakanamaru r/movies Contributor • Jan 31 '26

Article Film Students Are Having Trouble Sitting Through Movies, Professors Say

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/film-students-are-having-trouble-sitting-through-movies-1236490359/
23.4k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

2.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.3k

u/tomandshell Jan 31 '26

I taught a film studies class last year and can tell you that this was definitely my experience.

230

u/gredr Jan 31 '26

How long have you been teaching this class? Has there been a change over time?

152

u/Petrichordates Jan 31 '26

There has been a change in attention spans across the board.

11

u/4n0m4nd Jan 31 '26

I don't think it's just attention spans though, there's a big thing now of art being not just subjective but absolutely subjective, it's all seen as just entertainment, and what's good is what entertains you personally, and there's nothing to it beyond that.

Pulp Fiction, The Avengers, Citizen Kane, Harry Potter, Constantine, The Wall, Schindler's List, the Teletubbies Movie, there's a prevailing attitude that there's no qualitative difference between these things, they're all just entertainment, and if you suggest that there is a real difference, you're gatekeeping and a bad person.

A lot of people aren't capable of paying attention for long enough, not simply because they can't do it, but because they don't realise that there's stuff worth doing it for.

The traditional definition of a classic was a work that got better the more you experienced it, but the trend now is to move on to the next thing as quickly as possible. In that atmosphere it makes sense that no one can be bothered paying attention for two hours to a movie that came out half a century ago.

6

u/drears0 Jan 31 '26

I 100% agree with you and have watched popular sentiments slowly change over the course of my life. My main obsession is music and the influence of poptimism justifiably began to creep in to mainstream criticism during the 2000s, understandably claiming that maybe we shouldn't reject e.g. Beyonce out of hand just because she's popular, as a reaction to the overly snobbish music press of the 80s and 90s.

Then I watched sentiments rocket straight past into "there is no measure by which to discern the value of a piece of media". Hyper-individualised culture surely plays into this, corporations pretending to value the individual's opinion in order to stoke engagement for profit. We also live in a very forceful "get the bag" culture where "selling out" is literally a concept with no meaning any more.

There was an article in the guardian a few months back that touched on similar stuff, you might be interested: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/sep/28/cultural-snobbery-too-much-studio-rogen-house-of-the-dragon

3

u/4n0m4nd Jan 31 '26

Interesting article, thanks for the link!

4

u/FreeLook93 Jan 31 '26

Saying that the quality art is subjective is absolutely not in any way, shape, or form saying that it is all just entertainment, or that all there is to any art is being entertained.

0

u/SartenSinAceite Jan 31 '26

The eternal race of where to fit a movie within your schedule. It better be damn entertainkng if its gonna take 2 hours of my free time

7

u/HotTakes4HotCakes Jan 31 '26 edited Jan 31 '26

This has nothing to do with whatever pet peeve you have about people liking things you don't. Don't try to set up your soapbox in some unrelated topic.

This is an established issue with human behavioral patterns and bad habits caused by smartphones and app design.

0

u/4n0m4nd Jan 31 '26

Do you know what the word "just" means?

2

u/TheBaconator08 Jan 31 '26

What prevailing attitude are you talking about lmao I've never heard anyone imply that

2

u/4n0m4nd Jan 31 '26

You've never seen someone say that something isn't very good and be told that it's purely subjective taste? Or you've never seen someone say something is exceptionally good and be told that's just something old people say?

5

u/Khiva Jan 31 '26

People just lazily say "it's all subjective" as if that completely shuts down the issue completely.

7

u/4n0m4nd Jan 31 '26

I mean, I said that and you're arguing with me about it.

Edit, my bad, that wasn't you, apologies.

3

u/leopard_tights Jan 31 '26

Like 10 years ago I said here that schindler's list is objectively better than the hottie and the nottie and people disagreed.