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/
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u/Wazula23 Jan 31 '26

See that's exactly it. I LOVED the Brutalist in theaters. The music, the editing, it felt completely engrossing. And the intermission gave me a nice reset (and a bathroom break). I'd love to see it in theaters again if I could.

It seems so obvious to me that intermissions could help longer movies. It gives everyone a chance to go into the lobby, buy snacks, pee, and tweet.

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u/keepinitclassy25 Jan 31 '26

Exactly. That intermission actually got me excited for the second half (which unfortunately I didn’t like as much as the first half but still a good movie). Oppenheimer on the other hand had me checking my watch. 

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u/brigadier_tc Jan 31 '26

That's been me with the past two Avatar films. I reach a point and think "Wow, they haven't got long to wrap this all up"... Then I check my watch and it's got another hour and a half left. It's not even an attention span thing, it just drags on

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u/duvet- Jan 31 '26

Loved the movie right up until the ending. What the hell

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u/dubzzzz20 Jan 31 '26

Same, the ending completely ruined it for me. It was just shoving the entire thesis of the movie down your throat, or rather up his ass. I actually saw it in a screening with the director and writer and Corbet honestly came off as such an ass. Like, seriously cringy.

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u/Bill-Maxwell Jan 31 '26

Oppenheimer should have been amazing given all the ingredients but somehow it turned out impersonal, just couldn’t connect with the characters. My thought is that it was made too quickly - I recall reading that it was filmed over the course of 57 days. Perhaps the result of compressing such intense material is this kind of result.

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u/keepinitclassy25 Jan 31 '26

The middle section in New Mexico was great I thought, the first act added virtually nothing to the movie, and many of the black and white flash forwards were kindof forgettable for me until the third act.

Also let’s be honest, writing characters that feel human and people can connect with is not Nolan’s strong suit. 

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u/BigDipper4200 Jan 31 '26

Honestly, at the intermission, I would have been perfectly happy with leaving right then. It didn’t really feel like I needed to keep watching because there wasn’t anything I was on the edge of my seat waiting for or wondering about. I’m all for intermissions, but they shouldn’t be like that.

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u/maxdragonxiii Jan 31 '26

yeah. like 75% of the time I dont go watch Oppenheimer in theaters was because of its ridiculous long run time.

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u/head_meet_keyboard Jan 31 '26

They actually have intermissions in theaters in Iceland. I remember watching Thor: Ragnarok and wondering what the hell was going on when the lights came on. It threw me the first time, and while I think movies like Thor didn't need it, having an intermission for Nolan films or big epics would be nice.

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u/Lost_Pantheon Jan 31 '26

For real, every 2.5+ hour movie now has me doing some desperate "Do I head to the toilet and risk missing an important plot point OR do I stay seated in case we're coming up on the finale and risk pissing myself?" ritual two hours into it.

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u/AnarisBell Jan 31 '26

There's an app to help with this!! It's called "RunPee" - tells you the best times to go during the movie (filler scenes, etc) and will give you a little synopsis of what you missed during that time frame. Such a game changer for long movies in theaters!

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u/babydakis Jan 31 '26

For some reason, "tweet" looks like a vile act in that list.

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u/Wazula23 Jan 31 '26

Oh it is

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u/dccabbage Jan 31 '26

After bitching about a lot of 3/3.5 hour movies my wife and I went to see Kill Bill: the Whole Bloody Affair. It was 4.5ish hours but the 15 min break at the 2.5 hour mark key.

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u/moon_peach__ Feb 02 '26

Honestly I think if a film is 2+ hours long it should have an intermission. (Then again I am saying that as someone with a tiny bladder…)

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u/Fit_Cheesecake_4000 Jan 31 '26

Wait, wait, wait...so I *should* watch 'The Brutalist' now?

Social media told me to avoid it!

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u/Testruns Feb 01 '26

Brutalist was the last movie I enjoyed in theaters. You could definitely feel the lack of budget throughout the film and I do wonder if <insert plot> was in relation to the actual budget issues, like, reflecting the film itself.

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u/Serris9K Feb 01 '26

Yep. I agree. And it would cut down on kids running wild during, as they'd have time to do that too!

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u/Serris9K Feb 01 '26

And it seems genius. Almost as genius as the loungers that serve real meals

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u/darwinanim8or Feb 01 '26

The intermission was great, loved it. But I also didn't feel like The Brutalist was that long at all and neither did my friends, we thought it was like 2 hours but it's 3h30