A Casual Guide to Film Appreciation

“Serious question. How do I enjoy cinema more…?”

“Serious question. How do I enjoy cinema more…?”

I get some version of the question Isiah shot into my DMs fairly regularly so I want to finally take the time to write out an answer because:

I. I want to clear up some misconceptions.

II. I do genuinely think it’s possible to learn to enjoy/appreciate something more and have some ideas for how to do that.

While in academia Film Appreciation is often shorthand for Film Studies (and learning film history and theory can certainly help you appreciate movies more) but I’m writing here very literally about how to appreciate film:

Literally how do you get the most out of the experience of watching movies?

And while this is a guide to appreciating film, you might find my thoughts here apply appreciate art more generally.

I. How Not To Appreciate Cinema (Misconceptions)

Don’t put a bunch of pressure on yourself to like something

Probably not what someone whose livelihood depends on people enjoying a thing should say, but I don’t think anyone shouldn’t feel obligated to try to enjoy something that’s a totally optional part of life¹.

Go sit in the grass, ride a bike, cook some food, go on a hike with friends, read a book.

If movies just aren’t doing it for you, maybe your brain trying to tell you it wants to do something else. It’s okay to listen to that.

When you encounter an art forms, activities, and subject matter you don’t enjoy I think it’s interesting to try to be curious about why, and to try to give it a fair shake. Maybe you’re missing something and maybe some more time, more context, or a different perspective would help you get out of the work what other people seem to get out of it. But sometimes, even after you try, something just isn’t your bag. Don’t sweat it.

A lot of internet content explicitly or implicitly demands: “You. Should. Pay. Attention. To. This!” This has much more to do with how algorithms work, and what gets people to watch things than it does the actual value of paying attention to any given thing. If you don’t find something interesting it’s a perfectly sane and normal response to just not engage and shift your attention elsewhere. Diverse taste is beautiful. I can hardly pay attention to math for more than about 23 seconds, and the world desperately needs people who are interested in that.

I’m not really saying all things are created equal. I’d argue you’re better off watching a 3 hour movie than 3 hours of TikTok. You’re probably better off spending 20 hours reading a book than you are 20 hours watching Love Island. But if you’re deciding between watching another Bergman film, going to a museum to look at a Monet exhibit, or learning how to make Pesto—just follow your heart!

It’s easy for me to come up with reasons why I think cinema in particular is cool and worth putting time into appreciating, but it’s not like I reviewed the evidence and then rationally decided film was the objectively best place to focus my attention. I just write and talk about movies because I was drawn to them when I was young, got really hooked on filmmaking and film, and it just ended up being my career.

My point here is that if you’re putting pressure on yourself to like something, please, just take the pressure off. For one thing you don’t need that in your life, and for another that pressure might actually be interfering with your ability to appreciate the thing.

I think cinema is great. If people are going to watch movies I want them to watch great ones that will enrich their life, and for them to have a deep understanding and deeper appreciation of what they watch. But if they don’t want to watch movies they should go right ahead and not do it!

Don’t conflate appreciation with enjoyment.

Isiah’s question continues: “You’ll watch anything and appreciate at least one aspect of the media through filmmaking, writing, characters etc. I want to get to this level but I don’t know how can you please help.”

Okay this is kind of true. I think Jafar Panahi gets it right in Taxi.

I can almost always find something to appreciate about anything I watch even if it’s bad, but I think its worth clarifying just because I can appreciate anything does not mean I like or enjoy anything.

I think both appreciation and enjoyment can be cultivated (by creating the conditions that give yourself the best chance of both enjoying and appreciating a work), and I’ll talk about both here somewhat interchangeably. But for me appreciation is a little more intellectual and philosophical. You can have an unpleasant experience and appreciate it, but enjoyment is a little more instinctual, emotional, more of a “gut feeling.”

I want to clarify this distinction because if you conflate the two you might think your lack of enjoyment of certain films means you aren’t appreciating them, but the opposite can be true. Thinking you have to enjoy everything will actually hold you back from fully appreciating a lot of great art.

A lot of art-films might be trying to actively create an unpleasant experience in some way, often to get you to challenge your assumptions or beliefs, or to bring you into a confrontation with difficult subject matter.

What kind of experience you want is a matter of taste. If you don’t want be existentially shaken and just want a little escapism or a more traditionally satisfying narrative, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that. There’s value in diversifying what you watch, trying new stuff, and not genres, styles, or eras of film off entirely, but I think its fine to follow your taste and focus mostly on watching the kind of films that appeal to you. But just remember that film (and art) has more to offer than just enjoyable experiences, and true appreciation requires recognizing that.

Appreciating something doesn’t mean making it your whole personality.

Sometimes I’m tired of watching movies.

You can have a deep appreciation for an art form and still not want to live and breathe that thing 100% of the time.

I’m far from the world’s biggest cinephile. It’s not even close. A lot of other critics, filmmakers, and even just normal movie fans clock much bigger watch numbers than me. There are large, conspicuous gaps in film history that I still need to catch up on.

There are periods where I just get burnt out on watching movies and mostly read The New Yorker or watch Below Deck or stare at the way the sunlight reflects off of a photo and onto the wall in my house at a certain time of day:

I go on this tangent because I want to counterbalance the way I think social media tends to present people as one dimensional where they seem totally focused on and obsessed with whatever their niche is. Yes I love film and spend a lot of time consuming it, thinking about it, and writing about it, but it’s only one part of my life.

It’s easy to think an online personality that creates content about a specific topic has made that thing their entire personality in real life (because it might be their entire personality online)—and then assume that if you want to do what they do (appreciate film/cook well) you also need to make the thing your entire personality.

This can make someone who wants to “get into” something, whether that’s film, cooking, or skateboarding, feel like they need to go all in. This is made worse by gatekeeping attitudes that exist in some communities. But I think you can casually be into a hobby and have a deep and sincere appreciation for that hobby. In fact…

Doing other things will help you better appreciate the thing.

This is true of any kind of creative work or interest, but having a life and interests outside of the thing you’re trying to appreciate is necessary to deepen your appreciation. Understanding history, science, philosophy, traveling, working, being in nature or doing things in community with other humans—these experiences deepen and expand our appreciation of art and cinema.

Art is about life! You have to live a life alongside your consumption of art for those things to really come alive. You can’t just hole up in your house and watch movies until your eyes bleed and expect them to touch you deeply because if you do that you’ll eventually lose touch with what they’re talking about.

You know what Werner Herzog recommends for filmmakers? Reading. He reportedly only watches a few movies a year.

There’s a tendency to valorize the Scorsese-style cinephile with a knowledge of cinema deeper than the Mariana Trench, but that’s really not a requirement to understand, appreciate, or work in film.

Yeah you should absolutely study and watch film and try to appreciate it especially if you want to work in it or a related field but even if you’re really into something, are studying it, or are pursuing it as a career—it’s normal to go through periods where you might not be as jazzed about it, or just to want to spread your focus across various interests and subjects.

It’s normal to love some parts of something but not others. You might love some kinds of movies but discover that certain genres, or periods, or styles just aren’t your thing.

Again. That’s fine.

I know I’m a few thousand words into an essay about film appreciation and have only really mostly said “don’t worry about it too much” but I emphasize all this because I think part learning to appreciate something is maintaining a good relationship with that thing. If you’re coming at film appreciation from a sense of obligation, misunderstand, or expecting to feel a certain way about it based on how you perceive other people feel about it via social media, you’re setting yourself for a disappointing experience. The first step to appreciating film more is removing the obstacles to that appreciation.

II. Some practical ideas for deepening your film appreciation

So how do you get the most out of a film?

I want to be clear: I’m not giving you a set of requirements. This isn’t the way I think you have to watch movies. I don’t follow all of these all the time. Just think of this as some ideas for how you can give yourself the best chance of getting the most out of a film experience.

Set the mood.
Not every movie is going to blow you away, but if you can give the movie the ideal conditions for that to happen, I think you’ll have a better chance of understanding and appreciating the film for what it is. Even if you ultimately dislike a film, or it disappoints you, you’ll know you gave it every opportunity to succeed, and you’ll have a more nuanced understanding of why you didn’t like it.

The most obvious and basic of these is to just give the movie your undivided attention. Cinema is literally made to be an uninterrupted experience. At the theater, the audience doesn’t get to control how, or when its displayed, and there are (hopefully!) no distractions.

Go see a movie in the theater if you can. If you’re watching at home, try to make an occasion out of it. Actually settle in.

And yeah, you have to put your phone away. I’m sure this is super basic to some of you and may too obvious to even write, but it’s 2025 and phones are everywhere so apparently it’s worth saying.

I’m not being elitist and saying you can’t watch a movie on a phone, or ever be distracted or anything. We’re all human, it’s just a movie, its not that big of a deal. But you’re reading this because you’re trying to appreciated film more and step one is to just make sure you’re actually paying full attention to the film.

Try to meet the film where it’s at.
I think one of the first steps to really appreciating a movie (or any art) is trying to understand what it is, and appreciating it for that instead of just immediately comparing the actual film to whatever you were hoping it would be.

It’s totally fine to realize the movie you watched isn’t what you actually wanted, maybe the film’s marketing mislead you, and you wanted a John Wick style revenge thriller but instead you got a meditative, film about food and buddhism. But if we judge movies by whether or not they were what we wanted, instead of trying to understand and experience what it is we’ll miss out on what the film has to offer.

There’s a lot of ways this mismatch can happen. Sometimes the movie just isn’t the genre you wanted, sometimes a movie doesn’t follow narrative structure or genre convention in the way you thought it would, sometimes it doesn’t make the thematic or philosophical point you wanted it to. But whatever the case I think “the film is failing at what it’s trying to do” and “the movie failed at what I wanted it to do” is a worthwhile distinction to make.

It’s not that what you want a movie to be isn’t valid. I’m not saying you can’t say, “I wish this movies would have been…” That’s a normal part of critiquing a film, but it’s good to be able to understand the role your expectations and desires for what the film would be plays in your perception of it.

I’ve noticed for myself there are many movies that I didn’t “get” on a first watch because I was too caught up in what I thought the movie would be, that by the end I was disappointed, but on a repeat viewing with the knowledge of exactly where the movie was going, I suddenly found myself enjoying it much more because I could appreciate it for what it was. So I guess I’m also making the case for giving movies a second chance!

Sometimes you can’t control your expectations, but it’s worth at least initially trying to let go of them as much as possible. Which pretty closely relates to our next point…

Try to suspend judgement during the experience of the film.
Sometimes when I’m watching a movie, I can already feel my mind trying to “formulate an opinion” on what I’m watching while I’m still watching it. I hate when this happens because its disruptive to the actual viewing experiencing. Are you watching the movie to experience it, or to have an opinion on it? If we’re trying to craft your letterboxd review in your head during the third act climax, we’re not really enraptured by the film’s narrative are we?

This isn’t just about distractibility though. Even if you’re not crafting your take, or thinking about what you’ll have for dinner, if you’re actively thinking “do I like this?” or “is this good?” during a film its not very conducive to actually getting immersed in the story and giving the film a genuine shot as taking you on the journey its trying to take you on. Don’t worry. You’ll have plenty of time after you’ve seen the film to figure out how you felt about it. For now, just let it carry you away.

Cinematic meditations.
One little trick I’ve found, if you keep getting “distracted” while watching something, is to treat the viewing experience a little bit like a meditation. If you’ve ever done any kind of guided meditation you’ll know what I’m talking about. Just notice that your attention has wandered from the film, and gentle bring your attention back to the breath screen. If you’re having trouble getting immersed in the narrative, I find actively imagining I’m in the room with the characters and asking myself “how would I feel if I were them?” helps get me emotionally engaged. Once you’re caught up in the emotion, it’s much easier to be immersed in the film.

Try to let yourself be caught up in the film.
I keep mentioning this notion of “being carried away” or “caught up in” or we might say “immersed” in a film. Sometimes we say the film really “grabbed me.” This is a kind of flow state, where you forget you’re even watching a movie and are just transported into a narrative experience is usually the best way experience a film.

This won’t always happen and that’s fine. It’s not required that you’re immersed in the viewing experience to appreciate a film, and some movies aren’t really meant to be enjoyed in this way, instead encourage a kind of intellectual engagement. Some movies even deliberately try to take you out of the story! But regardless, it’s good to have an understanding of how this immersion works, and the impact it has on your viewing experience and how you perceive a film.

When you’re “taken out” of a story, or when you can’t get immersed to begin with, sometimes that’s because of a failure on the part of the movie itself. Anything from bad filmmaking or bad writing to a continuity error, or just a subject matter that doesn’t interest you can break your immersion.

But sometimes this isn’t the fault of the film at all. Maybe you’re just really hungry and keep thinking about dinner, or just anxious about something in your life, or are sleepy, or whatever. This distinction is valuable to be aware of, and it’s good to notice if it’s happening, because you want to know if the movie was bad, or if you just weren’t in the headspace for it in that moment. At the very least this can help you decide if its worth giving the movie another shot later.

Try to give yourself some time to absorb the film afterwards.
I’ve seen it happen, the phones whip out to log and rate the movie on letterboxd before the credits have even finished rolling. Sometimes you walk out of the theater and someone has a really strong, confident opinion about what they just watched. “That was a masterpiece!” — “Clearly a metaphor for the trauma of middle age.” These initial reactions, and strong first impressions can be helpful when we’re trying to understand a film, and it’s worthwhile to make note of them at times. I’m not really trying to criticize anyone for having these reactions, but sometimes I think we lose the value of “sitting with something.”

Your first impression might not be your best impression.

Let the film wash over you. Take it in. Ask yourself how you felt about the movie. And especially, especially try to avoid the question “was it good?”

I don’t know when or how the good/bad binary became the metric we tend to fixate on.² I really struggled with this at Cannes, where circles of critics often wanted to passing judgement on the quality of a film mere minutes after it ended. In these tender moments after a film I’m much less interested in the question “did you like it?” and more interested in “what did you think it was about?” or “what did it make you feel?” or “what was the most beautiful moment?” or “which scene in particular made you angry?”

To really appreciate a film or a work of art we have to give ourselves space to actually absorb it, process it, and think about it. After we’ve given ourselves that time, that’s often when our most thoughtful critiques, or interpretations will arise.

There are plenty of movies that I walk out of not knowing how I feel. The Sound of Falling which premiered at Cannes this year was a great example. I had no idea what to make of it as soon as the credits rolled, but three days later, I was convinced it was an incredible film. Film appreciation means understanding what a film is, and a movie is not just what happens during the running time of the film, it’s also the way that experience ferments inside you. Eat the meal. Let yourself digest it.

We’re just scratching the surface

I think I’ll draw the line there for now. Film appreciation can also involve:

• Understand a film within the context of film history

• Examining a film through different critical lenses

• Studying specific aspects of the filmmaking

• Listening to commentary, interviews, or reading other people’s analysis of a film

But I think all of that is down stream from simply letting yourself be immersed in the film, and giving yourself time and space to really think about how it made you feel, and why you think it made you feel that way. I’m confident the more you do this the more you’ll grow a deeper appreciation for film over time.

I guess I took a lot of words to give the very simple advice “watch the movie and think about it.” But I do really think it’s that simple—but simple doesn’t mean easy. We often get in our heads about these things, and make them more complicated than we need to be, getting back to the basics can help us appreciate art more fully.

If I had any additional advice I’d give here it would be to write about a movie. Writing down your thoughts really forces you to think through what you watched and even if you don’t ever plan on writing reviews or publishing anything about a film (even if you’re not a writer), writing about film will level up your appreciation significantly.

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1. I mean, technically I don’t think you’re obligated to enjoy anything, even the mandatory parts of life, but it makes sense to put effort into finding ways of enjoying and appreciating the things you must do, if it’s an optional part of life, instead of trying to better appreciate something you could just… not do it.

2. I do actually know why, it’s a by product of internet film culture.