closereadblog - Tumblr blog

[closereadblog]

Last month, the Close Read writers consumed some stellar content. Check out our thoughts on a dark horse, Oscar nominee and get some really great sci-fi/fantasy book recommendations.

[closereadblog]

For November 2023, our recommendations include another song for the sentimentalists (one of us was going through something OKAY?!) and a great DND web series to get obsessed with.

[closereadblog]

October 2023 recommendations detail a fun, revamped Korean game show and a song for your heartbreak playlist.

[closereadblog]

The Close Read writer discuss the very good and the very bad of their current media consumption, as well as 2024 reading goals.

[closereadblog]

A couple of September movies that thrilled and intrigued!

[closereadblog]

Repping the LGTBQIA+ community one terrible recommendation at a time.

[closereadblog]

August (2023) a.k.a the month of Wong Kar-wai.

[closereadblog]

Check out what got the Close Read writers through the month of May!

[closereadblog]

Exposition in Cinema

by Elise Escamilla 

To profess one’s favorite exposition scene in film sounds not only like somebody’s idea of a sick joke, but also like an impossible feat. One of the biggest critiques that people have for movies is that they are “expositional dumps,” where the story comes to a halt and all progress in character development is stunted and replaced with too many minutes of someone explaining backstory. Information about the world and pivotal characters can be vital to the plot, but it’s easy for writers to get lost in explaining so much all at once that they forget they are leaving the present characters--the ones the audience is actively or subconsciously trying to connect to--behind. These scenes of long exposition are easy to critique because they're easy to spot. Anyone can do it. It’s the part where you kind of don’t care, because people are just talking and nobody is kissing or dying.

Is it possible for there to be good exposition scenes? Duh, of course. Is it strange that I have specific favorites? You know what, yeah probably, but hear me out.

The Matrix (1999)

Let’s just be real here: a large portion of this film is exposition, because when the Wachowski sisters want to build a world they fucking BUILD. I’ve truly never seen anything like it. (Tolkien, who?) However, the expositional scene that I adore and will never stop quoting from is when Morpheous shows Neo the “Construct” for the first time. It is maybe two or so straight minutes of just Morpheus explaining everything you need to know about “the matrix”: who created it, how it was created, why it was created, what it actually is. Subtlety and any sense of mystery that the film had been building are thrown out the window in an instant…but it works. Why? I can narrow it down to two specific reasons. First, the Wachowskis created an utterly fascinating mystery world that an audience cannot help but want to unpack as soon as possible. Second, nothing is halted: story is still in motion and, perhaps more importantly for me personally, character development as well. In terms of story, Neo must understand the nature of the matrix to truly break free of it. The audience has followed Neo in his pursuit of some kind of existential answer to a question he can’t even conceptualize yet. So when Morpheous shows him both the question and the answer, it understandably shakes his world. The close up, profile shots of Neo contrast with Morpheous’ front facing close ups, signaling that Neo cannot, in this moment, face the truth. Because of this, it sets up the rest of Neo’s journey in this film as he not only has to understand that the matrix is real, but know it to the point of bending it to his will.