I think the fact that you required 2 viewings backs up my point about the first half being poorly written. Their alleged feelings for each other aren't given any credibility until we actually see them interact in the middle.

I don't really like using Oscar bait as a criticism either. There are characteristics certain movies have that make them obvious Oscar bait, but these can still be good movies. Deserving over movies that aren't Oscar bait, usually not, but saying a movie is bad because it compares badly to another isn't looking at it for what it is.

Whenever I look at "pretentious movie" lists I see a ton of movies that aren't trying to be anything other than what they are, be it genuinely albeit unintentionally bad or movies that I personally feel flew over people's heads. But none I would call this. I don't get that "Oh this is so full of shit" feeling like I do when I hear a pretentious director's interview. I need more info than any movie can provide to make this determination. But that's just me.

It was made by Wes Anderson.

j/k, only slightly.

The Dark Knight. Its just so po-faced and seems desperate for validation. Which makes the inherent ridiculousness of Batman even more ridiculous. Like an angsty teen screaming at everyone to take them seriously.

Flash Gordon is the answer, that movie is awesome and totally over the top.

I mean alot of Oscar bait feels very pretentious. It assigns greater merit than it actually possesses.

Did you enjoyed The Passion of the Christ?

Making the audience unsure of both the stakes and the ticking clock leads to a more visceral and shocking third act. There is tension, but it's never explicit, it's always simmering under the surface instead.

I would also recommend this video essay

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Owen Wilson. wedding crashers, starsky and hutch,

It's been a while since I've seen this movie but I think it was this movie that made it dawn on me how quiet it gets outside when it's snowing

Any review of a movie is an opinion.

I've always taken pretentious in this context to mean that it's an overly stylized and ultimately shallow story.

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The importance of the message is implied but the actual meaning is muddled.

This is probably my favourite anime romance movie; I remember hating the movie the first time I watched it because I just didn't expect it not being a traditional romance and it threw me off, but on a rewatch I just absolutely loved it. It's so beautiful in just how mundane and non-fantastical it is (compared to like most of the rest of Shinkai's works, which usually brings in some magical element). It just lets you simmer in this bittersweetness throughout that arises from just natural circumstances and nothing else.

The movie kinda reminds me of In the Mood for Love tbh, with both dealing with the melancholy from missed opportunities, backed by vivid visuals and a great soundtrack. They are different in pretty big ways too, but they both just give me the same kinda feeling when I watch them.

So is it implied or explained clearly? You’re contradicting yourself

When you can mentally hear the Director rehearsing all the things he is going to say when he wins the Oscar.

I'll give you an example.

Let's say a character in a movie is cooking an egg.

Normally it's part of a breakfast scene. Maybe the character is spacing out and having an emotional moment, maybe they're just cooking an egg. Either way, there's not much to the action in the scene.

But your pretentious director might use dramatic camera angles go for close ups of the eggs or something else, place dramatic music into the scene or otherwise amp up the presentation in a way that tells you the viewer there's something to pay attention to.

They might think you're catching on to the theme of 'death, rebirth in the destruction of a cradle of birth' or something, but really all you see is...a person cooking eggs to weird camera angles and dramatic music.

Basically it's when a director is doing too much, trying to make simple or obvious things seem important.

The crazy thing is, when done well it's not pretentious, it's thought provoking. The spinning top at the end of Inception isn't just a spinning top, and the camera closing in and the dramatic music is justified.

That’s fair, ultimately it should convey your opinions and your opinions alone. I still wish you luck on your journey and commend the effort! Also, when I look at my reviews I’m constantly questioning my own thought process when I reviewed this or that movie, so I get the shifting over time for sure.

Maybe you just don't like movies?

Without searching it up, it’s extra implied meaning or importance to a message where there isn’t much or is at all. Pretentiousness isn’t confusing movies, but they can be. edit: spelling

Nobody has sufficiently explained to me how you can possibly verify a movie is pretentious.

People focus much more on the first part than the "than is actually possessed" criteria but everything a movie is is on the screen. Pretension implies some sort of trickery or hidden depths of true inadequacy but a movie can't hide if it's actually plain bad. Directors are pretentious, actors are pretentious. People, with layers. Not a film.

Dagoth Ur returns!

This comment is the perfect example of how that word is misused. That has nothing to do with what pretentious means