Look at all my shih tzus!

Our version of the one worthwhile scene in the movie Spring Breakers.
We point at these two and say, "Look at all my shih tzus!"

Quality movies are either feast or famine around here leading me to wonder if this is caused by our moods or occasional temporary flaws in our ability to choose good entertainment. There are times when we'll go through three or four that we deem unfinishable before finding something that we'll even commit to for a full two hours.

It was during a particularly dry spell that my husband and I watched about half of Spring Breakers. The movie was horrible except for James Franco. Even though the scene where his character "Alien" showed off all of his stuff made me laugh so hard I cried, the film was still a stinker. I read the IMDb synopsis out loud and we went to bed.

But months later, after breaking the bad movie streak by watching several passable flicks, we're still talking about that scene. "Look at all my stuff," one of us will say. (We G-rate our performance when little ears are listening.) "I got Scarface on a constant loop!" We've talked about it way more than any good movie we've seen in the past year. We watched Captain Phillips and Disconnect. Both were entertaining, poignant even. In a few months, I won't even remember having seen them.

This experience has caused me to think differently about our movie consumption. Maybe all you need is one great scene. Maybe things don't have to be great from beginning to end to make an impact. Maybe we should watch a little longer like we're seeking out some hidden treasure from the depths of the dumb and sometimes painful cinema experience. Maybe having access to IMDb's plot spoilers is actually spoiling the whole thing.

That's possible, but I'm sure sleep will always win out over cinematic treasure hunts. And it's probably too much to hope for anything funnier than that Spring Breakers scene. My man had nun-chucks. And Scarface. On repeat.