(With that said, perhaps being miserable is their kink.

This doesn't seem to be consensual nonmonogamy in the movie, or a kink they both enjoy it's a situation that they both seem unhappy in, and it's not clear how they got here. Melinda has boyfriends on the side, a habit Vic knows about, and she knows he knows, and they talk about it pretty openly. In the film, Vic (Ben Affleck) is married to Melinda (Ana de Armas), and they have a little daughter. The term 'trash' is not exactly derogatory, even though it is certainly dismissive of, specifically, the idea of treating trash as art.ĭeep Water is based on a Patricia Highsmith novel of the same name, although the liberties it takes with Highsmith's plot, characterizations, and themes are considerable. As such, Kael refers broadly to (at least some) movies that are not art as 'trash,' whether they are good or not. It's perfectly valid to like a movie, even while understanding it is not an artfully made movie. She says that after all, people who are considering seeing a movie ask the question 'What's it about?' or 'Who's in it?', rather than the question 'How is it made?' But lack of technique doesn't necessarily make the movie bad, she argues. They are entertaining or not, they are pleasurable or not, they are satisfying or not, but most lack the level of technique that makes technique worth talking about, and thus, they are not art.

In it, she argued that many - that most - movies are not art. Pauline Kael wrote the essay 'Trash, Art, and the Movies' in 1969. Melinda (Ana de Armas) and Vic (Ben Affleck)Ĭlaire Folger/ Courtesy of 20th Century Studio

Deep water highsmith