Movies Within Movies

 Movies within Movies

I really dislike the trope of showing movies (or TV shows) within other movies generally, but especially when it's used in one specific way - namely, using it to communicate to the audience directly what the director is trying emulate (usually badly). It seems like a cop-out or shortcut to just show another movie that did it better and is well known for that particular theme to let the audience know what's being attempted here. 

In Logan, about halfway through the movie, Xavier and Laura are watching Shane on TV in a hotel. Instead of making a subtle reference, like having a DVD copy of the movie somewhere in the scene, the movie actually zooms in and lets us watch a couple minutes of Shane, and Xavier even comments to Laura about it. This is the director hitting the audience over the head with a cartoonishly-large mallet saying, "Hey everyone, we're clearly doing Shane: Mutant Edition here." For the same reason, I also bristled at the part when Logan takes the X-Men comic books out of Laura's backpack. 

It would be the same if in the first 10 minutes of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone it showed him watching Star Wars: A New Hope (see the linked image for how similar these movies are) to let the audience know that Harry is going on a similar journey to Luke Skywalker. Galaxy Quest wouldn't be nearly as good if there were episodes of Star Trek playing somewhere in the background for the same reason. 

In the dumpster fire that was The New Mutants, there's a shot of the rec-room where an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is playing, specifically during a scene where Tara and Willow are kissing, and it's being watched by one of the girls who would later turn out to have a romantic entanglement with the main girl. It's really not clever or subtle, and they use Buffy again (my favorite episode, no less) as another blunt object to let us know what's about to happen instead of using, you know, good foreshadowing. 

I can somewhat forgive a little lampshading for comedic effect. Spider-Man running through backyards commenting on a movie someone was watching was a funny reference to Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but I'm sure it was lost on people who hadn't seen the movie in years (and whose cinema memory isn't nearly as attuned as mine) or are too young to have seen it in the first place. Showing someone watching it while Peter is doing the exact same thing not only lets the audience know what the homage is, but also adds to his trait of making movie references (to Empire Strikes Back and Alien in other MCU films letting the audience know that the director is fully aware they're pulling the same gag previously done by George Lucas and Ridley Scott). It straddles the border between homage and lampshading, but I let it slide if done with enough humor/reverance. 

The same could be said for how A Fistful of Dollars was used in Back to the Future 2 & 3. Marty saw Biff watching the movie in the hot tub, and then in the sequel chooses to use Clint Eastwood's name and armors himself in a similar fashion. Marty was able to recall this idea since having seen that part of the movie just days earlier (from his POV). Given that the movies were released nearly a year apart, I can see the argument for it being some foreshadowing in the second movie for a payoff in the third one. 

Movies like Deadpool can get away with it because of the whole breaking the fourth wall thing and his hyper-awareness, or something like Spaceballs watching itself, but overall for most movies I would prefer the references and allusions to be more subtle. 

There are, however, three perfectly acceptable uses in my opinion. 

1) Establishing time period. If you show kids watching Howdie Doodie, it lets you know they're in the 50's, or someone watching Buffy is probably in the 90's. Movie directors have to  visually communicate things to audiences quickly without having a 15-minute "who's who" narrated prologue, so visual clues are often used. Like if a husband comes home from work in a truck, is wearing flannel, jeans and a hard hat, it's obvious he's a construction worker. Likewise, seeing someone wearing John Lennon glasses and bell bottoms while driving a VW bus would give some clues as to when the movie is taking place, and sometimes what happens to be on the TV in the background can serve the same purpose. 

2) If the movie isn't a real movie, like Angels with Filthy Souls in Home Alone. It's mainly establishing that the movie was violent and not age appropriate for Kevin but by the end of the week he had grown up enough to laugh maniacally with it. Kevin watching something like Die Hard would have been a bit too on the nose. This sort of thing is used in plenty of movies and shows. 

3) When the content of the show isn't integral to the story. There are plenty of films and shows that show a father, who just got off work, relaxing in the den watching a baseball game (or whatever). The exact sport and the particular game's outcome isn't important to the story, per se, but it's just in there to establish that he's in leisure mode or a sports fan of some sort. Another example is when Dr. House is watching General Hospital (or some parody thereof). While it may show a line or two, what's happening on the fake soap opera isn't fundamental to the plot - it's just showing that Dr. House is actively avoiding clinic duty or some other occupational obligation, and is no different than when he was playing Metroid Zero Mission on a Gameboy Advance. 

I think occasionally it can be done right, especially if it's very clever and subtle, but most of the time it's one of those things that can somewhat break my suspension of disbelief and I wish directors wouldn't take such shortcuts. 

Note: this post is mainly referring to times when the movie/show is specifically emphasized and/or part of the plot, and not just incidentally in the scene.