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I’m coming back to *Cinematical *after a bit of a hiatus, so I thought I’d start with something that’s been on my mind. This morning Armond White’s review of Machete](http://www.cinematical.com/2010/09/02/machete-review/) – in typical Armond White style – claimed that anyone who enjoyed it was a moron. I like Armond’s reviews, and that comment is more aimed at a reader response than at analyzing the movie, but he still misses the point. Machete isn’t a movie meant to be absorbed by the mind, even though it does deliver a righteous message on the immigration issue. Rather, Machete is a purely physical experience, and it’s a good one at that; it’s currently on my shortlist of the best films I’ve seen so far this year.
What do I mean by physical experience? Let’s start with perhaps the most basic appeal of the movies: they’re like dreams. Humans have been dreaming in moving pictures and sounds for thousands of years, but moving pictures have only existed in reality for a little over one hundred years. No poetry, painting, opera, theater or anything else can remotely come as close to the mystery of dreams as cinema can. Dreams are personal; we get emotional and physical responses. They show us our greatest fears and our greatest desires. Sometimes they’re just so weird we have no idea what they’re about.Continue reading Why You’re Not a “Moron” If You Enjoyed ‘Machete’