“I don’t understand it, but I like it.”

This was the opening line said by the only distributor to approach Robert Downey Sr. about releasing Putney Swope. It demonstrates the idea that we can sometimes discover our vested interest in a piece of art residing not within our understanding, but rather, in our instinctive emotional response.

This is a common expectation we have with the music we consume, but rarely ever with films.

Often, we take the notion of understanding within the realm of cinema to mean clarity over plot, the character’s motives, or the creator’s meaning.

But this isn’t how real life operates.

We do not know the grand answer to Why. And yet, we can still enjoy the experience. We can find it funny, and interesting, and moving. We can hate it, and curse it, and wish it was different. But never do we write it off entirely on the basis of not understanding what it’s all about.

We have to find our own meaning in this life, and I love engaging with art that forces me to do this. And I don’t mean art that was trying to make sense but failed due to a lack of care. But more so, art whose initial intention was to challenge, bewilder, and absurdify my thinking, and achieved thus through dedication and hard work.