PrepTest 141, Section 2, Question 6
Critic: The criticism of the popular film comedy(43 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(13 more words not shown)
- AFilms should be(9 more words not shown)
- BFilms are successful(6 more words not shown)
- CFilm comedies should(7 more words not shown)
- DFilms are successful(6 more words not shown)
- EFilms should try(7 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Would you criticize Harry Potter just because its world isn't realistic? Fantasy can entertain us without resembling everyday life. A comedy can do something similar: its exaggerated characters may be funny precisely because they aren't ordinary people.
That's how the critic defends Quirks. The critic agrees that the characters aren't realistic, but says the resulting movie is funny. I can see the reasoning. If the point of this comedy is to make us laugh, judging it primarily by realism may miss what it does well.
What we’re looking for
We could still ask whether realism matters alongside humor. The principle question wants help for the critic's reasoning, though, so I'd look for a rule about judging a film by what its genre is supposed to accomplish. Don't demand that a drama be funny just because humor matters in a comedy.
Working the answers
- A
This supports judging the film by realism, the very standard the critic is resisting. If accurately capturing the world is how films should be judged, the unrealistic characters become a legitimate concern. A pushes against the defense of Quirks.
- B
Quirks is described as popular, so this rule could label it successful. But popularity isn't the critic's reason for defending it. The critic points to humor as the important feature of a comedy. B gives a different basis for success without supporting that reasoning about the appropriate standard.
- C
This prescribes where a comedy should get its humor. The critic's point isn't that all comedies must use stylized portrayals rather than, say, physical comedy. It's that this movie is funny despite its lack of realism. A rule about how to produce humor doesn't supply the needed rule about judging the finished film.
- DCorrect
This comes closest to the predicted standard: judge success within the film's genre. Quirks succeeds at being funny, which the critic identifies as the important thing for a comedy. The rule makes that genre-specific achievement a basis for calling the film successful, supporting the defense against the realism criticism. It doesn't say a successful film is beyond every possible criticism; it helps justify the particular reasoning used here.
- E
The critic doesn't say a film must avoid mixing genres. A comedy could include realistic scenes or dramatic moments and still be funny. Requiring it to stay entirely in one genre doesn't explain why Quirks' unrealistic characters are an acceptable feature.
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