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The Movie Buff

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"I like movies because they're like life. All the shots, all the clumsy takes...all the impossible number of angles there are to consider. And, naturally, trying to guess the ending, how it all works out."
Cinema Purgatorio #17, written by Alan Moore.

One of the defining traits of this particular character is their movie lore. This character will compare nearly everything to a scene from a movie. While this character might be Genre Savvy (or Wrong Genre Savvy), it's not a requirement.

Additionally, The Movie Buff usually knows all about Oscar nominees, Oscars won, actors, directors, Emmy awards, how a movie was received, who the screenwriter and editors were. Some film geeks may get obsessed with lenses, film cameras, and film editing. They may be a budding film student or media studies student.

This is usually a source of pride for said character but can sometimes be a source of chagrin for the rest of the cast.

Their knowledge is likely to be used for humor more often than it is used as a plot point.

Compare: Saw "Star Wars" Twenty-Seven Times, Unabashed B-Movie Fan. See The Genie Knows Jack Nicholson for characters that know our movies while living in a fantasy setting.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 
    Anime & Manga 
  • Rabbit Team from Girls und Panzer.
  • Togata from Fire Punch is one. She was born before the Ice Witch froze over the world and really loved movies during that time. Due to the mutation she was born with, she has become long-lived and now lives in a world that rarely has electricity, much less any movies. Now, her ultimate goal in life is to turn the conflict between Agni and his targets into one final movie, playing both sides to film the most interesting story she can, even if no one will ever watch it. She is also very knowledgeable about Western movies, name dropping films such as Vanilla Sky.
    • The mysterious girl who looks like Agni's dead sister is also a film fan as well. In fact, her whole motivation is to reset the human race and get it back to the point right before the world froze over, just so she can finally watch the final Star Wars movie, which got canceled.

    Comic Books 
  • The Film Freak from the Batman comics.
  • Nightcrawler of the X-Men. He learned sword-fighting largely because of his love of Errol Flynn.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • The Catcher in the Rye: In stark contrast to her Hollywood-hating brother, Phoebe Caulfield loves the movies.
  • In Gone Girl, Nick Dunn, one of the main characters, is a former movie and TV critic, refers to himself as a "film geek," and bonds with another guy over The Godfather.
  • The extremely Genre Savvy Klingon communication officer in the Star Trek novel How Much for Just the Planet? specializes in Hitchcock movies, and is pretty much a walking encyclopedia of same.
  • Space Academy has a lot of protagonist, Vance Turbo's, actions motivated by his familiarity with late 20th century Earth science fiction movies.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Oddly Sheriff Buck from American Gothic (1995) seems to be this. He makes a movie reference in nearly every episode.
  • Sammy Feathers of the short-lived Paul Haggis series EZ Streets makes multiple classic movie references.
  • Dean from Supernatural. He has a fondness for westerns and horror films. And Star Trek.
  • Tony DiNozzo on NCIS (though not so much in the first episodes). He actually knows enough that he goes undercover at one point as a cinema history teacher.
  • Remington Steele. Every case he and Laura had could be solved by his remembering the plot of an old movie.
  • Abed, the Meta Guy from Community. Naturally, he's a film student. Jeff can also hold his own against Abed's ramblings but doesn't show it off as much.
  • In Big Wolf on Campus, Merton J. Dingle makes movie references pretty much Once an Episode.
  • Dawson, the title character in Dawson's Creek. He even has a theory that the answers to all of life's questions can be found in Spielberg films.
  • Shawn Spencer from Psych to a ridiculous degree. He is constantly comparing situations to movies and TV shows (mostly from The '80s) and casting himself and his friends in the various roles.
  • Obligatory Buffy the Vampire Slayer example in Xander and his compulsion for pop culture, Willow gets in on the action, even Buffy and Faith have more knowledge of films and geek culture than they should. But the Trio of Dim take the cake, obsessed with films, games, Star Trek, girls, etc. to the point they put off everyone.
  • The eponymous brooding hero of Angel is quite the cinema aficionado himself. He's a fan of Charlton Heston movies, particularly The Ωmega Man. What a surprise. He's also seen enough vampire flicks to formulate opinions on which ones are more accurate (Frank Langella nailed it). Wesley and Gunn also share a love of movies to the point imagining they are some character in some film when a crisis hits, and in a case of Hypocritical Humor, so does Cordelia.
  • Both Harvey and Mike on Suits often quote movie lines to each other and in the first season finale, oblique references to Mississippi Burning are a minor plot point. Their boss Jessica isn't far behind. Louis tries to get in on the action once but Mike sort of...ignores him.
  • The Flash (2014)'s Cisco Ramon is the go-to guy for nerdy movie references, using them mostly for humor but occasionally for things like explaining time travel theories to Joe West (who starts getting exasperated when he keeps doing it even in serious situations). Dr. Wells, who is Not So Above It All and apparently has regular movie nights with him, is usually the one who finds it the most entertaining and can often be seen smiling in the background whenever Cisco makes references, or even making his own in response.
  • Jimmy McGill from Better Call Saul makes movie references in almost every episode of the show.
  • On Mad Men, Don Draper will often go to the movies, sometimes to get ideas, sometimes just to be alone, though he has taken other people (he and Lane go to see a monster B-movie, and he takes Bobby to see Planet of the Apes (1968). Peggy, as Don's protégé, ends up doing the same thing.
  • Tabby Hayworth from Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin is an aspiring director with her biggest passion being film that she uses an outlet for expression, with Tabby dropping many film references whenever she's talking.
  • Hardison from Leverage is such a Star Trek fan that he devises a coded message system for when he and Eliot have to communicate in front of their marks. Eliot rolls his eyes, but it comes in handy later. In "The Cross My Heart Job," the team have to split up in an airport terminal and Eliot is unable to reach Hardison via their usual ear-bud comms. Desperate to warn his friend of danger, he has "Kirk Picard" paged over the loudspeaker.

    Music 

    Theatre 
  • The Flick: Avery says that cinema is his life and he isn't kidding. He's the kind of film snob that says America hasn't produced a great movie since Pulp Fiction (ironic given how recent that movie is). He sneers with derision when Sam talks about how much he liked Avatar. Avery's a purist who thinks films should only be shown on film rather than digital. And he has an encyclopedic knowledge of films that allows him to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with demonic skill.

    Toys 
  • Of the Squishmallows, Georgios' bio-entry reads as follows:
    "Georgios watches good movies and bad movies with the same enthusiasm! He has a rule to finish every movie he starts even when he feels it's not his speed. Georgios thinks bad movies can be fun in a different way since he learns a lot about storytelling! Meet Georgios tonight at the theater to check out a new flick."

    Video Games 

    Visual Novels 
  • In Flowers (2014), Suou and Erika are both literature and film geeks, often quoting modern American cinema classics such as The Shawshank Redemption. In both cases, it's a result of a childhood spent indoors and away from other people.
  • In Heart of the Woods, Madison Raines is a film student who dropped out of college midway through her degree to help her best friend Tara with her Vlog Series Taranormal, and enjoys watching movies in her free time. She's watched 2001: A Space Odyssey many times, as Tara points out.
  • In Last Chance in Xollywood, Jarl is this and possibly also an Unabashed B-Movie Fan. He wants to get a job in movie making and/or movie directing because he loves movies of all kinds, and throughout the whole game he will reference all kinds of bizarre alien flicks and compare whatever happens while working on Love Dies Screaming to them.

    Web Animation 
  • Virtual Youtuber Korone Inugami from hololive says her hobby is watching movies in her debut, and she's not kidding about that. Korone has incredible knowledge of both eastern and western films and not only has seen hundreds of movies, her memory is fantastic, allowing her to call on them for references or making highly detailed remarks on on the unique qualites of what she has seen at the drop of a hat. While her favorite genre is gory Torture Porn slaughter horror films like Hostel and the Saw series, she'll watch damn near anything from any genre and will frequently use movies as a point of reference for all kinds of conversations and situations during her streams.

    Webcomics 
  • Homestuck:
    • Both John Egbert and his Troll counterpart, Karkat enjoy bad movies and romcoms as a guilty pleasure (or in John's case, out of really bad taste), and John especially makes loads of references to them throughout the series.
    • In Act 6, Jake English, who loves all movies indiscriminately, to the point that you can't see his bedroom walls under the posters. Must run in the family, given that Jake is an Alternate Universe version of Jade's grandfather, who is actually her (and John's) genetic father.
  • Inhuman Relations: Maureen is this, at least when incredibly bad movies are concerned.
  • Tyler Dawn from morphE. It's implied that he is only able to cast magic by relating reality to things that he has seen or read in movies or books. When given a death collar he directly referred to it as a "Battle Royale" collar and when their host prepared a magical training class he asked if they would be doing a "Musical training montage against the cupboard spirit".
  • Joe of Joe Loves Crappy Movies loves crappy movies.

    Web Original 
  • The Cinema Snob is a parody of this type of character. He prefers classic movies and art films though. His actor, Brad Jones, is this for exploitation cinema, and over time the Snob has started to reflect this more and more (with Lampshade Hanging, as the Snob would prefer not to have such detailed knowledge of E.T. pornography).
  • Oancitizen of Brows Held High, who specializes in arthouse movies but otherwise is quite the enthusiast of pop culture esoterica.
  • On Cinema: Gregg thinks of himself as this as he collects a large number of films on VHS and considers himself an expert on film though he is prone to mess up on certain movie facts such as which Star Trek film took place in San Francisco (it was the fourth but Gregg insists it was the second).
  • While everyone from RedLetterMedia is one, Jay Bauman stands out for his more intricate knowledge of indie films and arthouse films.

    Western Animation 
  • Family Guy's Carl specializes in action movies and/or hot actresses, and can quote the exact second you need to see.
  • Bobby Hill from King of the Hill, much to the ire of his father.
  • The Critic: Jay Sherman is one and a film critic.
  • Comes into play in the Teen Titans episode...er..."Episode 257-494" where Control Freak traps the group inside a TV dimension and Beast Boy uses his knowledge of entertainment to help save the day.
  • Wayne from 6teen is a parody of Jack Black's character in High Fidelity, just with his obsession switched from music to movies.
  • Principal Skinner from The Simpsons is revealed to be one in "Any Given Sundance".

    Real Life 

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