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To call it weird would be a cowardly evasion. It is creepy, eccentric, eerie, flaky, freaky, funky, grotesque, inscrutable, kinky, kooky, magical, oddball, spooky, uncanny, uncouth and unearthly. Especially uncouth. What I did was, I typed the word 'weird' and when that wholly failed to evoke the feelings the film stirred in me, I turned to the thesaurus and it suggested the above substitutes - and none of them do the trick, either.

Roger Ebert#76

FilmCriticismDescriptionEmotionsLanguage

About this quote

What does it mean?
The author argues that 'weird' is too weak a word to describe the film's impact, listing many stronger alternatives that still fall short.
In plain terms
No single word can fully capture how strange and unsettling the movie feels.
What can you take from it?
Language sometimes fails to express intense emotional reactions to art.

Where it applies

  • reviewing art
  • describing feelings
  • writing criticism

Putting it to work

  • use specific adjectives
  • acknowledge vocabulary limits
  • describe sensory details

Questions to consider

  • What word best captures your reaction to a film?
  • When has language failed to describe your experience?

Another view

Listing many words can be verbose and still not convey the exact feeling.

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