Do movies really 'move' us?

Two-step flow

In 2000 the number of suicides increased in the western countries, especially in the USA. This was the period of the collapse of the American dream, when also films like Fight Club and The Matrix came out. A year later they experienced the biggest shock in New York's history: the events of 9/11. How much the actual movies influenced them, we will never have the chance to ask them. We can only suspect that the environment which creates such movies is itself filled with doubt and fear. The concept of the spinning top made many people doubt their reality at least in the form a few nightmares.
How many times have we chosen going to cinema instead of having another annoying conversation with our family our collegues? How many times have we decided to carry on sleeping for an extra half an hour instead of doing something useful in the morning? These are everyday examples which seem completely average. In Inception, we encounter the people who choose the dream life over the real one. They spend most of their time in dungeons drugged up, never seeing the daylight. It doesn't even surprise us that Cobb stays in his illusions instead of facing the loud of his wife and kids.

Hypodermic needle

Inception is exactly about injecting ideas. It might be a simple one as loving someone or a more complicated one as breaking up a company. Many critiques argue that the lately popular movie-violence affects the minds of the young audience in a negative way. Although, if it true, than the cinema-goers of the last 50 years had been psychologically influenced therefore our generation is already doomed. The most recent shock in America was the massacre on the screening of The Dark Knight Rises. Many parents considered taking their children to the cinema dangerous after the event and even made academics think of more severe censoring of films in the future. However, the majority of the audience reacted rather indifferently to the situation. Some walked into the cinema shredding their shoulders saying, 'Just because one maniac thinks himself The Joker, it doesn't mean that all of us do.'