Why are some texts described as Post Modern?

Postmodernism has many definitions to it but the one that i think describes it is 'to be weird for the sake of weird'. It is aimed at a literate audience that can recognise the postmodern elements included by the film makers. Most elements that are used and recognised in movies are hypereality, intertextuality, playing with conventions and embracing paradoxes. Many directors adapt postmodernism into their work and once you realise what they are, it becomes a lot more interesting.

A very famous director known for his use of postmodernism in movies is Quinton Tarantino. In 2009 he created a movie called Inglorious Bastards which is in th genre of a war film however is very far from it but is just a fictional representation of war. The first postmodern element that can be seen in the film is at the beginning with the opening credits; Tarrantino uses a famous yellow text that can be recognised in all of his movies. It is condsidered to be postmodern as normal credits would usually be white. Another thing with his opening credits are made purposely long as he wanted to make sure the the audience remembered that they were watching a film and like his yellow text he did this with all of his movies. This makes it postmodern as not many directors do this due to them just wanting to get the audience engaged into the movie. Linking to the point of Tarrantino making sure the audience remembered they were watching a movie, is during a shot, he would reveal some of the set that is usually not seen in movies but Tarrantino reveals this as he wants the audience to be aware of the fact that they are watching a movie and things occuring are a fantasy. On the topic of fantasy, Tarrantino uses a Fairytale element to his work and this can be noticed in the opening sequence of the movie, as it uses chapters to take the audience through the film with different headings telling us what the next part of the story is going to be about. A theorist named Todorov talks about this being used in all films, he says that all films have a fairytale element to them with a hero, villain, heroin etc and this film does contain fairytale like characters and this is also a postmodern element done purposely by Tarrantino. With Inglorious Bastards being a film based on war, the violence shown in the movie is not what you would expect it to be like in general war films with battle scenes but has an overplay on violence as it is very brutal. It almost has a comical element to it as it is very violent and sometimes for no apparent reason; this is a postmodern element as it is an overuse of violence. 
Although Tarrantino is renound for his postmodern, another film uses the same type of violence seen in Inglorious Bastards and this is called Drive which stars Ryan Gosling. Not much is given about the character in the whole movie, we are not even told his name. Throughout some of the film, he is seen as a calm character but then at times we see his 'pyschotic' side and there is one scene where this is very noticeable. He is kissing the girl he likes, and a postmodern element is shown during this scene as the lighting changes to make the scene seem more romantic with a red, orange glow lighting up the elavator in which they are in. As soon as the kiss is over, it soon turns brutal with the end of the scene leading to Gosling crushing his head with his foot. This scene reveals his real violent side as before we are just known to his quite and relaxed self. Just like Inglorious Bastards, Drive also has a fairytale conventions like Inglorious Bastards as Todorov's theory which talks about fairytale elements in films, Drive makes this very clear with Gosling being the Hero, Irene being the Princess and many more.
Talking of the fairytale aspect, drive contains a fantasy element and uses coneventions from the computer game 'Grand Theft Auto'. These conventions will mainly be recognised people who would play the game or an literate audience. It uses bird eye shots which also are used in the game and give it the reflect of a artificial and fantasiced element to the film. In addition, to the game, the opening of the movie uses a colourful text which gives it quite an 80's feel but is also used in the game; we have already spoke about this before when we look back at tarrantino's work as he uses the same text withtin his movies of a yellow font colour. Linking back to the 80's theme, Drive does not specify a time period in which it is set in but when we look at the soundtrack of the film, it has many 80's elements in them. Another thinkg we can look at to associate with the 1980's is the Jacket Gosling wears has a  very distinctive scorpion on the back of it and this type of jacket would be seen as being quite old fashioned, this plays on conventions and allows the audience to question the time period. Drive also plays on is the setting and location the movie is made in, its supposed to be in the busy streets of Los Angles but they make it to seem very lonely and has no one around. This is a postmodern element because the audience is aware that the location is LA but it is strangley quite and we are not told why.

Another film which is known to be postmodern, yet is very different from Inglorious Bastards and Drive and it is called Funny Games. The genre behind the movie is a thriller but contains many elements that question the conventions of it. The two films I have spoke about before contain a lot of brutal violence which is shown to the audience and usually thrillers would show violence as this is a way to engage the audience and keep them interested, however this film does not show any violence, but plays on the conventions of thrillers. To an illiterate audience, it would be seen as very boring but they take the violence out of the movie. The film has a memorable scene in it that became very popular as it take out the conventions of a movie all together. It is the rewind scene where the actor rewinds what we have seen and changes the story to make it the way he wants. Like Tarrantino revealing the set so the audience can remember they are watching a film and it is not real, Funny Games also does this as it takes away the tension from the film (which is what mainly consists in thrillers). 

These films are very unusual to how we would expect them to be as they have been created in a postmodern way. They are as Mo from simpson puts postmoderism and calls says they do it this way for the sake of being weird.