Brilliance

Here's one of the better definitions of genius film-making that I've seen:

Pixar movies, the smartest person in the room and the dumbest person in the room will both get something from it. You cannot say that about a lot of modern things. So to me, that’s what’s brilliant.”

This observation comes from actor-producer Jeff Garlin. Since Garlin is working on the latest Pixar flick, you could argue he's being the teensiest bit self-serving, but it still seems on the mark to me.

It's like arguing about what's a "classic." We all point to various films, or paintings, or books. Raymond Chandler once defined it this way:

A classic, most simply put, is any work of art that exhausts the limit of its form and can't be bettered...

Good definition. Stringent requirements. Which raise the bar regarding what's classic (or brilliant) to heights almost impossibly high.

Garlin's parameters seem more open and realistic.