if 'unearned' means anything maybe it has to do with the payload being entirely by reference to the viewers past experience. like wow you did the thing vividly enough to remind me how bad an abusive relationship is, we got a gamer over here
if you open with 'relative has alzheimers, how fucked up would that be' i will probably leave the theater bc theres no fiction for me to attach that to, just my own memories