https://archive.ph/2022.03.25-133359/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/25/opinion/oscars-movies-end.html
But the effects-driven blockbuster, more than its 1980s antecedents, empowered a fandom culture that offered built-in audiences to studios, but at the price of subordinating traditional aspects of cinema to the demands of the Jedi religion or the Marvel cult. And all these shifts encouraged and were encouraged by a more general teenage-ification of Western culture, the extension of adolescent tastes and entertainment habits deeper into whatever adulthood means today.
Over time, this combination of forces pushed Hollywood in two directions. On the one hand, toward a reliance on superhero movies and other “presold” properties, largely pitched to teenage tastes and sensibilities, to sustain the theatrical side of the business. (The landscape of the past year, in which the new “Spider-Man” and “Batman” movies between them have made over a billion dollars domestically while Oscar hopefuls have made a pittance, is just an exaggerated version of the pre-Covid dominance of effects-driven sequels and reboots over original storytelling.) On the other hand, toward a churn of content generation to feed home entertainment and streaming platforms, in which there’s little to distinguish the typical movie — in terms of casting, direction or promotion — from the TV serials with which it competes for space across a range of personal devices.
Under these pressures, much of what the movies did in American culture, even 20 years ago, is essentially unimaginable today. The internet has replaced the multiplex as a zone of adult initiation. There’s no way for a few hit movies to supply a cultural lingua franca, given the sheer range of entertainment options and the repetitive and derivative nature of the movies that draw the largest audiences.
The possibility of a movie star as a transcendent or iconic figure, too, seems increasingly dated. Superhero franchises can make an actor famous, but often only as a disposable servant of the brand. The genres that used to establish a strong identification between actor and audience — the non-superhero action movie, the historical epic, the broad comedy, the meet-cute romance — have all rapidly declined.
Oversaturation was an issue even 20 years ago. These people are just noticing because it's gotten to the point where their dumb medieval epics and 50's reboots don't hit the same both financially and culturally.
There's plenty of good movies being made, you just have to look beyond Hollywood.
1000% this, I thought I stopped liking movies as a format but it turns out that I like movies that encourage its audience to do some critical thinking and I hate CGI slop.
I also like movies with lesbians in them — highly recommend checking out film recs from LGBT sites since they tend to have more indie and foreign films in the mix, along with older films that still hold up. Autostraddle's top films list is great for sapphic stuff
Do you have any recommendations?
Yeah! My #1 recommendation right now is The Handmaiden (2016) directed by Park Chan-Wook which is a Korean film set in the 1930s in Japan-occupied Korea — my strongest recommendation is to not learn anything else about it and just watch it whenever you're in the mood to watch a 3 hour film with subtitles. (CW for a couple fairly graphic sex scenes and some implied CSA)
Totally fucking legendary movie. Kim Min-hee is one of the greatest actors still working today. Criminal that she hasn't been in any big movies since because she had an affair with the ever prolific Hong Sang-soo (who also happens to be my favorite director still making movies). He's still giving her work but she's been totally sidelined by the larger Korean cinema industry because it's ultra-conservative.
Oversaturation was a problem 20 years ago, but movies were still more varied. In 2000 there were three different comedies on the top 10, along with two disaster films and a horror movie. There were three franchise films in the top 10 that year - Mission Impossible 2, The Grinch, which is an edge case, and X-Men. Compare that with 2019, where all 10 were remakes, sequels, or Joker, which might as well be.