I'm of two minds about your first point---is it the critical establishment's fault for liking small movies, or is it the industry's fault for not making those movies into big movies?
One of my all-time favourite movies is Midnight Cowboy. It's insane to me that a movie as out-there as it was enjoyed either critical or box-office success -…
I'm of two minds about your first point---is it the critical establishment's fault for liking small movies, or is it the industry's fault for not making those movies into big movies?
One of my all-time favourite movies is Midnight Cowboy. It's insane to me that a movie as out-there as it was enjoyed either critical or box-office success - wouldn't happen today on either front. Now, in terms of gay themes and artistry and pushing the envelope, Moonlight is the Midnight Cowboy of its day. But Moonlight does not have an "I'm walkin' here!" moment. Used to be, Hollywood put out movies with challenging content, and then people watched them. This doesn't happen as much anymore. Losing the monoculture is great in some regards, but it is a loss.
Moonlight has no stars, whereas MC had scorching hot Dustin Hoffman, and it's not as immediately engaging a movie either (though I think they're both very good).
But I'm not looking for "challenging content." It's kind of a weird assumption that film-people make that good movies must CHALLENGE people. I just want more great movies, and preferably ones that a lot of people see
I don't necessarily mean "challenging" in, like, a snooty cineaste way---just in the sense of being out of someone's comfort zone. Like this:
Back in my parents' generation, '60s, '70s, one or two movies a week came to our smallish suburban town, and my parents would go see them, because...those were the movies. Not super-into watching a Jon Voight-Bob Balaban sex scene? You saw that movie anyway, because that's what was playing. Not super-into horror? You saw The Exorcist, because you liked movies and that's what was playing.
With so much more "content" now, most of us self-select out of watching anything that doesn't feel like it was curated carefully for us. There are increasingly movies for you and movies for me, and many, many fewer movies for us.
Yeah, I hear you. Until I saw you did the same, I was also about to put CONTENT in big scare quotes because that's where we're at. The Holdovers is probably the best movie I saw last year and it's noteworthy that it is self-consciously a 1970s movie (ahhhhh what a decade) and, sadly, not noteworthy for the waves it made at the box office .
I'm of two minds about your first point---is it the critical establishment's fault for liking small movies, or is it the industry's fault for not making those movies into big movies?
One of my all-time favourite movies is Midnight Cowboy. It's insane to me that a movie as out-there as it was enjoyed either critical or box-office success - wouldn't happen today on either front. Now, in terms of gay themes and artistry and pushing the envelope, Moonlight is the Midnight Cowboy of its day. But Moonlight does not have an "I'm walkin' here!" moment. Used to be, Hollywood put out movies with challenging content, and then people watched them. This doesn't happen as much anymore. Losing the monoculture is great in some regards, but it is a loss.
Moonlight has no stars, whereas MC had scorching hot Dustin Hoffman, and it's not as immediately engaging a movie either (though I think they're both very good).
But I'm not looking for "challenging content." It's kind of a weird assumption that film-people make that good movies must CHALLENGE people. I just want more great movies, and preferably ones that a lot of people see
I don't necessarily mean "challenging" in, like, a snooty cineaste way---just in the sense of being out of someone's comfort zone. Like this:
Back in my parents' generation, '60s, '70s, one or two movies a week came to our smallish suburban town, and my parents would go see them, because...those were the movies. Not super-into watching a Jon Voight-Bob Balaban sex scene? You saw that movie anyway, because that's what was playing. Not super-into horror? You saw The Exorcist, because you liked movies and that's what was playing.
With so much more "content" now, most of us self-select out of watching anything that doesn't feel like it was curated carefully for us. There are increasingly movies for you and movies for me, and many, many fewer movies for us.
Yeah, I hear you. Until I saw you did the same, I was also about to put CONTENT in big scare quotes because that's where we're at. The Holdovers is probably the best movie I saw last year and it's noteworthy that it is self-consciously a 1970s movie (ahhhhh what a decade) and, sadly, not noteworthy for the waves it made at the box office .