The Oscars are barreling toward their 97th year, and will turn 100 not too long from now. Yet, the industry and the Oscars, are facing a reckoning — an existential crisis that could topple the empire. Not that you’d ever hear much about this. With Jay Penske having a monopoly on coverage you can pretty much be assured it will be strictly party-line. But Houston, we have a problem.
Not to alarm you all, but there are signs everywhere that something is happening here. There is a major shift happening, not to mention an enduring ghost town at the box office. Ordinarily, I would not be compelled to run around like Chicken Little, were it not for a piece that made the rounds a few days ago, ominously called The Life and Death of Hollywood:
This column in Harper’s is a deep dive into what happened to Hollywood from the perspective of writers. It tells a sordid tale of deregulation and monopolies buying up all entertainment, specifically how streamers counted on Wall Street to keep them with the perception of success but eventually ran out of steam and could no longer pay writers. I recommend reading the entire piece to understand what creative people are up against.
It didn’t exactly cause a fuss around town, at least not that I heard. But the bubble is so well-insulated that almost nothing gets through. Call it top-down control over all American culture. As you go up the food chain, power is concentrated into fewer and fewer hands. Whatever those people at the top want is what trickles down to everything else.
From the Harper’s piece:
Over the next decade, three asset-management companies—BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street—would take over American business, becoming the largest shareholders of 88 percent of the S&P 500, the roughly five hundred biggest public U.S. companies. Private-equity firms—distinguished by their intent to sell the properties they acquire—would eventually be the backing for at least 7 percent of American jobs.
And with this:
Today the Big Three asset-management firms hold the largest stakes in most rival companies in media and entertainment. As of the end of last year, Vanguard, for example, owned the largest stake in Disney, Netflix, Comcast, Apple, and Warner Bros. Discovery. It holds a substantial share of Amazon and Paramount Global. By 2010, private-equity companies had acquired MGM, Miramax, and AMC Theatres, and had scooped up portions of Hulu and DreamWorks. Private equity now has its hands in Univision, Lionsgate, Skydance, and more.
The business has changed to such a dramatic degree that what was once a creative renaissance on streaming and in movies has now been so narrowly focused (IPs and the niche market) that it has created the same kind of inequality among the very rich at the top and the struggling working class who no longer have much of a future in Hollywood.
On the other hand, the religion or ideology that infected the Left right around 2011 and 2012 translated to the need to be “Good People Doing Good Things.” Call it “do-gooders,” “woke-ism,” or “Puritanism” – all of us who lived through it know what it was. And even if we all started out with the best of intentions, I know I did, we have ended up as an invasive species killing our host.
In the years I’ve been covering the Oscars, we watched how Hollywood fractured into two main pathways – one went to the billion dollar superhero industry and the other became like the Bates Motel of movie going, the Oscar race. It became such a niche market with publicists, critics and bloggers all but deciding the entire race with the audience entirely left out of it.
Meanwhile, the superhero movies were huge for Hollywood. They were making more money than they could have in their wildest dreams. But as we know, social justice began hitting culture on the Left, and eventually swallowed up Hollywood and the Oscars. Their brand became “too woke…” With the exception of a handful of movies, this is where we are now. No one wants to “eat their vegetables” so they aren’t going to shell out lots of money only to get “woked” after they’ve sat down with their popcorn.
Even if no one wants to admit it, it has hurt Hollywood. It has completely eroded the good will Hollywood built up over decades. They will now, if they care, attempt to dig themselves out of that hole. The problem? Most people in media won’t talk about the elephant in the room.
Most of those who cover media do not talk about any of this. But a great piece of journalism appeared in The Ankler, a story detailing the rise and fall of a studio that seemed to be designed perfectly for what the Oscars had become in the past twenty years.
Uri Berliner, an editor at NPR, went public with what everyone outside the bubble already knows, that NPR became its own little bubble covering stories tailored for those “true believers” up the food chain whose lives are lived almost entirely inside an aristocratic bubble.
He writes:
Back in 2011, although NPR’s audience tilted a bit to the left, it still bore a resemblance to America at large. Twenty-six percent of listeners described themselves as conservative, 23 percent as middle of the road, and 37 percent as liberal.
By 2023, the picture was completely different: only 11 percent described themselves as very or somewhat conservative, 21 percent as middle of the road, and 67 percent of listeners said they were very or somewhat liberal. We weren’t just losing conservatives; we were also losing moderates and traditional liberals.
As of today, Berliner has resigned from NPR after being suspended for a week without pay. And the employees did what all fanatics all of these well-meaning people hire would do:
The CEO of NPR, Katherine Maher, whose background is in government (for the Democrats), is straight out of central casting for the exact demographic that NPR aims to please. Their efforts to represent diverse voices don’t mean their audience is diverse. They aren’t. They’re people like Maher – wealthy, enlightened, woke do-gooders. They care more about signaling their virtue (what they would call “making the world a better place”) than about fairness, balance or even the truth.
Here is Matt Taibbi:
So why would Maher throw Berliner under the bus rather than NPR attempting to confront what happened to the newsroom? Well, it’s the same reason Hollywood and the Oscars can’t really fix their problem either. The higher up the food chain you go, where Maher resides, the more likely you are to need to please the people even higher up the food chain than you – the donors, the power, the money.
Now, you can put it all together. The Harper’s piece about the oligopoly that has Hollywood by the balls, and the do-gooders at the top that control everything. There is a name for it. It’s called ESG Capitalism.
What does any of this have to do with the Oscars and Hollywood? Because per the Harper’s column, if all they care about is pleasing their investors and their wealthy donors – and wealth is now concentrated on the Left – what incentive do they even have to turn out great movies to all of us out here in the dark?
Movies as Propaganda
Movies have always been propaganda of one kind or another. From the FDR administration before WWII to the Eisenhower administration after WWII, the government and the military infused much of Hollywood with pro-America and pro-military propaganda.
This was especially a problem in the 1950s, when studios also promoted propaganda and became stagnant in their storytelling (despite some great movies from that era). The studio system also more or less collapsed. But out of that came a great era for movies because independent studios could make low-budget but very entertaining movies in the 1970s. Audiences were sick of the stagnate storytelling under the Hays Code and a counterculture was on the rise.
That trajectory is laid out in this video:
This video, along with many voices on Youtube, have called out Disney’s Bob Iger for consolidating wealth and power into the hands of one campany than “wokeifying” their content. People stopped showing up for Disney movies, or any of the major IPs that went “woke.” The entire industry that covers movies and the Oscars will not talk about any of this because they worry that if they make Disney mad, then they can’t get any ad money from Disney (which also includes Fox and Searchlight by now).
And they’re right. The studios control the bloggers and journalists with money. Most bloggers — and all of Penske media for instance — will hold their tongue if it will upset a studio. They could be looking at a loss of millions. The easiest way to do that is to become someone like me, for instance, or Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere — those of us who are willing to speak out, to call out the hypocrisy of the “woketopians” destroying not just Hollywood, but all of American culture.
The people who benefit are those up the food chain. Those who are sacrificed are audiences.
The Movie Studio
One way for Hollywood and the Oscars dig themselves out of the mess they’re in would be to hire consultants to help them “de-woke” their content. Think about hiring Warren Smith from Youtube:
Or Chris Gore, for that matter. Hire me or Jeff Wells. Hire anyone willing to deliver hard truths and straight talk. Do I think they’ll do it? No. First, like Katherine Maher can’t un-woke herself because it is the core of her being, most people in Hollywood don’t even see the problem, let alone know how to fix it. They’re also scared. It’s like that scene in Jaws when no one will go in the water but if one person does, then they all will follow.
Probably there is no changing this any time soon. There is the mistaken belief that Gen-Z likes things “woke” but they don’t. Write good stories, make good movies and people will come. At the moment, the studios have become captured by both Big Finance and ideology.
I have been saying for several years now that there is no saving the Left. They have to collapse fully and only then can they learn their necessary lessons and rebuild. That includes Big Hollywood and niche Hollywood. Can they kick the can down the road and do okay? Sure. Like the Democrats, like NPR, like the New York Times – they have their core audience of true believers and if they like existing inside that bubble, fine. The Oscars can retire onto a streaming platform and live out their days happily and quietly without ever having to worry about the rabble that can no longer stand them.
But movies were better when they had to be for everybody. Stories were better when they were told for a wide majority. Comedy was better, journalism was more honest, and the Oscars were more interesting when they still had one foot in the reality of everyday people and weren’t so eager to please only those at the top.
The only way to ever get back any greatness now is to build outside the system. We can take a lesson from what happened to Bari Weiss at the New York Times. After the “Tom Cotton Affair,” she famously resigned. She then built The Free Press on Substack, the outlet Uri Berliner chose to publish his honest piece about the tragic state of NPR. You see what can happen when you escape the bubble? You’re free.
Think about this: a new company called The Movie Studio. Its job would be to make great movies full stop. Those movies would be free from “do-gooderism” and the clutches of the conglomerates and would exist purely to attract great writers, directors and actors to tell great stories. The Movie Studio would be funded by “heterodox” billionaires. Yes, they do exist. They might be people who are interested in bringing back great movies. They are not those who are dipping their toe into Hollywood now.
My “movie studio” would run a contest for great screenplays. I would find smart, heterodox minds to read those screenplays, pull from Gen-Z and every other generation. Then find ten scripts worth producing. The movies would be low-budget, use practical effects and be a kind of nuts-and-bolts filmmaking. Think: The French Connection. Think: The Exorcist. Think: Three Days of the Condor. Think: Do the Right Thing. Think: The Godfather. MOVIES.
I look around every day at the great stories that could be told about the moment we’re living through, yet I know they never will be. The power is on the Left now, and they’re unwilling to mock or criticize themselves. Uri Berliner is a hero, even though he only said what we already knew. I stopped listening to NPR a long time ago. I don’t read the New York Times. I don’t watch CNN or MSNBC. I barely watch anything on streaming now. There are a few signs of life here or there. Ripley on Netflix is brilliant. The Curse on Paramount Plus is one of the best I’ve ever seen on streaming. But how do you speak truth to power when you are the power?
Well, you hold your breath and jump.
![2025 Oscars: Can a Late-Breaker Still Win Best Picture? [POLL]](https://www.awardsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/gladiator-350x250.jpg)
Only saw All of Strangers cause Mescal is fantastic. No need to see anything else. Very said that Fox and Searchlight are now Disney. What a wrong studio for Star Wars but I guess that’s George Lucas revenge against fansboys who treated him like crap. Can’t blame him.
and let’s face it, all scripts have similarities since every reads and follows that same book on how to right screenplays. Maybe critics of Hollywood should discuss that book more often. I am sure it’s the cause of the rejection of many a screenplay that would make a truly inventive film.
Succinct as all get out. Ferdinand, you blend business and aesthetic savvy into a most persuasive combination. Your final paragraph is a gemlike description — better than any I’ve seen — of where the audience’s mindset now falls, or, more accurately, has been manipulated into.
Okay, I’ll pat myself on the back for never having given into the “I’ll just put something on” mind trap that you elucidate so clearly. (Instead, I’ll read or listen to a good book; or go to YouTube and learn something.) But it’s become clearer to me, which your words intensify, that Netflix presents me with a plethora of choices not to expand my taste or interests, but only to inundate me so that I’ll pick something, anything, to watch.
Are there a handful of riskier offerings on their lists? Of course. But Netflix isn’t for a moment counting on me to pick one of them. They put those “offbeat” selections there simply to fill more slots. It’s the illusion of bounteous plenty they’re trying to foist off on me. They’ll risk drowning me with picks in hopes that, gasping for air, I’ll grab a lifeline just to, as you put it, “have something on.”
This is most informative thinking and writing, Ferdinand. Thanks very much.
Civil War – they can talk apolitical nature all they want that scene with Plemons didn’t make it apolitical at all or otherwise he would confront another blond Caucasian dude type like himself
Do you realize you’re confessing that the race and hair color of characters in a scene flips political switches in your mind.
Dude. Whatever goes on in your head, you don’t have to write all that shit down for other people to see.
And I won’t watch cause it’s Disney.
See, for me, I don’t understand this. You do know, I’m sure, that Searchlight is also Disney.
It’s none of my business why you despise the word Disney so much that you automatically reject anything that Disney does.
But you said it, you brought it up, so can you explain to us what it is about Disney that you hate so much?
Because, no matter what you think about each of these movies, there’s no way to discuss the current state of Hollywood without acknowledging that these are important films:
Nomadland
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
The French Dispatch
Nightmare Alley
The Banshees of Inisherin
The Menu
Empire of Light
Poor Things
All of Us Strangers
—
Kinds of Kindness
Nightbitch
A Complete Unknown
All Searchlight. All made after Disney acquired Fox.
Did you refuse to see all of those, and will refuse to see the three to be released this year?
I’m just curious what it is about Disney that would make you refuse to see any of these movies.
Apologies everyone will ro DUNE 2 review I just had to point out as I so passionate concerned bout ilit have my own fears for oacar going doen path to DIMINISH sabotage early greenhorns courtesy oppenheimers win to it ratings hence appeal to it recovery, I HAD dissect share with you further …course I don’t mind if u disagree but I nevertheless wish yo spur debate is my main yosl of post below..also importantly I never sought To berate gen or millenials my point whrn I reference rhis demograohics is academy misrepresents how BIG as market share of film goers rhey are that just factual reality…in fsct I admire pointed out number of younger newer generation actors , actresses and filmmskers … but whrn looking at demegraphic breakdowns ..well put this way why u think Oppenheimer delivered better returns rhsn last few yrs ? Not just cos post pandemic slightest I factor’s it cos demograohic it sought to reconnect to THAT BIG FACTOR WHY it made just shy of billion that can’t be discounted BIGGER factor and Nolan factor than the ‘ Barbenheimer ‘ factor
IF Films START lot more than they have for most of past 13 years win on strength of combination of merit , rarely explored stories that really stir and INSPIRE BOTH film industry and captivate the audience …and strength of innovative cinematic vision NOT driven by EITHER OF woke or anti woke.. posturing find somewhere in between simply celebrates BEST of movies in cinematic appeal and strength of it story and vision first and foremost, then IF FILMS LIKE THAT ACTUALLY WIN big at awards season, Oscars future will be on stronger much more assured footing…atm it still in the cross roads ..very much so…but..following off from Oppenheimer rhat UNQUESTIONABLY PROVED a assured step in right direction where audiences AND critics AND industry formed a fierce UNITED FRONT …well that PROVES that what some us fear for future viability and relevance of Oscars to broader base ..Welland hope may not be lost after all and I do Dare to HOPE..
…..the key is improved PERCEPTION I Been proven right by this before..people wondering why such popular film in Oppenheimer on multiple fronts only registered slight improvement ratings pick up ? Well what impression did oscar winners of MOST OF PAST 13 YRS demonstrate? It was IN bulk of that time that people gradually desrrted viewing the Oscars… SASHAS OWN DEMOGTAPHIC CHARTS SHE HAS SHARED POINT TO THIS IRREFUTABLE FACT: example :
Coming out of last high water mark for ratings averaging 30 million viewers, not like it was decades ago it was impact lil ONLY over a decade ago! As much as vain defenders of of Oscars strategy want to insist , fact is that this ‘ change ‘ and change that Sasha fears may be credible behind scenes ( I hope not !), has PUT OFF MILLIONS of viewers to Oscars… why did ratings go in gradual thrn accelerated decline after bout 2010?
COS IT THE REINFORCED perception to the 8-9 million or a THIRD of audiences tuning into Oscars broadcast, gradually…first it was – 2 million decline..EACH PRECEDENING YEAR oscar made a choice for best picture THEY FELT WAS RIGHT , oscar watchers responded in FOLLOWING YEAR by oscar ratings taking bit of a NOTABLE hit in the PRE DARK KNIGHT SNUB ERA sure ratings fluctuated but wete above 30 million btw 30-34 million ..but.. virca from final respectable ratings peak of 2007 the MORE Oscar dug in on their alugnmenr of artistic ideology = political sides aligned reflected from quite considerable number of their choices for best picture in that time then the FOLLOWING YEAR oscar ratings went in decline… THE MORE oscar aligned with excesses of activism in politics, the MORE IT PUT OFF Oscars CRUCIAL KEY AUDIENCE … So it therefore since 2007 infamy, ALWAYS casevof public perception from the PRIOR YEAR OR YEARS misfits…greater the misfire by Oscars major awards outcomes, in prior year leading to next Oscars following this the more profound the consequences in the relevance meaning and once celebrated broader appeal of Oscars..it CUMMULATIVE EFFECT..
There is a simple REASON that 2 things :
1. This years Oscars ratings and reviews of show wrre slight only slight improvement on ratings of prior few years ..it was SLIGHT because of that COMPOUNDED NEAR DECADE long perception if Oscars past errors if judgement for major awards wins… when their such profound ingrained negative perception ratio of expectant hope is notably smaller up against shear weight in one’s mind of disappointment… those people who excuse the Academy for battling on with such small rating improvement..think that cos the 8-9 million don’t tune in reflecting on very low 20 million rating improvement don’t kid yourself like you they have the internet they exposed yo 24 hr media circuit but they more intelligent capable in thought and insight than some those who cheer the decline of Oscars or mediocrity in returning massively diminished ratings returns than sime pple may think… THEY THE 8-9 MILLION lost souls as xonsrquence Oscars changes care they just opt to ‘ wait and see IF year OR THIS CASE YEARS ‘ GO BY SEE TRENDS ..pple LOOK at things like Oscars in TRENDS doesn’t mean they e gage as deeply as I do or you do but intelligent insightful ‘disillusioned ‘ ‘forgotten ‘ oscar watcher very much aware what going on what outcomes mean to thrm what one’s moreover DONT..and it cos of stock of oscar winners that DONT mean something to sideline 8-9 million been so profound ingrained ..and Oscars choices reflect that..but 5hat why ratings flailing been gradually decline till THIS YEAR … ..it only gradually cos Caution Comes before all out embrace. .
But as I said at start this piece… embrace BEST POTENTIAL IN CINEMATIC STORIES that IMMERSIVE, INSPIRATIONAL, ARTISTICALLY NOT POLITICALLY DRIVEN BY EITHER THE PC OR ANTI PC MOVEMENT as their primary driver in film and IF Oscars do that repeatedly in their outcomes as saying goes ‘build it and they will come ‘ and in case of Oscars REBUILD SHOW WILLINGNESS OF REDEMPTION TO REACH OUT TO STILL DISILLUSIONED MASSES once watched oscar and they WILL come..
However as Sasha rightly warned effectively SELLING OUT to PRIVATISED bidder by Netflix ( or if any other private steamer and other related subsidiaries entities take over broadcast rights ) then Oppenheimers very positive evrn if slight UPTICK in putting an END to decline after decline in succession after near decade on balance stretch of it ( no I don’t recognise nor should many pple given we actually so NOT READY for era of streaming screenings of prime time shows … that and until their csn be a way to measure TRUE DEMOGRAPHIC breakup and UNTIL streaming demographic CROSSES OVER TO be integrated wirh the mainstream traditional VITAL BASE KEY TO OSCARS ABILITY TO BE RELEVSNT RESONATE TO MORE PPLE LILE IT USED TO !! well until there is more level headed willingness MORE by greedy streamer ceo”s AND academy leadership ..UNTIL THEN to properly SHARE what really supposed yo as always been a PUBLIC broadcaster which Academy choices and outcomes once reflected for many decades at very least in strategy it broadcast…
THEN UNTIL THEN all I said above WONT MATTER A..IF PPLE ARE CUT OFF and I seeing that now from r gsging in supposed be worlds biggest most celebrated awards show as it used to be then WONT make fik all difference to REENGAGING with it KEY AUDIENVE DEMOGRAPHIC if they feel new type of threat Sasha is right to foresee ( potentially ) the PRIVATISING of a d willingness of the Academy to SELL OUT it public appeal yo highest bidder… IF this happens this confirm once and for all Oscars long held intention turn themselves into the next Cannes and they totally shatter very fragile trust reflected from BEST ratings in 4 years at Oscars..
I many pple DONT want see Oscars blind march into obscurity but to that end combined ( it appears it emerging ) very dark Spectre of a PRIVATISED Academy … where precedence given to streaming company LIMITED demographic ..compared to consider:
Why you think Oppemheimer delivered BEST ratings return on traditional broadcast alone in 4 years, ? Would surprise anyone to learn it was film that connected THAT disillusioned traditional demographic CORE NEVER HE UNDERESTIMATED BROADEST audiences e base BEYOND limited appeal of streaming broadcast ( note it DIFFERENT distinction yo streaming views of TV show online etc..) COS OPPENHEIMER resonated brought bsbk to cinemas GEN X and Y demographic.. at heart of MOST major awards outcome..
These 2 demographics are MOST established viewrship and pple exist in major democracies.. round rhe world… they also esp gen x start of gen y at tip of spear part of fundamental transition year if BUILDING AND EXPANDING ON FOUNDATION S of modern filmmaking from LATE 1970 to the mid 90’s … this generation VERY MUCH knows and through their length of time and TIMES rhry been exposed lot more cluey bout numerous brilkiantbrilliamt and GREAT Oscars winners of WHAT MAKE OSCAR WINNERS appealing and successful and what does NOT.
Cos they KNOW better rhsn it just fact..millenials and gen z sorry it truth not u fault but pple this generation Bern conditioned first and foremost to confused diluted messages of last 14 years NOT as I and gen x and gen y have LAST 25-35 yrs which every decade of exposure makes a lot more difference…and when it comes to bring through more rhan 1.5decades from young adulthood means far more profound understanding from LIVED exposure across MULTIPLE DECADES ..
This is in my view more expansive rationale why PAST PERCEPTIONS AND PAST PRECEDENT hurt the academy… ability to properly bounce back and why it wad slight at nest uptivk on ratings in last 4 years.
BUT FACT with Oppemmnheimers desrrved win the SLIDE CEASED is a MESSAGE to hint of type films oscar should be favouring more of in terms of quality , appeal and calibre and as Sasha says days of BOG DIRECTORS AND BIG STARS badly needed to come back…no, for reason I acknowledge role of streaming I accept ( despute my scepticism IN taking over prome time TV to a point ,) I not expect should oscar be back to their BEST, that may be difficult get past say 30 million traditional broadcast ratings BUT it can sure he’ll lot more improve than fragile 20-21million mark… ( let remember we’re period’s where oscar in last 30 yrs hit btw 37-48 million ) so whrn I say acceptable for oacar to hit 30 million resiectsble rating return I mean that yes ADDITIONAL after that is factoring in still unreliable calculated non scientific factoring in generally of few million streaming crowd …
I looking at this first and foremost where academy qt it foundations streamed at for it these FOUNDATIONS that the ACADEMY MUST STRENGTHEN ..to transport itself to streaming driven entity is NOT gonna help slight notable uptick thanx to Oppenheimers win..let us hope my fears snd Sasha’s do NOat come to past..
Cos I willing to BET evrn if Dune 2 get bucketload of oscar noms as it least it deserves thst even if it wins …how MANY people who DONT subscribe to Netflix THAT STILL A AWFUL LOT of non subscribers to Netflix or other streaming companies seem be queen to advance privatising of Oscars, will go to trouble of finding viable stream? Non subscribers just WONT CARE… that NOT way oscar should treat itself ..it very risky game they playing here…it UNLIKELY very gen X and Y CORE film going demographic will follow oscar ever so close to sliff ledge IF that happens..
( one note just cos I critical of when I say ” anti Trump politics and pro Obama ” does NOT mean I for Trump or against some rhings Obama stood for my point so no misinterpretation , is frankly that oscar should not bring political dynamics that validated ny ANY external or online political movement as part of factoring in their outcomes …
good for you, Sammy!
I lasted two episodes on that one, and I’m a massive Song of Ice and Fire fan.
I have been through a difficult period in life – the past couple of years. Now that diffcult period is mostly over and I’m now in the process of returning to normal life..
Returning to movie theaters and attending film festivals as much as possible will be the number one priority for me going forward.
I really don’t care about any of that. The movie was seen and reportedly awful. Look at Monkey Man. total direct to streaming mediocrity that was put in theaters due to hubris (streaming ain’t good enough for the first time director who got his directorial debut easily greenlit cause he’s an actor) wasted 16M on a freakin Superbowl marketing and now can’t break even without – ta-da -streaming! Ironic.
So yeah, if directors weren’t (talentless) Moroccans but (talentless) Tom and Jerry Wyoming and if the actress wasn’t a Latina but Stacy nobody would cry over this business decision that saved the company from a sure fire flop.
P.S. Into the Heights was unwatchable inc Batgirl
it doesn’t bother me, though. I’m more into steaming shows. can’t wait for HOTD.
I’m not taking a chance with:
Civil War – they can talk apolitical nature all they want that scene with Plemons didn’t make it apolitical at all or otherwise he would confront another blond Caucasian dude type like himself
Monkey Man cause it’s a bait and switch. it isn’t a fun John Wick knock-off with Indian flavor but political diatribe that drags in the middle and has badly shot shaky cam action
First Omen – it’s a religious horror for atheists meaning it’s for no one. Atheists don’t watch that genre even when it panders to them while religious people won’t watch something that insults them. And I won’t watch cause it’s Disney.
Abigail cause screw horror comedy.
I will see Challengers. Already have tickets.
oh, I was about to start Cutter’s Way, but then I stumbled upon this crapfest called Squirm. My favorite genre ever is deadly insect movies from the mid to late 70’s. Now squirm is worms but still. I had to watch! It’s terribly wonderful. It feels like a super drunk Hitchcock wannabe is directing a discarded first draft of the only horror movie Tennessee Williams’s jealous cousin tried to write. You couldn’t make a movie this unbelievably bad if you tried. I love it!
Also, from what I’ve understood, if people send scripts to studios without being asked, the studios just throw them out for fear of getting sued later on. Pitching scripts as Ryan mentions is one thing but let’s say that you read one of these scripts, you dismiss it and then after a while make a movie based on a different script that has some of the same elements. What proof do you have of that script that was sent to you not being the basis of the movie you just made?
I’ve already been to the movie theaters 38 times this year (yes, I log what I see like a dork) and currently have tickets lined up for five upcoming films. If Hollywood and the movie business is dying, I’ll be there supporting it until its last breath.
However, I’m a realist so I know I’ll be gone long before it is, but that was too grand a statement not to make.
But for anyone saying there isn’t anything worth seeing in a movie theater, that’s frankly bullshit. I’ve seen about 1/3 of the total films I’ve seen in theaters from 1989-Present just since late 2017 thanks to MoviePass / AMC A-List, and that’s with a full year of moviegoing essentially erased due to the pandemic. The amount of great films I’ve seen during this time period of being on a subscription service has been staggering.
So many films I likely wouldn’t have given a chance beforehand until home video in the past or streaming in the present I now see on the big screen because of the subscription convenience. This also includes films I now love, but likely never would have ended up watching at home because my backlog of films past and present to catch up on at home is just too damn long.
I’ll ultimately never regret missing a film at home because I saw it in a theater, but there are still films that eat away at me because I skipped out on them when they played in a theater and I ultimately chose to watch them in an inferior format. Even the best home entertainment system is just not the same as a big screen experience. At least it’s not the same for me. The cinema is the closest thing I have to church. I love it and always will, warts and all
Now I do understand that not everyone has the time, money, or vast selection of films to see in theaters based on where they live. Perhaps there are other things holding you back as well like disrespectful patrons, safety concerns, etc. I’m sorry if that’s the case, and this isn’t directed towards you.
This is strictly for those who choose to play it safe and see the most basic films that studios have to offer. Creative and rewarding works are out there all year long if you choose to take some risks and seek them out.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5d9f9834519938ffdd9e8227863c7c31487bf293edb2dcf0782660db1c63ec88.png
Don’t we all.
I think Abigail just needed more Ritalin.
Bloodthirsty.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/69438af4244ed2d267c81ecda7f0ac01281a20c5cd99dd7f69647fe58711ccb8.jpg
When I said Cutter’s Way was Peak Jeff Bridges — that peak, as we all know, is a mountain range of peaks. He’s never not been at his peak.
But you’ll see the specific peak I mean in the first 5 minutes of Cutter’s Way. In this specific way, he was the Brad Pitt of the ’80s.
The Giant Mechanical Man? That guy’s a hard ass. High maintenance, too. Always crying for more lubricant.
2° Is Disney in a loss for money?
Disney revenue was $89 billion in 2023, up from $82.7 billion a year earlier – an annual growth of over seven percent.
Disney is the 2nd largest entertainment company on planet Earth.
(The #1 largest is Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal, which means Comcast gave us Oppenheimer and also Rachel Maddow.)
4° “Good People Doing Good Things.” —? who know any names of these movies?
My question exactly, Renzo! I asked the same thing 10 minutes ago.
Over the past 100 years, some of the most beloved movies every made have involved good people doing good things.
That used to be regarded as inspirational — and for some, even aspirational.
It’s why actors and actress so seldom won Oscars for playing shitty people. Audiences used to admire good people. Is “doing good things” too “woke” now?
As I say, since 1920, there have been about 10,000 movies in which good people do good things.
Here are a half dozen of the pinnacles:
Good People Doing Good Things:
• Casablanca
• It’s a Wonderful Life
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• The Shawshank Redemption
• Democrats Created Social Security and Medicare and Obamacare
• Gandhi
You and I are close friends forever, Simone!
In all cautious sincerity I ask you this question:
Which movies last year beat you over the head with a message? What was the message (or messages) that you feel are so disagreeable that you ended up hating the movie, or lost interest in it?
I know you will have answers!
I trust your reply.
I just can’t personally even guess what the answer or movies might be.
But I do believe you will be able to name a few that bothered you.
So then I will come closer to understanding.
Why are we mad about movies that show “good people doing good things”?
— I thought we all loved movies like that. Casablanca. It’s a Wonderful Life. To Kill a Mockingbird. … The Holdovers.
I’m a guy who doesn’t let a movie irritate me. Either I like it or I don’t.
If I don’t like a movie, I’m not mad that it didn’t give me what I want or expect. I just stop watching it and try another one of the 10,000 movies available.
But I’m not a guy that wants to abolish the existence of all the movies that might bug me.
Just because those movies are not for me, I’m still able to accept that other people might love them.
I went off. Sorry.
Back to my simple question:
Can you name for me some of the recent movies that “beat audiences over the head with certain messages until they are knocked unconscious”
Know when I feel beaten over the head? When people never shut up about how much they despise or even just get annoyed at the presence of gay characters onscreen, even characters who may only have a handful of lines. It ruins the movie for them.
Is it those MAGA assholes I’m supposed to worry about placating? And how do I make those shitheads happy without just disappearing? Or letting them disappear me, or murder me.
I had no idea such a disgusting thing even existed. I felt so stupid for even mentioning it to you. I rushed right back here to retract it.
I watched a bit to see how bad it would be. The first ad break was only 7 minutes in! Destroyed the whole mood of suspense that had been built. Sickening.
Yes, you’re right. Amazon gives us two options: “Watch a movie get clumsily butchered for free. Or pay us $4.99 to actually enjoy it.”
ScreenPix sounds lowrent but the presentation of Cutter’s Way is firstrate HD. I ended up watching the whole thing through. It’s one of those movies, for me.
I don’t want to overhype it. It’s just a sleek and surprisely deep ’80s neonoir. But I love that it’s smarter than it had to be.
Also. I have an ulterior motive for recommending it that I can’t talk about until you see it someday. Just whenever. I’m not pushing you! Not at all.
(“Orange Is the New Black,” you say? Ack, yes, we all remember that horrible day…)
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d3f355c42ec1684db5a9ad6991e5a10fc042c27a7b4fe550723afec9f51e97be.jpg
The message of Hollywood is clear…GIVE US YOUR MONEY. Nothing else.
As for Cutter’s Way, I found this odd tidbit on JustWatch
Cutter’s Way is 6029 on the JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts today. The movie has moved up the charts by 2684 places since yesterday. In the United States, it is currently more popular than The Giant Mechanical Man but less popular than Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance.
Now of course, they didn’t list the cast.
The video story I worked at used to rent this. I would get it confused with Breaking Away, even though I watched Breaking Away many a time.
Also funny, I watched Starman last night, first time since the original time and I was surprised how much I loved it even though it was super corny and clearly out of date techically.
Just shows how good Jeff Bridges was back then. And Karen Black was far better than I remember her being in any movie.
I despise freevee.
The unpublished secret is that the more you watch it, the more ads they give you. I was watching one Australian show on it and at first the ads were like 30 seconds like 3 or 4 times an hour long episode
It didn’t take that long for it to get worse and soon, yeah, there will two minute interruptions every few minutes. Shoot, I bought TiVo in 2000 in order to get rid of ads.
They also had some movies that I wanted to see, but, yeah, not only were the ads too long, they would often cut in in mid-scene. I guess some intern was getting high instead of marking appropriate commerical spots. It was unbearable.
My eventual fear is that all catalogue content will eventually only be streamable with commercials. Like Netflix will take older stuff (like Orange is the New Black) and move it to a new channel called Netflix Plus or something. And it will be only ads. You won’t be able to watch those shows without commercials unless you pay premium rental fees.
I think this is how actors and writers will eventually get residuals for that stuff.
Wait, replying to yourself is soooooooo vain.
Re: These multiple conversations with multiple people… did they also have multiple personalities?
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e5a68fb76b4449f81baa1db638706f8c56beb9f03d1cd8fec7c46c4ea8016067.gif
Me, too. There’s still nothing like it.
Please do go, Sammy. Movies need you there. I do, too. To argue with me about them. And to make others on this site not let the worthwhile stuff slip by them. (If you can’t watch it now, write the title down and look around for it later.)
Okay, I’m not going to ascribe my views, my inner stuff, to you. So, just speaking for me, I regularly say to myself: if I don’t speak up for movies that matter, and sound off about them to give movies a chance to matter to more people, then I matter a little less, will have done a little less than I could have in my time on earth.
All right, I can hear snorts of laughter. Pompous? Full of myself? Grandiose? At my age I can tell you, that sentiment, that principle, most certainly is not pretentious in the least. There’s only so much any of us can do, and we don’t have all the time in the world.
Look, you of all people don’t need to hear this, so I’m typing it for whoever else might be reading: movies are a great art form, as great as any humanity has ever managed to forge and sustain. They’re worth sacrificing time, money and effort for. You’ll be rewarded in ways you can’t imagine.
Yeah, I trot out this self-congratulatory “I’m A Defender of the Art Form of the Motion Picture” mantra every few months. Those who know me here won’t be surprised to see it again. Old people eat ice cream because their teeth ache.
I worry less about the industry than Sasha does. No one holds power forever. I worry about the makers. I loved it when Cord Jefferson in his acceptance speech said, “Instead of $100 million movies, how about twenty $5 million movies?” Not necessarily those dollar figures, but we definitely need more thinking along those lines. Less costly is sleeker and more sustainable.
Everything is back! Thank goodness!
So much that I want to say. To add to this that you’ve said.
I’m trying to be sweet for a few days. We’ll see how that works out.
Oh hey though.
Not sure if you have your Saturday night plans lined up.
But I see that Cutter’s Way is available via Amazon Prime for free.
(“freevee” — with limited ads. No idea what that means.)
Peak Jeff Bridges.
Cinematography: Jordan Cronenweth. (Jeff’s dad.)
====
Update: I don’t think you want to do freevee with ads. There will be 6 interruptions of 2 minutes each.
But under “more purchase option” on Amazon Prime, I see Cutter’s Way also available ad-free with 7-day free trial to something called ScreenPix.
you are the reason movies are dying
You should probably take your chances and go see something that isn’t a sequel or part of a franchise.
There are plenty of great movies out there. And you know that if you post here. And you know how to find them. And yet you don’t go see them.
So stop complaining.
yay Chase you risen in ranking of member i love (that despite fact we may have variable in our political persuasions has be pointed out) you are no3 up from no.5 to no.3 in my TOP 3 favourite film analysts here!
NOW HOW COOL THAT FOR YOU EY? FINALLY after my repeating it think like half a dozen times since discus errr… sorry i mean when it in ‘dick mode’ dickus..and you have CAUGHT ON TO THE GAG where it comes from NOBODY save yoursewlf has come forward to buy in on the humor play of words..
yet somehow i should NOT be surprised given your the king of charming wit and play with words…but i not so much surprised i truly impressed…(i asomehow knew you be first one to catch on to it…
now i do wonder are you a fan of Monty Python? thje days where SIMPLE things really resonated untouched by what i call the ‘woke or anti woke’ posturing just did INSTINCTIVE HUMOR trusting in audience (admittedly at the time and sure times have changed) to ‘get’ the joke appreciate it for what it is just classic authentic instinctive humor and not get too bogged down in what right or wrong and entrust the audience to not read ANYTHING into it posturing other than just good ol original INVENTIVE humor…
Is it any wonder then that Monty Python is rated as amongst of very few of most influential shows in pop culture?
You keyed into that mate so hence you are up from my ‘top 5’ (cmon let get real we all have our favourites even if we do as i do respect other members outside my top 5 those us have courage to admit it and admire others members here outside of top 5- ) but human nature we ALL have our faouvrites whether we admit it or not…
so now your in my top 3 because you seized on understood ‘biggus dickus’; and my reference when referring to ‘dysfunctional mode’ discus as ‘Biggus Dicksus’ tell me i curious now my friend how did you first stumble and discover hidden gem that is monty python?
you miss those days of truly CLEVER universally appealing inventive humor (which incidentally NOT what i can say of awards season contemporary defition of humor in their choices today) 2 exceptions however ‘Green Book’ and ‘Jo Jo Rabbit’ but really in last 7 years particularly it come across as very stilted overtly scripted and too controlling in one way or the other..just i wish dont you? not be posturing to either woke or anti woke..just instinctive TRUST in ther audience to embrace base level humor..without reasing too much into what it does and does not mean that how Monty PYthon made a name for itself done you think?
I have had multiple conversations with multiple people about why they don’t go to the movies very much any more. These were actual in person conversations, not online, and with people who spanned the political spectrum pretty broadly.
Nobody said anything about politics, or the content and quality of the films at all. They all said variations of the same thing: It’s too much hassle. Why leave the house for hours, pay for a sitter, pay for tickets, etc., when they could just stay home and watch a streaming service they’ve already paid for?
A couple of people also said they don’t really have the patience for a 2+ hour movie any more, which was alarming. Fun fact: The average American spends 2.5 hours per day on social media. Two and a half hours every single day!
When talk how we can get box office back to what it was, it reminds of of Timberlake’s line in The Social Network: “Do you want to buy a Tower Records, Eduardo?”
There probably are people out there who aren’t going to the movies because of “wokeness”, but trying to appeal to people like that is a waste of time, because they don’t really want to be appealed to. It’s just the vanity of grievance and victimhood.
You can’t take wokeness out of Hollywood because wokeness has no coherent definition. Barbie was woke, until it did well at the box office, then suddenly it was anti-woke, although some commentators went with “Everyone actually hated Barbie, it made one and a half billion dollars because the ads tricked everyone into thinking it was anti-woke”, which was pretty funny.
This scene in Avengers:
https://media2.giphy.com/media/VIul6kR8mDHzXoVMLv/giphy-downsized-small.mp4
was the wokest shit I’ve ever seen in my life, but anti-wokesters didn’t raise much fuss about it, because the movie was popular.
Oppenheimer, a movie about a white man directed by a white man with an all white cast just easily won Best Picture. American Fiction, a movie that specifically, textually mocks and criticizes the liberal racial politics of Hollywood, just won Best Screenplay. But you and all the rest still insist that only woke movies can get made and win awards.
I’m quite willing to stipulate that there was a stretch a few years ago in which a lot of artists felt obligated to insert trite social justice politics into their stories, and there was an excess of moralistic policing on social media. But it’s mostly in the past. Who’s still getting cancelled on social media, in 2024? Nobody.
So you should be happy. You won the argument! White guy movies get made, and they win awards. Dave Chappelle won the argument. Comedians can say whatever they want about trans people and still win awards and host SNL and get paid gobs of money to do standup specials.
Go to the anti-woke section of youtube today, and they’ve resorted to complaining about black background characters and cartoon characters’ butts being woke. None of that previous sentence is a joke. They’re just desperately casting about for reasons to feel attacked and victimized. Those people can’t be satisfied because they don’t want to be. So there’s really no point in trying.
“I go to movies less and less.”
Same and that bothers me a lot. I need to find ways to show up there more. I just like the feeling of being in a movie theater.
The screenplay contest idea already exists in a system in the real world that has been operable for close to a hundred years: it’s called pitching scripts.
The judges in the contest are studio development executives.
These judge-execs have made 1000 great choices over the past century. They made 5000 not-so-great choices too.
Judges in all contests make decisions that never make everybody happy. Pulitzer, Cannes, Figure Skating, American Idol, Miss America, OJ Simpson Jury, etc.
So it’s all about the taste and instincts of the judges/executives, no matter what we call the contest.
And even the best judges are going make mistakes. (if “not making everybody happy” can even be seen as a mistake.)
Know who’s the very last contest judge on earth I would trust to pick a winning screenplay: Jeff fucking Wells.
before you know it, the original screenplay is a piece of trash because its “unique” vision has been sacrificed to please a hundred different people all with different agendas.
I should add, movies like American Fiction and Past Lives are cheap movies to make, but Hollywood doesn’t like to make them. They are hard to do well and often become unwatchable. The ones that are made well have a limited audience. These are the toughest movies to make well, but people don’t like to believe that. But they are wrong, that’s why we have so few of them that really work.
News, in these contemporary times, is so easy to come across. And nearly all of it’s garbage. It’s selected for us by some silly computer program based on articles we’ve “clicked” in the past. Even those trying to avoid news will click on faux-news because the headline is worded to be interesting. These people eventually become very ill-informed and are led into a sewage of ideas that some big company or foreign dictator wants you live in because they can benefit from it. These people are easy to identify, because they are as stupid as they sound.
The screenplay contest she describes seems wonderful but it’s generally difficult to implement. Everyone loves different screenplays. I could find a screenplay to be wonderful, but if I give it to the wrong director, he most likely want to change some things, and the people who are paying for the movie will want to change a few things. And then when it’s shot it will be tested in front of focus groups and that will cause some things to be changed and before you know it, the original screenplay is a piece of trash because its “unique” vision has been sacrificed to please a hundred different people all with different agendas. And they will all say “wow, we really chose the wrong screenplay. It just never translated well to the screen”
People in Hollywood love power, and a way to measure power is to get big budgets. Like every industry it’s a competition. So the most talented people get bigger budgets and many of them get swollen heads and can’t accept criticism. And their own internal “editing” system gets turned off, and soon every whim becomes part of the film because the director things each one of them is brilliant. And then before you know it, you have a mess.
The theory goes “we just need the right screenplay” but what is the right screenplay. None of them, really. Most of them, probably. Screenplays need to be evaluated properly and then trusted, but that happens so rarely because everyone in Hollywood has an ego. Unique visions rarely triumph.
A “cheap” Hollywood movie is anything made for 25 million dollars or less. Horror movies are good examples of this. You can throw most horror movies into the theaters and expect them to make at least 10 to 20 million dollars but they will make a lot more in home video rental and many will stick around on cable and streaming for forever since horror is one of those go to genres people pick when they are home alone and bored.
Another genre that sticks around are R rated comedies, romantic or otherwise. Again, most are made without big name stars and have little to know CGI, so they can be cheap. But they are rewatchable by many. So they eventually made money.
Know which other Marvel movies look like rejected TV pilots? Most of them. Laziest, sloppiest CGI in the industry.
Sorry one of Marvel’s garbage genre movies went outside the boring-ass box and starred a Latina woman and was directed by Moroccans.
1000 people worked hard on the movie. Nobody saw their effort so nobody knows it’s value, including you.
What we do know is Zaslov turned everyone’s dreams and hard work into a craven tax write-off.
What we do know is Zaslov is a greedy far-right fuckwit who is a notorious racist. He follows the orders of billionaire MAGA investor John Malone who sucks up to Trump and is friends with Murdoch.
Zaslav is taking a legendary Hollywood studio and running it into the ground, lining his pockets by destroying movies.
It’s embarrassing that you would proclaim your “love” for a creep like that.
Good people doing good things – I would assume the recent Boys in the Boat is a perfect example. She loved the “midwestern” values of hard work allowing one to reach a goal. But what she really means is that this movie featured a bunch of white people bonding together to overcome a common enemy such as Hitler, which nearly everyone can agree is a bad guy.
Now, of course, this took place in Seattle, which is now one of the most liberal enclaves in America so these people were not Midwestern. But when the term Midwestern Values term is used it’s really a code for “white and conservative/religious” – sometimes people will even call them the “heart of America”
Be careful when people use these terms. It normally conceals a racist agenda.
Movies are not dead. They just aren’t the dominant form of entertainment anymore. It’s the games. Before movies, there was theater which also isn’t dead.
I go to movies less and less. This year, I went to see only Dune 2 and GxK. I don’t expect to go to the movies again until Joker 2 and Gladiator 2.
I love him. he shelved the movie by Ms Marvel directors because it looked like a rejected CW pilot. Just like Ms Marvel, a truly amateur work by everyone involved in front and behind the camera. Small wonder the show and then the movie bombed super hard.
Zaslav made the right decision.
Warner Bros had to sell 5 million movie tickets just to pay this asshole.
https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1781373865421054326
Typo? Migrating as many comments as possible is the goal.
Being able to restore everyone’s disqus history yesterday now lets us expect over 99% completion.
But comments made over this weekend might not carry over on Monday. Keep a duplicate of anything important!
Testing….
Does that mean Disqus will be back?
Thanks so much for all the work you put into this!
Not sure how old you are, but Debut, Post and Homogenic are must-have classics. They redefined music. They truly did. Nothing sounded like them. Sure, there was electronica, but she really elevated the form into an art.
Sinead did lose her way, but then she got it back. She went through a difficult phase, but once her mental health stabilized her music because stellar, much of it even better than her first two albums. It doesn’t sound the same, and doesn’t break much ground, but the way the tracks are layered, they are often quite beautiful. And the lyrics are often spectacular.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hOEVmmY99g
Warner Bros had to sell 5 million movie tickets just to pay this asshole.
https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1781373865421054326?s=19
Kate Bush is the Godmother of it all, Bjork is outright horrible (with or without the Sugarcubes), and Sinead started out great and then got lost. Lana has more talent in one of her cuspids than Bjork does in her swan.
So do comments made on other bit move here too?
Well, I still listen to Kate Bush and Bjork and Sinead O’Conner. None of these young ones compare.
I wrote elsewhere that Swift has a lot of talent, but that one thing she’s not is risky. I’ve never heard a song that pushes boundaries or makes me think what popular music can do or be. And it’s true, Lana Del Ray does that a bunch.
It’s almost working!
We got past the scariest part where Sasha was ready to strangle me.
Now we have manged to restore all the years of Disqus history to everyone’s profile.
We still have to figure out what’s the glitch causing disqus to choke and stall out
Tech guys are on it.
We dodged a bullet. Things were looking dire af the past 24 hours.
Optimistic now!
Is Disqus working again?
https://youtu.be/JPbwdUfzBuc?si=ZatUKaBrb2aIqBtV
DEI has become evil. Orwellian
All restored now, SunnyD.
I would’ve found them for you anyway, but now they are back where they belong.
There white actors in lead roles. You sure about
American Fiction was overall the best film nominated at the Oscars this past season.
I sense the green eyes of envy that once more, the planet’s most popular entertainer threw another curveball and dropped a DOUBLE ALBUM overnight. And maybe Rep T.V. later this year. 5-time Grammy album of the year winner next February?
The Towering Inferno also cost $14m, if memory serves and in any other year than the year of Godfather 2, it would’ve WON best picture IMO. The opening shot with the helicopter’s travel to San Francisco STILL gives me goosebumps, with John Williams in his musical prime. The best disaster film ever.
There are many reasons why people aren’t going to the theater as much. Those reasons have been stated many times here and elsewhere.
Seems to me that the biggest one is everyone’s ‘lack of time’ (length of films, travel, too much going on in their life, social media taking up free time, etc) — ‘lack of time’. “Oh, I really want to see that!! I just don’t know when I can get around to it”. And then you find out that they never saw it in theaters or even at home.
I don’t really think money is a major issue here; I think it is an excuse. People spend oodles and oodles of money on whatever these days — they just don’t want to go to the theater.
Me? I still love the theater (the time away from the stresses of my life, the seats, the darkened room, the communal experience, being lost in a story).
To avoid the ‘it’s too expensive’ issue, I get many gift cards from friends and family (holidays, birthday), and I also bring my own water and snacks. If I want to splurge, I go for the popcorn on occasion.
I really do think it is mostly a ‘lack of time’ thing, and social media is a factor, there.
I did have a discussion with a friend who is conservative and he was saying that Hollywood is now an inundation machine. It refuses to cast white straight leads anymore and it will always choose the more left-wing point of view as the heroic one.
I was thinking that I don’t think that is the case. I don’t think straight white film makers like Sam Mendes or Wolfgang Peterson or Alexander Payne or JJ Abrams or Sam Raimi or whomever care that much, but I think it’s the critics who will interpret the work they make as left wing statements and will negatively attack work that might not be diverse enough or woke enough in its messaging. As a result someone like Alexander Payne might be encouraged to put a black lead in The Holdovers, or whoever directed the third iteration of Spiderman might feel the need to put a Black lead like Zendaya (ditto Catwoman, the Joker’s love interest, Little Mermaid, the broadway run of Catch Me If You Can, the Netflix Cleopatra show, the live action remake of Rent in which Mark Cohen is half-black and Sara Silverman’s role is now Asian).
Personally, I don’t mind a DaVine Joy Randolph in Holdovers, it can seem ahistorical for Catch Me If You Can or Cleopatra and it varies for some of it. Catwoman has precedent but Little Mermaid, I’m not in favor of, because there are actually redheads who looked up to the character, and they’re not racist in wanting a white redhead when there are tons of other black leads who are headlining their own musicals and Disney or Disney-like stories.
Still, my point is whether you think the film makers are indoctrinating people, I think it’s the critics who are doing that.
I wrote a comment a little while ago about 15 actresses that are most due for Oscars and 15 Actors that are most due for Oscars. Are you saying that those are now deleted?
Dune 1 and dune 2 are fine.
or by extension the media- given the overlapping interweaving of where critics reside in online cyberspace via online media publications of like that scew and distort and misinform and misrepresent what you say is not that hard to believe at all…unfortunately…
There some truth to that for sure..
Err.. i guessing cos of Biggus Dicksus playing up once again (no i defintiely DONT blame ever hardworking devoted AD staff ever at all as they move heaven and earth to keep ship sailing here)
But i only post by doing replies..
So with that in mind, I AM FINALLY (also cos of financial limuitations= who doesnt have that nowadays with way inflation and fuel prices are hyper inflated ey?)
FINALLY before it goes out of cinemas- i SEEING DUNE 2 on the SECOND VIEWING…only – unfortunately…
how many times have most of you seen Dune 2 by the way? And just before and as been raised before here in this topic… that once tou see a film while it new release in cinemas, there absolute value in rewatching then established release film on youir 4k tv if you have one…and boy i have to say sooo good part of my ‘homework’ (type of homework people love mind you) to see the FIRST DUNE at home just before…
Was such a pleasure to experience and relive that amazing part 1 of DUNE once again it also interestingly marks only the SECOND TIME SINCE the transition from Fellowship of the Ring leasing to almighty release of The Two towers that i have in fact watched the 1st part of a trilogy day BEFORE i bout to see DUNE PART 2.- tomorrow..
What MOST unfortunate i can blame totally timing of limited season IMAX release for IMAX filmed Dune 2 clashing right when i was doing my 4th move in 3 years earlier this year when it released but i soo disappointed that i could niot see it in it filmed format in IMAX.. However i get to see it second time..and it so timely get a refresher on the one most vast, deepest envciornments and characters and worlds ANY sci fi fable saga has ever told since Star Wars….so now i all fired up…by the blazing desert sun beating down on me as i seek to get to my next destination, i survived Dune 1 now i get to relive one more time before goes out of cinemas desitnation 2: DUNE PART 2..
I had make special mention to this extraordinary cinematic epic and featr by Villenueve and his incredibly formidable visionary team and amazing cast as well, cos your wondering why one most anticipated films of this year i didnt do review on after first time i saw it 2 months ago? THAT HUGE COMPLIMENT TO DELAY A REVIEW tell you all that right now why? BECAUSE I STRONGLY FELT I NEEDED AND IT ABSOLUTELY DESERVED SECOND VIEWING OF DUNE PT 2, TO TRULY ABSORB, PROCESS AND ADMIRE AT MUCH DEEPER LEVEL THAN FIRST TIME VIEWING IT THINGS I DIDNT NOTICE FIRST TIME I CAN NOTICE MORE DEPTH SECOND TIME VIEWING PT 2..THAT WILL ENSURE MORE ROUNDED MORE INFORMED REVIEW THAT DO this astonishing breathtaking otherworldly vision full justice it deserves..that was NOT gonna happen after only one viewing…
So look forward to my review after i see Dune pt 2 well i put review up asap after i see it tomorrow arvo..if i can or it def be day after and yes..i see no reason i cant try keep it under 3000 words for a change!
But i have to say last but not least seeing DUNE pt 1 at home on my hd 4k tv is astonishing experience even if for such big screen vast profound epic, that you cant beat rewatching it in cinemas but given we most of us dont have that type of money to see special exclusive screening of recent past releases who am i to complain i got to still be immersed in my 65′ screen at home to relive the awe and fierce and inspirational vision and presentaiton of Dune pt 1 ey?
what you think?
well this is grounds for some consideration well namely when rewatching or particularly updated hd reformatted representations of older films anyway…
I think most people prefer cinemas but then it does become and you highligh6ted the point…’economically viable’ and in high inflation cost of living pressure environment well for as long as inflation soars..then only way for cineplexes to make their returns is to hike the price of a movie ticket..heck in space of under a year..after they triumphantly in my country trumpeted their horn over announcing a – 3.00 aud discount..then barely year after that with inflation skyrocketing, cost of living pressures on the rise-0 and yes the war in ,middle east imposing intimidating pressures of cost on the fuel pump too (did you hear after Iran attacked israel (predictable and unacceptable i may add) Opec and their affiliates owned by Saudi Arabia and the like hiked fuel prices to ABOVE 2.00 aud a litre and now that the new high water mark alarming average as it been for under a week… so if these things create greater expense and cost to us..i,magine how much more as flow on effect, that we all be paying for a concessuion ticket?
Hence: in simple terms:
at middle last year BEFORE has be pointed out the horrid october 7th attacks on Israel, cinemas, dpeartment stores, supermarkets LOWERED their prices and esp in cinemas, they took -3.00 aud of default standard cinema price even at concession but AFTER attacks of October 7th and flowing through to Irans attack on Israel…i noticed sudden jump in cinema prices from 11.00 aud- which cheap in these times- otr WAS but in under a week compared to when i looked start of a week… they not onl went back to pre discount cost of 14.00 aud, but they now at alarming record cost concession ticket supposed to be affordable right up to 17.00 aud !! It reality people need be aware of any war in middle east is exploited by Opec controlled by Arab countries primarily.. (some who are enemies to Israel too) , and when fuel goes up via alarmingly high oil prices everything goes up including ones cinema ticket!
So i do accewpt and embrace even for my self with my at time other till recently cost pressures where you coming from Ryan and others that we cant afford to see EVERY film we prefer to in cinemas, but i also accept there are to me LIMITED but more than usual cos of economic circumstances and challenges for our budgets more than usual atm- that indeed, we do need to adjust to value of rediscovering the savings and benefits cos of savings on ie: heavy conversational lower budget movies on hdtv screen..
like you i was lucjky Ryan to got my own 4K ultra HD screen yours 4k? hope so cos that above HDTV unless..in the states it not refered to as 4K?
But i OVERPAYED my rent in my previous place i moved to AND just in time post boxing day discountes start last year i got 600.00 aud… discount SALE PRICE and IN addition the +1000.00 aud i overpaid for rent went to more recent model (not the latest at tiume start of last year) HDTV 4k 65″ – how bigf yours Ryan?
So i was lucky and good timing…soo glad i did…was such a dream to rewatch some my most faovurite films…and seeing dark knight in this format captured the IMAX condensed format beutifully…
i suppose for me when it comes to true big screen epics, rewatching them on released blu ray or 4k disc or on streaming is fine AFTER it done it run in cinemas…but when it big screen epic or film filmed in it content and setting for the big screen experience when it new release that where seeing it on non domestic big screen in cineplexes has value..
But i grant you this: yes there are less assholes your boudn to encounter when you dont go to cinemas..but it depends also type of neighbourhood cineplexes are located at…type of pple that usualy visit certain shopping centres…and time of day too…
But i can appreciate uyltimately why you and some others just grateful to relive their old vhs era filmed classics of 90’s or 80’s in [pre-4k ERA to see how they perform and sheer vastly improved enhanced experience of old films made new again thanx to in home technology…
what you think that?
Looks like we’re in the clear. 500,000 disappearing AD comments on everyone’s Disqus profiles have all been restored. The bridge between Disqus and WordPress will be back in service in a day or two. If you like commenting via your own Disqus page, you can do that again now — but be aware that the final export/import of comments will likely drop some comments made over the weekend. So if you’re writing a special essay on a post, be sure to keep a copy in case you need to repost it on Monday.
Thanks for your patience through this breakdown!
Hey gang. We all need to not be using Disqus to comment, k? It’s been broken, probably beyond repair.There is no way right now to have a comment written from your person Disqus profile appear on the site.I
‘m so sorry this happened. We’ll figure something else out.I don’t much care about what happens to Hollywood really. As long as we’re getting “smart” films like American Fiction, “well made” flicks like The Holdovers – I’ll be fine.. 🙂
Hollywood is just a “fraction” of the world cinema – at the end of the day.
As regular people with mortgages can only get a $20,000 credit. If it wasn’t for the conman peddling culture war nonsense he’d be pillaried.
Meanwhile the ultra rich are hoping Trump wins so they can get a 100% tax deduction on yachts and planes. But please tell me again how they are not the elite, but liberals are. I don’t like the woke, but good lord…this alone tells you what’s going on.
To correct what Billie said, Lana is way more than half the reason female artists are where they are today. Taylor has clearly been shaped by her too. Lana is the most influential female artist of the last decade. No one else is even close.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/07a062bdee35ca6efeaaeb125c6676a589fd18153ed4b1b592aa37b60bb30609.jpg
I have said time and time again, a bigger screen won’t make the dialogue and characters any better.
Sorry, can’t go see Abigail.
I’ve been too immersed in the new Lana del Ray song called Fortnight, you know the one, the one with Post Malone.
I should be able to find those great analyses you wrote. I’ll look later today. Can you recall what post you wrote them under?
Not a moment too soon.
Top Gum https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/27fc59827bc1683f611c109028134674fa1136cf92cc01cb46e3f926f579bcf8.jpg
I am asleep.
Left you a message. I can find the things you want to save.
It’ll be ok.
Abigail has arrived today to save Hollywood!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5a7b459a743864804d7a907f8b24b602895f7ab2d8617db513f1d6c68b7b9c0a.gif
I found out too late.
Is it because nobody agreed with this or understood it?
What I wrote about my country’s history. I don’t know what happened to it. Can you look for it?
LOL. I am fugitive.
rufussondheim, the list of all those movies. Did it all get deleted?
Check your Telegram. If you are still awake.
Everybody is in same boat as I am? What happened?
All the things I spent time to think about to write, where are they?
metawoke, even.
Jerm, I’m honestly not sure yet.
You’re about the 15th person to ask me this question tonight. Every time I have to say that I’m not sure what’s happening, I feel a piece of my heart chip away.
My own Disqus profile is empty now too. 6800 comments. So I personally share your confusion.
I think the good news is that WordPress should still have everyone’s comments.
They are not obliterated. They are just not accessible on an individual level.
I don’t know if they can be exported to another comment system. Still unsure what Sasha wants to do.
Have not seen any of those!
Kino streamer is an excellent recommendation. Why have I never thought of it?
I have a vulgar number of noir on Kino-Lorber blu, because they do such an outstanding job with their special features. The commentary tracks alone are priceless to me, because I love the sensation of being in a college film class again.
(and Kino-Lorber is always having bundle-discount sales so the cost per disc can be as low as a movie ticket. )
Thanks for the Kino tip!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dc6de2374bc14cf271e3106350a50381ce3f3c949cd9445944d4e07c436135de.jpg
People fortunate enough to see movies in deluxe theaters at Cannes and Telluride and the DGA theater and the Alamo Drafthouse… might overestimate how glorious it IS NOT for regular folks to see movies in shabby multiplexes across the country where 5% or 10% of the audience are guaranteed to be assholes.
I am not wild about having movies ruined for me because of the 50 different things that annoy me about strangers.
Meanwhile, I’m lucky enough to have a state-of-the-art HDTV sized perfectly for the room it’s in — with an excellent sound system. For not a lot of money at all.
Way more than half the classic movies I have ever seen in my life, I saw on TV. When the TV was a 18″ RCA in my bedroom in high school, maybe that was sad.
But decades later? Rewatching movies I first saw on VHS? Gloriously restored and upgraded to 4K Ultra on a 65″ Sammy? Holy fuck, it’s orgasmic.
I’m not scoffing at the theatrical experience, because of course I get the attraction.
But then there’s the economic factor to consider for normal humans too.
I laid out a not unsubstantial sum of money to make movie-watching at home so pleasant. People like me do not have unlimited funds to spend on movies every year.
Hollywood taught us to spend our money to see movies at home — and then they’re all confused when we do it?
FYI – Kino has about 4 or 5 films I want to see, so I will actually pay the 5.99 for a month. Sorrow and the Pity is one of movies. Another is Yesterday Today and Tomorrow from 1964. I assume you’ve seen that one. Also Dogtooth, which I feel like I should watch.
I have not seen The Sorrow and the Pity.
Always weirded me out that Woody Allen would make it the brunt of a wisecrack.
As for being dated, I might want to believe that the closer to the 1940s it was made, the more immediate it might feel.
(Not to keep harping on The Conformist, but when I think how incredibly authentic the recreation of 1930s feels — it’s useful to remember 1970 was only 30 years after pre-WWII … and now, yeesh, we are 54 years from 1970.)
Similarly, I like how The Spy Who Came in From the Cold nails the same visceral aesthetic as The Third Man.
Does all your past stuff get erased? Because I just so happen to see this after I was looking at my notifications and everything on my disqus notifications and past stuff was wiped clean, all but a few convos from not AD were left. Like everything from AD was gone—from like ever, not just the last few hours.
Obviously it’s gone woke!
Chills. He’s more coherent than Trump.
that kid does amazingly look like Trump
Love it. Let’s have your agent and my agent do lunch.
I’d like to collaborate. How about we combine your idea about Swiftie Demons with my idea about Toddler-Brain MAGA Demons.
I’ve already found the actor we can cast.
https://twitter.com/filmystic/status/1449125609985167361
Quick Question. Is it worth four hours of my time to watch the Sorrow and the Pity?
Currently I think it is. But an actual valid opinion would be nice. I just fear that it will feel outdated.
The end of “The End of the World” was fantastic, by the way. It even has the line “If we had a bigger boat” which made me chuckle.
American FIction is incredibly woke. If you can’t see it, you’re dumb. It might actually be the first neo-woke movie.
give me 50 million and I will create the best movie ever about demon-possessed girls
I will just film a meeting of the Taylor Swift fan club. I will point out that her music is average at best. Heads will turn. Vomit will come forth. Then I will blast Audra McDonald’s Somewhere and we will watch them all melt with spasmodic misery. No CGI needed.
Please note the one syllable, one note dynamic here. No runs needed if you have a good song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JaldAqv7X0
I was scratching my head at the idea The Godfather and Exorcist were “low budget.”
Ah, was wondering what happened.
Just so you know, my real name is Jared Kushner and I’m going to turn you all into the new and improved justice department when I become Attorney General.
I’ll just say it now – Go Woke Yourselves.
The Exorcist was the most expensive movie of 1973.
Alongside other 1973 movies, The Exorcist cost more than The Sting, The Way We Were, and Serpico combined.
The Exorcist cost twice as much as The Godfather had cost just a year earlier.
Just with regular inflation since 1973, the original $14 million budget for The Exorcist would balloon to $98 million in today’s dollars.
But we all know that Hollywood’s steep rate of inflation for film production far exceeds standard inflation we pay for our milk and eggs and hookers and hush money and whatnot.
Want to make The Exorcist today? So did Universal in 2023.
Remember how well that went? Universal and Blumhouse paid $400 million — just for the franchise rights.
$400 million before a single frame of film was shot.
Exorcist: Believer grossed only $130 million.
To think any studio could duplicate The Exorcist on the cheap today is not realistic.
Absolutely will let you know!
I tell you true, I’m not sure what’s happening, and I’m uneasy about it.
But I’m on edge about everything lately, so I’m hoping it’s just my usual anxiety.
Thanks for the warning. I will keep it in mind. I assume we will be notified when it is safe to post, or repost.
Guys, I need to caution you. We’re in the middle of reinstalling Disqus from scratch.
When we do that, all the comments made during the reinstall are always lost.
So there are two options if you care about what you write here.
1) Wait till Disqus finished its process before commenting again.
2) Or make a copy of your comment so you can repost it later.
Otherwise, I’m sorry to say, there’s no way that anything you write tonight will survive the reinstall.
If you only want to comment now to kill time, then no worries.
But if you intend to participate in any kind of community conversation, please be aware that anything you write for the next few hours will fall through the cracks.
It’s not a big deal if you don’t care.
But if you do care, I have to explain what you can do to circumvent having your comments lost.
You know what Jaws, The French Connection, The Exorcist, Three Days of the Condor, and The Godfather have in common – besides being great movies? Before they were movies, they were books. The French Connection was nonfiction crime, the rest novels, and genre novels at that. All pretty pulpy – crime, horror, spy stuff. So you don’t even necessarily have to come up with entirely original material. Even this past year many of the heavy hitters weren’t original. Oppenheimer, KOTFM, American Fiction, and Poor Things were all based on books. Unfortunately, when it comes to culture war issues, the publishing industry has had battles that make Hollywood look positively tame and conservative. Fiction has, I gather, been particularly affected.
I do agree that budgets have to come down. The days of eight-figure paychecks are over. A few months ago, I read about a rom-com that got cancelled when it’s budget hit $135 million. How do you plan to spend $135 mill on a rom-com? They’re the cheapest thing out there. I also remember Cord Jefferson’s Oscar speech where he said Hollywood should make more low-cost movies instead of blowing big budget. Ten $10m movies instead of one $100m movie or something like that. Sounds good to me.
I have had multiple conversations with multiple people about why they don’t go to the movies very much any more. These were actual in person conversations, not online, and with people who spanned the political spectrum pretty broadly.
Nobody said anything about politics, or the content and quality of the films at all. They all said variations of the same thing: It’s too much hassle. Why leave the house for hours, pay for a sitter, pay for tickets, etc., when they could just stay home and watch a streaming service they’ve already paid for?
A couple of people also said they don’t really have the patience for a 2+ hour movie any more, which was alarming. Fun fact: The average American spends 2.5 hours per day on social media. Two and a half hours every single day!
When talk how we can get box office back to what it was, it reminds of of Timberlake’s line in The Social Network: “Do you want to buy a Tower Records, Eduardo?”
There probably are people out there who aren’t going to the movies because of “wokeness”, but trying to appeal to people like that is a waste of time, because they don’t really want to be appealed to. It’s just the vanity of grievance and victimhood.
You can’t take wokeness out of Hollywood because wokeness has no coherent definition. Barbie was woke, until it did well at the box office, then suddenly it was anti-woke, although some commentators went with “Everyone actually hated Barbie, it made one and a half billion dollars because the ads tricked everyone into thinking it was anti-woke”, which was pretty funny.
This scene in Avengers:
https://media2.giphy.com/media/VIul6kR8mDHzXoVMLv/giphy-downsized-small.mp4
was the wokest shit I’ve ever seen in my life, but anti-wokesters didn’t raise much fuss about it, because the movie was popular.
Oppenheimer, a movie about a white man directed by a white man with an all white cast just easily won Best Picture. American Fiction, a movie that specifically, textually mocks and criticizes the liberal racial politics of Hollywood, just won Best Screenplay. But you and all the rest still insist that only woke movies can get made and win awards.
I’m quite willing to stipulate that there was a stretch a few years ago in which a lot of artists felt obligated to insert trite social justice politics into their stories, and there was an excess of moralistic policing on social media. But it’s mostly in the past. Who’s still getting cancelled on social media, in 2024? Nobody.
So you should be happy. You won the argument! White guy movies get made, and they win awards. Dave Chappelle won the argument. Comedians can say whatever they want about trans people and still win awards and host SNL and get paid gobs of money to do standup specials.
Go to the anti-woke section of youtube today, and they’ve resorted to complaining about black background characters and cartoon characters’ butts being woke. None of that previous sentence is a joke. They’re just desperately casting about for reasons to feel attacked and victimized. Those people can’t be satisfied because they don’t want to be. So there’s really no point in trying.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/384964861e33d576df560c13ba4d78def168bfb4a2ebf4e6051b385010e6a631.jpg
This what I talking bout as visual reference here eg: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f68d3c8790c8d6c94a96aca6aa14e6a1a1384cd70cae2845541aa05330ec18bf.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5c51ea5bdbaf2cdedca80b9513fc296344c7e8fc356fffe221daaf8b93b7c390.jpg
..now if it were ‘ April fools day ‘ I might dismiss this as a joke but it err..8 days past April fools day soo that clearly not the case what new fancy trick is ‘ biggus DICK sus doing now ey ?
Imagine where we would be if those persecuted by nazis mocked or criticized themselves.
“This was especially a problem in the 1950s, when studios also promoted propaganda and became stagnant in their storytelling (despite some great movies from that era).”
One of those great movies is 12 Angry Men, Sidney Lumet’s first feature film. It’s one of my top ten favorite films, and one I’ve been thinking about this week.
Um. Ok.
That Blackrock et al point never made any sense to me in any context where one believes even a little bit in a capitalist market economy.
They’re not shady companies secretly holding all the wealth and power. They’re asset management companies. They essentially invest other people’s, companies’, institutions’ money on their behalf. When they invest in something, that’s indirectly kinda like everybody who has any sort of savings in the bank or pension investing in that something.
And as they’re investing other people’s money, they are motived by profits, just like any owner in a capitalist system (with some constraints) should. If they don’t deliver sufficient profits, investors will find another asset manager. So why is them owning media companies for profit any worse than literally anybody else owning media companies for profit? And it’s certainly better than others (politicians or foreign adversaries) owning media companies for more sinister motives.
We’re running so far away from socialism that we loop back the other end and lose any belief in a market economy. Populism (on both sides!) is the most destructive thing in contemporary political discourse.
“heterodox” billionaires? I don’t even know what that means. But I too am becoming concerned with the state of Hollywood and I’m a staunch Liberal Democrat. The audience can only be beaten over the head with certain messages until they are knocked unconscious and are no longer interested in watching what is being produced by Hollywood… or, rather, Hollywoke.
Call it common decency, call it empathy…
Aiiiiiiiiiiiiii
Loving movies doesn’t get clicks. Fashionable cynicism does. Ain’t that America? Little pink houses for you and me.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b7ade66baf83938e4d07638f1dfa9b06f587e2d0ff9003b25fdfd1920e4838de.gif
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b5914f8a170646e47e9d98b2567ff692e40641c94d1da7141ca55a6d78c98f94.gif
Thank you for your effort Tom. I have exams to study for. I am not doing myself any good to hope for uplift here.
The only uplift is in the contributors down below.
It’s a publicly funded radio station that reports news and information.
Some of their recent movies haven’t done well, but movie studios are always cagey about their finances.
Apparently!
Right wing.
The other questions I can’t really answer for you. I’m as confused as you are.
I feel honestly sick.
You are one of my new friends here, who has told me so many new films to find. Why do we here love many movies if the author tells me the whole of America stopped loving movies? This does not sound true.
I am ready for articles here that tell me more good news about good movies. I do not believe movies are dead. I want the author to see something she enjoys as I do. My eye lids fell asleep to read about NPR. Why should I care? If it is a good program, then the fans can listen to it. If other people don’ like it, they can change the knob to listen to other things.
In Europe we do not need everything to be for everybody. We have individuals in Europe. Everybody here can find their own programs + their own movies that satisfy them.
I do not force my favorite programs on anybody else. I do not want others to force me to watch their favorites. I am trying to not be sad about this article. What is so bad about me loving what I love. Stop telling me I am wrong to love movies.
Oddio. Depressed to read all this.
I love movies. Too bad for people who don’t.
All I can have now are questions.
1° What is the NPR? A radio show is all I can find out.
2° Is Disney in a loss for money?
3° Will somebody name a movie “for the people” that I can understand what is wanted by the author.
4° “Good People Doing Good Things.” —? who know any names of these movies?
5° I love so many new movies all the time. Am I wrong to love them?
6° If a person has stopped reading any news, where is their news found out about?
7° Myself, imo, there are SO MANY new things I want to see. I wish I had time. There is always a supply of good things to watch. Am I so wrong?
8° My understanding is the author likes so many movies that cost a lot. From the ones I know about. Flower Moon is very expensive. Her studio would make them cheap? what for example is a cheap movie in Hollywood
9° Who is to judge the contest of screenplays?
10° Definition of heterodox? I found it, I do not understand it. As it relates to a movie.
I do not want rude answers. I like it here very much. Please be polite. grz.
Um, Americans are willing to pay top dollar for Entertainment. As is much of the world.
Anyone who thinks Hollywood is in trouble isn’t paying attention to America as a whole. Now, the current hierarchy may tumble but if it does something else will quickly replace it.
The Oscars are like a fungus. They are attached to everything and can survive almost anything.
And if they don’t, who cares? Another “major” awards organization will quickly replace it.
That’s the beauty of capitalism. If people are willing to pay for it, it will be there. (That’s why health care costs so much! And why housing prices are so high! And gas! – And then we complain about high prices while we keep paying more and more for less and less – it’s because we consume, consume and then consume some more. We are the parasites of the Earth’s soul.)
Okay, a lot to unpack here but one thing on the “heroic” Berliner: Find me a corporation, media or otherwise, that would allow a guy to constantly go against company policy and bad-mouth them without some suspension. And then his idea to quit afterward.
But movies were better when they had to be for everybody. Stories were better when they were told for a wide majority. Comedy was better, journalism was more honest, and the Oscars were more interesting when they still had one foot in the reality of everyday people and weren’t so eager to please only those at the top.
And that’s the thing: A lot of movies are for everyday people, just not in the same way as the past which famously refused to shine a light on various minority groups and their struggles as well as horrible cliches (look how long it took to cast actual Native Americans or Middle Eastern actors in roles rather than white folks in makeup). Just because you feel this doesn’t go for the “everyday” folks you know doesn’t mean it won’t resonate with others.
Again, a lot more but think give myself time to mull it fully over past the usual “the evil woke is under the bed” stuff marring what good points can be made.
How are we supposed to respond