Grrrr...pt. 2
The state of the film industry, both mainstream and independent, is absolutely depressing. I take it personally, because I have a deep love for movies and film.
Maybe Gen Xers really are the slacker generation. It's 30 and 40 somethings in the industry who are making most of the decisions these days. You can see that in marketing campaigns and how they incorporate all these different music, themes, and other elements from my childhood.
Unfortunately, remaking films from my childhood and trying to pass them off is the order of the day. the existence of Batman Begins, Herbie Fully Loaded, The Pink Panther, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Dukes of Hazard, War of the Worlds, The Smurfs Movie, along with the various other sequels begs the questions, Is anyone in the film industry even thinking anymore?
Apparently, the slacker generation is simply going to regenerate ideas from their childhood and not hurt their pretty little heads to try to make something of original value. They started off with a bang in the late, but seemed to have sputtered out of energy.
And the independent circuit isn't any better these days. Usually a bastion for people like me who need something more than grand explosions and derivative plots to entertain me, these filmmakers seem to be stuck in the same formula as well. Life sucks, family sucks, America sucks, love sucks, gays are cool, women are powerful, heterosexual men suck, violence can be artistic....blah, blah, blah. I love all of these themes, and love movies that have explored them. But, I feel like these themes have, too, become just as gimicky as the latest "special effects ride" from Hollywood.
I'd like to see filmmakers move away from a)the bottom line and b)their own narrow, negative experiences and create real expressions of a complex human experience. This complexity includes real happiness, real joy, love, hate, depression, disillusionment. Real experiences are families that are shams, along with families that are cohesive, family units.
In 1999, I saw around 40-45 films in the theatre and disliked only one of them - The Blair Witch Project. That was a year when both Hollywood and the independent circuit seemed to break free of these gimmicks and make really challenging, thoughtful, and often hysterical films. Since then, there has been a marked decrease in both markets.
Here's to hoping for another peak time.
Maybe Gen Xers really are the slacker generation. It's 30 and 40 somethings in the industry who are making most of the decisions these days. You can see that in marketing campaigns and how they incorporate all these different music, themes, and other elements from my childhood.
Unfortunately, remaking films from my childhood and trying to pass them off is the order of the day. the existence of Batman Begins, Herbie Fully Loaded, The Pink Panther, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Dukes of Hazard, War of the Worlds, The Smurfs Movie, along with the various other sequels begs the questions, Is anyone in the film industry even thinking anymore?
Apparently, the slacker generation is simply going to regenerate ideas from their childhood and not hurt their pretty little heads to try to make something of original value. They started off with a bang in the late, but seemed to have sputtered out of energy.
And the independent circuit isn't any better these days. Usually a bastion for people like me who need something more than grand explosions and derivative plots to entertain me, these filmmakers seem to be stuck in the same formula as well. Life sucks, family sucks, America sucks, love sucks, gays are cool, women are powerful, heterosexual men suck, violence can be artistic....blah, blah, blah. I love all of these themes, and love movies that have explored them. But, I feel like these themes have, too, become just as gimicky as the latest "special effects ride" from Hollywood.
I'd like to see filmmakers move away from a)the bottom line and b)their own narrow, negative experiences and create real expressions of a complex human experience. This complexity includes real happiness, real joy, love, hate, depression, disillusionment. Real experiences are families that are shams, along with families that are cohesive, family units.
In 1999, I saw around 40-45 films in the theatre and disliked only one of them - The Blair Witch Project. That was a year when both Hollywood and the independent circuit seemed to break free of these gimmicks and make really challenging, thoughtful, and often hysterical films. Since then, there has been a marked decrease in both markets.
Here's to hoping for another peak time.