Hollywood is trying to appeal to red states and retreating from progressive messaging

[gumby]

Over the past few years, Hollywood has released movies with progressive values, often with little success, according to the New York Times. "Barbie" was a huge success," but "Strange World," "The Marvels" and "The Color Purple" did not do well. Ticket buyers are sending the message: "We just want to be entertained, no homework attached," The Times

Comments

[genbu_no_miko24]

I def don't mind progressive messages in film but my issues is that half the time it's shitty and lazy writing. I keep thinking it was more setup for that social media reaction or those positive thinkpieces on why that scene was great rather than letting it flow better in the movie. Like America's speech in Barbie I agree with what was being said but it was so poorly done cause I immediately was like "this is Greta's girl power moment" like the one she had in Little Women. I don't like when it takes me out and I can guess what the director's mindset was in that moment whether they were sending a message or setting up an oscar bait moment.

[frejasface]

Yeah, I actually didn't care much for the messaging in Barbie because it was so tell-and-not-show.

[alwayspolaris]

Tell and not show is exactly right. Everyone keeps trying to give these big speeches or have these one-liners in their movies (I blame Whedon) to fix everything and bring it all together when they needed to be doing something MORE the whole time.

9 to 5 is one of my top favorite feminist films, and they don't just make some speech about fixing things - they get together and do it, and show the results. And the entire film is about the friendship that forms between these three women and the solidarity with their coworkers. The only big speech I can think of is Dolly's hilarious one where she threatens to turn the boss from a rooster to a hen lol.

[euraylie]

Exactly! I know some people in HW and even here argued that the masses are dumb and it had to be simplified in this way for them to understand. While I agree that the masses can be dumb, there has to be a way to write this type of message much better and still make your point obvious. A speech done in this way, I would almost argue, is probably less effective in terms of audience impact than if you cleverly weave your message into and throughout the entire story.

[rabbitofalice]

i hated the scene for this exact reason

[genbu_no_miko24]

The minute America got cast, I knew what type of character she’d play and that speech was coming.

[nemophilist]

Oh the 'X-women' cringe line in X-Men or the 'women assemble' moment in Avengers. It's so on the nose and feels, as a result, disingenuous. And I say this as a feminist lmfao.

[noodlecookie]

MTE about the women avengers moment, I still think about it. It was embarrassingly poor. It was like you could hear the directors/producers going ‘oh shit we forgot about the women, stick in a montage NOW’

[goodbye22]

I agree I don’t mind progressive messages as well, but often it’s just really bad writing.