These two essays make such a terrific--and convincing--argument. I was particularly struck in Zack Morris’s essay by his point about how flawless and uncanny the people and interiors look in current films. Your essay points to a pernicious, motivation behind this phenomenon. Not only do flawless people and things in the media make us regular-looking people with our messy homes feel bad about ourselves, but they push us toward consumerism. Media consolidation means that the few owners of the studios want us to feel bad about our faces, bodies, clothes, and homes so that we will want to purchase products to “fix” ourselves and make ourselves look more like what we see in the media. It’s really destructive in more ways than just crappy movies.
Great essay. This is definitely by and large true, but I do think there’s more change happening to the industry than we realize.
For example, what do you think of A24? They produce more movies a year than Paramount, and their model for success is to buy or produce the movies that modern Hollywood has abandoned.
They have a rabid fan base, and while they don’t directly compete with Marvel and have partnered with Netflix, their films remind me of the cinema days of yore.
I used to be a very stridently anti-MCU person, for reasons that are obvious and correct (:P), and would pointedly refer to those films as "baby movies for babies." Eventually I grew up and realized that the only thing lamer than being obsessed with Barney is being obsessively anti-Barney. I think a lot of people have a (pardon my French) hateboner for Marvel that, beyond blinding them to the structural reasons blockbusters are shitty these days, brings them to bizarre decisions like cheering on Avatar 2.
(It doesn't help that the subtext behind a lot of anti-MCU stuff is also very nakedly "I miss when action movies were made for MEN," which I'm pretty sure is the subtext behind people insisting that, like, John Wick is a good movie instead of a soulless three hour Cyberpunk 2077 Let's Play.)
I watch scandi-drama, African, Korean, Russian and Turkish shows almost exclusively. There’s a refreshing focus on entertainment instead of “box-checking” with these shows. When I attempt to watch a Hollywood show, I’m bombarded by “men are stupid” and alphabet messages along with rude behavior and often the required violence or sex scenes within the first few minutes. Needless to say, I am not the audience they’re targeting. So, back to something really entertaining, like, for example, “The Platform.” It’s a shame, really, because Hollywood used to be the gold standard, in my opinion.
Agree 100% and seldom watch any movies now. "Living" and "Banshees" were the only films I watched that were 2022.
I liked both the original essay and the response!
These two essays make such a terrific--and convincing--argument. I was particularly struck in Zack Morris’s essay by his point about how flawless and uncanny the people and interiors look in current films. Your essay points to a pernicious, motivation behind this phenomenon. Not only do flawless people and things in the media make us regular-looking people with our messy homes feel bad about ourselves, but they push us toward consumerism. Media consolidation means that the few owners of the studios want us to feel bad about our faces, bodies, clothes, and homes so that we will want to purchase products to “fix” ourselves and make ourselves look more like what we see in the media. It’s really destructive in more ways than just crappy movies.
Great essay. This is definitely by and large true, but I do think there’s more change happening to the industry than we realize.
For example, what do you think of A24? They produce more movies a year than Paramount, and their model for success is to buy or produce the movies that modern Hollywood has abandoned.
They have a rabid fan base, and while they don’t directly compete with Marvel and have partnered with Netflix, their films remind me of the cinema days of yore.
I used to be a very stridently anti-MCU person, for reasons that are obvious and correct (:P), and would pointedly refer to those films as "baby movies for babies." Eventually I grew up and realized that the only thing lamer than being obsessed with Barney is being obsessively anti-Barney. I think a lot of people have a (pardon my French) hateboner for Marvel that, beyond blinding them to the structural reasons blockbusters are shitty these days, brings them to bizarre decisions like cheering on Avatar 2.
(It doesn't help that the subtext behind a lot of anti-MCU stuff is also very nakedly "I miss when action movies were made for MEN," which I'm pretty sure is the subtext behind people insisting that, like, John Wick is a good movie instead of a soulless three hour Cyberpunk 2077 Let's Play.)
I watch scandi-drama, African, Korean, Russian and Turkish shows almost exclusively. There’s a refreshing focus on entertainment instead of “box-checking” with these shows. When I attempt to watch a Hollywood show, I’m bombarded by “men are stupid” and alphabet messages along with rude behavior and often the required violence or sex scenes within the first few minutes. Needless to say, I am not the audience they’re targeting. So, back to something really entertaining, like, for example, “The Platform.” It’s a shame, really, because Hollywood used to be the gold standard, in my opinion.