@@unvaxxeddoomerlife6788 I would disagree. There is a lot of creative music that doesn't get pushed by the big labels. The artist no longer needs the labels to put out their art. But what does get pushed by the bigs is drool. On the same note the bigs have a lot less power because content is digital and they don't get much in royalties any more. Ironically that digital vs physical sales is a problem the movie industry is sharing in.
@@bobbyaguilar2453 If the music is good people will hear it. Even indie bands from the 90’s piques the interest of younger people today. The reason? Because it’s good music. There’s a reason no one knows about these bands.
This trend of never-ending stories is exhausting. From Marvel, Star Wars, Fortnite, WOW to 10 seasons of Walking dead. There're another spin offs of Avatar The Last Airbender and another LOTR trilogy in development. People who owns a lot of money will always make decisions to make reboot, sequel, prequel or spin off for years old already existing universe and that impulse for nostalgia and familiarity will bring a lots of money to their owners, because of constant stream of content. Good stories have to end and Capitalism won't allow it, they have to milk it to the last possible coin from your pocket.
My main issue with this era of movies is Disney's growing monopoly; it's sapping up all the oxygen for other movies and promoting homogeneity. Doesn't matter how good or bad those movies are,; not having a variety will make a lot of people feel left out and like they didn't have movies that catered to them. That said, The Northman was my favorite movie this year. It just got to be something different, and wholly focused on depicting nordic culture with brilliant cinematography and immersion.
It's hilarious, because in trying to create movies which are as diverse, inoffensive, and made to cater to the lowest common denominator as possible, Disney only manages to produce slop which appeals to no one and in general insults their audience in all manner of ways.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is my favourite movie of the year, everything about it screams being both a passion proyect from and a homage to Nicholas Cage himself, that I can't imagine it being even considered by Disney's monopoly... The fact that they callously swallowed Searchlight Pictures should be concerning enough, but zealot nerds only care for the silly Marvel stuff held by Fox that nobody even batted an eyelash for such a concerning affair as Disney will treat it as an afterthought just like they did to their own Touchstone Pictures.
I appreciate what A24 has produced for the modern cinema landscape. I haven't liked all of their releases, but they've all been unique and refreshing films, a nice change from the franchise and big-budget spectacles.
It’s general audiences’ fault. The greatest Viking movie oat, The Northman, was an original blockbuster in 2022 that flopped in theaters. But the 6th Jurassic park movie grosses $1 billion.
it's not a blockbuster if it flops, per definition. That's what blockbuster means. And the biggest blockbusters have never been movies that took a lot of risks, because that's just not how you attract mainstream audiences, let alone studios
@@Toxodos kinda true but “blockbuster” has also become an all encompassing term for high budget films aimed for the goal of having blockbuster status. Also, Django unchained’s an example of a successful blockbuster that takes risks and has more in common with the Northman than Jurassic park 6
@@Toxodos While there's some truth to that, there have been times when more original things were big movies. For example, The Godfather was not expected to be a big success but was the highest grossing movie of 1972.
My biggest issue with the current era is the assembly line nature of it all. More movies is great, but I feel it becomes an issue of quantity over quality.
@@brundlefly45 tons of terrible movies existed then, but the mainstream movies then had some actual great movies then. Now a movie made by a big company is at best, not terrible, because they don’t have any flavor
@@TheReeelBradPitt yeah, the video doesn't get the point. The point is not that there are no good movies being made, but that the culture of cinema is at a historic low point.
@@1998Cebola agreed. And as said elsewhere, it is not about a matter of taste or what one grew up on and all this normative discussions. It is not about the quality of individual films but about the general state of the industry and culture. Ways of production, globilization, revenue streams,.. also a general shift in the way people consume not only but media specifically.
More movies is not great; you literally just said "A is great, but this is why A is not great." Totally contradicted yourself with your 'but' statement
In a year like 1993, there was a greater mix of genres represented in the top 10 biggest hits of the year. You had the ultimate blockbuster in Jurassic Park, you had comedies like Sleepless in Seattle and Mrs Doubtfire, thrillers like The Fugitive, The Firm and The Pelican Brief, and dramas like Philadelphia and Schindler's List. Compare that to 2019 where the top ten list is dominated by superhero movies, Disney sequels and Disney remakes.
There are comedies and dramas and thrillers in the theaters still. You're choosing to watch them at home instead of venturing out to the theater. I also consider 93 and 94 to be highwater marks but wait... those were my formative years, just like this essay observed. Things like Mrs Doubtfire being at hit can easily be attribute to marketing environment of the time. There was less competition. There used to be three major networks, middling shows were canceled halfway through the first season. Then cable stretched the viewer base. Then streaming stretched the viewer base. Even the rise of videogames as an alternative form of entertainment has lowered audience demand for movies. Now even hit shows don't capture the audience share of something like MASH where 100 million people watched the finale. If you saw the trailer for Mrs Doubtfire would you go to the theater today and watch it? All this feeds into why those high production quality dramas and original movies are harder to greenlight today, its a fight for eyeballs.
And it's almost all Disney. If american politicians had actual brains inside their skulls, they would have to dismantle them, they're starting to have a monopoly. Hell, they're not starting, it's been on the table for good four years. Disney is the Nestlé of entertainment I swear to god.
I think a major problem is accessibility to movie theatres. I can't tell you how many indie films I've wanted to see this year but they're not showing anywhere, and I live in a major city. I don't like when people blame audiences for only going to see blockbusters, when for many that is all they have access to. It's easy for an LA filmmaker to see any indie they'd like, but for the vast majority that isn't the case
Same feeling here. Even after the Oscar's nominations came out, many cinemas aren't showcasing some of the movies up for best film, yet Avatar 2 and Top Gun: Maverick (although I know they are nominated) are still on the billboards after weeks.
College towns - which exist all throughout the USA - are one of the best places to go to see "cult" movies, and sometimes, for precisely that reason, the movies do surprisingly well. I learned that it wasn't even necessary to be a student on the campus (although that did make things a lot more convenient), because the "obscure" movie would be playing at the theater at the shopping mall just across the street. (Ironically, I had to journey to a city a few miles away to see the latest superhero blockbuster.)
@@SeasideDetective2 I'm going to presume you don't live 2 hours from the closest college in a major city. If your point was that it isn't just LA and New York, sure. If your point is that the average American has easy access to theaters in college towns.............. that's simply wrong.
Just watched Moonlight and Lady Bird this past week, absolutely outstanding. Kind of reaffirmed why I love film - it gives us perspectives into unique lives, and with these in particular the perspectives feel so grounded and realistic.
@@jandcstopmotion7774 I saw uncut gems and it was really good. I loved the ending cause they didn’t know the door could only be open by that metal rod and cops were on the way.
We are certainly in an ice age for great cinema. Every year of the 90's had like 20 bona fide masterpieces each. Now we're lucky to get 1 every other year.
Yeah I was literally googling upcoming movies for 2023 and all I've literally came up with is Oppenheimer. There's a couple of more that kinda got my attention, like the upcoming Christian Bale film and I believe Leo has one coming next year too. Other than that it's either pointless sequels like Indiana Jones or just Marvel. You don't even have to go as far as the 90's. Go back to like 2014 and look at movies that were dropped that year and compare it to 2022 or 2021. Massive difference.
@@SINSH4W well, i think i can say this pandemic made a big affect on movie production and it really changed movie industry so much. I can say it just comparing movies from nominates oscar 2020 (all of the movies are at least good (irishman, ford vs ferrari) or even near the best movies of decade (joker, gisaengchung, little women)). So I think main argument is personal experience and the moment of felling love in cinema
@@SINSH4W LOL I just googled upcoming movies and it was like: Marvel Movie Mission Impossible Movie DC Movie Marvel Movie Original Movie Marvel Movie DC Movie Marvel Movie John Wick 4 Marvel Movie DC Movie Marvel Movie Original Movie
Fight Club didn’t take a long time to grow its audience. It may have bombed, but it also became a big hit the moment it left theatres and showed up on HBO and people were able to rent it. In a pop culture sense, even though it bombed, even at that time it was one of the bigger movies because you’d see these news stories about people starting their own fight clubs. Some movies take time to get popular after a failed theatrical run, but Fight Club wasn’t one of them, it because big right after. They probably could’ve rereleased it and had a box office hit; although I’m sure they were making lots of money on the home release.
Likewise, everybody just LOVVVVES Blade Runner, but nobody saw it in the theater. It was a bomb. But once it hit pay cable and the VCR circuit, it obtained a whole new audience. Even so, Young Doctors In Love and Kenny Rogers ' Six Pack did not find salvation on HBO, Showtime, or...Spotlight.
Do you think "Babylon" might be a future classic? It bombed, and I can see why some people wouldn't have liked it (I find I can say that about a lot of movies I like), but it was one of the first movies in a while that didn't seem to care what people would think of it and went for broke.
@@ABC-sc2ip No, it bombed. It didn’t make it’s money back at the theatre, and it vastly underperformed in the US. That’s a bomb. It also didn’t really release again anything when it came out. 1999 is good and all, but 1997 and 1994 are both better.
Yeah, so movies had an extra chance then. Now they don’t so they don’t take risks anymore. The movie needs to be a hit right away or the thing is dead and can’t make money anymore. Streaming doesn’t pay and people aren’t buying blu rays.
My own experience, is that 20 years ago….I used to go to the movies and at least a few times every year, a film would effect me so strongly, that I’d think about it for many days afterward. I would contemplate the characters, their motivations, and why I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I haven’t had this experience even once, in many years now.
I wish I could take you to the films I’ve seen, I am very fortunate to have many independent cinemas in my area. I think the problem is with distribution. Try subscribing to Mubi or Curzon if you want memorable movies.
@@cma0799yeah! watch old movies and you'll see this video is bullocks. movies are maketing excercises written by teams of advertisers and screenwriters. tarantino is good because its ine prrson's control. modern movies klll any vision because nobody has power anymore
In all honesty, it's the dark ages of cinema. I have never had a year where I've rated this many films so low. Even films that most people love, I find so much lacking in today's movies. I've had to go back and watch gems from even just a couple years ago to cleanse my pallet from all this filth.
Yes. I have so little interest. Yet I'm rewatching things from 10 to 20 years ago. I notice *better* writing, better plotting, less misandry, better strong female leads, and even better cgi (which is crazy). The writing and plotting has really gone downhill. It's rushed and lacks polish. The 'strong female leads' seem mostly to be self insert wish fulfillment rather than good characters with strengths and weaknesses. And what is up with the cgi???? It should be *better* after a decade. I suspect corner cutting, lazy use of automatic filters, etc.
That’s definitely true for big budget studios like Disney and Warner Bros, but studios like Neon and A24 have been making great original films for a long time now. The only reason nobody talks about them is because they’re overshadowed by the blockbuster advertisements.
In some aspects yeah. Tv shows aren't nearly as expensive to make as movies are so companies are more willing to take chances on original ideas and lesser known cast and crew
@@RareCinephile Ya, and they probably aren't even in theatres in the city you live in. It's kind of a big deal how many weeks or days something stays in theatre.
not true, there is very little television that really uses the cinematic language in a meaningful way. Television is the writer's medium, Cinema the Director's, as Bret Easton Ellis put it.
AAA games are a good example. Redfall, Forspoken, Immortals of Avenum. Hogwarts Legacy, STAR WARS Jedi: Survivor, every Battlefield since Battlefield 4, every CoD since probably Black Ops II, Halo Infinite, Subnautica: Below Zero (not AAA but still completely soulless), Saints Row 2022, Watch_Dogs 2 and Legion, The Sims 4, everything by DONTNOD since the original Life is Strange, every Assassin's Creed since Unity, Rage 2... I could go on. Some of those are fun games still, but incredibly safe and inoffensive, saying nothing, boring. And out of the few genuinely interesting games that have released in recent times, most were still broken at launch. AAA games now resemble the top 40 pop music chart.
@@fandyus4125 I played from the beginning, so seeing the controls "streamlined" meaning "optimized for multiplayer" among other crap such as the story completely shitting the bed left a horrible taste in my mouth. It was the first time I ever played Assassin's Creed without thinking about my next playthrough, they put all the Multiplayer perks for sale on the marketplace so anyone could buy them without having to level through the game, etc. It was absolute shit.
@@fandyus4125 it's funny that the only meaningful gameplay difference between the last 3 Assassins Creed games has been their quality. It's nearly the exact same game, except Origins is actually good, Odyssey is popcorn tier and Valhalla is complete shit. It's fine, AC Mirage will be good copium.
I've seen the majority of Tarantino's movies in the theater, and I was always so incredibly uncomfortable whenever there was a close up and excruciatingly long shot of feet. And I could feel the discomfort of everyone else in the theater as well. It's like we all knew that the foot shots had almost nothing to do with moving the plot along, and everything to do with the fact that Tarantino has a foot fetish and he never wants anyone to forget it.
The problem with directors re-making films and spurring modern sequels is that they're done terribly, with modern examples of Star Wars, Jurrassic Park, Terminator, etc. speaking for themselves. Originality in today's day and age is a good thing and should be encouraged by audiences everywhere by going to the cinema and watching independent films.
something you didn't bring up is there are literally less movies being made today due to the incessant mergers and monopolization of the movie industry. For example, when Disney bought Fox they cancelled multiple projects that were set to hit theatres and so the only thing we get now is tent pole movies made by the handful of studios still around.
What's ironic is if you say anything negative about Disney or Marvel, you will have the Shills calling you an IST or a PHOBE!! Lol and this is coming from a Disney fan.
One of the big problems with current movies is they have to appeal to everyone in the world. That leaves out humor, subtlety, character development and leaves us with endless stunts, green screen and special effects. Everyone needs to make money, and the only way to do that is to be broad enough to appeal to everyone in the entire world. It is a sad situation.
Of course even you are the producer of a film. You want your movie to become a hit. Its easy to say when you are not the one who spend millions of dollars to produce a movie.
Everyone involved could still make a lot of money with movies that appeal primarily to Western audiences (which pretty much all speak English to some extent). The problem is that they want to make absolutely obscene amounts of money even if it means the product is trash.
Exactly. Tired of studios having to pander to markets like China. I'd go see a movie multiple times to support it if it was done well and without resorting to censorship and other things to be "safe" for the woke mob.
Personally I think you nailed it on the head. The blockbusters are worse than ever, but the more ambitious stuff coming out nowadays stands with the best of yesteryear. It's just a bigger slog to find the gems since the content mill is so huge now.
Common misconception that the "original" stuff is all that original. The bar is low in that regard. Don't get me wrong: I'd rather that than the blockbuster stuff, but when wolf of wall street is considered an original idea, or deus machina, or the revenant, etc it's time to look in the mirror.
That was an astute enough analysis. All I can say is that I (a man in his fifties) watch fewer and fewer new films each year, and those I do watch I find less rewarding. I am a huge movie fan with thousands of individual movies that I've watched (I catalogue each one). I gave up the commercial drek ages ago, and now watch mostly the best of current prestige television and films from the past. The best era was 1967 through 1975, a period I have specialized in, extensively researched, and one I currently write articles about for an eventual book. Movies in and of themselves aren't very important anymore in the cultural conversation. They've been subsumed into the larger landscape of media content, and that's a shame. I agree with Tarantino very strongly on one point - we are in repressive times, and that's death for creativity in the larger culture. I doubt we'll get a more interesting landscape until the public at large rebels against the wealth of the private sector driving our politics deeper and deeper into a regressive mentality.
The trade off has been worth it for better television. I love a lot of films, but can anything really measure up to the 10s of hours of incredible content from shows like The Wire, Sopranos or Breaking Bad? Not for me, maybe that's generational.
@@mankytoes No, it's not generational. I'm 57 and prefer a good television show to any movie. I think the difference is whether one prefers plot or character. Movies do sharp, concise plots better and tv shows develop character arcs better.
I hate how everything is a franchise now. I want a original movie for once and I’m so tired of superhero movies. Also, I’m 20 and I think this. I like older better movies then movies coming out rn.
I agree, the 70s-90s were also guilty of making pointless sequels but they also had plenty of one and done movies like E.T. or Goonies and Hollywood did take way more chances on original screenplays like Back to the Future, Terminator, Predator, The Karate Kid, Raiders and so on.
Franchises are good if they are liked, and are creative but still gives the fanbases their dose for their fandom. (Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday The 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Chucky, The Purge, Final Destination, Wrong Turn, Alien.. etc). But not creative as in subvert them or hurt them. (Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi). Very indie-vibe approach to a mainstream IP.
The biggest issue with modern media in general is a lack of sincerity and a lack of risk. We always get formulaic films, that, while bad, will also be remembered like series like Buck-Rodgers or the Gor series, popular during their period of publication but ultimately forgettable and left in their own age. My example for a lack of risk is marvel, as they are unwilling to deviate from a given formula. It seems that in the 70's-90's, directors were usually at least given a shot with things like Apocalypse now or taxi driver, which were risqué, controversial and not even guaranteed to make money. A risky film will always be remembered over a safe film in the long run, there is a reason people still talk about films like American psycho and the machinist (which failed at the box office) over films like commando (which, while a success, was also totally forgotten). As for the lack of sincerity, I point to almost anything written today, every serious moment seems to be punctuated with a half hearted joke or genre subversion that falls flat on its face. Subversion of genre is another thing that irks me, as, it seems for the last few decades, we have had more parodies of spy films than actual spy films, to the point it has become a genre trop to 'parody' (read as mock and degrade) the actually serious films in the genre. One of my favorite films is the new judge dredd, as it takes itself seriously and doesn't try to mock the ridiculous premise, whereas the newer starwars seem to almost have a contempt for their contents, as though the writers wished they were making any other film. I am not a film critic, as a matter of fact, I don't watch movies all to often, so I apologize if my examples are not up to snuff in this community, but, I think my sentiment rings true for the most part.
the MCU is just entertainment, but there is a lot of "risky" stuff out there, just no one wants to see it in the theater...all that writing for nothing, it breaks down to one thing: this is a pseudo intellectual view of art that is wrong...but anyway, that's been going on for 100 years 😂😂
Your solution is exactly what I've been trying to do, I saw no big blockbusters this year, and I went to see The Northman, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, The Banshees of Inisherin, The Menu, and The Whale all in the theaters, now that was a fantastic use of time and money
Most of those are not Hollywood movies and really are not what popular cinema is based on. The Banshees of Inisherin was so disappointing. Those movies are really just art house movies and not fit for popular theatres.
@@bighands69banshees is probably my movie of the year. To get some movies you have to have experienced something similar to relate to what it's saying.
Just wanna say that I really appreciate that you put at the bottom where the footage comes from that you're using at any given moment. Always really annoying when something cool comes up in a YT video and then I can't for the life of me find out what it's from because it only appeared for a few seconds.
One single argument here: In previous cinematic eras, for a movie to become a blockbuster phenomenon, it HAD to rely on quality filmmaking because marketing and franchising and social media branding was miniscule compared to today. Contrary, today, a movie is deemed a blockbuster before it even hits the cinemas simply because it's backed by megacorp studios and slots into an already blockbuster-fied franchise. So whether a film is actually well produced or not matters far less today when it comes to its blockbuster worthiness. And THIS is why I think this era of movie making is heading downwards. Big budget movies no longer win or lose based on their quality, they win or lose based on their marketing and existing IP value associated with them, and that inevitably drives safer productions that don't take risks but instead follow laid-out formulas that are guaranteed to fit into these pop-culture templates that have been established long before the movie was even on the drawing board. These types of movies are no longer made because someone had a vision and a burning desire to tell a story. Instead they're made because someone made the calculations that a certain type of movie would bring them their annual salary with as little thinking as possible (in the grand scheme of things). Very few big-name producers actually go the extra mile to ensure their franchise-worthy movies are produced for the cinematic experience rather than primarily the monetization goal in mind. And this, I dare say is objectively a downwards trend in terms of raw number of people with the passion and influence to make the highest quality productions possible. And then there's all the agendafication which is another entire can of worms on top that has literally put me off to probably 90% of all movies and shows in the past 5+ years. When social media started giving producers, writers, and actors a public stage to inflate the perceived value of their egos, yea that didn't exist 20 years ago and it shows.
If we look at the current state of big budget movies we are starting see that they are not doing that well at the box office. People wanted to see the second part of Avatar and it probably should have happened 10 years ago.
The fact that we are going through such a downturn era in cinema is not attributable to the entertainment industry system only. It's just how we are living and experiencing reality nowadays that is causing such backlash. In my opinion, we have so much access to content nowadays that we simply cannot sit down to appreciate the same things over and over again. We are always craving for more. That's why it is very difficult to stand out nowadays in the entertainment industry. The idea that we are experiencing a downturn era in cinema is a straight consequence of people watching things passively and quickly forgetting about them the day after. Is this right or wrong? There's no objective answer (which is the rationale of the video). That's how things work today, full stop. But what you have stated is right: the entertainment industry works the same way as other industries do. It's the final consumer who has the final say.
But people are sitting down to watch the same thing over and over, they aren't open to looking for different experiences, different types of movies, they have found something they like, maybe a character they like and unless the studio really falls flat on their face and puts out drivel that they won't pay to see they will serve it up. I'm not even sure if they care that much if it fails at the box office anymore, as long as it doesn't do disastrously, because it is just me content to go on their streaming service to increase the amount of content. Movies should be made to be better seen on the big screen with all that goes along with it, it should wow the senses (and in not just talking CGI and special effects), that is what is needed to convince people not to just wait a month or two and see the film on their TV in the comfort of their home. I just think that the quality of writing and directing has gone down. There are still some amazing writers and directors, but they are fewer and further between. I'm not sure the gap in quality of the very top people in the industry, and maybe even those higher up controlling what gets commissioned, can be just put down to the fact we now have in certain circumstances movie quality TV.
I think that there are some concrete reasons why movies do suck pretty badly these days that can be pointed to. You absolutely nailed one of them: the writing. Movies cost so much to make that they usually need an international audience to break even. So, the writing and story is simple so it translates well. Part of that issue is that movies are so, damn wasteful. I got a job as an extra in LA and I was stunned how much money and manpower was poured into a barely 5 seconds of footage. Filmmaking is eye watering expensive due to all of the unneeded spending. Another problem, going back to quality, is that directors have lost even more control of the movie they direct. If the movie has CGI, there's a good chance that the director has no direct control over those shots. The house doing them does. Furthermore, multiple houses are employed in movie making. So, essentially, there's a bunch of directors and not much oversight and cooperation in the team. So the movie lacks a sort of cohesion that you'd get from someone like Christopher Nolan...or Tarantino.
@@rufii96 dude there was a professional strong woman in the ad I shot. When they were shooting, she was lifting some stones. But...when the cameras weren't rolling, the two grips had to move the stones...and they could barely do it. She offered to help but she was not allowed to touch them at all if they weren't filming 😂.
the writing of hollywood movies sucks because all the good writers quit over a decade ago. Look up hollywood writers strike. Hollywood ran out of old scripts gathering dust a couple years ago and thats why everything they make sucks ass now. Besides that, current generation of actors cant act for shit.
No. I seriously believe its this woke ideology that has swept in from 2016. You go read the comments sections. The complaints from activists. Theyre so scared to offend. John cleese said you cant have barriers, your mind should be able to wildly run free. Here are the barriers : -Metoo , hear this all the time , we cant have bond doing this in post me too era. -tropes , another 1. Hot latina, angry blk woman, gay best friend... these all gone. -cultural appropriation. -diversity must hiring. Have to have x amount of women, BIPOC , lgbt. -objectification, nope thats gone. Unless its chris hemsworth gettin clothes ripped off. -not listening to feedback , if u critisize u get called racist, misogynist, homophobe. How many barriers we got now. ?
Even the list of movies used to represent this era. You have Interstellar, Wolf of Wall Street, Her, Boyhood, Gone Girl, Whiplash, and Nightcrawler that are all from 2013 and 2014, That's decade ago now.
im genuinely SO grateful for people like Quentin Tarantino and Vince Gilligan. in a world of corporate businessmen churning out movies and tv shows that fuckin blow chunks, at least we have a couple true visionaries that provide us with hours and hours of entertainment
Its sad that Tarantino is most likely only gonna do one more. It'll be a big loss. He's talked about where his finish line is for quite some time. It hasn't seemed to change over the years so, I guess we'll see.
@@devinreese7704 Tarantino probably agrees with you. No doubt he has countless 50's movies he loves, it's relative something being the worst or one of the worst does NOT mean it's bad, it could be in great company, the guy is a film nut of course he'll have ton's of movies in all era's he likes.
The lack of new great films is giving me a chance to discover older great films. So many great films in the 1970's I had never heard of. A lot of films are streaming now that never made it to my local video stores at the time. You Tube is good for having obscure films that nobody seems to want to claim ownership of.
this is true - I've seen loads of great 70's movies streaming or on youtube now. Watched Black Christmas and when a stranger calls recently for the first time. It's weird but it's way easier to identify with or see real people in 70's movies than todays. Makes you realise not that much has changed in many ways. Seems like movies then held a mirror to reality wheras todays either want to ignore reality or change it.
Absolutely. “The Prestige” by Christopher Nolan came out when another film came out, similar subject and time period: The Illusionist. A year back it was in YT. Don’t know if it is, still.
I think the same is happening on every industry: - Music? The mainstream has never been this bad, but boy are there awesome bands and musicians under the radar. You only need to dig a little. - Videogames? Every game is the same over-the-shoulder-camera, radar-in-the-corner, open-world cookie-cutter. But dig a little and you'll find the insane indie scene.
It’s called capitalism baby, once the arts/entertainment became extremely profitable and mainstream that’s profit margins mattered more to corporations than our enjoyment of the product
Late 80's - early 90's were so bad for music. Milquetoast pop with electronic farts and whistles, smooth jazz that sounds like elevator music, hair metal, lame hip-hop, annoying phil collins drum effect EVERYWHERE. It's the proof I always use that we don't always develop an irrational attachment to the stuff we grew up with.
@@thecandlemaker1329 Still less bad than what there is now. I had one of those 90's beach-club songs pop up unexpectedly in my car radio a while ago and I was amazed at just how much better "bad" music was then. An actual singer, who could actually sing, was singing. There was a real drummer and a real bass player, and real trumpets in the arrangements. Actual musicianship! Instead what do we have today? Virtual instruments, weird sounds, and autotune that made all the singers sound the same (and I don't mean only when they sound like robots, those are 100% autotuned, but there's like 30% autotune even in the ones that sound "normal", which homogenizes most voices).
@@DudeWatIsThis Just wait for songs fully generated by AI. You might not need to wait, though... you might be listening to them right now, and the corpos will never disclose it.
Movies once left their quotes in the memory of pop culture. Everything from "Make my day" to "May the Force be with you". I don't hear people quoting films anymore if that says anything.
So "this does put a smile on my face" and "perhaps i treated you too harshly" don't exist? I get what you're saying, but don't make up problems that don't exist
@@alejandrobolin5224 this are memes not quotes. That’s like saying that Morbius is a masterpiece cause people say “it’s morbin time” even tho that line wasn’t even in the movie
@@damiantirado9616 yes they're memes but they're also LITERAL quotes from the movie. No one actually said "It's Morbin Time" in Morbius, God what a fucking terrible comparison. Do you even know what a quote Is?
My sense is that due to rampant consolidation there are fewer studios making fewer movies overall and placing bigger bets (in terms of budget) on the ones they do make and, as you point out, blandifying the content so as not to offend potential international audiences.
I used to go to the cinema regularly for decades, but around 8 years ago I gradually just stopped going, since most of the time the films were a disappointment, or even ones I actually felt like wasting my ticket and walking out of. It definitely got harder to find an enjoyable new film to watch, let alone a really great one.
Remember when you would go to the movies on a whim, pick up the newspaper to see what was playing? You could always find something, so many choices. Now I only go to the movies when I know something is out that I want to see. Which lately, is one or two times a year.
people consume music differently less active listening nowadays the big names are mostly personality cults not based on skill or a unique original feature/worldview/culture
Nah, 2000's was the worst era for music. We had garbage like Creed, Godsmack, Simple Plan, Ja Rule. The 90's also had terrible music, but it wasn't that bad.
I really liked how you genuinely made an attempt to argue against your opinion. Too many people are divided on topics in such a way that any debate is aggressive so I giving light to the counter argument makes both sides more receptive to considering their side's shortcomings and the humanity of the other's.
The "first experience" argument is definitely a good take but falls apart when you realize that these first experiences are with retreads of works that came before and will fall apart as soon as the viewer realizes that it's just a repetition of the same thing.
I always worry upon looking back is that we cherry pick what was great about it, and forget about what sucked. We forget the mountains of forgettable movies that came out that didn't challenge audiences or offer something particularly original, and those that we hold special are sometimes those sleeper films that either bombed or flew under the radar at the time. All of this makes any sort of era comparison difficult. While I'm definitely not the target audience for the cinema blockbusters that are coming out, there's more than enough original material coming out now to keep me happy. Just as when I look back to pretty much any era of film, there is so much good in the way of cinema that it's hard to really say anything about one era or another. Even Hays Code Hollywood made a ton of good titles thanks to film noir. The 2010s had some really great movies, and I expect the same of the 2020s. I also expect a lot of blockbuster hits that won't interest me in the slightest, but that's like any era. Just remember Sturgeon's Law: "ninety percent of everything is crap." True today, and true of any era you pick.
you can compare the eras by what was taking up most of the space in the box office. the 20th century had godfather, jaws, easy rider, pulp fiction, the graduate, etc, now you have the most successful stuff being superhero movies, remakes, reboots and nostalgia bait. there’s a pretty clear difference
Clout/Trend chasing has always been a thing, so an original idea gets run into the ground, however, these days, we're chasing nothing. Super hero movies are old. Found footage is old. etc.
Bad movies have ALWAYS EXISTED but that's not the point or even being argued. Those bad movies didn't DOMINATE THE INDUSTRY. Plan Nine From Outer Space was a horrible movie back in the 50s but that one movie or movie type did not DOMINATE the 50s. Ever since 2010 or 2008 even I gave up on Hollywood officially especially since about 2010. Great movies still exist but they are the EXCEPTION and not the rule. Exceptions don't make rules.
@@brucetucker4847 Great dramas like On the Waterfront, Rwebel without a cause, the sweet smell of sucess, emerging small sci fi like Invasion of the body snatchers or fun sci fi like the Blob. The 50's were good. Tarintino has the brain of a 13 year old gamer, he can only appreciate it if it has bunches of explosions, big colors, swearing etc - the guy is talented but he's extremely juvenile in his tastes
The New Hollywood period from 1968 through to 1980 is, hands down, the greatest period in cinema history. Im a 90s kid, but I fell in love with the storytelling and music of that time period as I reached my adolecence. The baby boomer generation, coming of age in the turbulent counter culture of 1960s America, oversaw a cataclysmic change in attitudes to once sacred cows and highly revered institutions, in the wake of The Vietnam War, Watergate, The Civil Rights Movement, Woodstock & the rise of the New Left. This shifting of attitude towards sex, drugs, religion, & the government had a major impact on the young directors starting their careers during this time period. Along with the collapse of The Hays Codes this opened up a pathway for the young, ambitious directors lookinh to tell original storys that resonated with this new audience. Honestly just imagine living in a period when you could watch the likes of Martin Scorcese, Brian De Palma, John Cassavetes, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, William Friedkin, John Carpenter, Woody Allen, Ridley Scott, David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, Sidney Lumet, Roman Polanski, etc, the list goes on and on, nothing and i mean nothing comes even close to that era.
Hollywood never produced anything great before 1968? Really? Ever check out "Spartacus", or, "Caesar and Cleopatra"? How 'bout "Ben Hur" or "The Ten Commandments"? Let's go further, how 'bout "The Wizard of Oz" or "Gone With the Wind"? It's possible that your interpretation of New "Hollywood's greatest period" is based on your own youth and resultant bias of what films were great, or "good", or whatever!
@@samr.england613 In defence of the OP, he claimed the New Hollywood of 1968 to 80's was the greatest period in cinema due to the abolition of the Hays Code. He did not claim there weren't any good movies made before then, which there were. I happen to agree with him. I still love certain movies from the previous decades, but they feel self-censored and it's obvious to see.
@@SmartCookie2022 Oh I agree! The period from about 1966-67, when Fantastic Voyage and Bonnie and Clyde were released, then Patton and Space Odyssey and many more, was the beginning of a great era for Hollywood. But I'll date the end of that particular Golden Age of American filmdom not to 1980, because the Indiana Jones films, as well as the original Blade Runner came out afterwards. I'd date the era ending in 1984, when the original Terminator was released.
@@samr.england613 YES we need to get these Movie Names out there to support my current pet peeve THE YHWH CHRONICLES need to be adapted for Modern Audiences. NOW!
@@achimdemus-holzhaeuser1233 Hollywood just needs to get over all this WOKE bullshit, and stop preaching and lecturing audiences, and just get back to entertaining them, as well as challenging them, but not in a condescending, ideological way, IMO. We can make up our own minds about what social or political ideaology we decide on.
Everyone saying he’s right (or wrong) is missing the whole point of the video - the selective bias and futility of either side, which is not important, unless it’s important to YOU
You can have both. You can understand the duality and futility, while still having your own stance on whether or not one side is right. You dont need to mindlessly agree or sit on the fence of superiority.
The point Tarantino makes is about cinema culture, not amount of good movies made. Movies are dumber and less original, for a myriad of reasons, if you look at what gets viewed, disussed and rewarded.
I do think there is objective truth to what Tarantino says. Even if you like marvel movies (and I own and have watched ever movie in the infinity saga multiple times) then you still have to acknowledge the lack of all other movies. Ethan hawke and Matt Damon have put this pretty well. I disagree about not wanting to offend peoples political sensibilities. Conservatives and white men are straight up attacked and the media response to the “backlash” of this is at the ready. If a left winger is unhappy it’s bc the movie fails to go hard enough and is ambiguous in its approach. God forbid we engage in “both sidesism”.
Not sure if there’s any such thing as a “worst movie era”, but there’s no question this is the definitely the worst movie era in terms of mainstream movies.
I really enjoyed your video and have been thinking about it quite a bit recently! One thing I want to add, which maybe you did a little bit: I tend to view movie eras as genre clusters. When you view movies this way, you tend to understand why a certain movie can still be relevant and why you should re-watch them as you get older. Movie making is another form of anthropological study of current culture. People enjoy older movies because they now have hindsight of what was culturally significant at that time. When you're in the present, sometimes it's hard to understand what's actually culturally significant about that moment until you're a few years out. There are still amazing movies being created that are incredibly relevant and meaningful, but it is MUCH harder to find them with disjointed streaming culture- which is the way Tarantino might be correct.
As a 62 yr old lifetime die hard music fan / amateur player of many many many genre's, mainly exploratory / innovative / experimental, but also "quality" mainstream, I would say the exact same thing about music. I heard "elders" Decry the Downfall of quality music so many times in my life, through the various era's of rock & roll, British invasion, Summer of Love, heavy metal guitar, punk, disco, rap, grunge, nu metal, modern country, hip hop, etc etc. For me, there has always been Quality "Wheat" that is necessarily separated from the Chaff of day to day "Top 40" in EVERY era, even in those Legendary times of, say, the late 60's (PLENTY Of Chaff back then - I mean, some people even think The Monkees were Great lol). I would say my patience finally ran thin by the mid-late '00's, when Autotune invaded & ruined pretty much every genre of music. To me, Autotune is the Music equivalent of all these superhero / comic book / toys / video game franchises. That shit literally gives me migraine headaches & makes me want to fucking kill babies. There's literally no compromising for me on that, I've just reached that Angry Old Man, Get Off My Lawn stage of life. That being said, this is still a GREAT time to be a music fan. As with movies, production values & diversity are way up, &, mainly, thanks to the Internet, & You Tube, Spotify, etc, it's SO easy to discover less known / up & coming bands / artists (as with smaller Niche movies) than it was in the old days. Also, there are SO SO SO many MORE of them. Back in my high school years, when we'd play the "I know a band you guys never heard of" game, when it really meant something, unlike hipsters now, you only had a few sources: FM Radio, Word of Mouth, Older Siblings / Cousins, Music publications like Rolling Stone & Creem, the local small record store, where you'd literally buy an album just because the cover art was cool. Also, we are not Stuck with the time, format, & audio quality limitations of vinyl records (sorry, don't get me started on all the vinyl nostalgia, I lived thru the vinyl era, & was WAYYYYYYY happy to see it Gone).
It is without a doubt the worst era of cinema. For example, I love psychological thrillers and period movies, whether they be gothic tales or historical epics. My favorite movie from 2021 was The Last Duel, a movie no one went and saw. That is why such films rarely get made. In the modern world, most mainstream films are either blockbusters, Oscar bait, or kid’s movies. Some people like to say that it’s all just nostalgia, but my favorite decade of cinema is probably the 1940s, fifty years prior to my birth. Even the most mediocre films from that era told relatable and human stories. That’s what is missing from modern cinema. I enjoy witty dialogue, complex lighting, and breathtaking cinematography. That is mostly absent from modern cinema. Everything is artificial.
well said.I also think the industry itself has plateaued and studios are willing to take lesser risks as a formulaic film have much more chance of success giving us lesser and lesser quality in the stories that they tell
Yes, and this is the problem I have with the whole "what you grew up with" argument. I'm old enough that I should appreciate 60s and 70s movies the most, but I prefer the period from Star Wars in 1977 to Matrix in 1999, with some outliers on either side of that. A couple great decades for the art form of cinema. What I definitely do know is, anyone in that time period didn't make a determined point of watching movies from before they were born, to the exclusion of current offerings, and claim that the past was better. But I see kids now. Most of the young people I've run into, born at the end of the 90s or later, watch movies made and released before they were born, and prefer them, even going so far as to say they're orders of magnitude better. That was unheard of in the 20th century.
The Last Duel was absolutely awful. I really did like how Damon, Affleck and Driver all played historically inaccurate Frenchmen with American accents. It also shed light on the patriarchy and evils of all white males, and how they want to ra*pe and oppress every female. I’m Glad you found it to be groundbreaking and entertaining. We should ask Ridley Scott for a sequel: The Last Duel 2: Electric Boogalooo
@@umdesch4 I was born in 1991 & I can tell you that my childhood days in the 90s & my teenage years in the 00s were so much better than what is currently going on in today's world. Back in those days, movies & shows felt ambitious. Sure, there were a couple of bad movies & shows. However, for every horrible film there was twice as many awesome films. Even the comic book movies of the 00s had a certain charm to them. Nowadays it is the exact opposite. Since the 2010s, it seems like movies get less intriguing and interesting as the years go by. We either have a bunch of Remakes from Disney or we have New yet Overhyped movies from A24. We are definitely in a Dark Age of Hollywood.
I'm 28 years old and I grew up on the old stuff and was quite fascinated with older technology and I think I still am. When I was around 13 I said I think things are as modern as its going to get. by time I was in high school I felt that humanity was going through a creative dark age where style and entertainment is doomed to remain the same for decades to come.
Theres a lot of assembly line shit coming out right now, it is definitely a point to consider. The 90s, the 70s and certain parts of the 60s are all great for film. The big issue is, filmmaking is a difficult, time consuming, and money/resource intensive process. The more classes become separated as far as wealth, the less quality film we're going to get.
@@coreyparsons2946 the 80s are more of a rollercoaster, theres some innovations, but not a ton of them aged very well imho. A lot of stuff in the 80s feels like 70s stuff on steroids and coke
I wouldn‘t mind the assembly line shit. I kind of enjoy a well "assembled" Marvel movie. The problem is that there is nothing else, anymore. Some genres (like Thriller) seem to be completely dead. Maybe because you can‘t take your family to something like "Se7en“. :) Movies like Jojo Rabbit - my personal favorite from the last five years - seem to happen every few years, now, where in the 90s, they happened a few times a year.
@Rick James yeah, but think of the actual innovation that made those possible?? And yes, TRON does count, btw! I didn’t say no good movies came out in the 80s - I said that it was more of a rollercoaster as far as the quality.
Good video and I totally agree that talking about what era of movies is “the best” is a mostly meaningless question just designed to stoke division. In this era-and every era-most movies (and books, and shows, and art of all kinds) is not very good. But the cream of the crop today is as good as it’s ever been. And, we have a lot more access than ever before to independent and foreign films, so if mainstream movies today are a disappointment to you then there are more alternatives than ever.
When I was growing up we had a VCR and DVD player. I rarely saw any movies in theater in my childhood. We saw movies from the 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, and early 2000's. Comparing them all to what we have now, I can see far fewer movies that surprise me, I know everything about the movie from the title. In the past you would get a movie called "Candleshoe", and not have any clue what was going to happen, there weren't any candles or shoes important to the plot. There are certain specific things you can do with an audience when they don't know what is going to happen for the next 2 hours. Mystery. Unknown. Adventure. Remember those? Now I have a hard time watching anything made after 2010 because it feels like the movie was made by twitter, more specifically, a twitter argument that went on for months, and then when the dust settled, we got a white-washed, paper thin plot, with one-dimensional "heroes", and they try to tell 8 stories you already heard before, instead of 1 new one. I don't just watch movies from the 40's, 60's, or 80's all day. My biggest gripe with new movies is that both the hero and the villain don't make very smart moves that put the other at a disadvantage, leading to the hero having to outsmart them and do something really clever. I do miss the adventure, mystery, and interesting universes that older movies tried so hard to perfect, but I think it is skin deep solutions that bother me the most. In ancient Rome when a theater production had a cheesy ending, they mocked it by calling it a Deus Ex Machina. Well our modern problem is similar. The hero just keeps trying and something random works, or they just get really really lucky. The big master plan is just so simple, so obvious, it should have never worked against a smart enemy. Where is the genius who outsmarts the villain, and at the same time, surprises the audience with something they had never thought of before? Either I am the smartest person alive, and I know every single trick; or movies have gotten dumber and the people writing them have had their IQ drop below 100. Well then, why can't we find writers with IQ's over 150? Why can't we do things that are genius, and most of all, why can't we outsmart our enemies anymore? It seems like the only solution now is to gang up and outnumber our enemies. What message is that sending our children? "You are not equals, if the bad guy does something, you have to get 5 of your friends to beat him." That is just plain wrong. 1v1. 1 hero for every villain. You don't need help. You got this. You CAN outsmart anyone, if you put your mind to it. You are your enemies equal, you don't have to hide behind your 10 friends. Can the hero find a secret way to win that we don't know about? Can you just try to keep a secret from the audience? I don't have high hopes for the future of film.
That's probably true. It's like how Tarantinos comments are considered "offensive" by some. Directors and writers can't take risks anymore, they either get a mob hunt, or flop. People just want to rewatch the fiftieth reboot, that conforms to their views, and doesn't actually push your emotional buttons.
Probably the 1900s... like really, you're gonna run away from a 30 second clip of a train without sound? You paid a nickle to see "A Day at the Beach" and you got angry because the guy in the gallery wasn't playing the entertainer loud enough on his Steinway. Easily the most terrible audiences.
@@420JackG i mean to be fair it was literally the first few movies being made. Imagine never seeing a movie in your entire life. Only black and white low quality pictures and then you see a moving train that was recorded with a video camera. The thing about movies is that in the past they weren’t actually being recorded. What they where was pictured being taken and at 24 frames they created the illusion of movement.
@@damiantirado9616 oh no, you got me all wrong. I think "Man runs from Train" and "A Day at the Beach" are bangers. It's the train-bros a Karens who shout at the piano player who piss me off. Honestly, I don't even like to go to the Nickelodeon anymore. Spanish flu screwed everything up... now it's 7 cents, and they don't have my favorite heroin and mercury soda anymore. The last time I was there, a jazz club flapper sat behind me and talked the entire time... "Man Rides a Bicycle" was totally ruined.
Film quality, or in general storytelling quality, is not a totally subjective matter. This has to be a learned opinion. I'd say Quentin Tarantino, despite putting out some films I don't like, is certainly knowledgeable enough about film to give a good learned opinion. I tend to agree with him. A good example, even on a lower scale, is the current Marvel films are not as good as the ones from 5 and 10 years ago. And their extension on television is even worse. This is definitely crap quantity as opposed to good quality.
I'm so glad you made this video. If people want better films, stop watching the bad ones. Forget endless re-imaginings of Star Wars and Marvel and start watching some independent films. If theatres want to make more money, expand their buildings to include a cafe and a restaurant, and have some memorabilia displays, and show older or less well-known films so that going to the movies becomes an event again. Start doing deals with film makers so that the theatre gets more of the ticket revenue and can do $1 popcorns and $1 drinks to make going to the movies more accessible. Films in the 70s and 80s were exciting because they embraced change. Today's film industry needs to do the same if they want to become culturally important again.
Indiana Jones, back to the future, Star Wars 5 and 6, roadhouse, Batman 89, highlander, karate kid, horror slashers and countless more prove the 80s was one of the best eras of film
That was also the decade of movies like "The Verdict", which came out in 1982. Leaving aside the debate over whether popular blockbusters are better or worse than adult dramas, "The Verdict" came out under the Warner Brothers label. That no longer happens anymore. Any "adult dramas" today get released under "indy" subdivisions of major studios like "Searchlight Pictures" and even then, most people will probably see them on streaming platforms since most people don't go to movie theatres anymore to see drama films.
@@eddiejc1 The Verdict is one of the best movies ever made. Paul Newman's transformation from where he was at the beginning of that movie spraying the banaca in his mouth to where he was at the end was absolutely fantastic. But the thing about that movie is that it was at the end optimistic and that is what it makes it stand out so much. People like the supposed genius Tarantino ended up drowning Hollywood in pessimism - and that is ultimately what killed the movie industry and destroyed the actual entertainment value of most movies.
Honestly I disagree the 80's were too commercialized as well, none of these films were particularly great films that said anything political or important about society and that's really what is needed in film to make films deeper and have more meaning as art. The 80's is really when the decline of film began because artistry was considered less important in the 80's. And let's just say censorship and a lack of alternate voices in film didn't do much for the film scene of the 80's.
@@lordjustinian2913 Yeah but people actually liked those movies. Or at least a lot of them. I don't deny that there is a place for social criticism but every movie doesn't have to end up being an exercise in self loathing.
Great work; I think movies have gotten better and we only remember the past as better than it was because we remember the highlights of each era. Every 90s movie wasn't Goodfellas and every 70s movie wasn't Taxi Driver. There's a huge market for brainless content and social media has monopolized that. Before social media, theaters and TV did, but the 90s equivalent of twerk compilations (Showgirls for example) are talked about like outliers when they were closer to the norm than The Godfather.
yeah but none of todays movies are taxi driver or goodfellas, that's the problem. Look at the great movies of the late 70's alone - just offhand there's taxi driver, the godfather, star wars, jaws, close encounters etc - there's nothing that compares in the past 5 years. The best of today is nowhere near the best of the past unless you have your head up your ass
If you truly believe movies have gotten better then you have low expectations for movies. The average movie that comes out today it’s not even close to the average film that came out in the 60s or 70s.
Old films are still good. Just how old could you possibly be if you haven't seen movies from the 50s, 60s since the time they were originally aired while still thinking you had a valid view of them?
I really liked how you spoke to both sides of the debate. While film is going through some obvious growing pains, I think the current era is pretty bangin. Once enough time has past for us to collectively pan for gold we're gonna find a lot of classics between 2012 and 2022. A24 alone has given us quite a few remarkable movies with "The Green Knight" and "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once" being two of my favorites. Outside of that we have movies like Birdman, John Wick, The Martian, Shadow, The Revenant, Baby Driver, The Lobster, ect.
You cannot say 2012 to 2022 but that is two different eras of movies that you have overlapped. The last good year for movies was 2013 after that it was a slow descent into nonsense.
@@Spacejuno None of the movies you listed were Hollywood movies. 1917 was the only movie that you listed that would be deemed mainstream the other two are art house movies.
@@bighands69 yeah sure parasite wasn’t mainstream but you said era of movies .I mean what are we talking about just Hollywood Or movies in general ? Who cares about Hollywood if the movies are better outside it ? Including American movies And if arthouse is good now and the world has become more globalized. then it really doesn’t matter.
One thing I will say: Even if you think this is the worst era of film, you do have to ask yourself: How much longer will I be saying this? And what would I like to see from them that they aren’t giving me?
That's what I was wondering. I was high school and college age in the 80s and the best movies centered around people my age group came out in the 80s. Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Back to the Future, Risky Business, all the John Hughes movies (16 candles, Farris Bueller, Uncle Buck, etc.). Plus some great dramatic movies like Platoon, Fatal Attraction, Glory, etc.
He is not dispelling the good or cult classics from that era but is saying that the overall industry was not in a good state. His 1950s cinema criticism makes no sense at all. That era produced some of the greatest movies of all time.
They were talking about Hollywood movies and perhaps specifically about blockbusters. It's questionable whether certain 80s movies he is known to like such as Once Upon a Time in America fall within the parameters of what he was considering here.
Real solid analysis. I watch movies that came before I was born (or I was too young at the time) and even those that are ~6.5 on imdb are better than 99% 7.5+ movies from 2010+. Pretty sure we’ll look back at the current period as a crisis in cinematography which would end in a breakthrough and complete shift of frame of reference of filmmaking. TV shows otoh are on the rise.
Remember, he's talking about Hollywood, and by that neither independent auteurs, foreign films (Korean, Mexican, etc.) or studios (Neon, A24, etc). By and large, the biggest movies, the cultural "phenoms" have been pretty vapid, but there will still be amazing and original-ish (which is a term to be eternally debated) films (Jordan Peele, Parasite, Dave Eggers, Sir Gawain, Ari Aster, Bong Joon-Ho). Plus, there are more appearances of well-executed series' than there were ever before (like Euphoria, Black Mass, etc.). However, like what was said, by-and-large there is a flood of drivel on top and around it. P. S. The state of movies today appears similar to the state of music. On the surface, things look quite vapid, dire; but, if one looks, they're sure to find many gems, ones which do hold up to previous eras.
I think it has a lot to what you were saying how less original movies are getting (intriguing) attention nowadays than before, mainly because of the abundance of sequels, adaptions, spin-offs and reboots being pumped into theaters and getting all the buzzworth. There are still great original movies these days, it's just no one is noticing, talking about or seeing them enough.
The fifties were a good decade for movies. You had Brando and Dean giving some great performances. You had Hitchcock reaching his peak. You had some great Roman epics, great sci fi such as the Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the Thing; And great Film Noir. I mean Kiss Me Deadly is obviously a movie that Tarantino constantly mines. Sure the movies were heavily censored, but there was a general blue collar toughness about 50s cinema Whereas the 60s was a pretty weak decade when it came to US films at least. The studio system was dying, and the New Wave hadn't hit US shores. There were lots of haut fashion, kitschy, silliness. Or banal B-movies that just didn't understand the counter culture. And lots of really trendy irritating innovations such as an overuse of fancy editing and music - such as in the Thomas Crown Affair or The Graduate. Two of the most overrated movies in history, which nonetheless have had a massive impact on cinema, lasting to the present, a nascent cinematic trend that seem to die out as soon as it was born, only to be resurrected after years spent in the wilderness. The only saving grace of the decade, the Spaghetti Western, but even that was a piece of ironic post modern fluff when all said and done. But at the top of the post modern fluff pile Now the 70s was a great decade, the golden era. When US movies became a de facto art-form. When movies began honestly dealing with issues and themes that art, music and literature had been dealing with for a century or more - the horrors of war, the drudgery of poverty. the necessity of crime, the realities of violence, the corruption of politics; the persecution of minorities. Movies had grown up. The best of Hollywood movies up there with anything the theatre and the gallery had to offer, or what Mailer, Vidal, Capote, Bellow, Vonnegut were offering up. Coppola, Scorsese, Friedkind, Ashby, Schlesinger, Boorman, Malick - becoming auteurs rather than mere directors. The 80s saw something of a steep decline, as commercialism and bourgeois superficiality made a comeback, and have never really gone away since. But there were still some great auteur works to be gleamed from the general banality on offer, Lynch, Kubrick, Scorsese still had some big statements left to make. It's just with each passing year the superficiality, trendiness, and banality grows more and more and the auteurs become fewer and fewer. In fact I don't know if you can call them auteurs anymore, as most young left-field directors are engaged in commercial movies, just commercial movies with an avant garde edge. Such as Danny Boyle, Wes Anderson or Tarantino himself. Not unlike the pretentiousness of sixties cinema. Artiness for the sake artiness. Hipsters instead of auteurs. Art relates to the human condition, to the big questions in life. With huge visions and worldviews. Cinema is no longer an art form, but has gone back to a craft. Directors no longer artists but artisans. But ultimately what's changed is politics, as politics underpins culture. The drive to tell the truth, or to see the truth has diminished. Take your comparison - The Sixth Sense and Psycho/ the former a twee modern fairy-tale with a nice twist, whereas Psycho is dealing with infidelity, theft, voyeurism, cross dressing, the unconscious/ even necrophilia, all pulled off with great film noir photography and the blackest of senses of humour; the former a dream for overgrown children, the latter a nightmare for young adults hinting at perversions just beneath the surface of conscious reality . It could also be that cinema is becoming so banal, because we are becoming banal, as consumerism grows; as hedonism grows we become more infantile,more in search of fairy tales. Stories we read to our children as a guise, when in reality we are reading them to ourselves. As Jack Nicholson said in A Few Good Men - 'you can't handle the truth'. A line directed at Tom Cruise and Demi Moore which seemed to transcend the movie and speak to the changing of the Hollywood guard. Like the 70s old guard yelling at the nonplussed brat pack for its banality and superficiality.
the 50's was definetly a better era for movies than the 60's. So many of those 60's movies are quite cringey to watch nowdays. Of course there were 60's movies like Hitchcocks works that were still very muich 50's in feel that were great (Psycho and the Birds). Tarintino just has juvenile tastes and cant appreciate anything without a bunch of big explosions, loud noises and constant swearing lol. Not saying those things are bad neccassarily, but that Tarintino ramps them up to 100% in everything he's ever made says something about his pretty juvenile personality.
@@poocrayon4588 the 50s is a real slog to get through if your a horror fan. Easily the worst decade for horror. the 60s starts with a huge bang with Psycho, Peeping Tom, Village of the Damned, and Eyes Without a Face all from 1960 alone.
New Hollywood has been way over hyped. It only really produced one great movie of merit and that was The Godfather. Everything else they produced was of straight to video level quality or mid level cinema when compared with the history of cinema. 1980s was when New Hollywood was established and they did not exactly do that much and what they made was average. Spielberg made a few good classic bits of entertainment but nothing like what was produced in the 1950s and 1960s.
Excellent observations. It's the constant question of Art versus Commerce. I've always agreed also with your discussion of the power of our formative tastes. I think it not only applies to movies but also to music. So many people say the music of today doesn't touch the music of the past.
I think people forget that there were a ton of horrible movies in the 80s and 90s. No one remembers because they don't get reruns or blu-ray releases. In 20 years from now, people will only remember the good movies and forget about "Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of madness" or "Eternals".
Before the pandemic, 2019 had one of it's best years of great cinema ever, at least in my lifetime. Parasite, Knives Out, Joker, Little Women, 1917, Marriage Story, The Lighthouse, Once upon a time in Hollywood, all those dumb but entertaining Marvel films and that's just at the top of my head. It'll take a while to get back to pre-pandemic era quality but I think the worst has already passed.
I’d also add portrait of a lady on fire, jo jo rabbit, Ford v Ferrari, peanut butter falcon and the gentlemen too as 2019 was a brilliant year for film and personally my favourite (though it did also contain films like cats and the fanatic…)
I think the clear cut "good guys vs bad guys" is way underestimated as an issue. I would argue this is why Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul have only become more and more popular as time went on, being more popular in 2022 than ever before. Because in both shows the main characters are not even just morally ambiguous, but down right evil. Yet most of us will still side with/support the Walt/Jimmy because they are well written and not "I am the good/bad guy cause the plot says so".
We know todays audience isn’t resonating because younger people don’t even want to see them either. The bigger problem is studios struggle to promote new and original films, in the 1990s they promoted new, Indy directors brilliantly.
A bit unrelated but I saw the new evil dead movie and loved it so much, the original trilogy (particularly the second one) blew me away as a kid and means so much more to me than a movie. Despite it's flaws as a kid sam raimi and bruce Campbell inspired me to tell stories and I still hope to one day make a movie and contribute to the art form.
This is definitely the worst era for cinema nostalgia plays absolutely nothing to why people don't like modern movies they're just regurgitated sanitized versions of older movies
80s was fkn awesome for movies wtf Aliens , terminator, Friday the 13 Franchise. Nightmare on elm street Robocop so many classic movies where made in this era. Beats the shit outta this era hands down
I have to say @justanobservation - you are the single best analysis channel on RU-vid that I know of. I love listening to your takes! These are PROPER essays. Please keep making videos mate - great job and best in class 💪🏾👍🏽
I think this is a good take. We need to vote with our wallets. When people stop watching superhero movies, they’ll stop making them. The fact of the matter is, these companies are great at getting people hyped up for their films and using familiar branding is a very safe way to do this. As much as I’m sick of the big blockbuster films, this is why I really want Avatar 2 to do well. As much as it has a lot of similarities to the superhero films and even though it is a sequel, it’s still a completely original universe and is something new for us to experience. I want it to do well so that hopefully studios try to make more blockbusters which are new IPs
But I don't want them to stop making superheroes movies, I want them to make better ones. Comics can have such profound and resonating stories, superheroes are so needed especially nowadays and it's a shame what they do with them. CGI, lazy writing, no real story or message. What a waste. When I think of Netflix's Daredevil, it gives a glimpse of what Marvel could be doing instead and it's DEPRESSING.
I think the issue is already starting to appear. Many superhero movies are unexpectedly flopping or underperforming, such as Black Adam, Shazam 2, and especially Ant-Man 3.
1980's were perhaps the worst, but were at the same time the most memorable decade. The bad movies in 1980's were still way better than modern bad movies.
@@MethSloth Yes, but the budgets weren't big back then either and actors didn't get huge salaries. Low budget movies in 1980's usually cost only 1-2 millions, so it weren't a gamble as they earned the money back on VHS rentals. There were 100's of terrible obscure unknown movies in 1980's which were worse than B-Movies and usually had only unknown bad actors.
I really enjoyed your original take on this debate. Im an animated storyteller and am trying to make my own dent on the industry in my own small way, I feel like if RU-vid storytellers were supported better then we could be to this next generation what Spielberg, Scorsese, Lucas and Coppola were to theirs.
The last really good film I watched (in a theater) was Wild Tales, from a south american director, who's name escapes me at the moment. On the other hand, I spend a lot of time digging up 'old gold' as far back as the 1930's, and have dozens of new great films added to my personal library, thanks to the Internet. Here's an example: "12-Oclock High" with Gregory Peck. Another one: 49th Parallel, with a young Lawrence Olivier. I've probably watched both those films a half-dozen times over a period of years. Another great film I had been searching for for years: Mad Mad Mad World. Finally found it on RU-vid under 'Free with Ads" which is okay with me, since I have a browser that filters out ads.As a general rule, nothing puts the current offerings in proper perspective than a well stocked library of films released from 1930 to 2010 or so.
I think you're correct that we appreciate the movies we grew up with a lot more. Tarantino has stated the Seventies were the best period in film. The Seventies being when Tarantino first discovered his love of cinema. Personally I have nothing but love and nostalgia for films I grew up with during the Eighties: A period Tarantino compared to now. So there's really no accounting for taste.
The 1970s was most certainly not the best period. The reason why Tarantino likes that period is because it became dominant with independent producers. That appeals more to him because it is more in line with his movie making culture. It is the same reason today you will get people trying to defend the interior format of digital movie making because most that do so find it easy to access digital equipment and production techniques.
Probably there will be another comment similar to this but I would like to give my perspective, since I live in Spain and I don't see the same films as you do in cinemas. Hollywood blockbusters are not everything that defines cinema, that is the word that you keep using when Tarantino is talking only about Hollywood. I do believe that major blockbusters are on a creative crisis and recently I stopped going to marvel movies because I just feel they are all the same, but for me this was one of the best years when it comes to creative cinema, because probably three of the best Spanish directors of this century have released their movies this year and I was amazed by them and other ones, really Hollywood may lead the industry but this year of spanish movies proves that creativity is still pretty much present and if you are the kind of person that thinks cinema is dead maybe give a chance to foreign films because they are worth it. If you want to check them out the directors I'm refering to are Rodrigo Sorogoyen (the movie: As Bestas) Carlos Vermut (Mantícora) and Albert Serra (Pacifiction), also in the field of animation Unicorn Wars (wich is like apocalypse now but a war between teddy bears and unicorns, its bizzarre and super well animated). When I say this has been one of the best years of spanish cinema I mean it, and it's not because I may be too young, I believe to have some good taste and I have discussed this films with some teachers on my faculty and they agree these are really great movies, so we all should look for different perspectives.
As to whether the 80s was a bad decade for film is wholly subjective but I think we can all agree that we are drowning in superhero shit that is slowly destroying originality in the industry because...money.
Money was always the fuel behind Hollywood. But this giant machine is starting to starve, no longer being able to extend the courtesy of innovation at the price of risk. Money in general is being zapped of its value by criminals using systems to do the stealing for them. That's why the film machine becomes more and more desperate, kicking and screeching at it drowns in a sea of flames, appealing to the lowest common denominator and social media people to get what they can still get. It's just the same as with every other corporate product diminishing in quality, especially with many grubbing hands involved in the process. Cinema has run its course, streaming services will be next as they were just the desperate struggle of meanwhile monstrous corporations that were out of survival strategies, and started cannibalizing each other in the flaming abyss of money hell. Maybe it's what they deserve for all the evil that has been committed behind the scenes. Creativity and originality will probably have to survive with less money in the nearer future, and outside of the fart smelling elite. Maybe new communities can rebuild, and creativity will belong to the people. But I don't know, that's just the vision I personally have about Hollywood.
I think it's false. People seem to be focusing on big franchises, but there have been tons of fantastic indie movies, like Banshees of Insherin, The Whale, and Everything Everywhere All At Once. and movies like The Batman, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Avatar: The Way of Water, and Top Gun: Maverick have still been fantastic. Don't focus on the negatives, focus on the positives. I think we're in a good era.
What wasn't mentioned was what I understand to have been a tactical decision by Hollywood studios in the early 70's to actively greenlight high-risk / high-reward young directors and writers... This may be cyclical, too, when an independent or off-brand film is made that goes wild with revenue, and they try to let it happen again...? That era fueled an abundance of non-Hollywood pulp-scripts, that changed cinematic history, and I think that's what Tarantino is referring to (including his own early productions). There are still 'great' movies being made, but not as often, I'd suggest. So the critique could be reworded to say, 'This is the worst era for film as the least prolific for great, original content'. And while that, as you say, may fall somewhat into the hands of the audience, it is also incumbent on the studios and producers to be willing to finance such projects, to the point where even those pictures that are attempted to be made, don't have sufficient budgets to be able to make a quality film, without it being a monologue shot in a single room on an iPhone. Also, not mentioned, is CGI: the bane of great films. Ugh... In that sense, Tarantino, I'm certain, is referring, at least in some part, to the "classic" era of cinema, when, if you needed an effect, you had TO MAKE IT, or make it happen; that took skill (a quality thus lost in cinema, due to CGI). At least, I would bet that's one of Tarantino's beefs. Cheers!
I think we certainly live in the most consumable era of movies Production companies have to rely on huge blockbuster releases to justify spending hundreds of millions on production and marketing, so in order to rake in those massive releases they must give their movies as wide appeal as possible. This leads to spectacle over story, effects over performances, and the constant rehashing of proven intellectual properties that are guaranteed to have a good return. There is hope though, because if there is one thing that never changes, it's change itself. We'll eventually return to more original films, especially on creator based platforms like RU-vid
I mean it may be the worst era of popular movies, but there are without question modern masterpieces that have come out recently, you just have to look a bit farther than the front page sometimes. Even then, movies like Joker (2019) were incredibly successful and incredibly good.
We live in an era in which utter crap like Avengers - Endgame is hailed as a gold standard to which other films should aspire to. Enough said. Franchising is killing movies.
This was another excellent video by your mind. Really liked it. Well thought out, and well done. As for me: I try to avoid the major block-bluster movies, at the cinema, because unlike everyone else, I see them for what they are: Crap movies that are just ment to sell even more popcorn. But once in a while, I do go in to the movies and see the big movie comming out, becuase with like Top Gun, it had been so many years since the first movie came out, and the movie looked great. In the last few months however, I have started going to the movies a lot more, because where I live, I get to pay a small fee per month, and then I can go as often as I like. And I use it to see movies I usually would not have seen, like The Menu, which I have then reccomended to others.
I think what filmmakers have realized in the past decade is that if you have a good serious/dramatic story to tell, it can almost always be better told with a series. While we may be living in a particularly dull era of movies, where the only movies that can get asses in seats are shallow yet visually attractive action movies, we have also been enjoying likely the greatest run of television ever. Mad Men, True Detective, Breaking Bad, Pretty Little Liars (and The Wire and The Sopranos as well if we want to expand the era even more) are easily some of the greatest series ever made, and there are so many other high quality series and miniseries that have come out in the past decade that would simply not have been possible 30 years ago. All of those previously mentioned series had half the total season runtime of normal network shows, and fantastic miniseries like Normal People or Tokyo Vice had even less. While it is true that there have hardly been any dramatic films in recent years that can come even close to rivaling the best films of the 70s, I would just argue that those stories are instead being told through television. It is an attractive argument to claim that society is experiencing brain rot or what not, but the same has been said about practically every era in human history. Most of the time we just equate change with decline, however fallacious that may be.
1. I used to be able to see movies every week and not be bankrupt by the end of the month. 2. Streaming. 3. Franchise/ reboots/ origin stories/ superheroes… yawn, are all you get in cinemas that ain’t my thing at all.
The problem with the examples at 12:19 is they are mostly close to a decade old or older. I think Quentin meant more recent like the past 5-7 years or so. Even if you include those, they are the best examples you could pick gathered from years of movies. In 1999 there were more excellent movies released that summer alone.
2013 was the last good year of Cinema. While there was good films after that they started to decline in volume to the point that the whole industry is finished.
I'm 32 and work at a theater, it's super sad that our limited run flashback movies or film series almost constantly sell better than our newer movies. If it's not a GOOD big hit then it'll only do well for like the first weekend or two then dwindle until we have empty showtimes. Yes I worked 5-6 days a week during Barbihimer. I think the current state of Hollywood is on a downward curve. Each generation (or decade even) you get breakout actor/actress that become big name celebrities that you'd go specifically to see. I'm not really seeing those kind of actors anymore. The ones who do seem to get pigeonholed or burned out on mediocre movies that they fizzle out to be just another good actor.
There were amazing movies in the 80’s. Terminator, Aliens, Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones, ET, Die Hard, Full Metal Jacket, War Games, Princess Bride. Platoon
Supposedly respected and respectable critics are writing multi-page reviews of _superhero_ movies. This is Saturday matinee stuff. Reviews should be boilerplate that reads, "Silly fun for kids. Overlong." Anything more is ridiculous.
Thank you for bringing up this topic as its one that i have been arguing with ppl online for years. Time and love are what creates classics. Complaining about it only reinforces others resolve to not change. I dont feel there ever was a “worst time for movies” bc i love film, cinema and more importantly a good story. To say this or that crop is better or worse is an exercise in futility. Why not mention how books are better or worse now vs then or music, or even the younger generation? You talk a good argument for ppl taking an active role to which i agree but understand that those of us who waited patiently while Hollywood put out horrible sequel after sequel on our favorite superhero or other genre etc, we now are having our time. Its our time now as you and ppl who think your way had yours. If you are a student of history like i am, you would see that this is not only normal but healthy. The 40’s had their era, the 50’s their own and so on and so on. They would complain about the era you love so much just like you are now. Congratulations, you are now getting older and less in control than you were a decade ago. Life doesn’t wait for you, it keeps going no matter how hard we wish it would. I lost my mother to a drunk driver after i had turned 4 years old. I can speak of pain like most ppl wouldn’t wish on their enemy. I was taken to Disney World and put on several “theme park rides” as you so eloquently put it and i felt joy again. I cannot speak for others as i dont know your story or theirs but i can speak for mine. Just bc you dont like the art does not give you the right to judge it or the artist. You do have the right to your opinion as I’ve argued taratino does. I dont agree with all of his opinions on films bc im not him. We can all choose to be civil about our opinions or not but as a student of history i can tell you this, when you cant do that, it typically leads to war bc thats how humans like to resolve conflicts. Im sure hardly anyone will read this and im sure i have ruffled the feathers of film “geeks” that hate the current crop of films. To them i simply say this: if you dont like it, move on to something else. I hear life is full of things to experience and enjoy. I know it is bc ive seen most of it and can appreciate it bc i lost the most important person in my life and can never have her back.