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The “Oscar movie” is dying

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Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#61

Post by jmull »

DeetrixDotter wrote: post #40
0x445442 wrote: post #31

I don’t want to spend my entertainment dollars subjecting myself to political gaslighting. I want to be entertained by a good story. Sadly, this seems to be an insurmountable hurdle for Hollywood at the moment.

Nothing quite breaks the immersion for me like having so many gay and interracial couples crammed into the cast that I end up sitting there wondering if there is any place on Earth that's anything like the "normal" town Hollywood is presenting to me.

Movies, nor any other story-telling, is really about representing statistical averages.

Anyway, there are plenty of gay people and interracial families out there, so these aren't exactly bizarre.

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#62

Post by boppo1 »

jfengel wrote: post #42
ggambetta wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rare to find a fellow actor on HN :) You don't have contact details on your profile, but I do - would be interesting in knowing more!

I'm just an amateur, and I only do local theater. I'm very glad to be able to do programming for a living so that I can do theater the way I want to do theater, rather than having my dinner depend on whether I win an audition against long odds. It sounds like a terrible way to suck the joy out of the craft. I have nonetheless helped a few actors build minor careers. Despite the fact that my main advice is "don't".

I'm not interested in acting as a career at all, but I realized I'd love to try playing in local theater. How do I get in with no/low (I once read 'an actor preparss') background? Last I looked at it the local place was a bunch of people who went to school and had credentials. As far as starting my own, I'm worried there would be too many who would join and make a farce* out of it instead of striving for a serious, if amateur, effort.

*it's okay and ideal to have fun, but I've seen too many amateur bands/art projects/films/etc veer off due to members dismissing things 'cuz it's not for real' and just turning the effort into a hang-out

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#63

Post by karaterobot »

havblue wrote: post #28

I would think film criticism is dying as well. Was there a true successor to Ebert? When I think of film criticism now I think of YouTube reviews and not writers who eloquently describe what makes a good movie good.

There are plenty of good film critics and film reviewers. I'm actually pretty happy about that. It's just that they're all on places like Youtube, or Letterboxd, among others. Ebert commanded attention and ultimately became the go-to reviewer to reference because he had a major newspaper column and one of the only film review television shows, but now there are so many options that nobody can really be that anymore.

While there are plenty of good critics and reviewers, there are even more terrible ones. But that's just the basic problem of content on the internet recapitulating itself.

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#64

Post by ajkjk »

DeetrixDotter wrote: post #40
0x445442 wrote: post #31

I don’t want to spend my entertainment dollars subjecting myself to political gaslighting. I want to be entertained by a good story. Sadly, this seems to be an insurmountable hurdle for Hollywood at the moment.

Nothing quite breaks the immersion for me like having so many gay and interracial couples crammed into the cast that I end up sitting there wondering if there is any place on Earth that's anything like the "normal" town Hollywood is presenting to me.

It does seem like a bit much, but it's definitely better than the former state where none of that stuff existed, as far as Hollywood was concerned. I imagine it'll equilibrate over the next few decades.

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#65

Post by trts »

Arguably many "Oscar movies" are not that great. There are often good films nominated but I am always surprised to look back post-1980s or 90s and see how many fairly mediocre films, many of which have since receded from critical awareness, have won "Best Picture"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Picture

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#66

Post by betamaxthetape »

nayroclade wrote: post #15
jdlyga wrote: post #6

Going to the movies was always a habit left over from an earlier time. Of course when all you have is a standard definition tube TV and VHS movies, going to see something on the big screen is exciting. But nowadays, large 4K HDR TV's are cheap now, and you can get almost everything on streaming. Covid really hit the big reset button and made people question a lot of their habits, including still going to movie theate…

Cinema's latest brainwave, at least in the UK, is to run patronising adverts about how great the "big-screen experience" is, and how we shouldn't ruin films by watching on our TVs, laptops, phones, etc. Except, like the old anti-piracy ads, they run these adverts in cinemas before movies, to a group of people who've literally just made the decision to go to the cinema. Like a priest ranting at his congregation about…

To add some context for those not in the UK or Europe...

I am guessing the advert you are referring to is the "Get lost in great stories" one [1] run in Vue cinemas. Other UK cinemas (Picturehouse, Odeon) mention the "big screen experience" but I think the Vue one is the only one that singles out that watching on a phone / laptop / TV can lead to a negative experience.

It's certainly one of the longer "please switch off your phones" messages, at over two minutes in length.

I used to enjoy seeing the adverts and trailers before a film at the cinema, but that was when I rarely visited. Now that I'm going much more regularly (sometimes multiple times a week), the lack of variety is very obvious: when I am forced to sit through the exact same collection of four or five adverts / trailers multiple times, it gets a bit old.

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#67

Post by JKCalhoun »

raydiatian wrote: post #14

I mean, one part of the problem I see at a local level is Black Panther 2 is currently occupying 50% of available projectors at all of my local movie theatres. I’m sort of just waiting and hoping the silly capeshit phenomenon will die out already. I think we need to see that the cinematic universe concept was a novelty and is extremely difficult to execute, especially when it’s driven by soulless profiteering. I mean…

> I’m sort of just waiting and hoping the silly capeshit phenomenon will die out already.

Ha ha, capeshit. I confess, I can't stand super hero movies either.

Instead I've been working through the "1001 Film to See Before You Die" and it regularly reminds me what film can be (has been).

As an aside, I also remember wondering when rap music would die out. We may both be waiting a long time.

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#69

Post by boppo1 »

jmull wrote: post #61
DeetrixDotter wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing quite breaks the immersion for me like having so many gay and interracial couples crammed into the cast that I end up sitting there wondering if there is any place on Earth that's anything like the "normal" town Hollywood is presenting to me.

Movies, nor any other story-telling, is really about representing statistical averages. Anyway, there are plenty of gay people and interracial families out there, so these aren't exactly bizarre.

>Anyway, there are plenty of gay people and interracial families out there, so these aren't exactly bizarre.

That's true! But it seems like there's a new Hayes code where every single new show must have x, y, z "identities"[0] and they have to be represented in particular and empowering ways. Frequently also that the fact of their 'identity' has lent them a special advantageous approach to the situation at hand. Feels like all good ideas need to be edited by the HR department before they get on screen these days.

[0] this is, IMO, a really shallow way of understanding individuals' identities.

Re: The “Oscar movie” is dying

#70

Post by jedberg »

During the pandemic a few movies that were supposed to be in theaters launched as expensive paid streams (mostly Disney, but also stuff like Bill and Ted).

I gladly paid for every one of them.

My wife and I used to go to the movies every weekend, sometimes twice, before we had kids. After we had kids we went to theater maybe three times. I was perfectly happy to pay $30 to watch a movie in my house, where I can watch it after I put the kids to bed but don't have to hire a sitter, can pause if I need to pee, can rewind, turn on subtitles, or watch it again.

The only advantages the theaters provide is a bigger screen, louder speakers, and the psychological effect of knowing that I will be watching a movie for two hours and doing nothing else (which I can replicate at home after everyone is asleep if I want to). And participation in the cultural zeitgeist.

I used to love going to see movies in a theater, and will still do it occasionally (we watched Top Gun 2 in a theater, but we brought the kids because it's cheaper than a sitter!), but I much prefer to watch at home.

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