This kind of writing is why I subscribe. Opinionated and well argued. If you care about cinema and you're fortunate enough to live in the vicinity of an independent cinema, I implore you support it by paying to watch films there. You won't regret it!
I found this post by accident, but my god if it's not the best explanation for Hollywood's crisis I've read so far! I haven't considered before the impact of social media and how it influenced our very aesthetics and perception of how we see our lives through movies... Phew. There's food for thought! Thanks for sharing this!
Mr. Gasda, my wife and I, lifelong film devotees, just loved your article! It was truly wonderful to see our feelings about the current scene so extremely well-articulated. Bravo!
Thank you for putting the banality of American cinema into words. I got Netflix to watch 6888, and while I was appalled at the explicit, dogged ferocity of the racism, I wanted more from the movie. I wanted to know more about these women in order to see, at the very least, from where they derived their strength. I wanted to see them as more than symbolic. I wanted to see them, hear them, and know them because they were so much more than they were portrayed.
I find myself watching & enjoying many of the Korean offerings on Netflix because of their story telling abilities and ability to handle complex situations with multiple characters and stories lines. Interactions are more nuanced and subtle. Possibly that's because they're fascinating and novel but . . . I think it's mostly that they provide more for the viewer to get involved with and enjoy.
Hi Quinn. I watched it last night. You explain exactly how I felt about it. There is so much more to the story of those women that was left out. It felt like they were just acting out a sequence of events that I could read about. It’s lazy and predictable ‘cookie cutter’ cinema.
TL:DR - Pop culture, is not cultured, it certainly isn't art. I've never been a big film guy... I go to the movies to be entertained. As a reader I think you could say the same things about the dearth of stimulating/challenging fiction/fantasy these days. There are more books than ever and so much YA junk out there, it's almost impossible to find quality writing. Heck I've just resorted to reading literature instead.
"You can tell it’s synthetic–polyester, not cotton." Brutal, and so on point.
I've largely tuned-out of Hollywood cinema over the past few years to where I watch a handful of flims a year at best, and while I can often applaud the competence, it's rare that I'm stirred. What DO do every year, is soak up the Busan International Film Festival (I live here), which is Asia's biggest. It specializes in Asian film and others, and while like any fest the quality is hit and miss, I'm almost always transported and engrossed in a way American cinema rarely accomplishes, anymore. And usually, every year, there is one movie that knocks my socks off.
Thank you! It galls me to watch a ‘historical’ movie that seems to be reaching out to me, the viewer, gauging ‘what do you want to see/hear/think that will confirm you in your present world? Well here you are then, we have just the thing for you. Here are 2020s’ issues and sensibilities dressed up in quaint costume’.
When actually what I really want is to have a sense of that other place, other time - what was it like? How was the experience of being alive then different from now? Create, o movie, this other world and take me there.
So thank you for spelling out the underpinnings of this travesty so clearly.
I think what you're asking for is impossible. A movie will never recreate that other place and time. That sort of technology does not exist yet, if you get my meaning. Historical movies usually cast people with contemporary faces moving in contemporary places, done up to resemble a mock-up of yesterday, leaving out the obvious dirt and stink and wear-and-tear of the era. In some movies, you'd swear that these people never used the bathroom, when in fact they were probably going more often than we were. It's rose-colored to the extreme, in other words.
All movies are a product of the era in which they're made. A movie made in 2025, no matter when it takes place, has to be addressing the world in which it exists, in ways minor or major. That's the whole purpose of art. What you'd advocating for is escapism, which is completely different, and more in line with what the author is railing against.
While I take some exception to some of the critique of “A Complete Unknown” - in that it does have a storytelling symmetry and offer some insights into its subject under consideration - it does lack the sense of danger, of shock to the system, of surprise and discovery that Brother Dylan brought as he blazed into our consciousness in those early years.
And I certainly agree with the overall premise of the essay. Whereas last year there were several entries that took us by storm and demanded our full attention as they took serious risks, I have seen less and less of that in this year’s offerings.
I was 6 years of age when I first saw James Dean’s explosive anger send his father’s precious pricy ice down the chute of that barn and out to melt in the sun. I had never seen that kind of anger or acting out. Nor did my then still tender and naïve mind have any ability to grasp the angst in the painfully tortured dialog and fiery family conflicts.
However, I loved the way those mysterious sequences made me feel and made me a cinephile before I had even heard the word.
Interesting. But though Satyricon and A Room with a View are permanently among my favorites, Inside Llewyn Davis doesn't fit your description. (Nor do many Coen Bro movies). True, I liked Llewyn a lot more than A Complete Unknown (which had its moments]) but can't agree that most mainstream Oscar fare is more fake than ever; those nominations have seldom represented the best of filmmaking.
Oscars are meaningless now; movie production has become simply inundated with self-absorbed, virtue signaling, cultural bashing creations. The leading feature for nominations this year - what a tragedy, indicative of the poor state of this industry.
It is at the point that I don't watch movies after about 1980, and really after the late 1960s.
The old Hollywood knew how to use all elements to create a totalkunst of sets, costumes, music, actors, script, that was immersive, and could be elevating. Even a merely decent movie like The Blue Max had great, photogenic actors (George Peppard, Ursula Andress, James Mason), in glamorous period costumes, spectacular flying scenes, and a top tier score by Jerry Goldsmith. Even though the story is brutal, the movie does not look or feel squalid. The "product" I catch glimpses of these days is all explosions, foul language, cynicism, ugliness, and grotty-looking. I can get that on the train platform for free (admittedly no explosions, so far, knock wood). The good news is that this current degraded condition of cinema is a choice, and other choices are possible, and no art form repeats its same dogmas and cliches forever. Rebels always show up. Looking forward to that. Today would be nice ...
This kind of writing is why I subscribe. Opinionated and well argued. If you care about cinema and you're fortunate enough to live in the vicinity of an independent cinema, I implore you support it by paying to watch films there. You won't regret it!
THANK YOU! So bored with so much “content“ these days
I found this post by accident, but my god if it's not the best explanation for Hollywood's crisis I've read so far! I haven't considered before the impact of social media and how it influenced our very aesthetics and perception of how we see our lives through movies... Phew. There's food for thought! Thanks for sharing this!
Mr. Gasda, my wife and I, lifelong film devotees, just loved your article! It was truly wonderful to see our feelings about the current scene so extremely well-articulated. Bravo!
Gasda on the money again.
The only Oscar noms I care about are the Oscar (Mayer) wieners I’m throwing back (boiled, good mustard, potato roll).
Thank you for putting the banality of American cinema into words. I got Netflix to watch 6888, and while I was appalled at the explicit, dogged ferocity of the racism, I wanted more from the movie. I wanted to know more about these women in order to see, at the very least, from where they derived their strength. I wanted to see them as more than symbolic. I wanted to see them, hear them, and know them because they were so much more than they were portrayed.
I find myself watching & enjoying many of the Korean offerings on Netflix because of their story telling abilities and ability to handle complex situations with multiple characters and stories lines. Interactions are more nuanced and subtle. Possibly that's because they're fascinating and novel but . . . I think it's mostly that they provide more for the viewer to get involved with and enjoy.
Hi Quinn. I watched it last night. You explain exactly how I felt about it. There is so much more to the story of those women that was left out. It felt like they were just acting out a sequence of events that I could read about. It’s lazy and predictable ‘cookie cutter’ cinema.
As far as I can tell, you’ve seen one movie that was nominated and didn’t like it.
Your fans agree, apparently without watching any of them or anything new for years/decades.
This is informed criticism?
as far as i can tell, i analyzed one movie as a case study of hollywood trends, supported by other examples and analysis
who are my ‘fans’. and how do you know they havent watched these movies?
what is your argument clee—?
TL:DR - Pop culture, is not cultured, it certainly isn't art. I've never been a big film guy... I go to the movies to be entertained. As a reader I think you could say the same things about the dearth of stimulating/challenging fiction/fantasy these days. There are more books than ever and so much YA junk out there, it's almost impossible to find quality writing. Heck I've just resorted to reading literature instead.
Good to see some good ol' fashioned criticism!
"You can tell it’s synthetic–polyester, not cotton." Brutal, and so on point.
I've largely tuned-out of Hollywood cinema over the past few years to where I watch a handful of flims a year at best, and while I can often applaud the competence, it's rare that I'm stirred. What DO do every year, is soak up the Busan International Film Festival (I live here), which is Asia's biggest. It specializes in Asian film and others, and while like any fest the quality is hit and miss, I'm almost always transported and engrossed in a way American cinema rarely accomplishes, anymore. And usually, every year, there is one movie that knocks my socks off.
These Hollywood execs forgot to leave the recursion in their streaming software and now it's escaped and made everything bland.
Thank you! It galls me to watch a ‘historical’ movie that seems to be reaching out to me, the viewer, gauging ‘what do you want to see/hear/think that will confirm you in your present world? Well here you are then, we have just the thing for you. Here are 2020s’ issues and sensibilities dressed up in quaint costume’.
When actually what I really want is to have a sense of that other place, other time - what was it like? How was the experience of being alive then different from now? Create, o movie, this other world and take me there.
So thank you for spelling out the underpinnings of this travesty so clearly.
I think what you're asking for is impossible. A movie will never recreate that other place and time. That sort of technology does not exist yet, if you get my meaning. Historical movies usually cast people with contemporary faces moving in contemporary places, done up to resemble a mock-up of yesterday, leaving out the obvious dirt and stink and wear-and-tear of the era. In some movies, you'd swear that these people never used the bathroom, when in fact they were probably going more often than we were. It's rose-colored to the extreme, in other words.
All movies are a product of the era in which they're made. A movie made in 2025, no matter when it takes place, has to be addressing the world in which it exists, in ways minor or major. That's the whole purpose of art. What you'd advocating for is escapism, which is completely different, and more in line with what the author is railing against.
Fromtheyardtothearthouse.substack.com
While I take some exception to some of the critique of “A Complete Unknown” - in that it does have a storytelling symmetry and offer some insights into its subject under consideration - it does lack the sense of danger, of shock to the system, of surprise and discovery that Brother Dylan brought as he blazed into our consciousness in those early years.
And I certainly agree with the overall premise of the essay. Whereas last year there were several entries that took us by storm and demanded our full attention as they took serious risks, I have seen less and less of that in this year’s offerings.
I was 6 years of age when I first saw James Dean’s explosive anger send his father’s precious pricy ice down the chute of that barn and out to melt in the sun. I had never seen that kind of anger or acting out. Nor did my then still tender and naïve mind have any ability to grasp the angst in the painfully tortured dialog and fiery family conflicts.
However, I loved the way those mysterious sequences made me feel and made me a cinephile before I had even heard the word.
Interesting. But though Satyricon and A Room with a View are permanently among my favorites, Inside Llewyn Davis doesn't fit your description. (Nor do many Coen Bro movies). True, I liked Llewyn a lot more than A Complete Unknown (which had its moments]) but can't agree that most mainstream Oscar fare is more fake than ever; those nominations have seldom represented the best of filmmaking.
Oscars are meaningless now; movie production has become simply inundated with self-absorbed, virtue signaling, cultural bashing creations. The leading feature for nominations this year - what a tragedy, indicative of the poor state of this industry.
It is at the point that I don't watch movies after about 1980, and really after the late 1960s.
The old Hollywood knew how to use all elements to create a totalkunst of sets, costumes, music, actors, script, that was immersive, and could be elevating. Even a merely decent movie like The Blue Max had great, photogenic actors (George Peppard, Ursula Andress, James Mason), in glamorous period costumes, spectacular flying scenes, and a top tier score by Jerry Goldsmith. Even though the story is brutal, the movie does not look or feel squalid. The "product" I catch glimpses of these days is all explosions, foul language, cynicism, ugliness, and grotty-looking. I can get that on the train platform for free (admittedly no explosions, so far, knock wood). The good news is that this current degraded condition of cinema is a choice, and other choices are possible, and no art form repeats its same dogmas and cliches forever. Rebels always show up. Looking forward to that. Today would be nice ...