Barbenheimer is cinema’s most seismic moment in a decade
The surprise success of this surreal duo proves cinema remains a powerful cultural force and suggests audiences want more than franchises
Like it or not, Avengers Endgame was bigger. But so stoked to see the movies intersect with culture so hard right now, especially after covid. Shame the studios are shooting them selves in the foot with their greed and can’t ride the wave.
I feel like studios don't know what to make post Covid, and they are still releasing pre Covid shit. There is this strange space where studios don't know what to do, then this happened.
They never really recovered from the 2008 financial collapse. That's when everything became a sequel/prequel/reboot. Technology and streaming didn't help but I remember it happening really fast after 2008.
Matt Stoller has a good article on how vertical integration led to this situation, but I gotta go to bed. The article talks about how Back to the Future and Ghostbusters couldn't be made today, if anyone wants to go looking for it. It's very good.
It'll be interesting to see how they process this, because it's such in-your-face evidence that their whole theory of the the new business model is completely ass-backwards.
People don't want tons and tons of mediocre crap, they want a few great things. They don't want endless rehashes and drivel, they want things that are interesting and challenging. They don't just want small screens to keep them company while they do laundry, they want actual cinema in a communal setting. The value doesn't come from convenience or volume, or algorithms, it comes from artists.
I know that they'll do anything to avoid recognizing these truths, but it'll be odd to watch.
A decade eh. I don't even remember what came out in 2013 that was this popular, 99% of what's come out in the last few years has been poop
The avengers ?
Gravity was a big must-see movie of 2013.
The Great Gatsby?
Django Unchained and Pacific Rim.
Barbie is a known franchise
But Oppenheimer isn't.
Period piece bio pic. It's its own category.
This should get you past the paywall: https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Ffilms%2F0%2Fbarbenheimer-is-cinemas-most-seismic-moment-in-a-decade%2F
I have no desire to see either of these, even for free. I’ll say this though, I’ll bet you can hear the dialogue in one of the films. The other was done by Nolan.
Well thanks for sharing that handful of negativity you easily could have scrolled past and kept to yourself, I guess.
Yeah, finally a couple of movies that aren't about fucking superheros or sequels/remakes.
Not to downplay the quality of the movies, but one is a biopic and one is a toy adaptation; one could easily throw in "finally an original movie that's not a superhero, sequel, biopic, or toy adaptation." They're good movies. Good movies can come in any form, superheroes, sequels, and remakes included.
I think what people are asking for right now is for studios to take risks and be creative. They want to experience something different. Superheroes and remakes have been done to death to the point that some (myself included) are just saturated.
Look at the 1991 Oscar best picture nominees and ask yourself if any movie in the last decade is even comparable.