In a press junket for a movie entitled "Our Souls at Night," Robert Redford was asked what he thought has changed with film industry? And his answer was: movies no longer tell stories about real life. I particularly find Redford's observation to be quite true in so many ways. For a start, if we look at the movie charts, one of the blockbusters has got to be sci-fi or something in that range. I am not against sci-fi. And in a lot of ways, sci-fi film makers such as Christopher Nolan incorporates a lot of philosophical questions for audiences to chew - which is a remarkable thing. Still, if I had to choose between sci-fi and movies like "Lady Bird" or "August: Osage County," I would probably go with the later.
This whole thing goes way back to the earlier debate: do arts exist for the purpose of esthetics only or do they exist as media to reflect life, or even more so, are arts there to preach or to convey ideal moral values. Of course, both are not wrong. And every artist is entitled to determine what his or her arts represent.
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However, in an age where the views of the experts/the critics mean less in society, people perceive arts merely as entertainments to give them cheap laughs and temporary awe to get them out of their boring lives. Consequently, the quality of an art work is no longer judged based on its meaning and quality, instead it is judged based on how much audiences like and watch the movies.
Should we move away from having a philosophical question about what arts are supposed to mean to our society and focus on making money instead? Yes, unfortunately that's what Arts have been reduced into. Arts have been bought by capitalist money driven culture.
Luckily, while "the big screen" has shown a downward trend in quality, the streaming culture such as Netflix gain momentum. We have been seeing a lot of good quality shows such as Sex Education, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Mrs. America, the Feud, and many more. It seems that nowadays TV and streaming flatforms are more open to unique creative ideas, while the big screen studios are more rigid and calculative in making the decisions. Rightly so, there are a lot at stake and big screen doesn't make as much money as it used to.
Anyway, just fun little questions. What do you think an art work should stand for? How can we maintain the quality (if that is necessary at all)? Should arts reflect reality?
Finally, I would like to end this blog post with lists of some of the movies that I consider rare species.
- Lady Bird
A movie staring the up and coming actors such as Saoirse Ronan, Lucas Hedges and Timothee Chalamet - complemented with the already established stage actors such as Laurie Metcalf and Tracy Letts. Looking at the casts alone, I would not think twice to watch this movie.
The movie follows the life of an eccentric teenager (Lady Bird) who is transitioning to become a young adult. Following the journey of her transition, audiences are taken into a roller coaster ride of emotions filled with laughter and tears.
- Frances Ha
Frances Ha was directed by Noam Baumbach. If you are not familiar with him, you are probably familiar with his 2019 Oscar nominated film "Marriage Story". And in a very strange coincidence, the main protagonist of Frances Ha (Greta Gerwig) is actually the director of Lady Bird. To make it even more interesting, Noam Baumbach and Greta Gerwig are a couple.
Frances Ha explores a chaotic life of an adult woman who is yet to reach a meaningful accomplishment in life. With the use of black and white movie technic, the story is so much more powerful.
I guess from the movie I have chosen it's quite telling that I like certain kind of movies and actors. I like movies that reflect real life. Throughout this blog post I have been mentioning names and movie titles that are connected in one way or another. For example, if you haven't noticed, I talked about August: Osage County which actually was written by the amazing Tracy Letts (he plays Lady Bird's father in Lady Bird)
So, I guess for now I am just gonna look forward to seeing the works of these people that I've mentioned. Alternatively, I can look at other directors who produce similar genres. Feel free to give me some recommendations!
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