The Irishman and Joker: The pendulum swings
Thank God we're starting to see good movies again.
sharewhat would you rate both of these movies?
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And The Breaking Bad Movie
Its the best month or so of movies that I can remember in years
What do you mean "again"?
shareIf you think about it, there's a pattern in those movies that was predictable. These movies (The Irishman, Joker, the Breaking Bad movie) are all of them about a white male main character who is at the same time the villain of the story (or one of the villains).
Is that a coincidence? Nope, it isn't
According to modern Hollywood Code, non-white-males characters are barely allowed to have flaws. Ironically, that makes those characters dull and boring. What makes a character interesting are his flaws.
On the other side, according to modern Hollywood Code, white-male characters are barely allowed to be positive. That takes away 99% of interesting stories that could feature these characters... but there's still a small sub-set of interesting stories that are allowed in modern day Code: movies where you have a white male main character that it's at the same time the villain of the story. The white male character is negative enough to be allowed, and it's flawed enough to be interesting.
And here you have: the three more promising movies* right now fit that very same profile. I'd say they're not gonna be the only ones.
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*I should include Downtown Abbey and the Konosuba movie in the 'more promising movies' category, but they're from UK and Japan, not Hollywood.
They are part of the crime genre which has been around much longer than "modern Hollywood". In the case of Joker or Breaking Bad, they are a part of a franchise that predates whatever current narrative you think is being pushed. Meanwhile, Scorcese is doing The Irishman which seems like a typical movie from him. He's been doing that since the 70's.
shareI didn't say that this sub-set of movies was a new one. You can go back to 40s and there you have a few great crime movies with Humphrey Bogart. But they were just a fraction of the big bunch of great movies you had in that decade.
What's new is not that you have great movies that fit that profile. What's new is that you don't have great or promising movies that don't that profile anymore. Three promising movies this year, and the three ones follow the exact same pattern. That's what I was talking about.
We have had several movies with heroic white men this year as well. I am not seeing a pattern here.
share'Positive' is enough. So, which ones of them do you consider great?
shareI haven’t seen them all. I am pointing out that they exist. Additionally, we haven’t seen Joker, The Irishman, or El Camino so we have no idea if they are great. Do they have to be? It’s pretty subjective anyway.
shareAvengers EndGame. I think that one was great maybe not Oscar great but I do think it was great action movie and great superhero movie.
Now I do believe there is a saturation of films with bad guys in leading roles, or an over fascination for anti heroes or bad guys.
It’s crazy that for a long time people has been complaining of Marvel getting boring one dimensional villains but I see this a good thing because it makes our heroes shine better. Let them be the stars of their own films.
I generally agree with what you wrote but there is the Fred Rogers movie coming out soon. I know that’s only one but at least it’s something.
I didn't hear about that one before. Just checked and you're right, it looks interesting. It doesn't look like a modern movie, though. It has a 90s feeling.