It feels like bad times in the entertainment industry. Writers are on strike, the theatrical business is still not back after the pandemic, and streamers are trying to figure out how to make money (when they’re not figuring out how to screw their creatives).
I’ve been around long enough to realize that every era has its problems—but you have to wonder, are the ones we’re facing now much worse? They do seem serious.
Two interesting essays I read:
One in Jacobin by Jake Ures is about how there really aren’t new movie stars. Movie stars used to be special, but now they’re disposable. Hard to say if this is modern social media demystifying them, or the movies just aren’t good enough to create them—but this is a good essay about the problem (and it is a real problem).
The other in Paste Magazine by Jacob Oller is about how the quest for intellectual property as the basis of movies and television shows is a snake eating its own tail. It’s the end result of franchise fatigue: people check out altogether.
Bad news!
Dahling, vill always have *every Golden Age & 70s gritty film & every 80s sci fi, ripoff or otherwise, or....*
The curse of New Releases! Bugger that. Enough art to appreciate the rest if my days without feeding the New Release Troll.