I know 100% that people will argue with me over this, but I miss when movies were professionally lit, when actors were intentionally blocked, and when more than teal, orange and beige were allowed to be on the screen.
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@Gargron You place that cutoff remarkably late. Otherwise, who do you expect to argue? I won’t
Money is the reason. Movies have become investment vehicles, and investors want safety. Thus aiming for the biggest audiences, and most people want slop. Not just the looks, the storylines, characters, anything, aren’t much better.
Am I too cynical? Think not
Just trying to collect my thoughts to see if there is anything there.
im going to agree that most movies are slop, and movie companies are just trying to make money, but that is how its always been, the old studio system was built on having new movies to show every week and most were formulaic prior to TV and streaming. Then after the censors were kicked out they could compete on novelty, but that was only a small percentage of films, most are straightforward schlock, sequals and genre exploitation. The film companies just want to sell tickets, if some artistic expression happens in the process thats just a bonus.
I think what is happening is that the expectations are changing because of home video streaming, if you want everyday stories you can get that at home, so movies are only supposed to be the most novel, most prestigious films, or the biggest crowd pleasers, whatever gets people out of their private homes and into theatres. Christopher Nolans sound mixing choices are novel even if they arent good for filmgoers. Streaming allows films with small audiences to find them over time, but films for theatres have to be popular to justify the investment, there just arent enough people getting their entertainment from theatres to justify the investment.
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I know 100% that people will argue with me over this, but I miss when movies were professionally lit, when actors were intentionally blocked, and when more than teal, orange and beige were allowed to be on the screen. The medium has something to do with it--film made a lot of these things fundamentally necessary--but I think it's more complex than just that. The last few years' movies are just not pleasant to look at, with very few exceptions, and the change occurred sometime around 2015.
@Gargron
The point to watching is a movie is for the fun of it. Nothing's fun anymore. Everything has to be a big statement. Broody. Moody. Real. We all live in broody moody real. I don't want to see it for "fun"! -
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I know 100% that people will argue with me over this, but I miss when movies were professionally lit, when actors were intentionally blocked, and when more than teal, orange and beige were allowed to be on the screen. The medium has something to do with it--film made a lot of these things fundamentally necessary--but I think it's more complex than just that. The last few years' movies are just not pleasant to look at, with very few exceptions, and the change occurred sometime around 2015.
@Gargron and the level of gratuitous violence is over the top. I can see literal snuff becoming part of the movie industry because they can.
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I know 100% that people will argue with me over this, but I miss when movies were professionally lit, when actors were intentionally blocked, and when more than teal, orange and beige were allowed to be on the screen. The medium has something to do with it--film made a lot of these things fundamentally necessary--but I think it's more complex than just that. The last few years' movies are just not pleasant to look at, with very few exceptions, and the change occurred sometime around 2015.
@Gargron As a normie, I didn’t really notice until I read this. Something did change. Now I miss old films.
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I know 100% that people will argue with me over this, but I miss when movies were professionally lit, when actors were intentionally blocked, and when more than teal, orange and beige were allowed to be on the screen. The medium has something to do with it--film made a lot of these things fundamentally necessary--but I think it's more complex than just that. The last few years' movies are just not pleasant to look at, with very few exceptions, and the change occurred sometime around 2015.
@Gargron I think you should stop watching movies
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@Gargron I think you should stop watching movies
@tvaziri Why?
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I know 100% that people will argue with me over this, but I miss when movies were professionally lit, when actors were intentionally blocked, and when more than teal, orange and beige were allowed to be on the screen. The medium has something to do with it--film made a lot of these things fundamentally necessary--but I think it's more complex than just that. The last few years' movies are just not pleasant to look at, with very few exceptions, and the change occurred sometime around 2015.
@Gargron 2015? I'd say 2005. I can't think of many movies that marked the past 20 years and that will remain culturally relevant for decades to come.
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I know 100% that people will argue with me over this, but I miss when movies were professionally lit, when actors were intentionally blocked, and when more than teal, orange and beige were allowed to be on the screen. The medium has something to do with it--film made a lot of these things fundamentally necessary--but I think it's more complex than just that. The last few years' movies are just not pleasant to look at, with very few exceptions, and the change occurred sometime around 2015.
@Gargron streaming *killed* intentional filmmaking. Now we have content and I’m not content.
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@Gargron also the sound staff seems to have all been fired - dialogue etc. hard to hear
@swanksalot @Gargron yeah, the last three A/V receivers I had for streaming movies all had a setting to boot the dialog on movies. That's telling right there.
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@Gargron 2015? I'd say 2005. I can't think of many movies that marked the past 20 years and that will remain culturally relevant for decades to come.
@David Hugo is from 2011 and despite being full of CGI it still looks vibrant and very different visually to let's say Wake Up Dead Man, which is one of the better looking modern examples, so the cut-off point is sometime after 2011.
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@Gargron
The point to watching is a movie is for the fun of it. Nothing's fun anymore. Everything has to be a big statement. Broody. Moody. Real. We all live in broody moody real. I don't want to see it for "fun"!@raindrops_and_roses @Gargron the late 1960s and 1970s were real and gritty also. Happy endings disappeared. The film 'Looking for Mr. Goodbye is one example'.
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The ultimate "how could this ever leave post like this" movie is Dunkirk. But apparently Christopher Nolan had a reason to make the dialogue utterly impossible to hear. Or something.
@swanksalot @Gargron@osma @swanksalot @Gargron My grandfather on dad's side spent the latter years of his life complaining that "youngsters these days don't enunciate clearly" and "mumble all the time". Never once did it occur to him that two things had happened: (1) he was slowly going deaf; and (2) the cadences and emphases of everyday English had shifted (as they have done for millennia) so he was listening for the wrong speech patterns.
20 years from now, older generations will be making the same complaints.
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@osma @swanksalot @Gargron My grandfather on dad's side spent the latter years of his life complaining that "youngsters these days don't enunciate clearly" and "mumble all the time". Never once did it occur to him that two things had happened: (1) he was slowly going deaf; and (2) the cadences and emphases of everyday English had shifted (as they have done for millennia) so he was listening for the wrong speech patterns.
20 years from now, older generations will be making the same complaints.
️Have you actually tried to listen to Tom Hardy speak through a fighter mask while the Spitfire is rumbling and music is played at top volume?
@ApostateEnglishman @swanksalot @Gargron -
Have you actually tried to listen to Tom Hardy speak through a fighter mask while the Spitfire is rumbling and music is played at top volume?
@ApostateEnglishman @swanksalot @Gargron@osma @swanksalot @Gargron I personally don't recall missing any important dialogue in that movie, but then it didn't engage me much anyway, so perhaps I did miss whole chunks and not even realise?
But then I'm also British, so there's that...
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@Gargron I think you should stop watching movies
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@Gargron The obsession with HDR — super dark scenes to mimic realism in light levels is also annoying. It’s more difficult to enjoy what you’re watching if you’re struggling to see what’s even on the screen. I get that in real life, something might be happening in pitch black conditions but I think for cinema it’s still better to just give the suggestion of darkness rather than the complete actuality of it.
️@vanitalo @Gargron I did watch 'Young Frankenstein' a couple of weeks ago, and laughed out loud because in one scene it is supposed to be quite dark, and the characters have a lit candle to light their way.
Of course the candle casts shadow because of the stage lights. Nobody comments, and while it's a comedy film, the supposed darkness is very clear to the viewer.
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@David Hugo is from 2011 and despite being full of CGI it still looks vibrant and very different visually to let's say Wake Up Dead Man, which is one of the better looking modern examples, so the cut-off point is sometime after 2011.
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@Gargron actually the change occurred after 2000 when Harvey Weinstein took over Hollywood. Movies were original, incredible, stimulating and then Harvey wanted to push out terrible remakes to increase sales and fill movie seats.
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@Gargron it just seems like you don't like movies
I can give you twenty movies made in 2025 that challenge what you wrote in the above post and you'll scoff at every single one. It just seems like you don't like the medium (past a certain year).
Despite my mild HL and ASD-linked auditory processing problems, I have never failed to understand Judi Dench, for example!
