In this edition of Cinema Issues we will be talking about the death of movie stars.

Now I don’t mean literally, I mean in terms of career suicide. The basic premise going into this is the following as a movie star you need as many people as possible to turn up to your films, splitting the audience down political lines is stupid.

Celebrities don’t seem to realise that by making nearly everything political they alienate themselves from the audience. For example why did Florence Pugh the British Actress need to have a little rant about I.C.E, she didn’t she’s not even American and yet she did it to virtue signal. That’s all it’s ever been, it’s showing allegiance to whatever cause their agent tells them to.

Increasingly, studios need to crack down on this, actors need to be told to shut up whilst promoting a film and that if they run their mouth about hot button issues it will cost them work. There is a reason stars of old generally kept their mouths shut about this kind of thing, they aren’t politicians, they aren’t unionists, they aren’t even political agents, they are actors their job is to entertain the public and that is it.

Seeing Natalie Portman or Jenna Ortega run her mouth about politics just means more and more people aren’t going to show up for their next project. In an era where people don’t go to the cinema much anymore this is not helping matters.

In this edition of cinema issues we are talking about the Wicked Franchise.

So after the crash out of many Wicked fans over the fact that the Oscars don’t hand out awards to the happiest film, or for fun and don’t exist to soothe them during “difficult times” in their privileged lives, we are talking about how this franchise fell from grace.

The first film did well at the box office , not billion dollar well but well and that set an unhealthy precedent. A lot of these musical theatre types thought that it was their moment and rallied behind the film thinking that due to it doing well at the box office it would win awards, then it didn’t.

They consoled themselves by saying well okay they are just holding off for the second film and then it’ll get all the awards. Things changed when the second film came out, the hype was smaller people had moved away, it made far less than the first film, and it was simply a worse film overall. As such it didn’t get nominated. The Academy doesn’t care about box office gross particularly, they care about good films.

You see when the second film came out there were conversations coming out from Universal about Wicked as a universe and new stories within it. I would argue these were premature as the box office for the second film highlighted diminishing returns. I don’t think a third Wicked film or a Wicked spin off would have anywhere near the audience of the first or even second film. I think that the musical theatre folks need to take the L on this one and move on.

Id argue that the Wicked Franchise is probably done and there shouldn’t be anymore films as if they stop here they can still go out calling it a success if they keep going that will get harder and harder to do.

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In this edition of cinema issues we are talking about the Oscar Nominations.

So in response to the Oscar nominations I saw a post from a Wicked fan having a fit that Wicked For Good wasn’t nominated saying that the Academy hates fun. This is the whole thing, awards aren’t about what you like or about fun they are about achievements in filmmaking. As this isn’t baby’s hour at the local daycare they aren’t going to have an award for most fun.

It seems both with the Golden Globes and now the Oscars a lot of the people commenting on what was picked don’t understand what it is or why certain films get nominated.

Our take on the nominations is two fold. Firstly One Battle After Another being widely nominated despite being not good, in our opinion, and not achieving much of anything worth nomination for, shows that Hollywood wants to reward message films over actual cinematic achievement. They want to have as best picture the film that best represents them and their specific progressive values, they are voting for what they agree with and to avoid being cancelled rather than to reward excellence in filmmaking.

Talking of a fear of being cancelled the fact that the From Dusk Till Dawn reboot/rip off is the most nominated film in Oscar history, goes to show that the Oscars were deeply bothered by the Oscars so white hashtag. They are so worried about being cancelled that they have to nominate it for everything just so no one accuses them of racism again. The fact is they still will be accused as you can’t please these people, unless it wins every single award at the show they will accuse the Academy of racism, and it likely won’t win everything.

Ultimately the discourse around awards season this year has been led by racial tribalism and people who don’t understand how the Oscars work and haven’t seen most of the films. It’s a damning indictment of the state of online film discussion.

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In this edition of cinema issues we are talking about the issue with film budgets and how it is leading to more and more films flopping.

I am writing this after the first weekend of 28 Years Later The Bone Temple wherein the film has underperformed. The film was good, it had good reviews, what was the issue? The budget was 65 million, for reference the budget of the first film from back in the noughties was 8 million, even adjusted for inflation that wouldn’t be anywhere near close to 65 million dollars.

Now there may well be shared costs between this and 28 Years Later itself as the films shot back to back, but that aside why did a film of this scope have a budget of 63 million dollars.

Therein lies the issue, and it is one that is plaguing Hollywood. Budgets are too big and need to come down, the box office has contracted less and less people are going, you cannot still be making films for 250 million dollars or even 100 million dollars the days when large crowds would go and films could break even more easily is largely over it seems.

Somewhere around the late 2000s, early 2010s one man understood that to almost guarantee profitability even when a film is bad or poorly reviewed the film needed to be made for next to nothing. That man was Jason Blum. He was ahead of the curve and now Hollywood needs to take a page out of his book.

If 28 Years Later Bone Temple had been made for 20 million then it would be close to breaking even now.

CGI really is the thing that is draining budgets, and in a sense the wider implication of AI could bring that down, but so could a return to practical effects and more innovative film making.

Ultimately something needs to change, if studios don’t want to suffer flop after flop they need to get serious about the market for these films now and budget accordingly.

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In this edition of cinema issues we are talking about the reaction to Sinners being Oscar nominated within the tribalistic fan base of the film. Increasingly the Sinners fandom is becoming one of the worst of recent memory.

Let’s crack into why that is.

Firstly, they are delusional they seem to think the film is bigger than Jesus and that it is entitled to win all 16 Oscars  it is nominated for. No film ever in history has done that but they think Sinners has to, otherwise it will be racist.

Secondly, they are already making narratives about how white folks are going to stop Sinners winning or saying that it won’t go home with anything etc. Personally I believe it was nominated to show the Oscars aren’t so white after all and do believe it will walk away with nothing or very little in total number of awards. However, to imply a racial conspiracy where white people as a race are out to get the film and are all working together to keep it down is hysterical and racist.

Thirdly, increasingly they have turned Sinners into a culture wars issue and made it about race. Almost everyone who is pro Sinners whether they are black or a liberal ally has to attack white people in the same post or say oh I don’t care what white people think. The whole point of films are that they are for everyone we shouldn’t be in a place where a film is seen for “one group”, and that other people aren’t allowed an opinion on it. The visceral hatred toward white people that is common place within discourse on Sinners shows that sectarianism is rising within cinema and awards shows and that is not something we should be happy about.

Fourthly, they are silencing dissent, if anyone speaks out about Sinners in a negative way they are called racist. If they themselves are black the Sinners fans then imply they are race traitors or not proper black people, this furthers the bigoted approach and creates rifts within the very community they are supposedly championing. By demanding one thought that must be adhered to there is fascist elements within the Sinners community that deal in the language of racial hatred.

If you want to see for yourself what I am talking about go on any social media app and type in Sinners and scroll through the comments and you’ll see it.

If you enjoyed this Cinema Issues article , then please head over to my Patreon to support me. All film reviews are free, with no early access, sponsorships, or content locked behind paywalls. If you value independent coverage of the entertainment industry, your support over there helps to keep it going. Become a member on Patreon below

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