Cinema Issues: Anti Elitism

In this edition of cinema issues we are talking about the idea that critics are out of touch elites and that they don’t understand the common man.

So this discourse is of course out at the moment as the people who loved the necrophilia porn that is Wuthering Heights say that anyone who doesn’t like the film is a snob/elitist. They apply this to anyone who has read the book and don’t like how this is an adaption in name only, but they scream it about the critics who gave it a bad score, asking why are they being critical of art why can’t they just enjoy things.

Therein is the central stumbling block of their argument, critics judge art to see if it is good or bad and give you an assessment, whereas you are asking for mindless consumption, mindless consumption is not what critics do. As at the end of the day you cannot recommend or tell people to avoid a film if you have watched it mindlessly.

There are a lot of reasons to dislike critics, the bought and paid for nature of them a lot of the time, the left wing group think, the virtue signalling. However calling them elites is just a bit ridiculous.

It speaks to your own inferiority, and you need to defend yourself liking something other people don’t, you go well I am a true fan, or oh they are just pretentious or a snob and they cannot have fun. In that not only do you show that you’re so fragile you can’t just accept another opinion but need to go on the attack but also show you don’t understand what critics do. They aren’t there to just have mindless fun they are there to assess the film. It isn’t the same thing.

If there is a choice between being a snob and being a mindless consumer I think the majority of people would rather be the intellectual snob than the mindless consumer. As one has connotations of intelligence the other has one of being low class and a bit gormless.

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Cinema Issues: The Power Of Voting With Your Wallet

The news that Snow White (2025) starring Rachel Zegler cost Disney 100+ million dollars.

As the news emerged yesterday I was met with a notion that despite what many media types tell us about how we are a minority or we are haters, and that we don’t matter we do have the power to change things.

Rachel Zegler was horrifically anti Semitic, she wished ill on those who politically disagreed with her and she disrespected the original Snow White film and for it seems that those combination of factors managed to unify those of us who can see what’s going on together. We stood up to the cultural vandalism and look they lost, they lost large amounts of money.

When I reviewed the film I told people not to watch as it was just modern day slop and it heartens me to see that many people beyond my readership could see this as well. People are rejecting this sort of filmmaking in large numbers.

Remember this when they call you a minority or a hater, or they wrongly call you vile names you can make a difference when you vote with your wallet and you can effect real change. Let’s make Snow White the first large scale example of the pushback.

Cinema Issues: Bob Iger The Man Who Killed Disney

In this edition of cinema issues we are talking about Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney.

So for many Bob was THE Disney CEO he brought in Marvel and Star Wars and led Disney to many successes under his regime. A lot of the misses such as Disney + we blamed on Bob Chapek during his short tenure before Bob returned.

However as the man looks set to leave at the end of the year let’s look over how he leaves Disney as a company, it’s not good.

Lucasfilm has collapsed. Lucasfilm has not released a Star Wars film in 7 years, the last Indiana Jones film flopped. Star Wars this thing that Disney spent billions on has become a TV brand and even in the realm of streaming it is struggling to bring in big numbers. The Mandalorian and Grogu is on the horizon but the likelihood of that making past 700 million is unlikely as the Star Wars fandom is just too divided, due to executives who operated under Bob.

Marvel is trying to right the ship to not end up like Lucasfilm. However, in the last year all 3 films Marvel released at the cinema flopped and the Disney + offerings are not doing big numbers. Since Endgame back in 2019 Marvel has been in decline and has been haemorrhaging viewers and engagement. Whilst some of the terrible glut of phase 4 and phase 5 can be blamed on Chapek demanding content at all costs, Iger could have cancelled and scrapped projects when he came back but he didn’t. He allowed the brand harm.

Pixar is still capable of making money with films like Inside Out 2 but scattered around that are films like Lightyear and Elio. Films that flopped terribly and that show that Pixar is not the titan it used to be. Whilst Chapek did harm the brand by letting a lot of Pixar’s films go straight to streaming teaching audiences to stay home, Iger did not do enough to manage quality since his return.

Disney animation has not been able to get out Frozen 3 despite it being a guaranteed billion dollar film, with Frozen 2 coming out 7 years ago.

The live action remark strategy has been mixed with some hits and some misses and that is probably Iger’s shining light of his second tenure.

Crucially Iger has been the message CEO he has been the one to see Disney lean into DEI, Bob Chapek again gets a lot of criticism for this but it all started under Bob. He has since said things such as they are going to focus on storytelling over message yet this is not reflected in filmmaking output. What has been required is a much stronger hand at the executive level over production. As you can see from this article Iger hasn’t been that strong hand he has been a CEO representing managed decline of a brand.

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Cinema Issues: The Public Death Of The Movie Star.

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.

Cinema Issues: The Death Of The Wicked Franchise

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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Cinema Issues: Oscar Nominations, Pandering And The Death Of Fun

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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Cinema Issues: The Problem With Budgets

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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Cinema Issues: Sinners Fans Strike Back, The Oscars Melt

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.

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Cinema Issues: The Witch Has Melted

In this edition of cinema issues we are talking about Kathleen Kennedy, the Karen in chief herself, and the power of nepotism.

So first things first Kennedy only got to where she was by being friendly with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. That’s it.

Under her tenure the Sequel Trilogy died as it was devised without a cohesive plan.

A Han Solo film flopped after Kathy refused Lorde and Miller any kind of creative control.

Most films that she announced never happened.

And most of the shows on Disney plus she greenlit, were either forgotten about in the case of Skelton Crew, or died a humiliating death looking at you Acolyte.

What were her successes in this obituary, I suppose people like Andor, she was involved with that I mean mildly but I guess that’s her win. Remember she wanted to go out on a win. She can’t have the Mandalorian that was all John Faverau and Dave Filloni.

She leaves Star Wars as a husk of a TV brand that is increasingly irrelevant and that spat so many times on its fans they stopped coming.

Now she is leaving Lucas film and a man is taking over as creative director, I guess the force wasn’t female after all.

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Cinema Issues: Tribalism and Sinners

In this edition of Cinema Issues we will be talking about the response to the Golden Globes not giving Sinners best picture.

We can break it down into a few different categories but all are based on the same logic, the characters were the same race as me therefore I must defend it and act like it was the biggest deal in the history of cinema. Part of the black community seems to think that Sinners is “their” film, I’ve seen a good few of them write it and that if you don’t like it or don’t think it was amazing you’re either a racist, or if you’re black you’re a traitor.

The internet is full of mental illness.

Let’s get into the first category, this I will call the fake fan. These people say that Sinners was better than everything else up for the best picture yet if pushed admit they haven’t watched anything else, and so have no frame of reference.

Secondly, you have the it was my favourite film or it made more money than, your subjective opinion doesn’t matter, how much money it made only mattered to the thing it won, not to best picture. Demanding it to win best picture as it was your favourite film of the year places far too much importance on yourself.

Thirdly, RaCiSm. These are the claims that despite the winners being more diverse than ever overall. The Golden Globes or those who vote for them are racist and as such that’s why Sinners didn’t win. These people are race baiters who still act like it’s 1950 and that black people never win anything, clearly they didn’t even watch the show.

Fourthly you have the people treating an awards show like sports and act like they have a team they are dedicated to, this is ridiculous, cinema is subjective to those voting for it, it isn’t about merit its about personal taste.

Overall, the increasing tribalism and sectarian nature of the internet continues unabated and it’s depressing. A black dude can like Hamnet more than Sinners doesn’t make him bad and if you’re community thinks that then you’re pretty toxic.

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