downsizing
Let's talk about the movie's middle class
over the past week, i watched 3 movies that are of a certain type. a sort of dying breed, if you will. you’re familiar with them. i guarantee you’ve seen this type of movie before. they used to make up a healthy part of the American Moviegoing Experience™️
the three movies i watched were NOMADLAND, MINARI, and BARB & STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR. i enjoyed each of them for a myriad of reasons and all of them provided very different viewing experiences, but they all had one thing in common: they all are from what i (and others) call the movie middle class
what is the movie “middle-class”?
fantastic question, thank you for asking! to plainly answer it, i would say this: a middle-class movie is a film that has an actual budget. the budget is flexible, but i’d say 40 - 80 million dollars sounds right. not a huge blockbuster budget, but they’re not operating on a shoestring either. they usually have actual big-time movie stars or at the very least a very buzzy up-and-coming movie star who’s about to really break out. they’re usually smaller, self-contained stories. a lot of your favorite comedies from the early 2000s and 2010s are middle-class movies! so are some of your favorite dramas and romance movies. but, as you’ve probably noticed, those sorts of movies are going away when it comes to theater releases
movies are in a weird place right now, and not just because of the pandemic and theaters being closed. specifically, the types of movies that are being made are transitioning more and more to big tentpole releases based around franchises or existing IP. i am not original in pointing this out. people much smarter than i am have been pointing it out over the last few years. that said, i know not everybody keeps up with the movie industry or is obsessed with the “dying art” of the indie movie like i am, so let me use this newsletter to give you a few thoughts on the state of the movies and then i’ll give you some of the better “midsize” movies that have come out over the last few years that you should see!
the marvel problem
take a second and think back to the year 2014. feels good, doesn’t it? no pandemic. movie theaters open. Donald Trump was just a guy who hosted the apprentice and said dumb shit on twitter. you had no idea what getting canceled meant. life is good.
i take you back to 2014 because, to me, this is the last year that going to the movies meant more than just Marvel and Star Wars and other franchise movie events. don’t get me wrong, they were still very much in play. the top ten highest-grossing movies of that year include two Marvel Films (GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER), THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKING JAY- PART 1, and TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (lol). that said, the top 10 also included THE LEGO MOVIE and BIG HERO 6. this was also the year that you could see the following movies in theaters if you so chose to: NEIGHBORS, OBVIOUS CHILD, BOYHOOD, SNOWPIERCER, A MOST WANTED MAN, LETS BE COPS, BIRDMAN, WHIPLASH, INHERENT VICE, and FOXCATCHER.
fast forward just three years later to 2017 and every single movie in the top ten highest-grossing films (except one) is a remake of an existing movie, a sequel, or a superhero movie.
let me be the first to say this: i like franchise movies! i’m in the middle of a Marvel rewatch (currently in phase two) and i have a tattoo dedicated to a character from STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS. there’s this weird thing now where people sometimes feel the need to qualify their enjoyment of a big movie in fear of not being cool or hip or indie enough, whatever the fuck that means. i almost did it in this paragraph. i typed out a whole thing about how i grew up reading Marvel comic books and so it was cool to finally see them on screen after all this time blah blah blah nerd bullshit. that’s dumb! you should like the movies you like, even if you have no personal connection to them at all.
that said, i also like some pretentious shit and i love going to the movie theater. i think part of the reason why people like me, who enjoy going to the theater and the movie experience as a whole, get a little bent out of shape about Marvel, Star Wars et al is that they have completely shaped the way movies are made, marketed, and consumed.
there have been exceptions to this. movie studios like A24, Neon, Annapurna, and Blumhouse all do decently for themselves. A24 is probably the most well-known and NEON gave us 2019’s best picture and cultural phenomenon PARASITE, but these are rare hits. For every PARASITE or HEREDITARY, there’s a film that comes out of Sundance that can’t make its budget back and that budget was already pretty small to begin with.
if these films can’t make their budgets back, film companies have no real incentive to promote or actively seek out this sort of movie. they know that they can make a movie with The Flash or The Minions or whoever and it’ll take them to the bank. as such, indie film budgets will continue to shrink, and the part of the sandbox they get to play in gets smaller and smaller until we look up and Disney owns everything.
one final example that i think really drives this home. in 2016 Martin Scorcese set out to make a film called SILENCE. it’s a beautiful film, with amazing performances by both Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver. this was the movie he had always wanted to make, a film that he had been thinking about for years. if anybody in American cinema had earned the right to make the movie he wanted to make, it’s Martin Scorcese. he had to scrape it together, but he collected $40 million for the film. he got exactly zero marketing support by Hollywood standards. the film made $23 million at the box office. if Paramount pictures can’t be bothered to promote a drama made by MARTIN FUCKIN’ SCORSESE and starring two of the biggest movie stars of the last 10 years, then why would they be interested in making movies like that again? they wouldn’t be interested is the answer.
some people have made the argument that the “middle-class” movie isn’t dying. it’s just moved to Netflix and while i appreciate the sentiment, i disagree. there’s a difference between a middle-class movie and a Netflix movie. i know you know what i’m talking about. when you watch a Netflix original, there’s a certain glaze over it. it has all the trappings of the movie you’d see in theaters but something’s a bit off. maybe it’s not written as well as you’d like, maybe the actors aren’t quite who you thought they’d be, or the CGI is a little wonky. it’s more content than film.
i’ll step down from this soapbox and stop yelling into the void. for the most part, i think people enjoy the shift in how we watch movies. everything’s available at home. it comes directly to you. you don’t have to leave and deal with parking and tickets and snacks and all that stuff. but going to the movies can, and should, be about more than just seeing Spider-Man fight Captain America. the movies, like America as a whole, need a thriving middle class. unfortunately, like America, that middle class seems to be on the outs and unless something changes, it could disappear forever.
thanks as always for reading! below are 5 of these types of movies that i think are good and where to find them. be sure to come back next week. we’ve got a really good issue about what upcoming releases throughout the rest of the year we’re excited about!
Title: LONGSHOT
Where To Watch: streaming via Cinemax, rent wherever
Why: to me, this is the exact movie i think about when i think about the movie “middle-class.” it’s a romantic comedy starring Seth Rogan and Charlize Theron. it’s insanely funny and very charming. i think exactly 5 of my friends have seen it and 2 of them saw it because they watched it with me.
Title: FOXCATCHER
Where To Watch: not streaming anywhere, unfortunately. rent wherever
Why: i have always thought Channing Tatum was better than he was given credit for (MAGIC MIKE kicks ass) and he puts on a damn good show. coupled with great performances from an almost unrecognizable Steve Carrell, Mark Ruffalo, and Sienna Miller, this film is electric and tense and GOOD. a movie i rewatch almost yearly
Title: Game Night
Where To Watch: not streaming anywhere, unfortunately. rent wherever
Why: this is genuinely one of the funnier movies i have ever seen. to me, it feels like the 30 Rock of movies in that i reference lines or moments from it all the time and nobody catches them. it’s so good and only 90 minutes long. please watch GAME NIGHT so you can understand my jokes about Fritos Scoops™️
Title: Phantom Thread
Where To Watch: streaming on HBO MAX, rent wherever
Why: a period piece set in 1950’s London around a haute couture dress maker? at first blush, might not sound like your thing which is too bad, because it should be! this movie is very witty and insanely compelling and a much easier watch than the premise would suggest. written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Daniel Day-Lewis in his last role before he retired.
Title: Booksmart
Where To Watch: streaming on HULU, rent wherever
Why: this was another movie that somehow flew under people’s radar and it deserved better. the directorial debut of Olivia Wilde, it’s a great comedy that treats teenagers like real people, not phone-obsessed idiots with lots of heart and some truly wonderful moments. keep a lookout for Mike O’Brien’s amazing cameo as a pizza guy with some weird issues.