I can remember when I first watched “Captain America: The First Avenger” at age thirteen. It was the first big blockbuster that I actually remember having watched. I had mostly just stuck to animated features before that since those made up the majority of my DVD collection. That film opened up my eyes to a world of cinema wider than I had ever thought possible. My taste in movies expanded overnight and has continued to evolve over the years. One month I’ll be all about tearjerking romances and the next I will only watch corny comedies.
The blockbuster has been one of my favorite types of films for a long time. They are flashy, high-budget and often low-risk films to pay to go see. They are generally made by the biggest production studios and are mostly there to make money, not to make some grand statement about morality. As a broke college student, I am not one to frequently gamble on seeing a film that might be disappointing. While sticking to the safe films is good for the wallet, it’s not so good for diversifying my film tastes and it limits the films that I go to see in theater. However, filmmakers like Jordan Peele have been making me deviate from my typical movie-going habits.
While horror is not my go-to film genre, recent horror films such as “A Quiet Place,” “Midsommar” and “Nope” have all piqued my interest. The gruesomeness of the films take a backseat, serving to highlight the story that the filmmakers are trying to tell, not the other way around. The artistic horror film has been rapidly rising through the ranks of my favorite genres.
Artsy films and blockbuster films have mostly stayed in two separate categories of conversation until recent times. You will not frequently hear someone call “Batman v Superman” artistic or “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” a blockbuster, but that does not seem to be the case anymore. Oscar-worthy films, artistic films and blockbusters are starting to overlap in their production quality and style and their target audiences. Marvel movies are becoming more visually aesthetic, Shakespeare interpretations are winning more Academy Awards and the Oscar bait films are feeling punchier and more action packed.
A new generation of filmmakers is coming into the light, and they are bringing their fresh ideas with them. While not all of them are young when it comes to age, most of them are rather new to creating films. Directors like Jordan Peele and Taika Waititi, who have only been making films for a few years, have already been finding raging success due to the art that they create and their passion for their craft.
Even though there is fresh meat coming into the film industry, there seems to be a declining amount of prestige surrounding award shows. The Oscars used to be something that people talked about around the dinner table, but that does not seem to be the case anymore. I don’t even know who won Best Picture this year.
As the younger moviegoers get older and enter the market that the Oscars cater to, there are bound to be a few tonal shifts in the types of films that are being made to win awards. Older directors and producers are making way for a fresh crop of artists to stretch their legs and find their voices in the medium.
The sheer volume of blockbuster films that have been released as of late has been making me rather burned out when it comes to the films with flashy explosions and A-list actors. I have been craving something with some new faces and fresh ideas — and then Jordan Peele released “Nope,” to both box office success and critical acclaim. It is not an Oscar bait film or just some random horror movie that takes itself too seriously. It was a well-rounded story that kept me hooked throughout the whole runtime of the film.
I figure that most people are at least somewhat familiar with the term “Oscar bait” for describing a certain kind of movie. The films are crafted solely to get their cast and/or crew that coveted gold statue that they will use as a paperweight or toss in some cabinet. The rise of ultra-high budget blockbusters premiering in theaters more and more frequently has oversaturated the market, and people are craving something fresh to sink their teeth into.
Many of the big-name directors have been churning out artsy movies in hopes to climb out of the holes they have dug for themselves. They aren’t doing it right though. Throwing money at cast and crew is not a substitution for a good director. So, these lesser known names are coming to take their spots at the Oscars by making smaller scale movies that focus on the quality of the film over the budget.