I'm Depressed

"Do you know how many people saw The Assassination of Jesse James?…You and seven other people. Paul Blart grossed nearly $200 million worldwide. I’ll take Paul Blart all day, every day."

-–Producer/financier Ryan Kavanaugh

Where the Wild Things Are 5 week total- 73.9 million

Twilight: New Moon one day total- 72.7 million

Did you know The Godfather was a huge hit when it came out? If that same movie were released today it wouldn't gross 20 million.

The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan were all great artistic and commercial successes in their heyday. Now, we have Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus ruling the music scene. It's disgusting. And the worst part is that no one gives a fuck anymore. The populace is force fed garbage and we just gobble it up. It didn't use to be this way. Quality used to be rewarded. Not anymore. The worse something is, the more people love it.

What are the odds we'll ever see another movie as simple and brilliant as Dog Day Afternoon? A two hour movie set in a bank. It didn't need any CGI or any shit like that. Just a perfectly written script and acting (how awesome was Pacino in that movie?) And that movie was a hit and got nominated for a bunch of Oscars (that was back when an Oscar meant something). You could still make that movie. I'm not saying that our entertainment is terrible these days. I'm saying no one cares about quality. There Will Be Blood should have made about 8x more than it did. I guess the only thing that makes me feel better about this stuff is that I know one day people will look back at this Twilight garbage and think "Why did I ever like that stuff?", but something like, say, Old Boy or Let the Right One In (why can't people get obsessed over that vampire movie?) will live on. Because the best of our culture almost always raises to the top over time. It just takes people a lot longer these days to appreciate great art.

To quote Brian Wilson, I just wasn't made for these times.

To quote Jeff Daniels in The Squid and the Whale, people can be very stupid.

-M