Sunday, January 28, 2018

Sundance 2018: “Awful and Boring”

sundance copter

It has apparently taken the Hollywood world of navel gazers 36 years to notice what most of us have seen for decades:

Awful,” was the frank assessment of one studio executive. “Boring,” was the takeaway of another. “Who are these movies for?” griped an influential distributor.

Hint: this year’s lineup included not one but two movies about skate boarders, one exclusively girls.

After a week of premieres at the Eccles Theatre and the other makeshift movie palaces that line the snowy resort town, buyers complained that the movies in this year’s lineup were chronically weak, leaving them underwhelmed and frequently annoyed. That combined with the stark economic realities of the independent film business — where even great movies struggle to sell enough tickets to break even — made for a festival where the most common word heard around town was “pass.” – Variety

One only needs go as far as the New York Times (and I did – so fortunately you don’t have to) to understand this phenomenon (emphasis added).

PARK CITY, Utah — The world has finally gotten with the Sundance Film Festival. For years, thousands have flocked here sometimes for the love of movies, though at other times just because it seemed like a cool place to spend time and money. Each January, they would be met by high-minded reminders that the festival also nurtured talent, believed in story (a Sundance mantra) and embraced diversity. Those paying attention would notice that it generally made good on its principles with a slate that — good, dutiful or mediocre — was striking for its plurality of voices.

And so this year, women were hot (not in a sexist, demeaning way, of course!) along with black filmmakers (again). Except that the festival and its parent organization, the Sundance Institute, have been pushing and advocating for filmmakers who are not white men for much of their history…For the most part, the festival has been more invested in diversifying its filmmaker population than the kinds of movies it programs.

And just like everywhere else that merit takes a backseat to diversity, you eventually end up with a lot of mediocrity at best and “awful” and “boring” at worst. Translate this model to your ruling class and you get Washington D.C.. Specifically, you get old drones like Nancy Pelosi making racist allegations that Trump’s immigration plan is a "campaign to make America white again,"  and whine about the unfair treatment of illegals who are “playing by the rules” – a statement that surely should win the oxymoron of the week award. But Nancy still  wasn’t done, she proceeded to recite one of the sacred Democratic talking points on why sanctuary cities are actually a good thing for us:

"People don't understand—the one problem I think the current occupant of the White House—they don't understand that sanctuary cities is [sic] what helps law enforcement. It helps public safety," Pelosi said.

"If only they just understood how somebody could come forward if they know they're protected to help public safety, but they don't really want to know because that doesn't serve their purpose," Pelosi added.

Nancy would fit in well at Sundance: she’s female, good at memorizing her lines, is quite the story teller and provides us in the end with a product that is both awful and boring.

AFP-Getty_159649821When Nancy met Bobby: the intersectionality of politics and entertinment

By all accounts both film quality - which has never been consistently high - and attendance was down for this year’s Sundance Festival. In the event Hollywood (or Washington for that matter) actually wishes to gain insight as to why most of the country think they stink these days they need go no further than the comments on the Variety article cited above:

cadavra: Dare we hope that this navel-gazing rubbish about millennials whining about how miserable their lives are has finally hit the wall?

Jim B: Films are dreams on media and their elitist megalomania gives them dreams that make the rest of us want to purge them with fire.

Lori Smith: We have had our fill of mindless violence, teen angst, tales of abuse, etc. Wonder why they’re not selling? Ask someone outside the industry.

gloribea: Hollywood is over, its hey day gone. It has been stolen by the elite who are determined to push us toward a one world government. Hand in hand with the media they are trying to march us over the edge of sanity into madness.    

Books Please: A pile of wretched films churned out by the joyless, soybean estrogen, iPhone-poking, SJW Participation Trophy generation that has never seen the inside of a library or cracked a book that doesn’t have a boy wizard on the cover, and you wonder why it’s dying? lol

In short, Fly Over Country is no longer buying your crap which bears little or no relation to their lives. You may want to work on that. I suggest you start by Making America Great Again. Because trust me Jack Black, that’s a better plan than making America rage again.

jack black maga

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