Well, we've survived 2020, "Venture Bros." has been cancelled after seventeen years, and I'm turning forty in a week. It's time to gaze at the ol' navel again.
I've spent the past quarter century now being a movie obsessive, tracking projects and various filmmakers over multiple years, watching thousands of movies and television shows, and also maintaining a life, job, and relationships in the meantime. I've been around long enough now to see the media business undergo massive, sweeping changes, and also to see the careers of so many artists and filmmakers rise and fall. I've literally been watching some actors like Elizabeth Moss onscreen since they were kids. Especially as I've been digging so hard into the films of previous decades lately, I've been getting a more macroscopic look at the industry over time, and how quickly standards and mores keep changing. Everything really does go in cycles, but nobody ultimately knows anything.
I find myself getting more cynical about film in some respects. It's harder to get excited about future projects when I've seen so many holy grail productions like "Ender's Game," "John Carter," "The Dark Tower," and "Justice League," all go sideways. I still do get hyped up for some of the big blockbusters every year, but I tend to remember the hype and fuss around these movies more than the movies themselves. Every single one of my filmmaking idols has disappointed me eventually. The once untouchable Steven Spielberg is slowly running out of steam, and all the '90s superstars who once looked so invincible have proven to be fallible human beings. It's totally commonplace for great, prolific artists to be largely forgotten over time, or to be discarded as hopelessly out of date. Though it's hard to argue with its aims, cancel culture has been pretty brutal this year. I have no idea if I'll ever be able to admit to enjoying Woody Allen movies again.
And yet, every year brings no shortage of surprises and new discoveries. For every "Game of Thrones" that has crash landed, there's been a "Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse" that got me to love a superhero I'd long ago assumed was not for me. For every crummy "It: Chapter 2," there's been a "Doctor Sleep." For every Zack Snyder's "Watchmen," there's been a Damon Lindelof's "Watchmen." I've learned to be wary of nostalgia, and especially Disney's endless assembly line of reboots and retreads. Often, they're just another reminder that everyone is getting old. However, I love it when familiar properties strike out in a new direction. I love it when known talents figure out how to reinvent themselves. Somehow Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron are major action stars again. Somehow musicals are in again.
It helps that I have my own kids now, who I'm doing my best not to influence too much in their viewing choices, except to steer them away from obvious problematic media. Through them, I've been happily reintroduced to cartoons and puppets and the joys of a good sing-along video. They provide me a strong, constant reminder that just because a piece of media is not for me - jaded forty-year-old Miz Media Mommy - doesn't mean it's not perfectly good for someone else. And they keep me honest about the fact that getting older means that I'm steadily exiting the mainstream. I find myself getting fewer current cultural references, being out of the loop, and often way behind on trending topics. And that's perfectly okay. I have no desire to be in my teens or twenties again.
I've also found it to be true that certain media hits you differently at different ages. I'm looking forward to revisiting some of the shows and films I once wrote off as boring. And for every new reference that I don't get, I've found myself noticing older references that I missed the first time - I just saw Robert Altman's "Pret-a-Porter," which was obvious quoting the striptease from Vittorio DeSica's "Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow." There's so much media out there - and still so much I've yet to see - I can't imagine that I'll ever run out of the good stuff.
Here's to a new year and the oncoming tidal wave of post-COVID media. And here's to my forties, which I hope will be as weird and wonderful as my thirties were.
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